January 31, 2011
The AFP in its submission to: THE SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE INQUIRY INTO AUSTRALIA’S INVOLVEMENT IN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, March 2007 made the following statement: The AFP Annual Report 2005-06 focuses on the pivotal role of the organisation in supporting emerging states in our neighbourhood and contributing to the global peace dividend. Participation by the AFP in peace and stability operations and regional capacity building is ...
January 31, 2011
They say that Christmas comes but once a year, but we all know that isn’t true. If you’re a public servant or an Australian Federal Police Officer it seemingly comes every day. However, the rest of us shouldn’t become despondent because this year Father Christmas might come twice. We have all heard the bickerings among our political elite regarding surcharges, reconstruction levies and the fate of our cousins in Queensland … or ...
January 30, 2011
I was recently discussing the genteel art of bullying with a former associate, Paulo Flores, who is a psychologist and mediator and Watershedd, a recent contributor to Blak and Black. During the course of both of these conversations the topic turned to the definition of bullying. This made me stop and think and eventually realise that what I’m actually ‘banging-on’ about to the United Nations and on Blak and Black ...
January 24, 2011
Less than a century ago nobody would write or wish to read about racism. Indeed nobody was aware that such a thing existed, for the word does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) of 1910. The term racialism has been around for a little longer. It first appeared in print in 1907. Does this mean that racism did not exist before the twentieth century? In fact, there is ...
January 22, 2011
Some observations on the realities of being and Aborigine in 21stcentury Australia by an observer who isn’t. One of my piano teachers was the sole child of Polish Holocaust survivors. Unassuming people, these quiet and reserved people welcomed my mother and I into their home on a weekly basis so Elizabeth could tutor me. It was she who taught me to love music. It is only now that I comprehend ...
January 19, 2011
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me. Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man After 220 years of sustained European invasions and occupation ...
January 16, 2011
The following article written by Ednal Palmer appeared in the Solomon Star on Saturday 15th January, 2011. While the article is ostensibly about the tenure of the outgoing Taiwanese (ROC) ambassador to the Solomon Islands Mr. George Chan, it traverses ground which I have covered in a number of posts I have done about Mr Moti and corruption within the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Government. Specifically it covers ...
January 14, 2011
While strolling along the foreshore of Botany Bay today I spotted a Kingfisher. In Classical Greek mythology “Halcyon” is associated with the Kingfisher. There was an ancient belief that the bird nested on the sea, which it calmed in order to lay its eggs on a floating nest. Two weeks of calm weather were therefore expected around the winter solstice. This myth leads to the use of halcyon as a ...
January 12, 2011
The Commonwealth and each of the States and Territories of Australia have an obligation to act as a model litigant in claims and litigation. This obligation is enshrined in legislation and form part of the ‘rule of law’, which governs the conduct of every Australian and visitor to our shores. In essence, a model litigant is required to act honestly and fairly in handling claims and litigation. Honestly and fairly ...
January 9, 2011
On 5th January in an article titled: Closer checks urged after bridge collapse the Canberra Times ACT Assembly reporter Noel Towell reported that: The ACT Government has been told to keep a closer watch over builders working on government projects in the wake of last year’s bridge collapse in Canberra’s north. An official report into the oversight of the job, a bridge span of the Gungahlin Drive Extension over the ...
January 7, 2011
As promised, I’m handing over the commentary on blakandblack.com to some people who have helped me collect statements for my proposed application to the United Nations. Mick ‘volunteered’ to be first. He is a former union organiser and fifth generation resident of Bourke, a town in the far west of New South Wales, which has seen its fair share of racial tensions over the years. Mick is married to an ...
January 5, 2011
Over the next few weeks I will be putting up posts written by those who have assisted me in collecting statements or who have introduced me to the victims of the human rights violations I have briefly outlined in the statistics included under the tab Racism in Australia – the facts. Prior to handing over the reins to others, I thought that I would take a detailed look at a ...
January 1, 2011
On New Year’s Eve I received a phone call from a representative of the Greens advising me that I would need to provide more evidence if I wanted an enquiry into the $130,000,000.00 that has gone missing from ACT Treasury. I was rather perplexed by this comment and advised my caller that I had neither requested nor did I expect any assistance from within the Australian establishment in furthering my ...
