This Dispatch was originally distributed 17 October 2012

 Lines in the Sand-October 2012

صباح الخير

“…It is this frontier line between Iraq, Kuwait and Arabia, drawn by a British civil servant in 1922 to protect Iraq at the expense of Kuwait, that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein denounced as invalid when he invaded.

In 1922, Churchill succeeded in mapping out the Arab Middle East along lines suitable to the needs of the British civilian and military administrations. T. E. Lawrence would later brag that he, Churchill and a few others had designed the modern Middle East over dinner. Seventy years later, in the tense deliberations and confrontations of half the world over the same area, the question is whether the peoples of the Middle East are willing or able to continue living with that design.” [from an article byDavid Fromkin in “The Smithsoneon” (Fall 1990)]

Check out a map of Africa, you will note many straight lines, undoubtedly drawn by British, French, Portuguese, Belgian, Italian, Spanish and German civil servants. These lines were suitable to the needs of the British, French, Portuguese, Belgian, Italian, Spanish and German civilian and military administrations. Many of these lines (straight and crooked) would have been designed over dinner, allowing the participants subsequently to brag about their designs. You may also note that, as a generalisation, the sandier the soil the straighter the lines. Lines in the sand.

http://youtu.be/9WTlisjbvPY

Over a decade ago then Director of the Central Land Council, Tracker Tilmouth, drew a line in the sand regarding negotiations with the owners of the Granites Gold mine (260 km. west-north of Yuendumu). The mining company was told that unless they got serious about greater local participation in the golden bounty being extracted from Warlpiri land, no further exploration licences would be approved in the region. Presently two Warlpiri people are employed at the gold mining operations near the Granites. Tracker’s line in the sand has been well and truly crossed and erased.

On 14^th June an ‘Information and Consultation session’ was held at the Yuendumu basketball court. At the time I wrote:

“Do you recall that famous 1970 “Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came” poster?”.

The information and consultation session was attended by three locals. The I & C session was to I & C the Federal Government’s $1.5 billion Remote Jobs and Communities Program (the‘RJCP’).

On 2^nd October an email was distributed by our GEC (Government Engagement Co-ordinator) which included a media release calling  for “providers to deliver new $1.5b remote jobs program”

The joint (several Federal Ministers) media release included the following:

“The Government held around 90 information and consultation sessions in remote Australia earlier this year and is responding to the feedback from individuals, organisations and communities.”

I like to think that the other around 89 information and consultation sessions had more than three locals attending!

You can imagine my excitement when I read further down the media release that Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, had said that:

“the EOI was designed to give small, local organisations the best opportunity to participate”

“We want to see as many local Indigenous organisations delivering the new program as possible. That is why we have committed $15 million to help build the capacity of potential providers.”

“We have also made it a requirement of the selection process, that applicants demonstrate their connection to communities in the regions, as well as their capacity to deliver the services required”

“A series of information sessions for potential providers are being held in all remote regions, providing important information on funding and how to respond to the EOI.”

On the 12^th October 1492, Columbus and his merry men first sighted land on the American continent, thereby setting in train events that would lead eventually to civil servants drawing many lines on maps including many straight lines in the sand.

On the 12^th October 2012, the RJCP held one of the foreshadowed information sessions for potential providers at Yuendumu. A singular lack of co-ordination was evident when our GEC failed to inform local potential providers about this meeting which was attended by quite a few presumably invited outside ‘providers’ and non-Yuendumu organisations. It was only by chance and a bit of counter-espionage that we were alerted to this meeting.

The session consisted of being read out a long list of requirements and deadlines we would have to meet. I’m not aware of a single local organisation that can jump the hurdles, or navigate the labyrinth designed by the authorities. But, hey! As Jenny Macklin said: “the EOI was designed to give small, local organisations the best opportunity to participate” and of course there is that ‘capacity building’ $15M, we don’t have the capacity to access!        Opportunity! http://youtu.be/bZcxOla-Y-s

The ‘management speak’ being read out was almost incomprehensible. So exciting was the information being divulged that the three Warlpiri people that found out about the meeting and unexpectedly turned up, nearly fell asleep, and didn’t return after the intermission. The second half was part of the $15M ‘capacity building’ commitment. It was presented by KPMG whose encouraging motto is the registered trademark “cutting through complexity”. We were told about the difference between partnerships, consortia and joint ventures all aimed at informing us so we could decide how best to join with other local organisations to improve our chances of securing a slice of the pie. The deadline for registering our EOI (‘Expression of Interest’ if you didn’t know) is 14^th November. Thus we had 33 days left in which to organize directors or committee meetings to liaise with other local organisations and decide on the best corporate structure, and decide on what to put into a jointly lodged EOI. A piece of cake.

Jenny Macklin, you better think about what you’re trying to do to me … http://youtu.be/hsL9UL9qbv8   Oh Freedom!

Am thinking Yuendumu should form a consortium with its own registered trade mark motto: “cutting through the bullshit”.

A series of maps were handed out showing a series of straight lines. Yuendumu was included on a map in an area stretching east into Anmatyerre country and across the Stuart Highway, north to Wirliyajarrayi, and west to a mysteriously unlabelled Nyirrpi. Another map solved the mystery. Nyirrpi sits on several sand dunes. A line had been drawn in the sand and Nyirrpi thus became part of the ‘Far West Alice Springs’ area. You’ll recall Jenny Macklin’s words:  “…a requirement of the selection process, that applicants demonstrate their connection to communities in the regions…. “ The line in the sand surgically removing Nyirrpi from the Yuendumu area, but including non-Warlpiri speakers clearly demonstrate such a connection by the designers of the lines. They reveal their designs on Aboriginal land. Undoubtedly these lines were designed over dinner (about which they will subsequently brag) and drawn by Australian civil servants in 2012 along lines suitable to the needs of the Australian civilian and military administrations.

At both the ‘Information and Consultation’ and the subsequent ‘Information” sessions, the authorities had the error of including Nyirrpi in the Far West Alice Springs area pointed out to them:

…but if you’re not gonna listen
then don’t bother to ask for advice…

http://youtu.be/oxOWAYzNQo0

I have some hope that in the not too distant future the Warlpiri will draw their own line in the sand when it comes to their relationship, negotiations and so called consultations with the authorities.

None of us should be so presumptuous as to draw it for them.

أشكركم على قراءة هذا
السلام عليكم

Frank

http://youtu.be/fTWFDaSRmzU

أ

Dear reader, we have an unforeseen dilemma. We must admit our editorial staff have been ‘rudderless’ since the demise of the Abbott government. We have lost our enthusiasm, and capacity for emotional engagement. The eminent psychologist, Dr T. E. Lorenz has described our condition as ‘collective melancholia’, and prescribed a course of drugs and rest.

The New P.M. We are not so worried about the policy deficit but serious concerns must be raised in regards to the P.M’s fashion sense. Also as has been pointed out by readers associated with the Exclusive Brethren, we are worried about ( Lower LH Corner) that the P.M, condones sex toys. Not a Good Look for “working families”

We recovered sufficiently yesterday to observe Mr Turnbull’s first day as P.M. The new P.M revealed “no change” to the Abbott policies on same sex, and carbon. This was heartening, something to rail against! We can only hope and anticipate that the Turnbull government possessing a “nicer face” will do absolutely nothing to change Abbott’s policies. Still, bereft of emotional engagement we bring you another fragment from G.T Beauregard. A scintillating insight into a land where men are free to be real men. And good ol fashioned values lay at the very bedrock of society. And so it should be.

15/8/15

One simply must try the Ezekiel 4:9 tortilla, a product of the Food For Life Baking Co Inc. of Corona, California. Ezekiel, as every schoolboy knows, prescribed a combination of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, to be combined in a single vessel “and of these make bread”. He did not say “and of these make a thin glutinous patty”, not even allowing for a great deal of licence in translation. One thing we can say with a good deal of certainty, no matter whether we subscribe to godless Darwinism or believe that the Earth and all its goodness was created last Thursday week: Ezekiel never ate a tortilla. He did not ever enjoy the combination of ground beef, onions, tomato, grated cheese and spices wrapped in a thin slice of bread which we understand to form the dish of this name. He knew not of corn, that marvel of creation which in one way or another insinuates itself into virtually every edible product of the new world. If he had known of it he would of course have qualified his instruction in some way, not encouraged charlatans to prey upon the literal minded, exploiting their love of scripture to the detriment of their culinary satisfaction. He may well have said something like “but of tacos and tortillas make it not, but prefer thereunto the flour of the maize which will be discovered in approximately 17 centuries time”. But he did not, and we are not spared the Ezekiel tortilla, which combines the consistency of papier maché with the flavour of damp wool. Thus the want of a sense of history leads us astray and mammon once more appropriates religion.

Safety First!

17/8/15 The Academy Sports & Outdoors catalogue dropped through the mail slot today. Like every other such publication at this time, its focus is on back to school specials as students of the south east are happily preparing for another year’s elevation of the mind. We see in the catalogue paper, pens, shoes, track pants, t-shirts and all manner of other products useful to the scholar. Including, on page 12, a range of firearms and ammunition from Glock, Remington, Brno and others. Personally I feel that the Smith & Wesson 9mm SDVE pistol is the pick of the bunch: a 16 round magazine with one in the chamber offers the junior high student the greatest opportunity of reducing class sizes without the inconvenience of pausing to reload. True, it is only a double action device, and so perhaps not as easy to use as the semi-automatic Browning Buck Mark Camper. But the Browning holds only 9 shots, and, as a .22, lacks the punch of my preferred choice. Sure, it looks the part and is so easy to operate that almost any child could use it to strike terror into his or her classmates, but for a reasonable compromise between weight, bulk and serious stopping power it’s hard to go past a 9mm arm. Plus, this week only, at only $299.99 the Smith & Wesson is fully $30 cheaper than the .22, and that saving can be devoted towards the purchase of 100 rounds of 145 grain ammunition plus change. Those two boxes of ammo are more than enough for a single class of civics: it’s hard to imagine your child reloading more than half a dozen times before being taken out by a SWAT team or the school counsellor. Hell, let’s be realistic, if the kid is so incompetent that he needs to reload more than twice he doesn’t deserve to have a gun in the first place.

Dear reader, after the demise of the SLH, (Santa’s Little Helper) we feel compelled to provide you with this thoughtful account of mortality, and how it is practised in the Deep South. Congratulations to our DSPENOC, (Deep South Paris End New Orleans Correspondent), G.T  (Gran Tourismo) Beauregard. We have edited this dispatch to ensure that only the most poignant fragments are offered to furnish your intellectual and spritual sustenance. These fragments, (as the date would indicate) are from his personal diaries, which we promise will be published in full, in due course.

Old, New Orleans. Heroic Statue Of Beauregard winner of Manassas and loser, (among others) of the Civil War. Note; Significant Entry feature, palms, up to date street lighting and themed streetcar ‘Desiree’. The envy of Australian residential developments.

14/8/15 The New Orleans Advocate of August 14 2015 is a journal of 28 pages. It is printed in that half-width broadsheet format so convenient for the use of commuters – of which there are none in New Orleans, for all here who do have work travel by automobile. Public transport in the crescent city exists only in such trifling and unreliable amount as to persuade the populace of the benefits of car ownership and remind those without four wheels of the physical inconvenience which necessarily attends their moral failure to hoist themselves into the American dream. This mighty organ of the fourth estate includes 11 pages of news, 4 pages of classifieds, 6 pages of sports and half a page of weather. The remainder – and it is substantial – consists of death notices.

The brave journalists of the Advocate inform us this day that the police department’s admission test may be biased in favour of recruits having the twin characteristics of maleness and white skin, that grocery store numbers have recovered to levels not seen since the great storm of 2005, that the state governor (and Republican presidential candidate) is building a home in a master planned community in Baton Rouge and that debate continues over the possible removal of monuments to the slave-owners’ temporary reverses of the civil war. What otherwise passes for news comes from the wire services.

Our correspondent G.T, at work on finishing touches to his new public art piece, ” Black Lives”. ‘A stunningly confronting piece’, Robert Hughes, (also deceased).

There is a two-page spread of pictures of vehicles for sale. The remainder of the advertising space consists of perhaps a dozen line ads sprinkled in jest amongst exhortations to take advantage of the paper’s advertising reach and effectiveness. The indexes to advertisements front and back page outweigh the advertising content by a factor of about 17 to 1. Of the 79 reports of the departed of 14 August 2015 a small number died, one peacefully. Others variously entered into eternal rest, passed away, passed on to eternal life, passed away peacefully, peacefully entered into eternal rest, went to be with (or to join) the Lord – the more fortunate of these to be “at home” with same – began a new life, passed on to eternal life, passed peacefully, departed this earthly realm, departed this life, entered (peacefully) into heaven or reached the final chapter in his (or her) earthly life. One is reported to have been taken away by angels. And one, whose earthly achievements merited a full half page of familial effusion, seems simply to have disappeared. The proof – if not the time – of his demise is to be given at viewings from 3-7 pm this coming Saturday and 10 am Sunday. The service is to follow on Sunday afternoon. None too soon. The New Orleans summer is oppressively warm, and refrigeration uncertain.

The lives of our deceased will be remembered for such achievements as being loved by all and – remarkably – never having met a stranger, raising Chihuahuas (or butterflies), qualification as a certified wheelchair and medical equipment technician, reminiscing throughout her life that her father’s friend, Frank Sinatra, sang Happy Birthday to her, agreeing to become a founding member of the Committee to Develop a National Policy to Increase Survival from Active Shooter and Intentional Mass Casualty Events, being “armed with his golf bag and his brother Joe” – some grand, some humble, all gone.

The lengthy catalogues of achievement of some speak not with near the same dignity as the tale of Joycelyn Mae Thomas, who at an early age was baptised at Israelite Baptist Church, “received all her formal education in New Orleans” and “pursued her career in the hospitality industry” working for “great companies such as” the Ritz Carlton and Caesar’s Entertainment. From which we glean that she was black, devout, hardworking, uncomplaining and poor. A loving and kind person, “viewed by many as one who was very easy to talk to and confide in”, she also had a taste for playing cards and “the slots”. Did she, as her obituarist maintains, begin a new life on August 7 2015 “as her soul winged its flight from this world of sin, sorrow and pain, to that eternal mansion that God has prepared for his children”? One hopes so, that there is a next world more kind to her than this.

The pleasure gardens of heaven awaiting Jocelyn Mae Thomas. ‘Long may she rest in peace’. RRP.$129.99 pe night, or $685.25 weekly. (No pensioner discount on standard off peak rates)

It is with deep regret we announce the passing of ‘Santa’s Little Helper’

‘Passing the baton’. John Howard retrieving the Prime Ministerial baton.

Dear reader, the editorial staff at pcbycp regret the surprise passing of the Abbott Government. Media agencies, the blogosphere and ordinary workaday folk like you and I will feel the loss acutely. There was never ever in the history of human kind something so funny as the Abbott Government.

Indeed as I write Vladimir Putin has expressed his deep regret that he alone must bare his musculature and do the heavy lifting. Further condolences have arrived from Cardinal Pell, who has renewed his efforts to remove the pesky left pope, and restore some common sense into the vatican, before coming back to assert the fundamental rights of fundamentalists. Whilst the rank and file of the Labor party are flummoxed that they may have to activate “thinking” mode in their esteemed leader, Mr. Bill Shorten.

Women this nation over are distraught as the “Minister for Women” is no longer on the world stage to look after their interests, and Aboriginals have lost a “dear friend”. Life must go on.

Passing the baton. Peta Credlin advising Julie Bishop on ‘what women really want”!

In reflection we hope that Rupert Murdoch will do his best to fill the gap and keep us all amused. And we sincerely hope that the ideological far right within the Liberal National Coalition will do what they can to fill the breach and ensure that the 99% will work just that bit harder for the 1%.

The good news is that today we announce our North American Correspondent. G.T . Beauregard. We feel confident he will do his best to inspire us with riveting accounts of life and observations made acute in that glorious flower of the South, New Orleans. Beauregard, we believe a direct descendant of the famous PGT, (Pierre Gustave Toutant) no less. We hope in anticipation that his extracts may provide both an amusing and illuminating insight into the deep end, (the Paris End) of the deep south. Insights perhaps not terribly dissimilar to our very own Deep North.

So it’s onwards and upwards as another stirring page of Australian political history unfolds. Congratulations must be given to the Abbott government for closing most things down and saving the taxpayer quite a bit of money. Saving us from innovation, manufacturing, thinking, education, and imagination. And special credit for saving us from refugees, and making us all feel safe! These are uncertain times ahead, but rest assured we know deep within our hearts that as a nation our capacity to think big is only limited by the small mindedness of our political elite. Rest assured we have it on good authority from Rupert that it’ll be ‘business as usual’.

pcbycp welcome our new correspondent, G.T. Beauregard, from the “Paris End’ of the deep south.

One can only hope so!!

In a world of tumult and much change, we must hold fast to those institutions that protect and nurture us. For Tony, there is an uncharitable rumour circulating that he lost his entitlement to a really BFPPMP!! Big Fat Parliamentary Prime Ministerial Pension; by two days.

Shame on you Turnbull.

God save the Queen!!

From Lao Tsu “Tao Te Ching”.  Sixty-One.  A poem appropriate to a time where we consider refugees and military action.

A great country is like low land.
It is the meeting ground of the universe,
The mother of the universe.

The female overcomes the male with stillness,
Lying low in stillness.

Therefore if a great country gives way to a smaller country,
It will conquer the smaller country.
And if a small country submits to a great country,
It can conquer the great country.
Therefore those who would conquer must yield,
And those who conquer do so because they yield.

A great nation needs more people;
A small country needs to serve.
Each gets what it wants.
It is fitting for a great nation to yield.

This dispatch first saw the light of day on 6 Oct 2012.  Oh that it were now irrelevant.

Bonjour mes long suffering amis,

Apologies for the lack of brièveté in this dispatch. Do they still teach ‘précis’ in high school?

A dispatchee sent me a book by Judy Robinson: ’Bushman of the red heart- Ben Nicker 1908-1941.’  I always have a bedside book ‘on the boil’. This one only took three nights to finish.

A few weeks ago  it was announced that the promised referendum on whether the First Australians should rate a mention in the Australian Constitution has been deferred. One of the reasons given by Jenny Macklin was that: “…we recognize that there is not yet enough community awareness or support for change to hold a successful referendum at or before the next federal election….”

La Macklin did not have any such qualms regarding lack of support when the Stronger Futures Legislation sailed through both houses of parliament virtually unopposed. The lower house passed the legislation before the Senate Inquiry into the proposed legislation tabled its report. Just reminding you of the serious debate that took place:

This photo (from the Concerned Australians’ website) shows the lower house in action at the time they passed the legislation. As I wrote at the time: ‘well do they deserve their perks and pensions’

This despite the 462 submissions and 560 form letters received by the enquiry. Over 95% of the submissions opposed the legislation which the submissions invariably dubbed ‘the second Intervention’. Not to mention the more than 35,000 people (mostly Australians) that signed an online petition opposed to the legislation.  A pox on both your houses, I say.

Oh if only: “….we recognize that there is not yet enough community awareness or support…. We are deferring Stronger Futures into the distant future!”

Well, I can assure you all in the Australian Coastal Voter Belt, that here there is ample ‘awareness’ by those bearing the brunt of Stronger Futures.  Am told that a water tank north of here in the Tanami Desert has scrawled on it “STRANGLER FUTURES”.

A song dedicated to Jenny Macklin and her team of assimilationists:
I don’t want your mansion….
You can’t buy my love with money…
But you think I should be happy with your money… while you play your cheating game!
http://youtu.be/flLoj5qxURw

In 1923, fifteen year-old Ben Nicker did a solo crossing of the Tanami Desert. It could be said he was the Jessica Watson of his time.

In 1923, my father was a 6 year-old Dutch child living in Germany. From his anecdotes

“In 1923 during the ‘Weimar Republic’ Germany suffered hyperinflation. One thousand mark bills for example would be over-printed with 1,000,000,000 Mark. Dad once told me about the neighbor that paid the rent with a wheelbarrow full of paper money. Makes you wonder about all those people that think they’re rich because a couple of zeroes have been added to the ‘value’ of their house! (In Australia elections are won or lost on the basis of such fallacies).”

In 1932, fifteen year old dad crossed the German-Dutch border. He ran away from home telling his parents that Germany was not a good place for ‘us foreigners’ to stay. I’ve only just recently been made aware that part of dad’s tactics to make his parents follow him to Holland was to kidnap his two year old sister! Opa Baarda’s first action on being reunited with his little daughter in Amsterdam was to give his son a hiding in front of the neighbourhood.

In 1932, Ben Nicker and his camels joined Michael Terry and Stan O’Grady in a prospecting expedition that took them west of Pikirlyi and Yapawarriji (springs on the slopes of Mt. Davenport-itself sometimes referred to as Pikirlyi).

In 1933 during a follow up expedition they returned to ‘west of Davenport’ where they had previously located a quartz reef with ‘pyrites of arsenic’ according to Michael Terry’s 1937 book ‘Sand and Sun’.

There they spent two weeks doing some ‘serious prospecting’ according to Judy Robinson’s book.

Before the Intervention, the locally owned Yuendumu Mining Co (YMC) enjoyed a significant share of Yuendumu’s retail trade (food, fuel and automotive  parts and repairs). Despite being one of the lowest priced ‘remote stores’ in Central Australia, useful surpluses were generated that allowed YMC the luxury to indulge in mineral prospecting in its own right. The Granites gold deposit was discovered by Davidson in 1901, and enjoyed a brief flurry of activity during the depression years of the 1930’s. The Chapman family “worked” the deposit until 1953.  Around 1987 the Granites region rose from the ashes of history to become a significant gold producer which it continues to be today.

YMC became actively involved in this modern day ‘gold rush’ by applying for numerous exploration licences in competition with some major industry ‘players’. Over the years millions of dollars were spent on areas in which YMC held an interest.

An area mapped by the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) as “Lander Rock Beds” (equivalent to the Mt. Charles beds- the host formation for gold at the Granites) was chosen to apply YMC’s “leap frog” sampling technique.

Two vehicles and a GPS (a large black box as used in the first Gulf War) were used. Harry Collins, Micah Hudson, Grant Granites, Dougie Wilson, Adrian Winwood-Smith and myself took part. I’d explained that soil samples should be taken to represent as large an area as possible such as at the base and intersection of two scree-slopes. Each vehicle had a Warlpiri driver and navigator and a white-fellow recorder/prospector . Our navigators had an uncanny ability to guide the drivers at high speed through the scrub to what in hindsight proved to be the ideal most effective sampling points. The two vehicles leap frogged as samples were dug, sieved and labelled and rock type, vegetation etc. and GPS positions duly recorded.

It took only half a day to ‘cover’ all outcropping low hills over a large area with 32 samples. A few samples contained traces of gold (in parts per billion) and many had a high to very high arsenic content (parts per million). In nature arsenic and gold often occur together. Arsenic rich rocks are the haystacks in which the needles of gold can be found.

Adrian had to be in Adelaide, and while there delved into Michael Terry’s diaries which are kept at the SA Museum.

In 1933 they’d watered Ben Nicker’s camels at a permanent water hole at the junction of two creeks (which on the map in the Robinson book is called Mijinpanta) and Adrian made notes about directions and distance to the potentially auriferous reef from the water hole . With the help of three aerial photographs (all we could afford!) we identified and located the waterhole at the creek junction. Following the directions from Adrian’s notes we ended up in an area of younger non prospective rocks- which the BMR geologists had named the Nicker Beds! We realised that we’d got close to the area we had previously sampled, so after this false start we headed for the sampling spot which had yielded the highest arsenic value. Directly 100 or so metres upslope from this (marked) sampling location, there it was, a prospector’s pit on a quartz reef. ‘Speared’ into the pit was a mulga post on which were carved the initials MT, SOG and BN and the date 16/5/1933! We’d re-located it almost 60 years after. We named it Terry’s Prospect.

Subsequently and independently Colin Watson(the male nurse at Nyirrpi – the closest community to Terry’s Prospect) was told by B. Jungarrayi that as a young lad he’d regularly travelled from Pikirlyi to Nyin-yiri-palangu (Ethel Creek) on a donkey. On one occasion he noticed a mulga post sticking up on a low hill. On investigation he saw some marks carved on the post. Jungarrayi couldn’t read and guessed that the carvings might be kardiya (white fellow)’s sacred markings. Out of respect he ‘speared’ the post into the pit so it couldn’t be noticed from the base of the hill.

YMC ‘developed’ the prospect into a 4 Km. long arsenic anomaly with ‘spotty’ gold values, as well as identifying a plunging anticlinal structure with a stockworks of thin quartz veinlets along the hinge, before ‘farming it out’. Subsequent sampling and drilling failed to locate a commercial ore-body. It is the closest YMC came to making the ‘big league’!

After the Gold Rush:
http://youtu.be/N88YgEKGMzI

Those were the ‘good old days’ of self-determination. Back then there was Ngalipa (All of us-first person plural inclusive). We have now reverted to Nyanungupatu manu Nganimpa (Them and us- third person plural and first person plural exclusive). At Yuendumu school they had “team teaching”. A yapa and a kardiya team in virtually every class delivering a ‘stepped bilingual programme’ aimed (and often succeeding) in ‘producing’ fully bilingual and bi-literate students. In the field YMC used a team approach combining Warlpiri bush-sense and geographical knowledge with modern mineral exploration techniques and historical research.

We are told the Intervention is over.

It’s all over now…
http://youtu.be/RJ8STf6x3gE

We no longer have a GBM (Government Business Manager). We now have a GEC (Government Engagement Co-ordinator) (cute n’est ce pas?).

Same person, same chain wire surrounded accommodation, same four wheel drive vehicle, same salary and perks, same job (to spy on us)….  

Vive la différence….
http://youtu.be/KxLCngnm1Zc

No more NT Emergency Response!  We are Closing the Gap towards a Stronger Future!

Au revoir,
François

Seriously folks Humanity is Amazing!!!.

For the best part of ten thousand years humanity has been undergoing the process of civilising, and look where we are now. We are agreeably civilised. We are so civilised we’ve moved way beyond all the stupidity that so characterised our barbaric past. Allright,  there may be the odd little flash-points in the Middle East, and things are not quite so nice in the Ukraine, most of Africa, and North Korea which aint all that good. Not a lot actually to cheer about for some of those on the wrong side of history in Burma, West Irian, and the other trouble spots, but we’re in pretty good shape really. China is having a few teething problems, but overall, when you look a everything in consideration we aint doing all that bad. Particularly if you’re not trying to get out of Syria in a hurry which may have something to do with our ‘fixing’ up of Iraq, and the follow on.

Opening of Worlds First Hybrid Slave/Coal Powered Power Station. Palmyra 2500 B.C. This hybrid power station was a boon to Humanity! It burnt both coal and slave and was in commision till quite recently when it was adapted by ISIS to just infidel burning, a sort of Slave/Slave Hybrid. Isis is in onging negotioations with the Minerals and Energy Council.

That’s why COAL is truly AMAZING. The plantation owners thought that slavery was truly AMAZING!. It was cheap, reliable, and it didn’t even give off filthy carbon. Once used, you’d just plough em back into the ground. Now I call that vertical integration. Coal has given us light, power, and in the nineteenth century it single handedly gave us the Industrial Revolution, which brought greater levels of civilisation and resulted in the comfort that we take for granted today. And the remarkable thing about coal is that according to the excellent advert currently screening on telly, it may be 40 % less smelly and carboniferous in another hundred years if we continue to divert research funding from CSIRO in to this new realm of alchemy. The right thing is to just keep burning it. Humanity IS pretty AMAZING. And i’m impressed and gratified that the Minerals and Energy Council disagree with climate science, by repudiating the Anthroprocene era, and would like us to keep on burning good ol coal, until the oceans rise, the levees break, and we all die a horrible protracted lingering death.

The Minerals and Energy Council want to willfully and knowingly deplete the bounty of “nature” to future generations of children. Yes!! our children because this stuff is bloody AMAZING for shareholders and particularly AMAZING for a coterie of self interested wealthy old men who just couldn’t give a stuff about anyone else. Because pretty soon they’re going to be DEAD. They like coal because this shit is what sustains them. They HATE education, science, renewables, because it threatens their right to completely and utterly fuck up the planet. And Rupert, surprise surprise, being another ancient specimen of humanity, reckons coal is spot on..

New Coal Miner Uniforms being trialled by the Minerals and Energy Council. Uniforms generously tested and supplied by the Rt. Hon. Christopher Pyne, Federal Minister for Education. From his personal collection

So Humanity is AMAZING. And what is truly AMAZING are those old men who so much want to deny the subsequent generations of Australians the privelege that they take for granted because they’ve got something akin to slavery. Provided you don’t think about the planet, the loss of good agricultural land, and the foisting of this rubbish on the population , is truly AMAZING! If you don’t factor in the environment, AMAZING! If you HATE the future, AMAZING!  And if you have lobbied an entire front bench and found a champion in a reactionary ultra right wing, fundamentalist conservative catholic hardliner, you’ve done something that is truly AMAZING!  And if you’ve managed to control the entire apparatus of science, education, decision making and taxes to ensure your unassailable level of control and influence, that is so fucking AMAZING!  I dip my lid, chop my testicles off and eat them as a sign that I am so truly and unutterably AMAZED, that you have perverted the entire fabric of governance to furnish your singular, cynical and egregiously opportunistic needs. So three cheers to the Minerals and Energy Council. You the valiant few have staved off a tax that would have some mere percentage of your profits returned to the community. And now, depleted of a car industry, depleted of science, renewables, innovation, future training, governed by fear, myopia and self seeking hollowness you have now corrupted the very fabric of our democracy and turned parliament into a rump of puppets and forelock tugging satraps. All under your bidding.

Congratulations!

In the words of Winston Churchill; “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”!!

Well Done, That is TRULY AMAZING!!

Dear reader we continue to talk up the free Trade Deal with China.

In the interests of transparency, we’ve been donated this fine map from Dyson Heydon indicating China as that large portion of land not covered pink between India and north of the Protectorate of New Guinea

Rupert likes China a lot. His ex missus is Chinese. They don’t bother with democracy or any of that crap. It’s a bloody one party state. If you’re in the party you’re o.k. If you’re not you can get stuffed. And lets face it Australia pays way too much for wages and tradies and miners over here.

Dick Warburton. he knows how good COAL is for our future, and he and Maurice reckon the UN is going for World Domination! He is also very clever, but clearly hasn’t got quite as many books as Bob Carr. Not that it doesn’t make him any less cleverer. 

Gina reckons, (she’s in favour of the trade deal as well) that we can get workers for two dollars a day. Dick Warburton and Maurice Newman, not only hate wind farms but they reckons Coles and Woolies would romp it in in China. That’s if we can hold onto the farm. But I think Dick or Maurice just sold it to China. So who gives a stuff about education, national competitiveness and what we may lose in rights and priveleges? If you’re really fucking rich, this free trade deal will ensure that you’re wealthier still. And, the best part is that you’ll get the privelege of being able to afford a house servant, a maid, a butler, and a few house boys, a groom, and a door sweeper, an perhaps a score of gardeners, and you wont even have to go through the pesky 417 visa, cos the beauty of it is you can get locals. ‘Cos at $2.50 an hour labour in this country will be truly affordable. Now if you’re like Joe, (our esteemed treasurer) you’ll get that many kickbacks on your investment properties you will have all this staff and you wont ever need to pay tax. Up the GST on poor people and you’re laughing. In fact I’m pissing myself right about now. It’s predestined. It’s part of being the white trash of Asia. Lee Kuan Yew was 100% right. Though he would never have dreamed that real labor men like Hawkey, “No child shall live in poverty”, would be his cheerleaders.

Pope being told, ” Cardinal Pell is here again, he’s come with a message from ‘Santa’s Little Helper’, and he reckons it’s COAL, not your holiness who will be the saviour of HUMANITY”!! Pope: ‘Is this where i say, I’ll be a dead Dingo’s Donger”!!

So Carn the Free Trade Deal. Let international contracts wrest the farce of the pbs and affordable medicine, cigarette legislation, better national health, health care itself, democracy, the Commonwealth, to the highest bidder. Let CAPITAL and the WINNERS rule this country. And ferrchrissakes don’t listen to the POPE! What’s a spiritual leader got over laissez faire economics? I’d want to know? Cos we all know that Capital is fail proof. Capital rewards lifters not leaners.

And Capital knows best.

And to quote from the old Benson and Hedges Advert, ‘And isn’t that all of the time’.

Dear reader,  In case you didn’t know, Australia is in DEEP TROUBLE!!

Bob Hawke. Doing it tough without the Free Trade deal

This is an emergency. Bob Hawke is quite correct. We MUST pass the fee trade deal with China.

Bob Carr. ‘Quite well read and of superior intelligence’ (‘Bob Carr My very own autobiography’)

Bob Carr has weighed in. He knows an awful lot about the American Civil War. He likes to tell us so. He is quite right to tell us. He is an educated and quite SOPHISTICATED ex politician. He has TOLD us so!! He has also, (upholding the fine example set by Christopher Pyne and Barnaby Joyce) written a very good autobiography about how important he was as Foreign Affairs Minister in the dying days of the Rudd Era. He spent quite a lot of time talking to Hu Jintao (who was the last general secretary of the Communist party) on just how important it is to have a Free trade deal signed off with China. Hu Jintao retired from his position with over a billion dollars in assets. He got rich by being THAT clever. Bob Hawke got rich also, (He even has a butler) he’s a real booster for China.

We could all get rich by doing deals with China. They only have one political party, so any deals done with China are safe. No silly senate to worry about, no backflips, no silly greenish legislation. Aren’t you convinced?? C’mon. Surely this is the time for us to sign the thing, and if GOD were about he’d sign it. But God is terribly busy working on developing COAL as the saviour of humanity. In his stead he has given none other than RUPERT MURDOCH the authority to say to all Australians. ‘For chrrissakes get in with this free trade deal’. At the moment, Rupert says, we are paying way way to much for Labour. Rupert reckons this country is currently ‘Ungoverned’. ‘Call a snap election, Give Tony another term… Do it now’!!… He’ll make it happen. What he is saying is that TONY is GOOD for Australia. He understands the requirements of BIG BUSINESS!!!

Prince Rupert. ” Leave me now my patience fails, go off and govern New South Wales”

Unions looks after Tradies and ordinary workers. Little business people. That’s why they’re BAD!!! And they’re not rich and powerful. They must be STUPID! That’s why they belong to UNIONS. And Unions are SCUM. He’s absolutely correct.

This free trade deal might just keep this country on the road. Rupert should know. He’s managed after all that ‘hoo-ha’ to get all that kerfuffle over hacking into to little dead girls phone accounts to sell newspapers. He’s finally got Rebekah Brooks back on the job, running the News Corps operation in the U.K. He knows what it takes to make a business PAY. He’s not bothered by red and green and pink tape. Rupert knows you’ve gotta be mates with all the pollies. Rupert is so good at it, the pollies come to him. In China they call that ‘Feng shui’.

Donald. ‘This is my understanding of the general public in the Democratic Process!! And it works’!!’

See Rupert knows! And that’s the funny thing about people with shitloads of money, Gina, Twiggy, Bob and the other Bob, (the silver bodgie). When you’ve done well on the races, in real estate, and the share-market and made politics pay and had good mates to look after you and you’ve got quite rich, you generally know what’s good for the poor people. Your superiority is a God given fact. Just ask Donald Trump.

elementary sonnet by clive james

Tired out from getting up and getting dressed
I lie down for a while to get some rest,
And so begins another day of not
Achieving much except to dent the cot
For just the depth appropriate to my weight – 
Which is no chasm, in my present state.
By rights my feet should barely touch the floor
And yet my legs are heavy metal.  More
And more I sit down to write less and less,
Taking half an hour’s break from helplessness
To craft a single stanza meant to give
Thanks for the heartbeat which still lets me live:
A consolation even now, so late – 
When soon my poor bed will be smooth and straight.

From “Sentenced to Life” Clive James 2015.  Pan Macmillan London.