The policy is here...the campaign hots up

The IR policy has arrived - or most of it. Remember, there's still fine details to come in the transitional policies.

Everything you need to know, including a photo of Klever Kevvie from Queensland who's here to help, is available here.

The "Your Rights at Work" Campaign would like to hear what you think. So would Miss Eagle.

If you live anywhere near Upper Ferntree Gully and would like to assist Miss E leaflet the neighbourhood for the YRAW Campaign, please email her off the sidebar.

The Alternative Anzac Commemoration

I am indebted to Dale Hess (once again) for forwarding the following material from New Zealand. If you wish to receive a pdf booklet of the commemoration, please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar.

Away from all the official ceremonies, fly-bys and flag raising, five families commemorated ANZAC Day in their own way today.

The friends and neighbours gathered to remember New Zealanders and others who sacrificed their lives for the sake of peace and freedom.

Some of the people remembered include:
Te Whiti o Rongomai

the prophet of Parihaka who refused, along with his followers, to retaliate against the violence of the colonial government bent on annexing Taranaki land for settlers.
Archibald Baxter

one of 14 pacifists in World War I who was shipped to France, sent to the frontline, tied to a pole in front of the enemy, starved, beaten and left for dead for refusing to bear arms in support of the British Empire.
Ormond Burton

a decorated World War I veteran who publicly denounced New Zealand involvement in World War II, was imprisoned with hard labour and thrown out of the Methodist Church for refusing to preach against conscription.
Archibald Barrington

the founder of the Riverside community near Motueka who toured the country opposing New Zealand participation in World War II and was arrested in Gisborne for speaking out against the war.

Ann Newlands

representative of New Zealand and a key figure in the drafting and passage of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Rod Donald

environmentalist and Member of Parliament.
Moana Cole

Catholic Worker peace activist who broke into a US Air Force base in 1991, sabotaged a B-52 bomber en route to indiscriminately bomb civilians in Iraq and was jailed for a year.
Pauline Tangiora

the kuia from Mahia who went as a human shield Iraq and has campaigned tirelessly for peace in the Pacific and Aotearoa.
Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith

the New Zealand born doctor who refused to undertake a second tour of duty in Iraq with the British RAF as he considered the occupation is illegal and was found guilty last year on five counts of disobeying orders.
After reading James K. Baxter’s poem ‘To My Father’, the families wrote their own peace poems and drew pictures.

Nine year old Hugo Robinson wrote this poem:

Peace and love
are like a flying dove;
No time for war
you just have to soar;
A tui flies
through the skies;
Open free
unlike you and me;
War, revolution
is not the solution.

Others created t-shirt slogans, pictures and designs such as:
‘Drop aid, not bombs’
‘We shall remember, we shall not cease’
‘War does not breed peace, guns do not breed security’

And another poem:

My name is peace
My name is life
My name is choice
My name is mine
My time was then
My time is now
My child, my love, my future
My name is peace.

The commemoration concluded with a rendition of ‘Maori Battalion Marches Off to War’ interspersed with ‘Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside…’

Organisers of the commemoration are expecting even larger crowds next year and are also hoping to produce a booklet of Alternative ANZACs for other groups to use.

For more information contact: Manu Caddie – ph 0274202957 / manu@ahi.co.nz

Who is addicted? Who gives a damn?

Why is Miss Eagle not surprised at this? Why do people consider that those - governments, hotels, clubs, casinos - who promote gambling give a damn about the community? They don't give a damn about the individuals who come to their venues and are entrapped by the insidious web of gambling. So why would they give a fig for individuals en masse woven into a community.

State Governments are as addicted to poker machine revenue as any hotelier or any gambling addict. Meanwhile at a national level our so-called anti-drugs, zero tolerance Federal Government is addicted to revenue raised from the two major drugs of addiction which are, between them, responsible for so many deaths, so much violence, so many broken marriages, so many car accidents, so many hospital and prison admissions: alcohol and tobacco.

When governments get serious about drugs and addictions and rid themselves of revenue gained from them, we will have sure evidence that they give a damn about the community. When governments give a damn, the community parasites of hotels, clubs and casinos might learn to give a damn too.

Otherwise the motto, to paraphrase Rhett Butler, is "Frankly, Citizen, we don't give a damn!"

Fair Work Australia: a fair deal?

Eight days after Kevin Rudd appeared at the Press Club and gave Australians an idea of future directions in the ALP's policy on industrial relations, Julia Gillard has begun to flesh out the policy, has started to paint the picture, to show us the landscape of IR under Labor.

Last night on The 7.30 Report, Julia broke the news about Fair Work Australia. Fair Work Australia will take over from four agencies/institutions involved in setting the industrial law parameters that govern the working lives of a significant number of Australians: the Fair Pay Commission, the Office of the Employment Advocate and the Office of Workplace Services and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC).

Rudd and Gillard say that the AIRC has served Australia for more than 100 years but it is a 20th-century institution that is too remote from the needs of modern Australian workplaces.

Miss Eagle suggests that making a disconnect between the old AIRC and establishing a whole new edifice might not be the best idea.

Miss Eagle has no longing for the old "industrial relations club" to be re-established. This was a long-standing boys club which did not keep pace with a changing economy. The club was a cosy one for construction and the tradeable goods sector (manufacturing) but it had no - and Miss Eagle means N.O. - understanding of the service sector which has been a burgeoning part of the economy over the last two decades.

In fact, some union and business leaders and Commissioners gave the impression that they knew all about the tourism and hospitality industry because they drank alcohol, ate at restaurants, and slept in hotel beds.

Another factor contributing to the lack of knowledge of the economics of the service sector has been that it tends to be dominated by women and young people. So we are talking about an entrenched form of discrimination. Women and young people were less likely to agitate and strike to improve their conditions so they were ignored. Some unions were happy to take their union dues but union attentions remained with the non-service sectors of the economy.

So, if there could be a more universal understanding of the sub-economies of this nation, it would be an improvement.

After that little vent, back to why a disconnect with the AIRC might not be the best idea.

Business is said to be angry about the prospect of a Fair Work Australia. One of the saddest things and one of the greatest hindrances to the well-being of this nation is the lack of consensus (as once there was) on major issues confronting Australia. The AIRC has delivered a great service to this nation since the earliest days of Federation.

While John Howard has gutted the AIRC, he did not abolish it.....at least not yet.

So if the ALP goes to the trouble of establishing Fair Work Australia, does this mean that it will be dead easy for a change of government to blow it out of the water?

Why not an AIRC for the sake of continuity and the possibility of some form of call to consensus?

Another thing that is not clear about Fair Work Australia is whether it will have a research function as the Fair Pay Commission does. Miss Eagle believes that this should be a function. If it is not be a function of this new one stop shop and shopfront, why not?

Miss Eagle likes the idea of the shopfront inspectorate function if it carries out its duties effectively and diligently. This will be a further challenge to union recruitment. In fact, it will be a challenge to those states which refuse to hand over their industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth.

Look to Queensland. Peter Beattie has said that Queensland will not hand over its powers which would result in the abolition of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. Beattie would not be game - Bill Ludwig and the AWU will see to that. The AWU would be the biggest loser if Queensland handed over its industrial powers. The AWU would be gutted.

Outside the south-east corner of Queensland, the AWU has coverage, under Queensland's industrial laws, across a range of industries which in other states are the province of other unions. Transfer of powers to the Commonwealth would see coverage in regional Queensland go to these unions. This would mean for instance the Shop Assistants Union would then cover all of Queensland. Award coverage in retailing is the largest union coverage in the AWU. A transfer of powers would see this coverage lost along with a massive slice of the AWU's income.

So, will the Beattie government be prepared to establish a shopfront role for its industrial inspectorate to compete?

Miss Eagle will be watching.....

Anzac Day 2007

To-day is Anzac Day.

This is a significant day in Australian life.

All around Australia from the Australian War Memorial (below) to every tiny country community, Australian and New Zealand war dead will be remembered.

All around the world, Australians and New Zealanders will gather.

They gather for the Dawn Service in Gallipoli in Turkey.

They gather in Flanders Fields.

The troops in Iraq and every place on earth where there are Australian and New Zealand military personnel, there will be solemnity and memorial.

After the solemnity, there will be the traditional two-up game

"Two up" game in progress troops returning from service H.M.A.T. MAHIA

Museum Victoria Collection

When Australians remember those who died in the service of their nation, on Anzac Day, at the going down of the sun in RSL Clubs across Australia, the verse below is said as a sort of prayer, a testimony of sacred intent:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Praying for rain: a doubtful pursuit?

The Burrinjuck Dam - Christmas 2006 - getting lower and lower

The following email, dear Reader, was in Miss Eagle's inbox this morning, forwarded by my friend K. Please note: Crossway is Australia's largest Baptist congregation.

This is a message that Stuart Robinson Senior Pastor of Crossway Central shared with the congregation this morning.

Dear Family in Christ,

While at the garage getting my car fixed, I received a call from Pastor Danny [Nahlia] stating that as he and his wife were having a time of prayer this morning, the Lord revealed that it's time for the Nation of Australia to once again come together and pray for rain in response to Prime Minister John Howard's call to pray for rain! (just like Old Testament Biblical days when the King and the Prophet worked together to call the nation and people to prayerfully return to the Lord God of Israel)

In immediate obedience to the voice of God, Ps. Danny and Catch the Fire Ministries are calling on the church and nation of Australia on Wednesday 25th April (Anzac Day) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm to gather together wherever you are to prayerfully seek the Father in heaven for rain! "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

If you live in Melbourne, we encourage you to join with us on Wednesday 25th April at Fitzroy Gardens (next to Captain Cook's Cottage) from 3:00pm - 4:30pm as Catch the Fire Ministries will lead a gathering of repentance and prayer for rain across Australia!

Most amazingly, 1 hour after I received the call from Ps. Danny, he was contacted and interviewed for 30 minutes by the editor of the Age Newspaper who asked him, "Have you thought of responding to the Prime Minister's call for prayer and what are you going to do?" Tomorrow's (Sunday 22nd April)edition of the Age Newspaper will carry an article about calling the church and nation to pray for rain.

Please forward this email and spread the Word to everyone you know across
our nation!

Let's unceasingly seek the Lord in prayer, fasting and repentance for Him to send the early and latter rains across this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit!

Thanking and Blessing You,

Jason Golden
Catch the Fire Ministries
PO Box 7427
Dandenong
VIC 3175 Australia
Tel: 613 9794 8211 Fax: 613 9794 9311
www.catchthefire.com.au

Miss Eagle replied to K. as follows:

K., I don't altogether agree with this praying for rain stuff.

I think what we should be doing is praying for ourselves and the condition we are in. I am pleased to see this scripture quoted - "If my people,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek myface and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heavenand will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

But an hour of prayer at Capt Cook's cottage won't do it.We have to reflect openly on what we have done and have a national discussion about this.We have wrecked this continent in just over two hundred years. We have turned large tracts of land to salt, we have polluted the rivers, and the oceans. We have denuded the land and now there is a word heard in this country which I had never heard before - desertification. There is a company in Queensland, Cubby Station, that no one does anything about - perhaps they don't have the power but I also wonder if they don't have the will - which has diverted water for itself. This water used to flow into the Murray-Darling Basin. Now it doesn't. Australia is losing animal species to extinction faster than anywhere else on earth. So that's what we are doing to the land, the trees, the water, and the animals. And this prime minister says pray!

Then lets look at what we have done in the last few years to people. We have concentration camps on Australian soil. We have deported our own citizens away from their country and locked up our own in these concentration camps. We are turning away to other countries humanity in need - in spite of the bible's injunction on how to treat sojourners....because, as Yahweh reminds us, you were once sojourners. Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing from a murderous Herod would not make it into this country! Australia has supported a prime minister who does this. A prime minister who writes letters of support for Danny Nahlia and whose support Danny Nahlia welcomes. And this prime minister says pray!

Let's take a look at our society - we pay sportsmen small fortunes, idolise them and tolerate their abuse of human beings, their rape of women, and their drug habits. Our country rushes to wars they have no business to be in and oversees large scale bribery in the sale of wheat. And this prime minister says pray!

Every day of my life I look out my windows at the Dandenong Ranges National Park - a very beautiful God-blessed part of the world. Last week, in a part of the Ranges I look at often, two young women took their lives in what is believed to be a suicide pact. Suicide and depression in Australia is a major issue. In fact, it appears to be a significant barometer of ourselves.

John Howard came to power saying he wanted to make Australians feel comfortable. Look around. Some are comfortable and a lot of those who are comfortable are self-interested, self-seeking, greedy and ambitious. The needs of the poor are neglected. Ordinary people have their public schools de-funded to provide funds for schools who are so wealthy one would not think they needed more money. Our public facilities like hospitals are falling to pieces. Our national infrastructure - around which we build our economic well being - is in dire need of investment. No one seems to be able to figure out how to run a university system without hanging hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt around the necks of the young. Housing for rental and purchase is becoming out of reach. And the prime minister says pray!

The prime minister could do something about the significant problems listed above. And, if he had tried to do all this, and we had tried to get all this done and reformed ourselves, and then we had failed, I think we could then reflect and pray. But to throw prayers God-ward and yet not acknowledge our sins....I think that is blasphemy.

Let me know what you think, K.

Blessings and bliss

Into the Everlasting Arms

Each morning, I look across from my sunroom to the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Sadness has come to my heart since news broke yesterday afteroon that two young women (unknown to me) named Jodie Gater and Stephanie Gestier were found dead high up in the park.

Reports indicate that Jodie and Stephanie, who had been missing for a week, had taken their own lives.

The tragedy of young lives cut short and the overwhelming sadness that must have engulfed their families haunts me.

What a society, what a world have we built for our young that they cannot feel secure, creative, and hopeful within its bounds?

Ten years ago, this very month, a young woman came to my home who I had never met before. I only met her for an hour or so.

One month later she was dead by her own hand.

The poem below was written then.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of Jodie and Stephanie.

These young girls/women are now in The Everlasting Arms.

PERCEPTION

How did I not see
the troubled heart and spirit?
Did I only look at you
to see myself
reflected back?

And if I
thought you carefree
was that only the perception
of my own comfort?

Why could I not see
through your body frame
to the pain
of old time’s torment
in your soul?

Eyes to see
a heart to understand
are what I need
to see the wounded Christ
in your life

For help or information visit beyond blue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 251 or Lifeline on 131 114.

The times they are a-changin' as chickens roost?

Chickens are coming home to roost:

not only for John Howard but for globalization, too

Dear Reader, do you sometimes think you have a different wisdom from the professionally wise? By the professionally wise, Miss Eagle means politicians, senior bureaucrats, leaders of commerce and trade.

Do you think that you recall a certain history of events which the professionally wise - use above definition - seem to have either forgotten or completely bypassed?

Miss Eagle has come across to-day two articles which should reassure you, dear Reader, in regard to your memory and your powers of interpretation and comprehension.

The first is about John Howard in the long, long ago - before he became Lazarus with a triple by-pass - when he was Treasurer and when that name of "Honest John" was coined, not as a compliment as some use it to-day but as a perjorative.

The second concerns the fact that some Americans with strong economic and business credentials are finding holes in that smelly gorgonzola cheese that is globalization. You knew, dear Reader, as did your present correspondent that all was not well in the globalized world. We knew, you and I, that many people were ending up the poorer and missing out on the much- and oft-touted benefits of free and globalized trade.

Now, Miss Eagle is not railing against globalization in and of itself. It is an old and ancient phenomenon. Modern people like some things such as international communications and travel and dislike others like the migration of jobs off-shore, the driving down of wages.

In Miss E's view there should be one catch-cry against globalization and that is Accountablility.



Not the unctious and self-righteous catchcry of CEOs and senior mangers about looking after the stakeholders. No, dear Reader, CEOs and senior managers need to be held accountable in regard to what they deliver and the amount of remuneration, share holdings, and sweet deals they receive. Companies need to be held accountable in their countries of origin as well as their countries of location. They need to be accountable to the communities in which their places of business and their employees are located. They need to be transparent and accountable when governments give them favourable and special treatment. Of course, companies need to be accountable to their shareholders but "stakeholders" goes well beyond shareholders.

Finally, those who believe in free trade, need to be honest - not unctious - about the hidden favours they give or receive from governments and the taxpayers.

For instance, why are companies allowed to go bankrupt or into liquidation without paying workers their wages and entitlements? What happens in Australia is that businesses and corporations can avoid honouring workers entitlements, avoid paying any remuneration, or perhaps pay very poor and minimal redundancy payments and then the shoddily treated employee is thrown on the welfare heap for the taxpayer to take responsibility.

In other words, the employer; the business; the corporation can make a decision to offload employees and offload their responsibility for workers' entitlements. The employer, the business, the corporation can make a decision to benefit itself to the detriment of others. The taxpayer then has the pleasure of paying for the consequences of a decision it had no part in.



But then Australia does not provide subsidies to business! Yeah!?!

Kevin, Labor and IR go to the Press Club

It is with a sigh of relief that Miss Eagle has been watching Kevin Rudd addressing the National Press Club to-day. It was Rudd's first address to the Press Club since becoming ALP leader on 4 December 2006.

Why the sigh of relief?

Because at last the cat is officially out of the IR bag for all to see. Well, one cat is out of the IR bag. More still are lurking - but the important, seminal one is there for all to see.

For those who might have thought (and Miss E was never one) that all that needs to be done is elect an ALP government and wait for the rollback of Howard's draconian IR laws, listen/read the Rudd speech and you will have your hopes dashed.

The facts have always been that once the eggs are scrambled there is no putting them back in their shells. And Howard has effected a scramble of workers rights in no uncertain terms.

Be alert!

Be alarmed!

Howard has more to come - make no bones about it. One way or another - whether he bribes you, dear Reader, with tax cuts to take a wage cut or brings in masses of guest workers to drive down wage rates - your work and your wages will be affected. Work will be upped and wages will be downed.

Miss Eagle does not pretend she will be happy with the ALP's IR platform. In fact, she is certain she will not be. What Miss Eagle does assert, though, is that Labor is the best bet for workers' rights. Labor is the best bet for workers being able to influence federal and state governments with regard to their rights.

Rudd was questioned by Paul Buongiorno with regard to whether the Fair Pay Commission would stay and whether the Industrial Relations Commission would be re-instated to its former glory. Rudd wisely said that he had no answer on this and these were issues of transition.

For those not familiar with the finest of details of political platforms - particularly the platforms of parties who have a very likely chance of winning an election - transition or machinery of government policies are vital for the smooth transition from one brand of government to another. The transition or machinery policies are finalised very late in the electoral cycle. The arrangements for transition may receive a great deal of publicity but not necessarily so. Or some areas may receive publicity but details of other portfolios are not mentioned. The astute follower of the political process will be watching, reading, listening closely for transition details.

Miss Eagle, dear Reader, is about to stick her feathery neck out. Miss Eagle bets London to a brick on that the Fair Pay Commission in one form or another will survive. Not necessarily with the same membership and not necessarily with the same name (and aren't our pollies great at changing names and the stationery) - but survive it will. Why.

The Fair Pay Commission - in some form - will remain because it is a good idea and it does have something to offer. The idea came from Blair and his so-called new Labour. In this globalised world, where the cost of labour as a factor of production is eyed off internationally, some form of research and policy facility is the only way a social and pluralist democracy can fine tune its wages bills.

You will recall, dear Reader, that when Bob Hawke came to power way back in 1983 he brought with him the Accord - an agreement on wages which was supposed to be tripartite (business, government and unions) but finished up bipartite (government and unions). The research behind the Accord, while substantial, did not have the clout of the research that is building within the Fair Pay Commission. However, the motivation to-day varies little from what Hawke had in mind.

So to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the price of your rights, dear Reader, is eternal vigilance.

Have the gates of hell prevailed in Catholic Ireland?

If you don't want your heart touched with sadness, don't go here. The Knitter writes in the blog titled Days in the Life of Ireland's Child Care Institutions n the 20th century. Miss Eagle was raised in a pre-Vatican II background of Irish-Catholicism, Australian-style. We hear of the great fall away from the Roman Catholic faith in Ireland which is stunning for those who, like Miss E, were taught by nun after nun with an Irish accent who had left far-away Ireland as teenage girls and never saw their homeland again.

The Knitter shows us why in stark terms. Like this:

LOVE is never having to say you're sorry, but if you do, you don't have to mean it.

LOVE is never having to admit to physical abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to sexual abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to psychological abuse.

LOVE is never having to admit to illtreatment of abandoned children.

LOVE is never having to admit to cruelty to children.

LOVE is never having to admit to the starvation of children.

LOVE is never going to win any part of the argument.

and then there are graphics like this:

Free at last....?

David Hicks spruced up to meet the demands of the Military Commission aka as Kangaroo Court

Miss Eagle's rejoicing is postponed until he arrives on Australian soil. The news is here. John Howard clearly thinks this will remove the Hicks issue from any consideration by Australian electors in the forthcoming Federal election. Who can tell? He may be right. But one thing is clear to all who give a moments thought to the situation of David Hicks. That is the collusion of the Australian Government in the manner of his "trial", his "sentencing, and his expected release.

Howard clearly thinks Australians are mugs.

It is quite clear that what Howard has done now, the Australian Government has had the capacity to do and could have been done previously (give or take legal manoevering around the Military Commissions legality issue). This re-inforces the belief that Howard could have done for Hicks what Blair did for Britons.

Howard refused.

Howard was inhumane.

Howard was vengeful.

Hicks breached no Australian law but Howard was determined that, one way or another, punishment would be visited on David Hicks. Some Australians may want to just put the Hicks matter away in a bottom draw. Others of us will remember David Hicks. We will remember John Howard.

LEST WE FORGET.

LEST WE FORGET.

Hicks, hair, and light

An artist depicts David Hicks' appearance in the US military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today.Photo: AP

Published in The Age, Melbourne.

David Hicks has grown his hair to chest length in an attempt to try to avoid the never-ending light in his cell.

The charges - or lack of them - against Hicks are noteworthy:

The charge sheet does not allege Hicks fired on US troops or attacked a US target, but says he conducted surveillance on the abandoned US embassy in Kabul and met Osama bin Laden as well as accused "shoe bomber'' Richard Reid.
Previous charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy have been dropped, with defence lawyers saying the move shows US authorities have a weak case.

The prosecutor in this jumped-up, stuffed-up, kangaroo court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay has used the argument that Terry Hicks told David Hicks that taking up arms was wrong.

So this is to prove the guilt of David?

In that case what are we waiting for? Let's arrest Bush, Cheney, Rumsefield, Blair, Howard & Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. After all hundreds of thousands - at least - of their citizens have told them that they are wrong in what they are doing and how they are doing it. What is the measure of their guilt? Are their circadian rhythms interrupted? Do they sleep well at night?

They have proved themselves gun-totin' cowboys with no idea of nation building. Afghanistan is still a mess. Freedom loving democracy is not a reality there. It is not a reality in Iraq.

The US cannot build a decent democracy itself. The most powerful political figure in the world does not have and cannot prove that he has the majority of support of the citizens of his nation. Because it's a good day if more than half of the US population turn out to vote. The US cannot help its own. Hurricane Katrina proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt. And in the case of New Orleans many, so many of us, believe that the US will not help its own if they are black.

Nation building? The Government of the USA should try it some time.

A remembrance for C. Wright Mills

Those of us who have dipped deeply into that marvellous well labelled Sociology will be aware of C. Wright Mills. While relating to the American tradition, the writings of C. Wright Mills served as an impetus for critiquing Australian society as well. He set afire the sociological imagination. The Power Elite is not only seminal. It is timeless. This week, the forty-fifth anniversary of the death of C. Wright Mills was commemorated. For more, see here and here.

And if, dear Reader, you wonder about whether the personal is political or the political is personal, think on this:

Do not allow public issues as they are officially formulated, or troubles as they are privately felt, to determine the problems that you take up for study. Above all, do not give up your moral and political autonomy by accepting in somebody else's terms the illiberal practicality of the bureaucratic ethos or the liberal practicality of the moral scatter. Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues - and in terms of the problems of history making. Know that the human meaning of public issues must be revealed by relating them to personal troubles - and to the problems of the individual life. Know that the problems of social science, when adequately formulated, must include both troubles and issues, both biography and history, and the range of their intricate relations. Within that range the life of the individual and the making of societies occur; and within that range the sociological imagination has its chance to make a difference in the quality of human life in our time.

C Wright Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination, page 226

NSW election: a sigh of relief but no congratulations

Miss Eagle is well pleased with the NSW election result....for one simple reason. The Liberals don't hold the reins and resources of government in the premier state with which to undergird a Federal election campaign.

Miss Eagle won't congratulate Morrie Iemma. Debenham's campaign - if you can give it that name - is lamentable and uncommentable.

Miss Eagle suffered the insult that is City Rail in the last years of the 20th century - and things, clearly, have become worse. In fact, have gone from worse to awful.


She prays for the sake of the commuters of Sydney that the premier of Italian descent can emulate the leadership of another Italian in one area only - managing the trains as well as Mussolini.

Sign of the times

Photo: Craig Abraham/The Age

"JUSTICE FOR DAVID HICKS"

has become a cause for Melbourne's Anglicans. Not only is the demand made in an eight-metre banner hanging from St Paul's Cathedral, but new Archbishop Philip Freier has written to Prime Minister John Howard on Hicks' behalf.

Drought

Photo by John Mitchell
And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:11 / KJV

Howard the Sycophant talks about Honour!!!

In the middle of all his political woes, Howard is digging Australia further into the falsity of Coaliting of the Willing aspirations for Iraq. Honour, he says.

Bah, humbug, Howard! How dare you wrap up the mountainous death toll of Iraqis in what you chose to call honour. There has been little honour in the defence of US policy by the Australian government.

You, John Howard, have taken Australia and Australians into a war which is not in their national interests. You, John Howard, have taken Australians into a lock step position on flawed and failed US foreign policy in relation to Israel and the Middle East.

Australians did not want participation in the war in Iraq without UN involvement. They do not want it to-day. This was clear in polls and the hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted with their feet in peace marches.

You, John Howard, ignored your own people. You took the side of the US against us and our best interests. You, John Howard, are a war monger. Not a peace maker.

Peace is not in you, John Howard.

You, John Howard, do well as a sycophant.

You, John Howard, cannot and will not make peace.

Dissenting Jewish voices

In all the debate on the Iraq War, US foreign policy and US support for Israel has become increasingly focussed. In recent times, dissenting Jewish voices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (those great allies in the Coalition of the Willing) have come to the fore.

In Australia, the ABC's Religion Report on Radio National has devoted three programs in recent times to this topic. Go here, here and here.

George Soros has now entered the fray.

Jews in western democracies who have become sycophantic and chauvinistic in their defence of the state of Israel need to do a rethink. The inherent racism in Israel; the religious discrimination in Israel including against Jews; the failure of Israel to consider the aspirations and needs of others beside themselves need to be addressed.

Consideration needs to be given to how helpful it is for democracy when, in a place such as Australia, Jewish funding - and through such funding influence - of political parties is well in excess of their demographic representation.

Democracies are in danger when money - whether it is corporate, Jewish or from some other source - can buy and influence political parties in excess of voting representation within the community. The balance of community representation and political funding must be maintained equitably. Otherwise, the situation can develop - as in US foreign policy - where the interests of citizens is overridden for the sometimes nebulous idea of "the national interest".

CHRIS HURLEY TO TRIAL OVER DEATH OF MULRUNJI

Policeman faces death in custody trial
is the headline in The Age in Melbourne to-day.
The item puts the situation in an historic context
but if one knew nothing of the Australian penal system
one might think that a policeman is facing a death sentence.
Sensationalism?

Meanwhile, over at The Courier Mail in Brisbane, Queensland
the headline is terse.
Hurley trial in June
The reporting is succinct. Bare detail.
Trying not to offend anyone are we?
Like the Queensland Police?
Like Peter Beattie and the Queensland Government?

Promises, promises

There are optimists in the world and they are at The Truthmaker. Their current focus is on the NSW election trying to keep Morrie and Mates and Peter and Pals and assorted hopefuls to their word.

Lasting values: the pearl of great price

The topic of ethics is to the fore in Australian public life these days. Time for a reality check, Miss Eagle thinks.


The Hope Pearl, a 450-carat natural pearl that was owned by nineteenth-century gem collector Henry Phillip Hope. Loaned by Christie's. (Chip Clark / Smithsonian) Click image to enlarge.

The Pearl.

Matthew 13: 45



I know the ways of Learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the press, and make it run;
What reason has from nature borrowed,
Or of it self, like a good housewife, spun
In laws and policy; what the stars conspire,
What willing nature speaks, what forced by fire;
Both th' old discoveries, and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and history:
All these stand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love thee.

I know the ways of Honor, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesy and wit:
In vies of favors whether party gains,
When glory swells the heart, and molding it
To all expressions both of hand and eye,
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wheresoe'er it goes:
How many drams of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee.

I know the ways of Pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot blood and brains;
What mirth and music mean; what love and wit
Have done these twenty hundred years, and more:
I know the projects of unbridled store:
My stuff is flesh, not brass; my senses live,
And grumble oft, that they have more in me
Than he that curbs them, being but one to five:
Yet I love thee.

I know all these, and have them in my hand:
Therefore not sealéd, but with open eyes
I fly to you, and fully understand
Both the main sale, and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have your love;
With all the circumstances that may move:
Yet through these labyrinths, not my groveling wit,
But your silk twist let down from heaven to me,
Did both conduct and teach me, how by it
To climb to thee.
George Herbert

Joe Camilleri's Lectures

For a better copy of this with legible details, please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar.

Something on the air....

This morning when Michelle Grattan was speaking to Fran Kelly (approx 7.45am) on Radio National Breakfast about the Howard, Rudd & Burke imbroglio, Michelle said to Fran, when asked where it would all end, that the matter would continue until

it either blows itself out or something fresh comes up.

Miss Eagle believes something has come up in the priceless words of one P.J. Keating. Apparently the words were heard on radio and those who haven't heard them wish they could. Read some of them here.

Miss Eagle nearly fell off her perch when she saw P.J.'s reference to her old cobber, Johnno Johnson, as the model of ubiquity in Sydney. For those of you who have never had social intercourse with Johnno, you will not be aware of his motto where two or three are gathered...hold a raffle. Johnno has made a science out of the selling of a raffle ticket. Don't know how? Johnno will show you.

The Sydney Morning Herald - at the recent ALP election launch in NSW - noted

The only person resembling a tribal elder was the former long-serving Labor MP and raffle ticket seller John "Johnno" Johnson: "They dare not start without me."

And in case anyone thinks the rephrasing of Jesus's words on prayer and the numbers necessary are blasphemous, nothing could be further from Johnno's mind. You see, here is an upright Catholic and any Catholic - well anyone with an Irish name even - ought to dodge Johnno for the next month or so. Otherwise, a casual phone call or an accidental meeting in George Street will find Johnno checking up on whether you've made your Easter Duty yet!

Lobbyists: agendas, spin, and good governance

Search for a definition: What is lobbying? The art of hanging around a lobby. Right. But there's more to it than that. There are lobbies to hang around which mean that the cash register can be heard a-ringing. Here is a more precise definition.

There is good old grass roots lobbying of this kind. Not a problem. Should be more of it. However, the farmers who badgered the Federal Government for funds also have a professional, highly organised and effective lobby group of their own in the National Farmers Federation. Then there are the business groups such as the Business Council of Australia and the pharmaceutical industry. Non-government, non-business interests form themselves into organisations so that they too can achieve greater clout.

The problem lies in the bureaucratic nature of government. Bureaucracies have difficulty in dealing with individuals and small business. Small business is not the same as big business and one of the defining differences is bureaucracy - or more the lack of it. Government bureaucracies know how to relate to private bureaucracies. The non-bureaucratic individual or small business is beyond their ken. This is why policies of Federal and State Governments formulating one-size-fits-all fail and cause discontent. The implementation of the GST is a classic case where the needs of small business were not taken into account until a month long campaign by the Daily Telegraph in Sydney brought the Howard Government to its senses.

There are the think tanks: The Evatt Foundation; The Menzies Foundation; The Australia Institute; The Institute of Public Affairs; The Centre for Independent Studies; The Lowy Institute; and The Sydney Institute to name only a very, very few. Thinking, strategising, lobbying - politicians and the public with their ideas.

Then we get back to the lobbying done by professionals, the professionals who have political contacts because they have been politicians, or worked as political staffers. People like Bruce Hawker (whose tool of trade is his long-standing relationship with the NSW Labor Government) and Grahame Morris (whose tool of trade is his long-standing relationship with the Howard Government). Politicians who depart their ministerial positions and parachute straight into lucrative "public affairs" positions. These include Peter Reith and Michael Wooldridge. These two former Howard Government ministers were notable for dubious ethical practices in their portfolios and/or financial management.

There are frequent calls for the operations of lobbyists to be subject to regulation. Proposals include legislation preventing Ministers of the Crown moving straight from their parliamentary responsibilities into corporate lobbying positions. What's your view?

World Day of Prayer 2007

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 2007

TO-NIGHT AT A CHURCH

NEAR YOU

Spider's web lace made by women in Paraguay

The World Day of Prayer Committee in Paraguay

This year's World Day of Prayer has been prepared by the women of Paraguay. Miss Eagle is pleased to see that the Australian committee has drawn attention to an historic link between Australia and Paraguay in the form of the utopian socialist communities established by William Lane. To those of us involved in the labour movement, this is of significant historic importance. The movement to establish the communities involved two of Australia's greatest poets, Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore. Miss Eagle knew, some years ago now, a daughter of John Lane, William's brother. John is famous for riding around western New South Wales on a bicycle with the tyres stuffed with straw to seek support for the settlements in Paraguay. His daughter was born at Cosme.

Back to to-day, there is a chance once again to link with Paraguay: this time in prayer.
Paraguay is a country with a young population, full of enthusiasm and zest for life. However it is one of the poorest countries in the world and struggles with poverty, unemployment, lack of education and health services, the need of land for rural people and indigenous communities and a globalisation that has increased the levels of violence and placed cultural traditions at risk. Please keep the people of Paraguay in your prayers during 2007.

This year's theme is United Under God's Tent.

Jarrod McKenna: a peacemake in your community

Jarrod McKenna, trainer and board member of Pace e Bene Australia, has been awarded the 2006 Donald Groom Fellowship, a Quaker grant that enables individuals working on projects for nonviolent social change.

Jarrod's initative, called "Empowering Peacemakers in Your Community" (EPYC), introduces young people to the traditions, theory, practice and spirituality of nonviolent social transformation. EPYC works to inspire and empower young people through workshops and seminars, facilitation of student-led and run activist groups within schools, and involve students in community run groups that promote nonviolence.

Jarrod's believes that EPYC does more than train students in transformational nonviolence. He says "EPYC's vision is to inspire, invite and equip a generation to receive and participate in God's vision of a world transformed by love….As I sometimes put it in shorthand, my work is about equipping a generation to 'walk out' now, what God wills the world to be ultimately."

World Vision CEO Tim Costello recently said: "Around the world there is an emerging generation of young leaders who are rediscovering the radical implications of Jesus' message of the 'kingdom' and are letting their lives speak of these alternatives to the cycles of violence, poverty and environmental destruction. Jarrod McKenna is one such young leader Australia has to offer, and the EPYC program promises to empower many more."

As part of the award, Jarrod had the opportunity to speak at the annual gathering of Quakers in Australia in January. Jarrod has been a key member of Pace e Bene Australia, which formed in 2005 and leads trainings across the country, using Engage, From Violence to Wholeness, and Traveling with the Turtle. Pace e Bene congratulates Jarrod for the recognition he has received for his work for peace! Read more about Jarrod's work with EPYCVisit Pace e Bene Australia's website

Would we know good governance if we see it?

Miss Eagle finds herself focussing more and more on the topic of governance. So it seems about time to discuss what governance means. Miss E's ancient Concise Oxford Dictionary (Sixth impression 1978) gives the following definition:

n. Act, manner, fact, or function, of governing; sway, control

The phrase "corporate governance" has entered the language in recent years following spectacular failures in governance and oversight across the globe.

Miss Eagle has been discussing governance in the public sphere; in particular, in the state and federal governments of the Commonwealth of Australia. In Australia, there are quite a few runs for poor performance getting up on the scoreboard.

Governance is a simple word. It differs from the word Government which relates more to(definition thank s to the old COD):

1. System of governing, form of organization of State.

2. Body or successive bodies of persons governing a State; the State as an agent; and administration or ministry.

Another term for governance in the public sphere (as opposed to the corporate or business sphere) is Public Administration.

Australia has produced some fine servants of the public who have exhibited a high level of administrative expertise in the public interest. Miss Eagle thinks of her hero, Nugget Coombs;

Sir John Crawford; Sir Lenox Hewitt OBE (father of British politician, Patricia Hewitt); and John Menadue. Perhaps there are, as this is written, distinguished men and women beavering away within bureaucracies of state and federal government.

However, life has moved on in public administration. Most heads of department are on timed contracts. They are dependent on their political masters to renew their contract. Prior to the introduction of timed contracts, public servants were tenured. The contract system has allowed a thorough-going politicisation of the public sector. (Yes Miss E knows that politicisation did precede the introduction of contracts but it is Miss E's view that politicisation was not on the same scale as that which prevails now.) Time and again public administration in Australia seems to demonstrate master-pleasing advice and action rather than the old "without fear or favour" culture.

The servants of the public are not acquitting themselves well. Instance the equivocation, cover up, inaction, avoidance and blurring by DFAT bureaucrats before the AWB inquiry.

Miss Eagle is not the only with a point of view about governance in Australia. Over at Casting a short shadow, Miss Eagle discovered a reference to a speech by Lieutenant General John Sanderson, AC given as the Annual Oration 2007 to the Order of Australia Association entitled Federal Renewal and Unity in Reconciliation: a return to government by the people.

Miss Eagle is happy to forward a copy of this speech to readers if they email their requests to Miss Eagle's email address which is accessible if you look under the AusFlag logo on the sidebar.

Problems in Paradise

Denis Wilson over at The Nature of Robinson has been burning the midnight oil quite a bit as he does battle for the Kangaloon Aquifer at Robertson in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. He came across this media item on McArthur River. Miss Eagle has posted from time to time about what is happening in a part of the world beloved to her. See here, here, and here. Miss Eagle posts the item in full. She has no comment - indications within the news item are far too serious.

~~~~~~~~~~

Xstrata denies link to flesh-eating disease

The company that owns the MacArthur River Mine has rejected any link to a flesh-eating disease that has killed three people who came into contact with river and seawater in the Borroloola region.
An article published in the British Journal of Infection has connected high levels of heavy metals in the region with the disease.
The article, written by Top End tropical disease specialist Dr Bart Currie, cites four cases of the disease over the past seven years.
In the first case in 2000, a 55-year-old man who went fishing in rivers near the Nathan River homestead contracted the disease and died two years later.
In May 2001, a 63-year-old man who fished off Vanderlin Island died 18 days later from the disease and in April 2003 a 38-year-old Victorian man had his leg amputated after fishing in the Wearyan River.
As well, a 19-year-old woman died 24 hours after swimming in one of the region's waterways.
The article reported zinc and lead levels downstream from the mine are twice what they are upstream and that it is possible these levels could increase the risk of human infection from the disease.
Mine owner Xstrata say it is aware of the report but it does not link the mine to the cases.