Andrew Bolt and the Making of an Opportunist The Bolt Factor | Anne Summers | The Monthly

Andrew Bolt and the Making of an Opportunist The Bolt Factor | Anne Summers | The Monthly.

Priceless….

When did intolerance become fashionable again?

I was shocked just the other day when a friend on Facebook made a comment about how unruly the local indigenous kids were in a shopping centre; and was then surprised when their mother made a snappy, nasty reply to her judgemental comments about their behaviour, something along the lines of “keeping them in line”. She even rather politely referred to them as “our native cousins”.

And there has been further vitriol from her about the prevalence of these “native relatives” in her local area. When I knew her and socialised with her oh so many years ago, she always seemed so compassionate, non-judgemental, and tolerant – she seemed so normal.

Needless to say, I chose to remove her from my Friends list; it was nice to get back in touch with her and hear abut where her life has taken her, however I have decided long ago that I need to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and I feel that I have to let people know that I find their views offensive, and I can’t just simply excuse such behaviour away, shrug my shoulders, and say “oh well, that’s just who they are.”

So am I being compassionate, non-judgemental, and tolerant?

Probably not. But does a personal mantra of ‘tolerance’ mean I have to tolerate intolerance? I guess it does, and I’m certainly not going to bother getting into a debate with such people, or try to convince them that ‘my way is the right way’.

But I don’t need to be their friend. In fact, maybe that’s a more powerful and persuasive way of dealing with ignorance, ethnocentricity and sheer rascism. I wished my friend well, but was very clear about why I could not continue to count her as a friend.

Indeed, I know of people who have used this very same method to deal with ‘friends’ who are bullies, alcoholics, drug-addicts, and other forms of unsociable behaviours.

It may sound harsh, but sometimes getting the cold shoulder (especially from people they respect and whose opinions count) is the most effective way of bringing about significant changes. It’s the approach of “I love you, but I do not love your behaviour”.

But it also got me to wondering, at what point did we become a negative and intolerant society again? I thought we had thrown off the shackles of this kind of narcissism a few years back? And then of course, in the recent federal election we have the “stop the boats” bullshit again, where all of a sudden a few hundred asylum seekers becomes an invasion by illegal immigrants; where all of a sudden we have to be careful because cashed up foreign investors are buying up real estate in the suburbs of our biggest cities; where foreigners are buying our most fertile agricultural land to feed their own people.

All of a sudden,  our cultural values are at risk. My question is: which culture is losing its values?

Have the intolerable intolerant become noisier, or have the rest of us been too quiet? I would say in the wake of the Rudd-Labor victory in 2007, those of us who can see a more positive, inclusive, and culturally-diverse society let down our guards and assumed that a government who claimed to have such a vision would do all the work.

In this we were wrong. This is not the domain of governments. The Culture Wars have no place on Capital Hill – the battlefields for such a struggle are on the streets, in our homes, and in our minds and hearts. We do not need to tolerate intolerance – let the ignorant and rude stay in their own little bubbles of hate and fear, while the rest of us walk the streets with our heads held high and our hearts open to our fellow citizens, regardless of race, creed, or colour.

Hell, maybe we should walk our own talk and actually do something constructive ourselves: give shelter to a refugee while they await their visas; help out a family in need, share our personal resources with our neighbours and friends, share in the abundance we all personally have. If we all work together in a positive manner, then we can achieve much more than any government or bureaucracy could workshop in committee.

And it all starts by telling those ‘intolerant’ friends that you can’t be their friend whilst they continue to behaviour in such a rude manner!

Whatever the result, A.L.P. needs to change

It doesn’t really matter what the result ends up being from the weekend’s federal election; one thing is crystal clear – the way the Australian Labor Party governs itself needs a serious shake-up.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/23/2990448.htm

Clearly what has been occurring in NSW over the last four-or-so years – and what was seemingly echoed earlier this year with the dumping of leader and PM Kevin Rudd – is a sign that there is “something rotten”, to paraphrase Shakespeare.

One of the named individuals in this ongoing melodrama is Mark Abib, who holds a seat in federal Parliament, and even held a minor government portfolio.

The NSW-Right faction of the ALP is seen as a serious power-broking faction, and is commonly seen as the ‘faceless men’ who pull strings behind the scenes.

One of Kevin Rudd’s assertions when he claimed the leadership of the Party in late 2006, and when he became PM in 2007, was that he was not beholden to the factions. He clearly had a vision of reforming the Party from the centre of Governmental power in Canberra. From all reports, he behaved more like a Liberal Party leader, centralising control and ignoring caucus. Perhaps this is the real reason why the Party ‘dumped’ him; not because he would have led the ALP to defeat, but because he pissed off those ‘faceless men’ who think they control the Party (and by default, the nation).

Interestingly, it seems the swing away from the ALP seems to point that disenchanted Labor voters are turning to the Greens because they are wanting a Party to give a voice to the Left. I would argue you would be hard-pressed to find many Left-wing, progressive folk who don’t now associate with the Greens, rather than with the ALP – the donations given by the ETU to the Greens is a case in point.

The rise of the Independents within the House of Representatives, and not just in the Senate, also points to the idea that Australians are not just cynical about the way our current political system operates, but maybe down-right angry and annoyed by it.

If the ALP were serious about being a modern, progressive political Party, then they need to heed the lesson that was taught over the course of this year. Indeed, all parties do; but maybe more so a party that claims the ‘progressive’ high ground.

A new type of democracy in Australia?

Here’s another reason why I think our democracy is in good shape.

Can we see these blokes – alongside the Greens and Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon – as the new guardians of democracy in our nation?

I think we should all start really looking at voting in independents into our parliaments, and see the end of the tyranny of  Major Political Party.

I am sure there is a lot one or all of these blokes would say/believe in that I would disagree with; however I am confident – based upon this very simple elucidation of their ideals and and opinion on how parliament should really function.

And listen out for Bob Kattar’s beautiful, and poignant, comment at the end: “We’re moving out of the 19th century and into whatever we’re in now”.

Is this boy a valid candidate?

Apparently there could be a problem with Wyatt Roy’s election as a member of the House of Representatives.

Here’s the relevent section within our Constitution

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/08/22/2990060.htm

http://www.wyattroy.com.au/

This lad is 20 years old – the section states that a candidate must be 21.

But it also states that “must be an elector entitled to vote at the election of members of the House of Representatives”.

So can any Constitutional lawyers let us know if this Bieber-lookalike is legally valid as a Member of Parliament?

The weirdness continues

Late Labor surge puts Boothby in doubt – ABC News

This whole hung parliament gig could prove interesting.

All of a sudden, Australian politics has become interesting again. Could it be that the immense popularity of the Rudd Government meant that all the drama had been removed?

Even if Gillard forms government, the fact that the result was 50/50 is inspiring – it gives us the opportunity – neé the moral responsibility – to take the complete piss out of cashed-up bogans, slack-jawed yokels, and brain-dead hillbillies.

Having heard now interviews with a couple of the independents, I am truly heartened that our democracy is in good shape. These individuals are making very wise and balanced statements about their new-found importance in the parliament, and irrespective of their decision, I personally believe we are in good hands – and yes, even someone as mad and maverick as Bob Kattar!

We need diversity in our parliament, just as we have diversity in our culture. The duopoly held by by the ALP and the Lib/Nat coalition has hamstrung our nation from progressing onwards and being the world leader that we could be.

Flu….

Well, Swine Flu hysteria has hit our shores, and is reminiscent of the hullabaloo during footy finals time.

As an almost-TCM practitioner, I have to wonder about the messages going out over the media-waves – especially after reading a memorandum from the Health Dept to all Health professionals, which was a lot calmer, a lot more factual, and a lot more re-assuring than what is being bandied around by public and broad-casters currently.

This memo stated categorically that those who have contracted the H1N1-A virus (it’s true name: certainly not as sexy as “swine flu”) have recovered successfully without the use of Tamiflu – yet this drug is being pumped into people like its some kind of anti-viral messiah. And yet, no one mentions studies recently (in the last year or so) which showed Tamiflu to be useless against “swine flu”.

Don’t get me wrong: influenza is an illness that requires attention – my question is, how much attention?

Interestingly enough, TCM is certainly capable of treating patients who come in with ‘the Flu’ – and whilst there is currently debate on the theories in TCM forums I am a part of, our paradigmatic framework has the capacity to understand the pathogenesis of, diagnose, and treat Influenza. One of the oldest extant medical texts in the world, the Shang Han Lun by Zhang Zhongjing deals with treating disease that is contracted from externally-derived pathogens. The first few clauses of that text describe symptoms that are those common in ‘Flu’:

Abrupt onset of fever, chills, headache, fatigue, and body aches, cough, sore throat, blocked or discharge from nose, fatigue, ill appearance, and sometime diarrhoea / vomiting.

These are also the symptoms listed by WHO, and Health Dept’s around the world, including Australia.

This text also goes on to describe all the possible complications and how to treat those – in fact over 50% of this rather large tome is devoted to Taiyang disease: i.e., illness caused from an attack of an externally-derived pathogenic factor.

The treatments are simple: herbal prescriptions, and in some cases basically says to have some soup, get in bed with a lot of blankets and sweat it out!

The other thing about all of this is some other research that is around but generally unknown or ignored. Here are some interesting links:

Common herb has flavonoids that fight flu virus

Herbal soup fights flu A, perhaps useful to guard off swine flu too? – this study looks at one of the most basic herbal prescriptions – Ma Huang Tang – which was described in the Shang Han Lun.

Ginger does ward off flu: study

Of course, to fight off any external pathogen, we basically need healthy and vigorous wei-qi – i.e., immune system. In TCM, this is dependent on the harmonious and efficient functioning of our Fei-zang and Pi-zang – our respiratory and digestive systems, from which we convert oxygen and food-nutrient, and convert it to Qi, which is the dynamic energetic force that the body requires for all functions. Healthy lifestyles, nutritious and balanced diets, and healthy eating habits are a fundamental key to an effective and efficient immune system. This will determine how well you fight off an infection such as Influenza, and how quickly and well you recover from it.

I think quarantining is a good element to all of this – in fact, the idea of staying home when you get sick is brilliant! This is what should happen all the time – not only does it restrict the spread of illness, but it also gives the body time and space to fight off illness in a natural way, thus making it stronger and more able to cope with future infection. Every successful defeat of an external pathogenic factor means the body’s natural immune system is improving and becoming stronger. Food and medicines should be only used as complementary to the body’s own defences – their job is to augment the immune system, not replace it!

So when you get sick from now on, stay home, eat good hearty meals, and make yourself happy and healthy!

A long time between drinks…

Golly, it’s been a while….

Somewhere along the way thinking and writing about the world I’m part of became a chore, a bore, and somewhat depressing.

Of course, there has always been other stuff to write about, like the simple pleasures of gardening, brewing, and living a happy and healthy life…

Plus, I will admit to a degree of euphoria surrounding the election of Kevin Rudd and the ALP to government. Since that time, Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocols, apologised formally to the Stolen Generations, begun their program of legislative reform and social governance, and witnessed the collapse of global financial systems.

… And all of this in 15 months….

Often, changes of government mean nothing on the everyday mundane level. However, even in the face of some decisions which I disagree with, life has been better for us in this time. Financially, we are better off, despite the so-called recession; our little food-and-medicine forest is thriving and sustainable; my studies continue on, and my confidence as a health/wellbeing professional is growing, as is the number of people I seem to help in a positive and effective manner.

Yes, everything is chugging along nicely.

And I wonder how it is that I seem to have lost my creativity – the lack of anger perhaps? Have I lost a meaningful nemesis, in characters such as John Howard and his henchmen? Well, of course not – ultra-conservatism is still around and still plaster their ugly visages over the media making outrageous statements about this, that, and the other. And people are still buying their crap! So what has changed?

Perhaps this is something that comes with age, but even though there are still things which outrage me, I just can’t be bothered giving them any energy any more. Perhaps this is a bad thing – perhaps this fire which has been put out is the same fire which leads us to creation; is this what drives artists, writers, leaders, and others who make their mark on the world?

There is craziness afoot – I just can’t really be bothered with it….

LMAO

Sometimes, its just too hot to do anything constructive....

Re: spirits 4 sale

For those of you who haven’t read the post Spirits For Sale, I suggest you go there and read it alongside the comments that were added…

Since I posted it there have been a flurry of commentaries from both sides of the argument. Initially, I let them go up in the interests of preserving freedom of speech and ideas. The original article was sent to me, and I thought it interesting enough to warrant posting. I am familiar with the struggles the First Nations People of Americas have, and I have a few friends over there quite involved in all of this.

However, as of this morning I will no longer post any comments that are negative, derogatory, or slanderous in their nature and intent.

I have just returned from a Gathering of the Yorta Yorta people up in Northern Victoria (Australia – right on the Murray River), where there were Elders and other folk from many different nations, cultures, and tribes. This was a Gathering that fostered understanding, peace, tolerance, and most importantly respect for the ideas, traditions, and practices of ALL peoples!

Having read over some of the comments that were waiting for moderation this morning, I decided enough is enough!

This kind of bickering does nothing to serve us as a race, and it does nothing to serve the way of good health and happiness amongst all creatures of the Earth. I for one am sorry I have allowed this infantile, schoolyard ‘he-said, she-said’ behaviour.

The Lakota have a phrase: mitakuye oyasin – it translates to mean something along the lines of “we are all related” or “everything is in relation to everything else”.

Does it matter what colour your skin is?

Does it matter what tribe you are part of, or who your mother’s/father’s clan was?

On one level, it is important – it is important for the individual to know their ancestry and to follow and continue the sacred traditions handed down to them. These points are however irrelevant to the wider community. I don’t care whether you are white, red, black, or yellow – if you are a good person with a good heart, with love, respect and honour I am happy to be your friend. If your intentions however are short of these things, and you seek to harm me or the ones I love, then I will ignore you and keep you away from my circle.

If this Al Carroll guy wants to pretend he’s a Native American, let him! Ultimately, he knows the truth behind his lies, and so does Creator. He will have to live with it, he will have to sleep at night knowing he is lying to other people. Ignore him and his behaviour, and he will no longer have an influence over your world. And what if he is telling the truth? Then all this reaction will have been for nought, and quite damaging and slanderous.

Where do we want to put our energies? To bickering about the legitimacy of someone’s blood-lines? Isn’t that rather racist, somewhat akin to what Hitler did in Nazi Germany? Why does it matter what colour someone’s skin is (and this question goes out to both sides of the argument)?

To Al Carroll (and friends), I ask you: why does it matter (to us) what your ancestry is? To his disbelievers, I ask you: why does it matter whether Al Carroll is white or Indian?

I would prefer if people made comments that added to a debate, rather than just point fingers of blame and nasty comments about other people. If you have nothing intelligent to say, then don’t say anything at all.

Mitakuye oyasin – we are all related!!!!

Sustainable Italian town

This follows on quite nicely from my last post about the Lakota declaring independence. I got to wondering how an independent nation situated geographically in the middle of a much larger, aggressive, and antithetical State could survive, re: imports, accessibility to goods, services, access into and out from for tourists, relatives, friends, etc….

And then I got sent this. Perhaps this is what our Lakota relatives need to enact…?
http://www.renewabl eenergyaccess. com/rea/news/ story?id= 50863

17 December 2007
Renewable Energy Powers Italian Town and Its Economy
Europeans believe that renewable energy will bring economic benefits. But in Varese, Italy that prosperity has already arrived.
by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent

Varese, Italy has added 140 jobs in the past ten years. That’s pretty good for a town with a population of only 2,400. The town, which is located in Liguria in the northern part of Italy, is experiencing an economic boom fueled by renewable energy.

The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.

Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100 percent of its power from  renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more
renewables.

For this pioneering role, the town won a prize from the European Union (EU) in 2004.

What has happened in Varese is unusual. On a national level, Italy is set to fall short of its EU objective of generating 25 percent of its gross electrical consumption from renewable energy sources by 2010. Italy’s share of renewables was just 13.93 in 2005.

But the mayor of Varese, Michaela Marone, and her predecessor, Maurizio Caranza, turned their vision of a town driven by renewable energy into reality by leveraging funds from the EU and using their authority to cut through red tape.

The town uses wind, solar and small-scale hydropower, a mix best adapted to its hilly terrain covering a total of 140 square km — and it has plans for more hydropower.

Today, renewables bring not only environmental benefits but also improved living standards to a town that had suffered from years of steady decline. An additional 350,000 euros [US $514,000] in tax revenues is handed over to the council each year by the private company that owns the renewable energy network.

“We fulfill all the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and are non-profit. We use all of our profits towards paying the electricity bills of the people in the town,” Michaele Marone, the town mayor, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Four wind turbines located on a ridge 1100 meters above sea level — where the average annual wind speed is 7.2 meters per second — generate 8 million kWh of electricity a year that is fed into the local grid managed by Acam, a power company in La Spezia.

The electricity from the wind turbines alone reduce carbon emissions by 8,000 tons, representing 0.05 percent of the region’s total annual carbon emissions.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels have been installed on the town hall and the local school. The town hall has 102 PV panels covering 95 square meters and generating 12,700 kWh a year, which supplies 98 percent of the total energy consumption of the building.

Varese’s secondary school has 39 PV panels covering 36 square meters and producing 4,600 kWh a year, which supplies 62 percent of the energy used.

In addition to that, the town’s swimming pool is heated by solar power and a program to promote the use of wood pellet stoves is in the works.

In conjunction with the development of a renewable energy infrastructure, the town has also launched initiatives to make Varese 100 percent sustainable. A total of 108 organic farms now supply 98 percent of the town’s food; water is purified using environmentally
friendly technology and waste has been significantly reduced.

The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.

Varese Not Alone

Although certainly a pioneer in Renewable Energy, Varese is not the only town in Europe to adopt such measures. The same thing is happening in many towns across Europe.

Güssing in Austria with 27,000 inhabitants has also switched to renewable energy sources — and has also moved from poverty to prosperity, underlining the potential of renewable energy for creating new jobs and new investment.

And it’s not only rural towns that are forging ahead with renewable energy projects. There has been a marked increase in the numbers of cities across Europe adopting initiatives to cut carbon emissions and develop green energy.

Following Rome and London, Paris launched a new “Plan Climat” or climate plan on October 1st 2007 to reduce carbon emissions.

Munich, Germany has also developed a strategy for cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Beatrice Alcaraz from Energie-Cités, an association of European local authorities for the promotion of local sustainable energy policies that represents more than 500 towns and cities, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com that the driving force behind all of this
expansion was EU policy.

“Municipalities have to adapt their national policies to the European directives, that is the European directive of public building. They also have to develop the renewables to achieve the EU energy and climate objectives,” she said.

The EU is targeting urban areas because more than 80 percent of the European population lives there, and the energy consumption of cities is growing.

The latest figures from French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (Ademe)) show that the energy consumption of French cities grew by 14.5 percent between 1990 and 2005 from 27 billion KWh in 1990 to 31 billion kWh in 2005.

“The rapid development of renewable energy in so many towns and cities across Europe augurs well,” said Beatrice Alcatraz, speaking about how cities are combating this increase in energy consumption while keeping down carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

Though cities cover only 0.4 percent of the world’s total area, they consume 75 percent of the energy and generate about 80 percent of the carbon emissions according to a study by the Münchener Rück.