Aboriginal dispossession and the eleventh hour of the eleventh month

To-day is Armistice Day. This is a memory embedded in the history of European nations and their allies who participated in World War 1.  There are other memories, which Richard Frankland and Peter Lewis of ANTaR point out here.

NO CORRUPTION: UN Convention Against Corruption

Corruption is evil in more ways than one.  It diverts money away from the well-being of individuals, societies, nations.  It interferes with good and sound trading relationships.  It also corrupts the hearts and spirits of individuals and nations driving out compassion, fellow feeling, and worthy ambition.  The United Nations is trying to do something about it. Transparency International is the non-government organisation which acts as a watchdog.

Australia long thought it was one of the good guys with only minimal, if any, corruption.  We know differently now - and have found that it reaches into even the most central of national institutions.  Corruption and the mentality that encourages is alive and well and living in Australia - and in high places.

From Greg Neumann of Transparency International:

The coming week will be fundamental for the fight against corruption around the world.

141 governments, party to the United Nations Convention against Corruption — the only global initiative to tackle corruption — are invited to Doha, Qatar. The core agenda item at the meeting is the adoption of a monitoring mechanism that will be used to verify whether governments’ actions match their commitments. A commitment they gave to their citizens by ratifying the convention.

To be effective, any review must be public and transparent, as well as inclusive of civil society and other parties.  That is why civil society is in Doha to monitor the negotiations and raise pressure for an effective, transparent and inclusive review mechanism.

Stay up-to-date on next week's negotiations through

• TI's twitter at http://www.twitter.com/anticorruption and
• TI's blog at http://blog.transparency.org.

Get the background on the web pages of a civil society coalition monitoring the implementation of the UNCAC at: http://www.uncaccoalition.org/.

Keep in touch.
Best wishes from Doha,

Georg

All the best from The Network, Georg.

Miss Eagle is winging her way to the Northern Territory

The McDonnells: a stunning backdrop to The Alice

Miss Eagle is spreading her wings to-morrow and is off to the Northern Territory for three weeks.  Will be having a couple of days in Alice Springs and then off to my old stomping ground of Tennant Creek which is situated on the western fringe of my spirit country, the Barkly Tableland.  There is a vital element missing from the map:  the Tropic of Capricorn which is about one hour driving time north of Alice Springs.  Tennant Creek is 504 kilometres (5 hours driving time north of Alice).  However, while both are Arid Zone towns they are vastly different.  I recall once leaving Alice at a particularly dry time when one could not see one natural blade of green grass.  One got to Tennant and, by comparison, it was a tropical oasis.

Sunset from the Gold Stamp Battery, Tennant Creek

I have included a map, dear Networker, so that you can get an idea of of distance.  From Tennant Creek to Darwin is approximaely 1000 kilometres; depending on how heavy your foot is travel time is anything from 7 to 10 hours.  There used to be no speed limits in the NT outside the towns.  However, a few years ago  highway speeds were given 130kph limits.  Now, how well these are enforced is open to conjecture.  The long straight Stuart Highway from Mataranka south to the NT/SA border is ideal for cruise control!  Population is sparse in the NT and a significant proportion is Aboriginal - meaning there is regular contact with the most ancient culture on the whole planet: languages, nations, attitudes, and - sadly - socio-economic differences of major proportions.

Currently, there are many undercurrents in the NT due to the abhorrent Intervention.  I will be keeping my eyes open and trying to be sensitive to views, black and white, around me.  But please remember I am kicking off my sojourn in the place where Samson and Delilah was filmed - and that was realistic.

If you can keep an eye on the platypus, it will be a big help....

Bridget Clarke of Upper Goulburn Landcare has written to say:


The people at the Australian Platypus Conservancy are trying to find local people to monitor the Upper Goulburn rivers for platypus.  It takes very little time, especially if you are a walker, or someone interested in going for regular walks along a waterway - maybe four or five minutes. 


The Australian Platypus Conservancy is especially keen for people to monitor upstream and downstream of the pipe-inlet.  There is an information night being held at the Flowerdale Hall on Wednesday the 18th at 7.30pm for all interested.  These sessions are really informative, even if you don't want to do the monitoring.
 

If you are interested, 

please contact the Australian Platypus Conservancy Tel: 03 5157 5568 

or email platypus.apc@westnet.com.au cheers

Food waste? Food gluttony

Came across this article about a speech by the distinguished Vandana Shiva.  It brought to mind a recent experience with what I would describe as food waste.

I went with a group of Quakers from our local meeting to an outlet of a well-known chain of "family restaurants" here in Melbourne to lunch together.  I had never been to this restaurant before.  What an eye-opener.  Veritable food mountains are served here!

From Drop Box

The photo above is of my meal which is small or entree size.  I couldn't manage the salad.  It took me quite a while to get through the seven prawns and the rice and sauce.  We asked for "doggy bags" and you can see from the picture above  we put the remains in foil containers.    One is left to wonder how much is left on plates to go back to the kitchen and into waste.

I probably will not return to this restaurant, in spite of enjoying the food.  I just don't like their food attitude.  In fact, it was reported at table that one of our number refused to come when she heard which restaurant had been chosen.  She refused to come because of the food attitude.

Are Australians cruel - or just plain bloody careless?

Prince Alia bint Al Hussein of Jordan

I was pleased to see this article in to-day's news which describes Princess Alia's  plea to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to stop the ritual slaughter of conscious animals for halal meat in Australia.  Here is Princess Alia's op-ed piece. She outlines Islam's clear concept of respect for animals.

For those of us concerned about the welfare of animals and who want to stamp out cruelty, particularly in food production, this practice and its allowance by governments has been an absolute scandal.  

Australians tend to take it for granted that animals are stunned before being slaughtered so that there is no pain to the animal.  Well, read this with your morning cornflakes and be ashamed.  This is what bend-over-backwards governments do for special interest groups unbeknown to the rest of the electorate.

Mr Burke, our supine Federal Minister for Agriculture, is quoted as saying:

''There are a variety of views within Islam as to what constitutes halal food, and a similar range of views in Judaism as to what constitutes kosher food,'' he said. ''It's not for government to adjudicate over these differences, but it is our role within the spectrum of faiths in Australia to promote the most humane practices.''

This is absolute and unmitigated garbage.  Not only does Princess Alia give the lie to what constitutes humane practice under Islam, the Minister himself is there to uphold Australia's humane practices not concede dubious religious concessions.  "Within the spectrum of faiths in Australia" the Minister has NOT promoted humane practice at all.  Vote buying and electoral pandering has been put above and beyond animal suffering. Thanks Mr Burke.

But can I give true thanks and acknowledgment to the good folk at Animals Australia.  I am taking a wild guess that they have had a finger in the pie of getting this disgraceful practice into the mainstream media.  The indefatigible Lyn White has built up a friendship with Princess Alia over the years as she has researched and backgrounded the inhumane pratices surrounding live sheep exports to the Middle East.  Both Lyn and Princess Alia have form - prize-winning form - in eradicating animal cruelty in the Middle East.  

The Asylum Seekers and Refugees are being pesky again: what are we going to do?

Australia's answer for those seeking asylum:

the Christmas Island Detention Centre

in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.

Photo from here.

Australia is once again facing an immigration crisis. We are a sparsely populated country of 23 million people but we are facing a crisis: a crisis of attitude, a crisis of memory. 


Over at God's Politics, the blog of Jim Wallis and friends, there is a significant post by the Rev Anne Dunlap. While I would like you to visit Jim's blog, I have taken the great liberty of snitching the post in its entirety here - and hoping that Jim and Anne don't mind.


Australia, under the Howard Government and now the Rudd Government, is giving every indication of ignorance and forgetfulness of the Abrahamic traditions of the majority of its immigrant population. As Paul Howes remarked yesterday, the language has become low rent. Both Howard and Rudd - in particular, Rudd - profess Christian beliefs.  Both are Anglicans.  Each of them, in the lead up to the 2007 Federal election, courted the Christian vote in a manner never seen in Australia before - and certainly never from the Australian Labor Party.  Australians, particularly politicians, don't usually wear their religion on their sleeve - until these early days of the 21st century.

While they and we forget our God-reminded ethics, 

the Christian vote is not worth two-bob. 

It seems to me that most lucid and outspoken - gently outspoken - Christian voice in Australia is that of the beloved Bishop Pat Power.

++++++++++++++

‘You Shall Not Oppress an Immigrant’

by Anne Dunlap 10-16-2009

These remarks were presented on October 13, 2009 at a press conference in Aurora, CO urging Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) to take a public stand in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. The event was one of hundreds of actions across the country taking place that day as part of the Reform Immigration For America campaign and in support of Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-IL) presentation of principles for immigration reform. Aurora recently won an award for being an “All-America City,” and has an ICE detention facility.

Good afternoon.
I’m Rev. Anne Dunlap. I’m honored to be here in support of comprehensive immigration reform on this day of national action. I am the pastor of Comunidad Liberación/Liberation Community UCC here in Aurora, a faith community made up of immigrants whose points of entry range from Plymouth Rock in the east to the Sonoran Desert in the west. Each week when we gather together for worship we pray for a change in the heart of this country, that there would be immigration reform that assures that all people are treated with respect and dignity.

In the Christian faith tradition we turn to our sacred text to help us understand what kind of community our Creator calls us to be. We read, for example, that the people of Israel were immigrants in the land of Egypt. Generations earlier, they had left their homeland because of famine. They left their homeland and immigrated to Egypt in order to be able to feed their families, in order to be sure their children had a better future. But you may know the story: In Egypt they became slaves – as the text says, “The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service … [they] were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them” (Exodus 1:13-14).

The Israelites lived an oppressed and exploited life; even their children lived under the threat of death. Even the liberator, Moses, knew the pain of being a child separated from his mother when the Egyptian equivalent of ICE swept in to threaten the Israelite community.

When the Israelites were liberated from slavery, God gave them instruction in how not to become like Egypt, and one of the constant themes of that instruction is summed up in this verse from Exodus: “You shall not oppress an immigrant; you know the heart of an immigrant, for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). To not become like Egypt, they are to remember the immigrant’s heart: a heart full of strength, wanting only to work hard to assure that their families and their communities will survive hard times.

We, here and now, in a nation of immigrants, in this “All-America City,” have forgotten the heart of an immigrant. We have become Egypt in the “ruthless tasks we impose,” through policies of death, fear, and exploitation:

• policies that tear families apart, parent from hungry child, partner from frightened partner,
• policies that disappear parents, partners, and children into a detention system in which violates their rights at every turn,
• policies that depend on employers stealing wages from mothers and fathers who need that wage to feed their children,
• policies that force desperate mothers into the Arizona desert to die with their babies still suckling at their breast.

As we as a nation consider the need for comprehensive immigration reform, the faith community urges all of us today, across the country, to turn back from the ways of Egypt and remember the heart of the immigrant. It is our own heart, a heart of strength wanting only to work hard to assure our families, all our families, and our communities, all our communities, will survive hard times, with dignity honored and justice protected.

Remember the heart of the immigrant.

Thank you.

Rev. Anne Dunlap is the pastor of Comunidad Liberación/Liberation Community in Aurora, CO, a bilingual, multi-cultural base community in the Christian tradition, striving to live faithfully, to embody God’s vision of the beloved community, and to resist joyfully oppression and injustice. Comunidad is a ministry of Mayflower UCC in Englewood, CO.


Further reading:
Triumph turns to fiasco on the high seas
Sri Lankan asylum seeks 'refuse to leave boat'

The Northern Territory - a failed state or merely a challenged state?

For some people, all they ever get to know about the Northern Territory is the advertising campaigns to attract tourists and stories of Aboriginal disadvantage.  Some people set off up the track in caravans but don't enter into Territory life and so gain little understanding of Territory ways.  For many, including quite a slice of Territory inhabitants, it will come as a bit of a shock to hear the Territory described as a Failed State.  If you don't think that rings true, you might like to go along with Gerry Woods and his description of a challenged state

For me, I'll stick with the first because I agree with virtually everything that Nicolas Rothwell says in his article.  Many times I will read an article on a subject or a place I know well but the article leaves me feeling that I am residing on a planet of one because my own knowledge is so different from what I read.  Not with Rothwell's article.  He and I inhabit the same reality as far as a description of government and governance in the Northern Territory is concerned. And in case you think this does not concern you, think again.  If  you are a tax-paying Australian, you are propping up relaxed whitefella lifestyles and Aboriginal disadvantage and dislocation in the Northern Territory.  You too can have your tax dollars wasted in the failed Aboriginal housing program known as SIHIP.

Rothwell lays it all on the line from the cossetted and comforted middle and upper classes of Darwin's Northern Suburbs without whom, so the political wisdom goes, government in the NT cannot be won to disadvantaged Aboriginal communities who don't see all the money allocated to their needs by the Federal Government because of siphoning by the NT Government and the bureaucratic padding that is day to day employment in the NT, particularly in mainstream centres outside Darwin.

Miss Eagle's view - after most of a lifetime lived in North Queensland and the Northern Territory and a significant proportion of that lived on the Barkly Tableland, Queensland side and Territory side - is that this has to be seen in the context of historic deprivation by governments of all political persuasions at all levels of remote area communities black and white, with black communities being the worst affected.

Rothwell doesn't say this - but he is not far from saying it.

Let me be quite blunt.  Remote Australia pays a huge price

• economically, 
• environmentally, 
• socially, 
• infrastructurally, 
• educationally and in 
• housing and
• poor health 

for the governments dominated by the white tribes of the urbanised coastal fringes of Australia.

I emphasise that when I speak of remote Australia I am speaking both of  mainstream and Aboriginal Australians while recognising that the hardest hit are Aboriginal Australians.

I look forward to Rothwell's second instalment when he will outline a new way or ways of governance in the NT.  

Call Jenny Macklin's Office and - while you're at it - the Federal Attorney-General's. Phone numbers below. Tell them what you think.

On 2007, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 was suspended so that the Howard Government could have its wilful way with Aboriginal policy and people in the Northern Territory under the Northern Territory Emergency Response, commonly known as The Intervention.  The Racial Discrimination Act is the legislative means in Australia of giving effect in respect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.


The Rudd Government continued this disgraced Howard Government policy with little or no alteration when it came to power on 24 November, 2007.  The NTER was bad public policy under Howard.  It remains bad public policy under Rudd.  In fact, elements of the policy - such as SIHIP - are failed public policy.  The Rudd Government continued the malignant suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act.

There have only been three times that the Racial Discrimination Act has been suspended from applying since it was passed in 1975 – in relation to the Native Title Amendment Act, in relation to the Hindmarsh Island Bridge dispute and in relation to the Northern Territory intervention. Each time it has been repealed has been so that it cannot provide protection to the most vulnerable within the community.  Quoted from here.

The Rudd Government promised in May this year that the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 would be reinstated in October this.


So here we are.  It is Monday 26 October, 2009.  There has been nary a word this month about the promised reinstatement.  So I did the obvious thing.  

I rang the office of the Minister, Jenny Macklin, in Canberra.  

Please note her phone number is 

02 6277 7560

Please note that telephone protocol is not high on the list of concerns in Macklin's Canberra office.  You don't get names in full nor do you get titles, nor do you get put through to specialist people.  But please persist.  If you don't get a satisfactory reply - as I didn't - it is still a reply.

It was suggested that I call the Attorney-General's office because the A-G was responsible for the legislation.  They helpfully provided me with the number of the Attorney-General's office:

02 6277 7300

I was put through to an Adviser called Liz.  I asked for her full name.  Liz refused - in spite of the fact that at all times I gave my name in full - first name and last.  Courtesies are not considered worth returning in Labor offices, it seems.  I was told that Macklin's office had carriage of the legislation and that it was being worked on and it would be part of a package that was to come before Parliament in the Spring Session.  I was then patched back to Macklin's office who could tell me nothing.  Nothing about the package.  Yes, it is being worked on.  Could I speak to someone in the department working on it?  No.  

For your information, dear Networkers, the remainder of the Spring Session of Parliament is this week beginning 26 October.  Then the next two weeks are breaks.  This leaves two remaining weeks in the Spring Session namely the weeks beginning 16 and 23 November.

Word has come to me  from that well known person "an informed source" while writing this post that if the legislation makes it, it is likely to be on the last day of the Spring Session.  This means that if the usual route through the House of Representatives to the Senate is taken, we could be well into 2010 before the legislation is finally passed.  

Participate - Communicate - Agitate

Picture from here

To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up ...

Each of us must find our work and do it.

Militancy no longer means guns at high noon, if it ever did.

It means actively working for change,

sometimes in the absence of any surety that change is coming.

- Audre Lorde,

from her book Sister Outsider