Some of us - well, an awful lot of us - are well and truly over the political storms beaten up by the Mainstream Media (MSM). Some of us want to hear strong and civil political debate and discourse. Some of us are not into bigotry and political inanity. Some of us don't respond like puppets at the end of a MSM string, ready to be jerked into movement and predictability. Some of us are sentient beings who use our sensory faculties to come to our own decisions based on reasoning and the ambitions we have for ourselves and our nation. Some of us are never polled about anything, Some of us can be the big surprise on election day.
The less senior journalists of the MSM have been baying breathlessly on the Prime Ministerial leadership and associated political polling for months now. Well, it has probably been years - ever since the hung Parliament came into being in 2010 in the Year of Our Lord. Not the first hung parliament in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia - but you could be forgiven for thinking so because of the five-minute memories and lack of research skills held by most of the current crop of journalists. Fact checking and penetrating questioning seem to have been consigned to a by-gone era.
Our political discourse has become highly uncivil and filled with bigotry, gender bias, and hatred. Perhaps a poll or some form of research that could attempt to co-relate physical violence in the wider community with the violent and hate-filled language spewing forth from the anti-Gillard camp might prove insightful.
It seems to me that one could look at The Age and its political interference to-day as a last ditch attempt to influence the electorate. Perhaps the powers-that-be at Fairfax (Roger Corbett, Gina Rinehart and their allies) feel that enough has not been done by their journalists (and remember there are few of the good ones left at Fairfax these days) to influence the electorate to rid itself of Julia Gillard, to insist on the overturn of Australia's first female Prime Minister.
I would suggest to the Fairfax mob baying at the barricades to look around them; look at the company they are keeping. The Fairfax language might be polite and civil but are they lining themselves up with the following: Alan Jones; Howard Sattler, Barnaby Joyce, plus a whole tribe of hate-filled men and the women who are their acolytes?
The Fairfax language may be polite. The newspaper might have a liberal tradition. All this counts for nought because one thing is clear, clear as crystal. Fairfax have aligned themselves with the forces who want, who seek the downfall of Australia's first female Prime Minister. They cannot wait for a September election to allow the Australian electorate to decide. No - this is a gender biassed storming of the Bastille. And there is one thing more that is not being considered. If an Abbott Government trounces Labor so convincingly that it is all but invisible; if Abbott takes control of both Houses of Parliament with a huge majority, it will merely prove two things:
Australians will have the government for which they have voted
Australia will have the government it deserves
While the Labor Government is going to this election with a raft of good policies and a history of sound management in the hung Parliament period, there have been dastardly deeds done. The continuation of the Northern Territory Intervention; the continuation of taxpayer funding to some of Australia's wealthiest schools while poorer state schools continue to suffer are two that spring readily to mind.
You see, naive as it may seem, I am a great believer in natural justice; that we reap what we sow. All parties (and I do include The Greens, to a lesser extent, in what I am saying) have sown their own crops of weeds which are yet to be harvested. The harvest cannot be avoided. It may be circumvented for a time, it may be postponed, but there will be a harvest from which our political parties and the Australian voters cannot run.
Perth shock jock Howard Sattler quizzing the
Prime Minister on whether her long-term partner is gay is just the latest in a
long list of offensive quips the 6PR drive host has delivered in his 31-year
broadcasting career.
In yesterday's interview (for which he has been
suspended pending an internal inquiry) Sattler took the opportunity to
"test out" a few "myths, rumours, snide jokes and
innuendos" by asking the Prime Minister to respond to rumours on the
s-xuality of her partner, Tim Mathieson, given that he's a former hairdresser.
Julia Gillard responded: "I don’t think in
life one can actually look at a whole profession full of different human beings
and say we know something about everyone of those human beings."
That's not a creed that Sattler himself seems to
live by. Between 1989 and 1992, Sattler was the subject of 19 individual
complaints to the Australian Broadcasting tribunal for comments by himself or
his callers relating to Aboriginal people and culture.
On April 4, 1990, Sattler commented on the
deaths of three Aboriginal children who had died while Perth police were
pursuing a car they had stolen, declaring: "Well, I say good riddance to
bad rubbish. That's three less car thieves. I think, they're dead, and I
think that's good."
The comments sparked
protests and much public outrage. Sattler was found to have contravened the
rules of the Australian Journalists Association; however, the finding was later
overturned.
The 6PR star was then heavily involved in
orchestrating the 1991 protest Rally for Justice, which was designed to put
pressure on the government to introduce harsher penalties for juvenile
offenders. Sattler ran a strong campaign on a local "crime wave", predominantly
Aboriginal crime, however crime statistics show there had been no increase in
crime. Effectively, the protest gathered a lynch mob on the steps of the
Western Australian state Parliament.
Sattler said himself in Demons at Drivetime, a
1995 documentary on the country's top drive-time hosts:
"When I went up there and saw a sea of
people, must have been 30,000 people, surrounding Parliament House, I felt
fairly uneasy, I've got to tell you. All of a sudden I realise what a position
I'd been placed in. These people came here because largely I told them to, or
asked them, implored them to go there. And now, to a degree, I had them in my
hands and I could say things to them and they may do things that they would
regret and I would regret later."
The shock jock also
became embroiled in the 1999 cash-for-comment saga involving radio broadcasters
Alan Jones and John Laws -- although not to the extent of that duo. Sattler had
sponsorship deals with Optus, Qantas, Rams and Mitsubishi, and the Australian
Broadcasting Authority found that 6PR breached the industry codes of practice
17 times.
In October 2009, Media Watch devoted a segment
to examining Sattler’s on-air claim that refugees were ripping off our welfare
system. Sattler lashed out: "They've got a cast of thousands putting that
together -- disaffected journalists -- people who have just got a gripe on the
world, who wouldn't make it in the real world of media."
Not like Sattler, of course, who noted in a 2011
interview given to mark his 30 years in radio that people often called him a
racist in the street."You get tagged because you ask questions about
Muslims, burqas and that sort of thing," he said. "You can tip-toe
through the tulips if you like, but I think you've got to confront these
things."
But to give him credit where it's due, Sattler
spoke with Sunrise in May to offer his take on the Gillard-Vegemite-sandwich
incident and conceded that people shouldn't actually throw things at the Prime
Minister.
In his profile on 6PR’s website states that his
most embarrassing on air moment was "interviewing actress Bette Davis, who
disagreed with every statement I made about her".
The Obama administration is backing Shell Oil after abruptly changing sides in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that could make it even more difficult for survivors of human rights abuses overseas to sue multinational corporations in federal courts. The case will be heard on October 1.
Lawyers at EarthRights International, a Washington-based human rights law nonprofit, say they suspect that a new legal submission - which was signed only by the U.S. Justice Department - reflects tensions inside the government on how to deal with multinational corporations doing business in the U.S. Significantly, neither the State nor the Commerce Department signed on to the brief, despite their key roles in the case.
At issue is the Alien Torts Claim Act (ATCA) - an 18th century U.S. law originally designed to combat piracy on the high seas - that has been used during the last 30 years as a vehicle to bring international law violations cases to U.S. federal courts.
Lawyers began using ATCA as a tool in human rights litigation in 1979, when thefamily of 17-year-old Joel Filartiga, who was tortured and killed in Paraguay, sued the Paraguayan police chief responsible. Filartiga v. Peña-Irala set a precedent for U.S. federal courts to punish non-U.S. citizens for acts committed outside the U.S. that violate international law or treaties to which the U.S. is a party. ATCA has brought almost 100 cases of international (often state-sanctioned) torture, rape and murder to U.S. federal courts to date.
In recent years, a number of ATCA lawsuits have also been filed against multinationals which has angered the business lobby. “Expansion of this problem into the international arena via ATCA promises nothing but trouble for U.S. economic and foreign policy interests worldwide,” wrote John Howard, vice president of international policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “U.S. national interests require that we not allow the continuing misapplication of this 18th century statute to 21st century problems by the latter day pirates of the plaintiffs' bar.”
No plaintiff against a corporation has won on ATCA grounds, although some have settled or plea bargained. In 1996 Doe v. Unocal, a lawsuit filed by ethnic Karen farmers against Unocal (now owned by Chevron) set a new precedent when a U.S. federal court ruled that corporations and their executive officers could be held legally responsible for crimes against humanity. Unocal contracted with the Burmese military dictatorship to provide security for a natural gas pipeline project on the border of Thailand and Burma. The suit accused Unocal of complicity in murder, rape and forcing locals to work for Unocal for free. Shortly before the jury trial was set to begin in 2005, Unocal settled with the plaintiffs by paying an undisclosed sum, marking the first time a corporation settled in any way a case based on the ATCA.
In February the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case to determine whether or not corporations - as opposed to private parties - could be sued under the ATCA. At that time the Justice Department, submitted a “friend of the court” brief that said they could.
Lawyers say that if the Supreme Court accepts that the case can be heard in U.S. courts, it will mark a significant step forward for human rights activists. It will also send a powerful signal to business that any violations overseas can be prosecuted if they do business in the U.S.
In its submission filed in response to a Supreme Court order to re-argue whether or not ATCA applied to territories outside the U.S., the Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit against Shell. The brief’s authors stated that the ATCA was not appropriate for Kiobel or other lawsuits involving foreign corporations accused of collaborating in human rights abuses with a foreign government outside U.S. territory.
U.S. courts “should not create a cause of action that challenges the actions of a foreign sovereign in its own territory, where the [sued party] is a foreign corporation of a third country that allegedly aided and abetted the foreign sovereign’s conduct,” the Justice Department wrote.
However, the Justice Department stopped short of categorically barring all similar cases that occur outside the U.S. from ATCA eligibility, and it left ambiguous whether the current recommendation would prevent future ATCA lawsuits against U.S. citizens or corporations, or in cases where abuses take place on the high seas.
“If disclosed, this information will help reveal whether or not the business interests of Attorney General Eric Holder or Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan influenced the government’s position in Kiobel,” said Kaufman.
This
is NOT good news for these regions (if anything like the disruption
which has occurred in QLD and northern NSW is any guide).
Be prepared to
read into the fuller report (linked), to find out what it might mean
for you - South Australia, Victoria (Gippsland, Otway as well as Murray
Regions) and southern NSW.
'Second
Generation' methane exploration - based on biologically-generated gas
in relatively shallow, low-rank coals, and prompted by the phenomenal
production from the Powder River Basin of the USA - is barely a year old
in Australia. Within this timeframe, however, such exploration is already
showing encouraging signs for commercial success, and ACM is at the forefront
of this work following recent discoveries in NSW.
Tertiary
coals of southeastern Australia, especially in the populous states of
New South Wales and Victoria, constitute particularly attractive, shallow
gas targets. Hosting enormous coal resources, these areas are only just
beginning to receive attention.
Outside
of the Gippsland Basin, the greatest potential for onshore early Tertiary
coal in Australia probably lies in the Murray Basin of NSW, Victoria and
South Australia. The Murray is a very large basin of about 300,000 km2
(compared with some 74,000 km2 for the Powder River Basin),
comprising Tertiary and Cainozoic sediments. The eastern Murray Basin
of NSW and northern Victoria with its extensive Tertiary coal development
constitutes an important but until recently untested Powder River Basin
analogue. Early work by ACM and an associated company has already defined
a large area of gas-charged early Tertiary sediments in this basin, where
the companies have more than 50,000 km2 of contiguous tenure.
Demonstrating
that biogenic gas is not confined to younger coals, ACM has also discovered
substantial volumes of biogenic methane from shallow Permian coal seam
aquifers in its Gunnedah Basin tenure of northern NSW.
Coincidentally, Somerton Energy has claimed various leases
along the Victorian "Otway" coast and offshore regions, and in South
Australia. http://www.somertonenergy.com.au/index.htm
It is quite clear that, in matters Aboriginal, Canberra - its politicians, its bureaucracy - cannot be relied on nor can it be believed.
In a week when we have heard of the mixed blessings of the Close the Gap Report, now there is this.
The Australian taxpayer needs a full accounting and full reporting on what the Alliance model of housing provision has cost the taxpayer in actual dollars and Aboriginal communities in terms of not only dollars but in
health,
disillusionment,
continuing overcrowding, and
loss of jobs and work-based skills
And, I would ask, where is the Northern Territory Government in all this? Will Aboriginal communities who have a history of voting Labor continue to do so at the 2012 NT elections? Is NT Labor taking Aboriginal support for granted? Can we now say that the Federal and Northern Territory Governments have broken their social contract with the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory?
The article below is by Tess Lawrence and is re-posted, with permission, from the Independent Australia website. I hope Networkers will pop over there to follow up on the comments to Tess's article. Tess has kindly published my previous post in the comments section as well. And I hope you too will become a regular reader of IA.
~~~~~~~~~~
AUSTRALIA DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE
by contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence
“Many of our people call it invasion day,” said Mr Mick Dodson, a professor of law at the Australian National University. “To many indigenous Australians, in fact, most indigenous Australians, it really reflects the day in which our world came crashing down.”
When Mick Dodson uttered those words in 2009, after being named Australian of the Year, he addressed the echidna in the outback room. I’m not the only Australian that empathises with him and like thinkers.
We have become so used to having a moribund Federal Parliament that has long divested itself of any concern, or even affection, for its people, but instead has morphed into a wasteland of toxic factions and fetid egos whose venal pursuit of power for power’s sake has reduced our nation’s governance to political squalor and hypocrisy.
This year we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy set up on the grounds of the old Parliament House in Canberra. It is a sacred vigil.
The Tent Embassy has a nobility, patriotic passion and sense of purpose that is completely lacking in The Big House.
Its Coat of Arms and Constitution has no need for royal decree, since the people themselves have decreed it and declared it.
It does not buy and sell speakers and squelchers of the House. Its Ambassadors do not sit in high chairs or high dudgeon.
The Tent Embassy seeks equality not superiority. It seeks recognition that this nation was occupied by aborigines when the first white boat people arrived in their tens, then hundreds, then thousands and now millions and became the master race through brute and gentler force, imposing their language, their religion and their diseases — and whatever else…
It is a disgrace that we have yet to acknowledge the original inhabitants of our Great Southern Land in our Constitution. I say that, as I write, in the midst of much back patting and back stabbing and nonsensical puffery surrounding the issue.
It is more than a disgrace that we have no Treaty in place and I have long felt this.
I feel we will remain an illegitimate nation until we are honourable enough to do the right thing.
In February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wrote himself indelibly into Australian history when he said Sorry. Perhaps we will have to wait for the Gillard FM (Faceless Men) Coup to be reversed for him to negotiate a Treaty.
Certainly, of all the big noters and the big notaries in the Labor Party – the big talkers and the big hawkers – Kevin Rudd came the closest to effecting a Treaty. He might yet get the chance to extend his historical paragraph.
Today, Independent Australia republishes an article I wrote for Planet Oz Media in 2009 about the Dodson Affair. Tragically, so little has changed in the years since. Dodson was seen by some to be ungrateful and ungracious when he made his comments — and yet, I rejoice that other Australians of the Year have since voiced their passions and beliefs and told it like it is, without marinating in spin or ingratiation.
It’s the Australia that I once knew and still love. Our Governments can reduce us to political Shamocracy, but We the People can still act on behalf of, and with, our communities and refuse to be threatened into silence or brutalised by corporations into submission.
AUSTRALIA DAY OR LOSTRALIA DAY?
G’day Australia. Do most of us really believe that it’s the right thing to celebrate Australia Day on the anniversary of a date when a bunch of whiteys preposterously plonked a Union Jackboot in the sand and declared the land unoccupied, when they had clearly seen a bunch of black fellows peeping through the gum leaves.
Smacks of a rip-off to me. Come off it, sport, how UNaustralian is that, mate?! Fair suck of the saveloy our gracious king.
And what’s up with ‘lil Kev. When he was Kevin 007 he said ‘Sorry’ for Gawd’s sake. Now he’s morphed into Kevin 09, long lost blue blood brother to one John Winston Howard, hogging the mike and telling us all the answer is an emphatic ‘ NO! ‘to any thought of moving the date for
Australia Day to a more appropriate ‘time of the month’ or year.
I was rather disturbed at his attitude and his nobody language. How can Kev go on about democracy and freedom of speech and in the same breath dictate to that big black upstart, the man with the hat, and his like, that the date WILL NOT be moved. Who said? You’re an elected servant of the people, Kev. The Great Unwashed. You might be removed at the next election, mate, for all you know. And what’s up with the drongo Supposition agreeing with him?
Not a good thing to say ‘never’ in politics, Kev. We of the never never reckon you could find yourself eating someone else’s turds. I’m with Professor Mick Dodson, Australian of the Year – and
Ron Barassi and the apparent minority to which I belong, that believes in Australia Day – but not its date.
As it stands, it’s a day for dancing alright; dancing on the collective grave of the inhabitants of the First Nation. You’ve lost me on this one Kev. Australia Day is invasion day — Lostralia.
What’s more, Kev, and this is neither threat nor prophecy (in case you’re thinking of issuing any ridgydidge fridge magnets to report any Australia Day insurgents), if you keep this up you could get a pair of thongs thrown at you at your next press conference.
A.D. or B.C.?
Should A.D. (Australia Day) better reflect B.C. (before Cook)? I say yes. I say change — not the short change that keeps coming to indigenous Australians.
Tough if it’s an inconvenience to change the date, or to seriously think about what we are doing to our indigenous brethren. All the platitudes in the gin-joints of the world mean nothing if we are incapable of empathy on this matter.
In truth this country was ‘founded’ on a lie. It was not ‘terra nullius’; but to a people that considered itself the master race of the universe, blacks were not humans. Bungs didn’t count.
Do they now, Kev? Not really. Neither in fact; nor in law. Not the white man’s lore. Not the King’s Law. Nor the white Queen’s Law. Nor, it seems, do we want them contributing to public debate and impacting upon the outcomes of those debates.
A bit of shiny bling…
…to pin on their diseased and diabetic chests
We orchestrated their past and we’ll orchestrate their future. We know what’s good for them.
Say ‘Sorry’, keep them happy, give them a bit of shiny bling to pin on their diseased diabetic chests.
Better hold on the toxic sugar. And the rabid 100% alcohol-proof fences.
Even if they are on the dole forever, their life span is not as long as ours, so whiteys on the dole forever can still enjoy the dole life plan for much longer. In a way, their early deaths represent considerable saving to the public purse. Come to think of it, then, this means it is not economically viable for us to improve their health.
They wouldn’t work in an iron ore lung…
They wouldn’t work in an iron-ore lung anyway.
There are two types of black deaths in custody. There are your traditional black deaths in custody: go alive into a prison cell, come out dead — Aunties wailing and tearing their hearts and hair out.
You know the scenario. They make such a bloody songline and dance about it.
Then there’s the other black deaths in custody. They now run into their thousands.
They’re the black deaths that have taken place since they’ve been in custody of the wider community. Our community. In our political custody and all that entails. That is, the sum total of all of us since white foot first trod heavy upon this Great Southern Land.
Once, in 1967, white and whiteish folks voted for aborigines to be counted in the national census.
What if we turned the tablelands on that? Do you think we could ask indigenous Australians to participate in a referendum about the date on which we should celebrate Australia Day? Could they be trusted with such political gravitas? Is that too big a word for them, Kev?
You probably want to keep them away from the political gravy train. Look at what happened to ATSICK. I mean, you wouldn’t want them handling a Wheat Board or, say, be Victoria’s Minister for Transport, Lynne Kosky, or anything like that.
Reckonciliation — Reconciliation
And you’d have to keep them away from plonk, glue and petrol wouldn’t you, Kev? Thenthey might be able to handle it. You’d have to keep them away from parliamentary dining rooms otherwise all their rellies would be eating there and complaining theirservings weren’t big enough.
Have you seen how they scoff their tucker? As if there’s no tomorrow. A short tomorrow, granted — but, look, they do get everything just handed to them on a platter. They get handouts and handsup and handshakes — and then they paint all those hands and plant them in the ground. And then have the cheek to give us their hand in wreckonciliation … oops! Reconciliation, I mean.
But that’s not all. They might have altercations on a night out with the iguanas, which they like to bake over an open fire. And you’d have to ban them from going overseas and representing us as diplomats because they’ll just get on the booze — they could also lose their daks, gawd love’em; but they do wear those red nappy things when they’re dancing, so it would probably be alright in the long run.
Better still Uncle Kev, keep them away from any real participation in political change. No, I like
the way you stood up to Professor Mick — have you done a bio authenticity check on him? What’s he profess to be a Professor of, ’eh?
We stole this land. Dress it up in laws and legislation as much as you like. We all continue to collude in this theft. As long as we delay Reconciliation and a Treaty, we remain accomplices.
It’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s not justice. We can’t undo the past. But we should be honest enough to acknowledge it.
Obama spells a Mabo backwards
I love this country. Like many of us who travel overseas, I am perplexed at the nostalgia and sentiment that intoxicate the brain when away from her. It is surely a spiritual bond and not the privilege of one skin colour alone. The power comes from her — and not those who walk upon her; sometimes walk all over her.
People keep asking if there’s an Obama type of fellow out there amongst our indigenous folk. Fat chance. You wouldn’t consider Mick or Noel would you? Don’t even think about a black sheila.
Unless it’s that Catherine the Great sprinter, the one who’s got ‘Salome’ as one of her middle names,
strewth! That’s a bible name. Cheek of it. She must be well up herself, with a surname like
Freeman. I reckon she could be a closet Muslim. Think about it, Salome………
She was given a bogong wasn’t she — an OAM I think. It’s that bling thing again with them.
And she won a gold medal in the Olympics desperately trying to ingratiate herself to us.
Trying to be whiter than white. As for her draping their flag around herself like that, well, with a middle name like Salome what do you expect ?
I thought she’d breakdance into the dance of the Five Veils, it being the Olympics and all. It was different when our Dawn nicked the Aussie flag — that’s more in keeping with our tradition and idiom; plus our Dawn’s got the advantage of being white. But look, getting back to skin colour, of course it matters. For a start, some of them are that white they only claim to be black so they can get the benefits.
Funny that Obama spells A Mabo backwards. I reckon that’s a sign. Black Magic. Also, some of them blacks are muslims like Obama. Did you ever hear of anything so ridiculous. What’s wrong with The Dreamtime? Their own culture not good enough for them? Rainbow serpents and Muslims. Didge in one hand — Koran in the other. What’s going on there? They should be facing Uluru, not Mecca; the Southern Cross, not Saudi Arabia.
I dunno, Kev, I think I’ve just about talked myself out of it now. Yeah, keep Invasion Day as Australia Day. After all, there’s more of us than them. Yo, whiteys rule! And don’t forget, they’re a dying race. As long as we go on as we are, soon there won’t be a race problem. They’ll die out. They’ve brought it upon themselves.
Geezus, they didn’t even put up a decent fight. And when you think about it, they may have lost their country but look at all they’ve gained. We brought them Civilisation! We took them out of the
Stone age. They put themselves into the Stoned age. We give them voting rights. They want Land Rights. They want equal rights. They make us feel like guests in our own country.
You can’t build a dunny on a dung heap without them claiming it’s sacred land and demanding billions of Australia Day medals. The only mistake we made was when we didn’t follow the example of our own white European ancestors. We didn’t learn from our own history. After all, did not the Dutch buy Manhattan for 60 guilders, if not baubles and beads, from the local red Indian savages. After all, our mob couldn’t read or write — still can’t. Anyway, even if we had’ve given them a few bob, where were they going to spend it ? They hadn’t even invented money. No shops. No milkbars. No malls.
Lyn White of Animals Australia has returned serve on these comments:
Animals Australia investigator Lyn White last night hit out at Mr Daws' request for more time, declaring some exporters have sent tens of millions of animals to these markets for thirty years and it was "appalling" they could not ensure by March that animals would receive even the most basic level of welfare standards.
Kelvin Thompson, Labor Member for Wills - a politician not afraid to buck the party line on a matter of principle - has commented on his blog.
You, dear Networkers, can have your say. The Australian Government has a Live Animal Taskforce. I am sorry for such short notice - but submissions to it close to-day so you will need to get cracking. However, if you can't get your submission in to-day I would still take a punt and email the Taskforce anyway. Failing that please flood the minister, Joe Ludwig, with your views.
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Did you purchase one of these Pointsettias as a Christmas symbol and decoration this year? If you answer yes, A Very Merry UnAustralian Christmas to you. You have allowed your Christmas to be colonised by a foreign empire, the United States of America.
You see, that blurb purporting to come from Andrew, the Fresh Food Specialist is not true - at least for Australia and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere. So here's hoping he knows more about food than he does about flowers.
The Pointsettia you purchased has been specially bred or forced or whatever artificialities can be introduced by horticultural practices in Australia to make money out of the Christmas season for producers and on-sellers of horticultural products. In short, this is no pretty Christmas symbol but a producer-to-consumer driven product.
The Pointsettia is a symbol of Christmas - North of the Equator. North of the Equator it is winter. The Pointsettia in Australia is a seasonal flower of late Autumn-early Winter depending on where you live. The Pointsettia is no more seasonal to an Australian Christmas than Hot Cross Buns in January or Christmas Carols in October.
The above is a Pointsettia in all its glory in tropical North Queensland. It can be a fairly tall bush and the flowers are positioned on long droopy canes. In Australia, the Pointsettia is a a symbol of a Christian feast - but not Christmas. They are often used to decorate churches for Pentecost because the red bracts are reminders of the tongues of fire that descended at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem. Pentecost occurs fifty days after Easter and, therefore, occurs in late May (late Autumn) or early June (early Winter).
So let's leave the Americana on the shelves
and have an authentic Australian Christmas this year.
In the last few days, I have posted here and here about the so-called locust plague and Eris O'Brien's viewpoint. The Stateline story is now up on their website. You can look at it - and particularly note Eris O'Brien's thoughtful presentation - here.
My interest began with my friend Denis over at The Nature of Robertson who has done quite a number of posts on the locust situation which you will find by going here. Denis's postings are quite extensive and explicit and I won't attempt to comment - but please read his posts. They are important.
I do want to say that it is about time that we of the human species woke up to ourselves. Who/what is the greatest threat to our wildlife, our food and water sources, our environment? It is us. Not the locusts. Us. We are a plague to our planet. And we are not considering wiping ourselves out are we? What we do have to do, though, is ask ourselves a few questions about what we are doing and what direction we are taking. And we have to learn from the mistakes of our past. And the most eloquent voice in all this was Rachel Carson. Perhaps Carson was not the first. However, in our times her voice has been the most significant, far-reaching and followed.
Australians, in particular, need to look at their own track record. Point me in the right direction, Networkers, if I am wrong but I think we could take the cake for the biggest environmental vandals on the planet.
We are up there with extinctions. We are brilliant at land clearing. We have a penchant for importing animals which become feral: the rabbit, the fox, the cane toad, etc. They are the highly visible ones. Go here for more information on our toxic importations. Australians' use of pesticides, particularly in our food chain, continues with only limited abatement. You might like to have a look at the article below, Networkers.
I have a view about this which might not be popular, but if the Victorian Government told their electors that they were going to spray vast areas of the State with many different chemicals, nearly all of which are highly toxic to bees - what would the reaction be?
Finally, I would like, Networkers, to draw your attention to the bee.
The blue-banded native bee with a tomato blossom
Much is made of the European honey bee and the fact that Australia is now the only country in which there is a wild population. In fact, Networkers, did you know that European honeybees collect 90% of available nectar and pollen but pollinate only about 5% of our plants? In short, European honeybees are bludgers, free-loaders. They can take their food without doing anything useful in return - like pollination. The really hard yakka in the bee world in Australia is done by our very own native bees.
One of the things we might all consider, Networkers, is our gardens and how our small urban and suburban patches can make a positive contribution to Australia's ecology. Here I would like to put in a word for that great native bee attractor, the Native Frangipani. When I lived in tropical North Queensland in the shadow of the World Heritage listed rainforest, I grew a beautiful specimen. My neighbours were busy planting foreign palm species - and had to ask what my huge and beautiful (yes it did get to be huge) tree was. I believe it can be grown in quite diverse regions - besides the tropics. Its beautiful, tiny, fragrant blossom attract those little black native bees well - like bees to a honeypot.
I would ask, Networkers, that you have one more look at the Stateline program. Look and listen and analyse what is being told to you in images and words in this locust segment. It begins with Victoria's premier, John Brumby. He doesn't say much - but it is clear that his presence gives this segment his imprimatur and adds to its stature. Because of Brumby's presence, this gives status and stature to the locust story. But how detailed is the information provided by the proponents of spraying? I would say insufficiently detailed. Insufficiently describing and circumscribing safety. This contrasts with the detailed argument put forward by Eris O'Brien.
![Australian Bee Lore and Bee Culture: Including the Influence of Bees on Crops and the Colour of Flowers and Its Influence on Bee Life [ 1912 ]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=111235980X&tag=thene06-20)
![Commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera) reduce the fecundity of an Australian native bee (Hylaeus alcyoneus) [An article from: Biological Conservation]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B000RR3M56&tag=thene06-20)
