THE NEW BARBARISM

by Eric D. Butler
Not surprisingly, when President Bill Clinton unleashed the awesome military-technological might against what were claimed to be terrorist training centres in Asia and Africa, cynical voices were heard suggesting that these American attacks were an attempt to divert attention away from Clinton's growing domestic problems. Whether true or not, these attacks were unfortunately timed. And they have helped to increase anti-American feeling throughout a Moslem world in which the close relationship between the USA and the Zionists is a major factor.

Israel's open participation in the American operation in the SUDAN has contributed to anti-Jewish feelings throughout the Moslem world. As a number of authorities on the Middle East, like the prominent anti-Zionist American Jew Dr. Alfred Lilenthal, have stressed American standing throughout the Moslem world has been seriously jeopardised by the close relationship between the USA and Zionist Israel.

President Yeltsin of Russia was quick to condemn the American attacks in Asia and Africa, no doubt conscious of the Moslem populations to the South. It is often overlooked that the Moslem peoples were a major factor in the Soviet Union, particularly in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. While Pax Britannica, sustained by the British Navy, was not universally loved at the height of its international influence, it was at least universally respected.

The concept of justice was closely associated with British influence everywhere. I well recall the look of astonishment on the faces of some Americans at a World Anti-Communist Conference in Washington, USA, when a representative from Pakistan praised British rule in India, stating that many would welcome the return of the British Raj who had impartially imposed a rule of law which protected all minorities. The inhuman practice of Sutee, where widows were burned alive with their dead husbands on funeral pyres, was outlawed, although there are reports of the practice being restored in some parts of modern India. The murderous Thugee gangs were eliminated by the British. British influence was such that law and order was maintained by a handful of British officials.

Almost immediately following the withdrawal of the British, under international pressure, at the end of the Second World War, the whole sub-continent exploded into unprecedented communal violence engulfing hundreds of thousands. Probably 2 million or more died. British imperialism at its best reflected a different type of culture to that being reflected by an American culture deeply influenced by the murderous American Civil War.

The modern USA is a nation, which has been increasingly torn from the best of its historic roots and increasingly influenced by the Judaic value system. Modern USA has emerged as the major base for the promotion of some type of a New World Order. Wall Street is synonymous with "Dollar Diplomacy". The USA with its vast natural resources, and the dominant role of an international financial system with a global influence, has emerged as the major imperial power of the post Second World War. But as this new type of imperialism expands its influence, and its cultures, it becomes increasingly disliked around the world.

Because of its historic association with the establishment of the Zionist State of Israel, and because it is universally seen as the enemy of national cultures, its present Zionist policy makers are playing a major role in polarising the world. They are responsible for a growing reaction among the Moslem nations against the West. Every time the USA uses its technical superiority against the Moslems, it confirms the Moslem view that the West has cut itself off from its historic Christian roots and is now dominated by what are termed "technical barbarians".
A number of different philosophers have stressed that what remains of the Christian West is doomed unless it can re-discover its traditional Christian roots.

The plight of the whole world demonstrates that the high watermark of Western civilisation was reached late last century. The reality of the West's peril has been masked by a misreading of history. A civilisation is the result of the incarnation of a value system, generally over a long period of time. The great Roman Civilisation, the major foundation of the development of Western civilisation, did not collapse suddenly because it was unable to prevent the barbarians from invading from outside, but the result of a slow decay inside. The decline of Rome took place over centuries.

Many historians have misread what happened by concentrating on the effect of the decay rather than on basic causes. While it was the centralisation of power, which was the basic cause, that centralisation was linked to the same factor fostering centralisation today: the money system and the perversion of that system. The destruction of Rome's backbone, the self-dependent peasantry, by the establishment of one of the first recorded versions of collective farming, the letifunddia, was the result of growing financial debt. The centralisation of the population into the bigger cities, and all the social problems associated with bigger cities, was an inevitable outcome - in effect, now a basic cause.

The lessons of history are clearly for all those who read them. But these lessons must be learnt, and acted upon, if ever there is to be peace on earth. The faster the growth of centralised power, the greater the social dislocations and violence. The faster the growth of violence at all levels throughout the world, the faster the retreat from civilisation.

Consider the state of Africa following "liberation" from Western colonialism. Renewed violence in the Congo tells its own tragic message. Communist Mugabe, of what was once known as Rhodesia, is not far removed from his savage forbears and the charnel house conditions, which David Livingstone and the early Christian missionaries found. But he and his supporters now have access to the technology, which enables them to kill at a much faster rate than their fellows.
In the main, the technology has been provided by the West, by Western organisations which find it is "good business" to do so. And the creators of the money supply, in the form of financial credit, are only too happy to contribute to the modern carnage.

Those who have centralised power to the point where they can, temporarily, impose their will on the others, are helping to dig the graves of civilisation. They are in the forefront of the forces of death. They are anti-life.

Unless President Bill Clinton intends to replace his policies of vengeance with more constructive policies, he and his colleagues will go down in history as similar to those responsible for the notorious destruction of the city of Carthage.

BIDDING FOR THE TASMANIAN VOTE

by David Thompson
United Nations supervised elections are usually associated with "emerging democracies," in Africa or Asia, such as Cambodia. Intimidation of voters, rigging of vote counts, and the buying of votes are not uncommon in such elections. Such supervision is not contemplated in advanced Western democracies like Australia, which has made a significant contribution to the democratic process. In some parts of the world, the secret ballot is still known as the "Australian ballot".

Many Australians are startled to observe the blatant attempts on the part of Mr. Howard and Mr. Beazley to "buy" the votes of Tasmanians in this Saturday's election. Can this be happening in Australia? The polls are indicating that Liberal Premier Tony Rundle is at least 10 points behind the ALP, and is in real electoral trouble. He appears to face defeat, since his campaign proposal to sell the Hydro Electric Corporation is unpopular with Tasmanian voters, who see it as something of a Tasmanian icon, and have generally opposed "privatisation".

If someone was to suborn the electoral process in Australia by, say, buying votes, what is an Australian vote worth? Mr. Howard has offered the Tasmanian Government $150 million if it legislates to sell the Hydro by the end of this year. The money would be written off the Tasmanian debt to the Commonwealth, thus helping to relieve Tasmania's chronic State debt problem.

Since the Liberals are campaigning to sell the Hydro, while the ALP is campaigning to keep the Hydro in State hands, this can only mean that Mr. Howard is offering to buy Tasmanian votes for the Liberal Party. He is also paying a rather high price: it works out to be something like $300 per vote.

Mr. Beazley has gone one step further, and proposed that if the ALP win the Federal election, he would wipe out half the Tasmanian debt to the Commonwealth of $300 million, irrespective of who wins the Tasmanian election. He at least seems to agree with Mr. Howard on the value of the vote!

The Tasmanian State debt is reported to stand at $3.2 billion, and appears to be an insuperable obstacle to local prosperity. Mr. Howard is insisting that Tasmanians have no choice but to sell the Hydro in order to pay the debt. From the orthodox financial point of view, he may be correct, but the fact is that Tasmania could quite legitimately re-finance their debt if they dared to do so.

UNORTHODOX ALTERNATIVE

Since 1995, the Tasmanian Parliament has had before it a submission called "State Credit - A Way Out Of Tasmania's Financial Difficulties". This submission was commissioned by the Hon. George Shaw, a Member of the Legislative Council. The submission was compiled by The Hon. Neil Robson, who at the time was a Member of the Legislative Assembly.

Robson, now retired, spent a number of years researching the issue of State credit, drawing on research from around the world. As a student of Social Credit, and a long-time subscriber to League journals, Robson is certainly well informed. His submission was formally presented to the Tasmanian Parliament on June 20th, 1995. Robson proposed the creation of a State Parliamentary Bank, which would be a bank of issue, and would be available to finance the legitimate activities of the Tasmanian Government. All Government agencies and authorities would use the bank, operating under the same Reserve Bank jurisdiction as other banks. Such a bank could operate to the benefit of Tasmanians in that it could fix interest on any debt at a token level, in order to cover the cost of administration only.

If Robson's proposal had been examined and action taken Tasmania could be in a completely different financial position today. Instead of being faced with the prospect of selling off one of the Government's most significant revenue sources, Tasmanians could be contemplating long-term revenue stream from exporting power to the "privatised" power grid on the mainland. If Robson's proposed "Tabcorp" bank had been used to re-finance the Tasmanian debt, the $3.2 billion could have been regarded as a Tasmanian debt to itself, rather than foreign banking interests, backed by such assets as the Hydro, and other physical assets. So long as the Tasmanians owned the debt as well as the asset, and paid little in interest, the debt is not a problem.

As it is at present, Mr. Howard is keenly aware of the Tasmanian "problem". However, Tasmanians, in the grip of the black magic of orthodox debt-finance, have so far ignored Mr. Robson's submission. If the polls are correct, they may also ignore Mr. Howard's bribe, and accept Mr. Beazley's on the basis that neither Mr. Rundle nor Mr. Howard will be in a position to deliver the promised cash by Christmas.

DEBATE ON NATIONALISM

In recent weeks The West Australian has published a series of articles and opinions on the question of nationalism. One important contribution was from Graeme Campbell, of Kalgoorlie, which was published in the August edition of Intelligence Survey.

Last weekend, a One Nation supporter, Mr. Don Jackson, contributed a column (22/8/98) in response to Reverend Neville Watson, who had made the claim that the nationalistic policies of One Nation represent the losers in the "new civilisation of the unemployed". He also charged One Nation with political cynicism, personal insecurity and xenophobia.
Jackson virtually pleaded guilty to cynicism, writing "who in this great land is not cynical of the point-scoring charades that have passed as leadership in the last couple of decades? Most Australians are fed up with politicians who, to satisfy their party machines and their own ambitions, have ignored the wishes of the people".

Jackson admits, also, the charge of personal insecurity in many of his colleagues. ". . . herein lies an element of truth, insofar as we anxiously watch Australia losing control of her destiny to overseas investment bankers and the United Nations."

On the charge of xenophobia, Jackson responded: "Yet what Asian country opens its doors wide to Europeans? None. They believe in retaining their own culture, be it Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian or Shinto. Why then should we endanger our Christian culture with a big influx of other religions? That is not racism, but national suicide.
The only way to ensure a harmonious society is to ensure a common system of belief. Without that we will fragment into an antipodean version of Yugoslavia. Furthermore, your correspondent's view that all nations are seen as the children of God is quite unscriptural. Indeed, all are part of His creation, but only in Christ can one become a child of God. Though He died for each one of us we become His children only when we accept His sacrifice personally."

Jackson then went on to deal with nationalism from a perspective unusual within the Church: "Nationalism - loyalty to one's own country - is a natural characteristic of all races. The reason is that it was God's idea. From early in the piece He fixed the boundaries of each nation so they would seek after Him (see Acts 17:26). On the other hand, internationalism - one big happy global village - is man's idea.
The dominant Anglo-Celtic culture… has been our heritage ever since 1788. We believe it is an idea worth fighting for."

Such nailing of the colours to the masthead is sure to stimulate the debate on nationalism in the West.

GST PEA-AND-THIMBLE TRICK

A professional financial adviser, critical of the Howard-Costello tax package, draws attention to the fact that the main emphasis in the debate is upon the taxation of goods. The taxing of service for the first time is generally overlooked. While services such as health and education will escape the worst of the GST net, what about accountants, financial advisers, etc.?

He offers the following comment on the proposed GST:
As pensioners and self-funded retirees grow increasingly concerned about parts of the Liberal tax package, one wonders about certain small business operators. Wholesale Sales Tax (WST) is based on the wholesale selling price of goods. The advantage of this system is that the retail margin does not bear tax. Therefore certain purchases will not fall by exactly 12% or 22% as stated. For example, if a top-selling brand of chocolate biscuits are purchased by a large supermarket chain for $1.70 (plus ST of 20 cents) and sold at retail for $2.29, the tax component of the retail price is only 9%. If the same biscuits were sold for $2.75 by a high-mark-up convenience (or small country) store, only 7.3% of this retail price is sales tax. In contrast, the 10% GST is passed on to the customer on the entire retail price.
After the change over the large retail chain may sell the biscuits for $2.29, and the convenience store will attempt to sell them at $2.80. With GST the large supermarket gets away with only paying 22.9 cents on the biscuits, but the small store gets hit for 28 cents GST.

This raises some important questions. Does this mean the GST discriminates against the margins of small business owners (who generally operate small independent stores) in favour of big business? Does this mean that customers in country areas who try to support their small local store end up paying more tax to the Government on their goods than their city counterparts? If so, not everyone is a winner with the GST!