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Friday, 22 June 2007
Aboriginal children, and the perfect political storm moves Howard to more action/revenge?
Mood:  hug me
Topic: indigenous

Picture: Jimari aged 4 picture of this writer, we've kept this last 10 years. A child dearly loved and as I understand is at a selective school here in Sydney (?) these days. He misspels my name as LOM and draws me with black skin and a beard. I like that. He asked me once "Why is my skin brown?" I told him without blinking that's normal for an Aboriginal boy and that was what he needed as we went on with things.

I keep coming back to the Brendan Keilar picture as a child in another story here on SAM news blog, his gorgeous children with their silent accusation - why didn't you help save our dad from violence, and now this story about beautiful Aboriginal children at risk.

This is why: Those healthy loved children beaming out of their class photo year 6, 1975 we pictured in an earlier story including Brendan Kielar and  this writer aged 11 or so) shows child raising done right. We were the social echo 30 years ago of the healthy kids of Brendan, the next generation, he raised well and strong till his outrageous death Monday this week when evil trespassed on this natural cycle. Brendan, a perfect exemplar of the Liberal Party faithful philosophy of life cut short by foul murder.

What power all those innocents, including front and centre of the major Fairfax press here in Sydney 20th June 07 and many other places in Australia?


Exactly this: Brendan died a successful lawyer, and an admired one by the profession left "numb" by the foul violence in Melbourne. The federal govt and many in Opposition are filled with lawyers that we expect shuddered at BK's disgusting death, not least John Howard ever the student of Big Media.

The Keilar family can believe the anger and frustration will be huge. Indeed we posed the question here "Where does the evil come from?" noting the cyclical nature of violence and the instinctive urge for revenge. We suggested a better Christian way somehow not the same old base aggression.  Today page 3 the Daily Telegraph today 22nd June in a comment by veteran Mal Farr, that paper states "PM leads the way against evil".

Not the evil that struck the Keilar family exactly causing their desperate searing loss, especially those kids well caught from falling into a crack by State Govt public intervention. (Bravo Victorian ALP Govt.) No, the PM is moving to catch the beautiful Aboriginal children falling in the cracks now, also victims of criminal violence. Will it work? We can only hope so.

See what I'm saying? The public awareness of duty to children is high. The challenge is very great on Black kids, and the reports are in again.

And to top it off the ALP federal Opposition have performed strongly on the federal govt's territory of the economics of productivity. Democracy really engaged, a real adversarial contest as here Wayne Swan: Howard, Costello in state of denial | Opinion | A moral victory for the Opposition in the conservative The Australian.

So the federal govt in this hard fought election year contest have moved in turn in reaction to poach the traditional territory of the traditional ALP being social welfare and support for Black Australia.

It may not be the most pure political motivation to shift the focus off the economics of productivity, or climate change debates the govt is surely losing, but the bipartisan general support to save child victims (demonstrated in Brendan Keilar's case above), must happen, for them but  for our own society's sake too. These damaged Aboriginal kids are the prison population of 5 and 10 years from now. The suicides. The petrol sniffers. The bank robbers.  It's as simple as that. The Howard govt want's to break the cycle the Left traditionally worry about too.

We feel all this is facilitated by the huge communication impact in the Big Media around Brendan's white kids as victims in a ripple effect from criminal violence, and the terrifying conundrum "Where does the evil come from?". The answer to that, we submit, is that it's all around us like benign bacteria and viruses that only become really dangerous in unhealthy environments turning toxic like the common cold into pneumonia this winter, we notice sending people in the political community to their sick bed.

It's the healthy social and general environment that we all as citizens have to work so hard at to nurture Australia's children. The kind of incredible endeavour and discipline demonstrated in Brendan Keilar's life for his kids.

You just keep achieving stuff don't you Brendan by your example and death. A life's work which is still travelling, and how.

We've seen this before - the transmutation of one semi related concern to another big concern in Big Politics: The angst and disgust at the hanging of a reformed Van Ngyuen in Singapore, resulting in huge public awareness and this Federal Govt reaction with hundreds of million$ in aid for other victims of circumstance in Asia - the Pakistan Earthquake in that case, and other initiatives. To prove to the voters our Govt does have a heart. They do of sorts, in a political context at least.

Those in the Big Media without these insights of the synergistic nature of morality with self interest in Big Politics are displaying understandable cynicism at the Howard Govt 'ambush' of the States and Territory Governemnts and 11 years of delay. Sure all reasoned suspicion but a bit narrow.

Last night on ABC PM Mark Colvin tested Minister Brough what had changed between an interview last Friday and yesterday afternoon only 6 days?  A Cabinet meeting was the response. A Cabinet meeting this week. Was it on Wednesday 20th June when those white children stared out of the front pages in silent accusation as victims one step removed from ultra criminal violence? Because if you care for them you must care for all children the victims of criminal violence regardless of race colour or creed.

Did those childish eyes one way or another bring the killer Hudson in to surrender? We suspect so. They certainly closed doorways to escape.

The key to understanding this big announcement is the PM's choice of rhetoric - 'what if it was in Dickson (a suburb of Canberra) or Melbourne or Sydney?' he asks. That's the picture of Brendan's kids articulated by the Prime Minister on my radio today. Howard's a father and he knows the power of those innocents with just a look or a word or a picture above. Indeed Howard was a city lawyer like Brendan with kids like him and he might well have recognised himself.

Claire Martin the NT First Minister for the ALP knows this is a road train sized political juggernaut of huge moral and legal proportions and she is right to say time to act bigger. The federal opposition leader too. If it's a legacy pride thing as one talk back caller says well I don't care a jot one way or another.

Let's see how the detail and cross cultural cooperation pans out including existing expertise in the sector. Maybe we Australians can make it better for a change?

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

Postscript #1 25th June 2005

Warren the cartoonist at the Sydney Telegraph has an inspired cartoon about the nature of high level politiking over this serious "above politics" issuem involving the life and death of our young Indigenous citizens. Leveraging another story evocative picture story on page 7 "Like bats out of hell - Endangered creature swoops on park land" (offline for now), combined with the fact of end of Parliamentary sessions in Canberra for the next 6 weeks or more, Warren offers this:


Posted by editor at 10:08 AM NZT
Updated: Monday, 25 June 2007 11:09 AM NZT
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Top scientists give fair warning on sea rise, what about politicians?
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: globalWarming

Picture: Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his shadow minister Peter Garrett argue today on global warming action.

The best world scientists way ahead of the UN politically constrained IPCC report are formally giving us fair warning as per this quality report on ABC World Today programme:

UN accused of underestimating sea change

The World Today - Wednesday, 20 June , 2007  12:34:00

Reporter: Karen Barlow

 

ELEANOR HALL: A group of climate scientists from some of the United States' most respected institutions has further raised the alarm about global warming.

While sceptics have criticised the United Nations scientific panel for being too extreme, these scientists are warning that it actually downplays the threat.

The scientists, including Dr James Hansen from NASA, say the United Nations reports have grossly underestimated the scale of sea-level rises that are likely this century.

Writing in the peer-reviewed British journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, they predict that sea levels will rise not by 40 centimetres by the turn of the century, but by several metres, as Karen Barlow reports.

KAREN BARLOW: The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being charged with grossly underestimating the impact of global warming.

The international grouping of scientists and policymakers predicted in February that sea levels would increase between 18 and 59 centimetres this century.

The Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr James Hansen, reports in a peer-reviewed paper that the IPCC report left out vital information in its calculations.

JAMES HANSEN: They actually only give a prediction for the thermal expansion of the ocean and the contribution of alpine glaciers, but the big issue is the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, especially West Antarctica, because that's beginning to lose mass, and it is situated on bedrock, which is below sea level, so it's potentially unstable and could give a very large sea level rise.

KAREN BARLOW: Ice sheet instability was mentioned briefly in the IPCC report, but Dr James Hansen says it wasn't calculated as it is difficult to predict.

He says he has no such misgivings.

JAMES HANSEN: We know enough from the Earth's history to say that if we follow business as usual path, with C02 emissions, that we guarantee instability of the West Antarctic ice sheet, with sea level rise eventually of several metres. And I would be very surprised if we didn't get one or two metres at least of sea level rise this century.

KAREN BARLOW: Three other scientists from the Goddard Institute were also involved in the paper, as were David Lea of the University of California and Mark Siddall from Columbia University.

They stand with Dr James Hansen in warning a point of no return will be reached in 10 years if world governments fail to seriously curb greenhouse gas emissions.

JAMES HANSEN: Imminent peril is perhaps an unusual phrase to have in a scientific paper, but it's, I think, very appropriate.

KAREN BARLOW: In the 1980s, Dr James Hansen became the first scientist to warn the US Congress about global warming, and he remains a vocal critic of the Bush administration's policies on climate change.

He has claimed that US Government figures have tried in the past to muzzle him.

Labor's Environment Spokesman, Peter Garrett, says today's paper is a serious warning.

PETER GARRETT: What they're clearly saying now is that we're getting perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of our control in the future.

KAREN BARLOW: But the Federal Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, says he prefers to stick to the IPCC's version.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, Dr Hansen is a controversial figure in climate change science. The vast majority of scientific opinion is in line with the IPCC's forecasts, which are, however, very serious indeed, and we all recognise that the impact of global warming is a very grave challenge, social challenge, political challenge and economic challenge.

KAREN BARLOW: Dr James Hansen defends his work as solid science.

JAMES HANSEN: I'm just saying that the implications of the kind of warnings that they talk about for business as usual are enormous, and they imply changes in the world which the public surely would not be willing to accept if they have anything to say about it.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's NASA scientist Dr James Hansen speaking to Karen Barlow.
...................
Similarly the latest report is that China's rate of emissions is expanding massively with 2 new coal fired power plants per week, using amongst others, our coal to make products to sell back to us, as SBS tv news reported last night, but also here: 
www.smh.com.au - Battle to clean up King Coal
Coal and Climate Change Facts
 
And quite a story on Today Tonight on free to air 7 on or about Thursday 21st June 07 featuring the editor of science magazine Cosmos here.

Posted by editor at 5:58 PM NZT
Updated: Monday, 25 June 2007 12:12 PM NZT
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Cracked commentators as Rudd grasps Coalition nettle on so called economic expertise?
Mood:  energetic
Topic: election Oz 2007

Picture: Question time today 20th June 2007 in federal parliament with the PM and Costello looking and sounding just too sure of themselves on the economic issue of productivity?

 

First they laugh at you. Then they hate you. Then you win?

We are certainly in the first stage in the last 2 days of question time in Federal Parliament with the Govt full of scorn for the Opposition Leader Rudd on the issue of downward long term trend in productivity. 

And two monkeys of Coalition tradition in the commentariat seem to have bought the govt line like naive cheering schoolboys at a playground punch up.

We heard some howlers today which tell us things aren't quite as the Govt would have the electorate and the Big Media believe:

1. In the big productivity debate (read punch up) I heard Peter Costello, once a practicing lawyer, that "a lost" document wasn't stolen from the Opposition Leader Rudd. Trouble is as every policeman in the country knows there is actually an offense of "steal by find". Well I do anyway as a solicitor. Think about it. If you find the neighbours wallet - you can't just honestly keep it. Nor their house deeds.

Nor if you are a politician, your rival's confidential document, particularly if it is not a public or public service funded document as such: A journo could have read the document but had no legal right to take them or copy them. They should have been returned. And the fact no one admits who took it shows the truth it was indeed stolen.

The exactly same situation of exploiting documents stolen by finding them was covered in that pseudo gospel of modern politics - The West Wing tv series # 146 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Weeks_Out

"With the election two weeks out and both candidates polling even in California, both the Santos and Vinick campaigns scramble to the state to try and gain free media from public events. Vinick, whose hand is broken by constant handshakes, catches a break when Bruno discovers Santos' briefcase in a holding room. Vinick and Bruno must make a difficult decision; Do they open the case and use its contents against the owner or take the high road and give it back to Santos? In the briefcase: evidence which suggests that the Congressman may be supporting an illegitimate child. Vinick asks to meet with Santos where the Congressman denies the allegation, stating that he was making up for the mistakes of his brother. "

So it wasn't Santos's illegitimate child. The Republican side [like Coalition here] didn't use it, and the briefcase was returned. That would have been ethical.

Nor do we think the Australian govt are actually comfortable talking about long term trend of productivity despite the bluster. Could it be they are playing catch up? We think so.

In any case a lost document can be stolen. Funny that a Rodent Coalition doesn't understand that, prosecuting an ASIO officer for leaking a document (allegedly) and a Mr Kessing on leaking (convicted) an airport security report. More credit to Rudd for not insisting on the legalistic approach.

 2. On the substance of the productivity debate itself what we seem to be seeing is a govt that has never experienced an ALP daring to really challenge the govt on their so called superiority on economics. No wonder the govt are so filled with confected outrage. They know if they lose their last great advantage on economics they are really "dead in the water".

Yet even this writer knows that there are real problems in our economy:

A. long term trend in productivity is down no doubt over the 10 years of this govt. Chris Uhlmann oft referenced in this debate noted specifically this reality when Costello tried to bluster his way through with confected ridicule here on AM ABC radio yesterday:

"CHRIS UHLMANN: Now, to another issue, Labor has consistently criticised the Government over one aspect of its economic performance, and that's productivity growth. Isn't the core of Labor's argument unassailable that there has been a clear down trend in productivity since the late 1990s?

PETER COSTELLO: Here's the interesting fact, Chris, .....[bluster for 7 lines]

That appears on page four, as you can see. Continue using false figures ?

CHRIS UHLMANN: All right.

PETER COSTELLO: ? even though they are now inaccurate, because they suit your argument, because to use the right figures would not actually help your argument.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But you know, Treasurer, that these figures are volatile and that's what this paper says, that if you use year-to-year figures or quarter-to-quarter figures, you're going to get a lot of bouncing around.

People who look at these figures look over five-year averages, and it does show that there's been a clear downward trend, doesn't it, since the 1990s in productivity, and that does matter to the Australian economy.

Federal Treasurer jumps on Labor leak            TRANSCRIPT 19th June 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1955095.htm

Costello seems to be arguing that productivity can only peak and trough, and that it's limited to narrow sectors of a broadly based economy across sectors. That does seem pretty strange line of argument, or very self serving. Maybe lazy even.

B. We distinctly remember reading about the lack of improved volumes of minerals mined. Prices have jumped yes, but quantity has not:

Australia riding high on resources hog cycle - Business - www.smh ... If world demand for resources has been strong and the prices we can get have shot up so far, why has the volume of our resource exports shown no growth ...

 

C. The record levels of casualisation/stripping of conditions in the workforce, and big jump in UNDER employment as well as lack of skills training, undermining both loyalty and morale, seems to us just as likely a mechanism of depressing productivity over the last 10 years, as the drought for causing the same. No doubt all these factors are involved and only the last one is an act of God.

Costello's answer that mining capital investment and high employment has a time lag rings quite hollow to this listener observing question time on the tv and now webcast after 3pm. Especially when all these high status Reserver Bank Governors and OECD reports agree with Rudd's point on the five-year averages as Uhlmann puts it.

3. There is some weird barracking going on in the commentariat. Christian Kerr gets top spot in Crikey.com ezine today mis interpreting we suspect the debate in Costello's favour and not realising I think that Rudd is actually grasping the economics nettle as he must while he has extra time to get up to speed.

Similarly Dennis Shanahan here with a shocking record on biased observation and application of real polling data results is quoted by Kerr in eager terms. You would think Kerr would be a little more circumspect and realistic based at least on his own critique of such as Shanahan in the past. Seems Coalition traditionalists fall in together here after all when the grind gets a bit tougher.

We simply think Kerr and Shanahan are wrong, or overly generous to the Coalition/Costello spin on conservative record on productivity.

We notice other main papers and Michelle Grattan on Radio National this morning are exactly that. Far more circumspect of the Govt line, and even a bit dismissive in Grattan's case on how it plays to the average Joe and Mary referring to the debate as "arcane" 7:35: Michelle Grattan - Wednesday. But what is very real is the territoriality of the Coalition on the issue after 10 years in power. 

Fairfax today for instance reports instead another major political economic news being the favourable NSW state budget broadly helpful to the ALP reputation on financial management, allowing for signficant increased public debt financing:

20th June 2007 Michael Costa rides his luck for federal Labor http://www.smh.com.au/editorial/index.html

and Ross Gittins here also Strike me lucky, this one is different

Ross Gittins Ross Gittins: MICHAEL COSTA is either a miracle worker or he's very lucky. I'd say the latter. Sometimes lucky is the most you can hope for in a politician.


Posted by editor at 4:24 PM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 20 June 2007 5:59 PM NZT
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Stand by me Brendan Keilar, heroic in life, murdered in a city street, RIP
Mood:  sad
Topic: local news

 

Picture: from left Brendan Keilar murdered yesterday in a Melbourne street, school mates including, Kevin Carney (tbc), Mark Macnamara (law/economics), Peter Walsh (real estate), this writer (media/politics) at right.

We're having a bit of a bawl this morning seeing the picture of Brendan Keilar in the news today. "43 year old solicitor" we heard and now we know. The news driven 'bleeds it leads' Daily Telegraph sister paper to the Herald Sun in Melbourne carries the image.

Victims

"THESE are the victims of a fugitive Hells Angel, who blasted them in a city street. Sydney model Kaera Douglas is fighting for life, while heroic lawyer Brendan Keilar is dead. See pictures of Ms Douglas and click here for video, audio and scene photos. Read story now"

Brendan now cruelly murdered is pictured above at left as a bright eyed young lad in his last year of junior school.We last saw him in the late 80ies for inter varsity Aussie Rules competition in the ANU, he from Melbourne Uni if memory serves, in an awesome team streets ahead of the others. He got a uni blue we recall playing rover. I missed out on selection to the all Australian team and he was kind about that patting me on the back commiserating. Funny how you remember such things.

God bless you Brendan in an absurd and oh too real version of the children's buddy movie:

Stand by Me (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , Stand by Me (1986) : A boy goes on an adventure, grows up to become a lawyer, intervenes in a social conflict and is stabbed to death in the queue of a restuarant. An awesome film based on a Stephen King novel.

Brendan after a fitness run intervened in an evil social conflict and is shot dead yesterday at point blank range in Melbourne. Not fair. Not right. Random madness and wickedness.

We shared a good 6 or more years of school in the same cohort in hokey, quiet, sport obsessed Warrnambool, south west Victoria.

He sat at the front of the class, with that piercing laugh and sharp wit. Me in the back lacking confidence hiding a lamp. He was ambitious and talented. He didn't follow most of us to then daggy, losing Old Collegians footy club in the old home town, he went on to another at that time winning local club called Russel's Creek if memory serves. He always performed above his weight with a big torpedo when he got onto it.

[OC  turned around, this writer was captain, becoming U/18 Premiers and Champions.]

[His friends correctly note he was very gutsy in the press today. How true.]

We saw him at Lewis Atkinson's 18th birthday if memory serves and let's say he was having a wow of a time, as a young man at university in the prime of his young life. I was slogging it out for a year of work. Lew had gone on to Deakin and is now with a Melbourne University group.

We were not so close to Brendan as school kids but his death is very shocking, and there will be many Warrnambool folks past and present hurting over this at former Christian Brothers College now Emmanuel College Warrnambool (link may be down). God bless BK for the heroic attitude before the shooter pulled the trigger.

Yesterday we mulled over a startling incident in around 1999 when we confronted 2 guys manhandling a woman in Goulbourn St opposite Chinatown here in Sydney, walking to a meeting with Chloe then of FoE Melbourne group. We held a bunch of keys between fingers and promised to blind the attacker if he wanted to take it further, and shouted for security. The street froze for that moment. The victim jumped in a taxi quick smart and was off. A drug deal gone wrong. A pimp? Who knows. No knife and no gun thankfully. It didn't even occur to me.

Chloe said I should have used non violence techniques.

Would I do it today? Truth be told I would probably be a coward knowing what I do about hand guns swamping the criminal underworld, and the influence of gun culture from the USA.

Brendan proved how good he really was in that second and that fateful decision to save a 24 year old woman in dire trouble. For that I am filled with admiration and awe. All lawyer jokes have just gone totally stale for this writer today. Maybe I'm shedding tears for him and selfishly for myself? Death is like that, scrambling one's sense of truth and nonsense.

BK, somehow I think I missed the best of you.

Condolences to his parents, family and friends.

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

Postscript #1:

Big media here echo our sporting experience of Brendan Keilar, shooting victim

Braveheart to the end | Herald Sun

Champion player in the field of bravery | News | The Australian

We gave a few words similar to the above on Brendan's death on Warrnambool 3YB radio just now, and commiserated with some of the school staff who know his mother.

The link in the story above to Emmanuel College which was previously known as Christian Brothers College now merged with St Ann's, is correct but doesn't seem to be active at the moment.

I'm told a link to another related website will be up in the next few days if not today: http://www.emmanuelalumni.com/ (it's up now)

Postscript #2

 Picture: Front page Sydney press 20th June 2007.

Well Brendan, you've got me shedding tears again today. The picture of you with your 3 kids. Of course you are gone and it's a good 20 years distance but your spirit and the media coverage is still amongst us and how. We thought you were brash as a kid but in fact you were simply reaching high for the best you could be. And it worked right to the end.

There is alot of real Christian love in this situation from growing up good in that school to making your way, marrying well, growing your own crop of 3 fine children, proud as a man can ever be. Your greatest achievement. Just getting better your whole life.

What makes a child grow up so well and another so wrong? Noel Pearson who was a lawyer in Melbourne once is on tv on 7.30 last night wrestling with this same terrifying conundrum. "Where does the evil come from?" to quote the modern remake of Thin Red Line opening soliliquy about death laden WW2. The parents of Brendan and now of Chris Hudson are all grieving. Both know their child is lost forever. One on a path of Love, the other down a path of Hate.

Hudson's father calls for his killer son to give himself up to police, prison and decades of misery to avoid an early death. It's hard not to wish for revenge. I can feel it welling up in me wishing the police to shoot him dead or for him to kill himself. My sense of this situation is he will kill again if he can too.

It's the urge for revenge that keeps the cycle of violence turning. What's actually needed is the utmost professional detachment and clinical excellence in legal process. If he can be caught and rehabilitated, drug free etc after a long long stretch then so be it -not for him, but for society's best future. If he must rot in a cell forever till his youth fades to dust then so be it also.

My guess this younger cruel Hudson is already in a gaol of his own crazed psychology. A hell that floats around him everywhere he goes with inescapable bars. Where it actually comes from I can't conceive. Or only guess at  - a confused post traumatic psychosis from his own two gun shot wounds to chin and back in a riot last year? A drug induced insanity? A massive inferiority/misogyny complex?

He presents like a broken washing machine spinning and lurching making a God awful racket, crashing around the laundry of life breaking anything in it's path. And inevitably itself.

The second shot into Brendan on the ground says it all really. The killer has become a gyre spitting fatal venom at society, the hate so deep Jesus would have trouble rooting it out. Mere mortals have to deal with it as safely as possible.

Postscript #3 Thursday 21st June 2007

We wrote postscript #2 above before seeing the front page of the Sydney press pictured above now too. But for those based in Melbourne it's perhaps good to know how this foul murder is viewed up here. It was great to see somewhere yesterday a witness confirming he didn't die alone or in pain. It is important. The prominent press coverage we can see has played its role flushing this Hudson criminal out.

BK quite likely has lived a blue ribbon Liberal Party kind of life, commercial lawyer and all. Even so there is no doubting the wide social feeling about this horrific murder. As we said onto tape for 3YB from up here Brendan was a big personality making the shock of his death greater, that we are all going to this same place one day. The Premier of Victoria obviously gets it and has promised $250K for his kids and the legal fraternity will kick in for sure down there. We expressed a similar concern off the tape to the reporter with the local radio station to generate exactly this kind of public support. He will likely have life insurance as lawyers with kids do.

Other victims of crime may wonder why the special treatment but it's not about that really. It's a combination of factors making this such a public importance - against violence to women, the good samaritan aspect, the bizarre cruelty, the life well led, the everyman tastes of Brendan's life, the weaknesses in our public security system, the grim culture of organised crime. Here BK is still providing for his loved ones even after death.

His wife will wake up today more cold and alone than ever in her life before but at least she will have that financial anxiety lifted from her shoulders. His 8 year old son too no doubt will have that sorrow loss and chill in his soul at the brutality in this world.

The killer has surrendered and legal satisfaction is only just beginning and not just for this sad excuse of a man Hudson. We trust the police have everything they need now to do their job ethically and professionally too. There is a long way to go in this matter yet.

A few weeks ago on a quiet Saturday I was googling my school class especially the gifted kids in my class. Two reasons - mid life nostalgia, and being tea total a full year, your memories come racing back in vivid colour as the brain cells revive. Who has a presence on the net? Certainly this news blogger. David McLean (?), Paul Whiting (yes a senior MD in Canberra), Peter Walsh (yes), Brendan 'Kielor' (no?) - that's right I couldn't remember the spelling. Now his name is everywhere and we are so sorry for that.

Well played Brendan, blind sided on a Monday morning by one extremely dirty 19th on ground who had no business even being there. As brave, quick and smart as you have been your whole life. Brash as bright stars can be (inviting envy if not jealousy) you win dux in our school year yet again. You win best and fairest. You made your parents and your school proud. And if your family cannot forgive you for leaving perhaps in time they too will be glad for the time they had after the searing pain subsides.

Fame has found you sadly. What a brilliantly successful life you lived and for that we are glad despite this horrendous result. You surely felt your own very real achievements in a serious life of great endeavour.

Goodbye Brendan, my intellectual peer and superior from high school CBC Warrnambool. A country town boy with strong values who made good in the big bad city. I will never forget your great hearty laugh from the front of the room, full of vigour and a lust for life, with deep respect.

Postscript #4 22nd June 2007

It's my birthday. I keep coming back to this string 4 mornings in a row. This is why.  Those beautiful children beaming out year 6, 1975. They reflect the beauty of the children Brendan brought into this world and raised till his outrageous death. What power those innocents, front and centre of the major Fairfax press here and many other places in Australia?

Exactly this: You died a successful lawyer, and an admired one by the profession left "numb". The federal govt and many opposition are filled with lawyers that shuddered at your disgusting fate.

Your family can believe the anger and frustration will be huge. We posed the question here "Where does the evil come from?" Page 3 the Daily Telegraph today asks today "PM leads the way against evil".

Not about the Keilar family's desperate searing loss especially those kids caught from that fall by State Govt public intervention. Bravo Victorian ALP Govt. No the PM is moving to catch the beautiful Aboriginal children falling in the cracks too.

See what I'm saying? The public awareness of duty to children is high. The challenge is great on Black kids and the reports are in again.

And to top it off the ALP federal Opposition have performed very strongly on the federal govt's territory of the economics of productivity. Democracy really engaged, a real adversarial contest as here Wayne Swan: Howard, Costello in state of denial | Opinion | A devastating moral victory for the Opposition in the conservative The Australian.

So the federal govt in this election year contest have moved in turn in reaction to poach the traditional territory of the traditional ALP being social welfare and support for Black Australia.

It may not be the most admirable political motivation but the bipartisan general support to save children from a cycle of violence like we have seen with the killer of Brendan above, must happen, for them but our own society's sake. These damaged kids are the prison population of 5 and 10 years from now. It's a simple as that.

But what makes it all possible is the huge communication reach in the Big Media around Brendan's white kids and the terrifying conundrum "Where does the evil come from?". The answer of course being it's all around us like bacteria and viruses that only becomes dangerous in unhealthy environments turning virulent. It's the healthy social and general environment we have work so hard at to nurture Australia's children. The kind of incredible endeavour demonstrated in Brendan Keilar's life.

You just keep giving don't you Brendan. A life of great endeavour the effect of which is still travelling, and how.

We've seen this transmutation of political capital from one semi related concern to another before in Big Politics - the angst and disgust at the hanging of a reformed Van Ngyuen in Singapore, resulting in huge public awareness and this Federal Govt reaction with hundreds of millions in aid for other victims of circumstance in Asia - the Pakistan Earthquake in that case, and other initiatives. To prove to our people our Govt have does have a heart.

Postscript #5, 24th June 2007

This might help when words are so useless, its like hard liquor without the hangover via YouTube:

.......................
And this too from Leunig, for those who can't quite accept the philosophy of good and evil but know there is something that tends to drag us down in this life:

 


Posted by editor at 8:50 AM NZT
Updated: Sunday, 24 June 2007 11:22 PM NZT
Monday, 18 June 2007
Battlefield Wentworth
Mood:  loud
Topic: election Oz 2007

 

Pictures from top: 1 & 2 - Popular Hall St, path widening; 3 - storm damage Oxford St; 4- Hall St Gusto's; 5-Jacques Ave road resurface; 6 & 7 - evidence of surge of sand to promenade; 8 - Bondi Park playground; 9 - asymetrical cafe extension on public land, wire fence blocking public right of way at right; 10- Bondi Pavillion courtyard painted after 15 years disrepair; 11- fresh paint on Bondi Surf Club; 12- 2 foot high furrows by grader beachwide returning sand to water's edge.

 

Postscript #1 

Big Media follow our story here:

29th June 2007 Fighting on the beaches, and bonding in Bennelong - National - smh ...


Posted by editor at 11:06 PM NZT
Updated: Tuesday, 3 July 2007 1:29 PM NZT
The future of the Fosters/CUB site in Chippendale southern CBD of Sydney
Mood:  sad
Topic: local news

Pictures from top: 1. UTS 26 storey high building opposite the brewery site expected to be reproduced 5 times with no attempt to generate  energy, water or sewerage onsite at image 2 for the next 40 years. 3 - real estate signage. 4, 5, 6 show views of the development site from Broadway. At bottom is one potential future -massive overdevelopment with the atmosphere of crowded Paddy's market nearby.

Postscript #1 23rd June 07

Purely by coincidence the Sydney Morning Herald ran this satirical spoof about the same development site June 18th that we posted our pics taken Sunday 17th June 07 (believe it or not!):

 


Posted by editor at 9:28 PM NZT
Updated: Saturday, 23 June 2007 11:47 PM NZT
St Barnabas one year after the big fire
Mood:  spacey
Topic: local news


 


Posted by editor at 8:14 PM NZT
Perth Indy Media first with coverage of Pine Gap protest trial in Alice Springs
Mood:  smelly
Topic: peace

We do rather admire Donna Mulhearn ex staffer to Bob Carr Premier of NSW, pictured second from left below.

Copied from Perth IMC feature story:
.................................... 
 
Guilty Verdict - Pine Gap Trial   
From the newswire - June 17, 2007: Pine Gap Trial – GUILTY VERDICT

The
Pine Gap Four, found guilty of breaching the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952, have been handed minor fines. The public gallery erupted into song, applause, cheers and hugs and the feeling of victory and vindication was in the air. Justice Sally Thomas noted their good behaviour and co-operation in the sentencing decision. "All four were very genuine in the cause they sought to espouse," said Justice Thomas, "however their actions - no matter for what cause - cannot justify the breaking of the law."

The Pine Gap Four - Bryan Law of Cairns, Jim Dowling and Adele Goldie of Brisbane and Donna Mulhearn of Sydney – were found guilty of all charges in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. The jury were visibly distressed when delivering the verdict, which should have been a clear cut decision, with full admissions by the four and no legal defence available to them.

Justice Sally Thomas had allowed the defendants to present evidence throughout the 11 day trial including their beliefs about Pine Gap’s role in the war in Iraq which resulted in civilian deaths and suffering. She later instructed the jury to disregard that evidence and any sympathies they might have for the defendant’s beliefs.

On December 9th 2005 the Pine Gap Four conducted a
'Citizens' Inspection' at Pine Gap to spotlight the base's role in the Iraq war. The Pine Gap Four are the first to be charged under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act of 1952, with a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment. No sentencing precedent exists for this case.

READ MORE/Comment...

BACKGROUND:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | PINE GAP 4 BLOG
..........................
The military and Australian Govt PR is also busy today in the Sydney Morning Herald with this: Joint military airstrip project one for the books
Complete with amusing picture here (offline): 

Picture: pag 2 SMH 18th June 2007
This kind of article is what's known in the media as a 'Look over there' trick beloved of parents to badly behaved toddlers i.e. a distraction technique.
We are told by an art dealer there are some 3,000 USA personnel up at Pine Gap military base. That's alot of staff for whatever they do, now with an airstrip somewhere nearby for building something even bigger at least this side of the wet season?

Posted by editor at 12:39 PM NZT
Updated: Monday, 18 June 2007 1:16 PM NZT
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Sunday political talkies: Good humour of Dalai, journos, MPs in 'mid paradigm shift' ie transition?
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: election Oz 2007

Author’s general introductory note (skip this if you know this regular weekly column):

 

This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies  in Big Politics and Big Media.

 

Indeed it’s the tv version monitoring task similar to what Nelson Mandela refers to here in his book Long Walk to Freedom (1994, Abacus) written in Robben Island prison (where he was meant to die like other African resister chiefs of history in the 19C), at page 208

 

 

“..newspapers are only a shadow of reality; their information is important to a freedom fighter not because it reveals the truth, but because it discloses the biases and perceptions of both those who produce the paper and those who read it.”

 

 

Just substitute ‘Sunday tv political talkie shows’ for "newspapers" in the quote above.

 

For actual transcripts go to web sites quoted below except with Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.

 

Media backgrounder: (and see two postscripts at the end of this post)

Cheap shot of the week

 

Brown registers high carbon footprint p38 Sunday Telegraph 17th June 2007, (offline?)

 

This impertinent piece of sophistry sledging Senator Bob Brown who literally risked personal bankruptcy in the Wielangta Forest court victory Green joy at legal victory | Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania to keep directly maybe 24,000 tonnes of carbon upstanding, compared to a trivial 24 tonnes of personal carbon footprint this year.

Picture: 24 tonnes of woodchips in one log in Tasmania's 'timber' industry?


Get real Sharri Markson and the NSW Business Chamber of Commerce (read Coal and Mining Industry) - let's just imagine the number of tonnes of carbon Brown helped saved from rotting under a lake or logged in the whole South West World Heritage Franklin River and forest area of Tasmania - his share of the credit might be say 2 billion tonnes of forest carbon? Do yer think?

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

 

 

Nigel Wilson in The Australian comes up trumps again with an interview with Gerry Hueston, BP’s Australian President with quotes like

 

Hueston says the federal task group's recognition of the need for the support of low carbon technologies during the first stages of Australia's climate-change response was important.

"While emissions trading will ultimately provide the primary incentive for the deployment of low-carbon technologies, the demonstration of new technologies at scale are essential in helping to both deliver the structural reductions in Australia's emissions portfolio that will be required, and buffer the economy and Australian households from the inevitable price shocks.

"These forms of direct support will help enhance the elasticity of the energy market, as it seeks to adjust its otherwise capital-intense and long-term fixed infrastructure. The power stations of 2050 are being designed today, so direct support to encourage low-emission technology will leave the economy better placed to absorb a higher carbon price at that time."

Hueston says the low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency will be picked first.

The point is that emissions trading is not about replacing power stations but determining what new technologies could be adopted for future infrastructure.”

Hueston: we have a problem with emissions | Business | The Australian

 

 

For an oil executive that’s pretty much what SAM news blog posted late last week about the inevitability of guillotining carbon rich products from China or India just like the Ozone Depleting Substances under the Montreal Protocol.

 

 

Similarly we have in this same Weekend Australian China the biggest carbon emission problem, says BP

 

And for the green baiters who say this ignores social well being, consider this potentially historic human rights issue: Offline “Climate change refugees need protection, UN told” p10, Resources section Weekend Australian 16-17 June 2007.

 

 

And similarly Climate change refugees: who’s to blame? from Lawyers Weekly, and this from Doctors for the Environment Climate change and Environmental Refugees | Doctors for the ...

 

 

 

10 Meet the Press 8-8.30 am

 

 

Winter break – golf broadcast.

 

Transcript in due course www.ten.com.au/meetthepress 

 

 

 

7 Weekend Sunrise, 8.35-40 am Riley Diary  -

 

Congratulations 7 for streaming this on your website (2 week delay?)

 

 

Dalai Llama in very cold Canberra. Quite a pop star. Senator Brown of the Greens and Michael Danby of the ALP strong voice for Jewish interests in Australia both prominent in the footage.

 

website backup materials

 

http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/weekend

 

 

Sunday 9

 

Depression story about lawyers, Peter Hayes death. Robert Richter on the OHS situation for lawyers under high stress pressure work.

 

Faris interviewed. Truth coming out about drug use in the profession. Close to home with my old father, and my determination to be a tea totaller now.

 

Bloody good story actually. By Adam Shand, surely related to top barrister Shand? “Great access” to barristers for story. Raises whole issue of drug testing.

 

 

Oakes interview with Shrek … err Joe Hockey on IR. Sounding grumpy, opposition like?

 

 

Hard to keep up with 2 and 9 re Oakes reference to Abbott frothing at the mouth in Hockey interview, Oakes goes feral on Govt for attacking democracy of talking to the community, and being smeared for it. It’s a pretty punchy presentation by Joe Hockey.

 

 

Throws to Ross instead of Ellen at the end, almost chuckling at the parody of the whole situation.  

 

 

Story on 21C singledom orthodoxy – mingles, offals and slobbs – charming.

 

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/default.asp

 

 

Insiders 2

 

Gilliard looking well, composed, focused on IR. Looking fit.

 

Panel: Lenore Taylor, Panel Matt Price, Glen Milne (looking good lad).

 

Every person segment Qlders. Will be on webcast as missed it.

 

Jim Middleton for Paul Kelly today. Rudd strong on productivity but missed inflation point. Polling due this Super Monday.

 

Milne says but for $8K paid no access into Kirribili, unless a Liberal Party delegate.

 

 

Discussion on Rudd interview quality with AM’s Uhlmann. It’s a false controversy. Rudd sticks to the trend problem in depressed productivity. Lawyers point about short term improvement in the latest National Accounts. Tiny blemish amplified.

 

High humour on the panel. Laughing as sign of transition in their subconscious.

 

Home page is http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/

 

 

Postscript #1 late Sunday 17th June 07

 

The economics lecture of Keating on Lateline recently made reference to this article by Ross Gittins in both the Age and Sydney Morning Herald 2 weeks ago:

 

Let them eat cake — how the workers' pie keeps shrinking - Business

 

"WHEN you divide the pie of national income between the share going to wages and the share going to profits, you find the workers' share keeps shrinking and is the smallest it has been.

...If you already knew that, congratulations. You are exceedingly well informed — because that startling fact has received minimal publicity.

If the boot had been on the other foot — if it had been the profits share that was shrinking — you would never have heard the end of it. But when it is just the workers' share, economists are not all that fussed.

If we focus just on the "total compensation of employees" (which includes employers' superannuation contributions on their behalf) and "total gross operating surplus of corporations" (the main national accounts measure of profits), we find that, in 1999-2000, the share of national income going to labour was 70.3 per cent, leaving the share going to capital at 29.7 per cent. But by the December quarter of last year, the wages share had fallen to 66 per cent while the profits share had increased to 34 per cent.

That is a shift of a remarkable, unprecedented 4.3 percentage points in just 6½ years.

Let us be clear on what this means. For a start, it does not mean wages have been falling. We are talking about changes in the workers' share of the (ever-growing) pie, not the absolute size of the share.....This explains why the Government can still say that real wages continue to grow. But the fact remains that, if the wages share is falling, workers are not getting their proportional — their "fair" — share of productivity gains.

Why not? Well, because this has been going on since the start of the noughties, it is not likely to have much to do with WorkChoices.

If you break down the wages and profits shares by industry, you find three where the profits share has increased noticeably: mining, wholesale trade and finance.

Mining is no surprise — the prices they receive have gone through the roof. It is more surprising that the wages share has fallen most in the finance (mainly banking) industry. Finance industry wages have not risen nearly as fast as fees and other charges have risen.

But this is not an adequate explanation.

There remains more to this business than we have yet determined — if economists were more interested in finding out."

......and on it goes courtesy of economics champion Ross Gittins. In other words this is definitely not a government for the battler on a wage as claimed by PM Howard. As Gittins points out it's not really resolved the cause but we think quite suggestive it's a government for large shareholders and overpaid executives??

Postscript #2

By George the contest for the seat of Wentworth in East Sydney is gaining intensity, and local Mayor George Newhouse is getting way serious. We are tempted to nominate as an independent just to see if we can influence the result. Having been one of the councillors at the time who voted for the beach side parking meters to finance management of whole of Sydney tourism impacts on one LGA when Kim Anson was a dept head in the late 90ies (to become General Manager - and may still be), we can easily see where Ambitious George is coming from.

We have no doubt it's a very popular move, a real election policy in fact. Here are the swathe of Sunday press clippings in Sydney, and notice Mal Turnbull's faithful stock item - a grant to the local surf club. Trouble is they likey knew some of the victims of the Bali bombing in 2002, the govt it seems were tipped off about, as per recent ASIO leak story (reported here on SAM via The Australian).


Posted by editor at 12:24 PM NZT
Updated: Monday, 18 June 2007 9:33 AM NZT
Saturday, 16 June 2007
JI leaders arrested but what was Australia warned of BEFORE the Bali bombing in 2002?
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: legal

When the Murdoch controlled press report ASIO officers being prosecuted for leaking documentation allegedly revealing US intelligence advice about impending bombing of to quote "sin spots" in other parts of Indonesia, just before the Bali bombing in 2002, then its definitely worth another look.

We clipped the article below and duly circulated it around. The article reveals a stark allegation the US intel was passed to Australia. But then where did it come from?

We think we can assume the Indonesian Intelligence knew of it full well also.

The implications are enormous. We find this all extremely coincidental regarding the rapid action in recent days involving arrest of leading JI terrorism suspects:

Indonesia captures JI's supreme leader | The World | The Australian

Indonesia confirms arrest of JI leaders - World - brisbanetimes.com.au

Caught: the men who know all the dark secrets - World ...

since that serious, serious story of the leaked US intel was published here:


A cynic might think the Indonesian Intel fully knew where the JI leaders were parked and moved quickly to swamp this highly damaging, devastating story above revealing apparently that both Australia USA and quite likely Indonesian intel knew pretty well that the Bali 2002 bombing or similar was coming. The story clipped above and the allegation, if true, reflects extremely badly on security services and thus governments of both countries. A stain that might be mitigated by some urgent raids and arrests of the culprits, one assumes.

Is this another example of the Indonesian political "chess" we heard described over the Inquest into the Balibo 5 murdered no doubt by the ruthless Suharto regime? Thankfully Suharto is gone but maybe old habits continue regarding cover ups?

Foreign Minister Downer, and the relevant Defence Minister at the time (Robert Hill?) have some very big questions to answer about USA tip offs pre Bali 2002 bomb deaths of 88 Australians. And he is all over the story of the latest arrests to suggest he well knows it.

As helpful as these latest arrests are, our government must account for their state of knowledge prior to the Bali bombing. Especially now the Murdoch press national broadsheet did their job and published the ASIO leak story, suggesting they were tipped off before 88 Australian's were murdered.


Posted by editor at 8:24 PM NZT
Updated: Saturday, 16 June 2007 9:19 PM NZT

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