Hungry Hungarians

Today is one of those lazy days when my thoughts turn to FOOD and with food to my friend in Texas - George!

It's easy enough to visit a restaurant and order up something that you like from a menu. The risk is that the chef (or cook as the case may be) who is going to prepare your food MAY not make it the way you like.

So when you want to avoid the risk of disappointment its only fair that you get what you want.

Alas it is a lot harder than it looks unless you have to hand some recipes that you feel confident about and then purchase, prepare and then produce products for your peculiar palate!

If you are confident about your abilities in the kitchen then you can simply use what you know and get on with it - however if you are less than confident then there are a few sites where you can at least get some inspiration.

If you are looking for an interesting way to combine the hot Hungarian cooking so dramatically unsuitable for people with oesophageal illnesses and what has been described elsewhere as TexMex cooking then you could do worse than checking out one site is concerned with Hungarian and Other Recipes

Then again there is June Meyer's site which has Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes

Political comment with a difference

It is not often that I give a free plug to anything that is supporting the Packer media empire, however, this is going to be one exception.

I am not sure how many people are familiar with Cook's Cartoons in the Bulletin magazine.

If you are not familiar with them, then may I recommend that you consider a visit to his material - if only once a week.

They will enable you get a perspective on life that you may otherwise actually have to pay for.

Personally I think they are (for the most part) fabulous!

If we get elected . . . or ???

Just in:- Kevin07 has announced a mandatory renewable energy target.


It is interesting to speculate on different captions for the picture associated with the story on the ABC






Perhaps alternate captions could be:

1. What have it got myself into NOW?
2. Why can't I keep my big mouth shut?
3. I wonder if we get elected and then get booted out after a few years whether someone will dredge up this promise?
4. Kevin being given his marching orders by union bosses.

The value and distribution of "Pork"

I wonder whether any of the media have managed to records and add up all of the "pork" that has been promised for distribution over the last few weeks?

If not this could be a very worthwhile exercise.

I for one would like to know:

1. how much are we being offered for our vote by each of the parties concerned
2. how much the voters in marginal electorates are being offered for their vote vs safe seats
   
3. how much is being offered to special interest groups by name
   

My reasons for wanting to know are simple:-

• answers would assist in analysis of voter behaviour
• answers would be able to determine more accurately who can be bought and also for how much

For people who currently live in 'safe seats' it's really not important on THIS occasion.

However, once people know how much is on offer in marginal seats - if they live in non marginal seats today, maybe they can use the information judiciously to create a situation over the next few years where they too will be able to benefit from the generous offerings that seem to come around at election time for the lucky few who live in marginal areas!

Alternately of course people in safe seats could always go on the Internet and offer their votes for sale - it could help the major parties in distributing their largesse.

PS. OF COURSE I AM KIDDING about offering to sell your vote!

Democracy is precious!

(oh crap - that comment will elicit even MORE emails!)

I may have made an error!

• • Egypt is to resume its nuclear power program.
  • Israel rejects criticism of its decision to provide fuel to Gaza.
  • Iran expanding its nuclear program.
    
  • Australia wants to start a nuclear power program according to recent announcements by the government and
    
  • it also wants to sell uranium to whoever wants to buy it including countries that have not signed any nuclear proliferation treaties.

I may have made an error the other day when I suggested that this picture was all that was left just after mining. It seems as though it could be a picture of what's left after we manage to use what we have mined!

Offence is the best form of defence!

Fascinating! Even the ABC can't seem to get it's facts right these days - has anyone else besides me noticed the spelling of the name of the Maningrida elder in the stories below? It seems to change with the times.

In just a few months we have gone from this

"Members of the Commonwealth task force on child abuse arrive in the Northern Territory community of Maningrida today.

Task force chair Sue Gordon and Major General Dave Chalmers will spend two days in the coastal Arnhem Land community.

An Aboriginal traditional owner in the area, Reggie Wadarjil, will meet with the task force.

He says he is looking forward to the meeting."

To this

"An Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land is taking legal action in the High Court to challenge the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory.

Residents in and around Maningrida want to overturn Commonwealth laws that compulsorily acquire the community township for five years and abolish the land permit system.

If successful, the case would set a precedent for other affected communities."

"Mr Frawley, a barrister at Holding Redlich in Melbourne, is acting on behalf of a Maningrida elder Reggie Wurridjal and the local Bawinanga corporation that represents about 800 people, mostly from outstations."

What's the government's response?

"Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has revealed that one of the Darwin lawyers acting for Maningrida is David Dalrymple, husband of NT Minister Marion Scrymgour, who lashed out at the intervention earlier this week."

So is this a case of "offence is the best form of defence" or what?

Sleight of hand, misdirection, misinformation, smear campaigns, denial of any culpability, denial of any accountability and deliberate lies seem to form a substantial part of the current government's rhetoric.

Government behaviour these days seems to be governed by one rule for "us" and a different rule for "others"

Let's see what voters think about things in less than a month from now!

I know what I thought of this intervention months ago.

Stairway to Heaven

News Just In:

Vatican beatifies 498 Spanish civil war victims

1. "Beatification is a first step on the road to sainthood."
2. "Most were killed in at the start of the war in 1936 by anti-fascist republican forces."
3. The pope has paid tribute to the "martyrs" of the war, saying they "paid in blood for their faith in Christ and his Church".
4. "Since the Vatican considers the 498 victims - including two bishops, 24 priests, 462 nuns and monks, three deacons or seminarians and seven lay people - to be martyrs, the requirement of evidence of having performed a miracle was waived."
   

I suppose it's enough of a miracle that they have made it this far on the stairway to heaven.

I wonder what Ernest Hemmingway would have written about this story?

Dickens would LOVE this!

Generation Y and their "Great Expectations"!

Employers recruiting workers aged under 30 complain they don't take orders well, expect to be paid more, will often demand to be promoted within a year of joining and expect to be allowed to work flexibly.

A survey of more than 2,500 employers and managers by recruitment website CareerBuilder.com has identified stark generational differences between Generation Y and their managers, differences that it argues could be storing up real problems for the future.

I hate to be the one to mention this - but just for once people need to get a grip on reality - the "problems for the future" referred to have already arrived and are altering our world as we speak!

Honest John? Hardly!

I really have no problem with people who make mistakes. "To err is human" as someone once said and I for one would like to be considered divine by being able to forgive such a slip.

I do however have a major problem with people who make a mistake and then lie about it! I have an even bigger problem when it is the Prime Minister who utters such self serving lies.

John Howard has denied that he ever uttered the words that have haunted him for the last few weeks - that he promised to keep interest rates at record lows. At first he denied it completely, then he suggested it was just part of an advert that only ran for two days and finally today he had no choice but to come clean when the words were firmly shown to have been uttered by him.

Any politician who lies once is likely to lie again.

With Mr Howard I may have been able to excuse his blatant lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as simply something he was misinformed about by his intelligence services, I was prepared to excuse him when he misrepresented the "children overboard affair" as another instance of being misinformed.

However on this occasion he has gone too far. I am afraid that I now am no longer able to make excuses for his behaviour or his lack of morals.

If he was a mere public servant employed in a government department he would have been given an option of resigning before being dismissed. He IS a servant of the public and since he has not resigned in embarrassment we, as the people who have given him our trust should now ensure that he is dismissed from office.

The fact that he continues to harp on about the Labor Party having lots of candidates who have been in the union movement is another case in point. I would rather ask Mr Howard whether his ethics and his skills in lying bald faced to the Australian public mirrors the code of conduct he has set for his Ministers as most of them are lawyers who practice truth bending for a living!

A picture of the future?

A Hungarian Blogger seems to have posted this remarkable picture.

(I have no idea what it was originally meant to represent.)

The picture struck me as a really neat representation of what will be left of the world following our current obsession to mine and otherwise use up the resources of this planet at a rate that is unsustainable.

What do YOU think?

PANDORA

I wonder how many of my readers are familiar with the story of Pandora?

The Wikipedia version is probably as good as they come:

"In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. Each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered her creation as a punishment for mankind, in retaliation for Prometheus' having stolen fire and then giving it to humans for their use. She is most famous for carrying a jar (pithos) (or box) containing all the world's evils. She releases these evils, but closes the lid before Hope can escape."

Sexist? Well you be the judge!

There is a modern Pandora right here in Australia.

PANDORA is actually an acronym for "Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia."

PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive, is a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations.

How wonderful that someone at the National Library not only had the wit to create this acronym, but also to approve it's use.

The joy does not stop here though. Associated with this archive system is something called PANDAS and acronym for "The PANDORA Digital Archiving System"

How absolutely wonderful to know that one of the cutest, but most endangered species of animal on the face of the planet is now associated with this repository.

As governments in this and other countries have moved from paper based to electronic records there have been increased risks associated with a loss of accountability as physical documents can no longer be guaranteed to remain behind as evidence of what actually happened at key points in the decision making processes of government.

I applaud the work of all those people who are still trying to ensure that public servants, governments of whatever hue are kept accountable by leaving behind some trail of their communications. Their work represents the hope for the future and like Pandora's box the contents of their repositories may well be the only hope that future generations have for being able to delve into history and so to facilitate the capacity to learn from such history.

Alas, without such work and/or without paper records - evil may well have been released into the world - just like Pandora's story.

It is moot whether government decisions are recorded accurately and then stored so that they are not capable of being the subject of retrospective revisions.

It is also moot whether there is capacity for anyone to access records that the government of the day does not wish to release - witness the recent attempts by Peter Garrett to try and access records about the decision making process concerning the Tasmanian "Gunns" decision.

Without the work of all those involved in the PANDORA and PANDAS projects I suspect that like the Panda, truth and accountability of government and of public servants are on the endangered list.

What has happened to the staff at Centrelink?

A story published by the ABC contains some of the following elements:

• a woman's welfare payment was cancelled because she did not attend an interview, even though it was because she was having chemotherapy for leukaemia and had recently had surgery,
• a man with severe epilepsy was waiting in line at Centrelink when he suffered a seizure. Paramedics were treating him when his name was called and explained his case, but when the man returned from hospital he had a letter from Centrelink saying his payment had been suspended because he failed to attend an interview.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Mcmillan, says these cases point to systemic issues that need investigation.

What a nice time to ask these questions in the press! Just before an election and when the organisation is in caretaker mode!

I for one would like to suggest some additional and/or (perhaps) different questions.

• Does Centrelink have enough experienced, trained staff at present and the funds to pay them, to meet its obligations to provide a sensitive and sound service?
• How many of the staff serving 'customers' are new?
• How many of the new staff are adequately trained and supported by experienced supervisors?
• How useful are the computerised tool suites that are provided to staff at the front line in dealing with issues such as those described in the article?
  
• How many of the "rules" keep changing and how frequently?
• What are the mechanisms by means of which staff are kept up to date on what to do with 'customers' who do not fit the standard mould (referred to internally as 'clean skins')
  
• What is the current "throughput" of "customers" ie how many people are needing to be seen and attended to and how much time is 'allocated' to each?
  

When any organisation's culture dealing with sensitive personal issues is forced to take on the commercial constraints of the "time is money" philosophy something is likely to suffer - be it 'customers' or staff who are overworked and overstretched!

The BEE all and end all of Urinals!

Andrew Liszewski reports at http://www.ohgizmo.com that "these urinals created by Clark Sorenson are definitely a work of art, but I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable ‘relieving myself’ on a gigantic flower. "

Like bees to honey would be my comment - after all - when you gotta go, you simply gotta go and never mind the flowers!

Fires In California

For those of us here in the National Capital of Australia it is a sense of deja vu that accompanies the stories we hear from California.

Only a few years ago our town was also surrounded by fires and we all learned to do our best to protect our homes and our families.

I am not sure if this is what makes me very sympathetic to what is going on over there or the fact that I actually have some distant relations who are impacted by this tragic event.

The size differential is staggering!

500,000 people were evacuated from their homes in California.

THAT is like ALL of Canberra and quite a few of the people in the surrounding districts for many miles around!

I wish all the families that are even remotely affected by the fires in California well - let's just hope that it rains there as well as here.

We could all do with some more moisture at this point and I do NOT mean sweat!

Finally!

Finally, John Howard has started off the process I called for on Monday.

There is now an offering for the Baby Boomers who have reached retirement age - especially those who are not really able to look after themselves all that well thanks to illness.

It's a beginning. It's not much - but it's a beginning.

See http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/23/2067711.htm

Prime Minister John Howard has revealed a $4 billion package for pensioners, carers, self-funded retirees and people with disabilities.

Mr Howard used a visit to the key Liberal marginal seat of Kingston in Adelaide to unveil the package which will see pensioners utility allowances jump from about $107 a year to $500.

Mr Howard says all up the move will benefit more than 2.8 million people. There is also a bonus for self-funded retirees with seniors' concession allowances to more than double.

Let's let the Kevin07 camp read the promises of the current government and let's hear what they have to offer as part of their ME TOO function in this election.

The Greens agree with me that this is really NOT much more than a beginning. Maybe they can push for more largess for those who have given their all for this country and now want to sit back and reap the benefits of their labour (and that was NOT meant as a political pun):

Greens leader Bob Brown says John Howard's commitment is a reach for the grey vote and is only a fraction of the funding needed.

"This is such a miserly contribution towards pensioners who are having it so tough and it's pretty disgusting that the Prime Minister can't do better," he said.

"He's put $34 billion over three years into tax cuts and he's going to put $4 billion over four years for pensioners, carers and self-funded retirees."

"Kill the Pigs!"

We have been reading about terrorists and the potential biosecurity hazard they pose. Forget them!

We now have a REAL threat to worry about!

"Feral pig movements pose biosecurity hazard: research"

This article is written by: Anna Salleh - A journalist with ABC Science Online, Anna Salleh has a PhD on the role of the media in debates over the risk of new technologies. She also has degrees in science and journalism, and has worked as a researcher on Quantum, The Investigators (ABC TV) and Insight (SBS TV) programs. She has contributed articles to New Scientist and Australasian Science magazines, Medical Observer, The Independent Monthly, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times and produced stories for ABC Radio's Health Report. A former policy officer and journalist at the Australian Consumers' Association, she has also worked as a journalism lecturer and has contributed to a number of books.

With such impeccable qualifications her article is not only highly believable, but truly frightening.

It is backed up by more stories on the ABC like:

"Feral pigs devastate QLD crops"

This story was written by Mark Willacy who is very familiar with the issues in the middle east and with terrorism.

If we fear the dangers of terrorists bringing their biosecurity hazards to Australia and we spend a fortune on trying to prevent this from happening then WHY do we not spend some money to get rid of the problems that we have, from what Dr Peter Spencer of Murdoch University in Perth says amounts to "upwards of 20 million of these [feral pigs]"

Let's have a national policy!

"KILL THE PIGS!" could be the slogan that starts off a national hunt to find and bring down the threat of these terrifying feral pigs.

Former soldier Paul Smith runs Boar Busters and it is his job to hunt down the feral pigs. He and his trappers have shot 476 pigs so far this year.

"A feral pig is a survivor, a tough animal," he said.

"It's highly mobile, it's like fighting a clandestine operation almost - they come and they go in the night. You rarely see your adversary, and it's popping up all over the place at different times."

http://www.abc.com.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013993.htm

476 pigs out of upward of twenty million? That's not even making a dent in the problem!

Where is the support from those opposed to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? They could argue that we need special weapons and tactics to find and eliminate the terror in our midst.

Bring home the SAS, they have skills that we need!

All hues of the political spectrum could finally find something they can completely agree on. Even farmers and environmentalists can find common ground - albeit for different reasons.

• Where is the national resolve and cooperation that we would expect from state and federal governments?
• Why is this issue not as high on the agenda of politicians in the national debate as horse flu?
• Why are there not millions of dollars being committed to the extermination of the feral pig population?
• Why are the people who are so concerned about the environment and our health not more vocally outraged by the continuing presence in our midst of a population of animals that endanger us all and appear to be almost as numerous as human beings on this continent?

Let us have a different kind of 'pork' that is the meat of the political campaign in these elections!

Politicans and the Worm!

It was a triumphant return for the controversial "worm" last night with Channel Nine's coverage of the leaders' debate snaffling the top spot in Melbourne ratings and third for all programs nation-wide.

But the "worm" had to wriggle through a political minefield which included the plug twice being pulled on Nine's direct feed from the debate, forcing it to take emergency measures.

The ensuing media imbroglio of accusation and counter-accusation is likely to be dealt with at a special meeting of the board of the National Press Club, which admitted cutting the direct feed, this afternoon.

So how big was the worm?


[File photo] (Getty Images: ANSTO)

Prime Minister, John Howard, disgusted by the fact that a feed to the Packer Media upstaged his presentation on the ABC - was especially displeased by the use of the "Worm" as an indicator of his success - or otherwise in his debate with Prime Ministerial aspirant Kevin Rudd. He appears to be telling people about how THICK it was!

Peter Costello - the heir apparent, was of course a little bit at odds with the PM's description of the worm, when he congratulated John Howard (2nd-R) standing with his wife Janette (R) and Alexander Downer (C-background) on the occasion of his debate with Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd at the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra, 21 October 2007 in front of hundreds of spectators. That was only to be expected.

Not to be out done, the Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, himself an ambitious politician who has aspirations for the top job was probably also telling the crowd about what he thought of the size of the worm.
(File photo) (AAP: Tracey Nearmy)

Not having watched the Channel 9 coverage my question is did they really see the worm or is this simply more spin?

A Downer for Palestinian Leaders or perhaps more cynicism about the elections

Or more accurately - Australian Foreign Minister - Alexander Downer is due to meet the Palestinian leadership later today as part of a two-day trip to the Middle East.

He is due to announce a $7 million aid package, including $3 million through the UN, to help families in Gaza and refugees in Lebanon.

see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/27/1963031.htm

I wonder if this is yet another campaign to try and win the hearts and minds of voters who have relatives in those countries? After all it could be a way for the politicians here to save money for those of their constituents who have arrived in Australia and would have to provide the support for members of their extended families who are still in refugee camps back in the "home countries".

Kevin Rudd or "How the Worm Turns"

After the great "debate" last night on the ABC and reported by some aficionados of the Packer media empire as "How the worm turns" I think it is time for some real focus on this aspiring leader of Australia.

Wikipedia seems to have something to say among many other sites.

Search for Kevin Rudd 1957 (his birth year)
There is the occasional occult reference as in: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dymock/instal35.html where there is an article about Kevin Rudd's astrological chart or perhaps more interestingly ttp://www.astrologyoz.com/edtamplin/kevinrudd.htm

Apart from that it's mostly spin or the truth depending on your point of view!

What's in a Name or NOT the PM!

It appears that John Howard the PM of Australia has found out the value of the Internet and so he and his publicists have managed to enter the information revolution and make his name available to prospective voters.

Alas there are others out there who wish to bring THEIR view of the PM to our attention as well, for example: http://www.101usesforajohnhoward.com/

And of course there are misleading references and unrelated sites.

Having seen the charismatic John Howard PM on TV in the latest debate I did manage to recall that there was another actor by the same name.

John Howard featured at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0397397/

To tell the difference between this person and our PM you only have to check out the differences in hair.

Of course there are those that want to cash in on the PM's lack of hair as well - try and look at:
http://www.advancedhair.com.au/2004/johnny.html

(AND DO PUSH THE BUTTONS DEPENDING ON YOUR VOTER PREFERENCE!)

There are other mentions of a John Howard on the web, not the least of which is the "John Howard Society" in Canada. Of course the name used by this group is most likely based on a very different John Howard whose biography can be found at: http://www.johnhoward.ca/bio.htm

When you see the Australian PM on his daily walks to try and get or at least remain fit
you could be misled by being referred to yet other sites:
http://johnhoward.net/training/ or http://www.ultracycling.com/about/hof_howard.html

Last, but by no means least - check out the John Howard Hotel in London - it should suit our PM as a place to stay when in that town if and when he is no longer PM.

It is within walking distance of most of the tourist sights.
That way like some other former PMs (Bob Hawke comes to mind) he can stay in the public spotlight as he jogs his way around Hyde Park or at least is seen as going one way to a lip smacking encounter with an Aussie beer at Earl's Court or perhaps a quick visit to the Tennis or the cricket!

Money Matters

While we are on the subject of election policies and money matters - there was an article in the Saturday edition of the Canberra Times quoting sources in the Independent Newspaper that may be a worry to those who are interested in financial matters:

Darling signals tougher stance on sovereign funds

By Danny Fortson

Published: 18 October 2007

The Government is to support calls for reforms of sovereign wealth funds, chancellor Alistair Darling indicated yesterday, marking a major departure from his previous laissez-faire attitude toward the state-controlled funds that have become aggressive buyers of UK companies.

SWFs, set up to invest excess state revenues from record oil and commodity prices and foreign exchange reserves, have grown to control $2.2trn (£1.1trn) around the world. Analysts are expecting this to rise by as much as six-fold over the next decade. Yet some of them, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world's largest with an estimated $625bn to spend, are very opaque. Worries about their influence and motivations are growing in the UK, which has become a primary hunting ground. Nearly half of the London Stock Exchange is now owned by Dubai and Qatar. A fund backed by the SWF of the latter is close to launching a takeover of supermarket giant J Sainsbury.

I don't know about anyone else, but I for one am worried about this much money that is being invested in companies by sovereign sources.

Qatar, Dubai, Singapore, Saudi Arabia as examples, are countries that do not inspire any confidence when it comes to their stability and given the wealth that they own and are investing around the globe - it is moot as to what would happen should they suddenly have a radical change in their governments.

In combination with their wealth and what is happening at present in countries that also hold nuclear weapons like Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan and that also happen to have very large sovereign funds, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that if these countries destabilise then we may not have to wait for the effects of global warming to create some crises that become uncontrollable.

"Me Too" ism by Kevin Rudd

The media continues to criticise Rudd and his party for too much of the "ME TOO" philosophy and thus does not stop very often and actually ask what the differences are.

Is it such a bad thing to have both of the major parties actually agreeing about basic and fundamental economic issues that are destined to safeguard the economic prosperity of the country?

Would it hurt anyone to actually have a look at the differences instead of focusing on the similarities?

Let's look at the local issues concerning Industrial Relations, at the differences between the parties for the Health System and Education, affordable housing and while we are on the subject superannuation and the future for those Australians who are no longer part of working families.

Internationally, let's look at the extent to which there are differences in the way that the parties see themselves supporting the alliances that are in place and at the same time acting to preserve and enhance Australia's contribution to the international scene.

The Liberal and Country Party coalition comment that some 70% of the leadership of the Labour party has come from the union movement. Well what's wrong with that?

At a time when the union movement has been decimated by the policies of the Howard led government for some 10 years any sensible and astute person who supports the basic rights of Working Australians would recognise that simply sitting around and waiting to be picked off is a stupid policy - so senior members of the union movement have taken up politics on a different front and actually want to demonstrate to all and sundry that the only way to achieve change in some areas is to enter the fray where it counts - in party politics!

Let's not forget that the people in the Labour party who come from these union backgrounds did NOT just get to the parliament by appointment. They were ELECTED by the people who KNEW their union background and who thus showed through their voting behaviour that they WANTED people with the knowledge about how to deal with management and industrial matters as their representatives!

It's all very well to recognise that those people who are in employment need to be protected against a variety of ills that have been introduced into being by the current government.

On the other hand, neither party should not forget those people who are in the so called "baby boomer" group that have or are about to retire and so become "former" working families.

These are the people who have managed to survive the vagaries of life and have worked for the last thirty plus years to make Australia what it is. Now as they get older and wish to be able to take their retirement and live off the proceeds of what they have accumulated, they do also require that the parties take them into account.

Each day this group or retirees becomes more and more numerous and as such their interests should feature in the policies of all the parties.

The current government CAN claim that it has managed in the last ten years or so to increase the number of people who now have superannuation and who thus will be less likely to require a pension. However all parties need to recognise that the savings that these people have invested into the Australian Economy through their superannuation schemes are the backbone of a lot of the prosperity that this country now enjoys - it would NOT be a smart idea to to introduce any policies that threaten that future of what is still the majority of people in the community.

So what's in it for us?

As someone so wisely said "Show me the money!"

It's ON!

Today is Monday 15th October 2007 and the first day after the end of the so called "phony election campaign." The PM has finally done the deed and after calling on the Governor General called for the end of the current Parliament and new elections.

In the opening salvo of this campaign the aspirant to the position of PM - Kevin Rudd has made another of those speeches that are starting to give me chills. He talks about a "New Leadership" and talks about "Working Families" and he talks about the plans he will disclose during the campaign.

Why the chills?

Well in the first place - we are not as yet sure about WHO will provide this new leadership that he talks about. In the second place I would like to start to hear something about people like ME - those who have laboured hard for the last forty + years to enable politicians to talk about their 'successes' and who are now in retirement. Were it not for the massive numbers of people in the so called "Baby Boomer" generation who are now ready for retirement there would not BE the 33 year lows in unemployment. It is WE who by retiring have made way for those masses of young people who have been unable to get employment. It certainly has not been government.

Those involved in the business community have managed to take most of their means of production overseas to ANY country that has lower wages bills and fewer conditions of employment.

Meanwhile of course what the current government has done is to introduce a system of industrial relations that is based purely on greed! For the business community it has meant the opportunity to break the power of unionised labour and for those people who are well educated and with skills and/or knowledge to sell an opportunity to secure contracts of service (ie AWAs) that have some hope of making them rich (at least in the short term).

Meanwhile what of the baby boomers who are entering or have already entered retirement?

Who cares! They are past it! They have made their contributions and while they can still vote they are the people who present more of a problem than anything else. After all they had their chance to put together their nest eggs and now it's the turn of someone else.

My criteria for deciding WHO is to be elected - like those for many others in the community will, I suspect be increasingly selfish as the campaign heats up.

I for one will take MY projected needs over the next three years and ask who in government is most likely to do the things that will make MY life bearable!

With prices rising and my illness making it virtually impossible for me to return to the work force if I need to, the number of options about how I can maximise the "what's in it for ME" option, will help to determine the direction of MY vote.

Alas, I live in an electorate in which I am for all practical purposes disenfranchised!

The incumbent happens to belong to a party that has held the electorate for decades and as a result unless there has been a funny and major change to the demographics the nature of the vote is unlikely to change.

The so called "marginal seats" a lot of which appear to be in Queensland, will be interesting.

Queensland is a state in which there have been major demographic changes with lots of people from among the baby boomers seeking out the milder climactic conditions for retirement. The question is - whether they now would continue to support a party that they MAY have voted for all their lives - Labour - knowing that they are no longer part of working families and are really part of the generation that is seeking to have the next few years in the sun able to enjoy their retirement.

Who will offer them the best deal?

Is it Rudd with his promises of plans that may or may not work or something tried and true that will at least maximise investments that are the backbone of superannuation funds!

THAT I suspect is where the answers will come in this election. Of course the media may well manage to change perceptions and actually convince these old codgers that promises of plans will necessarily equate to dollars in the bank.

Let's wait six weeks and see.

The Good Old Days - Where are they now?

A Slice of History

1971
Australia's population is 12,755, 638 at the time of the 1971 Census. A total of 2,579, 318 born overseas (20 per cent of the population).

People from the United Kingdom (and Republic of Ireland) are the largest group (1,088,210), followed by Italians (289, 476) and Greeks (160 200).

The largest humanitarian group the Poland-born, who mainly arrived as Displaced Persons after the War totals 59, 700.

1973
In January, the new Whitlam Government announces that future immigration policy would not distinguish between immigrants on the basis of race, colour or nationality. The White Australia Policy is finally abolished. The implications of this new policy for refugees are not tested until 1975, with refugee crises in East Timor and Vietnam.

In September, a military coup in Chile overthrows the socialist government of Salvadore Allende, and Australia takes in Chilean refugees. The Chilean program has bipartisan support and marks a break from previous refugee programs that tended to support refugees who were fleeing Communist governments. Between 1974 and 1981, about 6000 Chileans are taken in and, thereafter until the ending of military rule in 1990, hundreds continue to be admitted each year as part of either the Special Humanitarian Program (introduced in 1981) or family reunion program. The Chilean population in Australia increases from 3760 at the 1971 census to 24 042 in 1991

1974
The Department of Immigration is disbanded and a Department of Labour and Immigration established by the Whitlam Government. Hon. Clyde Cameron MP succeeds Grassby as Minister in June.

Displaced persons from Cyprus are admitted after the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. The Cypriot population in Australia increases from 13 267 at the 1971 census to 21 629 in 1976

1975
The defeat of United States-backed regimes in Vietnam is accompanied by massive displacement of Vietnamese people from their homes. Refugees flee to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Violent civil war in East Timor in August 1975 produces a wave of about 2500 evacuees to Darwin. About 700 agree to go to Portugal but the remaining group, which includes families without breadwinners, the elderly and unaccompanied children, are accommodated in Commonwealth Government hostels in Sydney and Melbourne. The December invasion of East Timor by Indonesian military forces leads to widespread resistance and guerilla warfare that lasts until independence is achieved in 2002. Throughout the 25-year struggle, a continuous flow of Timor-born people seek refuge in Australia. At the 1996 census there are an estimated 9200 Timorese born people in Australia.

The Migrant Service Section, together with the TIS (Telephone Interpreter Service) provides outreach services to these refugees at the Commonwealth Hostels.

Social Workers, Welfare Officers and Interpreters are sent to the Hostels on a sessional basis where these people are housed, to offer them information about what is available to them in terms of income support, housing and other services in the community .

Headed by EVA BYRNE Former Board member, Good Neighbour Council of NSW; former Principal Social Worker, Settlement Services, Department of Immigration; and former honorary consultant to ECC of NSW and to FECCA. and ably supported by Nina Skoroszewski (nee Antonina Libiszowska), herself passenger no. 1060 on the wharf Bremerhaven, waiting to board the transport "Delmenhorst" for Australia. 31 August 1950.


(When she was working for the Department of Immigration she looked a little older.)





In December, following the general election, the Fraser Liberal Government establishes a new Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, with Hon. Michael Mackellar MP as Minister.

1976
In May, Minister Mackellar invites the Timorese who were admitted at the end of 1975 to apply for resident status. More than a thousand take up the offer.

Civil war in Lebanon results in the deaths of 50, 000 people and displacement of about 600,000 Lebanese and 150, 000 Palestinians from Lebanon. The Australian Embassy in Beirut is evacuated in March. Visas are granted to any relatives of Australian residents who have suffered extreme hardship as a result of the war, provided they meet health and character requirements. In the first half of 1976, more than 800 Lebanese are admitted. The flow continues with the worsening war and by 1981 the Lebanon-born community has increased
by more than 16, 000. Funding is provided to assist Lebanese community organisations to set up services for their communities. There are a number of new social workers and welfare
officers employed to provide appropriate culturally sensitive services to this new group of arrivals.

1978
The Galbally Report the Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants is tabled in Parliament in May. The Fraser Government announces expenditure of $49.7 million on migrant services (English language teaching, initial settlement services, ethnic media, establishment of an Institute of Multicultural Affairs, and others) over three years to implement Galbally's recommendations.

Acting on the report, the Government establishes Migrant Resource Centres, reshapes the Adult Migrant Education Program, provides grants for migrant welfare workers, establishes the Institute for Multicultural Affairs and expands the Telephone Interpreter Service.

Comment:

What was I think quite unique both for the time and for this country was the nature of the people who worked in this team. For the most part they were social workers, welfare officers and general clerical staff who were representative of the ethnic and language mix that either had or was arriving in this country.

There were people from various backgrounds:- Italian, Greek, Turkish, Cypriot, Maltese, Lebanese, Hungarian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Irish, Welsh, English, Australian, Scottish, Egyptian, Timorese, Ethiopian, Chilean, Chinese, Malaysian, and many other nationalities.

Where are they now when we have settlement issues with people who are from very very different ethnic an cultural backgrounds?

It's all very well to blame those who arrive for not settling into the Australian community however it would be just as well for the current Minister to consider that every time he points a finger at someone - there are three curled fingers pointing right back at himself.

A Refugee Issue? Hype or just plain ignorance?

Immigration Minister Mr Kevin Andrews says some African communities have been slow to integrate with the wider community. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

He says that is one of the reasons the Federal Government decided in August to reduce the intake of African refugees from 70 per cent to 30 per cent over the last two years, in favour of increased numbers from the Middle East and Asia."

The Ethnic Communities Council has slammed the Federal Government's decision to cut the intake of African refugees into Australia, the council's chair Phong Nguyen says deciding to cut the refugees on those grounds is shocking.

"It departs from convention and also from the commitments that all nations had with the United Nations towards refugees," he said.

"That they will take them based on need and not based on how well these people will settle in the new country."

These are excerpts from articles on the ABC NEWS

This is likely to become an interesting debate.

I guess there are at least two questions I would like to ask before we descend into an arena of hype and over-reaction:

1. What (if any) rights do countries who are signatories to various agreements about refugees have in selecting from the millions of people who have been classified as refugees by the UNHCR?
2. What if any rights do refugees have in selecting the country that they would like to settle in?

Before we all rush in to either support or lambast the minister's statement or indeed the Australian government's position as stated by him I think it would be worthwhile to explore those two questions.

If refugees have "rights" to stipulate the country in which they would like to be settled then let's see where this has been agreed and what those rights are.

If countries have a right to determine the nature and the number of refugees that they welcome into their countries, then let's hear what has been agreed and what those rights are.

Once these matters have been exposed to a public airing THEN I suspect we will be in a position to make informed comment.

Until then we are at risk of making ignorant comments. Would anyone care to provide some information about these matters?

Chocolate is GOOD for you

We have often heard about the pleasure that is gained when eating chocolate but the latest news on the subject from the UK is - at least for me - something to bring a cheer into my day.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7018055.stm

Chocolate 'aids fatigue syndrome'

The reduction was small but "noteworthy", researchers say

A daily dose of specially-formulated dark chocolate may help cut chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.

Researchers from Hull York Medical School said the results were surprising but dark chocolate may be having an effect on the brain chemical serotonin.

Polyphenols

Professor Atkin said he was very surprised at the strength of the results.

"Although it was a small study, two patients went back to work after being off for six months."

He explained: "Dark chocolate is high in polyphenols, which have been associated with health benefits such as a reduction in blood pressure.

"Also high polyphenols appear to improve levels of serotonin in the brain, which has been linked with chronic fatigue syndrome and that may be a mechanism."

He added that although more research was needed to confirm the findings, patients would not do themselves any harm by eating small amounts of dark chocolate and no-one in the study put on any weight.

Do I need to know more than this? Not really! Who cares if it all turns out to be an advert for Nestle or Cadbury or one of the other Swiss or Belgian chocolate giants? Not me!

I now have MEDICAL advice that chocolate in moderation is good for me - so I am off to buy some!