Thursday, June 23, 2016

Federal Services ....

IMG 5949 

Privatization is the buzz word around at the moment.  We have a state and Federal government who are both big on privatization. But how far do people want to think about this as a real concern?

What is already in place here in Australia that is work ready to be changed over immediately the trade deals come into play?

The Australian Public Service Department has been largely contracted out to private corporations.  Immigration Centres are run by Serco Corporation.  My concern at present is with the Police Force of each state as well as our Federal Police Force.  What would life be like under a privatized police service?

Have the officers themselves thought about this scenario becoming a reality?  Has the Police Union addressed this matter?  These are all questions I have about this.  

If I were to rely on my spidey sense I would have to say its a real concern.

The Minister's Council on Asylum Seekers and Detention provides independent advice to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection on policies...   So when you read through you begin to wonder why would SERCO want to cut them out?  See the PDF
.http://www.border.gov.au/AccessandAccountability/Documents/FOI/FA140901146.pdf#search=Serco

There are a lot of reasons why so much privatization is a concern because of the TPP (trade agreements)

British owned corporation SERCO are raking in the money from asylum seekers and detention centres here in Australia.  I find it interesting that it is one of the biggest companies in the world and its British.  (Colonists).
Read this story about "What is SERCO Hiding" from the Sydney Morning Herald in May 2013.
Excerpt:
 “Serco's transition from reporting entity in 2003 to non-reporting entity in 2012 is another in a growing list of known examples of bad financial reporting practice. That list seems to be growing in size even faster than Serco.”
Below here is a tweet I have read that gives me more cause for concern regarding this.

Agencies


Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Jackie Huggins .. Ayr to Inala.

Jackie is a Bidjara / Birri Gubba Juru woman from Queensland. She was born in Ayr and grew up in Inala attending Serviceton State School and Inala State High where she left at age 15.


She returned to study at 26 and three degrees later finished tertiary education in 1989. She says that education was her salvation and encourages others to get a good education for better outcomes for their lives.
Jackie has had a fierce determination to improve the status of her people at all costs.

After 14 years of employment at the University of Queensland Jackie now works as a consultant in Indigenous affairs. Jackie has had a fantastic career so far, meeting Presidents, Prime Ministers and even dining with the Queen. She has been on many boards including the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation 1994-2000, Reconciliation Australia and the Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal Children form Their Families in 1995 to name a few.

Jackie loves to write and has written two books, the biography of her mother, "Auntie Rita" and "Sistergirl" and other numerous articles. Her advice to young Indigenous people is "Be proud of who you are, your family and community. Listen to your heart as well as the wise teachings of life".

For further information about studying at the University of Queensland see: http://www.uq.edu.au/ATSIS/index.html.





Jackie was in school with my brothers and sisters at Inala 4077 Queensland.  My father built a house there because the land was affordable.  He was a paraplegic injured working for the PMG as  lines man.  Other notable people to be in the Inala picture is George Negus who has a younger man before entering journalism  taught at Inala High.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Armidale Tree Change for Govt Department

John-Bradford + Barnaby-Joyce 

Barnaby forgets he is just the Deputy Prime Minister and starts making major decision announcements for clearing it with the Prime Minister.  Barnaby wants to relocate and entire government department to his own electorate in New England in the city of Armidale.

The fall out from this could get interesting.  Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister isn't interesting at all but his major screw ups will be.

Read more at these links
Images @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/98897964@N06/

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

The Internet ... making sense of what it actually is.


SEGA Master System II
Image Source - Flickr
I had children in the eighties.  Game consoles were just taking off as a toy. They were a tool to interact with. .  My son had a Game-Boy and a Sega Master System console game.  Our entire family got involved with this when it was new.  It was exciting to us and we all loved the game known as Road Rash.  Many late nights were spent sitting trying to complete the levels.  

When computers started to poke their noses into peoples lives as a tool of entertainment and record keeping it seemed to me a natural progression from the earlier interactive gaming consoles. 



GameBoy
Image Source - Flickr

I used our families first computer we had acquired in 1998 to type stories.   It was easy to keep these and add to them.  We all played Back Gammon.  I taught my children to play on the computer.  From using the computer to play it was easier for them to move to the game in real time using a proper board.
I was thinking about all the changes we have seen in nearly 18 years of my personal use of the computer in the home and the use of the internet.  I love it.  I have seventy boxes of books I am well versed in carting around the country side in my life moving house - these days all of what is in those reference books can be sourced online.  I still would not discard the books yet or ever.  Maybe I am still caught in the old school mode - maybe I am suspicious still.

I found an article online and I found it interesting to read about the intricacies of some of the speculations and ideologies at the time when the internet was still new.  An article written back in 1999 sheds light on some of this in retrospect.  Its the looking back at this that was so very profound. 
 
Below is an excerpt from an interesting article written on this subject.
The piece first appeared in the News Review section of the Sunday Times on August 29th 1999.

"
How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet" - Please go Here to read this in full.


Because the Internet is so new we still don’t really understand what it is. We mistake it for a type of publishing or broadcasting, because that’s what we’re used to. So people complain that there’s a lot of rubbish online, or that it’s dominated by Americans, or that you can’t necessarily trust what you read on the web. Imagine trying to apply any of those criticisms to what you hear on the telephone. Of course you can’t ‘trust’ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‘trust’ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants.
Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do. For some batty reason we turn off this natural skepticism when we see things in any medium which require a lot of work or resources to work in, or in which we can’t easily answer back – like newspapers, television or granite. Hence ‘carved in stone.

What should concern us is not that we can’t take what we read on the internet on trust – of course you can’t, it’s just people talking – but that we ever got into the dangerous habit of believing what we read in the newspapers or saw on the TV – a mistake that no one who has met an actual journalist would ever make.
One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no ‘them’ out there. It’s just an awful lot of ‘us’.
 Recently, in Australia legislation around the use of the internet as a carriage service has been changed and updated and there has been new legislation introduced regarding its use. 

A lot of users were used to letting it all out there, fully blasting those not liked much in the real world.  The Politicians, Church Leaders, and people had opinions on all things that got up their

noses.  We met people online with similar interests.   Groups formed.  Its been a lot of change and for in some ways these changes have been swift. 

There hardly seems enough time to digest the first part let alone coming to the realization that we have to say nothing about how we feel - as big brother is watching every word we type.  Homeland Security monitors it all in the name of anti-terrorism.

I don't know where this will end up - it is extremely interactive now and all things can be done online and there is far less reason to interact with the world in real time because of this.  How this effects the general consciousness level of the planet is an exciting prospect.  There has never been such instant access to knowledge.

Sunday, June 05, 2016

Angels Archangels and Ascended Masters: ANGELS

Angels Beads

Angels Archangels and Ascended Masters: ANGELS: The word ‘angel’ is derived from the ancient Greek ‘angelos’, meaning ‘messenger’.  Angels act as a bridge, serving as a channel between t...

Thursday, June 02, 2016

COLOURS: Choosing a Car by its Colour - What the Colour o...

COLOURS: Choosing a Car by its Colour - What the Colour o...: Choosing a Car by its Colour  -  What the Colour of Your Car Says About You   There are many different aspects to consider when buying a c...

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

War Rugs documenting a life of War.

russian war rug

War Rug 

I am writing about the war rugs again.  I went looking for the post I wrote a few years back which I recall writing it in my early blogging days.   I was so green in those days. 

If I find it will endeavor to link it to this post. 

The War Rugs are apart of normal life in these countries and its like telling stories here in Australia with the first peoples and the cave and rock painting  and the oral dreaming stories.  The war rugs for these peoples is a record of life woven in carpet. The lives of these people have been have been influenced by war because its all they have ever known.  When I first learned of such a thing as a War Rug I was horrified that the ideology of war was so great it was in their traditional creative works

We must not forget that these are the people who created the Persian Rugs.  They have been rug makers for centuries.  A rug was a temporary floor in the desert.