THE AWB SAGA 'ROLLS ON'

by Patrick O'Shea
In dealing with the enormous complexities of Wheat Marketing, Prime Minister John Howard must get full praise in being the consummate politician. Amid fiery press coverage of the Cole Enquiry into corruption with Iraqi wheat sales, with blame laying and denials, Mr. Howard has had to balance an ongoing strategy to keep the Wheat Marketing show 'on the road'.
Farmers want the best prices for their grain. That is a fact!
The promises grain traders confront farmers with every day under the banner of 'open competition', is disconcerting.

However, this week Mr. Howard has amazed all interest groups with an answer that only a highly skilled leader could provide. He has said in a press coverage article (The Australian 6/12/06) which reads, "Howard Folds on AWB Reform":
The Government would strip AWB of its right to block other exporters from selling bulk wheat overseas in the interim. The Government would spend the next three months in extensive consultations to determine wheat marketing arrangements.

Marketers outside the AWB will be required to apply for wheat export permits now from Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran who will ensure this year's crop is sold at viable prices. This is good news in the present situation.

W.A. farmers still have 80% of their wheat stored and not committed, which is not unusual. And not because of West Australia's CBH efforts to become big Grain Traders, or that they have already reduced their pool estimates.

Mr. Howard has done two things:
Firstly, he has used his position and influence as our national leader to 'kick heads' and be tough - which will be seen internationally as taking strong action against the AWB.
Secondly, he has provided a God given opportunity to Australia's wheat industry interests to come up with a satisfactory solution for themselves.

How this time is spent is up to individuals now, as well as the AWB. Grain traders are not essentially in competition with each other, they are in competition with the growers who are price takers.

In the history of the grain world only the National single desk, as Australia has had along with Canada, has been able to compete and extract premiums in the hurly burly of world markets.

Encouraging correspondence from Asian importers, some with flourmill interests to the AWB, expressed the desire for the single desk to be maintained. Also, not to let the uncertainty of horse-trading and wild fluctuations creep into wheat sales from Australia, with its undeniable quality.

THE CASE FOR THE SOCIAL CREDIT DIVIDEND

by Alain Pilote, the Michael Journal June-July-August, 2006:

It seems appropriate for the last edition of 2006 that we stress to our readers the relevance of the body of knowledge known as Social Credit Social credit writer Alain Pilote of the French-Canadian "Pilgrims of St. Michael," sums up the compelling need for an adjustment of the present financial system so as to distribute the abundance of the economic system.

Our Cultural Inheritance:
In a social credit financial system, part of the new money created interest-free by the nation would be distributed to every citizen in the form of a monthly dividend. This dividend would be based on the two biggest factors to modern production: the inheritance of natural resources and the inventions of past generations, which are both free gifts from God, therefore belonging to all. Those who are employed in production would still receive a salary, but everyone, employed as well as unemployed, would receive his or her dividend.
Another reason for giving this dividend to people is to fill the present gap in the purchasing power. In the present financial system, wages are not sufficient to purchase all of existing production, wages being just one part of the production cost of any item. A Social Credit system would therefore not only finance the production of goods satisfying human needs, but it would also finance the distribution of these goods to make sure that they reach those who need them.

The National Dividend:
The dividend formula would be infinitely better than the present social programmes like welfare, unemployment insurance, etc., since the dividend would not be financed by the taxes of those who are employed, but by new money created by the National Credit Office. No one would therefore live at the expense of the taxpayers; in the case of Canada, (and Australia) the dividend would be a heritage that is due to all Canadian (and Australian) citizens, who are all stockholders in "Canada (Australia) Limited". And contrary to welfare, this dividend would be given unconditionally, without means tests, and would therefore not penalise those who want to work. Far from being an incitement to idleness, the dividend would allow people to allocate themselves to jobs to which they are best suited. People could develop the talents that God gave them, and use them advisedly.

In 1850, manufacturing was barely started, with man doing 20% of the work, animals 50%, and machines accounting for only 30%. By 1900, man was doing only 15%, animals 30%, and machines 55%. By 1950, man was doing only 6%, and machines the rest - 94%. (The animals have been freed!)
And we have seen nothing yet, since we are only entering the computer age, which allows places like the Nissan Zama plant in Japan to produce 1300 cars a day with the help of only 67 humans - that is more than 13 cars a day per man. There are even some factories that are entirely automated, without any human employee like the Fiat motor factory in Italy, which is under the control of some twenty robots that do all the work.

A recent Swiss study said: "in thirty years from now, less than 2% of the present workforce will be enough to produce the totality of the goods that people need." Three out of every four workers - from retail clerks to surgeons - will eventually be replaced by computer-guided machines. If the rule that limits the distribution of income to those who are employed is not changed, society is heading for chaos. It would be plain ludicrous to tax 2% of workers to support 98% of unemployed people.

One definitely needs a source of income that is not tied to employment. The case is definitely made for the Social Credit dividend!

A DICTATORSHIP - JUST IN TIME

by James Reed:
Just before the Congressional mid-term elections, George Bush got this one through: the executive has the power to decide exactly who is an "enemy combatant". The courts don't have a say about it.

Chris Floyd, Truthout UK correspondent writes that this gives "the president and his agents the power to capture, torture and imprison forever anyone - American citizens included - whom they arbitrarily decide is an "enemy combatant".

Terrorism both in Australia and the United States is so vaguely defined that even political opposition to the US government may count as "terrorism". This coupled with "Executive Orders" allowing "targeted killing" i.e., assassination, effectively gives President Bush a licence to kill. Move over James Bond.
Source: Uncensored October 2006.

Over in the UK there are moves to prosecute American media, including internet sources who report on stories banned by the UK government. The New York Times recently blocked UK reviewers from seeing a story on the paper's website, the article detailing aspects of the investigation of the plot to blow up aircraft travelling between Britain and the United States.
Lawyers feel that there is no reason why the government cannot use various laws, such as contempt, to prosecute the media outside of the UK. So watch out bloggers!
Source: Uncensored October 2006, p.11.

IRAQ AND THE FAILURE OF MULTI-ETHNIC NATIONS

by Brain Simpson
An independent commission set up by the US Congress is drawing up plans to divide Iraq into three ethnically separate autonomous regions. There are 'fears' that attacks on the coalition forces are out of control and the lives of hundreds of civilians are claimed each day.

Leslie Gelb, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, has been quoted as saying: "They have finally noticed that the country is being partitioned by civil war and ethnic cleansing is already a daily event." (The Australian 9/10/06, p.11)

Another nail in the coffin of multiculturalism has been struck.

KEATING AND THE EGG-BOX

by James Reed
"Egg-Box Developers Too Powerful: Keating" was a headline that caught my eye (The Australian 31/10/06 p.5).

Former PM Paul Keating gave a speech at the Local Government Association of NSW recently and criticised modern architecture which crammed people into "egg boxes". Property developers also got a serve and Keating called for them to be banned from making political donations. An ironic speech, since a "scratch-my-back-I'll scratch yours" relationship has existed between these largely non-Anglo developers and governments since the end of World War II.

Australia's immigration programme has largely been devised to make these developers rich. Instead of having a smaller, technologically sophisticated population along the lines of Singapore (i.e., each State a Singapore) Australia has gone for populate and perish.

A recent study by James Giesecke ("The Economic Impact of a General Increase in Skilled Immigration," People and Place, vol.14, no.3, 2006) used a computer model of the Australian economy to examine the economic effects of a hypothetical increase in skilled immigration by 50 per cent over the 2004-2005 level.

It was found that the economy expanded proportionally to the skilled migrant intake. A "skills shortage" would not be solved: "the effect of a general expansion in skilled immigration is to exacerbate 'skill shortages' (measured by wage rises) in this sector [i.e., construction] by adding to demand for construction services."

In my opinion Immigration feeds upon itself and is self-sustaining until the inevitable collapse. It makes us all live in egg boxes.

THE GLOBAL WARMING OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

FIRE? FIRE? SIT ON YOUR ASS…

WORDS OF WISDOM

Here is a rare gem of a quote which I found in one of the 'life style' columns by Emma Tom of The Australian 8/11/06, p.14. In passing she cites Canadian academic Robert Hare who maintains that "one in 100 people is a card-carrying psychopath, many of whom have successful jobs in high finance."

This doesn't mean that these people are necessarily killers, as depicted in fiction such as "American Psyche". Most of these elites are de-humanised and amoral. As servants of money they have long ago abandoned their moral duties to life.
The world lies before them to subdue and suck dry and to leave only a withered husk remaining.

QUALITY JOURNALISM?

From David Flint's Opinion Column
Journalist Glen Milne has recently published two pieces of gossip about the Governor-General, both based on unnamed sources.
During the recent Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism, which to the observer seem to consist of journalists awarding prizes to other journalists, a "tired and emotional" Mr. Milne objected to Stephen Mayne, founder of the gossip column Crikey.com being chosen to announce some award. "You're a disgrace," he yelled as he rushed up onto the stage to push Mr. Mayne off the platform.

Taken off by some sort of security person, Mr. Milne broke away and rushed towards Mr. Mayne to attack him again. Mr. Mayne in obvious fear, jumped off the stage. The crowd roared its approval.

Mr. Mayne's speciality has been in publishing any rumour without testing it, on the basis that he would subsequently publish any objections. This is of course in breach of all the ethical codes which apply to responsible journalism in the land. This is hardly the standard one might expect of someone chosen to participate in such awards.
The scene is captured on video on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9v5OsC6GdU

Governor-General gracious to a tea:
Apparently not all of the press is jumping on the appalling republican campaign by some journalists and politicians to "get" the Governor-General, who served his country and is the holder of the Military Cross.

We are told that last week in the Canberra Times, a report by Markus Mannheim appeared under the headline: "G-G gracious to a tea".
This said:
"Stiff and pompous are some of the kinder words the nation's press have used in the past week to describe our Governor-General, Major-General Michael Jeffery, and his wife Marlena.
But the head of state and his spouse showed genuine warmth to a group of Aboriginal artists who visited Government House for morning tea recently.
After the delicate china cups and silver teapots were cleared away, several of the Central Australian artists - in Canberra to have their cataracts removed - wrapped the leftover delicacies carefully in their fine linen napkins, tying the ends together with beautiful knots, to take with them.
Their translator asked the Jefferys if this would be OK. Of course, the couple said, before offering a few boxes for the rest of the food."

SURGERY - BETTER THAN A CASINO

by James Reed
The failure rate of surgery in Australian hospitals is now 20 per cent - meaning that one in five people will require surgery again to correct complications caused by medical errors and other factors. (The Weekend Australian, 11-12/11/06 p.1)

Some months back we commented on another article which said that medical students were having trouble with basic anatomy. Perhaps this latest shock-horror statistic is the product of the same general decline in educated culture and dumbing down.

Shelley Gare has recently published "The Triumph of the Airheads," (Park Street Press) about the decline of basic education standards and much more. Many new university students cannot even write an essay without prior tuition in spelling and grammar. But in general, the "lack of general knowledge among so many of us is now so mind-bogglingly obvious that it has become part of the culture to swap funny stories."

This should be a matter of concern to all of us because how can we educate people about, say, the social credit, when they struggle with the very basics of learning?