Candles
in the Darkness
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We sold the Sun for a Peppercorn

7/6/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
We sold the sun for a peppercorn

To industry who promptly closed it down.

Filling the skies with coal- dust and Co2.

They charged us our children’s future

And blindly we paid.

Promises broken

In the land of broken hopes.

 

We gave away our water

To business.

Who taught us lessons in greed

And the price of apathy.

They own what once belonged to all.

Like the sun and wind.

And the broken clay beds of once mighty rivers

Echo those broken promises

Of a government, Orwellian in its thinking

And brutal in its structure.

 

These shady men in power

Do they really believe we don’t know?

They line their pockets with our future

Steal from us with no qualms

Claim we’ve given them permission.

 

They have pimped us out

To greasy bosses and slimy bankers

Not bothering with honest prices

For services we gave them no leave to take.

They have made a brothel of this nation

Sold us down the sludgy river

Thrown our dignity out with our future

While they shake hands in smoke-filled back room deals

 

Arrogant and dangerous

The bully in the playground

Has grown and wears a suit.

He stares with lizard eyes

Holds reign in a parliament of snakes

Where blood runs cold

And empathy is extinguished.

 

Is there no legal precedent to force honesty and transparency from elected government?

This Liberal government, arrogant, ignorant, and misogynistic seems to do what it likes despite sound advice and legal argument?

When a government becomes a dictatorship, when it breaches international laws and human rights surely there must be a way to remove it?

Or do we, as a nation, not care enough?

Will we offer the same excuses as the Germans did after the war? That they didn’t know?

Maybe in a world without twitter it might be possible to claim ignorance. But we can’t claim ignorance any more.

Just apathy.

Evil happens when good men do nothing.

1 Comment

No Jobs on a Dead Planet

6/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Should our current government succeed in overturning the registration of Tasmanian forests as part of the UN World Heritage listings it will be remembered as one of the greatest environmental vandals in history.

Greed must be fought with common sense. This is something the state premier of Tasmania and our current prime minister seem unable to understand. To log the forests will provide a brief window of employment followed by an endless winter of extensive and on-going job losses. Because clearly, Tasmania’s future is in the preservation of what the rest of the country has destroyed. These forests don’t belong to us. They belong to the planet and as such we have a global responsibility to preserve them for future generations. For in them will lie the jobs of the future.

Tourism is Tasmania’s strongest industry. It is clear that Australians and people from all over the world value the island for its natural heritage.

We know only a fraction of their worth in terms of medicines and health benefits.

But we certainly know their worth in terms of ecological diversity. And it’s that diversity which will be the key to our survival in a world rapidly spiralling into desert.

Do we really want the world to assume all Australians believe our environmental heritage doesn’t matter? Do we want the world to see us as so full of greed and ignorance that we will destroy what world keep us living?

We cannot get back what we throw away. Ancient trees cannot be regrown on a whim. It will be 500 years before we see such trees again. And if we destroy them now, will there be any Australia left to mourn them 500 years from now? And if there is, would anyone want to live there?

Wisdom teaches us : There will be no jobs on a dead planet.

Just last year 120,000 hectares of forest were added to a UN World Heritage Area.
But according to the federal government, 74,000 hectares of that don't need protection - a claim that has environmentalists up in arms.
"We have trees here that are 100m tall", Environment Tasmania CEO Charlie Sherwin says.
"They are the tallest hardwood trees on earth. Some of them fell from seed when Leonardo was painting the Mona Lisa."

The forest in question covers areas of the Upper Derwent, the Florentine and Huon Valleys, and the Hartz Mountains.

From an article by Gary Cox SBS World News

 

 


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A Child Born Today Will Never Afford a Doctor

5/13/2014

3 Comments

 
A child born today will never afford a doctor

No University for them

Their schooling will be basic

Poorer schools, fewer teachers, bigger classes

More slipping between the ever widening gaps

They will see their parents destitute

They will look for work but find none

Belittled and blamed

A future begging for charity

No handouts. No jobs. No super. No retirement.

They will see the coral die for coal

Their cities and rivers choke

Their wilderness carved up like a freshly slaughtered pig

Sold to greedy developers

And miners sharing sly pillows with politicians.

 

And around them will stand the ghosts of Christmases Past

Decency, Kindness, Generosity, Empathy.

While the spectres of the Future

Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Prejudice

Howl loathing around their heads.

 

What Happens to ordinary people when Government loses its Integrity?
 

It is May 2014 Australia and the current government has just brought down a budget so severe on the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the sick, the young and the helpless-  there is no precedent.

It has broken faith in the people who voted for it.

It has destroyed hope for the future in those who did not.

There is clear evidence that its motivation is not born out of our current deficit, but out of an intention to restructure Australian society so that all safety nets for the disadvantaged are deleted with the intent to remove them entirely.

Health, education, the unemployed and the elderly are the sacrificial lambs for corporate and political greed.

Few believe there is anything but self interest in these decisions.

We were once a nation of egalitarian principals. We led the world in championing human rights and providing assistance for those who were not as lucky as the majority. We had universal health care, outstanding educational facilities and opportunities which were accessible to all. We protected and preserved environments for future generations.

Is this the government we get when women are ostracised from power? When their voices are so few in Parliament that the bully boys refuse to hear their objections. Or are they so intimidated that they don’t object? Instead, they let bad social policy become the edict of the future.

Women are the carers who will carry the greatest burdens of this budget.

They look after the elderly until they are old themselves. They will provide shelter for their children who are jobless and destitute. They will have less to live on because of their time out of the workforce. They will visit the doctor more. Have greater health costs. Greater responsibilities for the sick and those with disabilities.

The current prime minister claims himself the Minister of Women. Did he consult any of the women in the community to see the effects this budget will have on their daily lives?

A man who has made no statement of concern or support for women when over 200 school girls are kidnapped cannot think much of the importance of women in the world.

A man who cannot find more than a handful of capable women to participate in his cabinet clearly isn’t looking.

How can a government which has sidelined from political decision-making those with a true understanding of society make any responsible decision?

This government DOES NOT represent the people of this nation. It can’t if it fails to represent more than half the population.

Rich white men will only ever represent other rich white men.

All others, particularly women, are fuel for exploitation.

 


3 Comments

I am NOT complicit!

1/16/2014

16 Comments

 
 If I don’t open my mouth and speak up then I will appear complicit.

And I am NOT complicit.

I believe in human rights, that refugees have a right to shelter and protection, not persecution and detention.

I believe women are equal and should have equal representation in government, media, sports, work and opportunity. I know this is not the reality. But it needs to change.

I believe we have an obligation to this planet to care for it. It has nurtured us for millennia. But if we don’t stop our insatiable exploitation of its resources it will die. And we with it.

I believe the purpose of the economy is to serve its people, not enslave the people to the economy.

I believe governments are answerable to their people.

I believe History teaches us lessons which many ignore.

Things need to change.

I need to speak out.

One candle in the darkness looking for others.

I know you’re there. Perhaps together we can build a better world.

This is the first of many candles, match- strikes, flares and calls out into the wilderness. Born of a feeling of frustration and hopelessness with our current government and a society which seems blind and apathetic in the face of the suffering of others.

Please feel free to join me.

An ocean of flickering lights will bring hope to many, including ourselves.

We CAN change the world!

16 Comments

    siobhan colman

    Shining a light in the darkness.

    Human rights

    The Environment

    www.siobhancolman.com



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