But First: When I posted yesterday about Peter Clark's letter re the Australian flag, I had not yet read the letter in response from Jim Maher in yesterday's The Border Watch Wednesday 4th December 2013, attached below...Mr Maher is quite correct to state that 'our culture suppressed' really means genocide, stolen generations related to specific government policies to 'save people from their Aboriginality', etc, and the ongoing traumas and disadvantage stemming from these abuses.
It is not inappropriate to suggest that 'Australia' is a country 'stolen with balls of lead and poisoned bread' from the people who already lived here...I'm not trying to be flippant or dramatic, this is what happened in many incidences...and I know that my flag design from yesterday does not address any of these issues specifically other than to represent the reality of how we have come to be 'Australian'.
I'm Very, Very Confused: by apparently contradictory reports of the rise in infection numbers for Sexually Transmitted Infections, including HIV/AIDS...in particular across sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS infections are reported as continually rising, with extraordinary rates in some countries of around 25% of young men and women...there is a burgeoning generation of 'AIDS Orphans' who have lost both parents...it is a mind-numbing human tragedy...a reality that conflicts with a new United Nations report reportedly claiming that HIV/AIDS will be eradicated across the Asia-Pacific region within 15-20 years.
There are also issues of increased intravenous amphetamine use causing increased infections...I understand that continuing improvements in Anti-viral medications have greatly extended life expectancy for those with HIV/AIDS, often measured in decades not months or years, and that there have been rare incidents of individuals developing natural immunities, but I cannot understand this claim that HIV/AIDS will be somehow eradicated...but I digress...
Water Works: in South Australia remain focused on the main population centre, Adelaide, and while we're on the subject, the opening of the 'New Adelaide Oval'...(oh boy, here we go-Ed)...has been all over the news this morning, and apparently over 1,000 people have been across the new $40million footbridge, and I lasted about 40-50 seconds into an interview with Premier Jay Weatherill slavering self-congratulation about how brave Labor had been and how great it all was, and then they started on the frickin' Rolling Stones...(change the channel?-Ed)...straight into the ABC broadcasting from outside.
(You know, it looks like a giant toilet from above-Ed)...a bit...and the Rann/Weatherill Labor government has certainly flushed South Australia's economic future away with that 'Redevelopment' paid for by the sale of the South East Forestry Estate...and never forget that Labor just wrote off nearly $90million of SA Cricket Assoc debt with what is effectively a bribe for the SACA's support for the 'new oval'...
Add the 'Relocated to Right under the Adelaide Airport flight path' Royal Adelaide Hospital...(is that the RRAARAH-Ed)...quite...the Medical Research building, the Convention Centre, the bridge, etc...and that's a lot of cash getting splashed about, sunk into, flung at and flushed away along North Tce...and all of that requires heaps of water...(nice segue back to what you're supposed to be doing-Ed)...and recent comments from Premier Jay Weatherill and/or SAWater that Adelaide will continue to draw the majority of it's water from the Murray River.
I've covered in previous posts all of these issues of weirs and regulators, etc, and the decisions that were being made only 2-3 years ago to cut-off parts of the Lower Lakes system, with a view to ultimately building a weir near Wellington that would have cut off the entire Lower Lakes/Coorong...and all of this manipulation and planning was solely about securing Adelaide's water supply...and how we could easily be back in that exact position after only a couple of 'dry' years.
And what could happen if that couple of years became a full blown drought and the same 'Weir About Us' mentality was applied by Victoria at the border to ensure their water supplies...and the El Nina/El Nino weather system that pendulums wet/dry conditions between South America and Australia can't figure out if it's coming or going right at the moment...it's apparently anyone's guess which way it could go...
And this 'Murray Reliance' despite the multi-billion dollar (somewhere between $2b and $3b) Desalination Plant at Hallett Cove, that has been reported as 'dysfunctional' and unlikely to produce anywhere near the amount of potable water it was claimed and/or was built for...(and therefore very expensive water becomes even more expensive-Ed)...indeed...and is then dumping 100's of tons of super-saline sludge back into the Gulf with devastating impacts on the Marine environment as witnessed by the massive fish die-offs earlier this year.
Give a stuff what the Environmental Protection Authority says in denying any connection between that die-off and the Desal Plant, there is no question that the entire environment is under pressure around Adelaide and pouring more sludge into it is going to have at the very least a cumulative negative impact...and that's what's happening under only the 'partial production testing phase'...imagine how much gunge will be spewing from that Plant when there is a major drought...(if it even works properly-Ed)...indeed.
I'm not the only person to ask why the Desalination Plant isn't a 'Reclamation/Recycling Plant' that treats all of Adelaide's storm water and potentially waste water, with all of the contaminated waste to be disposed of 'onland' rather than into the Gulf...(well now, that just makes way too much sense-Ed)...and if the damn thing doesn't work properly that throws pressure back on the Murray and greatly increases the likelihood of a weir...(ah so it's all good news then?-Ed).
I'll do Part II tomorrow with the Lower Lakes/Coorong and Murray River issue and how that relates to drains in the SE, the 'Fracking' planned for the South East, and several other Irrigation/Forestry/Aquifer issues...one last point though...
My First Troy Bell Commercial: at, check, 13:39:30hrs, today Thursday 5th December 2013, in between overs on the TV coverage of the first cricket Test (the Second Test of the Ashes series) at the allegedly 'new Adelaide Oval'...a man in a suit saying 'I'll do my best for you as Liberal candidate'...(fair enough-Ed).
And in closing at 17:42:00, extreme cricket controversy earlier today when former Australian keeper now commentator Ian Healy called Ossie batsman Chris Rogers "a little moron" live on air...(he didn't did he?-Ed)...he did...(are you sure?-Ed)...yeah, he said "That delivery from Stuart Broad bounced a little moron Chris Rogers"...(you idiot-Ed)...and as we say down our way, 'Cricket Loggy'...(it's an 'inside joke'-Ed)...or, 'When a chance comes along, you must Cricket, dnn dn dn dnn Cricket good...(to the tune of Whip It by Devo).
Tomorrow: OSWWW Part II
And then on Saturday - In My Own Defense - just more bits and pieces and feedback and stuff and poppycock and balderdash...it's how I roll...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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