Mood:  hug me

Sue Dunlevy is a thinker. She's a real survivor too having written about some serious troubles in her time. She hangs with the Canberra press gallery if memory serves.

So she asks in the last line of her somewhat flippant sledge of environmentalists "Will I still be facing an eternity in environmental purgatory ..." or will camping and giving the modern appliances/energy guzzlers a rest for a week be sufficient penance?:

Cold showers atone for my green sins

Sue Dunlevy - Thursday, January 01, 09 (08:51 pm)

ENVIRONMENTAL puritanism almost killed Christmas in my suburb this year when green crusaders objected to neighbours who wanted to put up a Christmas light display.

I've commented on her blog as follows:

I've accepted your request for penance formula in your last sentence. It's on my micro news blog - you can find it no doubt.

As for front page of sister paper The Australian yesterday with their dubious headline about a cooling planet. It took till the spill out on p3 to concede via Don White of Weatherwatch "If the same temperatures [in 2008] had occurred in the early 1990s it would have been the warmest ever."

Sooo as always it's the trend that counts. Also the dodos above might like to consider all the soot from China and India which just ... went kaput in the GFC. Less particulates, less dimming, more global warming in 09 ... you read it here first.

Well Sue, and we know it's taboo to hold a conversation with bloggers (unless of course they are on your corporate blog) being an environmentalist, science graduate in zoology mainly, lawyer, lapsed Catholic and community media practitioner here is my penance for you:

One column about the virtues of gross feed in tariff for photo volatic solar power to jump start an Australian alternative energy industry that can mix it with king coal and actually close those dinosaur power stations down.

If we get gross feed in tariff for PV you can show those Christmas lights to your heart's content. Won't that be fun?

Oh, and part of the penance is to research what "gross feed in tariff" really means. Here's a clue - solar panels have to be big enough to exceed daily usage to feed back into the grid. Here's another clue - Prof Mark Diesendorf of University of New South Wales.

Otherwise champ, you have a happy and safe new year and watch out for the Araneomorphae - they bite their prey with highly effective downward pointing fangs.... including reptiles. There's more around this year apparently known in the trade as funnel web spiders.

Posted by editor at 3:30 PM EADT

Updated: Wednesday, 14 January 2009 12:23 PM EADT

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Mood:  quizzical

Is history speeding up via web 2.0? What if sedentary screen time combined with high rate of information flow, and often powerful content, on web 2.0 is radically altering society?

Have you watched James Bond in Goldfinger made in 1964 or so and compared it with the Bourne trilogy made in the noughties, or indeed latest James Bond Quantum of Solace? The point is everything is faster now and public taste looks to be following. Maybe not the quality of plot line say but the overall data is getting very fast. Nor is this an original thought. The calls for strong context and editorial to manage this avalanche are becoming louder and louder in the big press too.

Even alcohol has stopped being very cool in Australia. There isn't much time for hangovers these days if you don't want to miss the next thing, be it job, news story, social opportunity, whatever.

We recently responded to the last Mayne Report ezine as follows with some observations about that publication, the GFC and the subtextual role of web 2.0 in altering society from bricks and mortar economy to cyberspace in many ways:

Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 11:00 AM

Subject: bloody good work there Stephen ....

.... "publisher of the Mayne Report". In my judgement you're getting critical mass of cred in your vehicle post crikey.com.au ownership.

 

* Agree re GFC biggest story and agree Obama was "huge".

Arguably the biggest story never covered was the tens of thousands made homeless by king tides in north of PNG in recent months. Imagine that in Shanghai and Bangladesh. Will make Tampa look like a child's sail boat on a pond in the gardens.

 

*On sub prime loans I still question where those millions of poor folks were going to live IF cowboy capitalism had not been 'given' the job of housing them, when any number of other domestic political pressures meant G W Bush etc needed to park the urban homeless issue - not least good will for recruiting cannon fodder for Iraq etc.

* Interesting take on Russia big [financial] come down. Haven't read that any where before.

Thanks for that commentary previously about auditors questions under the new provision of the corporations code. The forest folks can use that re Gunns, South East Fibre Exports (in Eden, Japanese owned).

 

*Great point about inconsistency of the bailouts/blowouts re Bear Stearns (saved) v Lehman (abandoned) - Stiglitz and Naomi Klein make me very nervous about the so called bailout 'plan'. More like rob the US treasury blind on the way out like that Enron exec who got out early. Also makes me nervous that sharp blade Turnbull would praise Hank Poulson so sincerely. We need a useful Opposition not free market ideologues nostalgic for the Wild West.

Coincidentally my US web server's counter crashed when I posted in late November on Klein thesis of Wall St robbing treasury blind, no stats for next 5 days. Mmm. They said it was maintenance. Maybe it was, or Klein/Amy Goodman were better censored like a spark in a haystack.

I still wonder the role of the internet in the GFC - how's this for a wild theory? Bricks and mortar retail outside seasonal fluctuations are going down. My source, a web builder at biggest online retailer here in Australia, says that even so they still trending up modestly post GFC. What if that's the case across social and economic sectors? The overall flight from bricks and mortar? Screen time predating on leisure, retail, government, television and other big media, exercise (obesity), even industry (why drive so much, tele-commute etc).

I'm wondering if the web is part of the cause of the GFC?: Even more information via google and web based news streams means people feel more fearful regardless of objective statistics. There is always a corporate fraud, a mass murder somewhere. A horror, a snake bite, a flood, a fire etc. It bleeds it leads. It's enough to cause emotional and psychological confusion like the seagull predator presented with a million baby turtles rushing to the sea (a real phenomenon in zoology/ethology). Even Dr Google is making people worry more.

 

To egg the theory a bit more - markets have never been transparent which can provide blissful ignorance. Markets now however have never been more transparent and nuanced contradictions - eg like your point on Lehman v Bear Stearns - are happening all the time. I myself pick apart disjunctions in the quality media too often to be really comfortable about trust.

Interesting to see ex PM Howard back on front page of The Australian today. Truly this guy is an energiser bunny. It's damn 'lucky' he was voted out otherwise we would all be talking Howardish eventually like an Exclusive Brethren sect. And he would be embracing nuke weapons for our own good of course. Which brings me to the international politics. Never forget the nuke weapon shadow.

Variations of this drive the bombing of Hamas only this last week to prevent 'delivery systems' like the 'high tech' proverbial donkey cart (or paranoia re same) via Hamas. And what Hamas is getting now Israel will contemplate for Iran at any cost to the world, after all what the f*ck did we do for them when it counted in WW2? And if that happens well as Bugs Bunny has said it could well be "That's all, folks": Nuke exchange in the middle east. Chernobyl like clouds drift globally. False positives in nuke weapon systems from Russia to Pakistan to India to USA to France to Britian. If one of them doesn't let fly by mistake it will be a miracle in itself.

W Bush is probably still flirting with Rapture concepts this last month.

Yours from the grassly knoll etc

Tom McLoughlin www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog

 

 

 

Posted by editor at 11:05 AM EADT

Updated: Thursday, 1 January 2009 11:51 AM EADT

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That's $5 million dollars in fireworks pissed up against the wall last night, or over Sydney Harbour and it's denizens to be exact. That's 166% more expensive than New Years Eve 2007/8 at $3 M. Apparently it's also about 5 tonnes up so to speak from 3 tonnes.

Maybe the contracts were drawn up and paid for in part when the Global Financial Crisis was still a glint in Madoff's eye? Maybe the politicians really do think it's worth a morale boosting last fling?

It just reminded us of those victims in Gaza ... and much lesser extent Southern Israel, being killed and or intimidated by explosions.

Anyway these days we tend to live by the sun - sleep when it goes down, rise when it does. We trust the sun. We got a bit too much of it yesterday though, cycling to Bondi Beach (and back) visiting our volunteer Carol, the disabled one, and the Roscoe St market under the motel construction. The back derailer stubbornly refused top gear. We got a flat tyre on the way. The glue in our kit was dried out. But a consumer cathedral nearby had more. We trust capitalism's grip on Australia.

Carol gave us a copy of 'About the House' of federal parliament to read. The cover story was about "franchisees". We shared a cup of herbal tea. We discussed tv and international events. She doesn't eat the Tim Tams I bought especially. We trust excessive chocolate to make us feel sick.

Carol normally telephones once every 2 or 3 days but nothing for 10 days. It was a worry but it turns out everything was fine. She'd got into one of her situations and was lying low. You can trust Carol to be sincere and unreliable.

We trust the ocean's constancy too - not least it's capacity for danger.

So we flopped exhausted before the early fireworks display at 9 only to be woken dully aware it was dark already. Should we try and go in and watch the midnight show with "one and a half million" other Sydney siders? Nah, we don't trust the judgement of Sydney siders. Another frivolous light and haze show essentially the same as last year and the year before. The same big media accolades. People boozing sure they are having a riot of a time. Sometimes they even have the riot.

What about the old telescope and a view from the hill in Marrickville. Nah. Get a nice time lapse photo? Nah sleep is the new sex.

We woke up again to a distant thumping, dully aware it was time. Something else was also ringing in our ears - expert Chris Richardson stating 2008 was still "a good year" but "2009 will be a bad one".

If it was just fireworks in Sydney it wouldn't matter, but as an artefact of the international dateline the world tunes into early reportage of our event. This is because we seem to be the first rich country to get to 2009. Sure the politicians reckon that the $5M spent will make $40M in tourism turnover. But we don't trust their dodgy projections.

Nor do we trust our long life light globe which popped a seal yesterday after 12 months use.

But we do trust the Garbos.

You see this year Christmas and New Year Day both fall on a Thursday. It's bins day on Thursday. Do you think the council workers are working? You betcha. Maybe they have mortgages. Maybe they get double time. Whatever it is they came Christmas morning too, probably an easy run because like most others our 5 general and 3 recycling rolly bins (it should be vice versa) weren't even put out. This morning we got ours out a day early.

Ours were crammed full, festering, evil piles of malevalent smells after too much rich food and hot weather. When the garbos came by on Christmas day it was a revelation.

Mind you the neighbours won't thank me putting them out 24 hours early, proudly the only bins in the long long street. You can't trust neighbours. Did the garbos come through with the social contract? You betcha they did at 5 am 1^st January 2009 aka the crack of dawn. (Actually the picture above is a fake because it's from 7th June 2007 because we didn't need to see them do it - we trusted them. You can't really trust bloggers though SAM is more trustworthy by comparision.)

We wanted to publish this paen to the garbos as early as possible but we can't. Possibly due to the GFC our internet server's "remote computer did not respond". Maybe it's maintenance. Or one of those worms. Or cynical shaping of customer usage. This is the company that used to be Telpacific, then Blitz, then Wix and now (and get this) Supernerd, itself a trading name for another entity (generally quite reliable but not today). All in 12 months of debt financing madness. Talk about powerless portability of email address amongst corporates let alone mobile phone numbers. You can't trust the market, business or the web.

But you can trust the sun, the ocean ...... and the garbos.

......................................

Sydney Morning Herald rose tinted coverage today - literally

Posted by editor at 8:17 AM EADT

Updated: Wednesday, 14 January 2009 12:24 PM EADT

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Victoria has just announced conservation decisions on their side of the border for highly stressed river redgum forests as per coverage in The Australian newspaper today. Below are images we have collected over the last 12 months regarding campaigns for this by for instance The Wilderness Society. The second image is taken in December 2008 in Illawarra Rd Marrickville which is close to the electorate office of Acting Premier Carmel Tebbutt also environment mnister.

The bottom image is a more generic concern from an event just prior to the last federal election in late 2007.

Is it simply a coincidence that an ALP government source in NSW has leaked receipts of arguable expenditure against notorious redneck and industry mate Minister Ian Macdonald in the NSW Government also responsible for redgum forests north of the Murray (Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Energy, Minister for Mineral Resources, Minister for State Development) ? That story is on page 1 of the Sydney Morning Herald (again) today. If it is related it does sort of echo the modus operandi of the rough play of folks in that NSW ALP tribe.

Or that co-financier of the original Get Up lobby group, Evan Thorley MP from the Victorian ALP, Government, and talented internet businessman, has just announced he is quitting to go back to private enterprise, in apparent dis-satisfaction with the progressive policies of the Brumby Govt?

Perhaps they are all separate ingredients in today's political stew. Who really knows. But here's hoping the NSW Govt do the right thing on their side of the border too.

Posted by editor at 8:51 AM EADT

Updated: Wednesday, 31 December 2008 9:55 AM EADT

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This subject is notoriously hard.

After trying to understand media coverage of the latest mass carnage we have concluded the cynical politicians in the Middle East need this war in Palestine like a neurotic ritual. Hamas and it's Arabic/Islamist supporters must know on some level that a theocratic discriminatory Israel with it's nuclear weapons can never be undone, and therefore it's platform to remove Israel is an extreme nonesense.

That is this side of Armageddon. Our last two posts on the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should make that clear.

Now we ask who substantially broke the truce first? We discount the headline below as tendentious, but not the AFP text below via Rupert Murdoch'si?? The Australian.

We discount the marginal militants operating perhaps without official Hamas support sending their nuisance fire crackers over the border. More chance of a shark attack here in Australia than causing injury with those? Similarly we discount the local Jewish organised sophistry drawing the veil of rhetoric back to 2001 and 6000 rockets, always the victim, despite Israel's modern airforce and huge death toll in Palestine. We note the tightening of the ruthless strangling blockade of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force in November as the nervous ending of the truce period approached.

We note the huge democratic support for Hamas in Gaza.We note Israel presenting more like German guards of a Warsaw Ghetto and wonder if they get the irony of that.

We note, as Fairfax's Paul McGeogh has, the Kadima politician running for election in Israel (Livni) who looks to us more German than Israeli-Jew, and seeks to out hawk political dinosaurs in Likud (Netanyahu). Similarly Defence Minister, has been, Labor political rival (Barak).

We note the Israeli hawks having a brief window to act before the next US presidency replaces ruthless hawk George W Bush, where there is a chance however small of a change in approach.

We note the religious nutters on various sides and especially the provocations of some Israeli squatters who claim a free pass from God to steal Arabic land. And especially of some Arabs who treat women like cattle rather than their equals.

In effect all these are striving for a one state solution - Israel for the land by creeping conquest of squatters and military strike, with ghetto like open air prison for Palestinians. And Hamas by creeping demographic numbers and help of upset neighbours with their own Palestinian domestic sympathisers. The King of Jordan was filmed giving blood yesterday via SBS television. The West including Australia and the USA talk about a two state solution but it's not happening folks. It's a fantasy.

And we have our own domestic symapthisers with Palestine even if Fairfax appear to not have reported the 1000 plus street protest in Sydney's CBD a few days back while News Corp have done so.

Truly the Palestinian people are cannon fodder and hostage for cynical politicians. Truly the Jewish population in southern Israel of moderate disposition are hostages of a much reduced kind too. Israel desperate to prevent an effective delivery system of military grade weaponry into Gaza. Hamas desperate to break the blockade for humanitarian but surely also less honourable purposes (?).

Is Israel's military violence proportionate or disproportionate? Depends who you ask. Depends what's at stake. An Iranian A bomb on a donkey cart? Or is this a nightmarish fantasy like Saddam's non existent WMD? Who the hell knows? Is the Israeli Right in a neurotic Holocaust loop? We wonder.

The cynicism and political/religious blindness, fear and loathing is literally killing innocent and not so innocent people on a daily basis. It really will take someone as brilliant as Barak Obama to solve this, along with lots of other balls to juggle. May God have mercy on them all. And on the world itself given the nuclear dimension. Finally and most importantly may those killed rest in peace in this latest Horror.

.........................

Postscript # 1

We made a small edit having conflated Israeli with Jewish in describing politician Livni, the latter term being a religous not nationality/ethnic descriptor as such.

Secondly we add this Greens media release dated 31 December but circulated on their list 2nd January 09

Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 6:37 AM

Subject: [Greens-Media] Israel's Gaza attack condemned – let supplies pass

MEDIA RELEASE
31 December 2008

Israel's Gaza attack condemned – let supplies pass

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has added her voice to the call for a cease
fire in the Middle East and for Israel to end its assault on Gaza.

"The bombing of Palestinian people must stop now," Ms Rhiannon said.

"The Sydney rallies in support of the Palestinian people held in
recent days send a clear message to Australian political leaders that
the only appropriate response to Israel's repeated air strikes on Gaza
is forthright condemnation.

"Public opposition to Israel's actions are critical to help ensure the
bombing raids  are not followed with a full scale military invasion.

"It is vital that international pressure is placed on Israel to allow
essential materials particularly medical supplies to be immediately
delivered to Gaza's 1.5 million people.

"There is no excuse for bombing civilian targets like universities, TV
studios, mosques, government buildings and police stations.

"Terrorism is the killing and maiming of civilians, so these Israeli
attacks are clearly acts of terrorism on a massive scale.

"UN General Assembly President, Miguel D'Escoto Brockman has indicated
that Israel has contravened Geneva Conventions by targeting civilian
institutions.

"Israel's actions are defined as 'war crimes' in legislation governing
the International Criminal Court.

"While killings have occurred on both sides, 360 Palestinian people
have died in three days of Israeli rocket attacks.  The number of
Israeli people killed in Palestinian attacks over the past eight years
has been a fraction of that number.

"Political leaders of all countries have a responsibility to pressure
Israel to stop the killings," Ms Rhiannon said.

................

Postscript #2

From the office of Ian Cohen MP via a reader

From: Ian Cohen MP
To: Independent Australian Jewish Voices
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Gaza Media Statement


to Aust Independent voices
I have read and happy ot support the statement to be produced as a member of
the NSW Parliament and a person of Jewish descent.

Thanks for your humanitarian efforts

Ian Cohen MLC
Parliament of NSW

>>> "Indep Aust Jewish Voices" 01/02/09 3:49 PM >>>

Dear friends,

We have drafted the following letter and are planning to post it on our IAJV
website and also send it to the major newspapers including the Australian
Jewish News. We invite your signature. If you wish to add your name, please
send an email response to us by 10 am Monday morning January 5.

Only individuals who explicitly respond will be identified with the letter
which will not in any way identify IAJV or signatories of earlier
statements.

Here are links to a few relevant background articles.

Tom Segev, Haaretz. December 29
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050706.html

Amira Hass, Haaretz, December 28
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050636.html

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, December 31
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051317.html

Richard Falk, The Nation, December 29
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/falk?rel=hp_currently

Gush Shalom statement, December 30
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1230639936/

Peter Slezak and Antony Loewenstein, ABC Unleashed, December 31
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2457110.htm

Peter Slezak and Antony Loewenstein, Online Opinion, January 2
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8349

------------------------

We are Australian Jews who join thousands in Israel and around the world
condemning ongoing Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Together with Israeli
peace group Gush Shalom, we condemn the current war as "inhuman,
superfluous" and "abominable".

While Israel has the right to protect its citizens and to demand an end to
the crime of Palestinian rockets that target civilians, this cannot be used
as a pretext for the grossly disproportionate military assault on Gaza
because it was Israel that violated the fragile truce on November 4, 2008.
Furthermore, Israel ignored Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to re-establish
the cease-fire since it expired on December 19.

The crude home-made rockets have caused relatively few Israeli casualties.
By contrast, Israeli bombardment has caused around 400 deaths and 2,000
casualties including a large proportion of women and children. The
bombardment has included civilian targets such as a university, television
station, factories, mosques, ministry offices, parliament and refugee camps.
Since Hamas is a legitimate, democratically elected political party that
controls the government, security-related institutions are also civilian
targets including police departments and uniformed officers.

History has demonstrated that military punishment has never broken the
spirit of a people or produced peace. On the contrary, the assault on the
population of Gaza will only inflame hatred of Jews and of the State of
Israel while doing nothing to protect the lives of Israelis. Above all, it
will undermine the prospects of joining with peace-seeking Palestinians to
negotiate a lasting, just solution to the conflict.

The war on the population of Gaza comes after the Israeli blockade that had
already created a severe humanitarian crisis under which the Palestinians
suffered from lack of food, electricity, medicines, hospital equipment and
other basic necessities of life. The blockade was condemned by the UN as a
violation of international law and, like the massive Israeli air-strikes,
constitutes illegal collective punishment prohibited by the Geneva
Conventions.

We call for an immediate end to attacks on civilians by Palestinians and
Israelis. However, since Palestinians have no means of self-defence against
the most powerful military force in the Middle East, we particularly call on
Israel to end its brutal assault on the vulnerable Palestinian people of
Gaza and to reconsider its rejection of the UN Security Council's call for a
cease-fire.

Israel has refused to accept Hamas' consistent offer of negotiations since
its election win in 2006. There can be no solution to the conflict without
Israel being a willing partner to dialogue.

--

Independent Australian Jewish Voices
Peter Slezak
James Levy
Antony Loewenstein
Eran Asoulin
http://www.iajv.org/

Posted by editor at 5:32 AM EADT

Updated: Saturday, 3 January 2009 10:52 AM EADT

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The room was a little stuffy for so many. And 2 1/2 hours on a sunny afternoon at the end of our "work season", as the charming 78 year old Nakanishi Iwoa phrased it, was a big ask. On the other hand it's not every day, in fact it's probably once in a lifetime, one gets to meet survivors of a nuclear bomb. These folks are the real Indiana Jones of today. Not in a lead lined 1950ies refrigerator in a fluffy Hollywood thriller, but in Nagasaki Cathedral or similar "strong building". They were the extremely lucky ones who won the lottery when 140,000 and then another 70,000 died as a result of a monstrous blinding white light that ate their respective cities.

It's not every day one is led like a child held at the wrist to one's chair by 70 year old Sato Hiroe who works for Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park since 1990. Steve Mori was there manfully struggling with a hot kettle in his own art gallery kitchen in undersized black singlet preparing endless trays of tea and lime waters for the honoured guests: The 100 Hibakusha, witnesses to the atom bomb dropped on them in Nagasaki and Hiroshima visiting Sydney until 5 pm this afternoon.

As retired High Court Judge Kirby has said recently Love is the most profound force in this world and that elixir was in Mori Gallery yesterday. Unexpected, unassuming, eye opening, healing. Some of the images here are sombre for a serious matter but that would be deceptive of the vibe of the event. Actually it was very vibrant with cross cultural openness and trust.

These often sprightly retirees and their orange shirted young brigade of interpreters were a treat. It was quite an operation too with multiple microphones, translations and displays. Senator Scott Ludlum as facilitator was highly deferential. He had come off a 3 day trip by water from Auckland to Wharf 8 in Darling Harbour as part of the 63rd Global Voyage for a Nuclear Free World - Peace Boat Hibakusha Project.

Is the ocean is a unifying symbol of our emotional world? One 70 year old Hibakusha in the group session said she kept that hellish time secret until this boat trip. Now she realised it was her duty to speak about it. Another who worked as a primary school teacher explained that not all of Japanese national curriculum learns the real lessons about the atomic bombs. Not all in Australia either.

We mentioned our article in December 2007 urging PM Rudd to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park to get beyond the anti whaling straitjacket and this was well received. Rudd did make that visit 6 months later. The Q & A also covered the 40 nuclear power plants and their waste in Japan, with the fear of another Chernobyl present. A local Victorian mentioned the Pugwash group of scientist against nuke bombs founded by one brave dissenter in the Manhattan Project who resigned when it was clear Germany weren't in the race.

Jillian Marsh, an Australian activist with the Adnyamathanha People in South Australia closed the loop regarding pollution from Beverley uranium mine there. She explained how in their legends the giant Emu Spirit vomited up the uranium and traditional wisdom has known for thousands of years to avoid the poison country (including no doubt the radon gas). Film maker and consultant to the UN Kathleen Sullivan spoke about the need to educate the world for a ban on nuclear weaponry, recalling the 7 year ban on press coverage in the US on the reality of the bombing in Japan.

Some quality media picked up the threads. We saw ABC prime time tv news and 7.30 Report stories. It may have been covered elsewhere too. The most profound moment for this writer was this photo across the language barrier. No Japanese. No English. Of a Hibakusha man simply pointing on the desolate map of Nagasaki 1945 of where he was (in the Cathedral) when it happened. He posed for this photo and I shook his hand, a real honour to meet in peace. And to contemplate the awesome capacity of the human spirit to reach out to our shores.

Here is the letter submitted to a representative of the Australian PM yesterday morning praising Kevin Rudd for establishing an International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. We heard the Hibakusha were "restless" to see a global ban in their lifetime just like the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention. With cluster and land mine munitions on the list. As Senator Ludlum explained it was this same process of outreach and lobbying that concluded those bans by the same kind of people. Well said senator. Well said Hibakusha.

i??

Posted by editor at 11:57 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 2 January 2009 4:48 PM EADT

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When Australian diplomatic relations with Japan were threatened in total by the the high profile whaling issue we blogged here at SAM* a proposal. That the Australian Govt look into the mythology that has grown out of the very real nuclear weapons tragedy of WW2 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On 8th June 2008 we wrote, harking back to our post on 23rd December 2007:

- We at SAM urged the federal govt Garrett and PM Rudd to approach the whaling issue between major trading partners as a western diplomatic issue sourced ... to use of nuclear bombs in WW2 on Japan. Yes we know there is no great logic or rationality to on the one hand whaling and on the other nuclear disarmament.

But we see Japanese stubborness as their way of expressing their psychological pain over the western arrogance of nuclear weaponry causing mass mortality compared to mere whales. If so sensitive to animals why not the great suffering of the Japanese people. It's a dysfunctional spiral of emotional violence. So going to the peace shrine at Hiroshima is exactly the right place to start for PM Rudd:

Sunday, 23 December 2007

Cruel 'scientific' whaling today, cruel nuclear bomb science 1945
Mood: d'oh
Topic: peace

[And notice the interference in that post explained at the footnote below, we are trying to correct, but it's proving harder than we expected because the html has been sabotaged]

We already suspected the ALP federally were backing off the anti whaling agenda in favour of trade relations when we read a change of tone in The Australian business friendly press months back though we are having trouble locating the exact article that was the pivot. Certainly the Coalition's Greg Hunt is alive to the ALP go slow in favour of broader trade and security agendas. Here is more on security here from the dusty files:

Security deal a significant step for two aspiring nations ... 16 March 2008

Japan halts humpback whale hunt: US

Wednesday Dec 19 20:09 AEDT

.........................................................

Given the trauma of this historic event we speculated about the symbolic confusion that might exist in the similarity of the Godzilla figure and the leviathans of the deep.

We speculated about reaching beyond the economic travesty of the whaling issue and embracing the heart of Japanese sensitivities - namely the only population on earth to be bombed by nuclear weapons. Although the Aboriginal Australians and South Pacific Islanders might argue with that given the cynical testing in the past.

Back on 23 December 2007 we wrote:

"In our estimation, our PM Rudd and Minister Peter Garrett could do alot worse for the sake of saving the magnificent whales of the world by reaching out to the soul of the Japanese People at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to resolve the neurosis of the right wing of Japanese politics over the 1945 conclusion to the war in the Pacific via horrifying nuclear bombs .

In our humble way we simply ask when the Japanese refer to "scientific" whaling "Is this what is really going on here?". Even a child can see it is not.

After watching this annual political theatre for at least a decade now, it becomes clear it's more to do with the proud west's nuclear bomb miracle science. Now Japan's Govt are rubbing our nose in this same false notion of the 'purity of science' resulting in massive loss of innocent life. At least 100,000 people back in 1945, and whales today. Taking their subtle revenge. An irritant on the pages of history. And the Japanese in their conflicted way have got a point.

For Japan to change on whales, we in the West will almost certainly have to change on the triumphalism of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

This approach is one that the Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett, former Nuclear Disarmament Party Senate Candidate could relate to. As it happens PM Rudd, whether by coincidence or not, did visit the Hiroshima shrine. Did break through the diplomatic impasse with the right wing of Japanese politics. Did succeed in sidelining criticism of the Australian Opposition around that time asserting that Rudd was endangering our most important trade relationship.

Such is the powerful symbolism of Hiroshima. Such is the work of the SAM micro news website too, at least we like to think so.

Belatedly here are the details of the media event today:

Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 4:10 PM

Subject: [Greens-Media] Message to Rudd from 100 A-Bomb Survivors ? TakeLeadership to End Nuclear Age

Monday 29 December 2008

PRESS CONFERENCE PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Message to Rudd from 100 A-Bomb Survivors - Take Leadership to End Nuclear Age

More than 100 Hibakusha - survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks - arrive in Sydney on the Peace Boat today, Monday 29 December.

Peace Boat is an ocean liner with 1,000 passengers that have travelled to 20 countries to promote the vision of a nuclear weapon free future. Australian Greens nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam joined the voyage in Auckland.

"The arrival of the Peace Boat is an opportunity for Kevin Rudd to reconsider the role of nuclear weapons in our security policy," said Senator Ludlam.

"The Hibakusha have a detailed letter they wish to deliver to the Prime Minister at Kirribili House," he said.

"The Hibakusha have high expectations of our Prime Minister because he was the first serving Western head of state to visit Hiroshima. Soon after, he initiated the joint Australia-Japan Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament to be chaired by former Foreign Ministers Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi."

"All countries - not only the 9 with weapons - have a stake and a role to play in a nuclear weapon free world," continued Senator Ludlam.

"In 22 days our ally the United States will be led by Barack Obama, the first person to put nuclear abolition on the agenda of a US Presidential race.

"As Obama reverses the Bush regime's effort to upgrade the US nuclear arsenal, Australia should signal an intention to take nuclear weapons out of our alliance. We can show the US how to remove reliance on nuclear weapons by taking them out of our security policy," Senator Ludlam continued.

Jillian Marsh of the Adnyamathnha people will be attending the Peace Boat Day events in Sydney to remind participants of where nuclear weapons begin: uranium mining. Winner of this year's Nuclear Free Future Award for her work against the Beverley Uranium Mine, Jillian is travelling from her country in South Australia to meet the Hibakusha, "I want our story to be told, the way we as Indigenous Australians experience the social and environmental impacts from uranium mining and the nuclear industry."

"These remarkable survivors truly understand the devastation of these hideous weapons. Their message must be heard," Senator Ludlam concluded.

** Press conference 11 am, Terminal, Wharf 8, Darling Harbour - free parking available

** Public Meeting 2.30 - 5pm, Mori Gallery 168 Day Street, Sydney

For more information: Felicity Hill 0417 174 302

.................

Footnote:

* Interestingly our original post on 23rd December 2007 appears to have stumbled on a copyright dispute between wikipedia and a Japanese website and now SAM's micro news has been interfered with by blacking out of Hiroshima Peace Park images. Or perhaps some other force of censorship? These can soon be replaced with images from the wikipedia commons. A replacement web address has been added to our SAM (site without our permission too!) citing www.japanselifestyle.com.au - which is a sloppy mis-spelling of the alleged image owner's website we used - being www.japaneselifestyle.com.au. It's quite a mystery:

At wikipedia where the image(s) are also found they state

"This image has been released into the public domain by its author, Fg2. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Fg2 grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Posted by editor at 10:47 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 29 December 2008 8:50 PM EADT

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Mood:  sharp

Bernard Keane as resident press gallery commentator at crikey.com.au says 'good people do bad things'. He was referring to 'holy' Kevin Rudd, PM of Australia.

The trouble with this analysis of the Rudd personality is that it's stupid. It's not too far conceptually from the 'I was just following orders' kind of morality. Or the 'spirit is willing but the flesh is weak'.

And coming from a journalist like Keane it's a bit pathetic. It's not the serious media's job to pre-emptively buckle on moral judgements about who is good or not good: 'By their actions you shall know them' should be the dictum of a journalist. If they do good they are good, and vice versa.

So what about this story of 'holy' Kevin saving a Tawny Frogmouth chick that fell from a nest near Kirribilli? It ran on Sunday 28th December 2008. Keep that date in mind because the Rudd regime are playing with it.

Well the fact that Get Up (as above) were running an advert in the tv coverage of the cricket attacking Rudd the very same day 28th December 2008 with satire over his Emissions Trading Scheme pathetic 5% target might have something to do with the timing? You think? Of course it was. The News Corp story in the Sunday Telegraph was all about running PR interference on Rudd's environmental credentials.

But the truth is here for so called 'follow the science on forest' Rudd. These videos from community activists show logging in East Gippsland in late 2008. The trees are easily 300+ years old.

Tree trunks as wide as terrace houses. Hollows for Tawny Frogmouths, Yellow bellied Gliders, Ringtail possums, and understorey for endangered Eastern Spotted Quoll. But the 300 years plus age doesn't quite describe the significance. This wet old growth is the climax stage of say a 1000-1,500 year process of grassland to dry sclerophyl to majestic wet cathedral like forest. And in this location that climax stage has dominated since the last ice age. In a sense that makes this forest about 10,000 years old. The home of Tawny Frogmouths for 10,000 years.

It just happens to be about the best forest on the mainland of Australia - anywhere from WA to the world heritage listed wet tropics.

And under the joint federal state government National Forest Policy and Regional Forest 'Agreements" between the Commonwealth, NSW and Victoria these forest giants were logged in November and December 2008 mostly for woodchips and transported to the export facility over the state border at Eden. i??For the innocent Japanese consumer to wipe their backside on or read cartoon books. The influential Forestry Union with Michael O'Connor on the ALP national executive would be gratified. It was O'Connor's colleagues in the logging industry responsible for this in 2000 in Victoria (below right), and NSW in 2005 (below left). O'Connor the ex boyfriend of Acting PM Julia Gillard, nice bloke. The friend of ex PM John Howard in Hobart Town Hall in 2004:

Most fair minded Australians would think this was wrong. A few million of us would probably even say it was evil. So we say judge PM Kevin Rudd by what he does. And that includes what he and his state premiers like John Brumby below fail to do.

Here's another saying for Bernard Keane at crikey.com.au and the big media - evil flourishes when good people do nothing. This newsletter was published in by Environment Victoria, a non government group 8 years ago:

Posted by editor at 9:32 AM EADT

Updated: Sunday, 4 January 2009 11:11 AM EADT

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Ironic given Premier Rees is a well known bicycle man in his younger years and doesn't own a car licence apparently. Perhaps Nathan thinks we should all just float above the traffic like a certain mythical guy? And notice the manic eyes of the reindeer - go thee forth and shop!

Media release follows:

MEDIA RELEASE
29 December 2008

NSW cyclists get the cold shoulder as Rees govt breaks promise on
infrastructure spending

Cycling is booming but new figures obtained by the Greens on the types
of cycleway infrastructure in NSW show bike riders continue to be the
big road losers, Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon
said. (Sydney Morning Herald, 29/12/08, page 2)

Recent RTA data released in questions put to Roads Minister Michael
Daley reveal that purpose built, on-road bike only lanes make up a
mere 1.8 percent of the 4,100km of cycleways across NSW. In stark
contrast, 65.5 percent of existing facilities have cyclists relegated
to road shoulders ? the small gutter area next to the vehicle lane
that is shared with parked cars.

"These road shoulder lanes are cheaper and easier to construct, but
far more dangerous than bike only lanes," Ms Rhiannon said.

"This government's failure to deliver world class cycling
infrastructure, with a focus on separated cycleways, is a lost
opportunity for congestion, public health and the environment.

"In 2005 the NSW government slashed bike and pedestrian funding by
nearly two-thirds of what it was. The current government allocation
for cycling infrastructure, education and promotion is only $7.6
million.

"This represents $1.20 per capita on "bicycle-specific programs". This
compares with $3.16 per capita in Queensland, $4.93 in Western
Australia and $3.89 in Victoria

"It is disappointing that Roads Minister Michael Daley has said that
it will take 5 to 10 years for Sydney to catch up with other
Australian states in terms of expanded cycling facilities.

"For too long the RTA has marginalised bike riders by concentrating on
shoddy shoulder lanes which risk lives and foster road rage.

"The current high number of bike lanes squeezed between parked cars
and traffic lanes increase the risk of 'door death', as there is often
minimal or inadequate clearance between riders and parked cars and
drivers must cross the bike path to park.

"Accident statistics reveal the dangers of shoulder bike lanes.

"Hospital data from the Austroads report AP-R157 identifies dooring as
the cause of 40.7% of cyclist injuries in Sydney CBD and 17.6% in the
rest of the City," Ms Rhiannon said.

Posted by editor at 8:37 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 30 December 2008 2:32 PM EADT

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Picture via SMH: New job...Robyn Kruk, said to be dissatisfied with Joe Tripodi (left)...Resources role, John Pierce, the former state Treasury (right).

Environmentalist and community activist Lynda Newnam has revealed this interesting $200K plus sojourn of a NSW Govt finance supremo in the USA lasting some 6 months in 2004-5, all at taxpayer expense.

Interesting because John Pierce is apparently now with the new Rudd regime as per a scarce Boxing Day edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Pierce is a big wheel in NSW ALP governance as per this 2006 briefing note by Hawker Britton (ALP aligned lobbyists).

This sort of corroborates the attack of the Opposition today with new treasury spokesperson Mike Baird in harness, which is a fairly energetic start to the new political year.

Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 11:54 AM

Subject: Rudd needs new blood

Hi All

If we could single out any one person for delivering the Port Expansion I think it would be John Pierce. I sent this letter off yesterday. Seems the appointment of Pierce will pass without a murmur and the media will continue to focus on Carr and Iemma as the bad boys. I wouldn't be surprised if Pierce had been advising Rudd before coming into the job and had a hand in lowering the targets in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The appointment of Kruk to head Peter Garrett's department is also disturbing.

The following is from the 2004-05 Annual Report of NSW TREASURY - in that year the annual salary for John Pierce was $412,280 - from August 2004-January 2005 (the month that Egan resigned) Pierce was in the USA - from page 99: http://www.treasury.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/2609/04-05_annreport.pdf

United States of America

The Secretary, John Pierce was on assignment in the United States of America from August 2004 to January 2005. He was commissioned by the then Treasurer, Michael Egan,to explore policy options to respond to long term budget pressures from an ageing population and trends in expenditure growth. Mr Pierce was based at the Boston University where he accessed research on long-term fiscal policy. He also investigated research by the Kennedy School of Government on productivity and performance. Mr Pierce consulted Federal and State officials on the United States. experience and International Monetary Fund staff. The results of Mr Pierce.s research will be used in a coordinated effort by Commonwealth, State and Territory Treasuries in formulating a response to the challenges confronting all governments due to an ageing population and expenditure growth.

So for over $200,000 plus all the travel and accommodation expenses and the cost of an acting Treasury secretary, Egan sends Pierce for a trip around the USA in the last six months of his tenure as Treasurer. Surely the State could have got more for the 'research dollars'. This sounds more like a parting 'gift'.

Cheers, Lynda

----- Original Message -----

From: Lynda Newnam

To:Letters to editor

Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 3:46 PM

Subject: Rudd needs new blood

John Pierce, Financial Supremo for NSW from 1997 to November 2008 has been appointed to head up the Federal Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. (Herald 26/12/08 "Rudd picks senior officials who quit NSW bureaucracy") During the years that Pierce was Treasury Chief the NSW government squandered opportunities to invest in public infrastructure, entered into Public Private Partnerships which strongly favoured the private over the public, and stifled development in key regions of NSW while fostering congestive growth in Sydney. Captain Rudd is not going 'to turn the Queen Mary around' if he appoints 'business as usual' crew.

Posted by editor at 8:05 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 29 December 2008 8:22 AM EADT

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