Bimblebox Nature Refuge: sign the petition : work to save it from the coal predators and the resource buccaneers

The following missive has come my blogging mate, Denis Wilson of The Nature of Robertson, on behalf of the Australian Water Network:

Our colleagues at Bimblebox, Alpha, Queensland have joined with some 100 other Nature Reserve owners in Queensland to petition the Qld Premier, Anna Bligh to help them protect their Nature Reserves from the impact of coal mining and other mineral exploration activities which will destroy the very natural values which their agreements with the State Government is meant to protect.

I have adapted a petition (attached) which is currently on the Bimblebox website.

http://bimblebox.org/

Their petition is written from the perspective of the owners and signatories of the Nature Reserve agreements with the Government.

I have amended the wording suitably, to make it read that we (the undersigned) are writing in support of Bimblebox Nature Reserve.

If you wish to offer your support to Paola and her colleagues at Bimblebox, please print this off, sign it and send it to Paola.

Paola is collecting these letters to make a joint submission to the State Government,

so please send this signed petition to;

C/O Bimblebox Nature Refuge, Alpha Qld 4724,

or scan and email to

bimblebox@gmail.com.

Please demonstrate your solidarity with our Queensland colleagues by signing the petition.

Denis Wilson

~~~~~~~~~~

Citizens, Julia needs your help. If you don't help - the universe may have the last crack!

When Brant Parker and Johnny Hart (or their ghosts)

produced this cartoon

I am sure they didn't have Julia Gillard's Citizens Assembly

in mind.

But perhaps The Editor of The Age did!

AUSTRALIAN ELDERS : CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION AND FOR ABORIGINAL JUSTICE AT THE UNITED NATIONS

Left: Rosalie Kunoth-Monks

Right: Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM

The Racial Discrimination Act and Aboriginal Justice in the NT

In a matter of weeks the international body, the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), will be meeting at the UN to review issues of discrimination around the world. The Australian government will present a report that will be a response to the UN’s criticisms related to the Intervention.  The CERD also take note of non-government organisation’s (shadow) reports in an effort to reach an overview of the true nature of the situations from all sides.

Concerned Australians are sending two Aboriginal representatives (Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM and Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM), highly respected NT elders. Some of you may have heard Rosalie and Djiniyini in May when they took part in “A Conversation With Elders” at the Melbourne Law School. They will carry with them to Geneva a comprehensive (shadow) report, Loss of Rights – the Despair of Aboriginal Communities in the NT, which basically provides a framework for Aboriginal voices who tell it from their point of view – a very different voice from that presented by the Australian government. Former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, Alastair Nicholson, provides the legal background in the report.

Rosalie and Djiniyini will present the report to the 18 CERD  members. This is a most important opportunity for both to talk about what is happening to communities in the Northern Territory and they are both eager to have your help. 

To support them we are asking you 

to write to one or more selected members

 of the Committee whose details are provided below.

Points are provided for you to make into a letter, hopefully using some of your own words. If using the email option, please follow the instructions below.

~~~~~~~~~

Dear…………………..,

• Australian legislation pertaining to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory (NT) is unjust and discriminatory
• The ‘concerned Australians’ report, Loss of Rights – the Despair of Aboriginal Communities in the NT, will give the views of Aboriginal people themselves who suffer first hand from the effects of such legislation.
• The report will be presented in Geneva by two eminent Aboriginal elders, Rosalie Kunoth- Monks and Rev.Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra
• This will be a very great journey for two elderly and dedicated people, and we are asking you to please, not only read the report, but to find time to meet with and listen to them. 

Yours sincerely,

(Name) and any other personal details you may wish to give.

Letters to members should be sent to Members as below:

C/o Gabriella Habtom
Human Rights Officer and Secretary of the Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Human Rights Treaties Division
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Tel. +41.22.917.9193 - Fax +41.22.917.90.08
e-mail:ghabtom@ohchr.org
Palais Wilson - 52, rue des Pâquis, CH-1201, Geneva, Switzerland
Mailing address: UNOG-OHCHR, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

MEMBERS:

Mr Chris Maina PETER (Tanzania)

Professor of Law in the area of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, travelling extensively to lecture. An advocate of the High Court of Tanzania – handling pro bono cases for the poor, and advocates for and defends Indigenous minorities.

Letters or emails sent C/o Gabriella Habtom (as above)

Mr Jose Francisco CALI TZAY (Guatemala) (Vice-Chairperson CERD)

Heavily involved in Indigenous Rights programs, liaising between Guatemalan peasants and the international community, advocating extensively in Latin regions for Indigenous populations and their rights.

C/o Gabriella Habtom (as above)

Ms Anastasia CRICKLEY (Ireland)

Has, and continues to work extensively, within various bodies, in the area of racism, xenophobia and discrimination, especially within the EU.

If you are emailing to Anastacia please send to both her email addresses:

anastasia.crickley@nuim.ie and ghabtom@ohchr.org

Professor Patrick THORNBERRY (UK)

Professor of International Law (Human Rights Law), a member of various international bodies that deal with minority rights and race discrimination. Lectures and writes extensively in this area.

If you are emailing Patrick please send to both his email addresses:

 p.thornberry@keele.ac.uk  and ghabtom@ohchr.org

Related Reading:

Will they be heard? Review by Alistair Nicholson

To buy the book, 

now with commendation by Michael Kirby,

please scroll down this page

to find order form.

If you have difficulty downloading the form,

please email

misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot).com

Indian skin lightening - whitewash hogwash?

In his book, Inhaling the Mahatma, Christopher Kremmer describes advertisements in the Indian media for brides which specified fairness of skin.  He is not the only one to comment on this penchant of Indians for fairer and fairer skin.  Back in 2007, Inner Reflections Transcribed remarked on this attitude and described the products used to produce the desired result.

Now I find out from Just Act and Change.org, that Unilever is capitalising on this deeply held desire on the sub-continent with a specifically India-targetted Facebook app. advertising their own line of skin-lightening products.

Indians in Australia have been quick to raise the racist flag where they consider it appropriate.  Perhaps they ought to address the problems of caste and colour in their own nation first and then their credibility would be more firmly established, wouldn't you think, Networkers?

And if you want to have your say on this matter, Networkers, there are a couple of options.

•  Change.org has a sign-up you can find here
• .Over on Facebook itself  you can join a group called Love The Skin You're In!

Further reading:

Inhaling the Mahatma

Related articles by Zemanta

• India's myth of fair-skinned beauty (guardian.co.uk)
• Unilever is hypocritical in promoting skin lightening | Layla Sayeed (guardian.co.uk)
• getting it culturally right (bluurb.wordpress.com)

Bradley Smith, serial protester, breaks Gillard's security at University of Queensland

Dear Networkers, this morning at the University of Queensland, Julia Gillard made her big Climate Change speech.  Bradley Smith, pictured above, broke through the security cordon from the shouting protesters massed outside the venue.  Video available here.

Bradley is an activist - and clearly not a shy one.  This post gives you some clues about Bradley.

• Bradley is a PhD student at UniQ.  Cv is here.
• He takes the opportunity to question politicians on their policies.
• He is an energetic protester - and, drum roll please,
• He is out of the Six Degrees stable.
• Bradley Up-Date 2.20pm
• Bradley Up-date 4pm Sat 100724: Bradley Smith, Climate Activist now on Facebook here.

Gathering : Convergence : Activism in Alice Springs Against The Intervention

Thank you to Marisol Salinas and Cheryl Kaulfuss for the information below.

A major gathering campaigning against The Intervention occurred in Alice Spring from 6-11 July 2010 (10/11 July was spent visiting Town Camps and Outstations).  The Friends of the Earth International Indigenous Solidarity Gathering  merged with the Defending Indigenous Rights Conference in Alice Spring organised by Richard Downs and his people.

The Northern Territory Intervention, under the guise of fighting alcohol abuse and child sexual abuse, is eroding Aboriginal rights.  The Intervention has not reduced rates of alcohol abuse. Rates of child sexual abuse were never higher in the Northern Territory than anywhere else in the country. There were no paedophile rings to be cracked.

Meanwhile, The Intervention has introduced a welfare quarantining scheme reminiscent of the ration days.  According to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, who visited the NT in 2009, The Intervention measures “[…]overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples,

infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities”.

It has been speculated the welfare quarantining provisions that have been imposed under The Intervention may be spread to other parts of the country under the guise of making the policy ‘non-discriminatory’, because it would apply to a broad layer of welfare recipients.

Under The Intervention, the Community Development Employment Scheme (CDEP) was scrapped. This has deeply impacted the ability of indigenous communities to have control over their own labour requirements and projects. Contractors are flown in to perform work on award wages that could be done by local workers.  The locals are doing work for the dole and still having half of their payments quarantined. This pits one worker against another. The precedent currently being set under The NT Intervention is not a good one for working people.

The gathering supported the efforts of Aboriginal activists in the Northern Territory to have The Intervention scrapped and to have programs like the CDEP re-established and advanced. Indigenous communities need control over their own affairs and (like all workers) should be paid award wages.

The gathering focussed on the environmental impacts of mining, proposed uranium dumping, and tourism on indigenous communities in this region and Australia wide. The mining companies often seek to divide indigenous people by holding out false promises of jobs and the payment of compensation to pay for improvements to the infrastructure that should, by rights, be a governmental responsibility.

On the final day of the convergence, 

300 people rallied in Todd Mall, Alice Springs, July 9.

 Photo: Jay Fletcher

from Green Left Weekly

Poor rich Twiggy Forrest: how much can a koala bear?

Image via Wikipedia

So Twiggy's changing his mind, it is reported.

Well, Networkers, I think we can look at this story 

a couple of different ways.

Scenario #1

Please note the opening para of this story:  Small and medium miners, including Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group, are considering restarting the advertising campaign against the government's mining tax

As I understand it, it was the big boys who sat at the negotiating table: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and X Strata.  Twiggy is mentioned in the context of 'small and medium miners'.  Twiggy was front and centre as the face of protest against the Resource Super Profits Tax.  So this appears to mean that the small and medium miners have formed themselves into a registered union of employers (namely the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies) with Twiggy as the union secretary.  It would seem by this report, that the big boys found a deal to be done, they cut it, and left the others voiceless - and, possibly, powerless.  Now Twiggy is trying to find a way to put some clout back.  


However, the AMEC claims the following for itself:
This enables AMEC to retain strong relationships with all sides of politics at the highest level and provide members with a lobbying and advocacy power they could not otherwise generate.


Mmmm..........?

• How strong are relationships with all sides of politics at the highest levels going to be if the ol' Twigg resumes his industrial campaign?  

• How strong is the lobbying and advocacy power of the Twigg' and his fellow unionists - since they didn't get a guernsey at the negotiating table first time around?

Miner's of the World, unite!

You have nothing to lose

but your chains!

Scenario #2

There are many fiefdoms and empires across the globe.  Some are highly specialised, some are based on geography.  Some profess democracy.  Others revolve around one or a few powerful people.  Now I can understand that when you have the wealth of Twiggy, a lot of people do your bidding with great alacrity and you can seem like the King of All You Survey.  Now, Twiggy has seen a bit of see-sawing of his fortune in recent years, so I suppose it is understandable that when he sees yet another threat on the horizon, he might want to control the risk which the threat is perceived to pose.  

~~~~~~

But what else is going on in the Kingdom of All You Survey?

Well, there is an election campaign in full swing and the serfs, vassals, helots, and villeins each have a vote.  The said serfs, vassals, helots, and villeins have no money to mount a vote-swinging advertising campaign in their favour and neither do the civil organisations supported by the said serfs, vassals, helots, and villeins.  GFCs tend to have this sort of effect.  

It seems that, in accordance with a previous post, 

smelling salts should be brought in promptly.

BTW, Twiggy, have you and your comrades had a chat with Bill Ludwig?  

He seemed to have had a bit to do with the seating arrangements

 at the the last round of negotiations.

Further reading:

Mining companies wrong to revive tax debate

Related articles by Zemanta

• FMG questions Argus' mining tax role (news.theage.com.au)
• Big-three deal splits miners (theage.com.au)

Crime and gambling linked in Victoria - what a surprise!

A report has been quietly released which shows a causal relationship between gaming and crime in Victoria.  Does this come as a surprise to you, Networkers?  Not to your Miss Eagle it doesn't.  She has long regarded casinos, for instance, as venues for money laundering and wealth transferrence.  

A sardonic smile flitters across Miss Eagle's face in these matters.  You see here in Victoria not only do we see a government addicted to gambling income but a government unduly influenced by high rollers like James Packer and the rest of the casino 'establishment'.  What Packer wants Packet gets, it seems to me, and - if I am wrong - could someone please publish the long (haha) or very short (ahem) list of wht James asked for and didn't get?  I reckon one day Melbourne will wake up and it won't be called Melbourne anymore.  We will be called Crown Casino City.  Won't that be wonderful.

So back to the issue of crime and gaming.  Networkers, do you think there should be a sequel (or perhaps prequel might be a better word) on crime, gaming and corruption in Victoria?  You see if we leave the story only at crime and gaming we are left with images of the poor pokie sods committing armed robbery at the petrol station or the 24 hour grocery or the middle class embezzling their banking employers.  In reality an official inquiry of the kind which asks the question, Which comes first the chicken or the egg? Buying political and bureaucratic influence or the decision?,  might be more helpful.

And all this from holier than thou Victoria which has had to be dragged kicking and screaming (and I am not speaking of only the current Labor Govt but the Liberal/National Party lot as well) to set up some sort of anti-corruption commission.  Not for Victoria, though, the effective models of the ICAC in NSW or the CMC in Queensland.  

No, Victoria has gone for a highly customised version which is set to be complex, complicated, difficult and it won't have the effect of frightening the horses.  Whether it will ever frighten corrupt cops, criminals, politicians and bureaucrats will remain to be seen.  The proof of the VIACC pudding will be in the eating.

Further reading:

Independent Gaming Authority (South Australia)

Want to make a bet?  Gambling and crime in Australasia

How gambling fuels crime

Australian Gaming Council

Pathological Gambling and Criminality: Crime Promoting Economic Income and Pathological Gambling

Gambling as a motivation for the commission of financial crime

Gambling and crime in South Australia

IN DEFENCE OF THE DISTINGUISHED HAZEL HAWKE : IN SPITE OF A LESS THAN DISTINGUISHED EX PRIME MINISTER AND HIS SECOND WIFE

Patricia Edgar has to-day published a spirited defence of the much loved and respected Hazel Hawke's role as Bob Hawke's Prime Ministerial spouse.

It is unlikely that  Hazel is aware of the storm breaking around the publication of Blanche d'Alpuget's latest Bob Hawke tribute/hagiography - but her children are.

What dignity is there, I would ask Bob Hawke, in allowing your second wife supported by yourself to try to airbrush Hazel's role out of the nation's history.  Is there only room for yourself - and your non-Prime Ministerial spouse?

I believe that there have been many elements (this is one) of Bob Hawke's post-Prime Ministerial life which have been lacking in dignity.  This could well be another to be added to the list.

Thank you, Patricia Edgar.  I trust that many will be lining up behind you to publicly articulate Hazel's contribution to the Australian nation.

Kwementyaye Ryder : his death examined : Alice Springs under the microscope

My friend Cheryl as well as Murray and Lorraine from Whitehorse Friends for Reconciliation have all been in touch to make sure that I am watching Four Corners to-night.

Kwementyaye Ryder was killed 

by five young white men 

in Alice Springs on 25 July 2009.

The life of Kwementyaye Ryder

To-night's report by Liz Jackson is titled A Dog Act

It was almost a year ago, just after sunrise in Alice Springs on July 25 2009, that an Aboriginal man was killed by a group of white youths travelling in a white twin cab ute. As soon as the police arrested and identified the five men, emotions were unleashed in Alice Springs and race relations came under the spotlight.

As the editor of the local newspaper told Liz Jackson: "(It was) huge, huge. I mean once the arrests were made, you got a sense that Alice Springs spoke about nothing else."*

Another local said: "The hardest thing is knowing that this could happen in this town, in this community, not only that but to find out that they were local young men was very, very distressing."

For the first time, families of the victim and the young men who are now in jail, speak to Liz Jackson as they struggle to come to terms with the devastating aftermath of a shocking killing.

Witnesses to the killing also speak for the first time, as they attempt to understand how this could have happened.

Four Corners also gains exclusive access to police records of interviews and re-enactments that document a confronting crime.

Join Liz Jackson as she investigates "A Dog Act" 

on ABC 1 at 8.35pm on Monday 19th July 

and repeated on Tuesday 20th July 2010 at 11.30pm*.

 Also on

iView <http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/series/four%20corners>.

Picture from here

Text from here:

The five men who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Kwementyaye Ryder in the Todd River last year have today been sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

Joshua Spears, Anthony Kloeden, Glen Swain, Timothy Hird and Scott Doody received sentences ranging from 12 months to six years in jail with a non-parole period of four years.

Mr Ryder died from a brain haemorrhage last year after he was assaulted by the five men.

Anthony Kloeden has also pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering the life of another man who was camped in the Todd River the same morning.

Lawyers for the five men claim the attacks were not racially motivated but a reaction to a bottle being thrown at the vehicle the men were travelling in.

Further reading and viewing:

Samson and Delilah (2009) ( Samson & Delilah ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

Five sentenced over Alice bashing death

Murder case stokes Alice's racial tensions

The trouble with Alice

IMAGINE A LABOR GOVERNMENT WITH THE GREENS HOLDING THE BALANCE OF POWER : JUST IMAGINE

From here

Reports are that Labor is on the verge of a nationwide preference deal with The Greens.  It is said that this could assure a Labor Government and that the The Greens would hold the balance of power in the Senate.

There is an old Chinese Curse - May your children live in interesting times.  I think, Networkers, we are living in interesting times.

Let's imagine, though, the implications of such a deal if it comes through to the situation predicted above - Julia with her mandate; Labor in power; Greens with the balance of  power in the Senate.

1. Firstly we will get a price on carbon that's for sure.
2. Smelling salts will have to be administered to the resource buccaneers
3. The AWU (the metalliferous mining union in Australia) who made Julia PM (thereby hangs another tale) and was a key player in hosing down Rudd's resource super profits tax may need a go at the smelling salts as well.
4. The thought of Senator Joe Ludwig, son of Bill Ludwig - Qld branch secretary of the AWU; 76 years old and still in harness keeping that senate spot safe for Joe - sitting down to do deals with Bob Brown of The Greens is quite titillating.

Postscript written at 1.30pm 19 July 2010

The preference deal between The Greens and Labor is confirmed.

Read about it here.

Shane Howard: Spirit of Place : Spirit's Rest

Following on the Spirit of Place references (see the previous post), please allow me the indulgence of contributing my own Spirit of Place essay.  Here 'tis.

~~~~~~~~~

Spirit's Rest

Rainbow on The Barkly

life is one of presence to the desert, presence to God. 

For the desert is an empty and vast symbol of the unknowable God.

William Johnston in The Wounded Stag

The Barkly is a distinct region extending across the Queensland and Northern Territory border, not too far from the centre of Australia. While the region itself is distinct in geology, geography, and culture its boundaries are blurred, difficult to outline definitively.

One can enter upon The Barkly without knowing. There is no sign to provide direction or tell of arrival there. The one sign - sacrament even - is a highway, The Barkly Highway. It travels laterally through the region in a more or less straight line for not quite a thousand kilometres. It penetrates a land of legend yet travellers who are not familiar with the resource, cultural or historic richness of The Barkly feel they are in a barren and desolate land.

A traveller may unknowingly pass one of the greatest pastoral holdings in the world, through country traversed to this day by people of traditional and diverse language groupings without anything to draw attention to the fact. Occasionally, evidence of the region’s geological richness is seen in towns and mining superstructure.

On the NT side, The Barkly covers approximately 250,000 square kilometres with a population of approximately 6,000 people. People of the continental fringe ask “Why do you live there?” They have a picture of stagnation and boredom and isolation. They do not understand that life here is one of “presence to the desert, presence to God.” This is a place to be present to people and their cultures.

What does this “presence” mean? Our Australian interior is old country and it is palpably so. Come upon The Barkly just east of Cloncurry, Queensland. Travel through the Argyllas. To one whose spirit belongs in The Barkly, and who has travelled gradually from the urbanised coastal fringes of the continent, the spirit sings on arrival.

This is home. This is rest for the body, soul and spirit. Here is healing. To travel eastward from Mount Isa to Cloncurry, one has a vista of vast ages imposing the elements on a continually worn landscape.

Travel across the vast distances between Tennant Creek and the Queensland-Northern Territory border and one is conscious of humanity’s place in the scheme of things. Distance, vastness, isolation, and extremes of climate are overwhelming here. The traveller is not in a comfortable landscape. Here the landscape not only surrounds utterly, it penetrates one’s being.

There are no huge trees. There is abundant flora which does not grow tall. Much of it hugs the ground, staying close to make the most of what little moisture there may be and to present a low profile to the desert wind.

In making one’s life present to the desert, it is possible - as in all things - to see positive and negative results. For those whom the desert has adversely overwhelmed, the spirit may be left barren, parched, and cracked. Unable to give forth life.

For those who have allowed themselves to be open to the desert, who have absorbed its beauty as well as its harshness, there is abundant life. The secret waterfilled places are known. The rich lodes of quartz hanging on tightly to precious gold are treasured in deep places. There is food from the grassland and language and culture to allow expression, celebration and remembrance.

The Barkly appears flat and unchanging but there are the high places. The patriarchal literature of the Old Testament tells of the worship of El Shaddai on the high places. These are places of vista. In The Barkly, suddenly, one may find oneself alone gazing out across the vastness from stunning vantage.

There is a place when travelling east on The Barkly Highway near Alexandria where suddenly there is the realisation of a high place. I once came to this place in the early evening of a long summer twilight. A 240 degree vista of golden grassed plain was before me. Above it hung a heavy storm-grey sky filled with lightning dancing from horizon to horizon: a timeless theatrical performance from the drama of eternity.

When I travel north from Tennant, the road to Renner Springs provides high places to lift my spirit and cause it to rejoice. I look across expanses of countryside without a sign of anything that has to do with a human being. It is truly wilderness without habitation.

Presence to the desert, presence to God? The former permits the latter. Being present to the desert takes one from a zone of comfort. It shatters and remoulds preconceived ideas. It relies on the experiential not the idyllic nor the theoretical. It calls forth the tangible into the spiritual and allows the spiritual to inform earthly reality. It means exposure to elemental force. It becomes an incarnation of spirit and matter as real as the Christian theology of God became Man and dwelt among us.

To place one’s self in the desert is to place one’s self in the presence of God. It is stepping into the place of vulnerability. No longer the doer but the done to. No longer the knower but the seeker. No longer the lover but the loved. No longer owning but sharing. From here, the place of spirit’s rest, becomes the place of spirit’s growth.

© Brigid O’Carroll Walsh 2000