Saturday, December 27, 2014

Swedish flag banned at Swedish primary school




This article is translated from Swedish to English due to huge interest from foreign readers around the world.
25.12.2014
The students at the Swedish elementary school Söndrumsskolan got a public message from the school principal saying that all use of the swedish flag is prohibited. – We want to make sure the students do not offend anyone using the flag, principal Hans Åkerman told Nyheter Idag.
The elementary school “Söndrumsskolan” is located in Halmstad, south Sweden. The school has previously attracted media attention when the school management ordered a graffiti painting on one of the school walls by artist Carolina Falkholt. The painting visualize the spreading of naked women’s legs wearing fishnet stockings. This attracted strong criticism from local politician Håkan Wallin (FP). Now a new infected debate flared up at the school when the school administration has issued new rules on how to use the Swedish flag.
Swedish flag is prohibited
A masquerade, where a student painted his face in the Swedish flag colors and even used a toy gun, has provoked reactions from the school board on Söndrumsskolan (Söndrum School). Principals Hans Åkerlund and Maria Rüter has now informed about the new rules for school activities.
The rules communicated from the two principals states that the Swedish flag is banned for use with the exception of public ‘flag days’ in the calendar, such as the swedish National Day, and in the event of international exchange with foreign students. Any other use of the Swedish flag is prohibited. When ‘Nyheter Idag’ spoke to principal Hans Åkerlund he explains the idea behind the new rules.
He claims that using the flag in a wrong manner could offend students. However, when asked, principal Åkerman says there have not been any previous problems at the school where anyone felt offended by the Swedish flag, nor did the student have any bad intentions with his swedish flag face painting.
– The rules are a preventive measure, Åkerlund says in telephone when we speak with him.
Critics claim Sweden suffers from “political correctness”
The original story, dated 23:rd December, sparked debate on social forums in Sweden. Critics claim that this is typical behaviour of anxious employees working within the public sector, where decision-making can easily go wrong. On twitter, some people claimed this story was related to Islam or muslims, but there is nothing that provides support for that theory.
Still, it wasn't clear who the principal thought might be offended by the Swedish flag. When we spoke to him, he meant that students from different backgrounds might get offended, without clarify it more than that.
The written rules state that using the Swedish flag in a wrong manner could constitute the crime ‘hate speech’. When asked about this, principal Åkerlund explained that ‘students with foreign background could get offended if they see someone wearing a Swedish flag, especially together with a toy gun’.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Did Ukraine shoot down Malaysian Airlines MH17?




Russia now says they have a secret witness which proves that it was Ukraine and not pro-Russian rebels who shot down Malaysian Airlines MH17. 
A man who was at an airfield in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk has come forward prepared to give evidence that he saw a Ukrainian military Sukhoi-25 jet take off on 17 July with air to air rockets and return without them.

Here is the interview in full.

"Where were you July 17, 2014, the day when the Malaysian Boeing was shot down?" 
"I was on the territory of Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk, in Aviatorskoe village. There's a common airport there. Fighters and helicopters were based there. The planes would regularly go on sorties, Su-25 fighter jets would bomb Donetsk and Luhansk."

Did the planes fly operationally every day?"
"They did, every day."

"Why do you suggest that these planes could be related to the crash of the Boeing?" 
"For several reasons. Out of eight planes that were based there, only two were outfitted with air-to-air missiles. The missiles were mounted on those two planes."

"Why? Were there battles in the air?"
"No, the missiles were mounted on the aircraft to cover them up in the air, just in case. Basically, the planes were armed with ammunition for ground operations, such as unguided missiles and bombs."

"Tell us about July 17th."
"The planes were flying regularly that day. They were flying the whole day, since early morning. In the afternoon, about an hour before the Boeing was shot down, three strike fighters took off for a mission. I do not remember the time exactly. One of the aircraft was equipped with such missiles. It was a Su-25."

"Did you personally see that?"
"Yes, I did." 

"Where was your observation point?"
"On the territory. I won't say specifically."

"Did you have a chance to see what was being suspended to the pylons of the aircraft? Could you be confused between air-to-air and ground-to-air missiles?"
 "No, I could not mix them up. They vary in size, fin assembly, colouration and the guiding head. It is very easy to identify them. In general, after a while, only one plane returned, two others were shot down, somewhere in the east of Ukraine, so I was told. One plane returned, on which those missiles were suspended."

"Did it return without the missiles?"
"Without missiles. The pilot was very scared."

"Are you familiar with that pilot, have you ever seen him?" 
"Yes."

"Can you say what his name is?"
"His last name is Voloshin." 

"Was he alone in the plane?'
"Yes, he was. The aircraft is designed for one person."

"Do you know his name?"
"Vladislav, I think. I can not say for sure. He's a captain."

"So Captain Voloshin returned. Next?"
"He returned without ammunition."

"The missiles were gone?"
"Yes." 

"So the plane returned from a mission, you were not aware about the crash of the Boeing yet, but you were somehow surprised with the absence of air-to-air missiles.. How come?"
"Those missiles are not included in the basic ammunition. They can be suspended on a plane following a special order. As a rule, they tried not to fly aircraft with those missiles, because one cannot move such missiles in the air just like that. It's possible to hang only two such missiles on this plane. They have never been used before. They had been decommissioned. However, a week before the crash of the Boeing, the use of those missiles was urgently extended. The missiles had not been used for many years."

"Why?"
"Their resource expired. They are of the Soviet production."

"Did they hang them on the plane that day?"
"They were all the time with those missiles."

"But they did not fly?"
"They tried not to, as every flight reduces resource. Yet, the plane took off that day."

"And it returned without them?"
"Yes. As long as I know the pilot a little ... it is quite possible that when two aircraft were shot down before his eyes, he simply showed a frightened, inadequate reaction. He could launch the missiles at the Boeing out of fright or for revenge. Maybe, he took it for some other combat aircraft."

"Were they the missiles with homing heads?"
"Yes."

"Do they search for the target themselves?"
"No. It is the pilot who sets the target. Then he launches a missile, and it flies to the target."

"What else do you remember from that day? What did the pilot say?"
"The phrase that he said when he was taken off the plane: "Wrong plane." And in the evening, there was a phrase that he said answering a question from another pilot, who asked Voloshin: "What happened to the plane?" To which he replied: "The plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Was the pilot serving there for long? How old is he?"
"Voloshin is about 30 years. His unit is based in Nikolaev. They were sent to Dnepropetrovsk. Before that, he had been to Chuguev, near Kharkov. They were  bombing Donetsk and Luhansk during all that time. And, according to a serviceman from the unit in Nikolaev, they still continue to do it."

"Did the pilots have good combat experience?"
"Those who were there they were experienced. The Nikolaev unit was the best unit in Ukraine in 2013, I think."

"Did Pilots try to discuss the story of the Boeing?"
"All attempts to discuss it would be immediately suppressed. The pilots, they would interact with each other, and they were so ... proud."

"What happened to this pilot, Captain Voloshin, after they learned about the Boeing?"
'They continued the sorties. The pilots were the same."

"Let's try to simulate events. How could they develop? Three aircraft flew on a combat mission. They found themselves in the zone, in which the passenger Boeing was flying. Two aircraft were shot down. Captain Voloshin got nervous and scared, and perhaps he took the Boeing for a combat aircraft?"
"Maybe. The distance was large, so he could not see what kind of plane it was exactly."

"From what distance can those missiles be launched?" 
"From about 3-5 km, they can set a target." 

"What about the speed difference between a combat aircraft and a Boeing?
"It doesn't matter: a missile has a pretty good speed. A plane can - at its maximum altitude of 7,000 meters - easy fix the target. The flight range of the missile is more than 10 kilometers."

"At what distance does this missile explode? Can it hit a target and then explode? 
"It can, depending on the modification. It can literally fly into the body and it can also explode at a distance of 500 meters."

"We worked at the crash site of the Boeing and noticed that fragments hit the body of the aircraft in a very concentrated way. It looked like it exploded just two meters away from the Boeing." 
"There is such a missile, it explodes like shrapnel."

"Ukraine stated that they had no sorties that day. We checked various sources on the downed aircraft. Ukraine denies that its warplanes were flying that day."
"I know about it. Ukraine also said that those two aircraft were shot down on December 16, not on December 17. They repeatedly changed the date. But in fact, sorties would be conducted daily. I saw it myself. There were sorties made even during the time of the truce, however, less often."

"What weapons were there on the aircraft at your airport? Were phosphorous bombs used or incendiary mixtures? The Ukrainian artillery was using them actively on the ground."
"I did not see phosphorous bombs. They used volume-detonating bombs, though."

"Are they banned?"
"Yes, they are. The bomb was designed for Afghanistan. It was banned under some convention, I do not remember exactly which one. The bomb scorches everything out."

"Were they mounted on aircraft and then used in combat action?"
"Yes. There were also banned cluster bombs. An aviation cluster bomb, depending on the size, can strike very large targets. To completely destroy a stadium, one bomb is enough."

"Why were they using such weapons?"
"They were following orders. Whose orders exactly remains unclear."

"Was the main purpose of such weapons - intimidation?"
"No - maximum destruction of manpower." 

"Why did you go to Russia and decide to tell us about it? You're not the only witness!"
"The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine intimidated all. People can be beaten for every careless word, or jailed for any insignificant suspicion of being sympathetic to Russia or to the militia. I was against the "anti-terrorist operation" from the start. I do not agree with the policy of the Ukrainian administration. A civil war is a wrong way to go. Killing your own people is not normal. I do not want to stay in Ukraine to be involved in all that."


Pravda.Ru

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

British paedophile Douglas Slade





A rich British paedophile, out on bail for sexually abusing children at Amsic Elementary School in Angeles City, is still paying children from the same school around $4 (Australian) for sex acts and photos.

His name is Douglas Slade 73, who once said "If you want to have sex with children, don't bottle it up - just do it!"

But there's a reason why sex charges against him are regularly dropped - he donates a lot of money to the school and gives money to the parents of his victims to drop the charges.  During an ITV documentary in 1995, he boasted about how easy it was to stay clear of the law by bribing prosecutors.






His new home overlooks the school for boys 8 to 12 years old and they line up outside his house, hoping to be invited in for 150 pesos.  He comes out and picks the ones he wants.  Little girls are also keen to be included but so far, he only want the boys.


In the 1970s, Slade made headlines as a founder of the Paedophile Information Exchange and also headed a group called Paedophile Action Liberation who wanted to legalise child sex.  

In July this year, Slade was arrested when he sent his laptop for repairs and the technician found images of naked children believed to be from the school opposite his home and reported him to the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation.  But he had no fear of the law.  His lawyer said the images were stolen and he walked out on bail.

Children from poor countries are so vulnerable and the Philippines is paedophile heaven for deviates like Slade.

Paedophilia is now a well-established world-wide underground business which seems to be growing, and parents everywhere have to hold their children closer than ever.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Islamic fanatic takes hostages in Sydney cafe





Our state politicians - those people who are supposed to keep us safe - have let us down badly. They are directly responsible for the death of two innocents who were killed when a Muslim fanatic took hostages at a Sydney cafe on Monday.  They wrote the bail laws that allowed madmen like Sheik Haron to walk the streets of Sydney.

When it was all over, a petition with 40,000 signatures surfaced, calling for immediate changes but the government said we have to wait until the end of January 2015 before it takes affect.

Man Haron Manis 50, was born in Iran as Manteghi Bourjerdi and came to Australia in 1996 as a refugee.  He wrote hate mail to relatives of fallen Australian soldiers who served in Afghanistan and was a serious sexual predator.  He used taxpayer's money to try and get his conviction overturned and took it all the way to the High Court, but last Friday his appeal was denied.

Monis, who called himself Sheik Haron, was charged with helping his live-in girlfriend Amirah Droudis murder his ex-wife and set her body alight in a stairwell last year and two months ago, he was charged with over 40 sexual offences.  So it's fair to say his past was finally catching up with him.

On 12 December 2013, Magistrate Darryl Pearce gave Haron and Amirah bail at Penrith Local Court.  On 26 May 2014, bail was given by Magistrate Joan Baptie at Parramatta Local Court under the same bail conditions given by Magistrate Pearce.

All Monis had to do was surrender his passport, report to a police and promise not to go near witnesses in the upcoming murder trial. But even more bizarre - his girlfriend - charged with the actual murder, also got bail and is still walking around Sydney as free as a bird.


But will these new laws be tough enough? For serious offences, the onus will be on the accused to "show cause" why their detention is not justified.  I don't see how this hollow statement will not be easily manipulated by clever lawyers.

"Islam is the religion of peace, that's why Muslims fight against the terrorism of America and its allies" Monis tweeted recently.  

His facebook page, which was shut down during the siege, had 14,754 "likes" so there are plenty more still out there just like him.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Muslim father prays for death of PM's daughters






The father of an Australian girl who went to a private Anglican school and enjoyed a typical Aussie lifestyle until she met her husband, is planning to sue the Australian government.


Amira


His daughter Amira 22, went to Syria to be with her husband Tyler Perry, also known as Yusef Ali whom she married in 2013.

Her body was found shot and dismembered beside her husband's in a house in Aleppo, three weeks after she left Australia.

According to Mohamed Karroum, Australian authorities are to blame for his daughter's death because they allowed radical Islamic recruiters into the country and they also 'allowed her to leave.'






But that's not all.

Mohamed Karroum also said "I'm praying to the Lord every day, Tony Abbott, please Lord, let him lose one of his daughters, either in sickness or in accident or something, please Lord."

He is now looking for a lawyer to help him take the federal government to court.

Here is just another example of why Muslims in Australia are so unpopular.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Uber - the new taxi experience





Uber drivers use their own private vehicles as unlicensed taxis to collect passengers who have hailed a cab using Uber's smartphone app.








From Uber website

The idea is simple.  With UberPool, you share a ride and split the cost with another person who just happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route.  The beauty though, is that you still get Uber-style on-demand convenience and reliability:  just push the button like before and get a car in five minutes.  When we find a match, we notify you of your co-rider's first name.  Even if we don't find an UberPool match for you, we'll give you a discount on your ride.
Complaints about Sydney and Melbourne's taxis are on the rise, largely because 25 per cent of accepted bookings don't result in a pick-up, particularly if you are on a major road or only need a short ride.

Passengers love Uber because they are reliable and the fleet of black Holden Caprice, Audi and Mercedes vehicles are classy.  Drivers love Uber because they fill in their quiet time with extra work to boost their revenue. 

And it's true, getting a taxi when you need one is sometimes hard work, especially if the driver isn't interested in going your way, which happens all the time.  So there's no doubt that Uber is taking Sydney and Melbourne by storm, its quick, convenient and cheap.





But there's a problem. Because it's become so popular so quickly, there hasn't been enough time to screen drivers properly so ladies, there's a possibility you could get a creep who fancies his chances. 

On November 16, a Chicago woman was allegedly raped by a driver who asked her to sit in the front because he wasn't familiar with the area.

Also in November, Uber suspended operations in the state of Nevada after a judge granted the state's request to block the company.  They argued successfully that drivers' ability to use their personal cars to carry paid passengers goes against the rights of the taxi companies.

A London woman was offered $31 Uber credit after her driver allegedly "asked me if I wanted him to go down on me."  He was sacked but no further action was taken.

India has banned Uber in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad after a driver confessed to raping his passenger.



Graham Fell with his vintage Cadillac works for Uber



Back in Australia, traditional taxi drivers like Harry Katsiabanis of Taxi Link in Melbourne paid around $300,000 for his taxi plate and he's understandably worried and upset.  Eighty infringement notices have now been issued to Uber X drivers in Victoria and $130,000 in fines and Uber has simply paid the lot.

And Uber has deep pockets.  In just five years, they have emerged in 50 countries and 250 cities with big backers like Google and it's latest valuation is around $49 billion.

The battle has only just begun.  Yesterday, after an undercover investigation, the Victorian Taxi Commission launched court action against 12 Uber drivers. 

And now everyone is waiting to see what happens.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Toddler Sam Trott's body found

Two year old Sam Trott



Geoff Trott, the grandfather of missing two year old autistic boy whose body was found in a lake near his home, described him as a happy, affectionate, loving child.

On Tuesday, Sam's parents Lyndal and Matthew pleaded with friends and neighbours to help find him.



Sam's parents



"Check your backyards, your front yards, check your bushes....he could be hiding in your garden" Mr Trott said.  "He can be quite sociable but he could run away so if you see him and he runs away, run after him, catch him please because we really need him to come home.



Volunteers sign up


"If you've got drains, you know, he's autistic, so he may not play with normal toys, so he could be hiding in the garden....he could be wandering around anywhere, he may have got tired and laid down for a sleep."

Sam went missing in a matter of seconds after workmen left the front door open.




Ms Trott said "I heard the fridge door beep because he was in the fridge and I said 'shut the door Sam' and thirty seconds later, it beeped again and when I turned around, he wasn't there."

"I saw the front door was open and I just ran out the front....in 30 seconds, he wasn't there anymore.

"When I looked left and right and straight ahead and couldn't see him, I ran straight back inside and rushed to every room screaming his name...he doesn't know how to open doors but the door was wide open."





Sam's grandfather asked search teams to sing "Wheels on the Bus" in the hope he may respond to his favourite song and police were about to play the song out loud to coax Sam out of his hiding place.

And then the worst possible news - police found Sam's little body in the lake, a few streets away from his house.




 And it's Christmas.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Vet Dr David Pascoe’s letter to Australian people





Dear Men and Women of Australia,

There are two photographs on this page, and while they might look like father and daughter, they are separated by two nations, one ocean and some seventy years.
Yet incredibly, they are both part of the same tragedy, the kind that leaves deep and irrepairable scars on a nation and its people for a lifetime. 

The young woman who was born in 1907. The elderly man who was born twenty years later in 1927.

The photograph of the woman was taken in the Great Depression of 1936 when the man was still only 9 years old. 

Her name was Florence Owens Thompson and she was a 32 year old mother of seven who was photographed sitting homeless in a tent. The image was published across the newspapers of America and it managed to enraged the nation, because people could not believe that Americans could be treated in such a way. 

It forced President Roosevelt to act, to step up and become a leader for his times: he launched soup kitchens, work gangs, programs for the homeless, dams and roads and railways were built – and he gave his people hope. 

John Steinbeck later wrote a book called The Grapes of Wrath which became an American literary Icon. It was about a drought that made the farmers penniless – and how the banks had forced them off their land so they could sell it on to the big powerful corporations. What happened to the farmers of Oklahoma ultimately carved a deep and shameful scar across the American identity that was felt throughout the Twentieth Century. 

The second photograph on this page is of Charlie Phillott, now 87, an elderly farmer from the ruggedly beautiful Carisbrooke Station at Winton. He has owned his station since 1960, nurtured it and loved it like a part of his own flesh. He is a grand old gentleman, one of the much loved and honoured fathers of his community. 

Not so long ago, the ANZ bank came and drove him off his beloved station because the drought had devalued his land and they told him he was considered an unviable risk. Yet Charlie Phillott has never once missed a single mortgage payment. 

Today this dignified Grand Old Man of the West is living like some hunted down refugee in Winton, shocked and humiliated and penniless. And most of all, Charlie Phillott is ashamed, because as a member of the Great Generation - those fine and decent and ethical men and women who built this country – he believes that what happened to him was somehow his own fault. And the ANZ Bank certainly wanted to make sure they made him feel like that.

Last Friday my wife Heather and I flew up with Alan Jones to attend the Farmers Last Stand drought and debt meeting in Winton. And after what I saw being done to our own people, I have never been more ashamed to be Australian in my life. 
What is happening out there is little more than corporate terrorism: our own Australian people are being bullied, threatened and abused by both banks and mining companies until they are forced off their own land.

So we must ask: is this simply to move the people off their land and free up it up for mining by foreign mining companies or make suddenly newly empty farms available for purchase by Chinese buyers? As outrageous as it might seem, all the evidence flooding in seems to suggest that this is exactly what is going on. 
What is the role of Government in all of this? Why have both the State and Federal Government stood back and allowed such a dreadful travesty to happen to our own people? Where was Campbell Newman on this issue? Where was Prime Minister Abbott? The answer is nowhere to be seen.

For the last few months, the Prime Minister has warned us against the threats of terrorism to our nation. We have been alerted to ISIS and its clear and present danger to the Australian people. 

Abbott has despatched Australian military forces into the Middle East in an effort to destroy this threat to our own safety and security. This mobilization of our military forces has come at a massive and unbudgeted expense to the average Australian taxpayer which the Prime Minister estimates to be around half a billion dollars each year. 

We are told that terrorism is dangerous not only because of the threat to human life but also because it displaces populations and creates the massive human cost of refugees. 

Yet not one single newspaper or politician in this land has exposed the fact that the worst form of terrorism that is happening right now is going on inside the very heartland of our own nation as banks and foreign mining companies are deliberately and cruelly forcing our own Australian farmers off the land. 

What we saw in the main hall of the Winton Shire Council on Friday simply defied all description: a room filled with hundreds of broken and battered refuges from our own country. It was a scene more tragic and traumatic than a dozen desperate funerals all laced onto the one stage. 

Right now, all over the inland of both Queensland and NSW, there is nothing but social and financial carnage on a scale that has never before been witnessed in this nation.

It was 41 degrees when we touched down at the Winton airport, and when you fly in low over this landscape it is simply Apocalyptic: there has not been a drop of rain in Winton for two years and there is not a sheep, a cow, a kangaroo, an emu or a bird in sight. Even the trees in the very belly of the creeks are dying.

There is little doubt that this is a natural disaster of incredible magnitude – and yet nobody – neither state nor the federal government - is willing to declare it as such.

The suicide rate has now reached such epic proportions right across the inland: not just the farmer who takes the walk “up the paddock” and does away with himself but also their children and their wives. Once again, it has barely been covered by the media, a dreadful masquerade that has assisted by the reticence and shame of honourable farming families caught in these tragic situations. 

My wife is one of the toughest women I know. Her family went into North West of Queensland as pioneers one hundred years ago: this is her blood country and these are her people . Yet when she stood up to speak to this crowd on Friday she suddenly broke down: she told me later that when she looked into the eyes of her own people, what she saw was enough to break her heart.

And yet not one of us knew it was this bad, this much of a national tragedy. The truth is that these days, the Australian media basically doesn’t give a damn. They have been muzzled and shut down by governments and foreign mining companies to the extent that they are no longer willing to write the real story. So the responsibility is now left to people like us, to social media – and you, the Australian people. 

And so the banks have been free to play their games and completely terrorise these people at their leisure. The drought has devalued the land and the banks have seen their opportunity to strike. It was exactly the excuse that they needed to clean up and make a fortune, because once the rains come – as they always do – this land will be worth four to ten times the price.

In fact, when farmers have asked for the payout figures, the banks have been either deeply reluctant or not capable of providing the mortgage trail because they have on-sold the mortgage - just like sub-prime agriculture.

This problem isn’t simply happening in Winton, but rather right across the entire inland across Queensland and NSW. The banks have been bringing in the police to evict Australian farmers and their families from their farms, many of them multigenerational. One farmer matter of factly told us it took “oh, about 7 police” to evict him from his first farm and “maybe about twelve” to evict him from his second farm which had been in his family for many generations. You think they are kidding you. Then you see the expression in their eyes. 

And there was something far worse in the room on Friday: the fear of speaking out against the banks: when we asked people to tell us who had done this to them, they would immediately start to shake and cry and look away: They have been silenced to protect the good corporate image of their tormentors called the banks. What in God’s name have the bastard banks been allowed to do to our people? 

This is a travesty against the rights and the human dignity of every Australian
So it’s only fair that we start to name a few of major banks involved: The ANZ is a major culprit (and they made $7 billion profit last year). Then there is Rabo, which is now owned by Westpac (who paid CEO Gail Kelly a yearly salary of some $12 million) According to all reports, the NAB and Bank West are right in there at the trough as well – and all the rest of them are equally guilty. For any that we have missed, rest assured they will be publicly exposed as well.

But here’s the thing: when these people are forced off their farms, they have nowhere to go. There are no refugee services waiting, such is the case for those who attempt to enter the sovereign borders of this nation. The farmers simply drive to the nearest town – that’s if the banks haven’t stripped their cars off them as well - and they try and find somewhere to sleep. Some are sleeping on the backs of trucks in swags. There is basically no home or accommodation made available to take them. They camp out, shocked and broken and penniless – and they are living on weet bix and noodles. If there is someone that can lend a family enough money to buy food, they will: otherwise they are left completely alone. 

And consider this: not one of them has asked for help. Not one. They just do the best they can, ashamed and broken and brainwashed by the banks to believe that everything that has happened is completely their own fault.

There is not one single word of this from a politicians lips, with the exception of the incredibly courageous father and son team of Bob and Robbie Katter, who organised the Farmers Last Stand meeting. The Katter family have been in the North since the 1890’s, and nobody who sat in that hall last Friday could question their love and commitment to their own people. 

There is barely a mention of any of this as well in the newspapers, with the exception of as brief splash of publicity that followed our visit. 

The Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce attended the meeting in a bitter blue-funk kind of mood that saw him mostly hunched over and staring at the floor. He had given $100 million of financial assistance in a lousy deal where the Government will borrow at 2.75% and loan it back at 3.21%. 

The last thing these people need is another loan: they need a Redevelopment Bank to refinance their own loans: issuing a loan to pay off a loan is nothing more than financial suicide. 

The reality is that Joyce cannot get support from what he calls “the shits in Cabinet” to create a desperately needed Redevelopment Bank so that these farmers can get cheap loans to tide them through to the end of the drought. 

Our sources suggest that those “shits in Cabinet” include Malcolm Turnbull – Minister for Communications and the uber-cool trendy city-centric Liberal in the black leather jacket:, Andrew Robb – Minster for Trade and Investment and the man behind the free trade deal, the man who suddenly acquired three trendy Sydney restaurants almost overnight, the man who seems to suddenly desperate to sell off our farms to China – and one Greg Hunt, Environment Minister and the man who is instantly approving almost every single mining project that is put in front of him.

At the conclusion of the meeting, we stood and met some of the people in the crowd. My wife talked to women who would hug her for dear life, and when they walked away people would suddenly murmur “oh, she was forced off last week” or “they are being forced off tomorrow” . Not one of them mentioned it to us. They had too much pride.

The Australian people need to be both informed and desperately outraged about what is being done to our own people. This is about every right that was once held dear to us: human rights, property rights, civil rights. And most all, our right to freedom of speech. All of that has been taken away from these people – and the rest of us need to understand that we are probably next.

In the last four weeks the Newman Government has removed all farmers rights to protest to a mine and given mining companies the rights to take all the water they want from the Great Artesian Basin – and at no cost to them at all. 

And all of this has happened under the watch of both Premier Newman and Prime Minister Abbott. 

Until Friday, we used to think of Winton as the home of Waltzing Matilda: it was written at a local station and first performed in the North Gregory Hotel. I think it was Don McLean who wrote, “something touched me deep inside…the day the music died”… in his song American Pie, and for us, last Friday was the day music died. 

We will never be able to sing Waltzing Matilda again until we see some justice for these people, and all the farmers of the inland.

This is no longer the Australia we once knew: no longer our country, no longer our people, no longer the decent caring leaders we once remembered. 

Right now, the banks, the mining mates, the corrupt politicians and all the ‘mongrels in suits’ have won – and the Australian people don’t have a clue what has been done to them. 

Like the American Depression and the iconic photograph of Florence Owens Thompson, there is a terrible, gaping wound that has been carved across the heartland of this nation.

We need to fully grasp that, and to understand that our people – dignified, decent and honourable old men like Charlie Phillott - have been deliberately terrorized, brutalised – and sold out.

In one sense, Charlie Phillott has become the symbol overnight of every decent Australian: the simple right to live out our lives on the land we love - and the land we are still free to call our own. At least until some dangerously persuaded corrupted trendy liberal theorist decided to strip all that away.

The truth is, no Australian was ever consulted about whether or not they wanted to see their land mined into oblivion or see our precious water poisoned and given away for free, whether they wanted to be driven off their land by the greed of banking executives who saw the chance to make a profit by wiping out the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us. 

No Australian was ever consulted about whether or not we wanted to see our beloved homeland sold on the cheap to greedy faceless foreigners just because some slimy two-faced minister managed to convince a weakened prime minster to meekly carry out his bidding.

Nobody has asked us. We the People. Not once.

So if we are ever going to do something, then we’d better realise that its now only two minutes to midnight – so we’d better move fast.

Regards
David 

David Pascoe, Vet

Please share this as widely as you can across Australia. You are now the only truthful means we have to spread the message.