Time to end this kind of unsavoury practice

The issue of child brides is not unique to Islam, so my thrust has nothing at all to do with Islam, but it has everything to do with the practice of forcing young girls in countries such as Yemen, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan into marriage at an early age. More often than not the young girls end up dead at a very young age because their bodies are too immature for sexual relations.

However, this story, about a 15 year old girl in Afghanistan is quite sickening. The girl was sold by her brother to a family who then abused her because she refused to become a prostitute. This young girl’s injuries are quite horrific, and it is not just the physical injury. What is worse, she escaped and was sent back to the household where the abuse from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law continued until a male relative turned up looking for her. Only then was her plight recognized.

Afghanistan has a long way to go in recognizing women’s rights. There was a time when Afghanistan was quite modern, but that was before the Taliban gained control in the country. This young girl’s story is not unique, and there has been some effort to try and prevent such abuses, except that few in the country are paying any attention to the legislation that is supposed to give some rights to young girls in this situation.

What can be done? Other than promoting the story there is probably not a lot that can be done until people in those countries finally realize that women are not second class citizens and that children, or rather little girls, cannot be sold off as though they are chattels. This after all was the fate of the young girl in this story.

The BMI should be considered as junk science

As I was growing up we just the old charts for measuring height and weight. Under the old system adjustments were made for bone structure. We fell into three categories which meant that allowances were made for women with big bones. However, by the 21st century a new system called the Body Mass Index is being used exclusively to measure who is to be considered obese. Ever since its introduction I have thought of this measurement as being nothing more than junk science. On top of that I believe that it is detrimental to the health of children and to families in general that their children are being measured using BMI and that they are being told that the children are obese when it is clearly not the case.

Stories coming out of the U.K. about the interference of the NHS in family life and of the incompetence of the NHS have been mulitplying. The latest story to catch my eye is that of a girly by the name of Libby. She is a fit and healthy girl who is very active but the NHS have sent home a letter to her parents claiming that the child is borderline obese. The Mail Online has the story about Libby which you can read here. Please keep in mind that this is a 7 year old who has probably not even begun her real growth spurt!!  The picture shows a little girl who looks healthy, without the ghastly all-bones look that seems to make people using the BMI happy.

She is a budding gymnast and table tennis player who often comes home with bruises on her knees after rough-and-tumble games with her friends.

So Libbie Boardman’s parents were shocked to be told that their active, healthy seven-year-old had been classified as ‘borderline obese’.

She and her classmates had their height and weight measured by NHS staff to calculate their body mass index as part of a scheme aimed at cracking down on childhood obesity.

But several parents have reacted with outrage at the results, saying they are clearly misleading – and could result in their children developing eating disorders.

Libbie’s father, Paul Boardman, said: ‘I do not know how they can be saying that she is overweight.

‘You just have to look at her to think, “Where the heck have they got that from?”’

For adults, BMI is measured by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.

The calculation for children begins the same way, but the result is then compared with those of others

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075729/Youre-bordering-obese-What-healthy-7-year-old-girl-told-NHS-weigh-scheme.html#ixzz1gxLHNK5o

Looking at how they calculate the table for children, it really does seem to be flawed. The reality is that no one human being is the same as another human being. This is particularly true of children. We come in different sizes, especially height wise. A child can be tall for his or her age, or can be short for his or her age, that would mean that comparison with other children has the potential of giving a false reading because it does not take into account a child’s height or bone structure. A child with bigger bones but who is short is going to weigh more than an average height child or a taller child.

Under the old system for measuring weight, one had lots of latitude which took into account things like bone structure. This was definitely a far better way of determining whether or not a person was bordering on being obese.

The real problem in the UK (and I am not sure if it is happening elsewhere) is that the authorities are removing children from their families because the parents are being told that they are “bad” because the child is being measured as “obese” as a result of using this flawed BMI scale. This is extremely bad for the children concerned. To be taken away from the family on such a pretext is reprehensible. The government has no right to be interfering in families in this manner.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the BMI as a measurement for obesity is in fact extremely flawed. It produces angst among families, and it has the potential to turn children into anorexics. As such the BMI should be dropped and we should return to using the old measurement standards because these were far more accurate in determining what should be correct weight for height and age.

 

Bullying… workplace harassment… whatever….

Maybe right now I am under the influence of some red wine, but I am sitting here and crying because I learned about the background of Casey, the boy who stood up to the bullies and fought back. I have just learned that Casey’s cousin committed suicide because of bullying. For some reason, when I hear about the tragic consequences of bullying I burst into tears. Actually, I know the reason because I have been a victim of bullying, at school and in the workplace. My whole history is full of stories about bullying.  This is why I am crying for Casey’s cousin. I know and I understand what it is like to be bullied. Even a person who is over 50 knows that the effects never really go away.

Unfortunately this brings me to the point of talking about the allegations against the US Republican hopeful Herman Cain. I am suspicious about the allegations that were levelled against Herman Cain for a variety of reasons. First of all, it seems strange to me that the women making the allegations are both white and blonde. It seems to be too much of a coincidence. On top of that it seems that both  of the women who have come forward and who have been named have a history of making allegations.

To be honest when women make claims of sexual harassment in a workplace, they do no one a favour. There is a bias against men, and for some inexplicable reason that bias seems to be that if there is an allegation that it must be true. What people do not understand is that there is another form of harassment… workplace harassment… and, more often than not the perpetrator of such harassment happens to be a woman. However, back to Herman Cain…. these allegations smack of being something that has been drummed up. In this case, somebody accessed personnel records at the National Restaurant Association, and that information was passed on to an individual (David Axelrod being the most likely person) and then the people who made the allegations were located and their stories were used by Politico to create a smear against the candidate. The problem is that Herman Cain has worked in other places and there are no such allegations. Do I smell a rat? Yes and his name is David Axelrod. Who else would have put Sharon Bialek into the hands of Ms Aldred the publicity seeker, and the lawyer who does not give a rats about her clients?

However, back to my own story of harassment. Where do I begin. I do not want to sound like a whiney victim, yet the truth is that throughout my early life I was a victim of bullying at school and in the home. I had a terrible time at school. I cannot say that those school days were the happiest of my life. I would rather forget those school days than remember the bullying that took place. To this day I am continuing to feel the after effects of some of that bullying in the form of arthritis in my ankles.

The bullying did not stop at school. It was in the home. Maybe I should not go there, after all, one of the ones responsible has passed away. The other is still alive and I do not want to have all that much contact with that person who is after all a sibling of mine. I feel alone and so isolated as a result of my early life.

My workplace experiences were no better than those of my early life. However, there is one experience that I feel needs to be repeated. I was working for an American company at the time. I was a contract worker and I was doing the right thing, getting in the money for the company, negotiating with those who would not talk to other people and I migh add, getting money from an individual who refused to even talk to the woman who was my supervisor. This is not about my supervisor, at least not initially.  The whole issue blew up in the space of a week. At the time my father was dying, and he did in fact die so I had to travel from Sydney to Melbourne for the funeral.

Here is the story leading up to what amounted to even further bullying by others within the company. In this case the woman had it in for me and I have no understanding as to why she was hostile. What I do know is that she had a history of being cranky with others. On the day that hostilities broke out, all I can say is that I did not know that she left her work station at about the same time as myself. When I left my workstation I stopped and hesitated, then I felt someone pushing into my back. Under my breath I called her a bitch. I have no regrets calling this particular woman a bitch.. because she was one. Even though she had walked out of earshot, the bitch actually heard my whisper. There was a bit of a confrontation. The bitch then went off to do whatever she was doing, and I headed off to upstairs where I was seeking information.

In the end I had to put in a complaint to Human Resources and here is the reason why I had to take that action. After the confrontation the bitch decided to follow me. I was spooked by her actions. It may sound trivial until you understand my background. Here is the story: when I was  about 13 years old there was an incident in my life that I have rarely repeated. However, it should be told because it serves as a warning to others. It was a Saturday, and I was out delivering pamphlets for my father’s business. I was a distance from home, but not all that far from my grandmother’s house, and even better, I was close to the house of a school friend by the name of Christine H.  As I was delivering the pamphlets I was stopped by a man (probably Middle Eastern) in a car who wanted directions. I answered his query. However, he wanted me to get into his car. I did not do as he asked. Instead, I indicated NO and walked away, but the man followed me. I was creeped out. Luckily I was near Christine’s house and I fled there. It was a good move.  Several years later there was another incident where a man (who was married to another employee at the same factory) decided to follow me home. Again I was creeped out. I used to walk home from the factory where  I had a temporary job. It was a bit of a distance but I could walk that distance quite easily. Luckily for me, on that particular day, there was a woman working in her garden, and so I spoke to her…. the man then moved on. It was with this history (as well as some more trivial incidents) that seems to come to the fore when I am being followed in the manner in which the woman was following me.  I took my complaint to the Human Resources person because the action of that woman brought to mind those other earlier incidents in my life. I really do get creeped out when I am being followed in that fashion.

My story here is about real harassment. It is not a pretty story, and this part of it is only the beginning. What happened next was horrible because during the time that I was away the woman was made redundant by the company. She did in fact have a period of time before she left the company. It was enough time to lie and to leave her poison amongst my work colleagues. From what I can deduce, this bitch told the others that I was instrumental in her losing her job. It was not true. It is more likely that my complaint was the icing on the cake. She had a history of behaviour and the company wanted to get rid of her, and yes, they were setting her up to lose her job, regardless of what she did to me. However, poison works, and as a result of that poison I was sent into Coventry. It was unpleasant, yet it was obvious that something had happened especially when another co-worker who had always been friendly was suddenly unfriendly. It was like that until I left the company when my contract had ended. The poison was such that I was left alone and isolated. This was the work of a woman.

Almost every story that I can relate is one that also involves another woman being in charge. For the most part as a woman I have found that it is other women who are the perpetrators of harassment. One of those women even believed that she was “good to my staff”, and this was despite the fact that the majority of staff used to say some dreadful things behind her back. The comments that I heard were in fact well deserved.  This was  a woman who had a managerial position within the public service. She was a hatchet woman who was more than willing to end the careers of my colleagues. If only she knew what was said behind her back!!  Another friend of mine was a victim of workplace bullying and harassment. In the end she was offered sanctuary within the department where I was working.  The bitch who had been her supervisor was busy trying to make sure that my friend ended up without a job. On one particular occasion I overheard a conversation between her ex-boss, and the the woman who was my boss. As a result I alerted her about what had taken place. It was a case of “she has to go”. My friend did find work in another department where she did manage to shine despite what these two bitches had tried to do to her. Helen had a lot of struggles in her life and she really did not need these bitches making it even harder.  Needless to say I struggled with that bitch who was my supervisor in a number of ways. She even went as far as taking away from me a piece of equipment that I needed and replacing it with something that was utterly useless.. the BITCH.  Like I said, she had no real idea concerning what my colleagues were saying about her and her lieutenant. It was not pretty and there was plenty of ammunition for innuendo.  This bitch also put me into coventry. It was horrible but it was the way in which the bitch operated.  I have a bit of a temper and there were times when I used to hit back against the bitch so I am not entirely innocent. There were those occasions when I would strike back and just let her have it because I really hated her… not just because of what she did to me, but because of the way she treated the others, and the way that she used people to get information. She really was a bully and a bitch.

With my background, you would think that I would automatically feel sorry for anyone who alleges harassment, but that is not the case. As I have watched the Herman Cain saga unfold, I have not had that empathy for the alleged victims. Perhaps it is because Sharon Bialek’s story sounded as though it was concocted, but more so because the other woman who has now released her name claimed “It was something like that”, even though she has never outlined her allegations.  I just get that feeling that her claims are false.  The Sharon Bialek story sounds utterly false especially when it seems that the women is white and blonde. Does Herman Cain really have a prediliction for white women with Blonde hair? It simply does not plausible. There are details that are missing… like two women who have a history of making harassment complaints that are groundless in the first place.

Perhaps people should be investigating the David Axelrod link to the women who have come forward. It might help their credibility or lack thereof……

Alan Joyce should be sacked

As an undergraduate in Economics and Commerce, I studied both Labour Law and Industrial Relations. I found the subject fascinating, even though I was critical of the union movement at the time. This was in the era when Robert J. Hawke was the President of the ACTU. It was a period where there was a lot of industrial action, lots of strikes but I cannot remember any lockouts. However, in later years we had the dramatic Patrick’s lockout, and as I recall there was the drama of an airline strike where the Air Force was brought in to run Air Traffic Control. In those early days, especially in Victoria we had a lot of disruption from the workers involved in generating electricity, as well as train drivers and tram drivers. For me personally, this meant having to find alternative means to get to school, and later to university. From this background I have never been union friendly. However, that does not mean that I will not support union action when I believe that there is sufficient reason to “put up a fight”. It does not mean that I believe that unions should be disbanded. Rather, it means I believe that people have a right to join a union if they desire, and that there are some protections that are afforded by being a member of a union, but at the same time, the unions should not have the right to spend and waste the members’ money, especially on political donations and the funding of advertising for the ALP.

This leads me into the issues relating to the extraordinary action taken by QANTAS management aka Alan Joyce, and why I believe that the man should be sacked as the CEO of QANTAS and that the position should be given to someone who knows the culture, rather than some upstart outsider who had no experience with a large airline before taking on that role.

What most people do not understand is that there is indeed a culture at QANTAS that needs to be reformed. The engineers need to get over their white shirt attitude and get on the floor to properly oversee the workforce, but that is not the issue here. The real issue is the lack of job stability at QANTAS since Alan Joyce became the CEO.

For a long time I have been critical of the manner in which redundancies are announced at QANTAS. This is based upon personal (family) experience, where a member of my family was employed as a senior executive for a small successful business unit within QANTAS catering to the defence industry. He was tapped on the shoulder to go, having been there for a short time, because of the pay that he was receiving. It is hard to believe that they accepted what he had asked to join them, and then he was made redundant because of what he was earning. However, that is the way that QANTAS works and as a result of the lack of foresight, the business unit could not carry out its defence contracts and subsequently failed.  That lack of foresight is on the shoulders of one Alan Joyce who had taken over as CEO at the time that this family member was made redundant.

The number of redundancies at QANTAS have been doubling and even tripling over a period of a few short years. There are thousands who have been losing their jobs. The redundancies are without rhyme and reason because people are left grappling with picking up the extra workload.

With this background, that is the job instability that has been introduced under Alan Joyce as CEO, it is also necessary to look at what Alan Joyce desires for QANTAS. It is his desire to make QANTAS an Asian airline. In order to achieve that desire, he wants to shift the operation offshore. Under the arrangements when QANTAS was privatised that desire is not possible to be achieved. This means that they only way that Alan Joyce could achieve his goal with QANTAS is to trash the brand. This is what he did when he planned the lockout to coincide with people travelling to Melbourne for the running of the Melbourne Cup. He had no qualms about inconveniencing the travelling public with his one upmanship.

I have a reason for mentioning my own background with regards to at least a smattering of understanding of industrial relations. It is because at the very heart of these negotiations is the ambit claims that the union will put forward on behalf of the members who are being represented at the negotiation table. In the case of some of the QANTAS claims, one such ambit claim is the request for an aircraft hangar. I am not sure if the union is absolutely serious about that particular request, but I suspect it is placed on the table in order to gain a concession with regard to job stability.

At the very heart of the union claims and negotiations is the desire for job stability. This is a classic example of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The demand for a pay increase covers the desire for job stability. It is the need for job stability that is the greatest need, not the desire for a pay rise. In this particular case the union have stated that as far as the pay rise is concerned they want about $1 an hour extra. Is that really unreasonable enough to cause a lockout?

There had been some rolling stoppages that disrupted some members of the travelling public but the industrial action was not as chaotic or as disruptive as we have witnessed from union actions in the past.  However, management at QANTAS had been quite belligerent, and instead of allowing the baggage handlers one hour for a meeting, they said the baggage handlers would be docked a half-day pay. So what did the baggage handlers do? They had a half-day strike. In other words the industrial action was initiated by management aka Alan Joyce.

Alan Joyce did not suddenly come up with the decision for the lockout. This was something that was planned several months in advance. The culture at QANTAS management is that everything is planned in advance. He had to negotiate with other airlines to take on the QANTAS passengers that were stranded and on top of that he had to arrange for the hotel bookings for staff and passengers stranded overseas.  He did all of this secretly over a period of months.

It is disgusting that Alan Joyce granted himself a very huge pay rise – 71% in one year – and then he had the hide to claim that the airline could not afford pay increases for the 35,000 staff that are still employed with the airline. That huge increase could easily have paid for the union demands for a pay increase. Alan Joyce as CEO is not worth the $5.1 million that he is now earning. It would be better to sack him and choose an executive who is not a little twerp like Alan Joyce.

As of the early hours of this morning, the Fair Work Australia judges panel have ordered QANTAS to end the lockout, and so the planes will be flying again. My view is that the lockout was unnecessary action, but it was planned a very long time ago. Management should be listening to the staff and that means giving the assurances with regard to job stability.

 

I can see the fire from my place

More than 10 years ago, I was a witness to an emergency situation in Canberra. It was a siege situation. The man involved shot the boyfriend of his estranged wife at the Dickson pool. He then proceeded along Northbourne Ave (would have been a few cars behind us) until he reached the building where his wife worked inside the shop that was used to sell train tickets to the public. On the floor above the shops was the radio station 2CA. The man moved across the road in his vehicle and slammed through the shop window. He then got out of the vehicle, turned the taps of the gas cylinders on, and then he shot at the gas that escaped, causing an explosion and fire. This happened as I got out of the car and then headed towards the office where I worked at the time, in a building on the opposite side of the road. By the time I got to the first floor the fire brigade was on site, a ride on mower had been abandoned, and there was a policeman running around the building moving from column to colum with his gun drawn (I am not kidding the whole scene was surreal). The first thing I did was get on the phone to the opposite station 2CC and gave them the information. (my call was on the TV ).

This morning when we woke up the radio station sounded rather strange. The announcer was talking about something happening at Mitchell. What is amazing is that 2CC was in Bellenden Street Mitchell during that earlier time. Mark is doing a great job on the radio this morning, and this is the best broadcast that I have ever heard. I live in a suburb that was given the warning to stay indoors – we were in the exclusion zone!!  We did not hear the explosions during the early hours of the morning. Amazing because we are both quite restless. The radio station 2CA had moved out of the Civic area and has premised in Mitchell. Both radio stations are in the middle of the area most affected, but they have via modern technology been able to hook up something and have this one broadcast.

When we heard the news I actually looked out of the window and then looked out the front door. I saw the black plume of smoke. I saw more than that and I actually saw the flames leaping in the air from my place. Our house is situated on a hill so we have a good view of the surrounding area. We can see the black smoke from the front balconey. Whilst looking at the plume that is coming from the fire in Mitchell, yes it is true that before 7.00 am I did see flames leaping from the site from my place.

Why I believe that kangaroos are pests

Australians love to tell people from other countries that we have kangaroos bounding down the main street. The truth here is, if you live in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or even Adelaide then the chances of seeing a kangaroo bouncing down the middle of the main street are absolutely minimal. However, if you live in Canberra, then there is a very high possibility that a person will see such an event. I swear that I saw it for myself, a kangaroo bounding down a main street in the middle of Civic and not even caring about the traffic. I admit to being shocked at spotting the kangaroo. The fact is that the kangaroos occupy the grounds of the ANU and the kangaroos do get around!!

In the past there have been culls of kangaroos from the grounds of the Governor’s mansion, as well as the grounds of The Lodge. There have been controversial culls from paddocks around Belconnen. The only controversy has come from the fart-sniffing do gooders that belong to Animal Welfare as well as PETA. The fact is that those nincompoops should mind their own business, and get out of the way. There are more than enough kangaroos in Australia, and the population of kangaroos around Canberra continues to grow.

The kangaroos have been encroaching into the surburban areas of Canberra, and this includes large numbers around the Gungahlin region. They also occupy lands that are vacant along the Cotter Road, as well as Majura Road.

The kangaroos pose a threat to motorists, especially at night, and especially on tracts of road that are not well lit such as the Cotter road. Unfortunately, something that my husband had dreaded finally happened late on Friday night when a kangaroo stepped onto the road and he could not avoid it. His car has considerable damage to the front. The Cotter Road has a speed limit of 80km. He was doing the speed limit and he tried to brake to avoid the animal. However, he could not avoid the impact.

What is the solution to this problem? First of all, the animal rights activists should just piss off and mind their own business.  The culls around Canberra are necessary because of the increasing population of the kangaroos. Second, the cull itself should consist of two phases, the first being to shoot some of the animals, and the second being to capture and remove a large portion of the other animals, and that means removing the kangaroo population where it is encroaching on the urban areas. Fourth, it might be time for the government of the ACT to consider some kind of fencing along a stretch of road such as the Cotter Road that will stop the roos from coming in contact with vehicles. (I do not know if it is possible, but I do think that if there is a kangaroo proof fence then property that borders the Cotter road should have that fence!!)

No one wants to harm our native animals, but when we get to over-population of those same animals then action to reduce their numbers becomes necessary. This is especially so because it is harder to see these animals at night, and they pose a threat to the general population. It is better to have them removed to more remote locations where they still have access to food for their basic needs but they are less likely to impact upon the population as a whole.

 

Paid propaganda – outrage from some, silence from others

The past week has in many respects, been a very exciting one. It has seen the beginning of the end of the Gadhafi regime.The end game in Libya began in earnest last weekend with the very swift fall of Tripoli.

Even though there were hints to be found in news reports coming out of Libya, we were not aware (and with good reason) that there were sleeper cells in Tripoli. These cells that consisted of young professionals and students were secretly trained and secretly armed with weapons. Imagine for a moment, that these people actually paid the Gadhafi regime soldiers up to $1500 for their guns back in February. In truth that is a sign that those soldiers who sold their weapons had not taste for the killing of their own people.

The battle for the government of Libya has been one where there has been a lot of propaganda. Libya’s candidate for the Baghdad Bob award is Moussa Ibrahim, a relative of Gadhafi. He was the one put in charge of telling the journalists kept at the Rixos hotel what was mostly a bunch of lies. Right from the start of the NATO action the Gadhafi regime has lied. Oddly enough, the majority of the Libyan people never fell for the lies, and they continued their resistance. The revolutionary National Transitional Council has not been much better with the level of its own propaganda. Their most amusing propaganda has to be the announcement that they had captured Saif al-Islam, who then turned up three days later. That little piece of propaganda was actually very effective because it helped to stir up the people of Tripoli to get on with the job of ousting the Gadhafi family once and for all.

During the whole period I have not been seduced by the regime propaganda because the lies were indeed quite transparent. This included the first claims of civilian deaths caused by NATO bombing. It was very obvious that the regime was lying. The truth happened to be that the regime was taking bodies from the hospital (those bodies were people they had killed) and scattered them at sites that had been struck by NATO bombs. The regime could not even get a good crowd to the funerals for the alleged victims and then, on top of that there was photographic evidence that the graves of those supposed victims remained empty!! 

What I had noticed is that there was a steady trickle of people, both on the left and right who had started waging their own propaganda war against NATO. The propaganda came from Venezuela, Cuba, South Africa, and other African countries. It is no surprise that the propagandists were either friends of Gadhafi or they were recipients of largesse from Gadhafi (African nations). Then there were the dopey individuals who were constant commenters at various news sites. Some of them have exaggerated the number of deaths within Tripoli over the past week, but they fail to mention that the majority of those deaths (which is probably a third of what is now being claimed) were due to Gadhafi goon snipers. For example a little girl was shot through the head as she rose from her bed and her mother was shot in her shoulder when she went to help the child. Yes, the sniper was trained upon the open window of that particular house. Then there are the children (mostly young boys) who were shot and killed by snipers in the streets. The picture that I saw was of a young boy with the pre-Gadhafi regime flag on his face. Hundreds were killed inside Abu Salim prison prior to their guards fleeing. In another location at least 50 were killed by members of the Khamis brigade before they fled. Some of those killed at that location were soldiers who had obviously refused to fire upon their own. The whereabouts of up to 50,000 people remain unknown.

The Gadhafi goons had tried to think of everything to try and turn the tide against the NATO action, including plans to pay certain individuals to start up or even step up their propaganda. It is understood that the American Dennis Kuchinich was approached, but he did not travel to Libya because of the danger, and on the British side a number of names have been mentioned including a member of the House of Lords, Lord Ahmed, who has laughed at the idea of being paid for propaganda against NATO. On the other hand, the lawyer, Sir Geoffrey Nice was prepared to step up to the ICC and try to prevent the moving forward of the warrants for the arrest of Gadhafi, his son Saif, and his brother in law al-Senussi. The law firm had been made $350,000 for work done up until the end of July.

One of the Gadhafi regime methods was to try and establish a think tank, but David Holie, who was named in those documents that have been found denies that he has been paid anything from the regime.

Some of the people mentioned really do seem to be willing to sell their souls to help Gadhafi, but others, despite their visits to Tripoli have remained on the outside. None of them seem to have been in the slightest bit curious about the level of repression within Tripoli.

This makes me think that Human Rights Watch was paid a sum of money by the Gadhafi regime for some of its reporting, especially its reporting on the numbers that had been killed and wounded in Benghazi and Misrata. Their findings seemed to have been very much on the nose, as they claimed extremely low numbers of people killed that went against what had been reported from various other sources. In fact their numbers were ludicrously low considering that a woman and her 4 children were killed in one incident alone in Misrata. The propagandists have been very careful to play down the threats that were made by Saif al-Islam. They also played down the fact that the tanks had arrived at the outskirts of Benghazi and that the bombardment of the town had commenced at the point when NATO began its action. They also neglected to mention the onslaught in Misrata where hundreds had been killed and wounded, and they failed to mention the mining of Misrata harbour.

Whilst the people fighting in opposition from Gadhafi are far from perfect, and yes there are possible atrocities that need attention, the fact is that the regime atrocities were so bad over the 40 plus years of the Gadhafi regime, that is is possible to forgive those few incidents because the world will be rid of one of the worst terrorists in our modern times.

Yes, Gadhafi is a terrorist who is worse than Osama Bin Laden. His reach into Africa tells most of the story. Libya financed a lot of those actions in Darfur and elsewhere – yes it really was Gadhafi who was sponsoring that terrorism. Gadhafi was sponsoring the actions of Charles Taylor and he propped up a number of the African tin pot dictators with money that belonged to the Libyan people.

The strongest of the Gadhafi propaganda has been the claim that the opposition consisted of members of Al Qaeda. He variously described this opposition as thugs, rats, armed street gangs, and drug addicts. The Libyans are not amused. Yes, there are some fighters who are members of the Islamic Libyan National Front (or whatever the real name is), and yes some actually hired themselves out as mercenaries to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The man who has now declared himself in charge of fighters in Tripoli has been questioned by the CIA. We shall see if this man is true to his word with regards to his own direction. The mere fact that there are Islamists in the ranks has led to a fear that weapons will fall into the hands of Al Qaeda. This was an idea fuelled by the Gadhafi regime, and if any weapons did flow in that direction, then I would suggest that Gadhafi himself was responsible with the intention of placing blame on the opposition. However, were those first rumours even true? There was talk of weapons being sent to Hezbollah but I never saw confirmation of those rumours. They were fuelled by the regimes in Algeria and Chad. How interesting since both of these regimes support Gadhafi.

Then there was another outfit that was posting out of Algeria, and there was a curious claim about a border clash between “opposition people and Algerians”, except that it probably never happened in the first place. I suspect that this was written by Gadhafi regime people and again it was meant to sow doubt in the minds of westerners already suspicious of Muslims.

Whilst I cannot entirely trust the members of the NTC, and I think that they have problems with credibility, I remain firmly on their side. It is not easy trying to look into the background of the conflict. I do think that anyone who stays rooted in the period of the protests against the Mohammed cartoons, is being extremely shallow. Amazingly the people who have in my view presented the worst analysis of the situation have been people who should know better – I am looking at you Diana West and Michael Rosenthal. The shallowness of the last Diana West opinion piece was actually quite breath-taking. I really do expect better out of this particular writer. Both she and Rosenthal failed miserably because they remained rooted in the Mohammed cartoon protests and then tarred everyone with the same brush. They did not seem to care about the long sordid history of repression by the regime in Libya, and that these people were motivated in a very different way from those in Egypt. They failed to understand the reason for protests in Benghazi and they fell right into the Gadhafi trap of writing off the people who were fighting for their lives against a madman who was in control of their country.

Propaganda is a powerful tool in any war. It is who wins the propaganda war who usually has the upper hand. Gadhafi has been proved a liar, and even his successful propaganda about his so called step daughter Hana Gadhafi has been proven false. The little girl that we were told was killed during an air raid ordered by President Reagan, and seen as the reason for the Lockerbie bombing did not die. She is alive and she is now a doctor.

The worst kind of crime: kidnapped children

As the search continues to find the remains of Daniel Morcombe, once again I have been reminded of another kidnap and murder of a young boy. This one is quite personal because the Ross family had been my neighbors for at least 6 months prior to them moving to the north-west of Australia. Gerard Ross plus his brother and little sister had played with my own sons in my old house in Canberra.

The Ross family were Scottish immigrants, and they lobbed into Canberra for a short time whilst Mr. Ross had work within the construction industry. As recent arrivals they wanted to see Australia. I remember seeing Mrs Ross at Mass on the Sunday mornings, but it was their children who had befriended my own children, and they spent many hours together playing in my home. The boys used to get together to play cricket and do those boy things.

The day that I learned about the kidnap and murder of Gerard was quite a shock. By that time we had moved to Sydney. My sons were watching T.V. and on one of those crime shows – it was either Australia’s Most Wanted or Crime Stoppers. They were looking for information regarding Gerard’s disappearannce. My sons were quite literally shocked as they recognized the boy, his brother and the parents on TV and they produced photographs of Gerard that they had taken.

The Rockingham kidnap and death of Gerard Ross, aged 11 has never been resolved. There is almost no mention of Gerard’s death, or the fact that this is an unsolved crime, which has startling similarities to that of Daniel Morecombe. The W.A. police have shown absolutely no urgency in trying to solve the crime and bring this boy’s killer or killers to justice.

Gerard is another child that was taken by a pedophile. In this respect his kidnap and death mirrors that of Daniel Morcombe but it happened several years earlier. There is so much similarity that I find it rather eerie to see a picture of Daniel Morcombe at age 13 because he looks very similar in build to Gerard Ross. There are other similarities since Daniel was also taken by a pedophile, and one of the persons of interest in the Morcombe case was also a person of interest in the Ross case.

The difference here is that the police have now arrested a suspect in the Morcombe case, and they are now looking to find the body so that Daniel’s parents can have some closure. In the meantime, in West Australia, there has been no progress in finding the kindapper, rapist and murderer of Gerard Ross.

After the sensational breakthrough in the Morcombe case I did some Internet searches to see what if anything had transpired with regard to Gerard Ross’s murderer. It was a big, “if anything”, because nothing has happened since his 1997 disappearance and murder. This is when I came across a whole series of unsolved murders in West Australia, including the Claremont serial killings. The police, in their usual fashion concentrated upon the wrong people for the crime. I am thinking that one particular person provided evidence that a possible killer, who was not one of the leading suspects probably was correct about her “ex-partner”. Yet the police refused to follow up on the information that the woman provided. This is another unresolved case.

At the same time, I looked up information on some of the other unsolved crimes, one in particular I remembered because it was close to where I lived in Victoria, which was the disappearance of Eloise Worledge. The police think that the father had something to do with her disappearance because he was in the process of separating from Eloise’s mother at the time, but did they miss other clues? Maybe, maybe not because the fly-wire screen was cut from the inside, not the outside. Still, since 1976 when Eloise disappeared they have not turned up her body, and no one has been arrested.

Then there is the disappearance of Linda Stilwell from St. Kilda beach (I think it was, or was it Elwood or Brighton), and that of the Beaumont children. It has always been believed that those disappearances are somehow linked. All the same, there has not been any progress in any of these cases. Perhaps they really do have the person responsible behind bars. We just do not know because no one is taking the time to resolve those mysteries.

Last Sunday I was really irked upon reading a letter to the Editor in the Sunday Telegraph. This particular fart-sniffing individual thinks it is a waste of money to try and find the remains of Daniel Morcombe. It is obvious that the person either has a loose screw in place of a brain, or has never suffered the loss of a family member due to the horrendous crimes of kindap, rape and murder. Well, I have suffered as a result of such a loss. I saw how it tore my cousin’s family apart as her parents were left grieving for their murdered daughter. My cousin did not reach her 21st birthday. She was a mother of a child who was 2 years old at the time that she was kidnapped, raped and murdered. At least the police did not have to solve the crime because the man killed himself. Yet, the police had ignored my family’s pleas when they notified that she had gone missing from her work-place. They considered the matter as a domestic, which was not the case. My cousin’s husband was not involved in the crime. They did not follow up on the information that my cousin had been kidnapped, put out no alerts, and in the end she died in Merimbula after being kidnapped in Mentone. It has always irked me that the police will often do nothing upon learning that someone has disappeared.

My heart is with the Morcombe family, especially when it has taken so long to find Daniel’s remains and to resolve this mystery. My heart remains with the Ross family who lost their beloved son and brother Gerard.

 

Transformation through music

Classical music is good for the soul. There is something very calming and soothing about classical music, although there is some music that can get on one’s nerves.

An experiment in Venezuela might be the way forward when it comes to reforming people convicted and sent to prison. Venezuela has introduced a program of teaching music to prisoners, which could be risky, but these prisoners see it more as a responsibility.

It is heartening to see so many of the prisoners have decided to join the music program and that even when they make it to the outside, at least there is a possibility of leaving the old gang life behind and forging a new career – in this case a young ex-gang member has managed to turn his life around with a new career and is continuing his music lessons.

This is an interesting experiment. It is better than treating the prisoners as if they are not worthwhile, and it gives them not just a sense of responsibility, but also something else – true self-esteem – as they progress with their learning of music.

Compare this to the model prison experiment in England and Australia (it was brought to Port Arthur and the prisoners who were forced into the model prison went insane), where the prisoners were kept isolated, had to wear bags on their heads and were not treated in a very humane way in my opinion. Without a doubt, this program beats something like the model prisons, and without a doubt this is a good way to bring about change in people who have been caught up in the prison system for whatever reason. NOTE: this might not work in the more hardened cases.

Left wing radio personalities are extremely dumb

Unfortunately for me, I currently live in Canberra. The radio station of choice has been Mix 106. Sadly, with Cam and Lisa going off the air for the morning show, the replacement that was touted for too long a time has proved to be lacking total professionalism. This is the Pete and Bugsie show (ok so that is not her professional name, I do not care because she is terrible).

From the beginning I have disliked this woman. She comes across as a know-it-all feminist type who hates the male species, even if she is married. Her whole style is totally negative and it is horrible.

This morning though, the comments that came from her mouth really took the cake for stupidity. Pete was mentioned that we are having a few mild winter days, which is actually quite normal for this time of year. This totally stupid woman, who obviously does not understand weather patterns, then started spouting that an expected top of 21C was… OMG… wait for it… climate change!!  What a load of hogwash.

This is my second stint in Canberra, and I can certainly remember that by early August Canberra did in fact have mild weather as we came into August, but only for a few days, and then we had more cold. At least twice in my memory some Canberra suburbs have had snow, the type that stays for a little while, on the ground. In fact we also had snow in October. The last time we had the stronger flurries where we actually saw the snow in Harrison was about 3 years ago at this time of year. Nothing new. Yet at the same time, along comes August and there is more sunshine and the temperatures start to rise, just like they are doing this week.

The fact is that those who hype this “climate change” are in fact totally clueless individuals who have no appreciation for weather cycles. There is a pattern to our weather. The cycles vary in length – 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and even 100 years. As an example Parramatta has little plaques up talking about the once in 200 year flood levels. As another example, the extreme high temperatures in late January 2009 were also experienced in 1959, and prior to that in 1939. There was no talk of the alleged man made climate change back then. 

Yet, extremely stupid people, are allowed to tout this garbage on the air, and because it is the government orthodoxy they get away with this kind of stupidity. There is no questioning of this crap. We are supposed to accept the Garbage-In-Garbage-Out propaganda. NO WAY!!

Raising a carbon tax will do nothing to change the temperature variations. It will not stop the once every 100 year flood, or even the once every 40 year flood. It will not stop the bushfires, and will do nothing to change El Nino or La Nina effects. Also, since glaciers can exist without turning to mush with temperatures at 40 degrees C or close to 100 F, then the whole scam needs to be exposed once and for all.

The current hype is nothing more than a big scam. It is designed to be redistribution of wealth by stealth. This is nothing more than a Marxist ploy to gain control over the Australian population.

And yes, I do wish that Mix 106 will review and reconsider that dumb stupid woman who is on during the breakfast show. She is hopeless.