Dear reader, once again, another visceral instalment from our New Orleans correspondent G.T Beauregard. And Oh!!! WHAT an INSTALMENT. This is beyond Zeitgeist. Pure Geist really!! I think G.T, has nailed it! What has he nailed??…read on…

Beyond zeitgeist! Guns in America… is it a criminal? (african american), a Muh-zuh-lim? a Communist?… or one of ‘U.S’?

‘It’s handwringing time again.  Firearms came out early October in Roseburg, Oregon (43.2888º N, 123.3320º W), Flagstaff, Arizona (35.1157º N, 111.3752º W) and Houston, Texas (29.4546º N 95.2259º W), as college students settled down to the grind of another semester’s learning.  The tide of copper jacketed lead was flowing towards downtown NOLA.  I wuz worried.

Yes I’s worried that carnage might be stepping onto our front porch any moment.  Might be a criminal, that is to say, a thug.  Might be a terr-aw-ist.  Might be a Muh-zuh-lim.  God forbid, it might be all three, and I know for a fact that NOPD response times are so pitifully bad that there won’t be any protection, the only thing they can usefully do is bring the plastic tape, the rape kit, the photographer, the collector of forensic evidence and so memorialize our family’s destruction.

But then we had Bunny Friend Park the other week, downriver where the po’ folks dwell. The flood had skipped over Uptown. And oh dem darkies!  Must only have been semi-serious because if half a dozen-odd young men with automatic weapons can only wound 17 of the hundreds gathered there, they weren’t really trying. So we kinda laughed that one off: being an ethnic affair it was of no account to us folks.

‘Kleiner mann was nun’? (trans)” And oh dem darkies’!!

And the unkempt guy from South Carolina who liberated three souls at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic on November 27 had his reasons.  “No more baby parts” indeed.  I’m down with that.  The fewer uterine scrapers in the world the better, and if he only managed to eliminate one patient, the friend of another and a cop, he shall yet have his reward in the hereafter.  Such aiders and abettors of vile sin deserve no more.  I suppose the patient’s little foetus is now like a hummingbird, flitting about heaven on tiny angel wings, waving its partly-formed arms, giving praise and thanks through its little gills.  But the collateral damage of righteousness is merely unfortunate; little whatever-it-was-going-to-be is undoubtedly in a better place now.

So the culling is not all bad.  Its Darwinian aspect emerges from time to time, as the purse-prying fingers of naughty toddlers blast their shopping moms in the face, or as the four year-old this afternoon in the eastern part of this city shot hisself in the neck using the weapon wisely kept in a drawer for home dee-fence by his grandparents.

But San Bernadino is another matter altogether.  Shorn of the politically correct “holiday” double speak, this outrage was perpetrated by Muh-zu-lims, plainly terr-aw-ists, against Ah-mericans at a Christmas party.  There – I’ve said it.  A CHRISTMAS PARTY.  Attended by CHRISTIANS.  Yes, Christians exercising their freedom of religion under the first amendment.  (OK, there might also have been a couple Jews as well, but I yam in a mood of forgiveness them-wise, in light of the season of goodwill and all.)

In this connection I have taken to heart the wisdom of rony2015, with whom I have struck up a public correspondence.  His accumulation of profound thought places matters in a wider context:

“the worst cities are all Democrat run and infested’

“the worse cities are all democrat run and infested., they do 99% of the crime and killing ! … Anybody that still listen to anything obama has to say needs [a] lobotomy …. it is laughable . that he is actually demanding more terrorist to enter the country. then wants to talk about security or mass killings , his weak inaction in the middle east has cause hundreds of thousands of deaths at the hand of the very people he wants to bring here. they kill hundreds every day only we dont hear about. and for last 7 years that he has dine zero millions have been wiped out due to him.”

Obviously, it is highly concerning to the citizenry that the commander-in-chief should be requiring terrorists to enter the country.  He may be even worse than his evil predecessor, Abraar bin Lincoln, whose plainly Muh-zuh-lim bearded face adorns the currency.  Even a suit full of hot fart gas like the Donald would not stoop so low.  But what can the citizen do?

“why dont you get a compact little 9mm just incase you need it . dont listen to any body that tells you there is a greater chance of getting killed if you have one . that’s all crap. dont allow yourself that indignity! there’s is a for sure chance of getting killed without one . i have carried for about 30 years and travel in my job extensively , and many tomes it has served me well.and nothing you say is going to change that we have had a business since 67  and it has always actually prevented many from getting killed including thugs i held for the cops.”

I have not yet had the pleasure of clasping the hand that wrote these words.  But he plainly exemplifies the best traditions of self-reliance and industry which once made this country great: the virtues of the pioneers, when every man of testicle did his part to forge order from lawlessness. Like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.  Or Alan Ladd as Shane, standing resolutely upon a fruit box to be taller than the girls.

Alan Ladd, ” Mein grossen Freund SHANE”. (trans) ” Now we’re all fucken scared’!

Fortunately for the future of the nation, rony2015 is not a voice alone in the wilderness, though few have his command of the world of ideas and such powers of expression.  Deliverance will not be immediate, but it is on the horizon, whether it comes from the good Dr. Carson – he who believes that the pyramids of Egypt were built for the storage of grain – or one such as Mr. Cruz, who earlier this year reassured a 3 year old constituent, “The world is on fire. Yes! Your world is on fire!”  We have only 409 sleeps to go.

Todays offering comes from the extraordinary mind of Mr Lionel George Fogarty

Sort Of Sorry

Sort of sorry tears on drops

Were no eyes?

Sore cries

Walk pass the changed season

Sing passion to the changed leavening.

Mouths lay at the below eyes of beds.

Now writing is unwritten

So ear in took raw deals.

Then as a stood sorry people

Said no more tears.

Smiles embraced the truth for saddest

Wiped an extinct body.

No sorry business changes things

No loaded crying stops crimes

Walk pass the changing seasons

Walls seek space for the lonely faces

She saw pain in a lane of flyaway planes.

He sewed rains drops fallen by

The baby’s unborn restrings.

Sydney N.S.W. 2013 26 May  Lionel G Fogarty 6.00 am

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.

The Ants at the Olympics by Richard Digance

At last year’s Jungle Olympics,
The Ants were completely outclassed.
In fact, from an entry of sixty-two teams, The
Ants came their usual last.

They didn’t win one single medal. Not
that that’s a surprise.
The reason was not lack of trying, But
more their unfortunate size.

While the cheetahs won most of the sprinting
And the hippos won putting the shot,
The Ants tried sprinting but couldn’t, And tried
to put but could not.

It was sad for the Ants ’cause they’re sloggers. They
turn out for every event.
With their shorts and their bright orange tee-shirts,
Their athletes are proud they are sent.

They came last at the high jump and hurdles,
Which they say they’d have won, but they fell.
They came last in the four hundred meters And
last in the swimming as well.

They came last in the long-distance running,
Though they say they might have come first. And
they might if the other sixty-one teams Hadn’t put
in a finishing burst.

But each year they turn up regardless.
They’re popular in the parade.
The other teams whistle and cheer them,
Aware of the journey they’ve made.

For the Jungle Olympics in August,
They have to set off New Year’s Day. They
didn’t arrive the year before last. They set off
but went the wrong way.

So long as they try there’s a reason. After
all, it’s only a sport.
They’ll be back next year to bring up the rear, And
that’s an encouraging thought.

¿Hola que tal, compañeros?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtj3ayme1Io

To set the scene I’d like you to listen to Kimberley musician Patrick Davies’ ‘Bought & Sold’.
Here are the lyrics:
Chorus:

No I don’t have enough time, in my day,
to be messed around, or led astray,
a drunk out on the street, I would rather be,
at least I wouldn’t have all the pain and misery. 

Seems like more and more people, bought and sold,
the bucket of dreams, that’s just full of holes,
and there’s so many people walkin’ ’round without their soul,
and as for a conscience, all you find is a great big hole,
And they buy up all of your wishes on all of the stars,
the sun and the moon, Jupiter and Mars,
they buy everything, that their greedy eyes can see.
There’ll be a knock on the door, and they’ll be trying to buy you and me!

Chorus

Yes the other night, on the river sand,
I was in a conversation, with an ‘ole black man,
and here is a question, that he put to me,
My boy, how come all my land’s been stole’, withouta askin’ me?

Chorus

In 1971 we did that once in a lifetime trip. We drove from Calgary across Canada and the Northern U.S.A. down to New Orleans and all the way down to Panama City, whence we caught MV Tahitien that took us to Sydney via several French Pacific colonies. It was her last trip (she was subsequently sold and refitted as a cruise ship under another name).

We travelled third class. When the ship anchored off the Marquesas Islands, a large number of ‘natives’ came on board. That was when we became aware of a fourth class (restricted to non-Europeans). The fourth class passengers were headed to Papeete where the South Pacific Games were to be held. That the fourth class consisted of the third class deck and lacked bedding didn’t bother the Marquesans. They sang and danced continuously until Tahiti was reached. According to Wikipedia MV Tahitien travelled at 17 knots/hr thus the 1400Km distance would have been covered in 45 hours. We in la troisieme classe didn’t sleep either, it is all a bit of a blur made blurrier by the plentiful table wine. We shared our table with several of those rare individuals, French teetotallers. All the more for us! The first and second class passengers missed out on the blur, there being no access to the silver tails and vice versa.

On the way to Panama we visited a museum in Managua. A rather modest and underfunded establishment in the Somoza family’s Nicaragua. Dictators tend to prefer to squirrel their fortunes away into Swiss Bank accounts or Cayman Islands based investments, rather than spend it on Museums.

As we walked in, the sole occupant was an old lady (probably no older than what I am now, but at the time she seemed very old) leaning on a walking stick. She was in charge of the Museum that she told us her father had established. She bemoaned the fact that the Government wasn’t forthcoming with the funding needed, inter alia, to prevent national archaeological treasures from being smuggled out of the country to be sold to foreigners. We were deep in conversation with the old dignified and knowledgeable lady, when we were interrupted by a raucous noise similar to that made by a screeching descending flock of kirli-kirlilpa (pink galahs). The old lady immediately recognised the visitors, their photo had been on the front page of the newspaper. They weren’t galahs, they were members of the Florida State Horticultural Society on a field trip. They were staying at the Managua Hilton. They were very chuffed by having been recognised. They were loudly exploring the museum when one of the horticultural gentlemen loudly posed the question to another horticulturalist “WONDER IF YOU CAN BUY ANY OF THIS STUFF?” (they buy everything, that their greedy eyes can see.) 

A year ago the Northern Territory Government sold the insurance assets of the Territory Insurance Office for $236M to the German based Allianz Group.

A month ago the same NT Government announced the granting of a 99-year lease on the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company. The deal is “worth” $506M.

Yuendumu Police Station cost $7.6M

Wadeye Police Station will cost $24M

Arlparra (Utopia) Police Station $7M

The NT’s new Super Prison- is estimated will cost $2B over the next 30 years.

This all is great news for the NT’s Indigenous population, these Police Complexes aim at (and I quote):

“Working in partnership with the community to ensure a safe and resilient Northern Territory”

As for the NT’s new Super Prison- Aborigines stand a far greater chance of being able to enjoy its hospitality, than us kardiya.

No I don’t have enough time, in my day,
to be messed around, or led astray,
a drunk out on the street, I would rather be,
at least I wouldn’t have all the pain and misery.

As for selling, you can’t get past the myth that Robert Johnson’s ability to play guitar was due to him having sold his soul to the Devil (at the Crossroads)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A

and there’s so many people walkin’ ’round without their soul,
and as for a conscience, all you find is a great big hole,

And a final flourish from Patrick Davies.
‘Rocky old road’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFAdylvx34c

…no you can’t take all you are given,
oft times it means selling your soul… 

Hasta la proxima vez,

Franklin

‘From Little things, big things grow’, (Paul Kelly, songwriter) Any chance of a new historical perspective on the Essendon doping scandal?

Dear reader, it would be crass to suggest that a recent flood of private donations to the very prestigious and august Melbourne University, (to be soon listed on the Stock Exchange) has anything to do with self interest. Nor would it be fair to suggest that such generous donations are motivated by anytime other than  altruism and public virtue. But clearly the new thoroughly modern Melbourne is thoroughly corporate. And it would be snide, and uncharitable to suggest that with such corporate generosity, the sadly depleted history and english departments, ( now a shadow of their former selves) would NOT be doing fascinating groundbreaking research into contemporary and vexed issues related to aboriginal australians, politics, and left-leaning interpretations of contemporary Australian society. Because that would be uncharitable. As benefactor, (and corporate leader) Paul Little’s spouse described, ‘we need to know more about why Hitler invaded Stalingrad, and what happened with the 300 at Thermopylae’. And I’d like to know that also. But what I don’t want, (and the public are clearly not interested), are an analysis of the events of our recent history; the shift to the far right in  Australian politics, human rights, land deals for mates, anzackery, and the seepage of public funds and assets into the pockets of the private sector. Share with us some fragments from the alumni, they are edited to make ‘polite’ reading over breakfast.

Belief System 1# MONEY!

‘Re universities, there’s little turning of the tide and ironically it is via the corporate sector.
See the Chair in Literature ($5) announced a little while ago, funded by John Wylie (merchant banker) and named after his wife.

And believe it or not, not to be outdone, Paul Little (Chair of Essendon/Toll Holdings) in today’s Financial Review, announced a Chair in History ($10M) to be named the Hansen Chair after his wife ($ left over after the plastic surgery – check out the pics!)

So…… Glyn (Grin) Davis is laughing all the way to the bank with all these cashed up bods wanting to leave a legacy and make themselves feel good (not sure how many of them get out on the soup van!) But nonetheless it is very pleasing to see.
And as we all well know, Dame Elisabeth led the way. But despite her generosity,and the devotion of her son to public institutions and vigorous public debate, the quality of the education from the arts faculty, sadly depleted since the 80’s, seems questionable.

And as it emerged from the newspapers, ‘it aint all bad’; (the Age and Fin Review)

Frederico da Montefeltro. (Op cit.) Renaissance era thug seeking respectability. No bearing on contemporary Australian History.

Award winning novelist, Richard Flanagan, has been appointed as the Boisbouvier Founding Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.
The Chair, which is the first of its kind in Victoria, aims to celebrate and promote Australia’s rich literary traditions and abilities. It was made possible by a $5 million gift to the University of Melbourne by merchant banker and president of the State Library Board, Mr John Wylie AM and his wife, Mrs Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie.
“We’re looking forward to seeing Mr Flanagan play a key role in promoting knowledge of Australian literature and activities that link two of our greatest cultural institutions in Melbourne – the State Library and the University,” Mr Wylie said.
Mrs Boisbouvier-Wylie added: “Richard is a writer of extraordinary talent. He made me discover and appreciate many facets of the Australian experience and psyche through his beautiful and evocative writing.

A passion for ancient Greek wars, the Renaissance era and art has led to the biggest individual donation for history studies for an Australian university.

BRW Rich Lister Paul Little and his wife Jane Hansen have donated $10 million to the University of Melbourne to boost teaching standards for history studies in the arts faculty.

Hitler and Stalingrad. History repeating itself. Captions; ‘Serco officers sitting thorough the wreckage of the Nauru detention centre, or the last days of the Australian manufacturing industry. (regrettably this will not be on the “new” history syllabus).

Ms Hansen, a former investment banker who is currently undertaking an arts degree at the university, said when asked about the donation and why she was so passionate about the importance of studying history: “Who wouldn’t want to know what made the 300 stand their ground at Thermopylae​ or why Caesar crossed the Rubicon, or Hitler pushed on towards Stalingrad or what caused Gorbachev to tear down the Wall?

“It is my intention this will change the conversation about history. I want to encourage awareness of the significance of an education in history and nurture a passion and appreciation for its relevance in the wider community,” she said.