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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Australia, we have a problem: we are violent sadists

ABC Four Corners: Australia's shame


Dear Malcolm (my prime minister) and Barnaby (my elected representative for the New England notwithstanding that I live in the Hunter),

Where do I start? I don't know where to start.

What hope is there for a nation that has such a blatant disregard for life?

Our scorecard is abysmal: we mistreat ...

- our environment

- our dogs

- our cattle

- our women

- our asylum seekers

- our human rights commissioner

- our elderly

- our children

... and all of this has all been conducted on your watch, in fact countless Australian govenments' watch ... for decades.

We have had endless Royal Commissions into our various atrocities but nothing ever changes.

And here we are again in what seems like some hideously macabre 'Groundhog Day' loop this time regarding our children.

Oh it's all too easy to wave your magic wand and declare
Behold, I do believe we'll hold another series of Meetings-That-Take-Forever-And-Achieve-Nothing now that I've chatted to the Human Rights Commissioner whom we bullied and threatened but just a while ago ... oh chortle chortle, a mere trifle now that we need her imprimatur
... but how will any of what you're proposing improve the immediate lives of those poor children whose images were broadcast on ABC television last night?

The sheer agony and terror we witnessed on their faces, and their bodies and their spirits, should haunt us all forever because let's face it, we all stand guilty of turning away and letting this happen ... namely because some of 'us' keep on voting for the likes of you, making you our elected representatives, only for you to subsequently permit this brutal treatment to happen in our name.

How dare you.

This dark and cruel episode is yet another example of a systemic national and cultural government fail.

The children's so-called crimes, which landed them in that dickensian reform centre, were nothing compared to the torture and 'crimes against humanity' that were incessantly meted out to them.

Yes, these state-sanctioned 'crimes against humanity' inflicted with such an obvious intent to cause suffering must make us all hang our heads in shame that:

(1) these children were terrorised at the hands of people who were supposed to be looking after them, and

(2) we endlessly vote for such cruel governments that allow such physical and psychological suffereing to happen.

We have a problem, Malcolm and Barnaby, and you and we are it.

(Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister also emailed, facebooked and tweeted, and this blog post cross-posted to Freedom Cyclist Blog)

Monday, July 4, 2016

Journey's End

by Georgie Abbott


(Image: Mahmoud Salameh, Palestinian-Syrian refugee & friend of RAC)

The noise is loud,
She wakes in fright.
They have to leave,
This is the night.

The bags are packed
Waiting by the door.
She feels the bomb
Through the shaking floor.

She takes their hands,
Squeezing tiny fingers.
Time to go,
No time to linger.

Through the dark
They run and cry.
Please don't let
My children die.

Now on a truck
The road is rough.
The babies cry,
They've had enough.

On the coast
She pays the man,
Just get on the boat
To another land.

The waves hit the wood,
Everything creaks.
Silence is defeaning,
Too afraid to speak.

She dreams of new life
No more failure.
She dreams of the future
They'll have in Australia.

But they never reach
What they've searched for,
They are taken away
To be processed offshore.

After months of waiting
She cries in despair,
Why are we here?
It is just not fair!

Her children suffer,
She watches them grow.
A mother's pain
We may never know.

She didn't want much,
She just needed a home,
But now she is here
More than ever alone.

Keep my babies alive,
She silently pleas.
And fades into the night,
She's Finally free.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Let it be #ByeByeBarnaby


Screen capture: Barnaby Joyce, Sydney Morning Herald





















Please please please, dear electorate of New England, let's not return this guy!

I mean what has Barnaby actually ever done for us? ... nothing!

And furthermore, what could Barnaby do for us? ... nothing!

We deserve better.

$$$ He pretends he is not committed to coal, yet will go along with any NSW state government decision to dig up Breeza and the Liverpool Plains

$$$ He is committed to coal seam gas and appears to have a perceived conflict of interest with regards to property he owns and a nearby coal seam gas exploration licence.

$$$ He is also committed to Live Animal Export in another perceived conflict of interest kind of a way nothwithstanding the recent revelations of that industry's terrible practices - he has no intention of shutting that shameful trade down.

Screen capture: The Three Fossils (my words), Scone Advocate



















$$$ He is a pork-barreller and he is yet another politician to promise millions of dollars for a local bypass/overpass in Scone - politicians have been doing that in this town of mine ever since I first arrived here and I came to Scone in 1983. So thirty three years later we still don't have either, and as the coal industry inexorably grinds to a halt notwithstanding Barnaby and co doing their best King Canute routines, the need in Scone lessens exponentially for both.

$$$ He is incoherent .. and oh boy he is ... utterly offensive.

He's a dinosaur; he's a fossil; he's a National Party member; we can expect no more.

So let us remember when we're in that ballot box cubicle later on today that can do better, and that our children deserve a future, and if we elect Barnaby as our local representative, we can kiss that dream away.

Put the Liberals and Nationals last and VOTE 1 Tony Windsor!!!!

#PutLNPLast #VoteForSomeoneElse

#Vote1TonyWindsor 

 (Also cross posted to Freedom Cyclist blog)