Hello Switzerland, China, Indonesia and again Moldova...I've all but given up trying to follow the 'views' statistics for the blog because they fluctuate so much, and there could be a number of 'mis-hits', etc, but if places like Moldova come up regularly in the 'audience' stats it's a fair bet that there's some-one there checking in fairly often...howdy...
Profusest apologies for no post yesterday but was having Interweb problems last night (freezing up, dropping out, and still doing it this morning at 0530hrs), gave up and took a break to watch ABCs QandA show and fell asleep on the couch...(you are just so rock'n'roll-Ed)...so, sorry, 2 posts today...(orrrr nahhhh-Ed)...and it's Interwebbily ironic because yesterday (Monday 28th) there were some blokes working on installing some plastic cable conduit piping up by the Blue Lake, and one of them said it was something to do with the NBN (National Broadband Network)...(I thought we weren't getting the NBN for another 7-10 years-Ed)...exactly, don't know, will try to check...maybe something to do with the new phone tower just 3kms down Bay Rd...dunno, neither did he...
Also 3 former Country Liberal Party members in the Northern Territory, who only weeks ago quit the CLP as a protest about an alleged failure to support Aboriginal people in the NT, have suddenly signed on to the Palmer United Party...(Clive Palmer is the coal mining billionaire from Queensland who has 'bought' himself several Federal Senate positions at the September 2013 election and now 3 NT Ministers)...(and the good money's on more NT pollies defecting to the PUP as early as today-Ed)...
Feedback: often conflicting about how I should be sticking to strictly local stuff and not meander off into international issues, whilst elsewhere there is praise for not just grinding through the same old issues and instead mixing it up a bit...and the same advice about Humours Attempted, 'people are too busy to read stupid jokes', whilst others have praised the Jocular Excursionings, the Witty Wordsmithery, and the Japery and Aspersionings dripping satire and sarcasm...(I like the dog poo jokes-Ed)...right...
I have availed myself of the Mt Gambier City Council Budget and it's a fascinating read...and it's that sort of rubbish that's pretty much all I read these days...the last time I tried to read a novel it was some old John Wyndham stuff that I really like and haven't read in 20 years, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Kraken Wakes, etc, but only a few pages in I was drifting and distracted...changed novels but no better...before that it was all of the Lemony Snicket's and Harry Potters and Deltora Quests, etc, stuff that my child was reading...haven't sat down and read a novel cover to cover in years...
I mention it as being symptomatic of other issues...I was never a great reader of fiction but used to chew through Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and a bunch of that sort of gear...but in recent years, not nuthin'...radio, TV, papers, Interweb, that's about it...hardly listen to music anymore either, usually only on weekends when there's sport on the radio and I'm not doing the blog...haven't been to see live music in so long I can't remember...it's all symptomatic of Chronic Depression and Agoraphobia stuff...(and Pariahtisation and isolation-Ed)...sure...you just stop doing things, particularly things you enjoy, bit by bit, until eventually you grind to a halt.
There's an old saying about how a lump of coal submitted to extreme pressure over eons eventually becomes a diamond...(that or a very gritty smear of crushed coal dust-Ed)...indeed...
I read 'It' by Stephen King 25 years ago, long before I was overwhelmed by the St Martins Abuse Issue, but even then it struck me that if you took Pennywise the Clown out of 'It' and made that lurking evil paedophilia instead, it's a fair freakin' metaphor...I don't know whether this was Mr King's intent, one of perhaps several, whatevs...'It' critiques perfectly the adult tendency to 'not see' that which the children can see and endure preying on them...
Connecting The Dot Points:
1) At the Council meeting April 15th 2014 Grant Humphries was 'Acting CEO' due to Mark McShane's absence which I did not hear explained and is not on the Agenda or Minutes, and in February Mr Humphries was 'Acting CEO', in the big comfy chair up the front because Mr McShane was absent on "Compassionate Leave" (Mayor Steve Perryman's statement, not in Minutes) which was 'Minuted' as a 'Leave of Absence', however, according to the Agenda, Mighty Marky Mark McShenanigans was in the chair for the March meeting that I missed...I don't know what's going on here...he's there, he isn't, who knows...
This is the problem with missing the March meeting because I don't know what happened and the Council's Agendas and Minutes are not accurate...not completely wrong, but with enough omissions and errors to render the rest subject to doubt, eg, I refer to the infamous Council meeting September 19th 2013 re the Old Hospital Demolition and associated Old Laundry Redevelopment that were not on the Agenda at all, and the Minutes re Mayor Steve Perryman that refer to his 'Conflict of Interest' and subsequent withdrawal but are not a verbatim reproduction of what he actually said...
I've just also checked the Agenda and Minutes from February 18th 2014 (that's some mind-numbing boredom right there-Ed)...ah, yes it surely is...I spent my afternoon trying to cross-reference who did and didn't attend various meetings but it makes no mention of Mr McShenanigans absence until the end of the meeting under Motions without Notice, lists Grant Humphries as being 'Director Corporate Services, and has no-one acting as Chief Executive Officer...the vote to indefinitely install Mr Humphries as CEO wasn't held until the end of the meeting but he spent the meeting in the CEO Chair.
2) Regardless, Mr McShane was apparently back in the CEO chair for March and was present at some stage to offer The Border Watch the info that Council will be spending another $700,000 at the Old Hospital site, but the detail of on what exactly was not in the article...(and do other interviews, and sign Council documents, eg, 'Notice of Meeting' paperwork-Ed)...indeed...the Laundry is meant to be only $200k, so $500k on what?...(an artificial lake?-Ed)...that sir, is not funny...it's hilarious...
This all does seem a bit 'nit-picky' I know, but it is critical minutiae who
is in attendance; why exactly has the Mayor left the Chamber with a Conflict of
Interest, yet again; who is the CEO and therefore has the keys to the
kingdom's purse-strings and can unilaterally distribute ratepayers
money without scrutiny; what issues are to be and/or were discussed; etc...I refer back
to the posts from September 2013 re the particular Council meeting 19th
September 2013 where Mayor Perryman left the Chamber 2 or 3 times, the
Old Hospital Demolition wasn't on the Agenda, etc...more tomorrow...
This level of 'diversion from the factual' and/or omission is absolutely critical on supposedly official documents, eg, the major issues of the Demolition Contract and Laundry Restoration weren't even on the Agenda...ironic isn't it?...(what is?-Ed)...from the big comfy seats raised up on high the view is me...(hilarious-Ed)...and from down in the cheap seats I'm just looking at all of them...(priceless-Ed).
Forestry Minister Leon Bignell was on the ABC yesterday (the 28th) stating that the Wirrabra Forest wasn't insured (for $20m?) and that Forestry SA handed back the funds to the government when the SE Forestry Estate was sold and that it will cost $5m to replant...I believe that he said Wirrabra "wasn't worth it to insure"...(charming-Ed)...
Berry Nuts If You Ask Me: Council is offering $250 of Fruit and/or Nut Trees to ratepayers to have planted in their local park, and this 'offer' closes 5pm this Friday 2nd May...I kind of like the idea with this but there are a few potential problems, eg, if people move or lose interest, etc, that will fall to Council to maintain...even if people don't eat the fruit at least the birds and possums and shizzle will get into it, but this could be a vermin issue because it'll be mostly a bunch of Feral Starlings, Sparrows and Rats, not native critters...this program has been running for at least a year...(just running 'ad' again now on ABC 0630hrs 29th)...I support utilising inner-city space for food production, even if it eventually does fall to Council to maintain.
I'm very, very pissed off and deeply concerned by the Nationalistic, militaristic jingoism being ramped up and interwoven with the impending Federal Budget...more later but here's a sampling...get the Royals in for ANZAC Day, ramp up the Nationalistic fervour with gross manipulation of the truth of what ANZAC really is, and then slam lower wage earners with a Budget of class structured bastardry rammed home with sickening calls to stoicism and being like the Diggers...shreck that...
Deloitee Access Economics reckons that the SA economy is going gangbusters off the back of a super season and good prices and mining hasn't completely nosedived, etc, and it's a good global economy which means good spending, and although housing could be better it's still improving due to positive pressure from more immigration and there's been a big pick-up in the industry backed by very low interest rates...it was all good news for sure about the South Australian economy from a firm that allegedly specialises in the subject...don't really believe it myself but then I ain't an Economist.
Finishing suddenly at 1730hrs Tuesday 29th April 2014 the post for Monday 28th...later today...
Tomorrow: More Budget Bashin'
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...be bloggin' atcha' 'ron...cheers and laters.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Rubbed It Real Hard But Just Can't Budget
Hello Moldova, Indonesia, Ukraine and the United States of America, and welcome to the blog...and thanks y'all again for the feedback and for reading the post yesterday about the feedback...and a barrel-load of hilarious mixed metaphors and jolly japes today as is always my want re Mt Gambier City Council.
Apologies that this post is late and short..and not constructed with a specific copy of Council's Proposed Budget in front of me, but rather based on general observation, media reportage, etc...and I haven't done my 'research' about specific quotes, etc, either...a thoroughly slack effort all round relying on memory and why I will do RIRHBJCB Part II tomorrow and a further one later in the week.
What I can say is that Council is going through all the motions, makin' all the right moves, emitting the correct noises, eg, a large ad repeatedly in The Border Watch referring to their Budget and their burning desire for the good folk of Mt Gambier to have a genuine and considered input to the decision processes that define the City's future...(bahahaha you crack me up-Ed)...
But First: I always feel uncomfortable discussing how Aboriginal people are affected by issues or what they think about stuff, but it does need to be acknowledged the role of Aboriginal soldiers serving in action in both the World Wars and other campaigns before they were recognised as citizens, and with Terra Nulleus even as people...Aboriginal soldiers received none of the support that other Returned Servicemen were entitled to, eg, soldier settlement land grants, medical benefits, pensions, etc.
In what coverage I've seen there was very little commentary about this, mostly on the ABC/BBC (and then on the radio) and certainly not on commercial TV networks...but again I'm one person and could have easily missed stuff...please Interweb search more info about Terra Nulleus and it's implications...it is yet another issue of Aboriginal Australia that needs to be front and centre of the current debate not waved away as a quaint anomaly of a history rather forgotten...I was alive when Terra Nulleus was still in place...
Council Meeting Stuff: sorry to have forgotten this...at the April 15th meeting former Councillor Byron Harfield and former CEO Greg Muller were "deleted as authorised signatories" of the Junior Sports Assistance Fund but I'm fairly sure that only a few meetings ago Council changed it's 'Pecuniary Interest ' requirements to (by my estimation) allow Greg Muller to be part of the JSAF...I covered that in previous posts...apols if I've mixed up funds or something...I'll check, again, and post.
Also CEO Mark McShane was still absent (Compassionate Leave?) on the 15th but I believe he has stated that Council intends to spend another $700,000 at the Old Hospital site...(I thought it was$200k for the Old Laundry revamp-Ed)...and apparently $500k for benches and trees and shizzle I'm sure...it has all the hallmarks of the Main Corner and Library cost blowouts...if you accept as unnecessary all of the massive land works of ripping up rails and digging huge holes then filling them in again, etc, to get flat ground back to being flat ground, which is exactly what Council has done at the Old Rail Lands, then that in itself is already a massive project cost blowout.
But that's only the case if Council genuinely were going to put parkland across the site, which they're not, because it's completely necessary ($2m+) expenditure if you're planning to slap a slab a' shopping centre right across it...and I just cannot believe any part of Council's handling of the Old Hospital project and their figures on budget, etc...and there's still the issue of the legal action against the Receivers, which will inevitably involve Council who made the contentious re-zoning decisions...it just goes round and round...
I do literally fall about laughing when I hear/read Council bangin' on about 'Financial Plans' and 'Budgets' because they have a proven track record of doing what they individually feel like in the moment and completely ignoring that which doesn't conform, throwing insane amounts of money at equally insane whims and fancies, making up the numbers to suit...and when these decisions are made about benefitting a few choice individuals, that's where that behaviour is by definition rabidly rorting and routinely de-frauding, and generally just rooting Mt Gambier right into the ground...
And I am of course being highly irresponsible when I suggest that Council has some sort of Magic Lamp that they rub when their gross financial mismanagement and gross internal corruption renders the Cities coffers empty and they need more money, because there is no magic involved...in last year's Budget they just doubled their own borrowing capacity to $12million and started throwing ratepayers cash at a new series of ludicrous projects...
(Wouldn't mind so much if it was a rubbing, don't mind a bit of a rub...it's this being hung upside down by the ankles and shaken to see if, after Council' and the bloody government have had there filthy, thievin' mits in ma' pockets all year, what small change I do have left falls out-WPORP)...sorry WPORP, have we met before?...(yes, frequently...I'm the Way Pissed Off Rate Payer...we met at all of those Budget meetings this time last year, walking down the Main St, at the supermarket, pretty much wherever you go really-WPORP)...ah yes of course, I beg your pardon...
Doesn't matter how hard Council tries to polish the propaganda or paint over the rust there is a stain that won't be denied, constantly seeping toward the surface borne on a tide of rising discontent...and this blog does play some small part in that...for example, no-one who gives half a damn and is reading the blog believes Council's bumf about the Rail Lands Parklands because it's all here...
Which Stain?: disdain is the appropriate emotional, rational, and practical response to any document presented by Mt Gambier City Council...their numbers cannot and should not be trusted, their intent is ne'er but self-promotion and profit, and they are so mired in their own agendas and nepotism that I don't think they could navigate themselves away from it even if they really wanted to...
(Well now that's not very appropriate, its a gross exaggeration albeit based on substantive fact...it's like saying that every politician you've ever met is corruptly implicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...well, maybe that's a bad example-Ed)...no, no that's a perfect example...it's all about context...(oh here we bloody go, always with the 'it's about the context'...what's next, 'Crunch time'?-Ed)...steady on...it's the contextual difference between saying the patently ridiculous, eg, all police officers in South Australia and all Lutherans are paedophiles, just because both organisation's hierarchy are clearly involved in the pro-paedophile corruption of the St Martins Cover-up.
I treat any 'average Joe' worker-ant Peeler (British Home Secretary Robert Peel introduced the first official 'Police Force' in London in 1829, who were hence known as 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers') or work-a-day God-botherer with due respect because more often than not they're just people doing people stuff...I'm always respectful and polite...pretty much...
Bottom line: there are people on Council who are working hard with genuine intent, it's just the damage being done at the pointy end by a definable handful that's really stuffing it up for everyone else...that's were my ire resides and my barbs are fired, but this Budget stuff is an exercise in ifs, buts, and maybes, and the idea of genuine public consultation is a patent nonsense.
Not A Word Of A Lie: this morning I was just headed out, loading the dog into the car, etc, when someone prank called the Adelaide ABC Radio Talkback Gardening Show...happened I reckon as last call of the morning so about 1030hrs or 1100hrs....started with something about this young callers neighbour who had this plant that everyone wanted to buy, including this guy's parents, but nobody knew what it was...wasn't really listening at first but was thinking that sounds a bit sus, then 'he's talking about grass and I don't mean lawn' and went back inside to hear him describe it, and he said it's got a spiky hand-like leaf...
(Aaahhhh he was talking about gunja mun, sweet Mary Jane, de' Chronic-Ed)...sorry what?...(a marijuana plant...he was talking about a marijuana plant...his neighbour has one and everybody wants to buy it? spiky hand-like leaves?-Ed)...exactly, that's what I said, 'grass'...(bloody hippy-Ed)...anyhoos, yes I sussed it pretty much straight away, but it took the talkback folk a little longer...I missed the exact moment that the ABC announcers realised, but at some point they clearly did and politely said take it to a nursery and concluded the call, but it went on for maybe 2 minutes...hilarious...
Enough for today and the proper Budget stuff tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Um, The Budget Stuff
And what's not in there again, eg, the covered pool issue, the other $6million for the Rail Lands Concept Plan, etc.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Apologies that this post is late and short..and not constructed with a specific copy of Council's Proposed Budget in front of me, but rather based on general observation, media reportage, etc...and I haven't done my 'research' about specific quotes, etc, either...a thoroughly slack effort all round relying on memory and why I will do RIRHBJCB Part II tomorrow and a further one later in the week.
What I can say is that Council is going through all the motions, makin' all the right moves, emitting the correct noises, eg, a large ad repeatedly in The Border Watch referring to their Budget and their burning desire for the good folk of Mt Gambier to have a genuine and considered input to the decision processes that define the City's future...(bahahaha you crack me up-Ed)...
But First: I always feel uncomfortable discussing how Aboriginal people are affected by issues or what they think about stuff, but it does need to be acknowledged the role of Aboriginal soldiers serving in action in both the World Wars and other campaigns before they were recognised as citizens, and with Terra Nulleus even as people...Aboriginal soldiers received none of the support that other Returned Servicemen were entitled to, eg, soldier settlement land grants, medical benefits, pensions, etc.
In what coverage I've seen there was very little commentary about this, mostly on the ABC/BBC (and then on the radio) and certainly not on commercial TV networks...but again I'm one person and could have easily missed stuff...please Interweb search more info about Terra Nulleus and it's implications...it is yet another issue of Aboriginal Australia that needs to be front and centre of the current debate not waved away as a quaint anomaly of a history rather forgotten...I was alive when Terra Nulleus was still in place...
Council Meeting Stuff: sorry to have forgotten this...at the April 15th meeting former Councillor Byron Harfield and former CEO Greg Muller were "deleted as authorised signatories" of the Junior Sports Assistance Fund but I'm fairly sure that only a few meetings ago Council changed it's 'Pecuniary Interest ' requirements to (by my estimation) allow Greg Muller to be part of the JSAF...I covered that in previous posts...apols if I've mixed up funds or something...I'll check, again, and post.
Also CEO Mark McShane was still absent (Compassionate Leave?) on the 15th but I believe he has stated that Council intends to spend another $700,000 at the Old Hospital site...(I thought it was$200k for the Old Laundry revamp-Ed)...and apparently $500k for benches and trees and shizzle I'm sure...it has all the hallmarks of the Main Corner and Library cost blowouts...if you accept as unnecessary all of the massive land works of ripping up rails and digging huge holes then filling them in again, etc, to get flat ground back to being flat ground, which is exactly what Council has done at the Old Rail Lands, then that in itself is already a massive project cost blowout.
But that's only the case if Council genuinely were going to put parkland across the site, which they're not, because it's completely necessary ($2m+) expenditure if you're planning to slap a slab a' shopping centre right across it...and I just cannot believe any part of Council's handling of the Old Hospital project and their figures on budget, etc...and there's still the issue of the legal action against the Receivers, which will inevitably involve Council who made the contentious re-zoning decisions...it just goes round and round...
I do literally fall about laughing when I hear/read Council bangin' on about 'Financial Plans' and 'Budgets' because they have a proven track record of doing what they individually feel like in the moment and completely ignoring that which doesn't conform, throwing insane amounts of money at equally insane whims and fancies, making up the numbers to suit...and when these decisions are made about benefitting a few choice individuals, that's where that behaviour is by definition rabidly rorting and routinely de-frauding, and generally just rooting Mt Gambier right into the ground...
And I am of course being highly irresponsible when I suggest that Council has some sort of Magic Lamp that they rub when their gross financial mismanagement and gross internal corruption renders the Cities coffers empty and they need more money, because there is no magic involved...in last year's Budget they just doubled their own borrowing capacity to $12million and started throwing ratepayers cash at a new series of ludicrous projects...
(Wouldn't mind so much if it was a rubbing, don't mind a bit of a rub...it's this being hung upside down by the ankles and shaken to see if, after Council' and the bloody government have had there filthy, thievin' mits in ma' pockets all year, what small change I do have left falls out-WPORP)...sorry WPORP, have we met before?...(yes, frequently...I'm the Way Pissed Off Rate Payer...we met at all of those Budget meetings this time last year, walking down the Main St, at the supermarket, pretty much wherever you go really-WPORP)...ah yes of course, I beg your pardon...
Doesn't matter how hard Council tries to polish the propaganda or paint over the rust there is a stain that won't be denied, constantly seeping toward the surface borne on a tide of rising discontent...and this blog does play some small part in that...for example, no-one who gives half a damn and is reading the blog believes Council's bumf about the Rail Lands Parklands because it's all here...
Which Stain?: disdain is the appropriate emotional, rational, and practical response to any document presented by Mt Gambier City Council...their numbers cannot and should not be trusted, their intent is ne'er but self-promotion and profit, and they are so mired in their own agendas and nepotism that I don't think they could navigate themselves away from it even if they really wanted to...
(Well now that's not very appropriate, its a gross exaggeration albeit based on substantive fact...it's like saying that every politician you've ever met is corruptly implicit in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...well, maybe that's a bad example-Ed)...no, no that's a perfect example...it's all about context...(oh here we bloody go, always with the 'it's about the context'...what's next, 'Crunch time'?-Ed)...steady on...it's the contextual difference between saying the patently ridiculous, eg, all police officers in South Australia and all Lutherans are paedophiles, just because both organisation's hierarchy are clearly involved in the pro-paedophile corruption of the St Martins Cover-up.
I treat any 'average Joe' worker-ant Peeler (British Home Secretary Robert Peel introduced the first official 'Police Force' in London in 1829, who were hence known as 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers') or work-a-day God-botherer with due respect because more often than not they're just people doing people stuff...I'm always respectful and polite...pretty much...
Bottom line: there are people on Council who are working hard with genuine intent, it's just the damage being done at the pointy end by a definable handful that's really stuffing it up for everyone else...that's were my ire resides and my barbs are fired, but this Budget stuff is an exercise in ifs, buts, and maybes, and the idea of genuine public consultation is a patent nonsense.
Not A Word Of A Lie: this morning I was just headed out, loading the dog into the car, etc, when someone prank called the Adelaide ABC Radio Talkback Gardening Show...happened I reckon as last call of the morning so about 1030hrs or 1100hrs....started with something about this young callers neighbour who had this plant that everyone wanted to buy, including this guy's parents, but nobody knew what it was...wasn't really listening at first but was thinking that sounds a bit sus, then 'he's talking about grass and I don't mean lawn' and went back inside to hear him describe it, and he said it's got a spiky hand-like leaf...
(Aaahhhh he was talking about gunja mun, sweet Mary Jane, de' Chronic-Ed)...sorry what?...(a marijuana plant...he was talking about a marijuana plant...his neighbour has one and everybody wants to buy it? spiky hand-like leaves?-Ed)...exactly, that's what I said, 'grass'...(bloody hippy-Ed)...anyhoos, yes I sussed it pretty much straight away, but it took the talkback folk a little longer...I missed the exact moment that the ABC announcers realised, but at some point they clearly did and politely said take it to a nursery and concluded the call, but it went on for maybe 2 minutes...hilarious...
Enough for today and the proper Budget stuff tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Um, The Budget Stuff
And what's not in there again, eg, the covered pool issue, the other $6million for the Rail Lands Concept Plan, etc.
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Saturday, April 26, 2014
100% Grain Fed Feedback
Hello and welcome to the blog...this is a quick bit of an explanation/self-justification post in light of a series of kerbside chats and/or other feedbacks, so I might take some space to acknowledge and respond...Council Budget stuff tomorrow, it ain't goin' nowhere...(yay-Ed)....cheers...
Feedback: I know I've made myself fairly unpopular round about the Shire, and so it has almost floored me to receive some recent unexpected support and advice from equally unexpected sources...obviously I'm not going to say who said what when exactly, but Mt Gambier is a very small town and just walking down the street is fraught with encounter...(ahhh, no, it's people, ooo whoa dude-Ed)...hilarious, are you mocking the Agoraphobia stuff? 'cos if you are I'm gonna...(hey they're still looking-Ed...I'll talk to you later)...so this post is a montage of off-blog comments and there's a general trend toward, as I say, support and understanding...
Ploughing off into the dead joke area now with a statement about this 'inevitable encountering' and how that has impacted on my Agoraphobia, eg, didn't want to go to town because I was almost guaranteed to run into someone from St Martins and possibly get abused in the street or in the supermarket or on the bus...these days when I see these same people who had a go at me, they won't even make eye contact...it's all scurry and run...suits me...Agoraphobia is a very deep pit to crawl out of though, and I still got me sum' crawlin' ta' do...
It's very different to being harangued and attacked and bullied and threatened at public meetings where I know I'm going to run into a bunch of City Councillors, etc, and indeed expect to cop flack for just showing my face...I'm not just being an egomanic nutter...(no indeed, that and so much more-Ed)...when I say that my presence at a function of any description changes the tone and mood in that room...just big enough to stand out in a crowd and just known enough to be intensely disliked...(fair call-Ed)...not that that excuses these alleged professionals totally inappropriate behaviours toward me in public meetings...(again, fair call-Ed)...
It has been put to me that some people simply can't be seen to attend certain meetings and express certain opinions, etc...(fair enough, small town retribution and all that-Ed)...absolutely...and that it's good to see someone giving it a bit of a go because it does clearly need to be done...and that observation that yes I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed and do have a very limited political experience and/or interest, but again that I've clearly sought to contribute and have a better idea of what's happening than most.
And yes I am relatively happy to talk about the depression, Agoraphobia, etc, and how it's affected me because it is largely as a result of how I have been treated, predominantly off the back of the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...I don't need to justify or explain myself to anyone, here's a reality, that's the way it is, simple as that...(well actually you may well have to explain soon because Prime Minister Abbott has promised to make us all dump a load-Ed)...no, I think you'll find he's talking a load about everyone else having to 'lift the load' which may well mean people being dumped off the Disability Support Pension, etc...(oh-Ed)...
I was flattered that someone called me brave again for talking about this Mental Health stuff, but it's mostly about me owning what is to a large degree just a reality...and real or not, it's been stated repeatedly and specifically to denigrate myself and other parents by people like former Member for Mt Gambier Rory McEwen, not least of all on the front page of The Border Watch...(he's off-Ed)...sorry, I'm off...and when Child Protection Activists contacted him about St Martins...(and away-Ed)...
And when Premier Jay Weatherill's business partner Stephen Lieschke, who had acted for the St Martins teacher Glyn Dorling in the Teachers Registration Board Inquiry, when Mr Lieschke rang those same CPAs and warned them off helping us, he repeatedly stated that we parents had 'psychological problems'...(and the stuff he claimed about 'death threats against Dorling' and how a father, you, had confessed to a plot to throw Dorling off a cliff, etc-Ed)...yeah, the whole box and dice...lies, slander, and manipulation to attack parents to support the cover-up of the abuse of a class of 7 year old kids...(come back to us dude-Ed)...yeah sorry...("so much anger, so much rage"-Jurgen Harborrmaster-The Mighty Boosh-BBC TV)
It seems that people understand that whilst I continue to make occasional mistakes, it is not a question of deliberate manipulation or propaganda, that I'm trying to be accurate and balanced...(I'd argue that making a few mistakes is even healthy-Ed)...how so?...(well if you're prone to the occasional albeit genuine mistake, it arms the reader with a healthy cynicism-Ed)...sorry, 'healthy cynicism'?...(yeah, ya' don't wanna believe everything ya' read...and for a range of reasons beyond genuine mistakes-Ed)...fair enough...
And that is the positive to be found in that feedback, there is a sense of credibility and even trust in what I'm saying and at least trying to do with the blog...it also apparently doesn't hurt that much of what I "allege and/or complain about" is supported by documentation...there is some small self-satisfaction to be gleaned from this 'credibility' because I'd be a whole bunch happier if most of what I post was absolute bollocks...which segues nicely into...
My repeated apologies for some of the fruitier language in the blog, have been generously waved aside as unnecessary, and my unrepentant ventage even described as 'hardly surprising given what you've been through' (paraphrase)...it was even put to me that I show 'remarkable restraint'...I'm not going to use that as a license to go right off the vitriolic deep end, but it is hugely cathartic to hear others acknowledge both the reality of the shizzle that's going on and the idea that it would clearly be deeply traumatising, and that in that context, I actually handle things pretty well.
I'm also aware that some blogs tout for donations and it has been suggested that I might do that, but as previously stated I consider that I'm already working as best I can for what support I do already get via the DSP and Housing Trust...not gloating, not bragging, not doing anything but just sayin'...it is genuinely part of why I do the blog and why I take it so seriously...
Advice I Will Take: is that which I've already decided myself, namely, it wouldn't hurt to give myself a bit of a break from the blog once and a while...(sure they weren't saying 'give it a bloody rest will you, we're so sick of your particular brand of bollocks day in day out'-Ed)...fair point and duly taken, but no it was about looking after my health, not burning out, etc...(wasn't ya' mum was it?-Ed)...well yes her go' bless 'er, her amongst others...so I'm going to effectively give myself a day off...(yay-Availees)...once a week...(woohoo-A)...and on that day just post some documents or poetry, etc...(norrrr not fair, not the poetry-A)...
Don't panic, I gotta' ton a' bad puns, questionable wordsmitheries, and dodgy japes to get through before that 'day off' actually happens...certainly not going to happen,
Tomorrow: Budget Stuff From Council
As promised, but still not really too sure what to say about things fiscal when the numbers are coming from Council, because they're all over the shop...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Feedback: I know I've made myself fairly unpopular round about the Shire, and so it has almost floored me to receive some recent unexpected support and advice from equally unexpected sources...obviously I'm not going to say who said what when exactly, but Mt Gambier is a very small town and just walking down the street is fraught with encounter...(ahhh, no, it's people, ooo whoa dude-Ed)...hilarious, are you mocking the Agoraphobia stuff? 'cos if you are I'm gonna...(hey they're still looking-Ed...I'll talk to you later)...so this post is a montage of off-blog comments and there's a general trend toward, as I say, support and understanding...
Ploughing off into the dead joke area now with a statement about this 'inevitable encountering' and how that has impacted on my Agoraphobia, eg, didn't want to go to town because I was almost guaranteed to run into someone from St Martins and possibly get abused in the street or in the supermarket or on the bus...these days when I see these same people who had a go at me, they won't even make eye contact...it's all scurry and run...suits me...Agoraphobia is a very deep pit to crawl out of though, and I still got me sum' crawlin' ta' do...
It's very different to being harangued and attacked and bullied and threatened at public meetings where I know I'm going to run into a bunch of City Councillors, etc, and indeed expect to cop flack for just showing my face...I'm not just being an egomanic nutter...(no indeed, that and so much more-Ed)...when I say that my presence at a function of any description changes the tone and mood in that room...just big enough to stand out in a crowd and just known enough to be intensely disliked...(fair call-Ed)...not that that excuses these alleged professionals totally inappropriate behaviours toward me in public meetings...(again, fair call-Ed)...
It has been put to me that some people simply can't be seen to attend certain meetings and express certain opinions, etc...(fair enough, small town retribution and all that-Ed)...absolutely...and that it's good to see someone giving it a bit of a go because it does clearly need to be done...and that observation that yes I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed and do have a very limited political experience and/or interest, but again that I've clearly sought to contribute and have a better idea of what's happening than most.
And yes I am relatively happy to talk about the depression, Agoraphobia, etc, and how it's affected me because it is largely as a result of how I have been treated, predominantly off the back of the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...I don't need to justify or explain myself to anyone, here's a reality, that's the way it is, simple as that...(well actually you may well have to explain soon because Prime Minister Abbott has promised to make us all dump a load-Ed)...no, I think you'll find he's talking a load about everyone else having to 'lift the load' which may well mean people being dumped off the Disability Support Pension, etc...(oh-Ed)...
I was flattered that someone called me brave again for talking about this Mental Health stuff, but it's mostly about me owning what is to a large degree just a reality...and real or not, it's been stated repeatedly and specifically to denigrate myself and other parents by people like former Member for Mt Gambier Rory McEwen, not least of all on the front page of The Border Watch...(he's off-Ed)...sorry, I'm off...and when Child Protection Activists contacted him about St Martins...(and away-Ed)...
And when Premier Jay Weatherill's business partner Stephen Lieschke, who had acted for the St Martins teacher Glyn Dorling in the Teachers Registration Board Inquiry, when Mr Lieschke rang those same CPAs and warned them off helping us, he repeatedly stated that we parents had 'psychological problems'...(and the stuff he claimed about 'death threats against Dorling' and how a father, you, had confessed to a plot to throw Dorling off a cliff, etc-Ed)...yeah, the whole box and dice...lies, slander, and manipulation to attack parents to support the cover-up of the abuse of a class of 7 year old kids...(come back to us dude-Ed)...yeah sorry...("so much anger, so much rage"-Jurgen Harborrmaster-The Mighty Boosh-BBC TV)
It seems that people understand that whilst I continue to make occasional mistakes, it is not a question of deliberate manipulation or propaganda, that I'm trying to be accurate and balanced...(I'd argue that making a few mistakes is even healthy-Ed)...how so?...(well if you're prone to the occasional albeit genuine mistake, it arms the reader with a healthy cynicism-Ed)...sorry, 'healthy cynicism'?...(yeah, ya' don't wanna believe everything ya' read...and for a range of reasons beyond genuine mistakes-Ed)...fair enough...
And that is the positive to be found in that feedback, there is a sense of credibility and even trust in what I'm saying and at least trying to do with the blog...it also apparently doesn't hurt that much of what I "allege and/or complain about" is supported by documentation...there is some small self-satisfaction to be gleaned from this 'credibility' because I'd be a whole bunch happier if most of what I post was absolute bollocks...which segues nicely into...
My repeated apologies for some of the fruitier language in the blog, have been generously waved aside as unnecessary, and my unrepentant ventage even described as 'hardly surprising given what you've been through' (paraphrase)...it was even put to me that I show 'remarkable restraint'...I'm not going to use that as a license to go right off the vitriolic deep end, but it is hugely cathartic to hear others acknowledge both the reality of the shizzle that's going on and the idea that it would clearly be deeply traumatising, and that in that context, I actually handle things pretty well.
I'm also aware that some blogs tout for donations and it has been suggested that I might do that, but as previously stated I consider that I'm already working as best I can for what support I do already get via the DSP and Housing Trust...not gloating, not bragging, not doing anything but just sayin'...it is genuinely part of why I do the blog and why I take it so seriously...
Advice I Will Take: is that which I've already decided myself, namely, it wouldn't hurt to give myself a bit of a break from the blog once and a while...(sure they weren't saying 'give it a bloody rest will you, we're so sick of your particular brand of bollocks day in day out'-Ed)...fair point and duly taken, but no it was about looking after my health, not burning out, etc...(wasn't ya' mum was it?-Ed)...well yes her go' bless 'er, her amongst others...so I'm going to effectively give myself a day off...(yay-Availees)...once a week...(woohoo-A)...and on that day just post some documents or poetry, etc...(norrrr not fair, not the poetry-A)...
Don't panic, I gotta' ton a' bad puns, questionable wordsmitheries, and dodgy japes to get through before that 'day off' actually happens...certainly not going to happen,
Tomorrow: Budget Stuff From Council
As promised, but still not really too sure what to say about things fiscal when the numbers are coming from Council, because they're all over the shop...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Friday, April 25, 2014
Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori
Hello Spain, France, Indonesia and of course Aotearoa (New Zealand)...welcome to the blog and to ANZAC Day 2014...I agree that it is a very important occasion but probably for different reasons to many people and I am deeply concerned with the increased sense of pageantry and jingoism that accompanies ANZAC Day.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 'speech' didn't do anything to alleviate any of those concerns...the first half sounded like a list of statistics downloaded by an office intern off Wikkity Wikkity Peadia, and then some general platitudes about sacrifice and how super our soldiers are, etc...there's a basic respect to be afforded those who have lost their family or friends, soldiers, etc, and I fully support the right of the individual to express that however they choose, but my concern remains always the way that Mr Abbott and some of his colleagues behave around these sort of events and where the general debate is headed...
Today's post title is a very famous Latin phrase translating roughly as 'It Is Good And Glorious To Die For King And Country'...it is also the title of the famous World War One poem by British soldier Wilfred Owen, 'Dulce Est Decorum Est'...(actually it is a direct quote from Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes, done cha' know?-Ed)...oh yes, and after doing the same Googlage I also read that it translated as "It is sweet and right to die for your country", but I think that sells it well short because if my Latin serves me which it doesn't then my English what is based like loosely on Latin, then that tells me 'Patria' relates specifically to 'the King'...(where?-Ed)...stop saluting...Patriarch for the male, Matriarch for the female, etc...I'm guessing, but under Queen Elizabeth I would suggest that the phrase may be 'Pro Matria Mori'.
I had the great good fortune to grow up with the privilege of knowing both of my grandfathers and have inevitably inherited their disposition toward ANZAC Day...neither chose to commemorate in any way and never attended any events and I absolutely defer to their beliefs and conduct...my grandfathers were amongst those who had no-one left to gather with and no desire to do it for the sake of doing it...but they both recognised that others really did need to get together because that's what worked for them.
My own scything cynicism of politicians is surely sourced in the deep distrust that my grandfathers taught me, if then honed by a decade of the St Martins Issue...speaking of which...(which we weren't-Ed)...until now...a recent comment on this blog asked why I stay in Mt Gambier...just because stuff isn't particularly going your way as you would have it doesn't mean that you stop trying...in a certain context I do use the memory of my grandfathers to grind through certain days bouyed by the knowledge that I ain't got no frickin' idea and praise the lord if She exists that it may stay that way...
For The Record: both my grandfathers were World War Two veterans and I have covered this in posts from this time last year but why not again a bit differently...one was a decorated Kiwi fighter pilot and the other a 'Rat of Tobruk', either would have been an honoured guest at any ANZAC Day event, particularly Papa who was a Group Captain, combat veteran in the Battle of France and the period immediately prior to the Battle of Britain at which time he served as a test pilot, and he later flew 21 combat missions in the Pacific whilst running the airbase and received the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) for that and a bit later an OBE (Order of the British Empire).
Pops served in Tobruk (possibly El Alamein), Malta and/or Crete, New Guinea, spent time in Gladstone Gaol for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and was promoted and demoted several times from Private to Corporal and back again...he was apparently a bit of a larrikin but a fine soldier...a Scottish child immigrant who wound up back in Africa, etc, fighting for Empire and each time his Corporal was killed he was promoted and then I think twice demoted again...sorry I don't know the exact chronology but there was a doco/movie on late a few weeks ago and it had a lot of stuff in it about Australian units in North Africa and it did seem to be very similar to the little bit I do know.
I reckon he was in one of those Australian units that was moved from one debacle to another across North Africa and the Mediterranean either after coming from (Papua) New Guinea or was sent to PNG after...I will do a quick search and maybe give him his own post as an historical document as such...as a child I just assumed everybody's grandpas were a 'Rat of Tobruk' and a 'Spitfire Ace'...I sort of knew what it meant but took it all for granted, as you do when you're a child.
And of course today we welcome to the post Turkey which is where the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) force was sent in April 1915 to effectively invade their sovereign nation to help support England's Empirical aspirations by distracting Turkish bullets with Aussie, Kiwi, Indian, etc, soldiers landed at Gallipoli, whilst English troops were landed elsewhere, all courtesy of a plan by Winston Churchill...these conflicts were repeated through the Second World War in a continuation of Empirical conflicts that criss-cross that region across centuries, millenia, even dare I say it, across the recorded history of humanity...and much the same with Afghanistan...and the band played Waltzing Mathilda.
And it is a truly gracious and extraordinary thing that Turkey not just allows but supports the ANZAC traditions based on the Gallipoli area and associated ceremonies, etc, and includes fallen Australians, Kiwis, etc, as being like their own sons.
And I know that I went a little off the path late in yesterday's post, but it remains a daily taunt to me that we as a society continue to suffer for the behaviours of people like former Member for Mt Gambier Rory McEwen, key player in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and all his mates in the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, and right across South Australian society who are by definition co-conspirators, whilst these people flourish.
And that they would then roll-out their trite platitudes and confected empathies and deeply felt, carefully practised compassions, blah, blah, blah...it is gut-wrenchingly sickening...the hypocrisy, the self-service and self-importance, the keen need to be seen to be saying the right thing regardless of gross personal indifference...and again with the Mike Rann example because here's a man who would show up at all these events excreting solemn well-rehearsed solidarity and empathy and then go straight back to parliament house for a fresh slice of the canteen lady's pie and a busy afternoon of rampant Fascocracy...
Royals "show respect" at ANZAC Day ceremony at Canberra...I absolutely have nothing personally against Kate and William but who was it repeatedly sent our forefathers to slaughter and be slaughtered in the name of the British Empire...(and foremothers were in the factories, on the farms, etc, and working as nurses, etc, on airfields re-fueling planes and shizzle-Ed)...I don't think they had shizzle in WWII...(rubbish...there's always shizzle, always has been, always will be-Ed)...you sure know a lot about shizzle...(yeah I know a lot of shit about a pile of other crap as well-Ed)...well now that shizzle's uncalled for...
Just For The Record: the British Empire wrote off Australia at the fall of Singapore in February 1942...the only argument is when that decision was officially made, and/or the unavoidable realisation dawned, whatevs...the British Empire made a conscious decision to 'cut it's losses' and not send re-enforcements to Singapore in late 1941 because those troops were needed closer to home...and then continued to use Aussies as 'gap-stoppers and decoys' where and when it suited them...not my story, it's what happened...which segues back beautifully into the Royal visit, particularly their appearance at the Canberra Dawn Service today...
No Charm, All Offensive: as far as I'm concerned, if you want the monarchy so much, move back to England and you can have one...don't send them over here to clog up my media thankyou very much...and they just happen to end their tour of New Zealand and Oz on ANZAC Day morn in Canberra...what a coincidence...and then their outta' here...must admit though that I am having a bit of a lend because I had this discussion with my own English-born mother this morning and she is a WWII child and a staunch Monarchist and a very hard-working Australian for 50 years...I'm a first generation Pomstralian...
Very unfortunate timing on yesterday's TV news feed on Channel (?) when they moved from a story about several attempted child abductions in the Wallaroo area to footage of William and Kate meeting and greeting some kids at some stroll-by, meaning it had footage of them with the back-voice "...parents are concerned about strangers approaching their children...", before then moving on to the "Kate and Will..." story...deadset true...I always like to try and close with a joke or a jape...
Yes we should always remember and never forget and acknowledge the truths about what we have done and what we have had done to us...
Tomorrow: Rubbed It Hard But Just Can't Budget
More luminary tales about the Magic Lantern that Council rubs everytime they want a casual 1/2 a mill to flick at some indulgent flippancy, the Rail lands, the Old Hospital stuff, etc...and lots of feedback...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog ...cheers and laters...
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 'speech' didn't do anything to alleviate any of those concerns...the first half sounded like a list of statistics downloaded by an office intern off Wikkity Wikkity Peadia, and then some general platitudes about sacrifice and how super our soldiers are, etc...there's a basic respect to be afforded those who have lost their family or friends, soldiers, etc, and I fully support the right of the individual to express that however they choose, but my concern remains always the way that Mr Abbott and some of his colleagues behave around these sort of events and where the general debate is headed...
Today's post title is a very famous Latin phrase translating roughly as 'It Is Good And Glorious To Die For King And Country'...it is also the title of the famous World War One poem by British soldier Wilfred Owen, 'Dulce Est Decorum Est'...(actually it is a direct quote from Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes, done cha' know?-Ed)...oh yes, and after doing the same Googlage I also read that it translated as "It is sweet and right to die for your country", but I think that sells it well short because if my Latin serves me which it doesn't then my English what is based like loosely on Latin, then that tells me 'Patria' relates specifically to 'the King'...(where?-Ed)...stop saluting...Patriarch for the male, Matriarch for the female, etc...I'm guessing, but under Queen Elizabeth I would suggest that the phrase may be 'Pro Matria Mori'.
I had the great good fortune to grow up with the privilege of knowing both of my grandfathers and have inevitably inherited their disposition toward ANZAC Day...neither chose to commemorate in any way and never attended any events and I absolutely defer to their beliefs and conduct...my grandfathers were amongst those who had no-one left to gather with and no desire to do it for the sake of doing it...but they both recognised that others really did need to get together because that's what worked for them.
My own scything cynicism of politicians is surely sourced in the deep distrust that my grandfathers taught me, if then honed by a decade of the St Martins Issue...speaking of which...(which we weren't-Ed)...until now...a recent comment on this blog asked why I stay in Mt Gambier...just because stuff isn't particularly going your way as you would have it doesn't mean that you stop trying...in a certain context I do use the memory of my grandfathers to grind through certain days bouyed by the knowledge that I ain't got no frickin' idea and praise the lord if She exists that it may stay that way...
For The Record: both my grandfathers were World War Two veterans and I have covered this in posts from this time last year but why not again a bit differently...one was a decorated Kiwi fighter pilot and the other a 'Rat of Tobruk', either would have been an honoured guest at any ANZAC Day event, particularly Papa who was a Group Captain, combat veteran in the Battle of France and the period immediately prior to the Battle of Britain at which time he served as a test pilot, and he later flew 21 combat missions in the Pacific whilst running the airbase and received the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) for that and a bit later an OBE (Order of the British Empire).
Pops served in Tobruk (possibly El Alamein), Malta and/or Crete, New Guinea, spent time in Gladstone Gaol for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and was promoted and demoted several times from Private to Corporal and back again...he was apparently a bit of a larrikin but a fine soldier...a Scottish child immigrant who wound up back in Africa, etc, fighting for Empire and each time his Corporal was killed he was promoted and then I think twice demoted again...sorry I don't know the exact chronology but there was a doco/movie on late a few weeks ago and it had a lot of stuff in it about Australian units in North Africa and it did seem to be very similar to the little bit I do know.
I reckon he was in one of those Australian units that was moved from one debacle to another across North Africa and the Mediterranean either after coming from (Papua) New Guinea or was sent to PNG after...I will do a quick search and maybe give him his own post as an historical document as such...as a child I just assumed everybody's grandpas were a 'Rat of Tobruk' and a 'Spitfire Ace'...I sort of knew what it meant but took it all for granted, as you do when you're a child.
And of course today we welcome to the post Turkey which is where the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) force was sent in April 1915 to effectively invade their sovereign nation to help support England's Empirical aspirations by distracting Turkish bullets with Aussie, Kiwi, Indian, etc, soldiers landed at Gallipoli, whilst English troops were landed elsewhere, all courtesy of a plan by Winston Churchill...these conflicts were repeated through the Second World War in a continuation of Empirical conflicts that criss-cross that region across centuries, millenia, even dare I say it, across the recorded history of humanity...and much the same with Afghanistan...and the band played Waltzing Mathilda.
And it is a truly gracious and extraordinary thing that Turkey not just allows but supports the ANZAC traditions based on the Gallipoli area and associated ceremonies, etc, and includes fallen Australians, Kiwis, etc, as being like their own sons.
And I know that I went a little off the path late in yesterday's post, but it remains a daily taunt to me that we as a society continue to suffer for the behaviours of people like former Member for Mt Gambier Rory McEwen, key player in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and all his mates in the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, and right across South Australian society who are by definition co-conspirators, whilst these people flourish.
And that they would then roll-out their trite platitudes and confected empathies and deeply felt, carefully practised compassions, blah, blah, blah...it is gut-wrenchingly sickening...the hypocrisy, the self-service and self-importance, the keen need to be seen to be saying the right thing regardless of gross personal indifference...and again with the Mike Rann example because here's a man who would show up at all these events excreting solemn well-rehearsed solidarity and empathy and then go straight back to parliament house for a fresh slice of the canteen lady's pie and a busy afternoon of rampant Fascocracy...
Royals "show respect" at ANZAC Day ceremony at Canberra...I absolutely have nothing personally against Kate and William but who was it repeatedly sent our forefathers to slaughter and be slaughtered in the name of the British Empire...(and foremothers were in the factories, on the farms, etc, and working as nurses, etc, on airfields re-fueling planes and shizzle-Ed)...I don't think they had shizzle in WWII...(rubbish...there's always shizzle, always has been, always will be-Ed)...you sure know a lot about shizzle...(yeah I know a lot of shit about a pile of other crap as well-Ed)...well now that shizzle's uncalled for...
Just For The Record: the British Empire wrote off Australia at the fall of Singapore in February 1942...the only argument is when that decision was officially made, and/or the unavoidable realisation dawned, whatevs...the British Empire made a conscious decision to 'cut it's losses' and not send re-enforcements to Singapore in late 1941 because those troops were needed closer to home...and then continued to use Aussies as 'gap-stoppers and decoys' where and when it suited them...not my story, it's what happened...which segues back beautifully into the Royal visit, particularly their appearance at the Canberra Dawn Service today...
No Charm, All Offensive: as far as I'm concerned, if you want the monarchy so much, move back to England and you can have one...don't send them over here to clog up my media thankyou very much...and they just happen to end their tour of New Zealand and Oz on ANZAC Day morn in Canberra...what a coincidence...and then their outta' here...must admit though that I am having a bit of a lend because I had this discussion with my own English-born mother this morning and she is a WWII child and a staunch Monarchist and a very hard-working Australian for 50 years...I'm a first generation Pomstralian...
Very unfortunate timing on yesterday's TV news feed on Channel (?) when they moved from a story about several attempted child abductions in the Wallaroo area to footage of William and Kate meeting and greeting some kids at some stroll-by, meaning it had footage of them with the back-voice "...parents are concerned about strangers approaching their children...", before then moving on to the "Kate and Will..." story...deadset true...I always like to try and close with a joke or a jape...
Yes we should always remember and never forget and acknowledge the truths about what we have done and what we have had done to us...
Tomorrow: Rubbed It Hard But Just Can't Budget
More luminary tales about the Magic Lantern that Council rubs everytime they want a casual 1/2 a mill to flick at some indulgent flippancy, the Rail lands, the Old Hospital stuff, etc...and lots of feedback...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog ...cheers and laters...
Thursday, April 24, 2014
MGCCM April 15th 2014 - Part III
Hello and welcome to the blog...apols that yesterday's post went a little pear shaped late in the day...today I'll finish this Council meeting first and then fill in some other stuff...
Council continues to drag the Aboriginal flag issue through the mud months after finally declaring that they will consider hanging it in Chambers...have to talk to all the stakeholders and don't want to rush into anything..."Engagement with stakeholders and establishing a process...In Progress...Ongoing planning with Pangula Mannamurna, Burrandies, Aboriginal Corporation and Elders Group. Date to be confirmed for May 2014 Ceremony"...(for May 2014, that's only next month, but no new news on when exactly then-Ed)...nope, not that I'm aware of...
And still nobody at the Umpherston Cave kiosk thingy (vacant since August 2013 approx?) the lease of which is "In Progress...Review of leasing options for this and other Council facilities"...which one assumes includes the Centenary Lookout Tower 'Lease' which I believe is (will be?) again vacant after the most excellent Bob and Viv Peters stepped into the breach just for the holidays...
There was a long report about the Aquatic Centre meeting that marks the end of the season because the pool closes at the end of March...it is an unavoidable irony I guess that this March report should appear at the April Council meeting a fortnight after the pool is closed (until October)...and perfect though I may be, even I can't stroll past this delightful opportunity to lay the boot into Council for their gross failures, deceits, and mismanagement of not only the Covered Pool issue but of that entire sporting precinct...(isn't it called Olympic Park or some such?-Ed)...you know, I reckon you're right...
(And didn't Council lose the International Tennis Tournament from there because they didn't maintain the courts properly?-Ed)...indeed...(and do they still advertise the Mini Golf even though it was removed years ago?-Ed)...well yes they do, and yes it was removed, but maybe they replaced it recently...sorry, just don't know 'bout that one...but for what is supposed to be arguably the South Easts premier sporting facility, there is much work to be done...more tomorrow...
There was also some reference to a couple of things that I'll cover tomorrow re the Rail Lands, etc, and some shenanigans re Greg Muller and the Junior Sports fund...very odd that one...I certainly didn't miss missing Council's March meeting but it's great to be back...
Not Cruisin' For A Bruisin': applies apparently to all the passengers on the Pacific Pearl Precious Princess Party Cruise ship that slid majestically past Robe on it's way to Melbourne...unfortunately Cruise-by Tourism is not what Robe had planned for yesterday when the PPPPPC (not it's real name) sailed right on by without doing it's scheduled stop there...the original plan was that many hundreds of cashed-up tourists were meant to pour ashore and swell the coffers of local Artisans, shop-keeps, hawkers, traders and operators of every ilk...but apparently the swell was too high and the ship couldn't safely transfer passengers to/from shore in their little 'tenders' (boats)...
I understand that said collective vendors were warned to be conservative in their exuberance because these tourists would have everything catered for onboard the ship and were therefore likely to buy very little in the way of food and drinks, more probably looking at fridge magnets and cheap local trinket stuff, maybe a bottle of wine...still, unfortunate that all those people went to all that effort for it to go relatively unrewarded..and apparently there will be harbour improvements by the time of the next cruise due in February 2015.
A Welcome Return To Pagan Rituals: as Treasurer Joe Hockey selflessly offers himself up for sacrifice to supplicate the angry gods of Fiscal Imbalance and Disproportionate Burden...(yeah, not quite...actually Joe is demanding that everyone else make sacrifices to help him with his Budget-Ed)...yeah I know, I was being sarcastic...just listening to the stone cold tripper now on the ABC/BBC mouth-breathing his way through yet another explanation as to why everybody who isn't a Liberal or a politician or a billionaire has to 'sacrifice' a little to help everyone else...(are you sure we can't just sacrifice Joe and leave it at that?-Ed)...yeah, I think that would be frowned upon...by some...
"Nothing is for free...nothing can remain for free"..."ending the Age of Entitlement"...except of course for the travel entitlements, subsidies for meals, massive Superannuation allowances, etc, on top of the extraordinary wages that our elected officials constantly increase for themselves...and Big Joe's big plan is to target the most vulnerable and disenfranchised, low income earners, etc, with this constant dribble about 'everyone doing the heavy lifting', etc..."here, someone help me punch this old person"...
(I've said it before, but every time I hear that 'heavy lifting' nonsense I think Joe's looking for someone to help him get his massive Super funds into the back of his parliamentary vehicle-Ed)...nice...it really is quite sickening to watch these scumbags grovelling about in their very disturbing obsession with ANZAC whilst openly attacking the fundamental ethics of support and succour that we are supposed to embrace as part of our national identity...
Can't help wondering how Aboriginal Australians feel about Joe Hockey's repeated statements that 1 in 3 people born today will live to 100, given that currently Aboriginal life expectancy is still some 20 years shy of the 'Western' average (approx 80 years) because of endemic, epidemic health issues.
The Flying Wombat: But at the same time we've apparently got enough spare cash to drop in a Paid Parental Care Scheme that caters to relatively wealthy upper-middle class wannabe mums, an approx $50billion for some submarines, and another $12billion for another 58 of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters on top of the 14 already ordered...(yay-Ed)...and one side reckons the F-35s are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and critics think it's a flying pig that oinks, grunts, and sucks...(so more of a Flying Wombat than the Flying Kangaroo?-Ed)...indeed...
Alleged problems with the F-35s are well documented and it is already years behind schedule and massively over-budget...(didn't we buy $1b worth of second hand USofA helicopters for our Navy, only to find they couldn't fly over water?-Ed)...that was a few years ago under the Liberal's Brendan Nelson, but yes not a particularly great piece of procurement...and we look set to stick to our guns...(well the USofA's guns-Ed)...to our guns by sticking to their guns...and we all here in Oz will apparently be making a bit of the tail bit so that's great...
Proponents and suppliers say no probs mate, $90million each tops, goes like a dream, you can plug your Ipod into the 5 speaker surround sound system, beautiful...the F-35s critics say it's an absolute dog, will cost $200m each 'cos other countries are pulling back if not yet out (less planes sold, each costs more), and flies like a constipated pig, electronically screaming out 'I'm over here, I'm over here'...but we're still buyin'...
I know it sounds terribly Nationalistic...(and the day before ANZAC Day too-Ed)...and in this specific context I really don't care, but I do think about what my grandfather went through as an Australian soldier in World War Two to protect 'our way of life' only to have people like former SA premier Mike Rann swanning about Europe, high on the stench of his own corruption, funded by the public dollar whilst his equally corrupted political mates are flogging off every chunk of our country they can...selling off a country that people like my grandfather's generation, and others since, have fought to defend.
And it ain't a great leap from there to...I saw Rory McEwen today, standing in the Main...and there was a park right there, the traffic was paused at the light and oh yes I thought about it, but decided I had better things to do...(buy bananas-Ed)...and moved on down, moved on down the road...just sayin'...it was just before Christmas 2012 he walked out in front of my car near Cave Garden and I had enough time to think about gently laying him down across the bonnet, cheekily clipping him with the front fender, with japesfully cloths-lining him with the door, or getting right up next to him and tooting loudly to make him jump into the oncoming traffic...(that last one's my favourite and certainly what I was calling for-Ed)...ah, happy days...
Tomorrow: Tails of Rails and Happy Trails
Which could be one and the same thing were a dedicated bike trail to be installed along the disused Rail Easement between Mt Gambier and Bordertown...I know I've covered this before but it's a classic idea...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Council continues to drag the Aboriginal flag issue through the mud months after finally declaring that they will consider hanging it in Chambers...have to talk to all the stakeholders and don't want to rush into anything..."Engagement with stakeholders and establishing a process...In Progress...Ongoing planning with Pangula Mannamurna, Burrandies, Aboriginal Corporation and Elders Group. Date to be confirmed for May 2014 Ceremony"...(for May 2014, that's only next month, but no new news on when exactly then-Ed)...nope, not that I'm aware of...
And still nobody at the Umpherston Cave kiosk thingy (vacant since August 2013 approx?) the lease of which is "In Progress...Review of leasing options for this and other Council facilities"...which one assumes includes the Centenary Lookout Tower 'Lease' which I believe is (will be?) again vacant after the most excellent Bob and Viv Peters stepped into the breach just for the holidays...
There was a long report about the Aquatic Centre meeting that marks the end of the season because the pool closes at the end of March...it is an unavoidable irony I guess that this March report should appear at the April Council meeting a fortnight after the pool is closed (until October)...and perfect though I may be, even I can't stroll past this delightful opportunity to lay the boot into Council for their gross failures, deceits, and mismanagement of not only the Covered Pool issue but of that entire sporting precinct...(isn't it called Olympic Park or some such?-Ed)...you know, I reckon you're right...
(And didn't Council lose the International Tennis Tournament from there because they didn't maintain the courts properly?-Ed)...indeed...(and do they still advertise the Mini Golf even though it was removed years ago?-Ed)...well yes they do, and yes it was removed, but maybe they replaced it recently...sorry, just don't know 'bout that one...but for what is supposed to be arguably the South Easts premier sporting facility, there is much work to be done...more tomorrow...
There was also some reference to a couple of things that I'll cover tomorrow re the Rail Lands, etc, and some shenanigans re Greg Muller and the Junior Sports fund...very odd that one...I certainly didn't miss missing Council's March meeting but it's great to be back...
Not Cruisin' For A Bruisin': applies apparently to all the passengers on the Pacific Pearl Precious Princess Party Cruise ship that slid majestically past Robe on it's way to Melbourne...unfortunately Cruise-by Tourism is not what Robe had planned for yesterday when the PPPPPC (not it's real name) sailed right on by without doing it's scheduled stop there...the original plan was that many hundreds of cashed-up tourists were meant to pour ashore and swell the coffers of local Artisans, shop-keeps, hawkers, traders and operators of every ilk...but apparently the swell was too high and the ship couldn't safely transfer passengers to/from shore in their little 'tenders' (boats)...
I understand that said collective vendors were warned to be conservative in their exuberance because these tourists would have everything catered for onboard the ship and were therefore likely to buy very little in the way of food and drinks, more probably looking at fridge magnets and cheap local trinket stuff, maybe a bottle of wine...still, unfortunate that all those people went to all that effort for it to go relatively unrewarded..and apparently there will be harbour improvements by the time of the next cruise due in February 2015.
A Welcome Return To Pagan Rituals: as Treasurer Joe Hockey selflessly offers himself up for sacrifice to supplicate the angry gods of Fiscal Imbalance and Disproportionate Burden...(yeah, not quite...actually Joe is demanding that everyone else make sacrifices to help him with his Budget-Ed)...yeah I know, I was being sarcastic...just listening to the stone cold tripper now on the ABC/BBC mouth-breathing his way through yet another explanation as to why everybody who isn't a Liberal or a politician or a billionaire has to 'sacrifice' a little to help everyone else...(are you sure we can't just sacrifice Joe and leave it at that?-Ed)...yeah, I think that would be frowned upon...by some...
"Nothing is for free...nothing can remain for free"..."ending the Age of Entitlement"...except of course for the travel entitlements, subsidies for meals, massive Superannuation allowances, etc, on top of the extraordinary wages that our elected officials constantly increase for themselves...and Big Joe's big plan is to target the most vulnerable and disenfranchised, low income earners, etc, with this constant dribble about 'everyone doing the heavy lifting', etc..."here, someone help me punch this old person"...
(I've said it before, but every time I hear that 'heavy lifting' nonsense I think Joe's looking for someone to help him get his massive Super funds into the back of his parliamentary vehicle-Ed)...nice...it really is quite sickening to watch these scumbags grovelling about in their very disturbing obsession with ANZAC whilst openly attacking the fundamental ethics of support and succour that we are supposed to embrace as part of our national identity...
Can't help wondering how Aboriginal Australians feel about Joe Hockey's repeated statements that 1 in 3 people born today will live to 100, given that currently Aboriginal life expectancy is still some 20 years shy of the 'Western' average (approx 80 years) because of endemic, epidemic health issues.
The Flying Wombat: But at the same time we've apparently got enough spare cash to drop in a Paid Parental Care Scheme that caters to relatively wealthy upper-middle class wannabe mums, an approx $50billion for some submarines, and another $12billion for another 58 of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters on top of the 14 already ordered...(yay-Ed)...and one side reckons the F-35s are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and critics think it's a flying pig that oinks, grunts, and sucks...(so more of a Flying Wombat than the Flying Kangaroo?-Ed)...indeed...
Alleged problems with the F-35s are well documented and it is already years behind schedule and massively over-budget...(didn't we buy $1b worth of second hand USofA helicopters for our Navy, only to find they couldn't fly over water?-Ed)...that was a few years ago under the Liberal's Brendan Nelson, but yes not a particularly great piece of procurement...and we look set to stick to our guns...(well the USofA's guns-Ed)...to our guns by sticking to their guns...and we all here in Oz will apparently be making a bit of the tail bit so that's great...
Proponents and suppliers say no probs mate, $90million each tops, goes like a dream, you can plug your Ipod into the 5 speaker surround sound system, beautiful...the F-35s critics say it's an absolute dog, will cost $200m each 'cos other countries are pulling back if not yet out (less planes sold, each costs more), and flies like a constipated pig, electronically screaming out 'I'm over here, I'm over here'...but we're still buyin'...
I know it sounds terribly Nationalistic...(and the day before ANZAC Day too-Ed)...and in this specific context I really don't care, but I do think about what my grandfather went through as an Australian soldier in World War Two to protect 'our way of life' only to have people like former SA premier Mike Rann swanning about Europe, high on the stench of his own corruption, funded by the public dollar whilst his equally corrupted political mates are flogging off every chunk of our country they can...selling off a country that people like my grandfather's generation, and others since, have fought to defend.
And it ain't a great leap from there to...I saw Rory McEwen today, standing in the Main...and there was a park right there, the traffic was paused at the light and oh yes I thought about it, but decided I had better things to do...(buy bananas-Ed)...and moved on down, moved on down the road...just sayin'...it was just before Christmas 2012 he walked out in front of my car near Cave Garden and I had enough time to think about gently laying him down across the bonnet, cheekily clipping him with the front fender, with japesfully cloths-lining him with the door, or getting right up next to him and tooting loudly to make him jump into the oncoming traffic...(that last one's my favourite and certainly what I was calling for-Ed)...ah, happy days...
Tomorrow: Tails of Rails and Happy Trails
Which could be one and the same thing were a dedicated bike trail to be installed along the disused Rail Easement between Mt Gambier and Bordertown...I know I've covered this before but it's a classic idea...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Mt Gambier City Council Meeting April 15th 2014 - Honest
Hello Spain, Netherlands, China, and all my homies here in the great land of Oz...word up mofos...mild apologies for straying off topic yesterday but the issue of Violence Against Women unfortunately but rightly continues to dominate the media with the release of new and bewildering figures...nearly one woman per week in Australia is killed by her partner or ex-partner, and more and more often these 'perpetrators' are attacking the children as 'revenge targets'.
Again I can only express support for any efforts to address this violence, but also my concerns that we talk up a great game not backed quite so thoroughly by actions...and I do apologise because today's post was done late after a day with my child/person...but I digress...
And a special shout-out to blog availees in Ukraine as your country continues to be squeezed between the international agendas of it's immediate neighbour Russia and the Western bloc headed largely by the USofA and the European Community...we do get a somewhat 'Westernised' news service anyway, but it is simply not my place to tell you how to run your own country, and like many others, I truly hope that the tensions can be diffused and a consensus reached.
I am surprised that this here blog has regular availees from Ukraine and I greatly appreciate your patronage, particularly given the immediate issues confronting you as a nation...is there a place for and the possibility of a Ukraine that calls Russia a sibling not a parent, and the 'West' an equal not an ally?...in light of what is happening in places like Egypt, Ukraine, Thailand, etc, in the name of simply exercising a chance at democracy, I was bewildered when the West Australian Senate Election re-run a few weeks ago had a $20 'default fine' ...(deadset?-Ed)...yep...
Sure, it was a bit if a debacle to lose 1300 sumthin' votes forcing the re-election, but it happened...and with the re-run election, if it was all a bit too difficult for you to have to vote again, you could pay a $20 default fine...(is that a special dispensation fine for that specific WA Senate re-run, or the general fine for failing to vote in a federal election?-Ed)...great question, don't know...(I'll check it out and be back in a minute...yeah, looks like it was a specially low fine for that specific election, with Court ordered fines usually up to about $170-Ed)...super...
Anyway, just jumping straight in, Council's meeting on Tuesday 15th of April 2014 was a relatively uneventful occasion compared to some other meetings I've covered previously in the blog. There was the usual round of reports from Mayor Steve Perryman and various Councillors, including reference to the information session for Main Street retailers which was described as a "good engagement".
This was accompanied by the tabling of a 648 signature petition dated 7th April 2014, requesting they do not remove the 8 car parks as planned by Council who want to have their nodes protruding along the Main... "the CEO advised that the substance of the petition has now been referred to the Operational Services Committee for consideration"...I understand Council has every intention of just plowing ahead with removing those car parks.
The rest of the Main Street and Ferrers Street re-paving works have hit a bit of a hurdle with Council having to apply for tenders for both the supply and laying of concrete pavers. There were four companies invited re supplying concrete pavers, but no tenders were received for laying them, so that work will have to be re-tendered. Build-Pro won the supply contract at a rate of $67.70 per metre squared for a project of 1600 square metres...you do the math.
I still don't understand why Council have done all of the supply and labour thus far on the horrid grey pavers along The Main but are now Tendering for pavers and laying...and I will re-state the many comments I have heard about the terrible 'greyness' along the Main now and the stained planter boxes, cracked seating, etc, because it has been a disastrous waste of money that detracts from the streetscape.
Council also reports that the Old Hospital demolition has come in almost exactly on budget, leaving them precisely the $100,000 they intend to use from the 2013/14 budget to re-vamp the Old Laundry Building that was saved from the demolition...Budget allocation for the project was "$2.55million", and current expenditure to date is approximately "$2.35", which includes the demolition and additional asbestos removal.
Excuse my cynicism, but as I've described in previous posts I find it fundamentally impossible to believe a single word and/or figure that Council provides, they have a proven capacity for grossly distorting truths and/or simply making shizzle up, pushing costs around the page and/or into other areas of Council expenditure, etc, eg, aspects of the Main Corner Project that were 'billed' under various Council departments...
It is my personal experience that Council just makes shizzle up as they go along, as suits them in the moment...they know they can do this, because there's absolutely nobody holding them to account...again I offer my personal experience which is also an undeniable reality off the front page of The Border Watch, eg, the $350,000 that former CEO Greg Muller misappropriated from the Main Corner project, a misappropriation/defrauding/theft, call it what you like, that has been 1) supposedly scrutinised by Council's Auditor, who either cleared Mr Muller or failed to discover this massive anomaly in Council's accounts, and 2) allegedly investigated by the ICAC, again without any resultant action against Mr Muller.
I am very sorely tempted to drop in here a number of other instances of employees defrauding employers that I am aware of in Mount Gambier that for some strange reason have not been reported to the police or other relevant authorities...again though it is not possible to do so without just dropping some other people right in it...
Council apparently won an award for their 'Lifelong Learning Project' display at the Local Government Association meeting recently...or rather shared first prize for something about 'Best Council Display'...I don't have a problem with the idea that some Council employees put in a half decent effort with some of these things...almost...sometimes...
Council has also won an award for the 'Biomass Furnace at the swimming pool', but I am at a complete loss to explain why this has happened, this medieval burning wood chips technology is a retrograde step that appears more about helping a local mill owner get dollars for their waste product than it is a responsible expenditure of ratepayers money...it's a simple solution really; if the bloody pool had a shrekking roof over it, there would hopefully already be a solar heating unit that does not require any fuel...it is after all, the modern technology.
In fact I reckon the current building probably has the roof space to accommodate a half decent solar heater set-up that has no running costs and is absolutely zero emissions...(don't come here with ya' practical solutions ya' young whipper-snapper-Ed)...yes, anyhoos, enough for today...
Tomorrow: The Rest Of The Meeting Stuff
Just rounding out the stuff that's left from last Tuesday, like the Rail Lands for example...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Again I can only express support for any efforts to address this violence, but also my concerns that we talk up a great game not backed quite so thoroughly by actions...and I do apologise because today's post was done late after a day with my child/person...but I digress...
And a special shout-out to blog availees in Ukraine as your country continues to be squeezed between the international agendas of it's immediate neighbour Russia and the Western bloc headed largely by the USofA and the European Community...we do get a somewhat 'Westernised' news service anyway, but it is simply not my place to tell you how to run your own country, and like many others, I truly hope that the tensions can be diffused and a consensus reached.
I am surprised that this here blog has regular availees from Ukraine and I greatly appreciate your patronage, particularly given the immediate issues confronting you as a nation...is there a place for and the possibility of a Ukraine that calls Russia a sibling not a parent, and the 'West' an equal not an ally?...in light of what is happening in places like Egypt, Ukraine, Thailand, etc, in the name of simply exercising a chance at democracy, I was bewildered when the West Australian Senate Election re-run a few weeks ago had a $20 'default fine' ...(deadset?-Ed)...yep...
Sure, it was a bit if a debacle to lose 1300 sumthin' votes forcing the re-election, but it happened...and with the re-run election, if it was all a bit too difficult for you to have to vote again, you could pay a $20 default fine...(is that a special dispensation fine for that specific WA Senate re-run, or the general fine for failing to vote in a federal election?-Ed)...great question, don't know...(I'll check it out and be back in a minute...yeah, looks like it was a specially low fine for that specific election, with Court ordered fines usually up to about $170-Ed)...super...
Anyway, just jumping straight in, Council's meeting on Tuesday 15th of April 2014 was a relatively uneventful occasion compared to some other meetings I've covered previously in the blog. There was the usual round of reports from Mayor Steve Perryman and various Councillors, including reference to the information session for Main Street retailers which was described as a "good engagement".
This was accompanied by the tabling of a 648 signature petition dated 7th April 2014, requesting they do not remove the 8 car parks as planned by Council who want to have their nodes protruding along the Main... "the CEO advised that the substance of the petition has now been referred to the Operational Services Committee for consideration"...I understand Council has every intention of just plowing ahead with removing those car parks.
The rest of the Main Street and Ferrers Street re-paving works have hit a bit of a hurdle with Council having to apply for tenders for both the supply and laying of concrete pavers. There were four companies invited re supplying concrete pavers, but no tenders were received for laying them, so that work will have to be re-tendered. Build-Pro won the supply contract at a rate of $67.70 per metre squared for a project of 1600 square metres...you do the math.
I still don't understand why Council have done all of the supply and labour thus far on the horrid grey pavers along The Main but are now Tendering for pavers and laying...and I will re-state the many comments I have heard about the terrible 'greyness' along the Main now and the stained planter boxes, cracked seating, etc, because it has been a disastrous waste of money that detracts from the streetscape.
Council also reports that the Old Hospital demolition has come in almost exactly on budget, leaving them precisely the $100,000 they intend to use from the 2013/14 budget to re-vamp the Old Laundry Building that was saved from the demolition...Budget allocation for the project was "$2.55million", and current expenditure to date is approximately "$2.35", which includes the demolition and additional asbestos removal.
Excuse my cynicism, but as I've described in previous posts I find it fundamentally impossible to believe a single word and/or figure that Council provides, they have a proven capacity for grossly distorting truths and/or simply making shizzle up, pushing costs around the page and/or into other areas of Council expenditure, etc, eg, aspects of the Main Corner Project that were 'billed' under various Council departments...
It is my personal experience that Council just makes shizzle up as they go along, as suits them in the moment...they know they can do this, because there's absolutely nobody holding them to account...again I offer my personal experience which is also an undeniable reality off the front page of The Border Watch, eg, the $350,000 that former CEO Greg Muller misappropriated from the Main Corner project, a misappropriation/defrauding/theft, call it what you like, that has been 1) supposedly scrutinised by Council's Auditor, who either cleared Mr Muller or failed to discover this massive anomaly in Council's accounts, and 2) allegedly investigated by the ICAC, again without any resultant action against Mr Muller.
I am very sorely tempted to drop in here a number of other instances of employees defrauding employers that I am aware of in Mount Gambier that for some strange reason have not been reported to the police or other relevant authorities...again though it is not possible to do so without just dropping some other people right in it...
Council apparently won an award for their 'Lifelong Learning Project' display at the Local Government Association meeting recently...or rather shared first prize for something about 'Best Council Display'...I don't have a problem with the idea that some Council employees put in a half decent effort with some of these things...almost...sometimes...
Council has also won an award for the 'Biomass Furnace at the swimming pool', but I am at a complete loss to explain why this has happened, this medieval burning wood chips technology is a retrograde step that appears more about helping a local mill owner get dollars for their waste product than it is a responsible expenditure of ratepayers money...it's a simple solution really; if the bloody pool had a shrekking roof over it, there would hopefully already be a solar heating unit that does not require any fuel...it is after all, the modern technology.
In fact I reckon the current building probably has the roof space to accommodate a half decent solar heater set-up that has no running costs and is absolutely zero emissions...(don't come here with ya' practical solutions ya' young whipper-snapper-Ed)...yes, anyhoos, enough for today...
Tomorrow: The Rest Of The Meeting Stuff
Just rounding out the stuff that's left from last Tuesday, like the Rail Lands for example...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Mt Gambier City Council Meeting 15th April 2014 (Almost)
Hello USofA, Indonesia, Poland, and Ukraine...howdy y'all and welcome to the blog...and not a whole lot to report really from Council's meeting last week, it was all a bit dull...(well, when compared to meetings like say the one where Mayor Steve Perryman cited a 'Conflict Of Interest' re accommodation just moments before the Old Hospital Demolition was awarded to McMahons from Adelaide?-Ed)...no, not quite...
(Not the sort of meeting that then led to an alleged investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the aforementioned 'COI' and related issues of insider trading and/or other corruption?-Ed)...no, not that sort of meeting...(or that time there were so many Councillors excluded from the Chamber with COIs that they were cracking jokes about it until they realised they no longer had a quorum and therefore couldn't vote?-Ed)...ah happy days, happy days indeed but no, not even that sort of meeting...
In fact, I think there wasn't a single COI moment...(you sure you were at the Mt Gambier City Council?-Ed)...oh yeah, quite sure...(so I guess that means 'puffing out' the post with some warming memories and amusing anecdotes of shenanigans past-Ed)...shhh, they won't notice if you don't mention it...(oo sorry-Ed)...
And because I've mouthed off about it before, I happened to run into Councillor Penny Richardson outside pre-meeting and she was quite pleasant, we discussed (and I congratulated her for the part she played in achieving) the Pedestrian Crossing that is soon to be placed at the Andami/Jubilee Hwy site...there was no sense of discomfort or being intimidated or threatened from Cr Richardson which I will grab as an indicator of trust and understanding...(sorry what?-Ed)...
Cr Richardson has seen me in all my inglorious bastardness all up in Rory McEwen's grill and shizzle that day outside the Polling Booth when I put Rory in touch with some of his fundamental realities as a human being...(well, you called him a f***ing paedophile f*** repeatedly and with feeling-Ed)...well yes, yes I did...and 100% the feedback has been thanks, not criticism, thanks...seems people don't mind seeing Rory get a bit of accountability shoved in his face.
Do you think Rory was concerned at all that this might just be the time that Nick Fletcher showed his own version of vaguely human behaviours and finally slapped him one?...(ah yeah he was pretty rattled, you are after all quite a large and demonstrative person, arguably very intimidating, and you were really flensing into the meat of the matter...it took a minute, but he was rattled alright-Ed)...would it be unhealthy to take pride in 'rattling' an old man like that, even if it was Rory?...(yes, that would not be healthy at all-Ed)...then it's a good thing that I don't...far as I'm concerned, it ain't nuthin' but a Thang...(nuthin' but the Thang-Ed)...indeed.
Anyhoos, Cr Richardson unwittingly had a front row seat to that little tete a tete and was herself clearly shaken at the time, and I tried to apologise for swearing, etc...anyhoos, despite that little effort on my behalf the last time I'd seen her, Cr Richardson felt comfortable in approaching me as such and discussing other issues...I believe that as thrown as she was in the moment, with the benefit of review has come the realisation that never at any time was I any threat beyond confrontational.
Ooooo, Ahhh, Ooo, Aahhhh, Oooo Ahh: across the weekend a man slipped and dislocated his knee and hit his head some 200m underground in the Wet Cave at the world famous Naracoorte Caves...he was apparently okay but it took a dozen CFS volunteers and some cave staff nearly an hour to extricate said injured 'adventure caver'...and followed by less amusing news that a man was trapped between boulders after a rock-climbing accident near Horsham and is apparently extricated but not in a good way suffering hypothermia/exposure, etc...(watch out for having fun, it'll kill ya'-Ed)...
Feedback: from me to availees re the difficulty I have in discussing some issues because of the fish-bowl nature of things here and round abouts the district, guvna', and there are some really juicy things I'm left unable to share because it'll immediately drop those involved right in it...I can only repeat that I try to be accurate and informed in my postings and there are just some things that I will have to state as fact without offering the supporting evidence...trust me, I'm not a real politician...
I have been asked as to why certain things haven't appeared in the blog at all and I can only repeat that I don't want to drag others into my shizzle where it is absolutely avoidable...in some cases just mentioning the issue drags others in, and I hope that all involved appreciate me not involving them...also please note that whilst a lot of the blog is about me and/or my experience of certain circumstances, I try very hard to not stray into just vindictive and/or malicious behaviour based on my own personal issues...
Speak Out Against Violence: as a vaguely sane man I find it simply bewildering the extraordinary conduct of men towards women and children, often their own children...and in many respects the apparently contradictory messages that are being presented by authorities like SAPol...on TV, ad after ad about 'men speaking out' and interviews about 'intervening' and 'no sexism' and 'no violence', etc...I don't disagree but it's not my experience of how things play out in reality...
I'm still waiting to hear from SAPol re the incident a few weeks back where I was caught up in someone else's dickheadedness...and I also offer the previous posts re my neighbour beating his children and what I went through to 'force' a SAPol interview and have him charged, etc, as proof that I don't just mouth off about this stuff, I try to get something done...(fair enough...and of course there's the whole St Martins thing-Ed)...indeed.
I don't just say these things for my own amusement, I am an 'avowed pacifist' with absolutely no desire or disposition to engage in any violence...(outside of self-defense of course-Ed)...yeah, fair enough, but even then that's something that doesn't sit well with me...for example on so many levels, the incident some 5 weeks ago where I intervened when a young man was yelling at a terrified young woman in a car outside the Lakes (Centro) Plaza and he then threatened me.
For the sin of giving a damn I was immediately placed in a head space whereby I was thinking about how to really hurt this person in front of me because it looked like he wasn't going to give me a choice...that whole 'world slows down, goes silent, only thinking, only watching, only going to really hurt this person to stop him hurting me'...it affected me for weeks afterwards and I can still feel the vague ripples of that sensation of impending violence...(you big bloody hippy wimp-Ed)...guess so...but I'll explain why you're wrong some other post.
And I came out of my self-imposed 12 hour media blackout 'holiday' straight into a wall of horrendous stories of men violently abusing their children and/or partners, including a stabbing murder of a mother just near a Court and another at a home, a father stealing his child then crashing the car and abandoning the 3yr old to burn to death, only saved by police, and then the murder of 2 young sisters by their father in the grandmothers home...what in god's name is wrong with us?
Across the ABC/BBC Radio there are regularly articles about violence against women, in particular in Africa, eg, a 'Domestic Violence' murder every 8hrs in South Africa, the targetting of young women in the escalating conflict in Nigeria, not least of all because they're attending school, etc, etc...young women in Australia face outrageous and alarmingly high rates of sexual assault to the degree that it has become almost an accepted part of some sectors of our society...I find it all deeply depressing...
And as this post threatens to sink into a morose dissertation, and yet again I haven't even grazed the Council meeting stuff, I'll finish here and say;
Tomorrow: More City Council Meeting Stuff
Thankyou for your anticipated patience, sympathies, and understandings of the very deeply personal issue that Familial violence is for me and so why I find these many 'Child Abuse' issues so confronting and demanding...tomorrow a dot-pointer re the Council stuff...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...make rumpy-pumpy not war...cheers and laters...
(Not the sort of meeting that then led to an alleged investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the aforementioned 'COI' and related issues of insider trading and/or other corruption?-Ed)...no, not that sort of meeting...(or that time there were so many Councillors excluded from the Chamber with COIs that they were cracking jokes about it until they realised they no longer had a quorum and therefore couldn't vote?-Ed)...ah happy days, happy days indeed but no, not even that sort of meeting...
In fact, I think there wasn't a single COI moment...(you sure you were at the Mt Gambier City Council?-Ed)...oh yeah, quite sure...(so I guess that means 'puffing out' the post with some warming memories and amusing anecdotes of shenanigans past-Ed)...shhh, they won't notice if you don't mention it...(oo sorry-Ed)...
And because I've mouthed off about it before, I happened to run into Councillor Penny Richardson outside pre-meeting and she was quite pleasant, we discussed (and I congratulated her for the part she played in achieving) the Pedestrian Crossing that is soon to be placed at the Andami/Jubilee Hwy site...there was no sense of discomfort or being intimidated or threatened from Cr Richardson which I will grab as an indicator of trust and understanding...(sorry what?-Ed)...
Cr Richardson has seen me in all my inglorious bastardness all up in Rory McEwen's grill and shizzle that day outside the Polling Booth when I put Rory in touch with some of his fundamental realities as a human being...(well, you called him a f***ing paedophile f*** repeatedly and with feeling-Ed)...well yes, yes I did...and 100% the feedback has been thanks, not criticism, thanks...seems people don't mind seeing Rory get a bit of accountability shoved in his face.
Do you think Rory was concerned at all that this might just be the time that Nick Fletcher showed his own version of vaguely human behaviours and finally slapped him one?...(ah yeah he was pretty rattled, you are after all quite a large and demonstrative person, arguably very intimidating, and you were really flensing into the meat of the matter...it took a minute, but he was rattled alright-Ed)...would it be unhealthy to take pride in 'rattling' an old man like that, even if it was Rory?...(yes, that would not be healthy at all-Ed)...then it's a good thing that I don't...far as I'm concerned, it ain't nuthin' but a Thang...(nuthin' but the Thang-Ed)...indeed.
Anyhoos, Cr Richardson unwittingly had a front row seat to that little tete a tete and was herself clearly shaken at the time, and I tried to apologise for swearing, etc...anyhoos, despite that little effort on my behalf the last time I'd seen her, Cr Richardson felt comfortable in approaching me as such and discussing other issues...I believe that as thrown as she was in the moment, with the benefit of review has come the realisation that never at any time was I any threat beyond confrontational.
Ooooo, Ahhh, Ooo, Aahhhh, Oooo Ahh: across the weekend a man slipped and dislocated his knee and hit his head some 200m underground in the Wet Cave at the world famous Naracoorte Caves...he was apparently okay but it took a dozen CFS volunteers and some cave staff nearly an hour to extricate said injured 'adventure caver'...and followed by less amusing news that a man was trapped between boulders after a rock-climbing accident near Horsham and is apparently extricated but not in a good way suffering hypothermia/exposure, etc...(watch out for having fun, it'll kill ya'-Ed)...
Feedback: from me to availees re the difficulty I have in discussing some issues because of the fish-bowl nature of things here and round abouts the district, guvna', and there are some really juicy things I'm left unable to share because it'll immediately drop those involved right in it...I can only repeat that I try to be accurate and informed in my postings and there are just some things that I will have to state as fact without offering the supporting evidence...trust me, I'm not a real politician...
I have been asked as to why certain things haven't appeared in the blog at all and I can only repeat that I don't want to drag others into my shizzle where it is absolutely avoidable...in some cases just mentioning the issue drags others in, and I hope that all involved appreciate me not involving them...also please note that whilst a lot of the blog is about me and/or my experience of certain circumstances, I try very hard to not stray into just vindictive and/or malicious behaviour based on my own personal issues...
Speak Out Against Violence: as a vaguely sane man I find it simply bewildering the extraordinary conduct of men towards women and children, often their own children...and in many respects the apparently contradictory messages that are being presented by authorities like SAPol...on TV, ad after ad about 'men speaking out' and interviews about 'intervening' and 'no sexism' and 'no violence', etc...I don't disagree but it's not my experience of how things play out in reality...
I'm still waiting to hear from SAPol re the incident a few weeks back where I was caught up in someone else's dickheadedness...and I also offer the previous posts re my neighbour beating his children and what I went through to 'force' a SAPol interview and have him charged, etc, as proof that I don't just mouth off about this stuff, I try to get something done...(fair enough...and of course there's the whole St Martins thing-Ed)...indeed.
I don't just say these things for my own amusement, I am an 'avowed pacifist' with absolutely no desire or disposition to engage in any violence...(outside of self-defense of course-Ed)...yeah, fair enough, but even then that's something that doesn't sit well with me...for example on so many levels, the incident some 5 weeks ago where I intervened when a young man was yelling at a terrified young woman in a car outside the Lakes (Centro) Plaza and he then threatened me.
For the sin of giving a damn I was immediately placed in a head space whereby I was thinking about how to really hurt this person in front of me because it looked like he wasn't going to give me a choice...that whole 'world slows down, goes silent, only thinking, only watching, only going to really hurt this person to stop him hurting me'...it affected me for weeks afterwards and I can still feel the vague ripples of that sensation of impending violence...(you big bloody hippy wimp-Ed)...guess so...but I'll explain why you're wrong some other post.
And I came out of my self-imposed 12 hour media blackout 'holiday' straight into a wall of horrendous stories of men violently abusing their children and/or partners, including a stabbing murder of a mother just near a Court and another at a home, a father stealing his child then crashing the car and abandoning the 3yr old to burn to death, only saved by police, and then the murder of 2 young sisters by their father in the grandmothers home...what in god's name is wrong with us?
Across the ABC/BBC Radio there are regularly articles about violence against women, in particular in Africa, eg, a 'Domestic Violence' murder every 8hrs in South Africa, the targetting of young women in the escalating conflict in Nigeria, not least of all because they're attending school, etc, etc...young women in Australia face outrageous and alarmingly high rates of sexual assault to the degree that it has become almost an accepted part of some sectors of our society...I find it all deeply depressing...
And as this post threatens to sink into a morose dissertation, and yet again I haven't even grazed the Council meeting stuff, I'll finish here and say;
Tomorrow: More City Council Meeting Stuff
Thankyou for your anticipated patience, sympathies, and understandings of the very deeply personal issue that Familial violence is for me and so why I find these many 'Child Abuse' issues so confronting and demanding...tomorrow a dot-pointer re the Council stuff...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...make rumpy-pumpy not war...cheers and laters...
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