Hello Malaysia, France, Germany, and China and welcome to the blog...and here's to staying on task and not veering off into another angry rant about Child Abuse...how about instead, a rant re abuse in the Defence Forces...(perhaps just cut to the chase and do an abusive rant about everything-Ed)...ah, perfect...
As horrendous as the stories are of abuse, rapes, 'hazing', and associated cover-ups in the Defence Forces, does this indicate a rabidly distorted culture within Defence, or is it a mirror of ourselves as a society?...all of these crimes occur almost daily in our broader society, so is the apparent 'culture' really just a 'fishbowl snapshot' of a virtually captive subject?...if open society was considered with the same scrutiny, would we not find all of these same issues?
Please do not confuse my position as seeking to excuse or downplay these behaviours, but I cannot see the point in demonising our Armed Forces for crimes we civilians are more than capable of committing...I cannot help but make comparison that only last week a former Eastern states magistrate pleaded guilty to multiple Child Abuse charges and received a fully suspended sentence...and where's the media frenzy about that?...(go on, say it-Ed)...and of course there's the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up.
It is not necessarily a plan, but I have recently avoided posting re a number of issues because I felt that it was almost disrespectful to do bit-piece paragraphs here and there on disasters like Typhoon Haiyan that has devastated the Philippines...and the almost daily bombings in Iraq where civilians in markets, mosques, etc, are deliberately being targeted...or Syria, where children are being killed by snipers or summarily executed, showing that they are not unfortunate 'collateral deaths' but are also being deliberately targeted.
Like so many people, I can watch the footage on TV and be stunned at the devastation and the suffering and the loss of life...I readily admit to being reduced to tears on occasion...but I cannot resolve any of these issues, particularly the savagery, violence, and hatred we visit on each other...what I can do is celebrate the great things I have in my life, and continue to pursue the issues that I can as appropriately as I can...and try to turn my anger to growth rather than destruction...(albeit that somethings need to be broken down to be repaired-Ed)...fair enough...
Which segues nicely into the Old Hospital Demolition and the vacuous celebration that this is somehow a good thing for Mt Gambier...and the same can be said for the Old Rail Lands issue...in a flourishing, productive Mt Gambier the market would have made the re-development/renovation of the Old Hospital a viable and profitable project...pulling it down is a sad admission that Mt Gambier cannot support even a mid-range development.
It is an admission that the Mt Gambier property market is all but dead...and with that development would have come extensive employment in/for local trades, increased spending in town, etc...instead, this demolition is a capitulation to the reality of what is happening to Mt Gambier where the best the City Council can manage is many millions of borrowed money buried in the destruction of a valuable asset...
In some circumstances demolition is indicative of progress, eg, removing a derelict Housing estate to build new open plan housing that improves the lives of residents, or pulling down an old warehouse to build a new manufacturing facility, etc...but that's not what's happening in Mt Gambier...we are destroying the asset to have more open ground that people won't use any more than any other area nearby...and that failure compounded by Council's apparent disinterest in the iconic, yes I went there, the iconic Blue Lake.
I am genuinely happy for Mt Gambier that it can still attract/organise events like the Whatevs Bike race or Victorian Bike Ride or the Hill Climb, etc, but these events do not a healthy economy make...they should be the 'icing on the cake' for businesses that make the majority of their income from strong year round local custom buoyed by strong local employment, supported by extensive public facilities and government services, etc...all things that Mt Gambier doesn't have.
What Mt Gambier needs are strong local industries providing reliable employment...(and local provision of government services which 1) provides employment, and 2) promotes productivity across the board, eg, if people can access medical services locally, they aren't wasting days, weeks, even months traveling to Adelaide or elsewhere-Ed)...good point...
I note that local MP Don Pegler (in The Border Watch Friday 22nd November 2013) has "supported a report calling for a full enquiry into the Upper South East's drainage system."...the report was prepared by the Natural Resources Committee, and covers the drains and their condition or maintenance, and related infrastructure issues, eg, the state of the many bridges both on public roads and private properties...(previous post).
As an old hippy, I'd like to see virtually all drains 'decommissioned' and natural sumps, swamps and runoffs allowed to re-establish, and so then some of the original landscape with it's rich diversity of flora and fauna...but I realise that this is not likely to happen, so appropriate re-direction and/or use of that water becomes the next priority...and I agree that some fresh water naturally flows to sea, but drains increase that flow markedly, and that water should/must be utilised more effectively.
Every litre of fresh water 'drained' off the landscape, is water that isn't replenishing the precious aquifers, and I believe that there is a case for 'Environmental Aquisitions' of marginal farming land to provide artificial catchments for Aquifer Recharge...in this context I believe there is an opportunity to revisit the coverage/design of the original drainage system in it's entirety, with a view to reducing sea discharge and maximising retention and recharge, and this could be done as part of the formal review/Inquiry.
I concur with Mr Pegler that, "We need a full analysis of the whole of the South-East drainage scheme..." but personally cannot and will not support more drains...again, I would prefer there be no drains, but at a more practical level, what work can be done to maximise retention and minimise removal of this most precious resource?...and I know of at least one SE farmer down Allendale way who won't be supporting my call for less drains, having spent most of Winter up to their knees in water.
What did surprise me was Mr Peglers assertion that, "There are about 1200 bridges right throughout the South-East..."...I knew there were hundreds, but certainly not that many. This "1200" would make quite reasonable the claims that these bridges have a collective repair bill over $80million...and what sort of time frame involved in addressing each and every bridge?
Again I concur with Mr Pegler that it is a serious concern that there appears to be no specific current plan for dealing with the Drainage and Bridge issues, which means any potential plan could yet be years away...and in a state parliament that is fundamentally disinterested in Regional South Australia, I can't see them dealing with this with any urgency.
I'll finish here because all this agreeing with someone is giving me a headache.
Tomorrow: Latest Wind Turbine Propaganda
Knock me over with a feather, the Environment Protection Authority has completed their 'investigation' of Wind Turbine 'noise issues' at Waterloo near Clare, and reached the stunning conclusion that there are no problems.
(Say it-Ed)...bollocks...and a more scientific and specific disassembling of this trite nonsense from a wholly corrupted body simply doing the Labor governments bidding.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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