The Eagle's Nest

New directions

2008-11-26T22:42:00.001+11:00

Oh, the paths one's feet take!

I started blogging over three years ago with The Eagle's Nest. My views are quirky, diverse, and often political. It seemed to me that I should separate my taste for the lovely things from my penchant for the controversial and so the beautiful things got discussed on The Trad Pad. Controversy was kept for The Eagle's Nest. Two other blogs came along: Oz Tucker which began with putting the handwritten recipes and clippings into some sort of order and Desert to have somewhere to put the spiritual resources which undergird desert spirituality.

Blogging has taken a back seat - except for Desert and, occasionally, Oz Tucker and, even more occasionally, The Eagle's Nest. I do want to have somewhere to discuss doings and talk turkey so I will no longer update The Eagle's Nest nor The Trad Pad. It will all happen here at in her own write. Hopefully, this will simplify things - and, perhaps, it may mean a different voice, a different viewpoint.

Which brings me back to the paths of one's feet. Four months ago a meeting was held in Melbourne with the purpose of establishing a multi-faith environmental organisation. I have never actually joined an environmental organisation before - but when I heard about this I was moved to action. You see, while I don't deny the science of climate change and I don't wish to ignore technology in finding solutions to problems, I am tired of the never-ending rationalism involved in the science, technology, economics and politics relating to climate change and environmental matters. My view is that human communities and the Creator of the planet need to be more clearly acknowledged in the debate.

From that very first meeting in July, GreenFaith Australia has been established and I have finished up its Secretary. In the four months since all this began, our landlords told us that they needed to come back and live in The Trad Pad at Upper Gully and then, in the midst of the house-hunting, I was ill for five weeks including two trips to hospital. Then, when the house was found there was the shifting - to a different suburb altogether. So, I am sure you will agree, there is little wonder that blogging took a back seat.

At this time, GreenFaith Australia has been launched - with a series of three seminars under the heading of Water for Life and 2009 looks like being an activity-filled year. We are settling into Home Beautiful and the house is getting into order. And there are new paths to discover and explore....

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Stephen Crittenden - being hung?

2008-10-21T05:52:00.004+11:00

A follow up to the posts below, Stephen Crittenden, has been suspended on full pay pending an inquiry into comments he made last week about the axing of flagship programs on Radio National.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Crittenden, religion and the axe #2

2008-10-15T17:12:00.001+11:00

This article is in this afternoon's Crikey

What are they doing to Radio National? God help us!

An extraordinary opening comment by Radio National Religion Report presenter Stephen Crittenden this morning (listen to it here) was the first many ABC listeners will have heard about serious changes to the RN schedule planned for 2009. Former ABC religious broadcaster Paul Collins takes up the tale:

Words tell you everything. When you hear "interdisciplinary" you know it means "dumbing down" and "consumer focused" always refers to the lowest common denominator. This is precisely the rhetoric used yesterday by ABC Radio National management to describe their intentions for RN programming next year.

Several specialist programs are being taken off-air including the Religion Report, the Media Report and Radio Eye. The Reports are flagship programs that deal with issues central to current culture. Apparently they are being replaced by a movie show and something about the future. Specialist broadcasters will spend more time responding to opinionated bloggers rather than making programs. God help us!

Let's be clear what ABC Radio management is up to: it is a case of the bland leading the bland. Specialisation is out. Nowadays the belief is that any old (or, more likely, young) "interdisciplinary" journalist can deal with any topic. Well, I've been interviewed literally hundreds of times on ABC radio and TV. My experience is that while most journalists make a reasonable go of it, they just don't know the detail and often have to be led to the key questions.

Take religion for example. There are no more than half a dozen specialist religious journalists in Australia. Two work for Fairfax (Linda Morris and Barney Zwartz) and the rest for the ABC which has had a religion department since the beginning of the Corporation. Stephen Crittenden, John Cleary and Rachael Kohn are able to cover a complex spectrum of beliefs, practices and theologies from a wide cross-section of traditions precisely because they are specialists.

Nowadays religion is a mainstream political, cultural and socio-economic issue with enormous impact on world affairs. To cover it adequately you need specialists. That is precisely what Stephen Crittenden has done on the Religion Report. He knows what the issues are and where the bodies are buried. Sure, he's upset some powerful people, but that's the nature of a free media.

I'm not paranoid. I don’t see this as an attack on religion. It's more a lack of appreciation of specialization, derived from the half-witted, post-modern conviction that everyone can do anything. Sure, they can ask a few prosaic, "man-in-the-street" questions. But that's not the task of Radio National. If you think it is, get a job with the commercials.

We need to be clear where this is leading. It effectively spells the end of religion as a specialization in the ABC. If you only have a couple of minor, essentially life-style programs on air you don't need people who know their stuff. All you need is an 'interdisciplinary, consumer-focused' approach, produced by the type of journalist who doesn’t know the difference between an Anglo-Catholic and an Evangelical!

Paul Collins is a former specialist editor (religion) for the ABC

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Crittenden, religion and the axe

2008-10-15T15:41:00.000+11:00

It was only on Monday that I explained how I try to keep this blog's focus on resources for Desert Spirituality. To-day, I am defending and attacking all at once in defence of one of the great religious resources, The Religion Report on Australia's public broadcasting icon, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and its presenter Stephen Crittenden.

The Religion Report is first broadcast on Wednesday morning's at 8.30am. Each morning on Radio National there is an 8.30am to 9.00am timeslot allocated as follows:

Monday..................The Health Report

Tuesday..............The Law Report

Wednesday...............The Religion Report

Thursday...............The Media Report

Friday.....................The Sports Factor

This morning Stephen had a spray at the beginning of The Religion Report and he has sent me what he said:

This week the new line-up of Radio National programs for 2009 was announced.
The Religion Report has been de-commissioned, along with The Media Report, The Sports Factor, The Ark, Perspective, In Conversation, Street Stories and Radio Eye. These programs are going in order to make room for (quote) 'more inter-disciplinary work on the network', and the 8.30 timeslot is being remodelled to give it (quote) 'more consumer focus'.
The decision to axe one of this network's most distinctive and important programs has been
approved by the Director of ABC Radio, Sue Howard, and it will condemn Radio National to even greater irrelevance.
The ABC's specialist units have been under attack for years, but the decapitation of the flagship program of the Religion Department effectively spells the death of Religion at the ABC. That
such a decision has been taken in an era when Religion vies with Economics as a determinant of everything that is going on in the world almost beggars belief - but you have to remember that just a couple of years ago they axed the Environment program.
The Religion Report has always been fearless - and I don't have to tell you that it has put many powerful noses out of joint. This is a signal to the churches that the ABC has decided to vacate the field. If you care about this program and what it represents, I suggest that you might
consider writing to the ABC Board or the Managing Director, Mark Scott.

I set out below my letter to everyone on my email lists this morning:

Dear One and All,

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) is a national treasure and an international icon of public broadcasting - although our politicians of the right and left don't appear to regard it as so with their stacking of boards and miserliness with funding.

One of the great pleasures in my life is listening to the ABC's Radio National. If you don't listen to Radio National, don't bother reading further because this is all about trying to save some of Australia's most respected broadcasters and programs at Radio National from getting the axe. To outline this, Stephen Crittenden of The Religion Report has sent me a copy of his statement read at the commencement of TRR this morning. Read it below.

Stephen's spray outlines the proposed "re-modelling" of the 8.30am timeslot but makes no mention of either The Health Report or The Law Report. If they survive in one form or another, will this be because doctors and lawyers have more influence with RN than the rest of us?

The religion programs - which along with Radio Eye are my favourites - are The Religion Report hosted by Stephen Crittenden and The Ark hosted by Rachel Kohn. I would be surprised if there was a better religion journalist/presenter anywhere than Stephen. I have no idea of Stephen's faith perspective - he could be a religion literate atheist for all I know - but his conversation is intelligent, subject literate, perspicacious and insightful. Rachel Kohn is a most distinguished religious presented with great expertise in comparative religion.

The Religion Report covers a wide range of territory - but I think it would not be untrue to say that not all subjects of discussion on The Religion Report would have welcomed TRR reports of their doings. I can think of the Exclusive Brethren and Steiner education to begin with.

Australia has a long and proud tradition of secularism and long may it be so. However, in recent years, there have been clear displays of secular bigotry against individuals in particular and religion in general. Could the axing of TRR be another scalp of secularists who neither understand nor give a fig for the topic of religion?

Australia has a diverse population - and many of our immigrant communities come from old faith traditions which are continued in this country. TRR helps to give a voice to these traditions and to make those traditions known to the broader Australian community. Losing this voice will not only leave us poorer but also also take away from us a vital tool in overcoming our ignorance.

Religious adversaries have brought suspicion, violence and war to the earth in recent years. Australian politics, which were long largely religion free, have now been penetrated with modern political tools by a range of religions. Who will explain this to us if not The Religion Report under the clear and precise dissection of Stephen Crittenden?

Stephen has asked us to write to the ABC Board or the Managing Director, Mark Scott. I would also suggest that we write to the Federal leaders of political parties from the Prime Minister down. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are both known as men of faith - the former an Anglican and the latter a Catholic. I believe it is important that we make ourselves and our views known to them - for the sake of public broadcasting in this country and, in particular, the reporting of religion.Please let me know what you think and - importantly - what it is that you do.

So, Dear Reader, could you please do your bit to keep Australia's major religious communications resource on air and in the public domain. Please note for your records that the protocol for emails at the ABC is lastname.firstname@abc.net.au. Therefore......

Managing Director - Mark Scott .............. scott.mark@abc.net.au
Chair of the Board - Maurice Newman.... newman.maurice@abc.net.au
Board Members
Janet Albrechtsen .................................... albrechtsen.janet@abc.net.au
Steven Skala ............................................. skala.steven@abc.net.au
Peter Hurley ............................................. hurley.peter@abc.net.au
Keith Windschuttle .................................. windschuttle@abc.net.au
Director of ABC Radio - Sue Howard .... howard.sue@abc.net.au
Stephen Crittenden ................................. crittenden.stephen@abc.net.au

It goes without saying...

prayers and miracles are a welcome priority

BTW, the wonderful collection that makes up the Board of Australia's national broadcaster is the result of appointments made by the previous (conservative) Australian government. The current government bears no responsibility for that.

And, dear Reader, after all that, if you still have questions or need assistance for your lobbying, please let me know and I will try to find solutions.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Back to the blog...and on to Paul Krugman

2008-10-14T15:29:00.003+11:00

As you can see, Dear Reader, it has been a long time between posts. Life has been full, to say the least. Firstly, because I am part of a new environmental organisation, GreenFaith Australia. This is a multi-faith organisation - and Miss Eagle is the Secretary. Secondly, our friendly landlords need their house back for pressing family reasons so we are househunting - no success yet - and I am organising my garden by potting up all that is not in puts. Won't be able to take the blooming broad beans, and the sugar loaf cabbages, and the cauliflowers but, gee whiz, silver beet and beetroot look quite decorative in individual pots. Thirdly, I have been very ill. Six days in the Angliss Hospital with cellulitis in my face and left ear on high-powered antibiotics. I was the tourist attraction of the Short Stay Unit for doctors and nurses who came to look at the monstrosity on the side of my head. Now I just feel like I have had the stuffing knocked right out of me.

So in all this what has brought me back to the blog................

PAUL KRUGMAN, 2008 NOBEL LAUREATE FOR ECONOMICS

for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity

The copyright of this photo belongs to Princeton University which, I hope, is forgiving to a Krugman fan and to whom Miss Eagle sends congratulations on yet another Nobel winner.

Joy! Sheer unadulterated joy! And self-congratulations too in the fact that your correspondent, Dear Reader, really does know a great economist when she sees one. Her favouritest economist - who is the only reason she continues to read The New York Times - has just received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics. Miss Eagle presents to you the one, the only......PAUL KRUGMAN.

Krugman is a great and innovative economic theoretician but - and this is of vital importance to folks like me - he is a great communicator. Here is an economist who speaks our language, an economist who hangs his politics honestly on his sleeve. John Kenneth Galbraith long ago captured my heart. Krugman, in my view, is a worthy successor. For even more, go here.

If you, too, wish to congratulate Paul Krugman please email him here.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-08-20T07:11:00.006+10:00

'Tis amazing what causes one to have little trips down Memory Lane. This week it has been the Mayor of Mount Isa in North West Queensland, John Molony.

Early this year, my old mate Molony (National Party) defeated my other old mate Ron McCulloch (Australian Labor Party) in the race for the Mayor's job in Mount Isa. Now to all of those who live in places like New South Wales and Victoria who put up with weak, namby-pamby local governments who leave their local councillors to elect their mayors for one year terms: forget it. Queensland (as does the Northern Territory - clearly something about the North) directly elects its mayors.

Ron had been mayor for something like eighteen years - a popular Irishman. John had been on the Mount Isa City Council for years and years and then took off further north and west to Burke Shire up on the Gulf of Carpentaria where he became what used to be called Shire Chairman. Now Mount Isa City Council claims - or used to - to be the biggest city in the world in area because it extends across to Camooweal and the Queensland-Northern Territory border. This sure is a contrast to Burke Shire because, as I recall it, Burke Shire does not contain one bitumen road.

Anyways, John is back in The Isa. Well, I don't suppose he ever really left. Just that, now, he's the mayor. Runs the place you could say. John owns a western men's outfitting store. John was selling western gear to stockmen before he ever had a Mount Isa store. His business life began as a hawker selling clothes and stuff from station to station in north west Queensland and the Barkly side of the NT. So he knows the Barkly Tableland and the Gulf from go to whoa.

Now let's get things straight. If you are a bloke with the lifeblood of northwest Queensland flowing in your veins; you are a paid up member or supporter of the Queensland National Party; you own a cattle property; and you make your living from people who live and work on, in and around cattle properties it is possible - but not all that likely - that you are a reconstructed, sensitive new age guy. However, those four adjectives have never applied to me mate Molony even at his best.

You see, dear Reader, in the long ago in that place accessed by a trip down Memory Lane, I used to know John and his wife Heather. It was in the late 70s to mid 80s when I was employed by the Mount Isa City Council to manage the Mount Isa Public Library, then part of the North Western Regional Library Service. The Library was situated directly opposite John's menswear store in West Street. I served on committees with him and our relationship was always co-operative and cordial.

However, I remember one night where the unreconstructed John came to the forefront. It was the night of Mardi Gras which launches Mount Isa's biggest event of the year - the Mount Isa Rodeo. We (the Dear Departed Dearly Beloved -DDDB - and Miss Eagle) were in the street outside Boydie's pub and got into conversation with John. Now, back then as now, Miss Eagle was never short of a word or an opinion. In the course of the conversation, John looked past Miss Eagle to the DDDB and said to him - How do you handle her? Miss E, not showing her inward consternation and not waiting for the DDDB to reply, piped up with a large and glowing smile - Because he's a real man. 'Nuff said.

Now maybe John can't provide a lot of intellectual stuff to the wider political debate. Perhaps - and it really is difficult - it is difficult to get anyone's attention when you are way across the Great Dividing Range and the sunlit plains extended in far-flung Mount Isa. Perhaps, he's been following the example of and taking lessons from that well-known noise from the northwest, Bob Katter Jr. Perhaps, it is just that it's rodeo time and all those lonely, boozing ringers in town provoked Molony's grey cells into gear.

But this time he's been and gone and done it. He's got himself not only national publicity, but international publicity. What else is going to happen when you talk about an isolated mining town, a shortage of nubile women, and an invitation to ugly women?

Everyone is now buying into the debate about his comments - including Catherine Deveny. But the local women are holding their own well - as they always have. I can proudly make that statement since I founded what is, arguably, the only home-grown feminist organisation Mount Isa had - the Union for Western Women. Time alone will tell whether the old adage about any publicity being good publicity will prove true in this matter.

Last night, the women of Mount Isa gathered outside the Civic Centre (right next to the Mount Isa Public Library) and demonstrated their displeasure. BTW, Molony and I once organised a celebration for Australia's win in the America's Cup in that very space. We made it a fundraiser for our Bi-Centennial Committee and we packed in a couple of thousand Mount Isans. The jollities included soap-sudding the civic fountain. Kev Ashworth, Town Clerk at the time, said that, in his view, it was the best use the fountain had ever been put to. We had a good time that night, didn't we John?

And, in the end, that is the point. Mount Isa is unique. It is great. It is a place of great experiences and great times.

My nine years in Mount Isa were probably the best years of my whole life - unreconstructed men and all! I don't pretend that Mount Isa now is the same as Mount Isa then. Remote towns are transient towns - but, as demonstrated by John, some things stay the same.

I commend Mount Isa to everyone - male, female, ugly, beautiful or just plain interesting - but with one proviso. It is tough living in an isolated community in a forbidding climate and geography. It is not for everyone. Cracks in relationships can become gaping chasms. The education of kids has to be considered. There is the question of relationships with the First Australians. While the DDDB and I loved it - my children's memories are of the harshness. For them as they look back, their memories (and this saddens me) are bleak.

Perhaps some of us have longing for green grass and urban environments in our hearts - and others, like me, bless the sunlit plains extended.

The town Mount Isa Mines built (please note that fly in-fly out mining does not bring the socially constructive elements of somewhere like Mount Isa to the human community and landscape) is the result of generations of hard work since 1924. There have been deaths, occupational hazards, blood, sweat, lead, tears, strikes and a state of emergency. Men have mined, women have battled, children have thrived and cultures have lived together well. Those of us who have lived and shared the Mount Isa experience know that we have been part of something very, very special. Long live Mount Isa!

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Dont it always seem to go...

2008-08-19T07:45:00.004+10:00

...that you don't know what you've got til it's gone

Big Yellow Taxi

This blog has opined and warned against the erosion of one of the world's greatest traditions and civic structures - Trial by Jury. Now Queensland is leading the Australian charge. This from the state who imprisoned, just a few short years ago, its own Chief Magistrate when its own legislation prohibited such a thing. Seems to me that the Chief Justice of Queensland, the Hon Paul de Jersey AC, may have been asleep at the wheel on that one. One hopes that he - and a few others on the Queensland Bench and at the Queensland Bar - were appropriately embarrassed when the High Court of Australia quashed Queensland's verdict.

Now Queensland has taken the plunge to erode its citizen's rights to Trial by Jury - and it may have given opportunity for Jayant Patel, the defendant in one of the most serious matters to come before the Queensland Supreme Court, to opt for a trial by a judge alone.

One day, when there are no juries, when parliaments have accrued to themselves every bit of power over our lives that they desire, when there are no trade unions at all, and banks and other forms of usury take all our money and we all have casual-no-penalty-rates jobs, I hope someone can still find an old Joni Mitchell song to provide an anthem for our memories.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

When will we ever learn...to listen?

2008-08-18T08:45:00.007+10:00

Makinti Minutjukur

Today the Indigenous Affairs Minister makes a flying first-time visit to the Pukatja Community in South Australia's APY lands. This is an open letter to the Minister from Anangu woman

12 August, 2008

Dear Minister

We welcome you on your first visit to our community at Ernabella/Pukatja.

We are happy to hear that the Government will pay for the repair of the Ernabella Church. That church is part of our present day heritage. Our fathers and grandfathers built it with their own hands. It is a place that helped to keep our community strong.

We are also happy to hear that the Commonwealth and State Governments will help the Amata community to have a new art centre building for Tjala Arts. Community art centres are like the hub of a wheel. They are a fixed point where people work and make money to feed their families; pass on their knowledge to young people; get training in art skills and business skills; and have a quiet safe place to be where they make beautiful things that make them feel proud and happy, as well as giving pleasure to the people who buy their work.

We are also pleased to hear that both your Government and the South Australian Government will do something to help with more houses in our communities.

We appreciate the help the governments are giving with these things. We believe that you know that they are the tip of the iceberg. Hiding under the water are the same old problems - bigger than ever.

First though, step back 30 years. In those days we had a community garden supervised by Ungakini's husband, and which supplied our fresh fruit and vegetables. The community bakery run by Peter Nyaningu supplied all our bread. Rodney Brumby ran the building projects, supervising the brick making for houses and community buildings in which my father also worked, just one of several of his community jobs. My mother worked in the women's learning centre where she and other women made clothes, home furnishings, and all sorts of practical goods which people bought with the money they earned from their employment in the community.

I worked in the clinic and was trained there by Robert Stephens and others. Many Anangu received health worker training then; few do today. We had the responsibility of doing the jobs that made our community. We earned our living and we did work that was interesting and worthwhile. We were learning in a good way how to be together in one place all the time, and how to start making so many changes in our lives. All this was new, since as you know, only 30 years before that most of us were still living in the bush and living from the land.

I believe the reason why all our lives out here have become so difficult and painful over the last 30 years is that governments, who have the power over us because they have the money we need to make the changes from old ways to new ways, have stopped listening to us. Listening properly. Taking the time. Working with us. Trusting us to be responsible for our own lives - since we know them best.

It's true that many people have come from government for visits: politicians like yourself, very senior and important public servants from Canberra and Adelaide, and all sorts of other experts and advisers. That's good of course - but not one of them has ever stayed long enough, or come back often enough so that they can really understand, and so that we can help them understand what is the reality here - and the other way, so that they can help us understand what the government can do.

You know and I know what some of the problems are: not enough money for people to live and eat properly, and so an increasing health crisis because of bad diet; no proper work for most adults and so a rising sense of hopelessness from young people who can see no future; a terrifying marijuana problem (since Opal fuel it has replaced petrol as the substance abuse of choice) which is a main factor in most suicides among its many other destructive effects; many old "slum" like houses, and not enough houses anyway, so babies, children, everyone gets sick.

The strength of Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara is in our relationships with each other. That is how our society and our communities work - through our relatedness. Our communities can remain strong only as long as our relationships can be strong, instead of melting away because of no work and no meaning, sickness and sadness. We need to build up those relationships again and we need a different relationship with governments.

I want to ask you, for all Anangu: will you listen to us? As a participant in the 2020 Summit I felt very hopeful that your Government might listen to us.

I understand that governments change, that politicians come and go and so do public servants. We've been here all along, and long before that. Our lives were much better 30 years ago. In the years since there have been many changes, some big, some little. Our money has gone up but mostly down; the places we could work in the community changed, and/or disappeared - that is, they weren't funded any more (such as Wali K which only two years ago employed young men making building products). This is just one example of all the changes that are imposed on us in which we have no part, and no choice. Part of the reason is that the various groups, committees and individuals who make the decisions that affect us all are not properly representative of Anangu tjuta - all Anangu. This is a serious problem and needs urgent attention with full Anangu participation and understanding every step of the way.

Surely we can work together to understand each other properly, to make good plans together that will last, and not change every few years when governments change and officials change. I don't believe it has to be like that. We are a very patient people but none of us has much more time to wait before our communities disappear under the sea, with the rest of the iceberg.

Yours sincerely
Makinti Minutjukur

Disability Support Worker,

DFS Pukatja Community (formerly Ernabella Mission)

Source from New Matilda: http://newmatilda.com/2008/08/13/open-letter-jenny-macklin via Dale Hess's Newsletter

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Of mice and lights and poverty

2008-08-14T11:46:00.004+10:00

To-day some of us have been synchroblogging about poverty. See my post below and if you go to the very bottom you will find some links to keep you busy. Now I shouldn't pick favourites and there have been some goodies but I have to tell you I just lurv Jeremiah's post - not least because of the cartoon above which I have knicked.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Poverty - and the hospitable heart

2008-08-14T07:46:00.009+10:00

Rublev Trinity Icon - Abraham entertains

This post is part of a synchro-blogging effort on Poverty - as seen from God's perspective being hosted at Phil Wyman's Square No More. Miss Eagle has not participated before but has been invited by Steve Hayes from Notes from Underground to participate. To make things clear for those who don't know Miss Eagle and haven't figured things out by looking at the sidebar, Miss Eagle has dual citizenship. She is a member of two faith communities: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Anglican Church of Australia. With regard to the former she is a member of Eastern Suburbs Local Meeting as well as the Dandenong Ranges Worshipping Group within Victoria Regional Meeting. With regard to the latter she worships at the Church of St Thomas at Upper Ferntree Gully in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I apologise if I am perceived to be not exactly on topic in this post - but there are things on my mind.

Firstly, at St Thom's I do a two hour stint once a week in the Open Door Ministry. The Open Church Ministry keeps the doors of St Thom's open between 10am and 2pm Monday to Friday irrespective of whether there is anything else happening at the church. This means that the church is open for prayer. In winter, the back pew is made particularly comfortable with cushions, blanket, and heater. If someone wants coffee and a chat, the volunteers are happy to oblige. If emergency assistance is needed, we can help with emergency food parcels and with referrals to agencies who can be of more assistance.

A couple of weeks ago our team had a meeting which I found heavy going when it came to discussion on handing out our $25 vouchers to our next door supermarket. Now these were never handed out willy-nilly - in fact we only handed out 34 this year - but there was a lot of discussion which I found unedifying and we have now switched to only making food parcels available.

Secondly, if you take a look at the side bar, you will notice that Anti-Poverty Week is in the offing, and I represent Quakers on the Christian sub-committee of the Victorian Anti-Poverty Week Committee.

Miss Eagle is not one to take things lying down when she believes that things aren't right - as in the case of the attitudes surrounding the food vouchers. She did insert one or two comments into the discussion but they didn't cut the mustard with the attitudes expressed that day. So, believing in the old adage that one can lead horses to water but can't make them drink, I was not going to proceed to hitting my fellow parishioners over the head with scripture and theology. I have been around community and social services - including well meaning church programs - long enough to know that some people get it and some people don't. So anything further I could say would not be understood and would fall on deaf ears.

But as well as not taking things lying down, I am a devious soul. I am prepared to take back routes, come at things from various angles, walk beside folks over long distances to get to the desired result. Why am I prepared to do this? Because you see, I believe in the basic idea of the Open Church. There is something so very sad and so very wrong about churches that are locked up all day every day.

The Nazis closed churches in Germany. The rogue Anglican Archbishop of Harare closes churches in Zimbabwe. And in comfortable suburban Australia we Christians of various denominations close them quite willingly for ourselves.

So when we lock our churches what are we thinking, saying, doing? Are we demonstrating that we have such poverty of spirit that the locked doors of our churches say something about the locked state of our hearts?

Over at this church in Manhattan they seem to think it has something to do with the institutional church's love of money. Catholics in Australia have such a shortage of clergy (and I won't discuss why but you all know) that parish churches are under threat and lay people are taking things into their own hands to keep the doors open - and find themselves drawing closer to one another as a result.

So all this has got me to thinking. And the road I wish to take in opening up hearts to the poor, in opening up hearts to open churches - and by the way a group in England is collecting statistics on locked churches - is to talk about hospitality.

Hospitality is a strong tradition in the Judaeo-Christian context. As the icon on this post portrays, the Tanakh contains stories of ancient middle-eastern hospitality in Genesis 18 and 19. The prophet Isaiah gives us the words of Yahweh in describing what God thinks is an acceptable fast:

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

So what I wish to emphasise both here and within my communities of faith is that hospitality is an encompassing thing. In our Christian walk, it is required that we have a hospitality of heart and hand, spirit and mind. The Good Samaritan may not have been able to take the mugging victim into his own home - but he displayed a true spirit of hospitality and we have never forgotten it.

We have long-standing traditions of true hospitality within the Christian tradition which we can emulate. There is no shortage. However, one cannot fail to do honour to the mighty Benedict and his Rule. Monastic hospitality did not begin with Benedict but Benedict's wide and continuing influence through the Rule is a guiding star to us.

Chapter 53 of the Rule says:

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matt 25:35).

I believe our Open Church Ministry team is always welcoming. Where I think we can lift our game (please note I include myself in this ) is to see Christ in everyone who comes in that door. I think our discussion at our meeting indicated that we were not seeing Christ - because if it had been Christ, if we were sure it was Christ, perhaps we would have given him a multiplicity of food vouchers in breach of the boundaries and rules we have. We probably would have had him home for dinner. We would have sent out for cream cakes to have with the coffee instead of the biscuits.

Benedict's rule makes clear that how we respond in our hospitality requires a renunciation, a discipline, a reformation in ourselves. In Luke Bretherton's book, Hospitality as Holiness, he points out that:

For Benedict, hospitality of vulnerable strangers was directly linked to a readiness to change one's self-willed and pride-filled pattern of life in order that worship of God and love of one's neighbour, might come first.

Mother Teresa said in her book, In My Own Words:

We should not serve the poor like they were Jesus.

We should serve the poor because they are Jesus.

And any treatment of hospitality and poverty in the Christian tradition cannot fail to mention the Catholic Worker Movement and their Houses of Hospitality. I love to recall Dorothy Day's statement about the Catholic Worker Houses: they did not help the deserving poor, but the undeserving poor.

Perhaps, difficult as helping the undeserving poor may be, this is how we entertain angels unaware.

Below is the list of contributors to this month's SynchroBlog. The subject is poverty and the people contributing so far are:

Phil Wyman at Phil Wyman's Square No More

Adam Gonnerman: Echoes of Judas

Cobus van Wyngaard: Luke: The Gospel for the Rich

Lainie Petersen at Headspace

Steve Hayes: Holy Poverty

Jonathan Brink: Spiritual Poverty

Dan Stone at The Tense Before

Jeremiah: Blessed are the poor... churches...

Alan Knox: Boasting in Humiliation

Miss Eagle: The Eagle's Nest

Jimmie: Compassionate Christianity

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

A prophetic witness of Olympian proportions

2008-08-08T20:03:00.000+10:00

Photo: The Sydney Morning Herald

Jarrod McKenna, our energetic peace-loving peace-making Aussie, has written over here of a great Olympic story. It is the story of a prophetic and public moment in the lives of three Christian men. Two of these men were black Americans. The third, a white Australian. The white Australian was Peter Norman.

What Jarrod didn't mention was that when Peter died in 2006, the solidarity of the three men that was so publicly and irrevocably evident at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 was evident once again. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were here in Melbourne for Peter's funeral and they helped to carry his coffin.

Dear Reader, you have no idea how much this meant to us in Australia. That such athletic comrades from almost forty years ago should do such honour by coming half-way around the world will not be easily forgotten by Aussies.

To-night, I will watch the opening ceremony of the historic Beijing Olympics. I am a great admirer - in spite of things that get in the road sometimes - of the Chinese, their history, their culture and above all the Tao Te Ching. I am conscious of Australian's long involvement with the Chinese people. But if, like our Prime Minister, I could be a forthright friend: there are issues of justice in China and some of its relationships which can be difficult to overlook. Some people, perhaps, at these Olympics will feel strongly enough to make a public - and possibly prophetic - stand.

I pray that if this is the case that such people will remember the time forty years ago when three men decided to make their stand: representing two very different cultures these men really stood for something. The speedy and gentle Australian did not raise a fist. He wore a badge and, with Christ in his heart and his motivation, stood beside his black brothers. After all, Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name: there I am in the midst of them.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Transfiguration

2008-08-06T12:00:00.003+10:00

To-day is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Three years ago, the fruit tree beside my home office window was covered in blossom (the picture is from 2005) but my fruit trees have very few blossoms at this time and my magnolia seems to have blossom as a permanent condition since they have been there so long without flowering.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Easter coincides with new life in nature. In the Southern Hemisphere, Easter happens in Autumn when the leaves are falling and nature prepares for Winter.

I love the Feasts but, on those occasions when we observe those that are not Easter and Christmas, I think we talk about them in a way which does not give any depth to the experience. I think that, in the main, this is how the Transfiguration is treated.

The Transfiguration was a supernatural event intervening in the natural order of things. It was transforming and predictive of the new life to come. Just like the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing at this time. How wonderful then if people in the south of the globe could take this great season of the soul and transform it to mirror the wonder of regeneration that is happening in the environment. We could then experience both the transfiguration of our environment and of our spirits.

The Transfiguration Lyrics

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

GREEN LEFT AND THE ANGLICANS

2008-08-06T08:02:00.004+10:00

This picture and its source offends Christian sensibilities and sensitivities.

However, when grown up Archbishops and Bishops play at schism, it offends mine.

Life is peculiar sometimes - particularly its synchronicities. A week ago to-day, I attended a huge turn out of union officials and delegates at the Dallas Brookes Centre in East Melbourne. Its purpose was to hear about the ABCC and what it is doing - and what it is doing, in particular, to Noel Washington.

As those of you who attend these big working class events know, they are a magnet for all sorts of left organisations (except the ALP, of course). They are there with their stalls, their stickers and posters, their buttons and badges, the newspapers, journals, books and flyers, and the petitions and the sign ups. The whole thing is quite festive and colourful. One sad note though was a woman from the Australian Irish Welfare Association who was handing out leaflets telling about the young Irishman gone missing, Stephen King. A body has since been found in the Yarra River and it is believed to be Stephen. May he rest in peace.

So on this festive sunny but chilly morning in the middle of Melbourne I collect every bit of paper presented to me - including the one I had to pay for, The Green Left Weekly. I am not a subscriber to GL but always buy it at these things - and it's usually from the lovely Sue Bolton. Don't read all the articles - but love the ads. This time - surprise, surprise - an article about religion: Class war and the Anglican schism by Barry Healy. I didn't read the article. I steer clear of reading about the latest machinations of the Sydney Anglicans in any form and I figured the last thing I needed was a Marxist critique of the whole shebang.

But synchronicity will have its mysterious and penetrating way. I have been in internet contact with Steve Hayes, a Greek Orthodox deacon in South Africa, on and off for the best part of ten years. I was studying theology at Morling College when I came across him through the South African Missiological Society and their excellent journal Missionalia. Steve - in our pre-blogging days - used to run an excellent email network. We have hooked up again on his blogs and on the Yahoo Groups site he manages, Christianity and Society.

Had an email from Steve the other day. A little controversy was in full flight on Notes from Underground. Guess what about? That's right, the GL article on the Anglicans. And are the Africans upset or what! Steve thought Miss Eagle from Australia might have something to say - and she did and she has, at length. So pop over to Steve's NFU and see what all the fuss is about - but it will help to read Barry Healy's article first.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-08-01T10:59:00.009+10:00

AN OPEN LETTER

JASON WOOD, MHR

MEMBER FOR LA TROBE

IN THE

PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Dear Jason,

Denis at The Nature of Robertson has just forwarded to me this clip from a parliamentary speech you have made. Not a good look, Jason. And that concerns me because, you see, I am one of your constituents in the seat of La Trobe. I am dependent on you to represent my interests in the wider world of governing the nation. With a performance like this, Jason, you just won't cut the mustard will you?

They say that every army officer carries a Field-Marshall's baton in his knapsack. Well, Jason, if you have ever packed a Prime Ministerial baton or even a Cabinet Minister's baton in your knapsack you might as well remove it and use the space for something more useful like aftershave and hair restorer.

However, Jason, if you ever want to learn how to really communicate; to not trip over your tongue (and I hope it wasn't because you had been too long in the parliamentary dining room); to do your homework and present well as a representative for La Trobe, just email me at eaglemiss(at)gmail(dot)com and we can discuss what can be done.

It ill behoves me to make such an offer to a member of the Liberal Party of Australia after all they have put us through but - in the interests of sound representation and because we have more than two more years to get through until the next election - I am prepared to give it a go if you are.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Words and silence

2008-07-31T11:21:00.004+10:00

We are going to render an account to God,
not only for our idle words,
but also for our ill-considered silence.

- John Trithemius

Rule

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-07-29T07:26:00.005+10:00

How wonderful to find such a picture with an Australian flavour.

See here.

I count the prophets of the eighth century as among my best mates. It is hard to choose between when it comes to favourites but, if I am forced, I will choose Amos, shepherd turned reluctant prophet. Christine Sine, that Aussie resident in the USA who comes home very often, has written a wonderful justice prayer over at Godspace which is partly based on Amos. The prayer has also been picked up at The Breadblog.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
Please help those of us who are rich to be honest and fair just like you, our God.
May we who have such abundance be honest and fair with all your people, especially the poor.
Let peace and justice rule every mountain and fairness flow as a river that never runs dry.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
May we your people defend the poor, rescue the homeless, and crush everyone who hurts them.
May we be as helpful as rain that refreshes the ground, to those who are treated unjustly.
Let the wholeness and fairness of your kingdom live forever like the sun and the moon.

God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry
Because you our God rescue the homeless and have pity on those who hurt
May we who are rich stand up for the poor and let peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Let God’s kingdom of justice and fairness reach from sea to sea, across all the earth.
God let your justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness

2008-07-21T12:56:00.002+10:00

They have been referring to Australia as having a two-speed economy for quite some time now.

Perhaps it is about time we focussed on a society for us all.
~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Another piece of the pie?

2008-07-19T18:54:00.003+10:00

Photo: The Age

The Wall Street Journal now dedicates a full-time beat reporter, Robert Frank, to cover what he calls Richistan. Richistan did not suddenly appear on the American scene. Our top-heavy era has evolved from a heavily bankrolled effort by conservatives and corporations to instill blind faith in the market as the magic elixir that can solve any problem. This three-decade war against common sense has preached that tax cuts for the rich help the poor, that labor unions keep workers from prospering, that regulations protecting consumers attack freedom. Duly inspired, our elected officials have rewritten the rules that run our economy--on taxes and trade, on wage policies and public spending--to benefit wealthy asset owners and global corporations.

From The Rich and The Rest of Us in The Nation

That's the view from the USA. Meanwhile back in the Land of Oz, The Age has begun to-day a five part series titled The Sum of Us.

Like Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the UK, Australia - under both Liberal and Labor Governments - took on Milton Friedman's monetarism as the western world moved away from Keynesian economics. Never no mind that the work of John Keynes had real runs on the board: extricating the world from the Great Depression as well as bringing post-World War II prosperity.

And where has it got us? More wars and less peace in spite of the end of the Cold War. More rich and more poor in the world - in spite of more nations getting autonomy across the world. Solutions to the chronic problems of our society have been consigned to the so called "trickle down effect" where the wealthy try to convince us that their wealth and their getting richer would be better for everybody because it would all magically "trickle down". Instead, the dollars moved another way.

What has really happened - and it is there for us all to see - is that there has been a "trickle up" effect as money is syphoned away from the poor and the slightly less poor and the not quite middle class to build a constituency of wealth supported by sufficient numbers of middle class people to provide a constituency within democracies for all this to happen. Please note that this does not take into account the state-sanctioned robbery of public assets, the massive social change, and the mass corruption in Russia and China.

And so to the picture of the pie. Paul Keating used to tell us that the solution to all this was to build a bigger pie: trying to tell us that as we built a bigger pie there would be enough for the rich and the rest of us to benefit. But pendulums have a habit of swinging. Balloons inflate and deflate. At the moment, pendulums are swinging enough to give one motion sickness and balloons are popping or about to pop across multiple sectors of the economy.

Don't let any one pull the wool over your eyes again. Too many politicians over the last thirty years have spoken as if economic laws are immutable. They are as sure and as certain as the sun coming up each morning. That is not true. Human beings make the economic laws as we know and experience them to-day. Human beings can make bad decisions and they can make good decisions. They can make decisions for sectional interests and in a corrupt manner and they can make decisions for the common wealth and the common good in a clear, unfettered and unbought manner.

So let's keep watch. Let's not allow all those hood-winkers to get away with it again. Let's hold them accountable: for their lies, their corruption, their kow-towing to the wealthy, and - above all - their incompetence against the common good. Let's build a society for all of us.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Contemplation, Witness, Resistance

2008-07-10T11:21:00.000+10:00

Christine Valters Paintner over at the Abbey of the Arts has given us a link to her article: The Practice of Contemplation as Witness and Resistance. Please take time out to read this since it provides a balanced view of the contemplative life in modern practice. Such a life is not mere navel-gazing but the seeding of an active, prophetic life. The post is here.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Are you a Christian?

2008-07-10T10:17:00.000+10:00

I have snitched this quote from Sacred Threshold who seems to have got it from inward/outward. It is from Henri Nouwen.

You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.
~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Garnaut Report: No Pain, No Rain

2008-07-04T12:31:00.005+10:00

The Draft Report: Garnaut Climate Change Review

available here.

I sometimes wonder if there will be a time when we look back on the eleven years of the Howard Government as a period of lost time, lost opportunities.

This is almost certain to become obvious in relation to Climate Change. Ross Garnaut, in to-day's speech launching the Draft Report: Garnaut Climate Change Review, said "Now is not the best time to start. That was years ago. "

In other words, even if we start doing all the things we should do right this very minute we are behind the eight ball. And if we daydream about putting all this stuff in the too hard basket or waiting for China and India to come on board, then Garnaut has news for us.

Postponing now is not avoiding a decision. It is making a decision.
Delaying now will eliminate attractive lower cost options.
Without early and strong action before 2020 we will realise the consequences of failing to take action.
Rich developed countries, including Australia, have undertaken to do something first prior to the developing nations coming on board.
We will not get developing nations to do what they need to do if we do not honour commitments first

In fact, on the question of how our own attitudes can put Australia behind the eight ball, Garnaut pointed out that our seven decades long adherence to:

Protectionism
Xenophobia
Bureaucratic trammelling of the market

set the nation back economically.

Now, Miss Eagle says a "yes, but" to the last statement. There were some sound values embedded in these policies: self-sufficiency, self-support, defending things we valued, establishing fairness and even playing fields. Trouble is that some of these sound values did not work themselves out in equitable ways. The untrammelling of the marketing, for instance, does not always support these values - and some of us find that hard to take.

Not that Garnaut does not recognise values. He points out that some of the economic modelling does not, cannot and will not tell the whole story. For instance, any future loss of Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef can mean an economic loss due to projected fall offs in international tourism. These can be modelled. However, Australians themselves would experience a loss which the economic modelling cannot reflect.

Garnaut also placed a shot across the bows of the deep green ecologists. Any slowing of living standards, he points out, is no answer here or in Asia or in developing nations Their decline would be quickly translated into our own.

Garnaut emphasised Australia's unique location and the opportunities it might generate. He quoted Putin's comment that perhaps Russia might benefit from a couple of degrees increase in temperature. Australia, Garnaut points out, would not.

We are already a hot, dry country.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Queenslander - Queenslander - Queenslander

2008-07-02T22:35:00.005+10:00

Israel Folau (Melbourne Storm) in action for Queensland

Photo: Courier Mail

We did it! The Maroons did it! We beat the Cockroaches and we did it on their home turf of ANZ Stadium, Sydney. 16-10.

The final Origin 2008 was magnificent. I don't think Queensland has ever put up a more consistent, fast-moving defence ever. A commentator in the second-half (a NSW one, needless to say) said that Queensland had no Plan B after Scott Prince's broken arm and other injuries. This, mind you, at a time when Queensland had it well over NSW in terms of possession. I agree that there might have been little evidence of a Plan B - but we saw a well co-ordinated team aggressive and speedy in defence and with the ball in their hands more often than not.

Ah, well - Queenslanders never have expected objectivity from Cockroach commentators have they?

Miss Eagle does not want to diminish the efforts of anyone in the Queensland side but, as an expatriate North Queenslander she wants to send big bouquets and thank-yous to Johnathan Thurston, Sam Thaiday, the wounded Scotty Prince, and - my hero - the beautiful Billy Slater who scored the deciding try on a set-up by JT in the second half. Breathtaking!

And - to all of you who wonder what the fuss is about with the State of Origin series - go read my uncle's book:

Origin: Rugby League's Greatest Contest 1980-2002 by Jack Gallaway

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Missionary elites: born of ignorance, deafness and confusion

2008-06-27T09:07:00.005+10:00

Let's call this for what it is. Hypocrisy. A brazen display of utter, craven hypocrisy. Tony Abbott was a minister in the failed Howard Government: the Howard Government which ignored - until a losing election was looming in its rear vision - Aboriginal Australia and, not to mention, the needs and aspirations of remote white Australia. And this sanctimonious ignorance was delivered at that centre for hypocrisy and we-know-what's-best-for-you, the Centre for Independent Studies. How long will we have to wait to hear this drivel reprised on Counterpoint - the mouthpiece for the CIS on the ABC?

Six years ago, Miss Eagle was working in Walgett in north-western NSW. The local whitefellas there had organised themselves to provide a scholarship for rural doctors. Medical personnel in private practice are in short supply in mainstream communities in remote Australia. People want to bring doctors to their communities and want to work hard to give them a good lifestyle and so retain them as long as possible. Whitefellas in the bush realise that their best chances are:

Train doctors who have grown up in the bush and are likely to want to return to the bush - or at least have a good think about it.
Encourage new doctors to the bush by doing part of their practical training in bush hospitals and situations and further encouraging them with a purpose-built bush scholarship.

In a difficult situation, this is reasonable thinking - but it does not absolve governments of their responsibilities - and it expresses the commitment of a local community.

Unfortunately, Aboriginal communities are not able to get together to raise the great wads of cash needed for medical scholarship funding. Even if those concerned gave up their grog and their drugs, the money would have to go to families first.

However, the best bet of getting medicos out into remote Australia is the same two points that have swung white remote communities into action.

More Aboriginal health professionals are coming through our universities. There has been good work done with the training of Aboriginal Health Workers (the original idea came from that of the Barefoot Doctors in Mao's China). A generation further on what are we doing to fund and build on the professionalism of Aboriginal Health Workers so that that from these ranks more Aboriginal health professionals can be put through universities and back into the areas of highest need?

The thing that has always sickened me in the language and actions of Howard and his lackeys is they carry on as if no one prior to their military intervention was doing anything of any value. They had turned their backs years before - meanwhile other parts of humanity, black and white and brindle, were carrying on through thick and thin, funding cuts, isolation, deaf ears and everything that the Howard lot found politically on the outer, politically incorrect. The deaf ears and detachment of the Howard crew cost lives and cost progress.

And Abbott says that self-determination breeds detachment!

WHAT! If self-determination breeds detachment, the only evidence of it is that Aboriginal self-determination was abhorred by the Howard Government and its lackeys and, as a consequence, THEY detached themselves from any interest in Aboriginal people, their situation, their communities.

Sure pay people good money - but pay Aboriginal people already in place and on the ground good money too. And money is not everything. If someone does not have the right spirit and attitude, money won't keep them there long and it certainly won't keep them there through the hard yards.

Will government provide professional development on the ground for all professionals: health, education, justice irrespective of whether of whether they are university or TAFE qualified? You see, governments are very good at doing the flashy stuff like toys and technology and the flash-in-the-pan stuff of big budget announcements. It is not good at the incremental building of solid foundations and structures which will last and which will deliver. Whitefellas lose interest and head back to their capital cities - and blame everyone else for any failures.

And, finally, how will government help to build and revive economies in inland Australia. The mining companies fly in and fly out and do not contribute to community building and localised economies as once they did. Corporate agriculture does not always contribute to local communities in meaningful and substantial ways - but then family owned farming enterprises don't always either. I always remember the quote from western Queensland "..as long as there's a post office to pick up the mail." But may be, in these days of email and digital phones and faxes, he can live without the post office. And then there's the shopping. Woolworths and Coles don't sprout in much of inland Australia. You go to major cities or regional centres for that and the dollar goes away from local communities and economies.

But this nation has made millionaires (including a Labor Prime Minister's wife) out of employment programs for unemployed people, so why can't the same fertile minds turn their attentions to the building of economies in remote Australia for both black and white communities. They would benefit. We would all benefit. Communities would be stronger and more cohesive. Tax coffers could get some additional input. Let's do some real nation building in the inland for black and white communities.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Samuel's Pratt-fall

2008-06-26T08:57:00.005+10:00

Photo: ABC's The 7.30 Report

Melbourne can be a very small pond sometimes - particularly if you are well-heeled and influential as Richard Pratt and Graeme Samuel are and have been. Because the pond is small, people criss-cross one another's lives here, there, and in all sorts of places: boards, football clubs, the arts, Crown Casino, public events and - not to mention - politics. There are plenty of people to map the criss-cross of the lives of Pratt and Samuel. Thus, when everyone thought that Pratt had settled the Visy-ACCC matter and the ACCC comes back for a personal crack at Pratt, the odd eyebrow headed northward - but we won't give words to thoughts for most obvious of reasons!

Some have been heard to ask - surely when Pratt settled the matter last year part of the settlement would have closed off all avenues of further prosecution? Maybe, maybe not. But then, one assumes, that if one can be proved to have told porky-pies then all bets - or deals, if they were made - would be off?

Mmmm....

Anyways, Samuel has denied there is any vendetta by him against Pratt.

Miss Eagle supports Samuel's call for stiffening ACCC's capacity with the possibility of jail terms. Australian white collar crims are seldom seen in handcuffs let alone in prison - although it has happened that a few have had a taste of barred existence lately. Yet in the land of USA Inc they get to see their crims arrested, in cuffs and being hauled off. It happened with Enron and now it has happened with the Bear Stearns people in the sub-prime mortgage rip-offs.

Pratt stood down from the board of Carlton Football Club. We await his future. And Samuel is not answering questions on his - will he remain at the ACCC?

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Presumption of innocence? The cases of Pratt and Cousins

2008-06-22T09:27:00.003+10:00

Photo: The Age

Tim Lane in to-day's The Age highlights the treatment within the AFL of Richard Pratt, who has now stepped down from the role of President of Carlton Football Club, and compares it with the treatment of Ben Cousins.

See previous post on Pratt here

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Is the Australian jury still out on this one?

2008-06-20T08:57:00.004+10:00

Our Kiwi cousins across the ditch, have often led the way for their more conservative Australian cousins. Kiwis have a radical history that Australia has seldom shared. Aussies bring up the rear.

Now first let me declare my position. I am a 100% supporter of juries. For me, they are an ancient British system which has served us well. Trials of all sorts have become more complex these days. Some of that is due to technology. Some of that is due to the sophisticated crims that abound to-day. But an awful lot is due to the legal profession/system itself, particularly with nit-picking approaches to law that leave citizens wondering if there is any justice and whether they might be better served taking the law into their own hands.

Now, not everything about the jury system is perfect - never has been. And, in recognition of this, we have adopted the motto "Better that ten guilty people go free, than one innocent person be convicted". In short, there is often a price to pay for the way the jury system operates.

Jury verdicts in Australia have been required to be unanimous - 12 out of 12 decisions. But there have been various tamperings around the edges of this. Scotland, however, has traditionally allowed majority verdicts. Now our Kiwi cousins have voted overwhelmingly for majority verdicts from Kiwi juries.

Not only that, they have gone a step further and stepped into the dangerous waters of double jeopardy. There have been cries in this country for the abolition of double jeopardy. One particular Queensland case going back decades - know names, no pack drill - raises its head on a regular basis in this regard.

The advances of DNA technology seems to have influenced many of the calls for the abolition. Again, the principle of double jeopardy has served us well - and it is not only Miss Eagle who thinks so. Various nations around the world - although not Australia - have enshrined the principle as a constitutional right. If the principle is abolished, it might be possible for people to be tried and tried again until the desired result is achieved. As it stands to-day, once a person is declared innocent of a charge then that is it. Except...and the exception has meant that if the powers-that-be believe it to be warranted, people are arraigned on other charges where possible. These may be lesser charges - but the whole community reads the sub-text.

My view - for what it is worth: I am prepared to go to exceptional use of majority verdicts but only as far as 10 out of 12 majorities, no further. I am not prepared to abolish in any shape or form the principle of double jeopardy. The power shifts away from the community too far into the hands of law enforcement for my liking.

I would, dear Reader, draw your attention to the views and experience of Chester Porter. Since his retirement from the Sydney Bar, Chester - the father of the wonderful poet, Dorothy Porter - has taken to writing. In his autobiography, Walking on Water, Chester gives a lot of time to putting forward his view that the next round of improvements in the legal system have to come through better police work. He expounds his argument with history that will be familiar to any reader of the daily press and brings in his own experience. So, Miss Eagle's view on double jeopardy is: give us high, impeccable, impartial, incorruptible standards of police work and I have confidence that juries will tend to give the right verdicts in the first place.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

A community assembles at Ringwood for justice

2008-06-20T06:53:00.004+10:00

When you can do nothing else:

bear witness.

~~~

Employee relations under the Howard Government were a low point in employer-employee relations in Australia. The election of the Rudd Government has not restored normal service - hence the ACTU has now embarked on Your Rights At Work Mark II.

Union Solidarity was established to provide community support for unions and union members who withdrew their labour from employers in an effort to gain better wages and conditions, to press for union involvement at the bargaining table, and generally to right those wrongs that can come into the workplace when employers consider only their rights and economic interests and no one else's.

You will find Union Solidarity community assemblies in support of unions and their members across Melbourne as and when the need arises. The caravan, the coffee pot, the barbie, the warm fire and a microphone and cardboard and textas to explain to passers-by what is going on. Union Solidarity is something of a free-form organisation. No membership fees, joining-up handshakes or anything like that. It relies on community support - and how often the community turns up!

On Monday next, 23 June,

Union Solidarity will assemble not at a workplace

but to rally outside the

Ringwood Magistrate's Court,

39 Ringwood Street, Ringwood

at 9.30am.

The prosecution at Ringwood Magistrate's Court that Union Solidarity is interested in is that against Anthony Elliott, of Elliot Engineering. Elliott is the defendant in a trial arising out of a community assembly in May 2007. Elliot faces a number of charges. The prosecution will argue that he drove a truck in a reckless manner through a picket line. A number of Union Solidarity supporters sustained injuries as a result of Elliot's alleged actions.

Union Solidarity expects to see that justice takes its course.

Will Pratt fall flat this time?

2008-06-20T06:30:00.000+10:00

O'Neill carton in The Sydney Morning Herald 071013

They're after him again. The ACCC are after Richard Pratt again for lying to them in the course of an investigation. Last year's fines are clearly not enough. Do Graeme Samuel & Co at the ACCC want their pound of flesh as well? Is the corporate Richard Pratt not enough that they are now going after the person - because it is a person who has the capability of lying? Pratt has given back his Order of Australia honours. Don't know if he has given back his Woodrow Wilson Medal for Corporate Citizenship.

Pratt has stayed on a President of Carlton. They desperately need/ed him and his money. But if the ACCC are successful in this prosecution, will Carlton be looking for a new President?

Pratt is a rather popular good ol' boy. He and wife Jeannie support quite a few good causes, not least of which is the Yarts. Former Prime Minister (doesn't that sound good) Howard spoke out in his favour after last year's verdict.

So, while the ACCC chasing Pratt again might be just legal and bureaucratic tidying up after last year's episode, it also could be designed to further diminish Pratt the person unless - to make a dreadful pun which is irresistible in the circumstances - the ACCC is using a Pratt to catch a mackerel.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

It takes a village...

2008-06-18T22:39:00.004+10:00

I had a call this afternoon from Denis of The Nature of Robertson. For the last few years - in among bouts of very serious ill health - Denis has, along with others in the Save Water Alliance in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, been doing battle with Sydney Water and the NSW Govt in regard to robbing the water of the Kangaloon Aquifer. Pop over to the blog and read up in the 146 posts on Kangaloon.

This afternoon when Denis rang it was to tell me that the NSW Govt was shelving - but perhaps not losing interest in - the Kangaloon Aquifer. He was bathed in the sweet smell of success. The battle has been long and hard. It has had its horrible moments. Denis has dragged every bit of skill he has - in putting reports together for government representations, in addressing public meetings, in photographing the invasion and the damage caused - into the fight.

And all this work by Denis and the community has brought positive results. What a community can achieve when it works together!

This is what Denis loves about his community of Robertson - a tiny village atop the Illawarra escarpment of the Southern Highlands. The spirit. The spirit that welcomed him and by which he feels supported. And now it has proved to have the spirit to fight off a government which wants to have its water and drink other people's too.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Close the Gap and Intervention events coming up...

2008-06-18T21:02:00.004+10:00

There will be a Close The Gap event at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, 186 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy on Wednesday 25 June from 10am-2pm. Attendance at this event would provide an opportunity for those with a health interest to build bridges and network with health providers in the Aboriginal community. However, it would be helpful and courteous if you could phone ahead and express your interest in attending on 9419 3000.

On Saturday 21 June next, there will be rallies right across Australia as part of a National Day of Action to protest the intervention by the Australian Government in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. If you are interested be outside the State Library of Victoria on the corner of Swanston and La Trobe Streets, Melbourne at 12 noon. Planning for these rallies has been taking place for some time within Aboriginal communities across the country. Focus will be the non-consultative approach of the intervention and the over-riding of the Racial Discrimination Act to provide the legislative base for the intervention.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-06-13T20:16:00.000+10:00

I was up at my favouritest Parents Without Partners Opp Shop in Upper Gully to-day.

To-day, Friday 13 June, and to-morrow, Saturday 14 June, they are having a Dollar Day.

They are stocked to the hilt and they want all their regulars to benefit from the sale.

As well, they want to welcome lots of newcomers too.

So, time to hotfoot it to Rose Street, Upper Ferntree Gully.

Directions:

Head east to the Dandenong Ranges,

turn right from Burwood Highway into Dawson Street, Upper Ferntree Gully

(Ferntree Gully Plaza Shopping Centre on one side of Dawson Street

and the Royal Hotel on the other side)

Take first turn to the left - along Rose Street.

Rose Street bends to the left.

On the bend look right and there it is!

Your money is well spent

because PWP at Upper Gully contributes to the support of Emergency Housing in the south-east and, in addition, pays the wages of a Social Worker to assist those in need of the housing.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-06-13T19:03:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Louise who has advised of the following event:

The VICTORIAN WOMEN'S TRUST presents:
Forum Two: Dangerous and Persuasive Women: Doing Politics Differently - Australian Women's 'History of Success'
Centenary of Suffrage in Victoria 1908 - 2008
WHEN: Monday 16 June 2008
WHERE: BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square,Melbourne
WHEN: 6.30pm for 7.00pm start
FREE!!!!!
Book now to reserve your seat for the Women's Trust's second free forum celebrating 100 years of Victorian women's right to vote. Join us for a unique and entertaining oral and visual presentation - a journey across the century detailing how Australian women have done politics not only differently, but also very successfully.
Drawing on the works of significant feminist historians and the Women’s Trust's own research, a unique, first-time and compelling public narrative will be delivered, co-presented by radio presenter and journalist Angela Pippos, comedian and entertainer Tracy Bartram, social historian Adjunct Professor Judith Smart and Women's Trust Executive Director Mary Crooks.
The Trust's first forum was a terrific success - drawing a crowd of over 300 people - so make sure you don't miss out on this next event!
Book now - phone the Trust on (03) 9642 0422 or email women@vwt.org.au to reserve your seat.
The Trust will hold a third a final event to commemorate this important anniversary in October

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Productive capacity

2008-06-12T10:56:00.003+10:00

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

The Mighty Maroons triumph

2008-06-12T09:26:00.006+10:00

To-day Miss Eagle bears witness to an incredible Queensland win in State of Origin II last night - 30-0.

Miss Eagle is an expatriate Queenslander living in Melbourne where there is one dominant code - not Rugby League - and the majority of people don't understand, try to understand or care about any other game. Not even the World Game, Soccer.

For a Queenslander, State of Origin - three matches played between Queensland and New South Wales every winter - is a religion. The reasons for this are ancient and deep. If, dear Reader, you want to come to grips with a Queenslander's attitude to New South Wales and how State of Origin came about, read my uncle Jack Gallaway's superb history The Brisbane Broncos: the team to beat.

Jack, in the early part of the book, takes the reader on a journey through Queensland football history to show how Rugby League enmity between Queensland and New South Wales festered and grew to the extent that, some years ago, Billy Mohr came down the tunnel chanting "Queenslander, Queenslander, Queenslander" and Queensland hearts exulted and beat a little quicker. After all, so many shared religious experiences have a chant - and now Queensland had one.

But State of Origin loyalties can be tug of heart things. Instance the case of the coach of the New South Wales team, the wonderful Craig Bellamy - to some, the best coach in the world currently.

Bellamy coaches the Melbourne Storm. The Melbourne Storm has countless Queensland and Brisbane Broncos connections. The captain of The Storm and the Australian Rugby League Captain is also the captain of Queensland's State of Origin team - Cam Smith. Quite a few Queenslanders inhabit The Storm. Bellamy has coached with the Broncos under the redoubtable Wayne Bennett.

He has also coached at the Canberra Raiders under Mal Meninga who is the Queensland coach in State of Origin. There was a time when the connections between the Raiders and Queensland were so strong that the Raiders was regarded as the de facto Queensland team when the Broncos weren't playing. In fact, my friend Denis over at The Nature of Robertson in New South Wales - who has never ever lived in Queensland but is a former Canberran - barracks for Queensland in the State of Origin.

That's the history. That's the heart. Last night's achievements were so exhilarating and the stars of such good play were so numerous that I will leave you, dear Reader, to explore the links.

Congratulations, Cam and team.

Commiserations, Craig.

On to Sydney for the next Queensland triumph.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Massive-Rocks-Arranged-in-Mysterious-Circle

2008-06-05T10:43:00.007+10:00

Don't human beings love monuments. We love remembering meetings with God, where famous people lived, and remembering our dead.

One of our most famous monuments is Stonehenge. Ancient stones whether standing alone, with friends, or in circles fascinate us. And Stonehenge has certainly fascinated us. We have considered it an astronomical observatory marking the sun and the seasons. We have believed it to be a place of ancient worship and the neo-druids frequently gather there to-day to revive ancient rituals.

But another lot of know-it-alls is now telling us that it is an ancient burial site.

However, I do prefer Yoni Brenner's up-to-date and straight from pre-history account of the burial site of Og. As Yoni says:

...although we may never see eye to eye on legacy of Og or Massive-Rocks-Arranged-in-Mysterious-Circle, me believe this debate is valuable in itself; and me think we can all agree that when public work of art generate this sort of spirited dialogue, it can only be good thing.

~~~~~~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Home at last....sort of

2008-06-02T19:14:00.004+10:00

Back in 2003, we knew - we, the people of Australia. We knew that the US invasion of Iraq was a giant sized mistake. We knew we did not want Australian troops there on an American joy-ride. Well, a joy-ride for the Bushies - not for the families of the American war dead with whom we mourn. And we marched and we marched and we marched to tell Howard and his henchman. But to no avail.

To-day Prime Minister Rudd announced the Australian troop withdrawal. Well, most of the troops will be withdrawn. Troops to guard the embassy will remain along with a further 800 Australian troops supporting troops in Afghanistan and providing diplomatic security.

Australians will not be satisfied until all troops are out of Iraq. But this begs the question of when the USA - which has put more emphasis on poor military decisions and strategies than constructive nation building - of when the USA will go home. After all, it seldom leaves a nation once it has arrived.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

2008-06-01T06:25:00.003+10:00

Blogging this year has been sporadic. Miss Eagle has been living life instead including pleasuring herself in the Northern Territory during the last month. But I have to burst into print to-day over Kevin Rudd and his so called "work ethic".

Let's take a little walk down memory lane.

It is Queensland in the 1990s and Wayne Goss (Wayne Swan was State Seceretary of the ALP) has just ousted the National Party from 32 years in government. Wayne Goss was elected Premier of Queensland on 2 December 1989 and remained there until 1995. Two things characterised the Goss period of government - arrogance and aloofness - and they were demonstrated before Goss was ever sworn in as Premier.

On election night in the tally room, he famously told a group of cheering young Labor supporters who were beside themselves with understandable excitement that they should take a cold shower. In my view, it was - eventually - this same sort of arrogance and aloofness which brought the Goss Labor government unstuck so that, on the morning after the loss, Queensland Treasurer Keith de Lacey could say "There's a message in there somewhere but I don't know what it is."

And what has this to do with Kevin Rudd's so-called work ethic? Heaps - if one could just learn from the Queensland experience.

It is said that, when Rudd was interviewed by Goss for the position of Chief of Staff, Goss was taken aback when Rudd asked if there was any objection if he took Sunday off. And so the Rudd "work ethic" entered political life.

But it is not just this anecdote that provides our lesson. When the Goss government came to power it had the support of most of the Queensland Public Service. To be sure, not the support of the high-ranking bureaucrats who were put to one side with in-trays and no out-trays. But, generally speaking, the support of most members of the Queensland Public Service. Within about twelve months, the Goss Government - with Rudd as a significant player - had lost the support of the Queensland Public Service because of the way it was treated.

There was no mention then of huge work demands - they were just treated shabbily. In fact, all round many long time, long term supporters of the ALP and the incoming Goss Government were treated shabbily. However, it could also be fairly said that the Queensland Public Service was the first to feel the heat, the first to lose the faith.

So my heart goes out to the public service tribe of Canberra when people say it is a public service town, a Labor town and now people there, the "working families" there, cannot stand a fair chance of establishing the work-family balance.

I have often wondered what Kevin Rudd has learned from the Queensland experience that would change his attitudes this time around - if change there would be at all. And then I thought that Canberra is a large stage with a diverse group of players which might limit some of the attitudes seen in Queensland. Perhaps this is happening. Perhaps, behind the scenes, Rudd is receiving some astute advice - if he is not too arrogant and aloof to listen.

But - as I have always said to my kids -

if you don't chose to listen and take on board good advice.

That's OK.

Life has a way of teaching you.

It seems that the

Australian Public Service and the Commonwealth Public Sector Union

might just have a life lesson for Kevin Rudd.

~~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

A crack appears in the rotten facade

2008-04-30T07:17:00.004+10:00

This blog has supported justice for David Hicks for a long time. He was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for a long and inhuman time. Now comes this news:

Hicks' lawyer, David McLeod, has told The Age he is confident that sooner or later either the US Supreme Court or the American political process will find the military commission system that convicted Hicks either unlawful or unsustainable.

"If the Supreme Court gets rid of the commissions, his conviction will go with it, and so will the proceeds-of-crime constraints," Mr McLeod said. It is also possible Hicks would then be in a position to seek compensation.

Go here to read further about the politically trumped up case that even the Chief Prosecutor of the US Military Commissions admits to.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Enjoy Compassion : Always Tibet

2008-04-24T08:28:00.007+10:00

Picture by Ross Schultz from Perth Now

As I begin this post, I am watching Matilda on Sky News giving the Aboriginal Welcome to Country in Canberra, ACT, for the Olympic Torch Relay.

But the cleverest protest of the international relay will probably go to the banner-hanging at King's Cross yesterday. The Coca-Cola sign at the top of William Street in King's Cross, Sydney is a long-standing highly visible icon. Thousands upon thousands of people drive past each day to and from Sydney's eastern suburbs. Many of these people are major decision-makers and influence-shapers in Australian society. But how clever - using the Coca Cola font; the message is brief and sensible - asking for compassion, begging for dialogue; and, last but not least, it was a peaceful, albeit brief protest.

Reports are that four people have been arrested. I hope the powers-that-be treat them gently. To come down heavily on such a clever, harmless, and peaceful protest would only signal to people who feel the need to protest that they must rely on quick, ad hoc disruption. Instead, let's give the promulgators of this protest full marks for ingenuity and peacefulness.

~~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Terry does Tourism

2008-03-31T20:09:00.006+11:00

Miss Eagle comes - on both paternal and maternal sides - from a family of talkers, scribblers, and know-it-alls some of whom make or have made their living at doing any or all of these three things professionally. Terry Gallaway of Sky News is one of these. Terry is cruising all the way to Europe and the historic battle fields of World War I with his his dear wife, Coral, on the QE2. You can read about it here.

When you can do nothing else - even on holidays : bear witness.

Pope Benedict, Aboriginal people, and walking a kilometer in another's thongs?

2008-03-31T11:07:00.005+11:00

The Catholic Church in Sydney is hosting World Youth Day - a major international Catholic fest - in Sydney in June this year. It is planned that Tall Ships will be in evidence and that Sydney residents, as they do very often, will take to the harbour in everything from yachts to bath tubs to welcome Pope Benedict who will arrive on a sailing ship.

Now this event has not been noted for its consideration of other people. Little or no consideration was given to those in the racing industry when the Catholic Church showed its take-no-prisoners attitude to staging the papal mass at Randwick. Negotiations took what seemed like forever and have resulted in Federal and State Government intervention with Australian and New South Wales taxpayers footing the bill.

One wonders how the Catholic Church will handle another hiccup in its planning agenda. Aboriginal people are concerned about the arrival of Pope Benedict on a sailing ship. Too reminiscent of the beginning of white settlement they say. Presumably, the Pope will be clad in his usual white so it just might be a case of looking like Great White Father, Miss Eagle thinks.

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Life's a ball-game

2008-03-31T07:49:00.005+11:00

JEWISH LESSONS FROM THE WORLD CUP

Large, round object. Move it towards the goal; get it through the doorway. Outmaneuver those big, burly guys trying to stop you, trying to take it from you. Be quick. Use your feet.

Sounds familiar? Sounds like my life.

"From everything that one sees or hears about," taught Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, "one should derive a lesson in the service of the Creator."

Perhaps the most popular sport on earth today is the game of soccer (otherwise known as football). As is the case with every phenomenon in G-d's world, this game can serve as a model and metaphor for our mission in life.

The objective of the game is to move a ball into a "goal" or "gate." This would be fairly easy to achieve were it not for the fact that facing the players is an opposing team which will do everything in its power to prevent them from scoring a "goal." But then again, if there were no opposing team, the full extent of the players' skill and power would never be actualised. For such is the nature of the human being: our most potent potentials are awakened only by challenge and adversity.

The ball can be maneuvered with various parts of the player's body, but the game is played primarily with the feet. The game requires much skill, but no less important is the player's speed-much depends on whether a player can outrun his opponent and move more quickly than he.

What can all this teach us regarding our daily endeavors and inner lives?

The earth is a sphere - a fact noted nearly two thousand years ago by the Jerusalem Talmud.The objective of life is to move this "ball" into the shaar haMelech - the gate of the King. By fulfilling the mitzvot of the Torah, we move the world toward the goal of its creation.

At our every step, we are challenged by a formidable opposing team - composed of our own negative traits and habits and a host of external foes - who obstruct our advance toward the goal and seek to move the ball in the opposite direction. But it is the perpetual presence of this opposition that provokes our deepest potentials and maximizes our achievements.

A key factor in achieving victory are speed. The most skillful player will be quite ineffective if his movements are slow, plodding, and unenthusiastic. Similarly, a person's life must be animated with alacrity and joy in order that his deeds should translate into scored goals and a true impact upon his world.

The other important lesson is never to underestimate the power of the feet. To advance the ball towards its goal, we make use of the full array of our faculties, from "head" to "foot" - our minds, our capacity for feeling, our talents and our physical energy. But our most important faculty is the "feet," which represents our capacity for action and "mindless" obedience. Although it constitutes the "lowest" and least sophisticated of our faculties, it is our unequivocal commitment to the divine will and the physical action of the mitzvot that has the greatest impact upon our world and is the most powerful force for its advancement and ultimate realisation.

By Yanki Tauber; Chabad.org

via The Central Synagogue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Seasons of the soul: A peak experience: the three days of Easter

2008-03-20T17:22:00.001+11:00

As I write late on the afternoon of Maundy Thursday, it is with the anticipation of embarking on keeping alive the remembrance at the pinnacle of the Christian faith within the cycle of the liturgical year - the Easter Triduum.

The Easter Triduum refers to the three days from the evening of Thursday through to Sunday evening. It also refers to the three major events around which the community of faith gathers: the commemoration of The Last Supper on Maundy Thursday; the commemoration of the suffering and death of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on Good Friday; and the celebration of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is a day of quiet and mourning remembering that this was the time that Jesus lay in the grave.

I was thinking to-day that I have kept these traditions for sixty years. Sometimes the Triduum has not been kept in its entirety when health matters have intervened. This has happened a lot over the last decade. But health has improved and I am looking forward to full participation this year.

To-night will be the washing of feet. Last year, this was done with towels and soap and bowls from our local public hospital where St Thom's has a huge and long involvement in chaplaincy and pastoral care. Great symbolism! To-morrow, we go ecumenical joining with the Catholic and Uniting Church in procession and ceremony. Sunday, St Thom's starts at 6.10am with the sun and kindling the new fire followed by breakfast followed by the great rejoicing as the purple disappears and the Gloria that hasn't been heard for six weeks rings out. "He is risen!" is the greeting of the day with the response of "He is risen indeed!". Miss E will be following this with a trip into the Hills to the tiny Quaker Meeting for Worship at Menzies Creek.

When you can do nothing else: bear witness

Christian Palestinian needs next?

2008-03-19T10:06:00.004+11:00

Picture from the website of Sabeel

Following this report, I hope the next thing we hear is that Kevin Rudd will attend a fundraiser for Christian Palestinians - if there are any left in Palestine as their mass exodus continues due to Israel and Hamas et al trying their best to exterminate one another.

In the West, it seems we are either apathetic and ignorant with regard to our Christian brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine, some of whom trace their Christian origins in a direct line back to the time of Christ, or we are so carried away by Israeli and Jewish propaganda and the Christian Zionist line, predominantly from the United States, that we just go with the flow.

To know more about Palestinian Christians on the West Bank and in Israel, please go here.

Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, is in the processing of establishing Waves of Prayer. The idea is that each Thursday people will pray at 12 noon in their own time zone with Sabeel for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine. Sabeel intends that Waves of Prayer will begin first in Australia's time zone.

Kevin Rudd mentioned in his speech that the estabishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was "Australian Labor government handiwork". This refers to the fact that H.V. Evatt, Australia's Foreign Minister at the time and later Leader of the Australian Labor Party, cast the first vote for the establishment of the state of Israel in the United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Christian Palestinians suffer. Christian Palestinians have their lands and livelihoods stolen. Their lives are taken in the violence and they are discrimated against by the Israelis both personally and systematically.

So, Kevin, how about it? In fact, as you and Therese are Anglicans, why not give public support to the Waves of Prayer and, while you're at it, please give Anglicord a ring. Contact details here.

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Vale, Clyde Cameron. Your like shall not pass this way again.

2008-03-18T08:32:00.003+11:00

Undoubtedly, older AWU officials and members around Australia will have noted the passing of one Clyde Robert Cameron.

Clyde was one of the AWU's more widely known identities - and a unique one. Another great AWU identity, the beloved Mick Young, used to tell of how, when he was an AWU organiser in South Australia, there used to be two union meetings: the one which he, as organiser, held with his members and the one, held by Clyde Cameron with the same group of members, immediately afterwards.

Clyde Cameron was not always the best-beloved of the right of the AWU: and certainly not of the Queensland Branch, the most powerful section of the AWU.

Miss Eagle recalls attending her first Queensland Delegates Meeting of the AWU. Delegates meeting is an interesting concept in recent times because, during Miss Eagle's period at the AWU, there was only one occasion when a rank and file delegate was at Delegates Meeting of the AWU. Delegates Meeting - as far as Miss Eagle could tell - was usually an historic and time honoured summer holiday for AWU officials from the bush to get an all expenses paid trip to Brisbane.

When Errol Hodder was State Secretary he was a modernising influence on the AWU. Miss Eagle's first Delegates Meeting was held at Kooralbyn. Besides the innovations of the venue, and the attendance of female officials for the first time, Errol had arranged for training to be done by trainers from the Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA). As well, as conducting training within individual trade unions and travelling to various locations for training sessions involving a wide cross-section of trade unionists, TUTA had established , in Albury-Wodonga, the Clyde Cameron College.

Errol explained to the unsuspecting TUTA trainer at Kooralbyn that the reason the AWU had taken so long to avail itself of TUTA's service was the unfortunate naming of their training college in Albury-Wodonga! Memories in the AWU run long and deep and both ways!

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

The cruelty of kidnapping and death stirs memories of ancient times and peoples

2008-03-15T06:38:00.004+11:00

Australia sometimes seems remote not only because of its geography but from some of the most important facets of human history. This comes to mind with the reported finding of the body of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in Iraq.

A Wikipedia search shows this entry for the term Chaldeans. For Miss Eagle, it brings to mind biblical history, some of the oldest human history which in turn conjures up painful thoughts of the beginning of the Iraq invasion by the U.S. when the museum in Baghdad was looted and pillaged of some of the finest records and artifacts of human history.

The language spoken by Chaldeans, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, is a living link with an ancient time and an ancient people.

The Chaldeans also connect us with a very ancient Christian community - the St Thomas Christians of India. Christian tradition has it that St Thomas - you recall, dear Reader, Didymus the doubting one - travelled to India and preached the gospel there. Miss Eagle recalls when she lived in Tennant Creek where there is a group of the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order of nuns) meeting one of the sisters who had grown up in the Syrian church in India.

So a meeting between two women in a remote Australian outback town can connect the modern 20th century with Apostolic times, Indian history, and ancient human stories embedded in the Middle East.

In Australia, we settlers - with a two hundred year memory of European settlement set within a 40,000 year Aboriginal tradition - have a lot to learn about other ancient ways of being human.

The Templeton: making science and religion a prize

2008-03-13T09:29:00.004+11:00

Sir John Templeton

Wikipedia says that Sir John Templeton renounced his US citizenship because he didn't want to pay US taxes in his native country. Perhaps, he had an eye on the prize that dual Bahamian and British citizenship might give him - a knighthood that the USA never could provide. Perhaps he just loves the sun of the Carribean.

Now, Miss Eagle professes absolute ignorance of what it is to be absolutely rich. However, a lifelong saturation in the Christian tradition always brings to remembrance entry levels for the rich to the Kingdom of Heaven and comparison with mobility through the size and structure of a sewing implement.

Having said all this, Miss Eagle has to express her fascination with the Templeton Prize funded generously by Sir John. Sir John Templeton asked a big question...

"If even one-tenth of world research were focused on spiritual realities, could benefits be even more vast than the benefits in the latest two centuries from research in food, travel, medicine or electronics, and cosmology?

Research and innovation in food products just since 1800 caused over 100 fold more food production per American farmer.
Research and innovation in travel methods since 1950, enabled over 100 fold increase in travel by Americans.
Research and innovation in medicine just since 1900 caused over 100 fold increase in information about our bodies.
Research and innovation in electronics just since 1900 caused over 1000 fold increase in information available to us.

In 300 centuries, humans observed less than a million stars; but just in the last two centuries innovations in methods and research has revealed a cosmos of 100 billion times 100 billion stars."

The Templeton Prize is based on the premise that

progress is needed in spiritual discovery as in all other dimensions of human experience and endeavor. Progress in religion needs to be accelerated as rapidly as progress in other disciplines. A wider universe demands deeper awareness of the aspects of the Creator and of spiritual resources available for humankind, of the infinity of God, and of the divine knowledge and understanding still to be claimed.

The prize money for the Templeton Prize is serious stuff. It is deliberately kept in excess of the Nobel Prize.

Listed below are the prize winners including the just announced 2008 prize-winner Michael Heller.
1973 - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
1974 - Frère Roger, founder of the Taizé Community
1975 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, President of India
1976 - Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
1977 - Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement
1978 - Prof. Thomas Torrance
1979 - Rev. Nikkyo Niwano
1980 - Ralph Wendell Burhoe, founder of Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science
1981 - Cicely Saunders, hospice founder
1982 - Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, evangelist
1983 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Soviet dissident novelist
1984 - Rev. Michael Bourdeaux, founder of the Keston Institute
1985 - Alister Hardy, founder of the Religious Experience Research Centre
1986 - Rev. James I. McCord of the Princeton Theological Seminary
1987 - Stanley Jaki
1988 - Dr. Inamullah Khan
1989 - Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, physicist and philosopher, Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, founder of the Iona Community and Indarjit Singh
1990 - Baba Amte and L. Charles Birch
1991 - Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits
1992 - Kyung-Chik Han
1993 - Charles Colson, founder of the Prison Fellowship
1994 - Michael Novak, philosopher and diplomat
1995 - Paul Davies, theoretical physicist
1996 - Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
1997 - Pandurang Shastri Athavale
1998 - Sigmund Sternberg, philanthropist
1999 - Ian Barbour, professor
2000 - Freeman Dyson, physicist
2001 - Rev. Arthur Peacocke
2002 - Rev. John Polkinghorne
2003 - Holmes Rolston III, philosopher
2004 - George F. R. Ellis, cosmologist and philosopher
2005 - Charles Townes, Nobel laureate and physicist
2006 - John D. Barrow, cosmologist and theoretical physicist
2007 - Charles Taylor, philosopher
2008 - Michael Heller, physicist and philosopher

Now I am not sure about the scientific credentials of some of the recipients but I do have some favourites with whose recognition I am well-pleased. These include Charles Hard Townes - who was introduced to Miss Eagle on Late Night Live, the lively radio program on ABC's Radio National hosted by the evergreen Phillip Adams - and the cosmologist, George Ellis.

Miss Eagle had the privilege of hearing George Ellis speak in Melbourne in January. Ellis is a Quaker and he delivered the 2008 Backhouse Lecture: Faith, Hope, and Doubt in Times of Uncertainty: combining the realms of scientific and spiritual inquiry (available for download here or in hard copy here; ISCAST review here) at the Australian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Miss Eagle has never heard of Michael Heller - but she looks forward to hearing more.

Tony Burke takes the corporate line over and above ethical eating

2008-03-05T21:48:00.003+11:00

Dear Reader, I don't think they get it yet. I don't think the Prime Minister gets it. I don't think the farmers and their organisations get it. And it has become patently obvious that the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tony Burke, certainly doesn't get it.

What don't they get? They do not understand, do not comprehend the interest ordinary, everyday Australians are taking in their food - its nutrition value, the way it is grown, who are the people who grow it, the impact of climate change upon it, and the impact of major domestic and international corporations on it.

It seems to me that the Australian government sees only major corporate entities: the farmers, their organisations; food distributors and manufacturers and their organisations; agribusiness and its organisations. Then there is that strange entity called "the consumer".

Now "the consumer" does not hold weighty conferences attended by all those listed in the previous paragraph plus agricultural researchers and economists. But, last time I looked, the consumer still had a brain, was still a sentient being, and is capable of making reasonable and clear decisions.

We see farmers organisations and their supporters drumming up the so-called "city/country divide". What is not recognised is the large numbers of Australians - who qualify only for the title of consumer - who have moved to the country to establish their own small holdings; who have built relationships with farmers - particularly through Farmers Markets; who are concerned with ethical eating and who are so supportive of the agricultural enterprise that they support drought appeals and angst together with rural residents over the mental health of the farming community.

Australia, with its mild climate across most of the continent, has always been home to keen growers of edible gardens. And most of these gardeners are trying to be organic. Many of them are keen students of permaculture and biodynamics. Lots of them could imagine putting Monsanto and Dupont on trial for agricultural and economic terrorism but instead support seed savers groups and heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables. They are learning not to damage Australia's fragile soils with excessive tilling and their no-dig gardens are multiplying day by day. Primary Schools are teaching children about food from seed to souffle in their own kitchens and kitchen gardens - often aided and abetted by celebrity chefs.

The Minister seems to be entirely ignorant of this movement that votes with its green and dirty thumbs. Why else would he have come out with these statements? (Please take time to read the comments!)

ABARE Outlook 2008 has been on in Canberra. The Minister made his views clear in a doorstop interview there:

REPORTER:

[Inaudible] campaigns against food miles, etc. Are you going to invest in advertising or is this something that you’re making comment about?

BURKE:
Certainly, with respect to the animal welfare campaigns, there’s been ongoing investment – and I referred to some of it today – in trying to make sure that we are not just at world’s best practice, but leading world’s best practice in overseas abattoirs and the destination points of some of our live exports.

With respect to food miles, I think we have to take, as I’ve said today, every opportunity to let people know and to let the consumers, both in Australia and internationally know – and I took the advantage today when we had international press here – to make it clear that food miles is a system deliberately designed to deceive. It does not provide quality consumer information and preys on the fact that a lot of consumers – and good on them – want to make sure that they’re doing their bit in trying to reduce carbon emissions.

The problem with food miles is that it takes one tiny [inaudible] of an equation and that’s their entire answer.

So clearly the Minister has a limited understanding of the concept of "food miles": of being near enough to your food to shake hands with the farmer; of caring about freshness and nutrition and value-for-money goodness; and of cruelty free animal lives.

Miss Eagle's solution to these sort of things is - organise. After all, that is what the major corporations and their hangers-on have done. But Miss Eagle looks around and sees organisation: the organisations devoted to permaculture and biodynamics and organics; the increase in retail outlets distributing these types of food products; the countless books, blogs, journals and websites promoting the good, simple, healthy and sustainable life.

Such a mind-set takes one beyond the suburban picket fence mentality and the four walls of a boxy apartment. It takes one into a wider world where nature is valued, treasured, and studied with a view to greater understanding.

Perhaps one day this understanding will reach as far as the board table in the Cabinet Room of Federal Parliament (who will water a Prime Minister's and Minister's edible garden?) and find a forum at ABARE.

Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry

Minister's Web Site

The Hon Tony Burke MP Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

PO Box 6022

House of Representatives

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Tel: (02) 6277 7520 Fax: (02) 6273 4120

Email: Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au

Is the ACTU under pressure?

2008-03-03T08:59:00.007+11:00

Miss Eagle was forced to ask the question above after reading this. The ACTU is, perhaps, flinching under the fruit of success. It's wonderful Your Rights At Work campaign was central to the Rudd Labor Government's ascent to the reins of power.

We all watched open-mouthed the me-too campaign run by Labor in the lead up to the election. We wondered if this is what really had to happen to come to power and if Rudd would change his public tune when he came to power. Rudd seems set on being a promise-keeper and appears determined not to follow John Howard down the dishonest path of core and non-core promises.

Rudd and Gillard prior to the election were intent on projecting an image that was business-friendly and business wanted what they had got out of Howard. But, as the union movement is set to remind Rud and Gillard, the Your Rights At Work campaign by the ACTU delivered government. People who had never voted Labor before changed their vote. John Howard's Work Choices were, for most people, a bridge too far. Business has to face that fact. After all, they do love the benefits of a democracy governed by the rule of law, don't they?

And why this magic year of 2010 before things can really begin to change - if at all? Rudd had said that this was because business had to make forward plans. But, really, Kevin. A business that does not factor in the "change of government" risk? A business that can't figure out that industrial relations might change with Labor in power?

People are - by year's end - going to want demonstrable workplace change. They really would like it sooner, like right now. But their patience may stretch to year's end. After that, Kevin and Julia, if there is no demonstrable and meaningful change you will be seen as someone who keeps your word - to business but not to ordinary working Australians.

The left unions are restless. The Socialist Alliance - not an organisation brim-full of burgeoning membership - had a State conference here in Melbourne. The Saturday afternoon panel was devoted to the industrial relations scene and the AMWU, Textile, Clothing & Footwear Union, and the CFMEU as well as the Geelong & Region Trades and Labour Council turned up and clearly expressed their points of view.

The contribution of these unions was indicative of what could be a groundswell from the Left. The AMWU with its strong foothold in a declining Victorian manufacturing base clearly wants a return to the previous way of operating including Pattern Bargaining. While the TCFU outlined lucidly the way in which flow-ons have operated in Australia, the AMWU's dream of pattern bargaining is a wish that Miss Eagle predicts will remain unfulfilled. Somewhere, though, between the traditional flow-on practices and the rigidity and targetting of pattern bargaining there could be an opportunity for some new and negotiated thinking.

Traditionally, there have been unions like the AMWU and the Construction Unions who have set the pace. They have used their clout to progress demands and those with less clout - particularly in industries whose workforce is populated by women and the young - have, in time, been able to apply for flow-ons into their own industrial instruments.

However, back in the 1980s the AMWU and the Construction Unions overlooked one very important factor: the service sector. There was a time back then when the service sector was the one area of the economy that displayed marked growth at the same time as manufacturing entered its decline and some areas of construction were in the doldrums.

The AMWU drove through enterprise bargaining. This was a disaster for workers in the service sector such as the retail and hospitality industries. Enterprise bargaining has potential in the tradeable goods area and in construction. The economies of these industries were the meat and milk of the old Industrial Relations Club. The IR Club knew the ins and outs intimately and its people on a first name basis. The service industries were foreign to them - even to the men who ran the trade unions who serviced these industries. No thought had been given to how they operated: their culture, their economic milieu. I'm not sure that this has occurred yet. Draw an AIRC Commissioner into conversation over a coldie and he (very few she-s) would admit his ignorance.

To put it simply, dear Reader, in Enterprise Bargaining one could negotiate efficiencies in this wise:
If the business was making 500 ball bearings per day but efficiencies were negotiated and work practices not currently facilitated by the industrial award were streamlined and 750 ball bearings per day could now be made, then workers could negotiate a share of the increased productivity. Dead easy.

Then you go to the service industries. A check-out operator has no control over the number of customers served; the room attendant has no control over the number of beds made and rooms cleaned; the bar attendant has no control over the number of customers nor beers pulled. And while, in this day and age, it is possible to measure anything. When people do not want to find quantifiable or qualitative data, that data will never be forthcoming - particularly in relation to the work of women. This is why, in the end, Enterprise Bargaining became associated in these industries not with improved productivity but being forced into giving up conditions and working horrible hours without penalty rates. Of course, the more this sort of Enterprise Bargaining became the norm in these industries the fewer people joined trade unions. Mmmmm.....!

So to-day we look at the linked article which seems to be attributed more to Jeff Lawrence (himself from a Left union, the LHMU) than to the Rudd Government. It is interesting that this has come within ten days of the union panel at the Socialist Alliance. Within ten days of the panel at the Socialist Alliance saying that the current position of the ACTU was quite confused; saying that if the ACTU was to mount any sort of campaign it would be months away.

But the revival of the Australian Labour Advisory Council will hardly be a sop to disgruntled unions. This would have been likely to occur anyway. Similarly, union business committees to consult on legislation - as has been advised by Miss E's AWU contacts. This process is always likely under a Labor Government.

What Australian trade unions don't take to kindly is having a Labor government giving business its wish list or giving business an upper hand to the disadvantage of trade unions and, particularly, trade union rights as spelt out in ILO conventions.

And, as you are aware Kevin and Julia, the CFMEU want the abolition of the draconian Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner forthwith.

Hockey for Leader, outsource the Speaker's job to Sunrise

2008-02-25T07:53:00.004+11:00

Now that Brendan Nelson has confirmed he is the worst Leader of the Opposition in Australia's history with an illustrious single digit rating in the polls, the commentariat are talking leadership change and Joe Hockey's name is getting a mention.

Well, how slow are they!

Miss Eagle suggested Hockey for the Leader of the Opposition immediately after last year's election. But, displaying great prescience, Miss Eagle also made suggestions about the Speaker's position.

Last Friday, the House of Representatives saw a great display of lawlessness and disobedience on the part of the Opposition. When a member was ordered to leave the House and refused to go, the member was then escorted from the chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Clearly, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were not up to the job. So perhaps Klever Kevvie - who undoubtedly will have things pulled into gear for the March sittings - might like to take up Miss Eagle's suggestion for the Speakership re-published below.

The Sunrise Family

Then we would have the old team - Joe on one side and Kevin on the other. Well, not quite the old team, eh dear Reader? So, ergo Sunrise and team for Speaker. Who better?

At this point in time, whoever Klevver Kevie nominates as Speaker won't be experienced. But Sunrise is experienced. The Sunrise Team is used to intervening, sorting things out and making people stick to the rules of the game. OK, I know, I know. They all, including Kevvie, got a bit expeditious on the Vietnam expedition. I am sure that Mel and Kochie and Nat and Andrew can sort things out though. And the Speaker-ship might give Kerry Stokes and his meany crew something to focus on instead of The Chaser team.

Grant could tell us which way the wind blows. Mark could lighten proceedings with cricket, football (all codes), and basketball and netball scores.

All in all, I think it would the ultimate in outsourcing: Sunrise for Speaker and bring really serious entertainment to the six o'clock news!

Christians Against Terrorism walk free and acquitted!

2008-02-22T23:03:00.000+11:00

Free at last. Ruddock’s rotten rules couldn’t hold them. Read all about it here.Congratulations one and all. Miss Eagle is glad that your ordeal is over. God go with you into a new day!

Brendan Nelson stays home and sulks.

2008-02-22T08:05:00.005+11:00

It is becoming clear just what sort of people dominate the 2008 manifestation of the Liberal Party. They are the people who just don't get it. They are the deaf who will not hear, the blind who will not see. Miss Eagle presumes that these sensory defective people have the numbers. I do not presume that there are no right-minded people in the Liberal Party. After all Pietro Georgiou, for one, is still there. I haven't heard that sort of voice getting any traction in recent debate on Aboriginal matters.

To-day Brendan Nelson and the Liberals are sulking: sulking so badly that Nelson has refused the bi-partisan offer made by the Prime Minister last week for the Leader of the Opposition to visit Aboriginal communities. The Prime Minister has nominated Friday as a day when Ministers do not have to be present in Question Time and backbenchers have greater freedom to have their say. Can someone explain to me what is wrong with that? I only have a problem with people who live in Northern Australia and the fact that they won't be home in their electorates on Friday nights, if for the weekend at all. But that's another story.

The fact is Brendan Nelson is protesting. He is not protesting about or for people. No, he is protesting about how the business of Parliament is being organised. In the current context, not the greatest item on the Agenda since the Magna Carta. In fact, Parliamentary procedure is never more important than humanity. This appears to have escaped Nelson and Abbott.

Of course, a visit to Walgett may be on the embarrassing side for Nelson - and for Abbott, too, if he were ever to move beyond the Northern Beaches of Sydney. After all, Walgett - like them and their electorates - is in New South Wales.

Now, Miss Eagle is not suggesting that life for Aboriginal people in Walgett has not improved since the Freedom Ride of 1967. Aboriginal kids use the swimming pool which once was out of the question. But Miss Eagle lived in Walgett in 2001-2002 and found it a place whose population had little knowledge of the history and social construct of the three Aboriginal groups who each call Walgett their country.

All but one business had windows covered with wire mesh. Sitting outside the one meshless business and watching was interesting. And it became clear why this one business - with an owner of Chinese ethnicity - had no mesh. This was clearly a place in which Aboriginal people felt comfortable doing business. Clearly, there was mutual trust in this place which was missing elsewhere.

Walgett - which includes the opal town of Lightning Ridge - has difficulties with its own governance. It has been in administration since 2004 and will have fresh elections later this year. The Walgett Shire Council has had an Aboriginal councillor before. Let's hope that this year they can get up more than one representative.

In Miss E's view there is a silent stand-off casting a pall over Walgett. There is the dominating force of local pastoralists - many of whom seem to see themselves as a sort of landed gentry. These are the people to whom owning land is important on many levels not least of which is as an economic base.

I'm not sure that the pastoralists see that this is probably the one great thing - apart from common humanity - that they have in common with Aboriginal people. To Aboriginal people the land is important on many levels not least of which is for sustenance of life.

However, Aboriginal relationship to land is not based, as it is for the whitefella, on "ownership". But then, in fact, many of Walgett Shire's "landed gentry" would not own the land either - at least in the freehold sense. Miss E's guess is that pastoral leasehold would still be the dominant land tensure. Please correct her if she is wrong.

So to-day a Prime Minister comes to the country of the two rivers, the Barwon and the Namoi. These rivers contribute to the major arterial system of our nation - the Murray-Darling system. I hope the visit of Kevin Rudd brings a similar hope, inspiration, and change just as the Freedom Ride did. And I hope Walgett remembers the time when the Anglican minister who had been willing to provide hospitality to the Freedom Riders felt obliged to withdraw his hospitality.

Miss Eagle hopes for the day when doors are truly open to all in Walgett and the mesh can come down from the windows.

Of floods, potholes, and infrastructure

2008-02-18T08:38:00.004+11:00

For the story that goes with the picture above, click here.

The Big Wet continues in North Queensland as the flooding moves north. Mackay is mopping up from its biggest wet. I have posted on the Don River and associated flooding in Bowen. Now Townsville is having its problems. Miss Eagle is a banana-bender. She lives in Victoria now - but cannot yet say that she is a Victorian. Most of her life has been spent in North Queensland. Before coming to Melbourne and Upper Gully, Miss E lived at Bluewater only 15 minutes away from where the flooding, pictured below, has occurred.

But there is one thing that bugs Miss Eagle - and that is the fact that there is not a flood-free four-lane highway in North Queensland from Sarina to Mossman. When I visit Brisbane I see all the money that is spent just to keep pace with congestion. In North Queensland, however, the necessary road spending is not a matter of congestion. It is a matter of being able to move around in The Wet. Of being able to keep industry going, of being able to transport people needing medical attention.

When Miss E was a whipper-snapper in North Queensland and went on the annual road-trip to the Brisbane rellies for Christmas, January was not quite the same if one was not stuck beside a flooded creek or river on the way home. That has been more or less in the past as high level bridges have been constructed. However, all that bridge-building has still left the north with flood-prone pot-holed "highways", some quite narrow and curvaceous and dangerous. This is not a wishlist. This is a demand for necessary infrastructure.

It is high time that governments of every hue and classification - local, state, territory, federal - woke up to themselves on infrastructure spending. We have talked a lot of garbage for over two decades now about how Australia believes in a level playing field and does not subsidise business and agriculture. However, just as a lack of investment in the family home means it goes to rack and ruin and loses its value in the market-place, so does lack of investment in our nation. Investment in infrastructure such as road and rail provides jobs for the community, necessary business inputs, lifelines to health, education, and economic access. In short, investment in infrastructure is an economic subsidy which benefits the whole community - not just vested interest.

If we are to remain a truly cohesive and equitable nation, then investment in infrastructure is necessary. We have apologised to Aboriginal people this week and talked about health and education and employment inputs. But one of the most vital things you can do for Aboriginal communities is to provide them with all-weather road access. Without good road access, Aboriginal communities cannot begin to build any form of local economy. Without good road access, it is difficult for them to access services the rest of us take for granted. Without good road access, it is difficult for Aboriginal people to access medical services or for medical services to access Aboriginal communities.

And, dear Reader, guess what the problem is? It is the out of sight, out of mind syndrome. In Queensland, Brisbane is at the very bottom of the state, far far away from Mackay, Bowen, Townsville, Cairns. And let's not mention Mount Isa and the Gulf country - the Gulf country which can remain immersed in and cut off by floods for three months of the year because the country is so close to sea level.

People are hearing horror stories of children in Aboriginal communities on Cape York. Now that is even further out of sight and out of mind from Brisbane. To the extent that political leadership has almost certainly never had anything to do with the Aboriginal communities of the Cape and their traditions. How different from the Northern Territory where representation of Aboriginal people in the Parliament of the NT almost exactly matches the proportion of Aboriginal people in the Territory population.

So it can be very difficult to make yourself heard in the Parliament of Queensland if you are from the North and it gets more difficult the more remote you are from the east coast.

This problem of the lack of decent road infrastructure has always been there. We are only now starting to understand the La Nina effect and old hands look back to the floods of the forties and fifties and say "Ahah - that's what is was all about, eh!" But now there is another addition to our knowledge - Climate Change. And, if governments don't bite the bullet and do something about all-weather highway access and all-weather access to remote communities, matters will only get worse.

As any North Queenslander knows, Brisbane loves the money that flows from the North from mining, grazing, sugar, horticulture, tourism. But getting money out of Brisbane for necessary infrastructure and services is, all too often, like getting blood out of a stone. Or if funds are given they are not given with the same largesse as the funding given within the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast axis.

So, North Queensland, when the mopping up is over and you see all those local authority and bitumen people patching up the potholes to make some new bumps in your patchwork quilt of a road, get your act together and start kicking up a fuss. The squeaky wheel not only gets the most grease, it is frequently the only wheel to get any grease at all. Demand a fair share + catch up on road spending. And all you southern tourists who love to winter in the tropical sun, please get right behind them.

A photographic instance of the lack of a flood-free four-lane highway.

Please note: To the left is the high bridge over the Bohle River, just north of the twin cities of Townsville and Thuringowa. To the right is the low bridge. The high bridge carries two lanes of traffic. In dry times it is one-way traffic. In flood times, it is two-way traffic. Townsville is the industrial hub and de facto capital of North Queensland. It deserves better than this. Local Authority elections for an amalgamation of the two cities are coming up. Who is going to push this infrastructure barrow?

What on earth! For Pete's sake......!

2008-02-17T17:32:00.003+11:00

What does The Age think it's doing? The non-sporting but active Miss Eagle didn't have a clue there was something called the WoodVale Atlantic Rowing Race. The Age has taken the trouble to tell us about this because of the Australian who has become the first Aussie to row solo across the Atlantic. What gets Miss E., dear Reader, is how The Age describes him:

An overweight chain-smoker and aquaphobic has beat an infection and the competition to be the first solo Australian to row across the Atlantic - a 76-day journey across 5,500km of open seas.

The article also describes him as a 'desk-jockey'. Then there is a whole litany of stuff which dwells on doubtful competence for such a task. In fact, one has visions of a "couch potato" although there is no mention of horizontal TV viewing.

But take a look at this hunk of spunk!

Now click over here for vital statistics: Pete Collett weights 95kg spread over a 6'3" frame.

He is very sporty and a very experienced seaman and water sportsman. He even did without the smoking en route. The one thing I will hand him full marks for is overcoming cellulitis on the trip. Miss Eagle is susceptible to recurring bouts of cellulitis (although Melbourne's climate seems to provide protection - no episodes since living here) and they are dreadful. The first time I was in hospital for two weeks unable to walk unaided. The next time I was hospitalised for a week. Then I had the good fortune to come under the ministrations of a GP who could treat the infection immediately, get on top of it, and prevent hospitalisation. Our hunk of spunk hero could not get the usual IV drugs, ate everything in the medicine chest, and overcame it! No unhealthy person could do that, in my view!

Congratulations, Pete, and please donate to his good cause over here.

The Don... Mighty River of the Peoples of Ancient Djiru...

2008-02-17T12:53:00.005+11:00

My good friend Patricia Corowa and her daughter Virginia Kruger have been on the receiving end of wonderful photographs of the mighty Don River, just north of Bowen in North Queensland - at the northern end of the famed Whitsundays. Patricia and I grew up in Bowen - so we have memories of going out to the banks of the Don to rejoice in its raging, fast flowing waters. It was always said that the Don, in flood, was the fastest running river in Australia because of the steep and relatively short gradient from mountains to mouth.

Up to the job? Miss Eagle thinks so

2008-02-17T07:25:00.004+11:00

Photo: Sydney Morning Herald

Denis has posted a comment on the previous post in which he expresses his views on Jenny Macklin. Miss Eagle has commented there but gives the comment wider currency here:

~~~~~

Don't agree with you on Macklin.

In recent years in opposition, true, there was nothing much to be impressed about. But there was a time some years ago when Jenny had the scalps of Liberal ministers hanging from her belt. I think we are seeing Jenny Macklin coming into her own.

A lot of the ground work leading up to this week's Sorry was done by Jenny and her department - and it was thorough. I suspect she and others working with her put in the hard yards of discussion - and discussion in blackfella terms doesn't mean formulating a motion and asking for a show of hands.

In blackfella decision-making everyone, every last interested person, has to be spoken to and their views sought. Now I'm not saying that Jenny spoke to every living member of the Stolen Generations but there were numerous organisations and influentials involved in all this and they all had to be spoken to.

There have been other ministerial responsibilities to keep on top of as well. And a boss whose style is highly involved managerialism to satisfy. And then there was the history of the occasion to satisfy - everything had to be right. Wednesday would be no dress rehearsal. It had to be got right in terms of policy, semiotics and impact - and, if you are cynical, sheer politics. I think Jenny should have a little sign hanging around her neck saying "Watch this space". After all, she will not want to be adversely compared with Julia and nor will Julia want it vice-versa.

Rudd - and a report card

2008-02-15T05:40:00.005+11:00

On Kevin Rudd's way to the Prime Ministership, Miss Eagle was hopeful - but with many reservations. The reservations had their genesis in too much me-too-ism. Memories of the worst of the Goss Labor Government in Queensland for which Rudd was the right hand man. These reservations led to a few posts with this picture:

While Kevin 07 performed the necessary gymnastics on the way to The Lodge, Miss Eagle wondered out loud what it was that Kevin Rudd would stand for, would not resile from.

We are now at the end end of the first parliamentary sitting week of the new Labor government. Michelle Grattan has published her review of the performance so far. Miss Eagle's report card is in the form of an edited version of the picture.

Miss Eagle remains unhappy with Rudd's decision to keep the full impact of changes to industrial relations until 2010. Similarly, she does not favour delaying changes in the excesses of private school funding until 2010. All this makes as much sense to Miss E as saying to Kevin Rudd on election night that he had been elected but John Howard would remain in power for another three years. Corporations - whether they are major employers or classy corporate schools - don't think twice about delaying their impositions on others. They - if they were bright enough, flexible enough - would have factored in their risks from a change of government. So there would have been no shocks and few surprises. But still they received the soft end of the wedge.

However - and Miss E does wince slightly at the "however" - after Wednesday's superb and visionary and inclusive performance Miss Eagle can forgive much. It is undergirded by Rudd's very first call on business - to deal with homelessness. If Rudd continues to prioritise justice in this way, Miss Eagle will be able to wear the other stuff. Miss Eagle must also comment on the manner in which Rudd is setting the pace: business-like in his attention to the tasks at hand; informed by the hallmarks of Labor in government; intent on setting fresh standards of civility and vision. And all this in a down to earth manner with few, if any signs, of pretension of office.

Miss Eagle looks forward to more of that which has made such a great beginning.

Sorry - the beginning of wheat-green hope

2008-02-14T09:31:00.008+11:00

There we were in Federation Square, Melbourne...
an estimated 8000 of us...
under the flags unfurled of the indigenous nations
of Australia.
We were there to hear our government say sorry.
Andrew Jackomos of the Yorta Yorta initiated proceedings.
An old friend of Miss Eagles, Rob Hulls - Acting Premier of Victoria - spoke formally.
The crowd was attentive.
There were the activists calling for compensation.
There were high school students...
in uniform...
taking time out.
There were the kids...
...and the buttons...
...and the t-shirts
...speaking what was in our hearts.
There were tears and cheers...
laughter and applause.
Then the disbelief, the pain of the Leader of the Opposition's speech.
They turned their backs in anger, disgust, and sorrow.
Miss Eagle stood beneath the loudspeakers at the back.
A well-dressed good looking twenty-something man spoke to her.
"Do you mind if I unplug the speakers?" he said politely.
"Feel free." Miss Eagle said cheerily.

She had turned her back on Howard -
at the Opera House, Corroboree 2000,
all those years ago.
Turned her back against his lies,
his hate, his meanness.
Brendan Nelson didn't seem worth the effort.
He has no power against the vision birthed yesterday.
His looking-backwards words
told us nothing, took us nowhere
except into the pain and sadness
of a certain sort of whitefella.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then back to Upper Gully.
Quiet, whitefella country.
The blackfellas left long ago -
one way or another.
But here a simple beginning was made.
A simple prayer service
at St Thom's.
And for whom did we pray?
In the spirit of wheat-green hope,
I think it was for us.

Sorry - a new and national beginning

2008-02-13T05:32:00.000+11:00

To-day is an historic day for the Commonwealth of Australia. In the Parliament of the nation, in Canberra, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will apologise to the Aboriginal people of this nation continent for the mistreatment of Aboriginal people since European settlement began in 1788. Above all, he will apologise for the forced removal of children from their families and communities - an episode referred to as The Stolen Generations.

There has been great demand for an apology since the recommendations handed down in the Bringing Them Home report. Prime Minister John Howard, Prime Minister from 1996-2007, refused to apologise. Howard - a mean-spirited, conservative, and stubborn man - merely expressed regret but went on to promulgate the lie that no ill-treatment was carried out in living memory.

One positive effect of Howard's inaction in this matter has been to increase resolve on the part of countless Australians to see the apology carried out. Most Australians want to resolve the issues and hatreds and maltreatments of the past. We do not want the bitterness, the recrimination to continue. We want to give expression to a new way doing things which is informed by the knowledge of our history good and bad. Australians want an inclusive nation - and certainly not one where the Aboriginal people are fringedwellers socially and economically.

And so yesterday a new beginning was made with the opening of the new Parliament. For the first time in Australian history, Aboriginal people were at the centre of the ceremonial inaugurating the new parliamentary term with a Welcome to Country ceremony. Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, both made clear that as long as they had anything to do with it, Aboriginal ceremony would become an integral part of the Opening of Parliament.

To-day, Aboriginal people will stand with the Prime Minister on the floor of Parliament for the delivery of the apology. The text of the apology, set out below, was tabled in Parliament yesterday and the apology is the first item of business in the new parliamentary term.

From time to time, on this blog, Miss Eagle has discussed the topic of public forgiveness. It has been discussed in the context of public figures apologising, saying sorry. How then does the public respond to that apology and advise if there is an acceptance of the apology and whether forgiveness is the response?

After the apology to-day, Miss Eagle expects that we will enter - for a time - the realm of public forgiveness. The apology will be discussed. We will hear critiques and criticism. We will find out who is satisfied with and by it and who is not. To-day we formally enter the time of new beginnings - of repair and building. All Australians are not at the same place on this matter. But enough of us are to carry the day throughout the nation, to demand inclusion, to demand involvement so that Aboriginal people are do-ers, not done to: so that they are self-determining actors in their own story and that all Australians - settlers and Aboriginal people together - will build a new and equitable way of operating to bring that great tradition of a fair go to everyone.

THE APOLOGY

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

The apology - an end and a beginning?

2008-02-08T07:38:00.000+11:00

In 1770, my ancestor, the Amercian John Gore, was on the Endeavour with Capt James Cook RN when the continent now known as Australia was claimed by Cook for the United Kingdom. Approximately sixty years later, his son - also John Gore - settled on a land grant at Lake Bathurst near Goulburn in New South Wales. A land grant? Where did the land come from. Undoubtedly usurped, stolen from the first peoples of this land.

Black and white relationships in Australia have not been good. European settlers have massacred black Australians, have taken their land and their children away, have nitpicked their ancestry, have kept them from full participation in the life, economy and governance of this nation. The Bringing Them Home report has been a significant milestone in black white relationships from which Australians have not been able to retreat. Since that report there has been a call for a national apology.

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia from 1997-2007, had great difficulty with the concept of a national apology. He could not use the word 'sorry' and merely expressed regret. This failure on Howard's part remained like a festering wound. Now, the new Australian government under the leadership of Kevin Rudd has made it the first item of business at the first session of Parliament next Wednesday, 13 February 2008.

We do not yet know the wording of the apology but there have been ongoing negotiations with Aboriginal leadership. The Opposition Liberal and National Parties have been their usual selves - with many supporting the apology and many against. It seems likely, however, that next Wednesday the apology will receive bi-partisan support although the Opposition complains that it still has not seen the proposed wording. The Opposition is now down to arguing whether the phrase "Stolen Generations" should be used in spite of this fact becoming synonymous with the removal of Aboriginal children.

My dear friend, Patricia Corowa, has written to the Prime Minister about the apology. Patricia lives in Sydney but grew up, as did Miss Eagle, in Bowen in North Queensland where she is much respected. Patricia has a long history of Aboriginal advocacy behind her. As a very young woman she took an active and visible role in the events leading up to the 1967 Referendum. She has travelled internationally as a representative of Aboriginal people advocating on their behalf. She has been an adviser to two ALP Federal Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs. Patricia will be in Canberra on Wednesday. Here is Patricia's letter:

My Dear Prime Minister:

I understand that you and your government are preparing the draft for an apology... and are finding it difficult... and I can appreciate your difficulty... because of all the significant issues that the government of the day was faced with... when it introduced and rigidly and cruelly acted upon its policy of protection... and which is the heritage for ensueing governments... right up to the government which you head... today... so that descendants of the First Tribes, People Tongues and the Ancient Nations of the Land... could be removed from mothers, fathers, families, clans, skin groups, tribes and ancient nations of the land... in the name of the crown...

This protective removal was with the complicity of its bureacracy... and of the churches... and of the media... and of the squatocracy... and of the freed convicts... and the primary producers... and the secondary producers... and the tertiary producers... and of the defence personnel who went to fight in the European Wars of 1914-1918... and of 1939-1945... and following the deportation of Pacific Islanders in 1906... and the parallel White Australia Policy... and all that that entailed for endentured labourers from Asia and the Pacific... and why there is a reluctance for reparations... to the traumatised, in-crisis Aboriginal peoples of the ancient first nations of the land... who have suffered generational... invasion and extermination policies of Britain, under a war and battles that have been on-going since 16 August 1770... when the European James Cook... took possession of an island at the tip of Cape York... in the name of the crown... then protection in the name of the Crown... then assimilation in the name of the crown... then integration in the name of the crown... then self-determination in the name of the crown... and now back to assimilation in the name of the crown...

All you need to do... I suggest... is to refer to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers Numbers 19, 20, and 21... about 1919-1920... and particularly to the Report of Cook & Bleakley... upon whose recommendations... the government's policy of protection was introduced... and the birthing and removal of half caste children from the Northern Territory... a protectorate... not a state of the federation... insiduously began... not as some have mistakenly believed... so that white women... would not be shamed... when they drove around the district... or even in their own homes... saw the physical characteristics of their own husbands, fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, counsins and male friends... on the persons of half caste children all around them... but to provide a labour force... in the name of the crown... for the recently named Australia... which also in the name of the crown... was now superimposed... but has never obliberated... not even because of the overthrowing of the dicta of terra nullius... all of the up to 900 ancient first nations of this land... my own being Djirudala...

Because when the success of that first Northern Territory intervention... in the name of the crown... was seen... the states of the federation... Queensland and Western Australia... rapidly followed... then by others... despite the referendum of 1967... after which the Commonwealth took responsibility for its Aboriginal... and later Torres Strait Islander "citizens"... under the crown... and still continues... under the Howard government's Northern Territory intervention... under the crown...

So Prime Minister... I can see your government's difficulties... but for a sincere and profound apology to be given... by Australia... to the peoples of the ancient first nations of this land... and for generational wrongs to be made rights... the sovereignty of the first nations of the land have to be recognised... treaties to bring peace have to be negotiated and enacted... between all of those ancient first nations... and the crown... and reparations be made... so that basic human rights... including release of all Aboriginal prisoners held in gaols around the land... in the name of the crown... that we go back to our own country... on allodial land rights... and take care of it... where we can again have healthy, nutritious food and traditional medicine... safe, secure shelter... love, comfort and sharing of family... on our own country... the heritage of our ancestors... in a culture... as you have recognised... to be the oldest... still practised... on the planet...

You have the resources Prime Minister... as have every PM and government of Australia... before you... so it should be easy... for you to frame your apology... to acknowledge where the removal of half caste... then all Aboriginal children... had its genesis... eventually in every state and territory of the federation... and be prepared... for the next steps... in the ongoing process... for the future of us all... for as Australian laws stand now... we are all... whether of the ancient first nations of the land... or boat peoples since 1770... under the crown... corporation sole...

I trust that you will take into consideration... all that I have written to you... and I await to see... whether any of it is contained in your apology... particularly the report of Cook & Bleakley...

And I also await... as a sovereign... to see how competently... or not... you... and your government... govern...

Meanwhile, over at Crikey, they are asking people to come up with an appropriate form of words for the apology. Miss Eagle has contributed and here it is:

Saying sorry is not just about an apology but a new beginning. When the first Europeans settled here, they did not recognise - as we have difficulty recognising for ourselves to-day - the depth and extent of their ignorance of this land and its people.

The Bringing them Home Report has confronted us with the worst of our treatment of the Aboriginal nations of this country - our treatment of their, our children. At the same time, at this point in history we are confronted in so many ways by our poor treatment of this land.

So to-day is our sorry day. The day to say formally, humbly that we - the newcomers to this land we know as Australia - are sorry. We are sorry for what we have done. We are sorry for what we have failed to do.

We want to-day to be a new beginning: a new beginning in our relationship with you, the people who were here for time beyond memory before the rest of us came and a new beginning in our relationship with this land. We hope you will accept our words of apology and begin the new journey with us so that together we can build a new hope, a new equity, and a sacred trust for our land.

~~~

Patricia, I don't know if this says what you would want it to say. I don't know what the negotiation position of Aboriginal leadership might be. I have tried to speak from my heart. I have tried to speak succinctly - which can be difficult for me! I also think short might be better - because then every Aboriginal organisation might be able to frame it and hang it on the wall (that is if what is said is of value to them).

I am no Don Watson. I don't know who is the wordsmith for the apology. I do hope, however, that attention is being given to the words so that they become as memorable as some of Watson's speeches for Paul Keating - the Redfern Speech, and the eulogy given at the tomb of the unknown soldier. This apology should be so simple, so beautifully drafted, and so worthy of landmark status that it can be learned and recited by children in school.

Next Wednesday is an opportunity - not just for an apology to and for the Stolen Generations. It is an opportunity to put things right in a symbolic and meaningful way. It should put to bed the recent History Wars and accusations of a black armband view of history.

But it should go further than that.

If it could ever happen, it would be good to be able to draw a line in the sand for all that has gone before 10am on Wednesday 13 February 2008. It would be good for every one of us to say we have learned a lot about ourselves since 1788. We face that self-knowledge with great humility and responsibility. We have much yet to learn but we want to learn moving forward together. We don't ever want to repeat the mistakes and ignorance of the past. Above all, the children of our nation -whoever they are - should never be held to ransom for our misdeeds. Our life on this continent won't be happy-ever-afters but we can realise we are all part of one nation - its joys and its tribulations - and we can communicate with each other in care, equity and respect.

Seasons of the Soul: Ash Wednesday 2008

2008-02-06T08:26:00.000+11:00

THE LONG WATCH

I draw aside to-day:
into the quiet, the reflection
of the pool of life.

I watch the disturbance,
the stone of my being
cast into the timeless pool…

ripples moving outward
from the centre
of the sunken stone…

circular disturbances
of small circumference
enlarging to a fading edge.

The rippling of my life
is energy into stillness
moving beyond its entry point.

The ripples, equilibrium disturbed.
The still centre sinks
under the surface.

Rippling circular to centre.
Never a straight line,
never trajectory altered.

The disturbance continues
outward…
Until, far from its centre,
it ceases.

Life is for living: and living abundantly

2008-01-28T18:36:00.000+11:00

Talk about the lazy, hazy days of summer. That's how I've been feeling since Christmas. I haven't felt like maintaining my blogs. This happens to me quite a bit these days - and it is one of the reasons why I have not been very good at journalling until blogs came along. Life is for living, for being in the present moment.

Now, don't misunderstand. I believe in the reflective life. I do reflect. I think reflection is a continuous part of my life, my spiritual existence. But to sit down each day and write what has been lived, what has been thought, what has been experienced takes a lot of time. And to go back years later and relive what I have written? Nuh-uh! Not my style. Not that I haven't done this. I just don't manage to maintain consistency in doing it. I have a large brown paper shopping bag full of journals, jottings, attempts at journals - and I have a couple on the go. But, by and large, they are not literary efforts. They are jottings. They are the working through of ideas, notes of where I am now and where I might be going.

To sum up, I think there is a spiritual narrative of my life going on inside me. The stars of the narrative are me and my Creator and the story is about the journey we are on together. And my recent insight is that, just as I am on a journey, so is my Creator: a journey of surprise and delight in his/her creation, a journey of wonderment in how it is all going and how it will all turn out.

So my summer has been full of the joy of my garden - the pumpkins and tomatoes and basil and beans competing and co-existing and producing. A wild mixture of edibles which I have tended into existence. I have been reading more consistently and voraciously than I have in a long time. While I am always reading one way and another, I have taken the time to be absorbed by and in what I am reading. I have made some new friends simply because I have stepped out in some new ways - and there have been some lovely lunches with Harriet, Lee and Marian. My carport has been turned into a lovely, simple, and most unfashionable living area. The perfect venue for lazy lunches and lingering coffees.

So, dear Reader, please excuse your correspondent if she goes missing in action from time to time. It's because she is living a life which is to be lived - and lived abundantly.

Ethical eating: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

2008-01-16T17:36:00.000+11:00

Miss Eagle has just posted on Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle over at Oz Tucker. Pop over and have a read.

Praying for Melbourne 2008

2008-01-16T10:30:00.000+11:00

Archbishop Philip's Prayer for Melbourne

God of community, we give you thanks
for this beautiful and vibrant city:
for its diversity of people and cultural life,
for its industry and commerce,
for its hospitals and agencies of care,and
for its places of learning, recreation and worship.

God of compassion,we pray
for all who live and work in this city and
for those who visit here:
open our hearts to welcome the stranger,
shelter the homeless,befriend the lonely,care for the needy, and
offer hope to those in despair,
for these are your people.

God of community, Giver of life, of love and hope,
hear our prayers for the welfare of this city.
Amen

Translation: God of compassion - you are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You are at home, at school, at work with all generations. Thank you. Lord help me to care for others. For they are your people, Amen.

~~~~~~~~

We are a large and dynamic faith community in one of the world's most multicultural cities. We are diverse and vibrant and our parishes and other ministries cater to a wide variety of expressions within the Anglican tradition of the Christian faith. We trust that you will find resources, support and inspiration on our website to help you with your faith journey.

Dr Philip Freier, Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne

Water for beer but it's a drought in the garden

2008-01-07T11:59:00.000+11:00

I reckon Miss Eagle can say without fear of contradiction that Denise Gadd is hopping mad. Denise blogs at The Age where she is also the gardening editor. Now the blog is in a bit of a hiatus for the silly season. Denise burst into the Opinion Pages of The Age with this piece to-day. Almost a year ago to the day, Denise was having her say with this piece.

You will have noted, dear Reader, that Miss Eagle is promoting the petition, to which Denise refers, on her blogs. Go for it Denise, I say. Anyway can we send Tim Holding a ticket to a Permaculture design course for a New Year pressie? He clearly is not a gardener and has no sympathy for those who garden. I get mad when I think of all the water that it takes to make beer - and I don't drink a drop. I presume that Tim drinks his fair share - so how about giving me some leeway with my veges, Tim!

2008-01-01T10:44:00.001+11:00

And another thing, Kev....about the body and the law

2007-12-31T12:15:00.000+11:00

Miss Eagle is indebted to Dale Hess for drawing her attention to this article by David Marr on locking up the refugees and interfering with citizens' rights to habeas corpus. So how about it, Kev? Is this repeal of laws on your list? Or will it be like the repeals of Work Choices...a bit selective, a few dregs to remain, a few bits of equity not quite addressed?

David Hicks - free at last!

2007-12-29T10:57:00.000+11:00

Photo: The Age

It is over. This chapter - the imprisonment chapter - is over. None of us can ever entirely leave the past behind even if - as so often is said - it is another country.

What one hopes is that the regretful moments of our past result in lessons learned and a new wisdom and maturity. We also hope that the scars of our past are healed, cleanly healed, so they do not impede our further journey.

David Hicks - if he ever did commit a crime against justly implemented legislation - has paid for his actions.

Unfortunately, there are still the self-righteous - The Australian and Mike Rann to name two. Added to this list must be the stupid carrying on of yesterday's To-day show on Channel 9 where there was a phone poll on an alleged apology from David Hicks that was predicted for to-day. No such apology came to-day but we now know the measure of Karl Stepanovic. He stated that he would not accept an apology from David Hicks. No forgiveness Karl? No way back...ever?

This blog has often expressed its questioning on how public forgiveness is achieved when a public figure does say sorry, does publicly express repentance, does seek forgiveness. How is this reciprocated? While no public apology has been forthcoming and - who knows? - may not be {and if so, to whom, for what?}, this question still is not clear. How is forgiveness demonstrated in the public sphere?

Miss Eagle wishes David Hicks well and wellness as he embarks on this new chapter. She prays for all the Hicks family and close friends as they support David. Keep safe, David. Grow your children. Honour your family. Rejoice in your friendships. And lastly, David, have a wonderful rest of your life.

Medical care for the aged = medical don't care in the USA.

2007-12-27T21:03:00.000+11:00

Sometimes Miss Eagle thinks that if there was a referendum in Australia on whether Australia should become the 51st state of the United States of America, it would succeed. But if you are an Australian who thinks the USA would be a great place to live with freedom and justice for all, then take a read of this.

Just so there is no mistake in understanding what you are reading:

The USA does not have universal medical insurance. Australia does.
If you need emergency medical treatment in the USA, you will have to be covered by medical insurance or pay out of your own pocket for medical treatment.
Many Americans are covered by medical insurance schemes run by their employers. Not all Americans work for employers who provide medical insurance. These people usually cannot afford the premiums for medical insurance and so they go without.
The decision referred to in the link above means that employers will not have to provide coverage to people aged over 65 years of age - even if they have been paying medical insurance for years and years.
Australia has the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The USA does not. Many elderly citizens try to smuggle in pharmaceuticals from Canada and other countries where they are cheaper.
In the USA, employer run medical schemes have introduced a system where they will dictate from where the people they cover can obtain their pharmaceuticals. No walking into your local chemists or getting on friendly terms with the pharmacist and leaving your repeats there.

John Howard and his Liberal/National Coalition were never able to abolish Medicare, the universal medical insurance scheme for all Australians. John Howard did all sorts of things to all sorts and classes of people in his eleven years in government. Doctors, in the main, vote for the Liberal Party and hate Medicare. Yet Howard did not change the system. Why? Because he and his government knew that Australians support Medicare and would not tolerate its abolition.

To Miss Eagle, this means that Australians can prevent governments from going against their wishes - if they have a mind too. Howard and his Liberal doctors wouldn't and couldn't change Medicare. At least on that score, Australians held their government accountable.

May Australians recognise just what they can do and continue to hold governments of all persuasions accountable and steer clear of slavishly following the USA.

Please Note: The population of the USA is over 300 million people. The above map estimates that 16% of Americans do not have medical insurance. This means that over 48 million people in that nation have no medical insurance. Following the decision in the report linked above, that is about to grow phenomenally as millions more of elderly people are deprived of coverage.

What were we really thinking? What are Kev and Krew really thinking?

2007-12-27T10:35:00.000+11:00

What were we really thinking all through 2007 ...

....as Kevin Rudd topped the polls

....as his me-too-ism made him a small target for the Liberal/National Coalition

....as Kevin and Julia made promises to business about AWAs

....as Kev courted people with religious affiliations who had never voted Labor - ever

....as Bill Shorten of the AWU and Greg Combet of the ACTU trumped pre-selection processes and long standing, faithful sitting members to gain pre-selection and election in safe Labor seats and then rewarded with positions as Parliamentary Secretaries

We - the trade unionists, those who cared about wage and income equity, those who marched for justice - kept putting our views forward persistently. We did not say what we really felt when the ALP policies were watered down into a new reality and The Greens put forward an industrial relations policy we found more understandable. The ACTU did not want to ruffle feathers and merely expressed disappointment.

We were realistic. We wanted Howard and his henchmen and women gone. We knew that this would be a big ask. We understood that Kev and Krew would have to play it cool to get across the line. We were not going to rock the boat. We would stay on message - even if it meant biting the anxious tips of our tongues off.

Kevin got across the line - but, just as Miss Eagle questioned during the campaign the state of Kevin's Spine, she now questions Kevin's gratitude.

There has been much watering down of industrial relations policy in an attempt to mollify business interests. Changes will not be fully in place until 2010.

Let's get frank now, Kev.

You were elected in December 2007. How would it be if we said to you, Kev, "Congratulations, Kev. You've won the election, Kev. You've beaten Howard, Kev. But, Kev, you will not take power until 2010. Until then Howard remains in power and continues to live at Kirribilli. He'll water down his behaviour and his hubris a bit. In fact, he'll try very hard not to use the numbers he has in the Senate to really rock the boat. But, Kev, go away and stay cool until December 2010."

Makes real sense, doesn't it Kev. Highly rational.

In fact, Kev, in 2010 we are due for another election and - if you lose it (I realise it is considered unlikely) - it could be that nothing of lasting consequence will have changed on the industrial front and you will go down in history as Kould-have-been, Kould-have-done Kev.

To my mind, Kev, this seems darned ungrateful and downright rude.

You see, Kev, all those corporations, business people, and corporate councils you mollified or attempted to mollify did NOT turn out the vote for you, Kev. If any of them changed their vote from Liberal to Labor for you, it was precious few and certainly not in tide-turning numbers.

Not like us, Kev. Not like us - the trade unionists, the justice seekers, the footsloggers in march after march. We worked. Agreed - some of us were in targetted electorates with huge support from the ACTU, campaign organisers, and organisations like PolMin. It was these resources - financial, organisational, and human - who turned out the vote for you, Kev. True, some of them - like Miss Eagle - gave their No. 1 to The Greens for their industrial policy while ensuring the final vote went to you. But even so, we turned out more votes for you and made the difference for you in a way that no other sector of the population did - and we did it for at least eighteen straight months.

Your Rights At Work Campaign on Election Day 2007.

So, Kev, guess what? We don't give a fig for 2010. We want industrial change now. We want equity now. We don't give a fig about what you had to say to business because we think your first loyalty is to us and not to them and that there are more of us in the Australian polity than there are of them.

I realise, Kev, that it is a long time since you and Therese felt the need to have the Union help you achieve some sort of justice for yourselves in the workplace. But perhaps you might pause to think how much Unions have helped you to Christmas Dinner at The Lodge. We ask you to think about that Kev, you and your Krew, and you might be a bit indigenous about it. It is pay back time. Time to show recipricocity, recognition and gratitude. Time to be well-mannered and acknowledge how you got to be Prime Minister. Thanks, Kev. Over to you and Krew.

Your Rights At Work Teams Celebrating Kevin Rudd's Victory, December 2007

Searching...

2007-12-24T13:34:00.000+11:00

It is amusing. Downright amusing. It is not new for bloggers to comment on strange search items shown in their Sitemeter having turned up surprisingly on their blogs. But, late last night, a Melbourne visitor landed on The Eagle's Nest after a search for spiritual development for strippers. How interesting, me thinks. How Miss Eagle would love to know more. To enlighten her please email to misseagleatbluebottledotcom.

ARCHBISHOP PHILIP FREIER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

2007-12-24T13:02:00.000+11:00

Aboriginal peoples and issues - an abstraction for most Australians.

2007-12-17T19:23:00.000+11:00

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

The words of Martin Luther King quoted by

Bev Manton, Chairperson, NSW Aboriginal Lands Council,

9 July 2007

In all the trials besetting Aboriginal Australians, Miss Eagle believes that the majority of Australians are of good will and want wrongs to be rectified and great strides to be made in bringing Aboriginal people into the same situation of the majority of mainstream Australians.

Miss Eagle also believes that most Australians are ignorant of how and where Aboriginal people live. They are not attuned to what Aboriginal people themselves are saying, what has been done, what has not been done. In short, Miss Eagle has come to the firm conclusion that, for most Australians, Aboriginal people are an abstract issue. Issues affecting them are somewhere out there in the ether. There is little recognition in reality that Aboriginal people are PLU - People Like Us; that we should obey the Christian commandment and love them in the same way that we love ourselves.

Here is a report on one Australian, the distinguished Fiona Stanley, who clearly finds the plight of Aboriginal people to be real - no abstract, not somewhere out in the ether.

Oh, that more could feel this way: that more Australians could be better informed and more active in listening to and working with Aboriginal people to demand greater accountability by governments and bureaucrats in spending our taxpayer dollars to provide citzens' entitlements to ALL citizens.

The Archbishop and Childhood Depression

2007-12-17T07:18:00.000+11:00

Please sign the Archbishop's Petition.

It is just over twelve months since Philip Freier was installed as Archbishop of Melbourne. Miss Eagle is unable to comment on whether Ab Philip is a good administrator of the affairs of the Archdiocese. She is also unable to comment on what sort of guidance, counsel and spiritual leadership the Archbishop provides to the clergy and laity. However, there is no gainsaying the public leadership provided by the Archbishop in 2007. It has been constant and remarkable.

He began with his Prayer4Melbourne quest. This twelve month program has seen the Archbishop out and about in all sorts of places and settings meeting all sorts of people. This has promoted awareness of Melbourne not only for the Archbishop, a newcomer to Melbourne, but within the Anglican constituency itself. The quest has also given the Archbishop and the Anglican community an enlarged profile in Melbourne.

In tandem with the quest, has been Conversations with the Archbishop. The conversations, which are held at BMW Edge in Federation Square, have received great attention and interest. The quality of the speakers has been excellent. The Archbishop has handled his role well.

[A small contingent from St Thom's at Upper Gully will be fronting up to this Wednesday's conversation with Hugh McKay. This is no mean feat because none of us are young and we will be catching the 6.32am train. This will get us there a few minutes late, Archbishop, but we'll be there with our Christmas bells on!]

One exercise of communal and Christian leadership was the Archbishop's address in reply to Patrick Dodson's speech in Brunswick in October. It was a tour de force.

One of the Archbishop's conversations focussed on childhood depression when, on November 14, he held a public conversation under the title Our crisis of childhood depression. Ab Philip was joined by the Director of Women's Forum Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist, and Professor Alasdair Vance, the Head of Academic Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. The Archbishop has called for a national inquiry into the state of childhood in Australia. He has renewed his call to-day in The Age.

Archbishop Philip has highlighted Mission Australia's 2007 Survey of Australia's Young People. Read of its major findings here.

2007-12-15T17:29:00.000+11:00

There are two major factors in the City of Brisbane becoming the modern city it is to-day: Clem Jones and its unique system of local government wrought through the council amalgamations of 1925 which formed Greater Brisbane.

To-day we have word that Clem Jones is dead. At the height of his powers, Miss Eagle remembers Clem doing a weekly talk-back program on 4BH. People would ring up about the usual local government stuff - ditches, drains and dunnies. They would complain about an overgrown culvert on the corner of Dirt Lane and Bush Street in the suburb of Whoop Whoop and Clem would be able to give up to the minute details of planning and maintenance and the caller would go away content. What Clem didn't know about Brisbane wasn't worth knowing.

Clem was a Labor Lord Mayor and it was under Labor that Brisbane became, in 1925, the largest city in the world - in area. In these modern times of economic rationalism, conservative governments allow and Labor governments are too afraid to change the ratty little fiefdoms in places like suburban Sydney and Melbourne with their dress circle little councils in the city centres.

If people were serious about economic management and administration of major cities, they would do what Brisbane did in the first quarter of the 20th century. Brisbane is a City-State. Its aldermen service City Wards as large as State Electorates and they are remunerated at the same level.

Brisbane controls its own road transport system and controlled, for many years, its own electricity supply.

Clem brought Brisbane into modern life with sewerage. Clem is/was famous for lots of things but it was sewerage that made all the difference and for which he will be historically remembered. No more outside dunnies and la-la men picking up the cans. Brisbane went modern.

Modernisation happened again under Labor with Lord Mayor Jim Soorley in more recent times. Jim Soorley was a surprise packet. He came from almost complete anonymity to defeat the incumbent Liberal Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson.

Atkinson was considered to be highly popular but turned out to be highly beatable. Late and secret polling given to the Australian Labor Party in Queensland showed she was beatable. The ever astute Wayne Swan, now Treasurer of Australia but then Secretary of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Labor Party, had next to no money for the campaign but put a last minute effort in: crumb-y black and white ads on TV, old fashioned door-knocking, old-fashioned trucks with loud speakers trawling the suburbs. It paid off and Soorley defeated Atkinson.

Under Soorley's leadership, Brisbane modernised once again. This time in its spirit - and outdoor dining became its most classic manifestation. That wonderful climate and no one had bothered before. But in the late 80s, with the Expo and the Commonwealth Games, Brisbane had a taste of something different. Under Soorley, it got it.

So for those who wonder what life will be like under wall to wall State and Federal Governments dominated by the Australian Labor Party - go north. Take a look at Brisbane - the home of the two most senior elected officials in the nation: Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister and Wayne Swan as Treasurer.

The centre of Australian gravity has moved north to Brisbane. You can even have a cabinet meeting there these days! It is helped along by the most moderately priced real estate of the eastern state capitals. But, Brisbane is what it is to-day because occasionally Labor has done its job brilliantly.

Labor established sound municipal administration.

Clem Jones took the reins

Soorley brought fresh and humane eyes and ideas

These days, the Liberals have the position of Lord Mayor of Brisbane while Labor dominates the city administration with the most councillors under the leadership of Miss Eagle's old friend, David Hinchliffe. One could say that David is the de facto Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

The Lord Mayoralty of Brisbane is the only seat of government of any significance held by the conservative parties in Australia. Labor will ensure they can't muck that up as well.

Prophets of a future not our own....

2007-12-15T13:34:00.000+11:00

Simon Barrow

Simon Barrow has to be one of the busiest - and most talented - people around. He is Co-Director of Ekklesia (who has long been linked from this blog). I am indebted to Simon and his blog, faithinsociety, for referring me to the wonderful thoughts of Oscar Romero expressed below. His thoughts seem so fitting for the sort of work this blog tries to do. The thoughts expressed here are frequently uncomfortable for mainstream people - including mainstream Christians. But seeking justice where there is none is never comfortable. Speaking out for the marginalised is never welcome when people are seeking only to make themselves and their own comfortable.

Long ago, a journalist named Finley Peter Dunne referred to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Miss Eagle thinks that this is what Christians are - or should be - about. In fact, it should be what thinking people who care about humanity are about. This blog tries - but, as Romero points out, the job is never done. What is being built here is not the work of a master builder. Only the Master Builder can complete it.

Ab. Oscar Romeo, Martyr

A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

A prayer/poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero(martyred, 14 March 1980)

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Sentencing: Crime and Punishment - Victims and The Oppressed

2007-12-14T13:41:00.000+11:00

On Sunday, 25 November 2007, the Feast of Christ the King and the last Sunday in the Year of the Church, Jonathan Chambers - who heads Anglican Criminal Justice Chaplaincy in Victoria - delivered the following sermon at the Church of St Thomas, Upper Ferntree Gully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Reign of God in Luke’s Gospel .
Feast of Christ the King 2007 UFTG
Nature of the Kingdom of God -What sort of Kingdom?

_______

Jesus’ Final Words to another human being before he died were to the Criminal beside him “….Today you will be with me in paradise”

The Kingdom of God is not something in the future- It’s NOW
“Today you will be with me in paradise”
Why would Luke finish this way?

What clue does it give us to the Nature of the Kingdom of God?

To understand the nature of this Kingdom, it is necessary to go back to Nazareth and the Jesus Manifesto, his campaign speech:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

And he rolled up the scroll,

gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.
The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them,
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

……“Today you will be with me in Paradise”
The Reign of God which Jesus declared and commenced with his ministry was about:
God’s Justice
Relief from poverty
Release to Captives
Recovery of sight to the Blind
Freedom for the Oppressed

In Luke, we see Jesus living out His Manifesto about the Reign of God - and what it looks like - in his life, ministry and teaching

Good News To The Poor
Magnificat
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

Beatitudes
Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.
But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation

blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.
Woe to you who are full now,

for you will be hungry.

And then there were:

The Rich Man and Lazarus
Zacchaeus – the rich man who shares his wealth. Salvation has come to your house Today

Jesus was concerned about the gap between Rich and Poor
Luke was concerned about the gap between rich and poor in the Christian Community for which he wrote his Gospel.

Look at:
Housing at Docklands and the High Rise Commission Flats of Fitzroy or Flemington
Median Household Income in Braybrook is $575 pw
Median Household Income in Kew is $1850
(Median Household Income in Upper Ferntree Gully [where St Thomas’s is] is $1277)
25% of Victoria's Prison intake comes from only 13/647 in Victoria

The Reign of God is about the rich like Zacchaeus sharing wealth with the poor; and including the socially disadvantaged through equal education, maternal health care, adequate housing, employment.

Hugh Mackay in yesterday's Age spoke of reclaiming egalitarianism- a fair go - which was part of our Australian culture only 15 years ago.

Release To The Captives
Jesus brought release and community inclusion from captivity of sin. He included the sinful woman who anointed his feet; release and inclusion to the Leper; release and inclusion to the sick woman bent over for eighteen years; release and inclusion of the hated Samaritan Leper who returned to thank him for healing.

In the Gospels, Jesus didn’t spring anybody from prison.
But in the Book of Acts, Luke records four occasions when early Christians were released from prison by Divine intervention. Demonstrating God did indeed come “to set the prisoners free”

“Holding people captive” is a foundation of our Criminal Justice system in Victoria in the hope that paying people back with deprivation of liberty will deter them and others from offending again.
But 62% of those who go to prison will return.
The payback system.

How does it sit with Jesus command to love your enemies and do good to those who hate you?
If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, contrast the response of the Loving Father and the Older Son to the Prodigal. We are challenged and overwhelmed by the generosity of the Father who doesn’t “give the prodigal what he deserves”

The wisdom of God’s Reign as shown in this story is demonstrated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa following apartheid.
“Healing through truth telling”.

Jesus shows the futility of inflicting more harm in order to “pay the price for the harm done”
Walter Wink says:
“As a society we run the risk in endeavouring to fight evil with evil – of becoming the very evil that we hate”.

God’s Reign and Kingdom looks to the future and aims to restore and repair the harm done. It builds up. It doesn’t beat people into submission.

Recovery Of Sight To The Blind
I discovered that The Blind in Luke’s Gospel were not the physically blind - whom Jesus healed - nor the spiritually blind who regained sight like Zacchaeus.

The Blind were Scribes and Pharisees who always complained about anything Jesus did to help anybody. “Tut tutting”. They are like Older Brother who complains that the son isn’t getting what he deserves, or like the Pharisees who complained that Jesus was breaking the rules.

In Victoria, The Blind - as far as the criminal justice system is concerned - are the Community in general. Because what goes on in prisons is hidden, we don’t know – other than what the press tells us. Or what the Ombudsman reports, as we saw this week.

The Press, generally, only report newsworthy stories- ones that will reinforce peoples’ beliefs and, particularly, prejudices. They don’t portray people as someone’s son or daughter, but dehumanise them stereotyping them as “Monsters” and defining them by the crime.
Murderer, Rapist, Paedophile, Thief.
Truly dangerous serial offenders = 2%.
The rest are tarred with same brush.

So the public are blind to the true story - and so there are calls for tougher sentences and longer jail terms.

Academic studies by psychologists, criminologists and sociologists point to the futility of locking people up.
Anyone who works in the prison system agrees it is counter productive and makes people worse.
Politicians associated with the prison system know that it’s costly and ineffective, but not one is willing to risk the electoral backlash if they appear to be “soft on crime”

With no other voices, other than the media, the Community continues to be Blind.
We like to believe it’s a Just system,.
Collusion terms are there like “Collateral Damage” in War.
We talk about:
Humane containment. Duty of Care. Modern prisons.
We hide the damage done by kidding ourselves we are rehabilitating
And we euphemistically call the govt dept ‘Corrections Victoria’ – when 62% return !

You can’t bring about a change of heart when you’re holding someone under force, isolated from the community. We each need community to survive.

The Reign of God is demonstrated by the story of the Shepherd who would care for each lost one so much that he would do the irrational thing of leaving 99 to go after that one. And when he finds it, like the loving father who found his son, throw an extravagant party.

The kingdom of God is not about condemning the lost by exclusion,

but by seeking them out, costly caring and celebrating –

even when they don’t deserve it.

To Let The Oppressed Go Free
The oppressed in the Gospels are those who are captive. To Roman and Jewish Laws- which were oppressive. Served law makers – not the people.

In the Criminal Justice system “The Oppressed” are the Victims of Crime- who, because of our legal process, don’t get a fair hearing. Crimes aren’t against a victim; they are offences against the State.
Therefore the only reason for involving a Victim is to call them as a witness.

Howard Zehr:
We don’t listen to what they have suffered and need
We do not seek to give them back what they have lost
We do not help them recover
We may not even let them know what has transpired since the offence.

Consequently, Victims feel that no justice has been done which recognises their loss. There is no closure .Which leads to anger, fear, and demands for vengeance.

Consequently Victims of Crime Groups are angry –
because they are oppressed

A Restorative Justice system, focussed on healing the wounds, with compassion as seen in the tender treatment of the Good Samaritan to the victim of crime on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho would go a long way to letting these oppressed go free.

A compassionate system which gave a place for victims to be truly heard and which still held offenders accountable to restoration could result in more Victims of Crime becoming Survivors of Crime.

The Reign or Kingdom of God as shown by Jesus actions and teaching in Luke are clearly at odds with the values of the Kingdoms of this world.

The Day of the Lords Favour, which Jesus declared began with his ministry
“Today this scripture had been fulfilled”.

If God’s Reign, which commenced in Nazareth is to continue, then WE are called too - as Christ’s Body to-day -to practice what we preach.

We are to do what we can to:

Restore the poor.
“Make poverty history” not just overseas but for the households of Braybrook who receive $570 per week
Set the captives free.
Work to find better ways of making offenders accountable rather than locking them up. Impossible? We did away with the death penalty. They said you couldn’t abolish slavery yet Wilberforce knew about the Kingdom of God. As did Mandela.
Open the Eyes of The Blind.
We need to let the Community know the truth about what harm prison does. We need to inform politicians that they will lose their seats if they let this injustice continue. Because God’s justice isn’t about payback. It’s about restoring right relationships.
Let the Oppressed go free.
We need to change the legal system – so that it is not combative with winners and losers. To change it to a place where victims are truly heard and offenders are truly held accountable. A place where people don’t just look at an offence and say : “this is what you will have to pay for breaking the law”, but instead we ask the Victim “what can we do to heal the damage, what can the offender do to bring restoration, what reparation should be made to the community, and what can we do to help prevent this offender from needing to offend again.”

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words to another human were addressed not to his disciples but to a criminal. Most of his followers had abandoned him. They were words of inclusion to the outcast who on his own admission was guilty - but who sought Jesus’ acceptance.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled
“….Today you will be with me in paradise”

Can we be as inclusive –
so that the Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.
Today?
I believe yes, we can –
as people who want to live in the Reign of God and God’s Justice.

Jonathan also handed out a document with the title Victoria's Prison Population: 2001 to 2006. It, along with its statistical documentation, can be found here. It is a publication of the Sentencing Advisory Council.

For more about Howard Zehr and his work with Restorative Justice, see here.

A new deal for new settlers?

2007-12-14T12:21:00.000+11:00

Miss Eagle has been a supporter of A Just Australia since its earliest days. Those who seek justice and a better deal for asylum seekers and refugees in Australia are looking to the new Australian Government for the humanity in immigration and refugee policy which was lacking in the policies of the harsh regime that was the Howard Government.

To-day, Miss E has received the following email from AJA. Of particular interest is the advice on how to campaign against the term "illegal/s" in the media by using the Press Council decision against such usage.

The work continues
After the election, AJA staff and board have been analyzing the need for an organization like A Just Australia to continue. It is clear to us that while the sector is in a much better position to achieve positive policy change, there is still work to be done. Luckily most of that work is now advising and negotiating on policy implementation, as opposed to developing public pressure campaigns to simply get the previous government to admit that change is needed.There have already been announcements that the 7 Burmese on Nauru will be resettled in Australia before Christmas, and the 72 Sri Lankans found to be refugees may be settled shortly in the new year. Today there was also an announcement that Labor is living up to the pledge to review the 45 day rule, which prohibits some asylum seekers from working.AJA will continue to advocate for change to policy using as a guide our 10 Steps to Clean Up Our Act. We hope that most of these steps will be adopted by the new government which will achieve our objective of putting A Just Australia out of business, which is our ultimate goal!But we cannot continue without your support. Early in the new year we will be running our membership drive again. We hope that all memberships will be renewed, and we can pick up some new members and donors to continue the work towards making a more just Australia.In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone. Lets all hope that the ALP gets rid of TPVs very soon, so that refugees who have been separated from their wives, husbands or children by the previous government's policy of denying family reunion, can celebrate the festive season next year with loved ones by their side.

Where to from here?

AJA coordinated the convening of a planning meeting in Melbourne with many of the key advocacy groups and legal/health practitioners. Out of that meeting came two clear objectives:
1. The identification of 6 high priority areas of reform that were needed immediately. These were seen as righting the most grievous wrongs, such as bringing people off Nauru, conversion of TPVs and THVs to permanent visas and giving split-family reunion priority to those who had been on TPVs, removal of vulnerable people from detention and halting any imminent removals of people refused Ministerial Intervention and a review of those cases.
2. That A Just Australia and the Refugee Council of Australia were seen as the best agencies to take those matters to the Minister on behalf of the sector..A Just Australia is hard at work at preparing those policy recommendations along with other organizations.

There have already been some informal discussions with the Minister's office and we feel very positive about the direction that we see asylum seeker and refugee policy taking over the coming months. Change is not something that can happen overnight, but we feel assured that it is coming and it will be change that achieves compassionate policy creating an 'orderly migration system' that is not at the human rights expense of the world's most vulnerable people - refugees.

News from our Annual General Meeting
A Just Australia held our AGM on 10th December, Human Rights Day.There have been some changes to the board makeup:Mark Madden has stepped down from the chair, a position he held for two years. Mark worked tirelessly behind the scenes on the strategic direction of AJA, providing key policy writing and directing the fundraising efforts of our membership drive. Great thanks are extended to him from the rest of the board, as well as the staff of AJA. We would not be in the position we are today without all his efforts.Dianne Hiles has stepped up to the role of chair. Dianne is a founding member of ChilOut (Children out of Detention) and a passionate speaker on children's rights .A long term supporter of Amnesty International, Dianne was elected to the Board of A Just Australia in April 2006 and became Secretary at the last AGM.John Ball has remained as deputy chair and Ian Anderson has also remained as Treasurer. Both have made a great positive impact on AJA and will continue to do so. Sean Cleary has taken the role of Secretary, and Mary Stuart and Phil Glendenning remain as board members. Philip Adams is expected to continue but was unable to attend due to illness.The board gratefully acknowledges the work of Sarina Greco and Josh Bornstein, previous board members who resigned their positions at this year's AGM.

Complaint on use of term 'illegals'
For many years the term "illegals" has been used by both the media and the previous government to describe unauthorized entry asylum seekers. The use of such terms has contributed to the here harmful stereotyping of asylum seekers and has had a serious negative impact on public opinion. This term is not only incorrect, but it is inflammatory and does not add any positive input to public discourse about a sensitive area of public policy.This term did fall out of use under Amanda Vanstone, but was brought back by previous Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews in many media statements. See here or here , just to name a few. He even uses this term in his profile on the Liberals website. The first story that we have seen attributing comments by Senator Chris Ellison makes use of the term 'illegals.' There is no direct quote by the Senator, so this may be the fault of the journalist in question. However we will be keeping a watch on any future use of this term.A Just Australia wrote to the West Australian newspaper to complain about the article, based on a Press Council ruling on the issue. We also wrote to the Press Council, as a previous letter of complaint on another article had no response. We did get an immediate response to our 2nd letter. AJA encourages any supporter who sees an article, or hears the use of the term illegals on the radio to make a similar complaint. Our vigilance will ensure that the term stops being used by the media, which will have an enormous impact on public opinion. This allows for greater room for movement towards compassionate policy reform, as there will be less voter backlash. See our letter below for ideas on how to structure your complaint.AJA notes that Mira Wroblewski was the person who went to great lengths to make the original complaint to the Press Council back in 2004. She won the ruling we can now all use to ensure accurate media reporting on this issue. Good on you Mira!

Dear Paul Armstrong,

I am writing to you to make a strong complaint about a story written on the 11th December by Rhianna King "Keep Pacific Solution: Opposition"Our concern is with the line "Senator Ellison - the former justice minister appointed as shadow immigration minister last week - urged Labor to retain the coalitions Pacific Solution, in which all illegal boat people were detained on Nauru then resettled in a third country."

Such claims made by the media are inflammatory and do not add any positive input to public discourse about a sensitive area of public policy.

I refer you to the Australian Press Council guideline No. 262:

The Australian Press Council has received complaints about the terminology that is applied, and ought to be applied, to those arriving in Australia who do not have normal immigrant credentials. Technically in Commonwealth immigration legislation they are referred to as "unlawful non-citizens". However, they are often referred to as "illegal immigrants", or even "illegals".The problem with the use of terms such as "illegal refugee" and "illegal asylum seeker" is that they are often inaccurate and may be derogatory.

The Council cautions the press to be careful in the use of such unqualified terms in reports and headlines.See also the adjudication on a complaint made to the Press Council on a similar case: http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/adj/1242.html

I also attach a letter of complaint we sent on 27th November re another article by Rhianna King and Nick Butterly, which contains the same problem. This letter was sent to you via email and to date we have had no response from you.I would like to know any action to intend to take both for the published articles and to ensure that these terms are not used in any future publications.

Yours sincerely

Kate Gauthier

National Coordinator

The West Australian wrote back the same day with a positive response:

Dear Kate Gauthier

RE: Use of the term "illegals" in The West Australian.

Your letter has been referred to me by the editor Paul Armstrong for response.The reporter who wrote both stories, Rhianna King, has now been counselled about the misuse of the term "illegals" in her reports.An internal message has also been sent to all reporting and sub-editing staff on the newspaper urging caution about the use of the term and referring them to our long-standing style point. The message states:Please exercise caution with the terms "illegals", "illegal boat people", "illegal asylum seekers", "illegal refugees", "illegal detainees" etc. In most cases the word "illegal" is not appropriate, is inaccurate and can be seen as us using derogatory language.Our style is quite clear yet this has happened twice in the last month.

Our style is:

illegals - do not use when referring to detainees or asylum seekers.

Australian Press Council has even issued a guideline on the matter (Number 262), in which they caution newspapers "to be careful in the use of such unqualified terms in reports and headlines".

Yours sincerely

This newsletter is brought to you by A Just Australia Inc..To contact us, email: mail@ajustaustralia.com.

Dinki-di indigenous? Or all Greek?

2007-12-13T16:24:00.000+11:00

Miss Eagle is indebted to Langguj Gel for this

Could there be light at the end of the gambling tunnel?

2007-12-13T15:38:00.000+11:00

Some lessons are only learned, it often seems, when a monetary penalty is imposed, when someone sues for civil damages. The tobacco industry is a case in point. Science could not put them in their place, but damages claims can. It is to be hoped that - in time - gambling will suffer a similar fate.

To-day, in Australia, we may see some light at the end of a tunnel. We hope it is not extinguished.

A well-heeled problem gambler has established at law that he has a case against Crown Casino here in Melbourne.

Currently, gambling venues get away with grand larceny. They can lure and entice to their hearts' content and disclaim any responsibility. Problem gamblers can steal from their employers and lose the money over the gambling tables or down the machines but gambling entities are not held liable for receiving stolen property and are never forced to repay it. Families and their property can go down the drain because of a problem family member but no corporate entity is ever held to be liable.

To-day, Justice David Harper may well have set in train events which could change all that. Miss Eagle sincerely hopes so.

NOTE: Justice Harper was appointed a Queens Counsel in Victoria in 1986 and in New South Wales in 1989 after a distinguished career at the Victorian Bar which began in 1970. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in March 1992. He is currently Chair, International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee of the Red Cross (Victorian branch). He has had a long and active involvement with the Victorian Bar (1980-91) and was the Chairman in 1990-1. Justice Harper served as a part-time Commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission from 1991 until its abolition by the Liberal Government in 1992.

Words fail Miss Eagle

2007-12-13T14:55:00.000+11:00

Miss Eagle frequently waxes loud and lyrical on issues affecting Aboriginal people - or rants and raves, depending on your point of view. Miss Eagle is not writing about the trial of under age youth for the pack r-pe of the young girl at Aurukun. Miss Eagle's words would fall like lead into such an abyss. The only insightful material that I have read is by David Martin in Crikey.

David Martin has had close connections with Aurukun for over 30 years, including living there as a community worker for eight years from the mid-1970s, and later spending a further two years there conducting research for his doctoral thesis. He has close family connections with Aurukun, and has raised children there. He gave evidence into the Aurukun hearings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and provided advice to the Fitzgerald Cape York Justice Inquiry. David is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University and an independent anthropological consultant. He spoke to Thomas Hunter for Crikey.

Miss Eagle finds that First Dog echoes her sentiments. What else can be said that has not already been said? At least until the next time I wax loud and lyrical and rant and rave about racism and governance in Queensland - and remind you, dear Reader, how far away in distance, culture, comfort, and support Aurukun on Cape York is from Brisvegas and its comforts, freeways, casino, ignorance, and failure to listen and to consider!

When will they ever learn...?

2007-12-07T06:54:00.000+11:00

When will they ever learn? There is a dictum in the Christian tradition - and its sentiment appears in a number of other faith traditions - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Philip Martin has spelt out some facts of life at Aurukun.

Miss Eagle asks if Andrew Fraser and Warren Pitt are prepared to live and work in Aurukun. If not, why not? And, if Aurukun is not good enough for Fraser and Pitt, why do they think it is good enough for other Australian citizens. Yes, that's right. Aboriginal people living in Aurukun are citizens of Queensland and Australia and have the same rights, responsibilities, and needs (well, actually more given Aurukun's history and neglect) as other Queenslanders and Australians.

BTW, correction Philip.
Judy Spence is Queensland's Police Minister and has been for many years. Not Andrew Fraser.
Judy Spence is currently Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Sport

Andrew Fraser was Minister for Local Government, Planning and Sport and is now Treasurer.

Warren Pitt was Minister for Communities, Minister for Disability Services Queensland, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Minister for Seniors and Youth.
He is now Minister for Main Roads and Local Government.

One would think, if Pitt and Fraser were really listening and paying attention at Aurukun, that Aurukun could get a look in with the following:

Funding across all relevant departments

A decent all weather road connecting it with Cairns - probably through Pitt's electorate of Mulgrave?

Improvements in Local Government (Aurukun Shire Council site is here) and its ability to meet the needs of its constituents.

Pitt could personally mentor small business in Aurukun.

But then again...

The Liberal Party's Federal Front Bench

2007-12-06T15:56:00.000+11:00

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has announced his front bench. Miss Eagle posts it for the record and without comment. But you, dear Reader, please feel free to make whatever comment you like.

Julie Bishop: employment, business and workplace relations
Malcolm Turnbull: shadow treasurer
Andrew Robb: foreign affairs
Nick Minchin: defence
Tony Smith: education, apprenticeships and training
Tony Abbott: Indigenous affairs, families, community services and volunteer sector
Ian Macfarlane: trade
Joe Hockey: leader of opposition business; health and ageing
Greg Hunt: climate change, environment and urban water
Bruce Billson: broadband, communication and the digital economy
Christopher Pyne: justice, border protection and citizenship
Bronwyn Bishop: veterans affairs
Stephen Ciobo: small business, the service economy and tourism
Michael Keenan: shadow assistant treasurer
Warren Truss: infrastructure, transport and local government
Nigel Scullion: fisheries, agriculture and forestry
Helen Coonan: human services
Peter Dutton: finance, competition policy and deregulation
Chris Ellison: immigration and citizenship; manager of Opposition business in the Senate
George Brandis: shadow attorney-general
Michael Ronaldson: special minister of state
Sharman Stone: environment, heritage, arts and indigenous affairs
Bob Baldwin: defence science, personnel and assisting shadow defence minister
Sussan Ley: housing, status of women
Pat Farmer: youth and sport