This dispatch first saw the light of day on 3 March 2013 in which the suggestion is made the the Intervention is in fact a Trojan Horse for even greater theft from Aborigines (and incidentally from the public purse.)

Γεια σας φίλοι μου
Προσοχή Έλληνες δώρα που φέρουν (Beware Greeks bearing gifts…..)

“ I will look at any additional evidence to confirm the opinion to which I have already come”

Is this a quote from Minister Macklin before her Department embarked on the so called ‘consultation process’ prior to the launch of the Stolen Futures legislation?

No, it isn’t, but it encapsulates the farcical events that took place.

I refer you to ‘NT Consultation Report 2011 By Quotations’ (from Concerned Australians):
http://www.respectandlisten.org/uploads/downloads/ca/NTCR-Book-review.pdf

I need not elaborate further, suffice it to say that the Government (in cahoots with the Opposition) hardly looked at ‘any additional evidence’ (including the numerous submissions to the Parliamentary Enquiry) and if so only ‘to confirm the opinion to which they had already come’.

The quote is of a British politician- Lord Molson (1903-1991) found in a book by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: ‘Mistakes were Made (but not by me)’

Another quote from this book:
“If in hindsight, we also discover that mistakes may have been made… I am deeply sorry”

Was this Kevin Rudd ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drNqZWzj5GY

No, this was Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, referring to the bishops who failed to deal with child molesters among the Catholic clergy.

Within living memory the most powerful nation on earth launched a savage attack on Iraq on the basis of alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction which proved as based on facts as the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Over half a decade ago a savage attack on Aboriginal rights and self-determination was launched on the basis of alleged widespread dysfunction and the sexual abuse of children by organized paedophile rings on Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

These allegations proved as based on fact as the politically opportunistic ‘Children Overboard’ and the Gulf of Tonkin incidents.

Currently in Australia the front pages of newspapers report on two major ‘scandals’: doping and match fixing in sport, and the sexual abuse of children (this time not confined to Aboriginal children in the NT).

These allegations are nonspecific and claimed to be widespread. As for Aboriginal men in 2007, the vast majority of honest, honourable and moral sports men and women, clerics, youth workers and social workers have all been tarred with the same brush. A cloud of suspicion and stigmatisation hangs over them. The ‘presumption of innocence’, one of the main pillars of the Western Justice System, is out the window and is being held to ransom by the Fourth Estate, their actions justified by a self serving interpretation of ‘Freedom of Speech’.

‘Freedom of Speech’ is also invoked by the supporters of Geert Wilders.  The only thing Geert and myself have in common is our country of birth. So I asked a (1957) school friend (we found each other on the internet) what he thought of his countryman Geert, and thus I learnt a few more words in my mother tongue  “een walgelijke provocatieve fluim” which Googletranslate tells me is “ a disgusting provocative phlegm “ in English. My friend is also glad to hear that Mr. Wilders isn’t all that welcome in Australia, and this gives me reason to feel proud as an Australian.

No such cause for pride in Australia’s treatment of its First Peoples.

‘Freedom of Speech’ is subject to interpretation, as is ‘Level Playing Field’, one’s ‘level’ is another’s ‘steep slope’. My friends Cockburn and Poole have started a blogpcbycp.com that I can recommend. A picture is worth 1,000 words, this is their ‘Level Playing Field’:

Do you recall my mention of a book ‘Bendable Learnings’? Recently Yuendumu School closed for two days (they call them ‘pupil free days’) for all teaching staff to go to Alice Springs to attend a workshop on ‘Visible Learnings’. Make of that what you will.

So what has all this to do with the Trojan Horse? It has occurred to me that the Intervention was a classic Trojan Horse (more like a pack of horses). Inside the ‘protect the women and children’ horse there was a vanguard of soldiers and others that then opened the gates for an army of civil servants, outside contractors and others to subjugate the Trojans inside the community (Wikipedia: “The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.”)

Someone sent me a copy of a ‘Ministerial Statement’ by Alison Anderson (the NT’s newly appointed Minister for Aboriginal Advancement in the NT).  Her Trojan Horse are the Homelands and Outstations. As an Aboriginal person herself she speaks with passion about the importance of land to Aborigines: “Our spiritual connection to the land is unique, and today I seek to explain and celebrate it…”

Three pages of this that left me emotionally touched and impressed with her wisdom… What a wonderful horse! 

Wish I could sit and dream a while and spend some time in my Homeland…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiZgc9foy-E

However then, with the best of intentions and the advancement of her people at heart, Alison goes on to push the assimilationist agenda hidden inside the horse. From the sublime to the ridiculous:

“Private ownership of housing is good because it encourages people to take out mortgages. Warren Mundine has spoken of this, of the great benefit of a mortgage once you start to think about it. Having a mortgage means you can build a better house for yourself and your children . It means you have to get up in the morning and have a shower and go to work, to earn the money to pay the mortgage. That means you set a good example for your children, who get up to go to school.”

Livin’ and a workin’ on the land….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzhj-XoZb4

The possibility of taking out a mortgage on a house on an outstation is far removed from reality.

It is the impossible dream…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHAU45Ezkvs

Alison’s mention of the shower, reminded me that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAV_8B7p7gs

almost four decades ago several Warlpiri school teachers used to get up in the morning and front at our Education Department house to have a shower before going to work. This was at a time when half the school staff was Warlpiri.

Today I think there are only two qualified Warlpiri teachers left at Yuendumu School. The Education Department doesn’t make housing available to locally recruited staff. How different things might be today if only they’d taken out mortgages!

Have been to three funerals in the last fortnight. People I cared for.

One of the services was almost entirely in the Luritja language.

This is one of the songs they sang (I can’t find a Luritja version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=315W9d2GYCo

Hundreds of people travelled hundreds of Kilometres to attend. Many in unregistrable vehicles with more passengers than seatbelts, risking large fines they would not be able to pay.

At the Alice Springs cemetery they sang this (again in Luritja)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8AeV8Jbx6M

It was once again driven home to me that remote Aborigines’ most precious ‘possessions’ are Land, Language, Law and Family.

To give all that up for a mortgage, for someone else’s impossible dream, is too high a price to pay.

Ειρήνη
Frank

Dear reader.

It is with breathless excitement we report that last Tuesday was a red letter day in Australian Literature. A day that will be talked of in years to come.

Our very own poet laureate, Lionel Fogarty has won the prestigious Kate Challis award for unparalleled excellence in the arts.

Captured in is full regalia, Lionel is seen being congratulated by the prize’s patron, and some other bloke. Lionel entertained to a full house and was rapturously received. He also shared the limelight with family and admirers who clapped and cheered so hard their hands became chapped and calloused, and their vocals hoarse.

Unfortunately the former Minister of the Arts Mr George Brandis was unable to attend the function. His personal secretary suggested that being a ‘renaissance man’ he was thoroughly busy in translating Dante’s inferno into cunieform, and re-printing his best speeches for 2015  in Latin and old Norse.  We wish him well in this endeavour,  though we feel assured that Lionel, if he had his poems translated into Latin or High Empire French would have been frontrunner in the Excellence in the Arts Awards.

Cecil admires the view in ‘Kelly Country’

Lionel and his long time partner Ali, (also a contributor to this blog) flushed with the radiance of much and well deserved success have retired to the secret rural hideout of Cecil Poole somewhere in ‘Kelly Country’. We wish them all a safe return.

Dear reader, the following is an edited transcript of a recent conversation between two individuals, (of special interest) who are offering us an insight into why our banner is both emblematic and ambiguous. We anticipate no such ambiguity exists in this transcript.

Upon the subject of the solar arrays,

‘By the way the photo on the, (this) blog  of the solar array looks very much like a photo of the solar array that the Feds and SA governments built at Umuwa, the Canberra of the APY lands.  The array is another joke.

Umuwa, Solar Collectors. As described by GEM Yuendumu, “they’re very nice, but tell them I’ve already got one”

Perhaps you already know of this, but just in case here is the joke.

Umuwa is not a community, it is an administrative centre for the APY lands, or that is what it is supposed to be.  It is really just a bad joke, or more correctly a collection of them.  Here is one of them; the State and Fed government spent mega dollars on a solar array to supply power to Umuwa and it has not operated since 2011:

“The $2.5 million state- and federally-funded sun farm was built at Umuwa in 2003.  Another $1 million was spent upgrading it in 2008, but it has not been running for the past year.” (source http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/solar-umuwa-apy-lands-sun-farm/2808796)

‘In 2000, the Pitjantjatjara Council secured $2.4 million for the construction of a field of 10 solar dishes on the APY Lands. The aim of the project was “to cut greenhouse gas emissions” while reducing “community expenditure on general fuel.”[v] At the time, it was estimated that the sun farm project would, when completed, provide about 20% of the power requirements for Pukatja, Yunyarinyi and a number of homelands, and produce “generator fuel savings in the vicinity of some $100 000 per year.”  … On 30 June 2011, as part of Budget Estimates, Mr Steven Marshall MP (Member for Norwood) asked Minister Portolesi for an update on the operation and status of the sun farm.  In reply, the Minister advised that it was “not financially sensible” to repair or upgrade the sun farm and that the facility would no longer operate.’  (Source http://www.papertracker.com.au/archived/apy-lands-sun-farm-at-umuwa/)

Work proceeding on the new Outstation Resource Centre. Ramps designed cleverly to allow mass processing. Improvised ramp cutting perpendicular to terracing to allow on stream ” rolling” of 44 gallon drums with bolts and nuts. ( Bolt Report Nov. 2015)

Now for the Solar Farm: Coincidentally I was told yesterday that the Yuendumu solar farm (which hasn’t operated for years) has just been dismantled. Our newly created Outstations Resource Centre (Yapa-kurlangu Ngurrara A.C.) is getting several 44 gallon drums worth of bolts and nuts for free as well as a large quantity of structural steel (luckily someone found out about the scrap steel etc. before it was taken to Alice Springs to be taken to the dump- which apparently was the plan).

I was also told that Power & Water intend to replace the now obsolete dishes with flat panels.

The reason the photo appears on the pcbcp site is that it shows (and here I quote) “on the day the photo was taken there were either two suns in the sky, or the dishes weren’t talking to each other”

Prototype Solar Systems reflector being tested by chief Engineer Solar Systems, Bill, (William) Archimedes.

Prototype “personal” solar reflectors developed by Solar Systems Australia. Costume and Goggles generously donated by Minister for Science and Innovation the Rt. Hon. Christopher Morris Pyne. From his personal collection.

The photo is indeed of the Solar Farm at Yuendumu. Lajamanu and Ntaria scored a solar farm each (as well as Umuwa)

Subject to me not having my facts right: These were constructed by Solar Systems Pty.Ltd. A Melbourne based company that was aiming to win the contract at the Victorian Government’s proposed Mega-Solar farm in the Wimmera. The dishes were experimental in nature, they were experimenting on designing better efficiency in converting photovoltaic energy into electricity and were making great strides when the Vic Govt changed their mind, and Solar Systems were not able to raise the funding to continue and went broke.

If only the likes of Malcolm Turnbull had withdrawn some of their money held in the Cayman Islands and invested it in Australian innovation (the latest buzz word) Solar Systems may never have looked back.

Standard type solar panels. Trialled with new ” protective anti glare non-melt uniform’ to be worn by all remote station denizens who exercise their choice to live there.

Rather counterintuitive but the “collectors” had to be cooled. An array of PVC pipes submerged in our sewerage ponds acted as a heat-exchanger and cooling water was continuously circulated and pumped and applied to the collectors to prevent them from melting.

At last Change is happening!!

Nice Logo!! Tangible evidence of significant CHANGE!!

Dear reader it is seldom that ‘we’, as jaded disconsolate editors are enthused by the zeitgeist of our era. But we are pleased to report we can barely contain ourselves with the strength, trajectory and sheer brilliance on offer at the 2015 Paris Climate Change talks.

At last there seems to be something palpable, something tangible in the air, and we can see some real action.

 Yes indeed it’s easy to be cynical, but this conference represents a real opportunity for the world to unite and get their act together for the benefit of humanity.

Ben van Beurden. CEO Shell. On Climate: ‘Let the market decide, it’s worked extremely well with vocational training in Australia I’m led to believe’.

 And seizing upon this unique, epoch making initiative, we sent out very own correspondent, Petra, (Bertram) Fossil, to report on the initial plenary sessions and get a taste for ‘this most defining moment’ to end the cycle of carbon emissions that are steadily and most assuredly destroying this planet.

And we know now that in spite of recent utterances from the head of Shell, (Ben Van Buerden); ‘The reality of demand growth is such that fossil fuel will be needed for decades to come’ or the more excoriating reality bite from professor Steffen Boem, (University of Essex), “Nobody who sits at the negotiation table in Paris has the mandate nor inclination to ask fundamental systemic questions of the logic of the dominant economic system and the way we consume the resources of this planet’,there is HOPE!

 As a riposte to all that negativity, some joyous, renewable, sunlight.

From the Climate change conference: Petra Betrtram Fossil, (Co2 Correspondent) 1789 rue de lapin, Picardy.

‘Yes indeed there is a distinct feeling of anticipation and high hopes for a real and lasting solution to this existential threat. Never before has so much of the worlds intellectual, diplomatic and physical resources been galvanised to resolve this burning issue. And though the anticipated crowds have been discouraged from lining the streets, and the presentation in the Champs d Elysees cancelled due to the looming terrorist threat, the talk on the street, and evidence of frenzied activity by the American, English and other Europeans indicates far reaching resolutions to these vexed problems. As the English Prime Minister so emphatically pronounced, “Upon this world conference, rests the future of civilization itself”. And the American President, earnestly shaking almost every hand among the delegates, secretaries, and trade delegations assured the gathering of world leaders, that “Once again, America stands to uphold principle and integrity as a leader in world affairs’. The Russians, though under-represented, were unable to commit to a firm position whilst the Japanese Government demonstrated a keenness to participate fully in the new global order. China and India, both emergent superpowers recognised that ‘they have much to gain’ in a successful outcome. And amongst the smaller countries, some as members of the Commonwealth, were heartened by a visit from HRH the Prince of Wales who presented them with a declaration of his commitment to ensure that this conference would set a new benchmark for “Nice-ness”.

Delegate from one of the smaller countries at the 2015 Climate Conference.

Unfortunately, there is a problem.

Leaders of the “nice, decent, good-fellow club’  ensuring ” once and for all” that this conference achieves lasting global change to create a better new world, (trans in french),’plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose’

 One of the smaller nations, steadfastly believes; ‘its sacrifice is immeasurably more significant than the other principal powers’. It also ‘wont budge’, and will move ‘not an inch” in negotiations. Shocked by the self righteous, confected diatribe, their Prime Minister insists that his nation has “more to lose” by, “caving in’ to left leaning scientists, pseudo intellectuals, and global fashion. Twice the general secretary threatened to kick the malcontent out, but the P.M was unrepentant. A special clause has been inserted with recognises the special rights of the Australian people, and their Prime Minister William Morris Hughes to adopt their own resolution to the vexed issues. Though admonished by the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Lloyd George, and the visionary Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, Mr. Hughes would not desist in making derisory and vituperative outbursts directed at the Japanese and Chinese contingent. Indeed his behaviour has been so objectionable that even Mr. Clemenceau of the French delegation was heard to utter, “zese people are barbarians’, and in response to French designs on the former colonies of German East Africa, “ Zis leetle mous is roaring again”.

 Happy though to say, the order of things has been restored, the Middle East has been re-carved, sliced and re-diced, and an assurance made that with the promulgation of the expected League of Nations, that self-interest, national and corporate bloody mindedness will be a thing of the past.

 At last, an iron clad assurance of ‘peace in our time’!

Dear reader, you may be aware we’ve ‘sort of kind of’ tried to draw a very pallid half-light upon just some of the emergent “criminal” trends within our society. After some thoughtful consideration over a game of vignt-et-un and Sazerac at the Boston Club with our celebrated deep-southern correspondent G.T. (Gran Tourismo) Beauregard it was decided that from amongst all the front runners, (Joe Hockey’s elevation as Washington ambassador, The splendid police complex at Yuendemu, Wadeye and Arlparra, 38.6 million dollars and counting, and our celebrated frontrunners in stealing public assets) the grand prize should go to a group of Queenslanders.

No! They’re not those the responsible for pushing egregiously huge and environmentally devastating coal mine projects on future generations, (though they should be somewhere up the very top with Chevron, for giving so little of their wealth back to the society that allegedly supports them), but a family concern, that was quite honest and transparent in their intentions. One can only hope after their subsequent denouement at the the hands of the ATO, other charities, (foremost the Church of Scientology) would also fail the “pub- test”. But these are testing times, and we leave it to you, our dedicated and astute readership,  to decide for yourselves, and offer the inducement of the gift of the recently released Christopher Pyne and Corey Bernardii autobiographies as a Christmas stocking filler, if you can find us a better one.

The following extract appeared in last weeks Fairfax newspapers. And unusually for current news items,  It made us laugh! We begin with the headline;

‘Charity’ that spent $1m on luxury cars, holidays and gambling loses tax-free status! (Alana Schetzer Published: November 25, 2015)

Mr Salerno. Literally, ‘packing up his troubles in his ol kit bag’. Before being undone by those ‘peck sniffs’ in the Tax Office.

‘A so-called charity that spent more than $1 million on luxury cars, overseas jaunts and gambling in the name of research has lost its appeal to keep its tax-free charitable status.

Mrs Salerno’s pink Rolls Royce ‘FAB 1’, and chauffeur, (Christopher Morris) on a fact-finding tour of London.

The Federal Court struck out an appeal from The Study and Prevention of Psychological Diseases Foundation (SPED), which was fighting the Australian Tax Office over the loss of its charity tax concessions and deductible gift recipient status for its work to study the “ideal human environment”. The Brisbane-based foundation, which was founded by James Salerno Snr, purchased a Rolls-Royce for about $695,000, a $100,000 Hummer, and a $300,000 Ferrari for what it claimed was research.

Mr Salerno. Actively engaged in research somewhere in the outback.

Other costs include travelling to India to attend a wedding and gambling as part of research into “understanding thought processes and addictive behaviour from engagement in games of chance”. In the late 1990s, Mr Salerno lived for three months with family members and a group of other volunteers in a remote part of Western Australia, as part of an experiment on the “ideal human environment”. The foundation’s membership was stacked by members of Mr Salerno ‘s family, who paid their entire salaries into the foundation and therefore paid no income tax. Their everyday living expenses, such as housing, food and travel, were paid for by the foundation. The court upheld an earlier decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which concluded the foundation was “neither a charitable institution nor a health promotion charity”. The tribunal was scathing of the foundation in its decision, saying “nothing has made its way into, or even been submitted to, any medical or other journal”. Federal Court Justice Andrew Greenwood said in his ruling that SPED’s research only had educational value to “a very limited class of people”. “The research has little or no educational value to the community and, in any event, if benefits were produced by the research, those benefits were not available to the public or a sufficiently significant section of the public,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Tax Office told Fairfax Media: “The decision helps protect the integrity of the not-for-profit sector by ensuring charity tax concessions are accessed only by those entitled to do so. “SPED could not be reached for comment.

A disconsolate Minister Pyne, upon hearing that his costumes, generously lent to the Salerno family, will not be returned. Nor a promise to ride in Mrs’ Salerno’s pink Rolls Royce honoured. The pitfalls of public office.

SPED was founded to research crowded living, people who live alone, opulence and poverty across urban and regional Australia, and what effect this had on people.

So there you have it dear reader. But wait!!   There’s more!!  We believe another charity has drawn the effluvium of public attention upon it.  And it’s an unorthodox delivery from none other than the master of spin,  Shane Warne. But as Australia’s greatest living sports-person we can’t go there. Respect has its price, so we’ve been told.