Tuesday, August 25, 2015

I Railly Railly Rail Against The Rail Lands Retail Agenda

***please ignore the bits following where I say 'no apologies' because ultimately I do actually apologise to those genuine availees of this 'ere blog for a 7 day break...(down-Ed)...almost, Ed, almost...walked into yet another metaphoric wall a week back and it really gave me cause to pause...(well walkin' into a wall, even a metaphoric one, that'll generally cause one to pause-Ed)...ok, sure, but it caused me to reflect on where my life is really at...(I mean, it's not really much of a wall is it if you can walk into it and keep right on going-Ed)...ok, thankyou...and pausing hasn't improved my opinion of Mt Gambier or South Australia, or for that matter, of myself...(unless of course it's a doorway-Ed)...what?!...(well a doorway in a wall, that's built for walking through-Ed)...are you listening to a word I'm saying?...(yeah yeah yeah, "existential crisis blah blah'', "oo oo I'm a bit upset about some stuff and it affects me so I have bad days that occasionally run into weeks blah blah"...yeah I'm listenin'-Ed)...quite finished?...

Yes ok, fair enough, I take your point crudely made as it is, that there's a degree of whingy, whiny blah blah about what I'm going through re this 'ere blog and various other things...(but it ain't nuthin' but a Thang?-Ed)...well quite, nuthin' but a Thang, the Thang...so here's the thing, I'm going to luxuriate in the life of extraordinary privilege and luxury that I have already lived for being born a White man in this stolen land, and I'm going to continue to acknowledge the life of relative luxury and privilege I still live as a Disability Support Pension recipient and Housing Trust (Housing SA) tenant, albeit officially poverty level existence in this country but globally spectacular, and I'll continue to rail against these concurrent and conflicting realities in calling for massive improvements to Income Support and associated services...(Solidarity Brother!-Ed)...settle down, but yes, solidarity Reg*...     (*Monty Python - Life of Brian)

Solidarity Reg: because if it weren't for the relative luxury of a family to 'borrow' enough money to own/run a small, cheap car I wouldn't even have that, and that borrowage is a privilege many DSPers don't enjoy...(you'd be back relying on the offensively pathetically under-funded public bus service in Mt Gambier-Ed)...you mean the one that only runs 0900-1700hrs on weekdays with no service at all on weekends or public holidays?...(you know I do-Ed)...and left with no way to get to the beach, etc...and whilst we're on the subject, and ignoring other allowances/payments/whatevs, NewStart Allowance is even less than the DSP, and by a notable margin...just sayin'... 

I continue to intend to continue with this 'ere blog, and if I'm going to make it work then I need to do it on my terms, and then it's gunna' work for me, not the other way 'round...and if anyone wants to criticise me for what I've failed to achieve this week, well, I probably deserve a bitta' that, fair cop...but in my defense, avail yourself of the 750+ posts here-in in this 'ere blog...and beyond that, look at what I've been doing for 13 years re St Martins,and the extraordinary trauma that I have endured and continue to endure...for example, all other Thangs being equal, bloggin' stuff like "Tomorrow's The Day My Cancer Comes Back" might be a tritely witty summation of an optimistic outlook/attitude re the realities of surviving a massive Lymphoma tumour 10 years ago, but it's a reality challenged every time a 'Cancer' story is in the news...it's just a Thang...

Now throwing back to the post I started a week ago, tidied-up as best I can...cheers, Nick...***

(Sorry, isn't that meant to be "I Really Rarely Rail Against (etc)"?-Ed)...yes, that's what it says...(no, it doesn't, it says "I Railly Railly Rail (etc)"-Ed)...oh sorry yes, I scribbled a small footnote there in the margin, in pencil, just there...sorry, I should have said...(you mean this here?...'say with a ridiculously posh English accent'?-Ed)...yeah, that's it...(I don't get it-Ed)...'I Railly Railly Rail'...no?...(I'll try...'I Railly Railly Rail'...omg, how do you come-up with this stuff?-Ed)...just happens mate, just happens...

No Apologies:...but a big howdy to India, the USofA, Taiwan, and Georgia, and welcome y'all to this 'ere blog...no apologies for rolling-out the Rail Lands Retail Agenda stuff again today because Council continues to deceive and dodge and make ridiculous and in many cases false announcements about non-existent future projects, etc, whilst throwing Ratepayer's money about like there's no tomorrow...(and inevitably into their own pockets-Ed)...indeed, or to their immediate families, their mates, etc, etc...rank corruption lived large in every decision, from the corruptly structured Tender 'processes', through voting processes usually compromised by a raft of Conflict of Interest issues, through to constant and costly alterations, add-ons, repairs of the shonky, unplanned work already done, hiding genuine project costs in other Council Budget areas, etc, etc, etc...(whatta' bloody disgrace-Ed)...

And no apologies that I missed Council's meeting on Tuesday 18th August...not a word of a lie, I actually made it as far as the Civic Centre foyer, but then just couldn't bring myself to go the last 50m into the meeting...hard to explain, sort of a bit of 'Agoraphobia stuff', but mostly the sense that something just wasn't quite right...(come on, you were in a filthily fierce mood and ready to have a bit of a chummy-chat with some of the paedophile-protecting scum-bags in that room who are so intimately complicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up-Ed)...well yeah, that was part of it, for sure, I was not in a particularly good 'mood' and Council's just hangin' for an excuse to kick me out, permanently if possible...but in that context, I'm very comfortable with the notion that I've gone the hard yards in that Chamber, over and over again, up to and including directing Council matters, votes, etc, with brief comments from the Public Gallery...in that context, if I choose to turn and walk away, then I have very much earned that right...

(I'd like to think that they all spent their evening lookin' over their collective shoulder wondering where that bastard Nick Fletcher has got to-Ed)...nice, I think I'll join you in that rather warming 'think', 'cos I'm sure I was on their minds from time to time...but it's not about me...(pah, yeah 'tis, it's all about you and who you supposedly are, the troublemaker you are, etc-Ed)...yeah well ok, in that context it is a bit about me, but I'd still argue it's what I done do and say, eg, on this 'ere blog...and hence the multiple ridiculous 'charges' I'm facing for 'talking about stuff that's otherwise all perfectly fine and legal'...

I'll leave it to the individual Councillors themselves to decide for themselves who are The Corrupt and who is just The Corrupted, those caught in the tide of corruption, nepotism, and gross mismanagement...but to hear Council's Grant Humphries whinging about how Council will have to cut-back on essential services due to 'funding cuts', well that's just plain offensive...(absolutely, Council has no-one to blame but Itself for the gross mismanagement and corruption that define everything they touch-Ed)...indeed, quite hilarious to hear on the ABC Radio last week that Council will have to cut-back on basic maintenance, etc, including "drainage" works/issues...(but haven't they just dug-up half the Rail Lands, again, to shove in yet more stop-gap plastic piping as drainage mitigation measures, measures necessary because of Council's and/or the contractors gross failure to do even basic planning, surveying, etc, leading to extensive flooding/pooling problems right across the entire site?-Ed)...yep...

(Well I'd suggest that things might be workin' out a bit better for Council if Council weren't so rampantly incompetent and/or corrupt that they can't even deal with an empty, flat piece of ground without completely rooting it up-Ed)...good point Ed...part of my about-turn was indeed a conscious acknowledgement that I didn't need to lower my own estimation of Humanity any further by spending another evening sitting silently in that pit of corruption, avarice, and ego-manic self-righteousness we otherwise call Mt Gambier City Council...(ouch!-Ed)...ouch nothing, MGCC is wholly responsible for the desperately dangerous fiscal situation the City finds itself in via a series of grossly mis-handled Public Projects, eg, borrowing $2million for the farcically flawed Rail Lands works, and the moment one steps into that particular discussion, it opens-up a whole horrid can of worms re the rank corruption of the Old Hospital Demolition...(how so?-Ed)...well, all of the completely unnecessary earthworks on the Rail Lands (approx $2million worth) were motivated by 1) the RLRA prerequisite of at least appearing to move the supposedly sacrosanct Rail Easement, and 2) keeping associated contractors sweet after the Old Hospital demo went to Adelaide-based McMahons...   

(And there were no flooding issues at all across the site before Council rooted with it, and that recent trenching was right through the $200,000 of rolled-out turf?-Ed)...all true Ed...(so they've completely trashed $200k of Rolled Gold Grass, and racked-up gourd knows how much in Council workers wages, plant/equipment use, piping, etc, and all to address flooding problems created by Council and/or their contractors-Ed)...and it gets better, 'cos Council's now praising itself-up bigtime for only spending $50,000 on a painted labyrinth thingy, down from the $100,000 they'd originally 'budgeted', and they're having more 'workshops' to get 'experts' to tell Council how to "activate the site"...(oh dear gourd-Ed)...nah, it's true...and flagging/proposing using the "vacant grassland at the sites western end" (The Border Watch 18/08/2015) for a skatepark and a 'rage cage' enclosed sports court...(but isn't that the $200k rolled turf bit at the Western end?-Ed)...that's the one...

Because I've strayed from the topic today I'll go back tomorrow via a dot-pointed history of the Rail Lands Debasco and the lies from Council, the bare-faced corruption and selfishness motivating the Debasco, etc, etc, and include copies of the latest dross from TBW...it's bloody laughable...*just in today's TBW (25/08/2015), a small article just mentioning the recent trenching of the lawned bit, but no photo to show just how trashed the site looks, and no mention of $200k, and certainly not a hint of the outrage that such costly incompetence should inspire...(there's a surprise-Ed)...and it's all gunna' be fine, just fine...apparently...*

Fell Off My Chair Laughing: to read former long-serving Councillor and rabid Labor supporter, indeed serial Labor candidate, Jim Maher, that Jimmy lad had a long, long letter in The Border Watch this (*last) week...and was it about the St Martins case, of which Jim and his wife, fellow serial Labor candidate Viv Maher, are both intimately aware and completely complicit?...(ummm, I'll guess from your tone and that rather unhappy look on your face that it wasn't-Ed)...good call Ed...(maybe it was this debasco at the Rail Lands site?-Ed)...nope...(but I distinctly remember Jim, maaate, calling for a formal opening of the Rail Lands 'before the October 2014 end of this (sic) Council'-Ed)...indeed, as far back as April 2014, possibly even further, Jim maaate...(maaate-Ed)...was on his feet in Council meetings to raise the issue of a formal opening before the November 2014 Local Government elections...

A Single Stick May Bend And Break, But A Group Of Sticks Bound Together Is A Faggot:...(you think you're pretty damn funny don'tcha?-Ed)...yeah yeah, I'm just poking a bit of fun at this stupidly sacred cow of Gender Politics by messing-up a trite saying about 'Solidarity Brother' with the reality that a bundle of sticks is indeed called a 'faggot', and also dismissing Jim's psuedo-Leftist 'Equality' deceit for what it is, a rankly hypocritical Labor Party promo...(well I for one don't know what Jim maaate-Ed)...maaate...(is bangin' on about, criticising Council for not treating Gender Equality issues respectfully, etc, 'cos it's my experience that Council's every action is steeped in Equality issues-Ed)...not with you...(and furthermore, I think that Council's Perpetual Fiscal support for Marriage Equality and Gender Rights, etc, is something to be noted and lauded, not mocked-Ed)...what are you talking about?...(pretty much everything that Council does, every $million of Ratepayers money they pour into each other's pockets-Ed)...still not with you...(well, wherever the cash actually ends-up, Council spends Ratepayer's money with Gay Abandon-Ed)...and taboomtish, 2 offensive gay jokes in one paragraph... 

And I make these jokes-in-very-poor-taste because we need to find a sense of humour in almost everything and gay people I know/have known would be appreciative of the degree of humour in these terrible jokes...I fully support equality and respect, etc, etc, and in appropriate respectful relationships I really don't care who's rootin' who...('whom', 'whom is rootin' whom'-Ed)...orrr whatevs grandpa, it's about genuine equality in the Law because you can't truly legislate against the haters...ya' can try with legislation, etc, but you cannot stop bigotry...in this context, legal equality is the only equality that matters, and like Aboriginal inclusion in the Constitution, I consider it a given that should already have happened...(do I release the rainbow-coloured budgerigars now?-Ed)...whatevs...

Tomorrow: The Rail Lands - The Hole Council's Dug You Into

And just in closing, the critical opiate that precipitated my Council foyer turnaround was the fury fueled by re-visiting the rank pro-paedophile corruption of the Crown Solicitors Office and the Teachers Registration Board re their wholly corrupted protection of "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher Glyn Dorling, memories brought into sharp focus by running through that letter in a recent post...(you mean the letter from CSO Simon Stretton where-in he openly threatens you with Criminal Defamation if you don't shut it!...etc?-Ed)...yep, that's the one...had all that rollin' 'round my head like a storm lookin' for somewhere to unleash...and so I turned around and went home...(ManBear StuffPig's gotta' know 'is limitations-Ed)...indeed...  

And this is the burden I bear all day, day in day out, day after day, days to weeks to months to years to a decade and more and I struggle to remember that which existed before the St Martins Cover-up...former Mayor and current Councillor Steve Perryman, Jim and Viv Maher, Rory McEwen, Don Pegler, Mike Rann, Jay Weatherill, SAPol, the TRB and CSO, etc, etc...(and don't forget good ol' Frank 'The Jellyfish That Grew A Spine And Roared Like A Mouse From It's Ivory Tower*' Morello-Ed)...indeed, and all the other local media hacks who have so compliantly and complicitly helped cover-up the St Martins case, particularly the rankly corrupted SA ABC...                              
     (*just acknowledging that there's indeed a degree of TJTGASARLAM about me and my conduct, etc,
        but the distinction being that I'm doin' my roaring at the Coal Face, not from some bloody Ivory
        Tower...(and fair enough-Ed)*)

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...

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