A NATIONAL SUMMIT "FUTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT"

A Summit to be convened by the Municipal Association of Victoria, is to be held in Melbourne 22-23 May 2013 (information available on MAV website). The summit is open to anyone with an interest in local government at a cost per person of $594.

One of the key speakers is Terry Moran, President Institute Public Administration Australia who was appointed Secretary of the Department Premier and Cabinet Victoria in 2000, who played a leading role in developing an ambitious National Reform Agenda. He went on to become Secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Australia from March 2008 to 2011. Remember the Rudd government Social Inclusion policy?

THE FUTURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

“Let us hear the truth,” wrote Alison Walpole to the Editor of the Wangaratta Chronicle 6th April 20013. “Many times I have written to your paper and the CEO of the Rural City of Wangaratta, in an attempt to prompt discussion, and asked "What Is the Future of Local Government?" Whether from ignorance or intent there has been almost no response from former elected Councillors.
Did they not read in Council minutes of Wangaratta Rural City Council involvement in a CSIRO Research Project-Sustainable Communities?
Did they not understand Council involvement in development of the Hume Strategy for Sustainable Communities 2010-2020 regional plan?
Did they really believe the Rural Land Strategy and expect Rural Land Owners would accept it and hand over control of their land?
Now we have new Councillors who ask intelligent questions and expect honest answers.

The Wangaratta Rural City Council and Municipal Association Victoria both made submissions in support of recognition to the Federal Government Expert Panel into the Constitutional Recognition of Local Government.

The Victoria State Government submission to this inquiry opposed recognition and presented an alternative solution to financial difficulties. Victorian Land Titles are registered by the State Govt.

This week we heard of proposals in Britain to tax householders with unused rooms not offered for rental. Britain already has stringent controls on use of rural land. |

We the people have a right to information and right to be consulted.

- - signed: Alison G Walpole, Whorouly South Road, Whorouly South, Victoria  

MODERN PARTY-POLITICS IS ITSELF DIVISIVE

Andrew Bolt (18 April 2013) on the ABC’s coverage of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral wrote:
“ABC-24 gave practically no information about Lady Thatcher’s funeral service, but made sure to identify it repeatedly at the bottom of the screen as the funeral of the “divisive former British leader Margaret Thatcher”.

I trust that when the time comes for the funerals of Gough Whitlam or Julia Gillard (and may they be a long way off), the ABC will refer to each of them not as the Australian Prime Minister, but as the “divisive former Australian leader”.
In this interview, however, Keane seems all right to me. But here he draws a long, long bow: When historians look back on her thumping flag-waving reign, they’ll be inclined to see that she put Britain on a road to ruin. A Britain where life for many millions of people came to resemble Hobbes’ state of nature: more solitary, poorer, nastier, brutish and short.”

Comment: I have long held the view that Andrew Bolt is the ‘Right’s’ voice for the divide and rule tactics used to keep the people at each other’s throats, and, in the process, divide the truth of the issue, situation, etc.

MARGARET THATCHER, NATION SNATCHER

by James Reed
I, for one, remember what you did, Maggie Thatcher, and it was not grounds to celebrate. The media elites have been celebrating Thatcher’s alleged achievements. For this article I thought about taking them on, one-by-one, but then I got hungry and made myself a sandwich – tomatoes, cheese, ham and a few other things hiding in my small bar fridge.
So, between chomps I will be brief. Thatcher began the transformation of Britain into the politically correct police state that it is now. She continued mass migration to make the elite happy so that they could make a pound whilst traditional Britain was destroyed.

Thatcher increased police powers and relaxed the conditions for police searches and seizures. Due process protections were weakened. She gave gun criminalization its first big push. The chattering class were all chattering about how she ended British socialism by cutting government spending and helping free enterprise.
What, in fact she did, was to support big business and dump taxes and red tape regulations on British small business. She privatized public companies by basically giving them to multinationals and favourable subsidies were lavished upon them.

Thatcher, in short, was a globalist, like Howard. She tightened laws about free speech concerning race. She said that there was “no such thing as society’ and she was determined to destroy traditional British society to prove it. She helped bring about European integration, and only in the end seemed to realize that it really meant the end of the rule of the local dictators in favour of EU dictatorship. But by then she had served her purpose and was replaced by the even worse.

“Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher” they once sung. Replace the chant to “Thatcher, Thatcher, nation snatcher.”

PRINCE CHARLES: MY INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY UNIT’S STUDY

In a keynote address to “The Future of Food Conference” at Georgetown University, Washington DC. in 2011, H.R.H. Prince Charles asked the question:
“Why is it that an industrialised system, deeply dependent on fossil fuels and chemical treatments, is promoted as viable, while a less damaging one is rubbished and condemned as unfit for a purpose?”

The Prince suggested: “The reasons lie in the anomalies that exist behind the scenes….
“(The) really big issue we need to consider is how conventional, agri-industrial techniques are able to achieve the success they do, and how we measure that success. And here I come to the aspect of food production that troubles me most.

The well-known commentator on food matters Michael Pollan pointed out recently that, so far, the combined market for local and organic food, both in the United States and Europe, has only reached around 2 or 3 percent of total sales. And the reason, he says, is quite simple. It is the difficulty in making sustainable farming more profitable for producers and sustainable food more affordable for consumers.

With so much growing concern about this, my International Sustainability Unit carried out a study into why sustainable food production systems struggle to make a profit, and how it is that intensively produced food costs less. The answer to that last question may seem obvious, but my ISU study reveals a less apparent reason.

It looked at five case studies and discovered two things: firstly, that the system of farm subsidies is geared in such a way that it favors overwhelmingly those kinds of agricultural techniques that are responsible for the many problems I have just outlined; and secondly, that the cost of that damage is not factored into the price of food production. Consider, for example, what happens when pesticides get into the water supply.
At the moment, the water has to be cleaned up at enormous cost to consumer water bills; the primary polluter is not charged. Or take the emissions from the manufacture and application of nitrogen fertilizer, which are potent greenhouse gases. They, too, are not costed at source into the equation…” Video excerpts from the Prince's speech here…

HOW DID THAT BOAT GET TO GERALDTON?... WE’RE BEING GAMED!

“We're being gamed on boat people” wrote Andrew Bolt, 17/04/13. He continued:
Now that even Australia isn't good enough for these "asylum seekers", can we stop pretending they're fleeing danger? The boat that dropped into Geraldton this week blew the whistle on the farce.

The following was passed on to On Target from a fact-loving friend:
“I got a call from a friend last night, saying something is not right about that boat story. Bit of background on him first. He is an old style boatie, has had boats all his life, has built three of his own, and has been up the reef at least 30 times in the last 40 years. So he knows a bit about going to sea. He questioned the veracity of the story that the boat came from Sri Lanka and was 44 days at sea with 66 souls on board.

His questions specifically were:
• The journey from Sri Lanka to Geraldton, a distance of 2,780 nautical miles as the crow flies, longer if you allow for drift and course corrections. Let’s be kind and estimate 3,000 nautical miles.
• The fuel required to travel that distance at an average speed of 6kts would have been at least 5,000 litres. That amount of fuel equates to 25 drums of diesel and would weigh in at (150kg x 25 drums) = 3,750Kg.
• Water for 66 people for 44 days at sea (drinking cooking etc) allow 4 ltrs per person per day. (44 days x 66 people x 4ltrs) = 11,616 ltrs and weigh 8,131Kg.
• 66 people would weigh around about 3,960kg.
• Total weight of fuel/water/people close to 15,841Kg plus food/provisions. His contention is that the boat in question (sponsored by Deutsche Bank) and looked to be about 42 foot long, could not carry enough fuel, water, food and provisions for 66 people at sea for 44 days. Absolutely/absolutely impossible – it would have sunk before it left the dock !!!

So the story of travelling Sri Lanka/Geraldton is absolute bull****, or perhaps they made a stopover in Indonesia or were resupplied en-route. And remember when they pulled into Geraldton they were only half way to their supposed destination – NZ.”  

I AM CONFUSED BY THE TERM

by Betty Luks
An article on education by Dr Kevin Donnelly, director of the Melbourne-based Education Standards Institute recently appeared in Newsweekly, 13/4/2013 under the heading:

“Schooling: Western values sacrificed to political correctness” Dr. Donnelly referred to “a speech delivered earlier this year commemorating the life of Paul Hasluck” in which “John Howard criticised the history curriculum for ignoring the fact that Australia is part of Western civilisation; in the process it further marginalises the historic influence of the Judeo-Christian ethic in shaping Australian society and virtually purges British history from any meaningful role”.

Kevin Donnelley continued: “The day after Howard’s speech, the Prime Minister’s appointee to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority mounted the barricades rejecting the claim of bias. Chairman Barry McGaw argues that the new history curriculum “does not prejudice our Western and Judeo-Christian heritage. Their influences on Australian culture and our legal and political systems are clearly dealt with”.”

Kevin Donnelly insists the PM’s appointee and spokesman “is incorrect. On reading the curriculum, it is obvious those responsible are hostile towards the institutions, beliefs and grand narrative associated with Western civilisation that make this nation unique. While Australia’s culture and society have evolved over the years, our language, way of life and political and legal institutions have been inherited primarily from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales….”

While there is much within Dr. Donnelly’s article that an Anglo-Australian would agree with, the term “Judeo-Christian” raises many questions. One in particular is: what does he understand as the basic philosophical foundations of Judaism and how do those foundations compare with, or relate to, that of the Christian Faith? After all, he has a living, working model of Judaism to examine in the modern state of Israel.
The philosophical foundation upon which the state of Israel is based and the fruits of its Judaic policies are there for all to see.

How does the good doctor equate the treatment meted out to the ordinary Palestinian citizen, by the political and military regime of Israel, with the Founder of Christianity’s teachings? Didn’t the Founder of the Christian Faith insist:
“You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles?”

And insisted “Love your neighbour as yourself” and “Love one another as I have loved you”. In which case, shouldn’t I expect to see the genuine fruits of these policies within any group making any claim to a sort of ‘Christian’ faith?  

OSCAR WINNER AMONG THOSE CALLING FOR ISRAELI THEATRE BAN

Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson is among three dozen actors, directors and writers protesting the inclusion of an Israeli theatre company at an upcoming Shakespeare festival in England.
Recent Tony winner Mark Rylance and seven-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh are among the other artists who signed a letter expressing "dismay and regret" that Tel Aviv's Habima theatre will be participating in Globe to Globe, a six-week festival taking place at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London ...
"We ask the Globe to withdraw the invitation so that the festival is not complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land." Source:

SOCIAL CREDIT: A MOVEMENT OF THE MIND AND SPIRIT

Recently I was sent a note, it read:
“Found this 1930s Mills pamphlet. Australia might have been a far better country today if Mr Butler had listened to Mills, rather than dismissing him and then wasting his own life promoting Christianity, the House of Windsor, and funny money.” (A. Rud Mills wrote on The Odinist Movement in a 1930s pamphlet).

Upon his retirement in 1992 national director, Eric D. Butler wrote:
“Just as English Constitutionalism grew out of the climate of opinion created by the early Christian Church in England, Social Credit emerged as the policy of a Christian philosophy and value system, which was still widely accepted, if not clearly understood.
Social Credit was not merely a simplistic panacea for the economic problems of the world; it gave new meaning to all aspects of the human drama, including constitutionalism, government, power and history. Even more important, it shed a new light on the subject of freedom and Christianity.
I have long come to the conclusion that as yet relatively few have come to grasp the far-reaching implications of the Christian revelation. Christianity without the incarnation of a policy, which makes freedom a reality, is doomed to be little more than well-meaning people trying to grapple with the effects of policies, which are the incarnation of Evil.
I wish to stress that we are the custodians of that knowledge which, translated into practical policies, alone makes the regeneration and extension of a Christian Civilisation possible. While charged with an awesome responsibility, we are also challenged as perhaps few other groups in history have been challenged. At the end of the Second World War it appeared to me that we were faced with a developing situation, which required a changed Social Credit strategy compared with that being used before the war.
The League of Rights was established to embody that strategy, and to keep alive the Social Credit revelation during what were clearly going to be difficult days ahead as the collectivist virus developed. I discussed this strategy with C.H. Douglas, who expressed his keen interest as witnessed by the many references to The New Times in The Social Crediter…”
The New Times, Vol56 No1 January 1992:

James Reed had this to say in “Faith and Economics”
“Religions are metaphysical worldviews or ways of life. Policies and human action are based upon such philosophies or conceptions of reality. Faith - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen - is embodied in policy and the testing of the validity of the religion is just in science, by observing the consequences. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

For Douglas, unlike today's intellectual crop of trendy relativists and postmodernists (all truth is relative, there are no absolutes), there is a reality which is knowable objectively and exists outside of individual and social consciousness. In The Pursuit of Truth Douglas said:
"Now it is my belief…that there is running through the nature of the Universe something that we call a "canon". It is the thing, which is referred to in the Gospel of St. John as the "logos," the "word"… The engineer and the artist refer to it when they say they have got something "right". Other people mean the same thing when they talk about absolute truth, or reality."

A canon is an objective and discoverable reality:
"By their fruits ye shall know them." This inductive method of the scientist is the correct method of judging "religions" - belief systems. The destructive belief systems that enslave us today - multiculturalism, consumerism, materialism, globalism, feminism ad nausea - are best attacked through exposing their fruits and foul fruits they are indeed.
It is not "dwelling on the negative" to expose the foibles and follies of our enemies, for this is part of the scientific process of discovering what is real and true.
Through our articles we hope to continue the fine intellectual tradition of C.H. Douglas and Eric D. Butler of discovery of the truth about reality. Source:

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 153 FISH

by Betty Luks
I feel sure all genuine searchers for truth can relate to my experience. For most of my adult life I have attended church, fairly regularly, but often came away dissatisfied and would then go in search for an answer to some question that had formed in my mind.
This last service I attended was rather different, the sermon was based on St. John’s account of the appearance of the risen Christ to His disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.

As John relates, the disciples had spent a fruitless night fishing. When the risen Christ came on the scene, He told them to throw their net out once more, and, it is recorded, Simon Peter dragged a net full of big fishes into shore. The catch numbered 153 fish. (John 21-1-19). The priest explained why he thought there were specifically 153 Fish and also drew on some of the early Church fathers’ thoughts, but, all in all, I was not satisfied.

When home, I headed for the book co-written by Prince Charles “Harmony: A New Way of Looking At the World” – and I have to say I was delighted. The Prince sets the scene by referring to what happened “amid the complex turmoil in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." In particular the Prince points to “the advent of the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century and the emergence of the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century…” whereby modern man’s understanding “of the way the world was seen before that time is somewhat obscured.”

For me, the rest of the book is devoted to turning my gaze towards – and actually seeing in my minds eye - the created world of which we humans are very much a part. Charles focuses our attention on the most important elements of what he called “the grammar of harmony as it was understood by ancient civilizations.”
He then turns the reader's attention to “how the grammar of harmony really works, how the language of patterns that are found throughout Nature fit together and hold the very fabric of the material world together.”

He continued: “In my experience, once somebody sees this in action, particularly the extraordinary correspondences that exist between the patterns made by the orbiting planets and the forms found in Nature, they tend to grasp the central point I have been trying to make for so long, which is, essentially, that the art and architecture that flowed from this geometry are not merely clever. There is a profound symbolism at work that is as relevant today as it has always been.”

The Prince explored this sacred art “as they came to life during two more recent high points in civilization, one Islamic, one medieval Christian, both of which sought to create a three-dimensional expression of the profound insight their rediscovery of the grammar of harmony had attained.”

Harmony, Balance and Unity lies at the very heart of Life itself:
“Each piece of sacred art or architecture…was created according to the timeless principles of the grammar of harmony. They are all outward monuments to their times and to the religious traditions in whose name they were made, but in each case it is those timeless principles of harmony, balance and unity that concern me here. That is why this is about more than only history. I want to unravel a portrait of these that lie at the very heart of life itself and give shape to things. They are all too easily forgotten in our technically sophisticated, totally mechanized world.

Every culture of the past has understood their importance and has used them to underpin the structure of their most important sacred buildings and many secular ones too. These principles also inform their religious symbolism and open up a clear experience of a deeply anchored view of the cosmos and of humanity's spiritual role within creation. It is this traditional insight that I firmly believe could be of such help in our own troubled and philosophically impoverished times. If that seems fanciful, then I would urge you to read on. The meaning that the symbolism of these buildings conveys is far more than information, but to understand it we have to experience it - to know it as a comprehensive scheme.

The sacred geometric symbols and what they represent:
In all sacred traditions the circle is symbolic of the unbroken unity of Heaven, the Square is symbolic of the materiality of our earthly existence and the Triangle is symbolic the world over of human consciousness.
The Vesica Piscis is often seen in medieval Christian art as a distinct frame around holy figures, and was called Mandorla (literally meaning 'Almond'). The ratio between the width and height is the square root of 3 or 265/153. That number 153 figures in St. John’s Gospel.”

Underlying Structure of Reality:
Let’s finish with a final quote from Prince Charles’ wonderful book ‘Harmony’. “The lines of this geometry remain invisible in the patterns of traditional art. In the view of traditional philosophy, in Plato, for instance, symbolically they were used to represent the underlying structure of reality upon which the cosmos materialises. The word ‘cosmos’, incidentally, means ‘adornment’.”

In other words, when we are asked to “consider the lilies of the field” we are asked to watch the growing (the ‘forming’ and ‘being’) of the lily. It toils not, and it spins not; yet night and day it grows, and with a beauty with which the most splendid monarch of the East was never adorned. The lily expands its blossom and fills the air with fragrance and yet this beauty is short lived. Here is the link to one of the websites illustrating the sacred geometry

VACATIONING IN A PARADISE DISASTER – SHADES OF THE N.W.O.?

The following article comes from Henry Makow’s website, “Vacationing in a Paradise Disaster” April 15, 2013. He writes:
“I couldn't wait for winter to end any longer and flew down to Montego Bay Saturday on the spur of the moment. Visiting Jamaica, you don't know if you are taking a vacation or performing disaster relief. Unemployment is 30%. The economy is a mess. You have the feeling that a ship has sunk and the water is full of people trying to keep afloat.

I have the impression that the bankers are squeezing Jamaica like Greece et al. Two people have mentioned a big IMF loan. I heard a radio talk show on the shuttle-bus to Negril. The people are restive and the government is using brutal police repression. Gunmen stole $15 million in fuel from a Shell Refinery last week. It sounds like a war zone. Guess who the government represents? Is this a harbinger of our future in the New World Order?

Vacation in Paradise: It's weird vacationing in paradise and finding it inhabited by people engaged in a desperate struggle for survival. It's hard to ignore them because they are constantly trying to befriend you and help you or sell you something. They are trying to keep their dignity and stay on the right side of the law while relieving you of money. They don't rob you. Not in the usual sense. They overcharge you or shortchange you.

I have been in Jamaica 48 hrs and have been ripped off 6-8 times. Right away, the currency exchange shortchanges you. Then, the taxi monopoly at the airport wants to charge $15 for a 5 minute ride. The cashier at the restaurant shortchanged me and was embarrassed when I caught her. When she gave correct change, I left it as a tip.

I felt like I was being eaten by piranhas, bones picked clean. They must see tourists as woolly sheep to be fleeced. (To be fair, the shuttle bus and hotels have been scrupulously honest. My hotel in Negril is good value and full. Jamaican cooking is honest too. They take a lot of care.) But everyone wants to sell you something. I wonder how we would behave in similar circumstances? Would we be able to hold on to our dignity?

Some have a solicitous vibe to convey their desperation for a tip. I'm taking an expensive vacation among people who can't feed their children. The tourist spots in Montego Bay and Negril feel like Cairo. No one there. Yes, the planes land full of tourists. Where do they go? All inclusive resorts? Montego Bay has no long public beach. The "tourist strip" is a tawdry affair. The street is lined with souvenir shops. The sidewalk is narrow. The occasional tourist is besieged by hustlers. Where's the charm?

Moved to Negril Sunday and have a room on the seven-mile-long beach. Paradise. The town still has vestiges of natural charm. 30 celcius and sunshine every day. Woolly Sheep: I carry a limited amount of cash. It's the only way to avoid paying x3 the real amount. "This is all I've got," I say. They usually take it for sunglasses or a sun hat. At the bank, a young boy and an old crippled man vied to open the ATM door for me. When I emerged I gave $1 to the boy. "I haven't eaten," said the old man. "I'm sorry," I callously wave him off. "I can't give money to everyone who asks." Later I wondered why I chose the boy. I thought they were together but they were in competition. What if he was hungry? I can't feed everybody.

There was a great live show next door Sunday night. Nobody there but me and Kevin, a beach vendor smoking a joint, and a prostitute. Kevin tells me the economy is bad. He invites me to witness the poverty inland. I decline. " It's painful to see," I tell him. "I can see it here." Before long, he invites me to donate for refreshments and attend a "grave digging" (funeral) to be held Wednesday 15 miles from here. It's for a beloved member of the beach community who died in a car crash two weeks ago.

I agree. I can feed a few. Might as well attend a "grave-digging" and get my mind off my own problems, I think. But I later change my mind about going. One of Kevin's friends snickered when I was being introduced. I don't want sympathy to deceive me. Instead, I'm going to do a Google street view of this beautiful beach in my mind. No matter how ugly the world might become, this slice of heaven will be in my mind.

Comment: Jamaica is suffering 'austerity' by the IMF sharks. The pattern is standard. This is how Globalism works: in the little countries, costs for necessary imports shoot up, so the local population is sucked into a bottomless pit cycle of debt. There is a blackout on this on American mainstream and most 'alternative news'. Once the jewel of the Caribbean, the IMF and it's economic hit men have been undermining the Jamaican economy since the mid 1970's. By 2012 they had them down for the count when they gave them another $1.7 Billion dollars under the usual usurious terms. Last week (Apr 9th 2013) ABC news announced the IMF has 'rescued' Jamaica again with another loan of $958 million - just to keep the lights for four more years.

"Bailouts" aren't good news. It means the prey can't break free of the python that's swallowing it. The IMF's agenda isn't to help countries recover or prosper, they're purpose is to destroy national sovereignty and independence, creating Global Feudalism. As you can see there's no benefit in this for the average Joe - it only means your chances of being mugged or shorted become a standard part of a vacation.

In more depth: How the IMF Destroyed Jamaica https://www.askbutwhy.com/2009/05/life-and-debt-how-imf-destroyed-jamaica.html
Source: