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Miscellaneous comments from 31 May 2013

Comments made on the previous Miscellaneous comments page from 1 May 2013 can be found here.


This comment page is now read only. Please add comments here 14 Aug 2013 - Ed.


This was first published earlier today on YouTube by PravdaTV on 30 May 2013 as Wireless Internet dangerous healthwise.

In recent years, a greater and greater proportion of computer devices -- network routers, network switches, even, keyboards, mice, earphones and microphones -- have been manufactured in wireless versions rather than in the old-fashioned cabled versions. I have personally always bought and used cabled devices rather than wireless devices, often going to considerable trouble to do so. I did this because I had intuitively feared that the digital radio signals that would inevitably have to pass through my body as a result of my using such devices could only have been detrimental to the cells of my flesh and body organs.

For practical reasons, I have seen no choice but to continue to use a mobile mobile phones, but I would have chosen not if I had been given alternatives such as, for example, larger numbers of public phones.

The video below, appears to confirm that my intuitive fear of radio controlled devices was correct.

This film seems to be about room-fulls of wireless computers, running all day, rather than one or two computers as we have at home. The experiment with the plant seeds is totally inconclusive unless it is reproduced many times. I mean, the seeds could have failed to shoot for all kinds of reasons.

These arguments I am making are not to say there is not a possibility that this claim is true, but that the report is unconvincing - albeit that a room full of wireless machines and small children does seem pretty counter- intuitive to anyone with common sense. Geoffrey is right, of course, fundamentally, to suggest that new sources of any kind of wave have to have some kind of effect. As to what that effect is ... well, we don't know.

France did some studies of mobile phone waves and came to more rigorous conclusions than anglophone countries i.e. that there is a good chance they are doing damage to living cells. and a need for a precautionary approach.

See this Wikipedia article at

Within weeks, our government could allow developers to start tearing enormous holes in the seabed inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - a practice known as dredging - near the Whitsunday Islands. Some 3 million cubic metres of sediment (enough to fill 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools!) would be ripped from the ocean bed, destroying the homes and food sources of turtles, dugongs and rare snubfin dolphins.

Similar actions at Gladstone have been blamed for crippling the fishing industry. Now mining companies want do it all again at Abbot Point -- but they won’t get away with it if we act now. Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has the power to stop this. So we’ve launched an emergency petition to demonstrate massive community opposition to this dreadful plan. Sign on today and we’ll hand deliver the petition to Burke in front of journalists during the UN World Heritage Committee meeting in June.


Environment Minister Tony Burke (yes, it's hard to believe that we actually have one) is still feeling the heat after the UN World Heritage Committee put his department on notice for failing to protect the Reef. The Committee is holding its annual meeting in June, where they’ll give an update on its verdict to save the Reef. He’ll already be nervous about approving another project that would cause more damage, so he’ll be much more receptive to our calls.

It would be derelict of duty to allow big mining businesses to destroy a world heritage area. But, money and profits are the only values that matter when governments end up hijacked by their interests and powers.

As I wrote here, yesterday, these criminal plans to destroy the barrier Reef only to enable still more coal to be exported more quickly to China, in order to be turned into global warming carbon dioxide and junk that will mostly end up in Australian landfill after only a few years at most, must be made a Federal election issue.

Any candidate who does not pledge to do all in his/her power to end this vandalism must be put very low in your voting preferences.

When Ford employees lose their jobs in 2016, Julia Gillard is offering a package of $15.1m to help them find new positions. Ironically, funding to universities has been slashed by nearly $3 b, yet Ford has been subsidized by over $1 b over the years to keep the industry in operation. Obviously manufacturing skills are more highly valued that knowledge and academia. This is despite free trade with foreign countries with much lower wages and conditions demolishing our manufacturing industries.
With 1,500 new people entering Victoria each week, the problem of our unemployment will be exacerbated by competition with "skilled" workers. A new suburb was announced recently by planning Minister Matthew Guy, offering more jobs for developers. An incentive to create jobs in Victoria would be very welcome, but the competition with temporary and permanent migrants will mean more people will need employment at a time of cutbacks and company closures.

Coles corporate affairs Anna Kelly said Coles welcomed the large number of community members supporting its push for improved animal welfare standards. Animals Australia will withdraw its limited range of Make it Possible shopping bags from sale.

"Coles was concerned that the good work with our farmer suppliers in the pork and chicken industries would be over shadowed by farmer reaction to the Animals Australia campaign on live cattle exports and has therefore agreed with the offer to withdraw its shopping bags," Ms Kelly said.

The Weekly Times: Animals Australia recalls bag

Coles is admitting there is no middle ground between meeting Animals Australia's standards of humane chicken, eggs and pork supplies. The system is entrenched in animal cruelty, due to factory farming. Coles obviously supports the obscenity of live exports, and having animals dragged, stabbed and tortured in overseas abattoirs.

Farmers should work with Animals Australia. They are not an abolitionist group trying to destroy farmers and the meat industry. Animals Australia are trying to make the public aware of animal cruelty more and more inherent in farming.

The "good work" done by farmers in producing meat from pigs confined in sheds for their whole short lives, and being mutilated in the process, is "good" for Coles too! It's business as usual, and they are shunning any free-range systems that would require the public to pay the real costs of producing humane meat and eggs, as was in the traditional methods of farming.

The organisations should work together to gain the confidence of the public. This furore makes the Farmers Federation sound as if they actually endorse animal cruelty!

"Making it happen" is increasingly difficult as farmers' livelihoods depend on mass production. With land prices soaring, and our cities swelling is size, the days of traditional farming are diminishing as demands for livestock products outpace animal welfare standards.

Roo of the day
It's under the umbrella of "sustainable living" - but not for the kangaroos!
According to the ACF, 'there is perhaps nothing so Australian as the fact that we will happily chow down on our national emblems. Other countries don't eat their national emblems", but "our irreverence for the iconography of state stands in stark contrast with our cultural and political antecedents. Thus we eat our national emblem.."
Well, actually we don't eat too much of it. There's no tradition of eating kangaroo in Australia except for traditional aborigines. Our colonial settlers only ate it when desperate. Indigenous people ate kangaroos, but it wasn't an industry.
It's mainly exported or used as dog food. It's been promoted as an "environmentally friendly" meat alternative.
It's assumed that because kangaroos aren't farmed, they can be "harvested" in the wild, and "humanely shot". The article is full of contractions and oxymorons.
If every meat-eater swapped to kangaroo meat instead of livestock, the animals would soon be extinct. They simply can't produce the bulk of meat quickly that livestock do. They take years to mature, and even then it would take about 20 kangaroos to equal a cow.
This idea is a discredit to the organization. If they really want to promote conservation, then they should be promoting conservation and respect for our national iconic kangaroos.

The broadcast, from Alex Jones', shows how the Mexican government, which previoulsy acted to impoverish Mexican farmers by stealing their land, is now working with the US Government to destroy rthe US/Mexicon border in order to make Canada, the US and Mexico into a single country.

Globalization and the making of the world as an equal paying field will destroy identities, increase poverty, destroy economics of scale and increase populations. The new global-citizenship drive, and social justice agendas, are about making all peoples "equal". It means developed and wealthy nations are under pressure to open their borders and allow the flow of under privileged and impoverished. The overflow of populations will spill-over and destroy any reserves of water, food resources and the concept of nation-hood.
It's about making a generic world, and generic populations.
A bill to have overseas same-sex marriages recognised in Australia will be put to the vote in the Senate by the Australian Greens before the end of June. The Greens have morphed from being a party deeply rooted into the environmental movement to one more focused on inner-city votes and social justice. Not only nationhood is under threat, and our borders from ad hoc asylum seekers arrivals that the Greens want to encourage, but gay marriage is an attempt to hijack traditional marriage and make it genderless and "equal". We are not all "equal"! Marriage is traditionally a bond between husband and wife, and is the cornerstone of families. Gays are a minority group, and they should have their relationships recognised, but in domestic partnerships, not "Marriage"! It's all part of homogenizing our populations, making them "diverse" from multiculturalism, without recognising traditional values of citizenship, sovereignty, specific relationship identities and patriotism to specific national values.

I have this experience with two different ASUS products - a notebook and an eee pc. The keyboards are bizarrely unreliable to the point where one simply abandons the product. Unpredictably the text I am typing will backspace and insert letters or a portion of a word elsewhere in the text. I cannot work out how to change this. I am writing this to your forum in desperation because I do not know how to get help and do not have the time to stuff around with guarantees etc. Many people must have this problem. Help!

I would not have published this if I did not have the same kind of problem. Letters jump all over the place. It makes it r impossible to reliably use these machines for which line one has paid hundred of dollars and in some cases thousands. Note how the 'r' and 'line' inserted themselves in the above sentence.
How can ASUS sell this RUBBISH?

I don't understand why there is not more about this on the internet unless somehow ASUS is managing to block discussions.

It is mysterious and awful.

Household gas bills in Victoria are set to soar by $170 a year, a new report warns. Australians have traditionally paid a low price for gas compared with other countries thanks to abundant supplies and the fact gas could not be exported.

Warning for Victorian households over gas price explosion

Gas will be exported from the East coast of Australia, so gas prices consumers will be hit with higher prices. This is part of the "economic benefits" of the Asian Century! Japan is willing to pay more for gas that our domestic consumers, so they get the priority.

Struggling Melbourne households will miss meals and cut back on medicines to cope with huge water price rises to pay for the desalination plant, a peak welfare agency warns.

Victoria- warning water prices rises will hurt the poor

VCOSS calculations are based on a draft City West, South East and Yarra Valley price ruling for annual bill increases of $145 to $234 for typical Melbourne households. Hardship programs will have to be increased to pay for the desalination plant.

Gas, water, housing, and increasing council rates are threatening our standards of living. Do we have to go to using the village pump, community toilets, temporary housing and lamps to avoid the heavy costs? The standards of first world are that these are basic commodities, and should be standards amenities for everyone. Population growth is gouging out economies of scale - not for the actual water, energy or gas, but for the increasing costs of maintaining and extending the infrastructure.

A city which deprives people of decent and affordable living standards for the majority, not just the wealthy, is counter-productive and a result of poor government and dis-economies of scale.

How are we supposed to accommodate asylum seekers when already basic resources are increasingly becoming too expensive for those on fixed incomes or pensions? A stable population would stablize these prices, but "economic growth" is threatening our hip pockets.

On 11 June 2013, the Albury-Wodonga Border Mail (See your ad here) published by local journalist David MacIlwaine.

Unlike most Australian media coverage, MacIlwaine accurately reports the conflict in Syria as another attempt at "regime change" (by the same parties guilty of murdering 3.3 million Iraqis since 1990 with bombing, invasion, death squads, disease and starvation caused by sanctions).

Unlike the tragic cases of Libya and Iraq, the Syrian people and the government of President al-Assad have kept the upper hand against the West's terrorist glove puppets:

Not only has the Syrian government regained control over many rebel-held areas but it has regained the moral high ground in the eyes of the rest of the “non-aligned” world with a clear commitment to a political and diplomatic resolution.

David Macilwaine concludes:

We can help them by pressuring our government to oppose any “intervention” by our allies, including Israel and the US, and to start telling us the truth about this proxy war for dominance over the Middle East and its resources.

A Stop the War rally in Sydney will take place on Saturday, supported by Hands off Syria, and later in the month a powerful voice for reconciliation in Syria, Mother Agnes Mariam, will be visiting Australia to talk about how we can help with this vital project

I heard the rally in Sydney reported only once briefly ABC NewsRadio at 9:30AM on Saturday 15 June 2013. It was also reported that the protestors rejected John Kerry's lying claim that President al-Assad had used poison gas against this own people. A longer and well illustrated report of the large rally has since appeared on 16 June  on the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against any attempt at foreign military intervention in Syria, stressing that the move would only make the situation worse. The Russian president also defended his country’s decision to deliver advanced S-300 air defense missile systems to the Syrian government, saying it complies with the international law and will help to tilt the balance of power in the region. He, however, said that Russia has not yet fulfilled the contract, which was signed a few years ago.

11,000 deaths of women and children has been documented thus far in the conflict, some 7,500 have died as a result of regime aerial bombardment and shelling of their towns and neighbourhoods.

Editorial comment: Even some who rightly oppose NATO's terrorist war against Syria will sometimes unwittingly use language of anti-Syrian-government propagandists, for example, 'regime'. All the evidence as even NATO has acknowledged, shows that the Syrian government is overwhelmingly supported by the Syrian people. As the anti-government terrorists often hide in apartment blocks and use the residents as human shields, the Syrian government often faces no choice but to bombard the apartment blocks.

Humanitarian concerns are usually put forward as a key justification for intervention in other nations, but the real reasons why the US decides to act usually involves broader considerations, such as maintaining regional stability or upholding the cohesion of Nato and other Western-led military alliances.

The US also used secret arms supplies to rebels and no-fly zones as key policy instruments even if these ran contrary to international law restrictions.

US President Barack Obama had authorized lethal aid to the rebels for the first time, after Washington said it had conclusive evidence that the regime of Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons. Syria and Russia have accused Obama of fabricating the evidence.

Russia is standing in stark opposition to any sort of resolution so far put forth by other nations present, especially the United States. Iran's President-Elect, Hassan Rowhani, warned against foreign intervention in Syria, insisting that the strife-torn country's crisis should be resolved by its own people. There might be some visionary advantages of globalisation, but not any nation's globalisation of conflict and wars and military intervention.

In a year (2012) when 15,000 temperature records were set in March alone and many freak weather patterns continued to cause drought and flooding across the globe, the danger seems increasingly real and undeniable. The latest addition to these concerns is the release of methane gas from the Arctic permafrost.

Scientist Igor Semiletov has sailed the Russian arctic ocean for years checking for small plumes of dangerous Methane gas. He’s mapped many of these meters-wide plumes, emitting gas 20 times more damaging to our climate than carbon dioxide. But on his last trip, as he came across the first plume, he couldn’t believe it. It was a KILOMETER wide. A vast column of gas spewing into our atmosphere. He sailed on and found another a kilometer wide, and another, and another. Hundreds of them.

Scientists are investigating, but this could be what experts warned us about. As the earth warms, it creates many “tipping points” that accelerate the warming out of control.

From 2003 to 2008, an international research team led by University of Alaska-Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov surveyed the waters of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which covers more than 772,200 square miles (two million square kilometers) of seafloor in the Arctic Ocean.


Now another milestone has been reached that looks even more threatening than the above one. On the morning of June 16, 2013, methane levels reached an average mean of 1800 parts per billion (ppb). This is 1100 ppb higher than pre-industrial peak levels.


As it has for decades, the scientific community as a whole is moving conservatively, slowly embracing a gradually more and more alarming consensus as evidence rules out other possibilities. But the vast majority agree, with many desperately trying to the get our societies to understand, that we are facing catastrophic threats unless we act.

Climate change is being seen largely as a social justice, or political, issue rather than a scientific one. It's "business as usual" for the media and politics!

From Global Research of 9 June 2013:

Michael Hastings, ‘Rolling Stone’ Contributor, Dead at 33

The bold journalist died in a car accident in Los Angeles



Fires in South East Asia are polluting Singapore. They are set purposely to convert rainforest into land that can be used for agriculture and plantations, mostly for palm oil production. The fires in Indonesia have created Southeast Asia's worst smog crisis for years, pushing haze levels in the neighboring city-state of Singapore to record levels last week.

The Singapore Tourist Board said it continues to welcome tourists but is keeping a close watch on the situation and advised tourists to limit outdoor activities at the weekend.

WWF says that the burning of forests to clear land for oil palm plantations in Indonesia and, to some extent, Malaysia has been cited as the major cause of the air pollution that affected many areas of Southeast Asia in 1997 and 2002, including Singapore and other cities.

Research shows that up to 25% of concessionaires, including local and foreign companies, ignore the rule restricting the planting of oil palm on peat more than three metres deep. All plantation lands and future plantations on peat are essentially illegal because they contravene national laws. But over 50% of new oil palm plantation areas are planned in peat-lands. (Greenpeace)

Indonesia is preparing to tackle the fires - which happen nearly every year on Sumatra's palm oil plantations - by using planes and helicopters in a 'water-bombing' operation.

Palm oil has become a scourge that humans have inflicted upon this planet. And its fallout is due as much to human overpopulation as it is to pure greed. Palm oil is a cooking oil. It’s also used in many processed foods. Palm oil comes from the fruit of a very specific palm tree. And it’s cheap. It is also high in saturated fat. So why is it spreading like a bad rumor? Let us repeat. It’s cheap, and people need income. (Rainforest Action Website:

There are more people than ever on the earth. Most of them use edible oils. Palm oil is now the most widely used. Other popular oils include soybean and corn. They are much less unhealthful than palm oil. Brazil is well along in decimating its own rainforests, savanna and jungle habitats with farms of various types, often displacing its indigenous communities with both lawful and unlawful development.

Orangutans are endangered due to habitat loss and capture for the illegal pet trade. Their rainforest homes are rapidly declining due to illegal logging, mining, farming, oil palm plantations, and human overpopulation. Orangutan populations have declined more than 50 percent in the last decade.

Orangutans are considered to be pests by the palm oil industry. (The same way kangaroos are considered an ecological threat in Australia). In the deforestation process, orangutans are often run over by logging machinery, beaten to death, buried alive or set on fire. Orangutans that wander into palm oil plantations are considered to be agricultural pest, because they have the potential to damage oil palm crops.

Palm oil produces immense amount of smoke pollution that is toxic to planet earth. This has been found to be the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas in the world.

Scientists warn that many of Indonesia's species could be extinct in the wild within 20 to 30 years. There are many "environmental" groups who still deny the threat and impacts of human overpopulation. With human numbers surging, the demand for economic growth means infiltrating forests and producing goods for commercial benefits - at what ever costs to the planet!

Canberra's lead counsel has told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Australia is totally opposed to any form of commercial whaling "whether it be carried out under the guise of science or not". It's junk science that could easily be refuted.

Lawyers for Tokyo are expected to argue Tuesday that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to hear the dispute with Australia and New Zealand over the annual hunt and slaughter of hundreds of minke and fin whales in the Southern Ocean. It seems that Japan will argue that they can do what they want do, and whatever laws and policies they violate, that they are superior to and above them! The Antarctic Treaty, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, Australia's EEZ in the Antarctic, and now even the Court of Justice have no jurisdiction over what they are allowed or not allowed to do.

Lawyers for Australia told the court last week that the whaling is a commercial hunt dressed up as science and should be stopped.

Japan has their own culture, and values. They don't feel they have obligations to the rest of the world's problems, values, or laws. $10 m donations from Australia, after their earthquake, was squandered on "security" for the whaling fleet and other irrelevant projects.

Iranians become the leading group of asylum seeker arrivals and the massive numbers of Sri Lankan seen last year shrink dramatically. Government records show 1079 Iranians have made the trip to Australia by boat in 2013, taking top place from Sri Lanka, from where 6428 people arrived in 2012.

Iranians gain relatively painless entry to Indonesia, with the Middle Eastern country on the list of those whose nationals are able to acquire a visa on arrival. That has meant that Iranians ultimately seeking to arrive in Australia by boat are able to conduct the stretch of the journey as far as Indonesia without legal difficulty.

Early indications are that many of the Iranians arrivals are middle-class residents of big cities such as Tehran who have been able to summon up the tens of thousands of dollars to pay a people smuggler for a chance at entry to Australia. As essentially economic refugees, they face little chance of their claim being accepted.

Iranian numbers swelling on asylum seeker list of 11 Jan 2012 on crikey,

Senator Carr says there have "been some boats where 100 per cent of them have been people who are fleeing countries where... their motivation is altogether economic". According to the UNHCR, Iran currently recognises almost a million Afghan refugees. In 2008, Iran said it intended to expel 1.5 million Afghans it considered to be illegally in the country.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees regional head Richard Towle attacked Bob Carr's claims the majority of Iranian asylum-seekers were seeking improved economic circumstances. The problem is due to sheer numbers and costs, causing a need to refine what "asylum seekers" really are. Bob Carr is quite right that economics could play a part in the displacement of nationals from their homelands.

Human population numbers are set to continue to swell by 2 billion more by 2050, and as a result there will be conflicts over finite resources, causing wars and revolutions. Along with climate change and failing food supplies, migrations of entire nations will soon take place as people begin to flee their homelands to seek asylum elsewhere.

GREG BARNES from the Australian Lawyers Alliance says that one of the other things that Mr Carr seems to be confusing is the fact that economic oppression can amount to persecution. "Economic oppression" could include billions of potential refugees who are denied jobs

Asylum seeker lawyer says more compensation is inevitable for detainees! ... on ABC Radio National's The World Today of 2 July 2013.

The latest figures from the Immigration Department show that in the past year the Government has paid out almost a million dollars in compensation to detainees who allege they've been wrongfully held or injured in detention.

There is a deep concern in the community that Labor is allowing migration intake to run out of control. We now have over 200,00 new skilled and family-reunion migrants a year net, along with uncapped temporary migrants, in Australia.

There is a need to have an orderly refugee process, and we certainly have credentials as a compassionate nation. However, we have to protect our borders from unsustainable surging asylum seeker numbers at a time when our cities are already under considerable population pressure.

We need a tough, strong border protection policy, and a redefinition of who qualifies as needing asylum, but there needs to be some rational debate on priorities. Permanent economic migrants arriving at airports each day are shielded because a relatively small number of asylum seekers hijack the "immigration" debate.

Fairfax Media understands that Australia is speaking to Iran and the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, about how failed asylum-seekers can be returned to that country.

Read more: Rudd plan to return failed refugees to Iran in the Canberra Times of 2 July 2103.

Mr Rudd is meeting with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta today, and the beef trade is expected to be high on the agenda.

Rudd talks beef with Indonesia of 5 July 2013 on ABC News

It's assumed that by securing supply chains from Australia, our beef can help "feed the world". There are rising protein levels required in Indonesia, and Kevin Rudd is believes the live export industry represent a "huge opportunity" for us, despite Indonesia recently considering being more self sufficient in food.

What's really chilling is that Rudd said that "I think the first thing he needs to say is apologise to the people to the government and to the Indonesians for what the Australian Government did when they stopped the trade without talking to them". Cattle were routinely smashing their heads on concrete plinths, having their eyes gouged, tails broken, and throats brutally hacked at in Indonesian abattoirs.

If we apologise for ending their stabbing, torture and atrocities to the animals we sent there is an insult to sanity and any humane standards of animal welfare. An ‘apology’ will also send a damaging message to importing countries that trade relations are more important than stopping animal abuse.

Australian Livestock Exporters' Council chief executive, Alison Penfold, says halting exports would be premature and damaging to Australia's relationship with Vietnam. There's not mention of the lack of transparency and mismanagement of the industry that allowed the shameful atrocities to being in the first place!
Australia can't provide "food security" for the world. Cattle are starving now because of drought, and we are they driest country with a rapidly rising population.

According to Animals Australia, live export represents just 0.3% of Australia's total exports. The chilled meat trade is worth nearly 6 times more to the economy. The vast majority of jobs currently supported by the live trade would still exist if livestock were being sent to local markets. Ending live export would in fact create jobs in Australia through increased domestic processing.

The Federal election campaign lacks substance, is full of vague policies, heavy reliance on personalities rather than programs, clashes with the Opposition, and vague praise for our great economy!

Kevin Rudd said in his Press Club speech that "Our population should continue to be supported by a strong migration policy designed to mitigate the effects of our ageing population..."

Read more: Kevin Rudd's Press Club speech: full transcript of 1 July 2013 in the Sydney Morning Herald at .

Thanks to a unique history, our economic growth and our nation's foundation was forged through immigration - as an immigration nation. It's naively assumed that what we gained from it can continue to be propagated at our present times, contrary to empirical evidence that we are far from benefiting from our ongoing population growth.

That someone presumably as educated, and intelligent, as Kevin Rudd can actually believe that ongoing immigration can dilute our ageing population shows lack of strategic thinking, the ability to adjust his thinking from the past, and naively project it into the future. It's pure Ponzi Demographic- and growth now will mean lower wages, higher unemployment, a further blowout of homelessness and housing costs, and further demands on natural resources which will mean loosening our environmental protection policies even further. Comment: To attribute Kevin Rudd's actions to naïveté is being too kind to him in my opinion. See also Julia Gillard's attempt to enable effective scrutiny of candidates threatened vested interests of 28 June,- Ed

Joseph Chamie, the former head of the United Nations population division, has been quoted as saying: "Like all Ponzi schemes, Ponzi demography is unsustainable. Among its primary tactics, it exploits the fear of population decline and ageing. Without a young and growing population we are warned of becoming a nation facing financial ruin and a loss of national power". The irrational fear of ageing is being exploited, and ignores the fact that it's not only baby-boomers who are ageing, but migrants too!

The next generation will have an even bigger ageing population, and if the same logic is applied, are they then also to have even a bigger immigration program to compensate for it? It's a dangerous, lethal the idiotic human pyramid - one that will collapse under the weight of our own biomass!

In a landmark case, Australia has taken Japan to the International Court of Justice over its ‘scientific whaling’ program—one that kills hundreds of whales every year in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. Japan, Iceland and Norway all continue their whale hunts, despite the fact that these gentle ocean creatures already face increasing challenges posed by marine pollution, climate change, ship-strikes, bycatch, and more.

Urge nations to make their waters whale-friendly.

While the court’s decision on Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean is expected by the end of the year, there has never been a more opportune time to pressure whaling nations to stop the cruel practice of commercial whaling. Make your voice heard today.

There is no excuse for continuing to allow this barbaric and outdated practice, especially as other threats to whales such as pollution and climate change increase. It is time to call on all nations to safeguard whales from this cruel and unnecessary threat to whales in their waters.

Join us (Humane Society International) in calling on world leaders to make their waters whale-friendly by banning commercial hunting and the transit of whale products, thereby giving whales needed refuge everywhere they feed, breed and migrate. No exceptions.

Killing animals subject to scientific research should be the last option, not mass killings and then trying to justify it in hindsight for the economic and cultural value of the "by-catch".

Shooting kangaroos in Canberra's Pinnacle Nature reserve, adjacent to Weetangera and Hawker, stopped temporarily about 8pm on Sunday after activists sounded air horns and charged across the reserve.

The designated culling sites were due to be closed to the public at midday last Thursday to enable shooting to begin.

The annual kangaroo "cull" had been given the green light after a decision handed down by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Wednesday, ruling that 1244 kangaroos could be shot by the end of July. The number was reduced to 740, excluding the dependent joeys!

Hardly coincidental is the report in Canberra Times of a jump in kangaroo collisions in Canberra. There has been a spike in the number of car accidents involving kangaroos. Claims data from NRMA Insurance shows a 30 per cent increase in the number of kangaroo vehicle collisions in the ACT in the past year.

The 30 per cent increase would be due to Canberra's human population growth too. Rather than overwhelming conservationism and excessive concern for endangered species being threatened by the number of overgrazing kangaroos, this is likely to be the real reason for the kangaroo reduction.

Canberra- NRMA car accidents kangaroos

Michael Linke from the RSPCA says the spike is not surprising as animals are facing increasing hazards on Canberra roads. "There's increased traffic on the road and more housing development, so it's something that's going to increase over time." He's unknowingly "hit the nail on the head"!

There's usually a hidden monetary reason, a hip-pocket concern, for these "culls". Kangaroos are silent scapegoats for lack of wildlife corridors, over-passes, and urbanisation.

Thousands of Indian students, skilled workers and 457 visa holders have been admitted to Australia on dodgy travel and work documents. Freedom of Information show out-of-control fraud of the visa system. The internal audits, from the 2008/09 financial year, show fraud rates approaching 50 per cent, and an Immigration Department struggling to properly identify people who are entering the country.
An Immigration Department spokesman said that "Around the periods of 2008, 2009, 2010 the fraud levels were quite considerable, a matter of real concern to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship".
It is reported that the Department is nearly powerless to stop identity fraud, because of the low level of technology in Indian passports.
Documents outline one alarming case where a man breached Australia's borders by entering the country under a false identity. For a General Skilled Migration visa class, from 23,767 visa lodgements there was a 46.9 per cent fraud rate for 2008/2009.
There does not appear to be much the Department can do, with one of the documents finding "opportunities to combat this type of fraud remain extremely difficult".
"People cheat about all kinds of things, around fraudulent marriages and do scams of all sorts and really that's a challenge for the compliance officers of our country whether they be the police or be they be immigration officials."
Maurene Horder from the Migration Institute of Australia, the peak body for migration agents, wants migration agents overseas to be forced to register with the Department of Immigration, so they can be banned if they cheat the system. "That was a porous, very bad system," she said.
Our whole immigration system is a rort, due to enormous fees being collected by immigration agents, and our own Immigration Department. With our economy's slowdown and unemployment expected to rise, Australia is not short of labour!

The attack on Australian working and living conditions doesn't stop there! Our environment is being cleared for logging. housing, industries and mining, and iconic koalas are facing a carnage!
Thousands of koalas have taken refuge in the vast timber plantations that have emerged across the region of south east Australia, which are increasingly maturing for harvest.
While human diaspora get a lot of media attention, there's little attention given to our wildlife. While humans are reproducing in record numbers, other native species, endemic to our land, are being cruelly eradicated.
Koala experts and wildlife refuge staff say many koalas are being wiped out during the logging process.
The ABC's 7.30 program has been provided with damning evidence of the carnage, the scale of which has previously been kept confidential.
"What's happening in our country? We create a big brouhaha when we see it happening to cattle in a slaughterhouse in Indonesia or somewhere like that, but this is happening in our own backyard with a much bigger impact.
"This is a national and international icon that we are treating with so much disrespect and disdain" says Dr Stephen Phillips, a member of the Federal Government's Koala Abundance Working Group.
Australia is descending into hostile, third-world mayhem, and the integrity of our land, our jobs, our economy and environment is under attack for industry $$$$.
Tracy Wilson, a wildlife rescue volunteer from Koroit in Victoria, says she deals with koalas with horrendous injuries. "Broken limbs, impact wounds, broken backs, severed arm, dead mothers with joeys still alive trying to survive," she said.
Instead of asylum seekers, we should concentrate more on the victims in Australia - animals! Industries are supposed to "self-regulate" but that's like asking the fox to take care of the chicken coop!
Koalas face carnage as loggers harvest timber plantations

Mark Butler MP is our new Minister for the Environment.

The US and Japanese owned companies that run the plantations export this timber as woodchip for paper production in Japan and China.
So rather than acknowledge the problem and try to address it, these companies have tried to avoid bad PR by denying any animals are being killed.
Please sign the Animals Australia Petition to stop the koala slaughter.
With dwindling natural habitats, some koalas have turned to Blue Gum plantations for refuge. But now, as these plantations are being cut down, an animal welfare disaster is unfolding.
With no apparent plan to relocate the local inhabitants, and without any government monitoring, trees are simply being cut down with animals still in them.
Volunteer wildlife carers are struggling to keep up with the number of casualties — koalas suffering from broken limbs and backs, severed arms and impact wounds. Many more don't even survive the fall. Witnesses have even described injured koalas still on the felled trees as they are pulled through the shredders.
The Victorian Department for Environment & Primary Industries has admitted that they rely on timber companies to self-report wildlife issues. Yet the international companies that run the plantations continue to deny there's any problem.
What's clear is that self-regulation is failing, and stronger protection for wildlife is needed. At a minimum, the detection, capture and relocation of koalas (and other at risk wildlife) needs to occur under government supervision before forest areas are logged.
Koalas urgently need you to be their voice. Please call on the Ministers responsible in Victoria and South Australia to stop the tragic killing of koalas and introduce stronger protection for wildlife.
Animals Australia: Koalas under threat
The globalization of our land, our trees, our agricultural output will put our wildlife under international standards of "animal welfare" - something that can't be controlled overseas and to standards that in many countries don't exist. Species such and elephants and orangutans are simply killed as "agricultural pests" - and this is not what we want for our native, iconic, much-loved animals!

To Ian Hunter and Peter Walsh via the Animals Australia website petition on Thursday, 26 July 2013.
cc: The Age and The Adelaide Advertiser.

I have recently become aware of the killing of koalas on timber plantations in South Australia and Victoria. This is as shameful as it is a betrayal of the Australian people's trust.

I'm appalled that the welfare of native animals has been so grossly neglected by our elected representatives and of their lack of moral integrity. The companies involved are foreign owned, and government continues to sell out to clearly disproven neo-liberal views of free markets and wholesale profit grabs by those pretending to represent the people of South Australia, Victoria and thus Australia. Please don't plead the responsibility of a prior government or lack of resources. The contracting practices of all Australian governments are a sham - and you know this.

Self-regulation is a joke - and you know this too - in the forest industry and equally amongst the elected representatives who hide behind a constitution that cannot be changed without their approval.

Animal cruelty, animal suffering must not be tolerated and in this instance it is clearly preventable. Shame on you and your involvement as elected representative to allow this to continue.

What are you going to do to meet your responsibilities as a human being and as one elected to represent more than profit margins and your own power base.

Create a legacy of your time in office and step up to protect the natural environment, its fauna and flora for the well-being of the human family and yours.


Sheila Cross

McDonald's: abandon plans to build a massive 24/7 store opposite the kindergarten in Tecoma.

McDonald's plans to build a huge 24/7 store and drive-through in our town on the Dandenong ranges -- demolishing local iconic buildings on the site and ensuring it goes directly opposite the kindergarten and school.

For our kids, the nearby national park and our beautiful small-town culture, there could be nothing worse.

Every day, kids as young as five years old would need to walk past a giant advertisement for junk food just to go to school. This is despite health experts warning of the damaging impact of junk food on young children -- and child obesity spiralling out of control. Perhaps even more worryingly, if it goes ahead here, it could set a dangerous precedent of junk food stores being built next to schools.

Our community doesn't want that. The plan is opposed by 90% of residents. The application was rejected by council. But instead of respecting our wishes, McDonald's appealed the decision and are using their huge financial and legal power to bully their way into our town. They're now suing locals who are objecting to the building of the store in the Victorian Supreme Court -- and there are accounts of McDonald's private security on the proposed site threatening and intimidating locals who have peacefully protested against the plan.

If McDonald's win this fight, it'll break our hearts. This town, our special part of the world that we think deserves protecting, would be irreversibly changed. That's why we need your help. The only way McDonald's will walk away now is if they see it becoming a huge brand risk for them -- that thousands of consumers will stand with us in opposing their plan.

Please sign my petition and join our community standing up against McDonald's -- and help ensure they abandon plans to build the store opposite our primary school.

It'd be devastating for our beautiful little town and national park.

You can also leave a message for McDonald's on their Facebook page here or tweet at them:

Petition by

Garry Muratore

Belgrave, Australia


Orang-utans are reported in the American Journal of Primatology, has been observed in Borneo to be coming down from the trees to forage and travel.

The amount of time the orang-utans were spending on the forest floor had never before been seen.

Read more:

Borneo is a network of timber plantations, agroforestry areas and mines, with patches of natural forest. They are being deprived of their natural habitats due to human encroachments and violence. Being forced to change their behaviours and adapt to living on the land is an adaption being forced onto them, to survive.

Their jaws may be getting larger to allow for the eating of bark, rather than fruit. Human oppression against orang-tans means their survival is under threat.

It's said that these gentle animals are better evolved than humans, and on a higher ethical plane. Human egotism has put us on a pedestal, but we aren't necessarily superior in adaption ability, or socially.

Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz. Originator of the orangutan theory of human origins(1984) proposed that humans are more closely related to orangutans than to chimpanzees - a model that contradicts the greater molecular similarity (often misrepresented as being the sole 'genetic' component of evolution) of base pair sequences in humans and chimpanzees.