No Guarantees

Worlds Largest City Farm Destroyed

2008-07-23T09:59:00.001+08:00

Last night I watched the movie "Escape Form Suburbia". In it were some powerful and disturbing scenes of the LA Council bulldozing the worlds largest urban farm in order to put a diesel truck warehouse in its place. People were screaming and crying and being carried away by police etc.
I thought that was it, I thought it was all over, this movie was made many months ago.

Today I get a random email from someone over there (Greg Greene - Escape From Suburbia) asking me to sign a last minute petition (which didn't seem to work on line) to save the site before developers move in.
It turns out that today 23rd, (tomorrow in US time) is the day the City Council will decide upon whether or not to listen to all the submissions from people who have a concern for this issue and maybe even give back the land, albeit now void of all their plants!
This was the email -
"As a result of the July 2 hearing, there is a 21 day extension (till July 23rd, 2008) on comments that can be submitted to the Advisory Agency of the Planning Commission. They will render a decision in 5-6 weeks.
Please consider what YOU can commit to doing to help this effort RIGHT NOW.
Sign this petition NOW, the extension for submissions ends on WEDNESDAY! (July 23rd)"

As I felt my name on a petition would do little at this time, I decided to find the phone numbers of the City Councilors and start leaving messages so when they come to work in the morning they know where the world stands on this issue!

Anyone want to join me? I guess the cost of calling could be seen as a kind of donation to their cause!!

See the LA South Central Farm here - http://escapefromsuburbia.com/southcentral.html

All the councilors numbers are here - http://www.lacity.org/council.htm

You need to dial 0011 then 1 then the area code listed on the above website (213) and the number. (From Australia)

Counselor Jan Perry is the one pushing it all through, but I say ring them all! Tell them people all over the world are seeing what they are doing. We should be adding urban food lots not removing them!!

At the time of this post (here in Oz) it is around 6.30pm on the 22nd July in US, they make up their mind on the 23rd July. Lets get this out there!

Scott

Peace

2008-07-23T07:53:00.002+08:00

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27

I have for some time been quietly stressed about what my life will look like next year. It's that balance of having enough (whatever THAT looks like!) money coming in with as much time to do and be mission/relationship/family as possible as well I guess is the fact that I one day want my vocation, life family job, community to kind of all bleed into one as much as that could be done. I don't wont to be pulled in a million different directions yet at the same time I want a good diversity as I get restless with only one focus. I want to do things that honour my passions and sense of calling, yet I don't feel I HAVE to always be paid to fulfill all these passions and 'callings'. I then have the ugly issue of being a bit of a people pleaser, so when someone says, 'let's do this' - I am thinking, 'sure, if that would make you happy, or like me more or...', or someone comes to me and suggests, 'you would be great at this job', it pats my ego and I think, 'yes I would be wouldn't I!'.

So when I read a devotional thought today by Charles Ringma on the theme of peace, I thought it was very comforting as was the scriptural theme (above). So I thought I would type the lot out!

Finding Peace Within
Learning to Be At Home With Ourselves.

We need to come to an inner peace if our life is to be perennially productive. Such inner peace is a fruit of the way we consistently live. It is not the product of an escape from our circumstances - although we frequently think that a change in our circumstances will provide us with the answers we seek and the peace we long for.
Peace comes from being at home with ourselves. It comes from being thankful for the way God has made us and gifted us. It comes from the joy of giving and an appreciation for all that we receive. It comes from accepting ourselves and celebrating all that is good, while working on what needs to change.
Peace comes from being loved and having the satisfaction of achievement and the challenge of new goals. Peace wells up from within, but is clearly related to the way we live and the choices we make.
But it is seldom the result of much-having. It does not necessarily come with great success. Instead it is the unexpected gift. It is the surprise. It is there even when we didn't expect it. It remains even when the going is tough. And it can grow even in the midst of pain and difficulty.
If peace finds its expression in being at home with ourselves, we clearly need to stop looking elsewhere. Henri Nouwen laments the fact that "we do not trust our inner most self as an intimate place." He notes that we "anxiously wander around hoping to find [peace] where we are not." Because peace is not simply the fruit of our circumstances, it can only come from within. And it can only abide there if we are at peace with ourselves.

Charles Ringma
"Dare To Journey with Henri Nouwen"

Hope you appreciated these thoughts as I did.
Shalom

Scott

Veggie Garden Makeover

2008-07-22T19:26:00.003+08:00

Christine and I (and sometime the kids, but not often!) have been transforming the veggie garden. We wanted to have separate beds with paths between them (...and a shrubbery... -python fans?). We wanted the paths so you don't have to walk on the beds. The less you walk on beds the less you compact the soil and the less you have to turn it...that's what the worms are there for, to turn and aerate the soil.
As you can see from these early snaps, Christine is doing most of the work!
I have not taken snaps of the finished product but will post them next weekend maybe.

Boycott Olympics?

2008-07-21T03:44:00.003+08:00

I know there is the argument that suggests that having the Olympics in China is good for the human rights issues as it shines a spot light upon the place and forces them to do something about them, or at least makes them less obvious. And I know that every country hosting this event could have a finger pointed at it for some kind of abuse - Australia and its treatment of refugees and the lack of apology to its indigenous peoples at the time of our Olympics, LA Olympics and so on.

BUT - every time I hear or read something about China it seem that they have just such an obvious and harmful reputation for disrespecting individual rights that I question how any good can come from a few weeks of spotlight, In fact the was a good article on the ABC radio national on a ll this a few weeks ago. They had a guy who has made this issue an area of study and he suggests that once the games are over, historically most cities are just left behind. People literally pack their bags and walk away. A few photos are all that remain. The games are over, the spotlight is off. All the people who once had homes and were abusively evicted to make way for a decorative garden bed, still have no homes and we no longer care as the games have finished, spotlight is off. I just can't sit and gain any pleasure from watching these games knowing as much as I know (and that is very little, but enough).
So I wont.
Nope, I am making a personal decision not to view any Olympic telecasts.
What will it do?
Well nothing really, I have signed a few partitions and joined a Facebook Cause group, but I have doubts as to this being of any effect, so why do what I am doing? I guess it is personal, it is just that idea of drawing pleasure, personal pleasure, of watching a massive ceremony and the games that follow, knowing that the whole thing has happened at the expense of defenseless people being pushed aside, abused etc in order for me to enjoy some sport. I guess also, I have issues with the west's obsession with China now that it's getting rich and our lack of ever calling them to account for human rights violations of that past including their current treatment of Tibet and support for Zimbabwe and the like.
So I for one will not participate in any way with the Olympics this time around.

Post Script -
I just got this letter -

The spectacle of the opening ceremony. The competition in the pool. The drama in the glamorous stadium. All of this and more will be broadcast around Australia and the world when the Beijing Olympics get underway in just a few weeks time.

But what about the executions still being carried out by the Chinese Government? Or the ‘Re-education through Labour’ camps where hundreds of thousands of people are detained without charge or trial? What about the torture that is frequently reported? The repression of free speech?

This is the China the authorities do not want you to see. Please don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes. Get the full picture on China.

Thank you,

Claire Mallinson National Director, Amnesty International Australia

Best Shot from Down South

2008-07-18T23:26:00.002+08:00

Christine takes a great photo. I know we all like shots of the kids being cute and all, but this one is on our desktop at home and I love it.

The South Holiday

2008-07-18T16:05:00.007+08:00

The second part of our holiday was 3 days in the South West camping. We were a bit concerned with weather warnings all over the state, but we managed to miss the worst of it.
We were camping at Hamlin Hollow, Contos Field on Caves Road, not far up from Augusta.

We climbed through Giants cave, a self guided cave that takes about 1.5 hours, the kids loved it as much as it was a bit scary in parts where you have to get through small tunnel like bits.

We drove along the coast track from Contos to Point rd and took Point straight back to Caves Rd. This Point Rd was heaps of fun, a good 4WD track with some big water over the track and lots of ugly rocks! The kids loved every minute...so did Dad, Mum loved it, although I am aware that essentially this is her car and every time we scratched the paint or bottomed out I think she wondered if she would have her car back.

We also took the Kilcarnup track one day, now that was an amazing track - LOTS of fun! Of course I didn't buy this car because it was a 4WD, just because it was a diesel...a FUN diesel!

The showers seems to move around us mostly. We had a big tarp over the tents, which gave us extra security in case of big rain and we didn't really get any until the last night - we woke up dry.

We roasted marshmallows and had marshmallow and chocolate burritos on the hotplate on the fire.
We did a night hike looking for possums but didn't find anything but an appetite
We saw Bandicoots, Possums, Owls, roos, Kookaburras and more.

We had Simmos ice cream...HMMM

2 Days of Farming

2008-07-18T15:41:00.004+08:00

We have had a great week of "northing" and "southing" it.
North - Badgingarra
South - Contos Field, Almost bush camping somewhere south of the Prevally turn off on Caves Road. (They do have a long drop toilet and a camp kitchen, so it's not true bush camping!)

This picture diary is of the northern part of our adventures.
We have been 'farming' for many years, since we were married in fact. We called in to this farm on our honeymoon for the first time and have been back at least 2 or 3 times a year since. Mel has been Christine's best bud for many years and she went teaching in the country and married Graham - a true blue farmer type, no bloody worries kind a guy! This is their property. We get there a new way now, much prettier than straight up the Brand Hwy. When we get to Regans Ford we turn right off the Hwy and head through Dandarrigan (I think) and then left via the scenic route, it's a great hilly road, very nice.

They are building a new house right in the middle of a wheat crop right now, it looks great!

We spend a few hours cooking up 'local' lamb chops and snags on the open fire.

We also went for a nice long hike. They have some nature reserve in their property, a big hill called Boothandarra, we found Donkey Orchids, a little cave, a few roos and lots of prickly bushes.

Thanks to the generosity of the Whites we usually load up the trailer with wood for the fire and sheep poo for the garden. So considering we used one fuel tank of biodiesel to get up there and almost home, we don't pay for heating our house nor fertalizing our garden, I'd say we had a cheep holiday, many thanks to the generosity of Mel and Graham!!

Mik lazing the day away.

Sophie inspecting the cooking...or the cook more like!

2 Weeks Leave

2008-07-10T21:00:00.003+08:00

I have 2 weeks leave. It seems a long time since I had 2 or more weeks leave, honestly I can't pin point when it was, probably a few months ago, ho hum.
Not the point, the point is...
This is enjoyable, I like my place here in Joondalup, I am a bit of a home boy. So this first week is pretty much about me!
Day 1 (Tuesday) - Garden, Shed, biodiesel. - Kids at Mum and Dad's
Day 2 - Same. - Kids at mum and Dad's
Day 3 - Same. - Kids out with cousins
Day 4 - Same, but I promised to wash the floor. - Kids hanging out at home with friends.
Day 5 and 6 (Weekend) we are going to Badgingarra to get fire wood, sheep poo and hang out with good friends.
Day 7 (next Monday) - Garden, shed.
Day 8, 9 and 10 - Camping with family at Contos, just near Prevally, Caves Road.
Day 11 - Hang around, Forge intensive begins tonight.
Day 12, 13 Forge intensive, but I am also meant to be in Northam at a friends farm...not sure how to do both, hmmm
Day 14 - Chill read, centre myself to go back to work in the morning.

I have a list of jobs that need doing. They are pretty much run of the mill. A rattle on there car, a leaking roof, wire up the shed, relocate the bio diesel processor and the bowser. I want to install a water pump for the rain water tank. I would like to get some rocks from the farm for around my new pond (the pond was a bulk rubbish find!).

This arvo I sat out in the sprinkling rain looking at our efforts in the garden today. I felt quite satisfied. We grabbed a heap of green roof tiles from the tip and made raised garden beds. I bought some good organic compost and straw as well as a few big bags of saw dust to make paths between all the beds (as well as adding to my own compost). We installed the new pond and solar powered pump. This pond is not so we can have fish, but rather to attract more insects into the garden for cross pollination of plants. Some plants (Zucchini for example) wont grow fruit without a bee or insect (or Christine with a small paintbrush!) germinating them. Having a water feature helps create a greater and fuller life cycle or ecosystem inside our small back yard. The insects attract frogs, frogs eat slugs and bugs and mozzies. They say frogs are a healthy sign in a garden. Tonight after a drive to "dispose" of some waste product from the biodiesel production, I grabbed my head torch for a one more look over our garden work. I wandered around the new beds and walked up to the pond, what should be sitting up on the edge of one of the beds overlooking the new pond...a big shiny black frog! It was as if he was saying, "now that's what I'm talking 'bout!"

So here's to the good life!

Sex and The City by Rod Hopkins

2008-07-05T23:06:00.002+08:00

Sex and the City and Handbag Insanity

an article by one of my heros...

I had a rare visit to the cinema the other night, not with anything in particular to watch but just to see what we might fancy. The only thing that wasn’t a horror film or a children’s film was ‘Sex and the City’, so we went to watch that. I haven’t watched any of the TV programmes so I was a bit lost, but really, what a load of rubbish. I have never seen more product placement, more vacuous people and more costume changes in a single film in my life. Anyway, that, in essence is my film review, but the one thing that stuck with me about the film was something that came as a deep shock and which I thought was quite extraordinary.

In the film, the main character hires a PA, who is a poor (well compared to the rest of them who seem to be eyewateringly wealthy) but is as obsessed with fashion and labels as everyone else in the film. Anyway, the PA has a handbag, which is some revolting designer handbag, designed by Louis Vitton or some other designer person, of which she is extraordinarily proud.

As the film goes on, it emerges (oh the shame) that she can’t actually afford such a handbag, and that her handbag, because she is poor you see, is actually RENTED. Rented. This is all remedied in the film because the main character takes pity on her and buys her her own handbag, a deeply emotional moment as she now has her own £2,000 handbag. What I was left with though, was this new knowledge that in New York there are companies that rent out expensive designer handbags.

How all pervasive and pernicious is this consumer culture that these ghastly handbags, made in some grisly sweatshop somewhere, designed with any sense of taste locked firmly in a box, have evolved in such a way that one’s sense of self esteem and identity requires a handbag rental service? No sense of living within one’s budget or means, rather you simply MUST HAVE a designer handbag or you are nobody.

I guess this ties back to the discussion we were having the other day about solar panels and food gardens becoming the next ‘must haves’, and whether or not we can harness that same sense of desirability. I was impressed the other day with reading about a crowd in Cornwall called ‘Rocket Gardens’ from whom you buy pre-planted salads in a funky box, they come in the post, you pop them in the garden, and hey presto, instant salad! Anyway, I struggle to draw any intelligent observation from the handbag thing, I think I am just still in shock about the whole handbag rental thing. Did you know such a service exists?

ROSS Garnaut's draft report on climate change

2008-07-05T22:50:00.001+08:00

This is worth the read...

All spin aside, here's the inconvenient truth
Tim Colebatch
The Age, July 5, 2008

ROSS Garnaut's draft report on climate change has six key messages. They are uncompromising, politically tough and they would work. This report is not about spin, but reality.
Message 1: Climate change is happening faster than anyone foresaw, thanks to the industrialisation of China and other developing countries. That will grow even faster and without global action to stop it, so will the climate change.
Message 2: Because it is so dry, Australia is the rich country most exposed to climate change. Its rivers could stop flowing, its farms become unviable, its export prices collapse unless the world brings climate change under control.
Message 3: The situation requires a global agreement, including China — but it will happen only if rich countries lead the way. Australia has to be part of that.
Message 4: The cheapest way to tackle climate change is to set up an emissions trading system quickly, and on the widest possible front — including petrol. Excluding petrol, by definition, will cost us even more in some other area.
Message 5: The revenue raised should be returned to households and business as tax cuts, higher welfare benefits, renovations to cut household energy waste, money for new technology and subsidies to firms competing globally in high-emission industries such as aluminium.
Message 6: New technology is the hope of the side. The West should invest $100 billion a year to research, develop and commercialise low-emissions technology such as solar energy and clean coal — with $3 billion of that in Australia.
This is a draft report; there's no detailed blueprint with targets. But there are two interesting sets of numbers.
The first is in chapter 4, where Treasury models what Garnaut's estimates of future GDP growth imply for emissions. They show economic growth in developing countries will be so rapid that — without global action — by 2030 global emissions will almost double their 2005 levels.
More than 90% of that growth would be in developing countries. China alone would produce 35% of the world's emissions, more than the West and the old Soviet bloc combined. That's why only a global agreement to reduce emissions (or in developing countries, to cut emissions growth) will work.
Then why introduce emissions trading now, you ask? Why not just hold out for a global agreement?
Garnaut gave a long list of reasons why we shouldn't wait for the world; two stand out. First, we would not be alone: virtually all other rich countries already have emissions trading or are moving towards it.
Second, the clincher is "sheer practicality". The West put most of the excess greenhouse gases up there; Australia has the West's highest per capita emissions. "There won't be a next step unless the developed countries move first," he warned.
And, we must accept that, over time, per capita emissions will become the basis for reducing global emissions.
But that's OK: it's in our interests to reduce emissions and slow global warming. And the money raised from emission permits will be returned to households and business.
Garnaut proposes that of the $20 billion or more to be raised every year from emission permits, 50% be directed at households, through a combination of tax cuts, higher welfare benefits and energy-efficient renovations of battlers' homes. The bulk of this would go to low-income households, where fuel bills take up twice the share of spending as in well-off homes.
Another 30% of emissions trading revenue would go to business, mainly to emission-intensive industries competing with developing countries. And 20% should be invested to research, develop and commercialise technology — such as the solar power station at Robinvale, and the demonstration "clean coal" plant announced this week for Loy Yang.
After initial hesitation, the Government seems to be gradually accepting Garnaut's clean, comprehensive, low-cost road map as the way to go.

The End of Suburbia

2008-07-05T19:59:00.002+08:00

"Suburbs are the greatest misappropriation of funds in the history of the world..."
Check out this doco, it's one of my favorites!
You will need 53 minutes.

Where have I been?

2008-07-05T05:08:00.003+08:00

Been Slack on the Old Blog stuff, here is a quick update;

Going Where?
I have spent the last 2 weeks with Scripture Union. Camp one was with Mirrabooka High Yr 8 boys doing a selective boys to men type camp. 17 kids, lots of attitude and not all good. The last night we had to sleep out by ourselves in the bush under our own hoothchies, I was wet, very wet! The talks I did on Men as Lover, King, Monk and Warrior went well (Thanks to Mike's suggestions on this site!)
Last week's camp was a bit less intense, Winthrop Baptist yr 11's Kayaking on the Murray.

Reading What?
Reading a few books;
Mark Sayers, "The Trouble With Paris"
Rob Hopkins, "The Transition Handbook"
Henry DeWitt, "Fathering Daughters - Reflections By Men"

Watching What?
Last night watched Kung Fu Panda - Great Laugh, even some Python style humour!
Watched a 1999 flick called Pitch Black which was the first in the Chronicles of Riddick series, Vin Diesel - Good watch!

Playing With What?
My bio diesel processor...we made a batch of 50L, then 80L went great, then a batch of 150L, not so great but managed a rescue and it looks great now. Then a couple of weeks ago did a 100L batch and managed soap. Yes soap is an unfortunate bi-product of stuffing up with this process. Glycerol is one of the waste products, it is also the base product for soap manufacturing, stuff up some small element in the bio process and wham - you have litres of liquid sticky glue which is actually heavy grade soap. My mate Lance has done most of the rescuing as I have been away. It looks like we may have saved a good deal of the oil!

Enjoying What?
Loved a walk to the library and then take-a-way and movies with my family yesterday arvo.
I am also enjoying the thought of 2 weeks leave over the July school hols. 3 days at Contos camp group near Prevally/Yallingup. 2 days up at the farm, lots of days just pottering at home.

Working For Whom?
I am still full time with Churches of Christ (3 days Youth Vision Ministry Coach and 2 Days OnEARTH/GMP). The SU (Scripture Union) stuff is really to keep a hand in with youth ministry experience as well as looking at options for next year.
I will be working for SU 2 days a week next year in their Neighbourhood Outreach/Forge area as well as doing a camp a term for them in Warriuka. Hopefully I can continue doing the OnEARTH stuff as it is hotting up a little.

Looking Forward to What?
Well 2 weeks leave, then 3 days in Sydney with Youth Vision, then starting up a 14 week study (OnEARTH/Ignition) which includes 2 weeks in Halls Creek with a crew from our Church as well as some others, I am also running a weekend leaders retreat in August which looks like fun.
Finishing off our new raised garden beds out the back, fixing my dead roller door, tidying up my yard a bit and generally slowing down and reading some more.

So that is it. Been way too busy, but feel ok. Not pumped. Always dreaming too much of a quiet life in the country, working less not more. But I need to learn to be in the moment more, "be where you are".

Come With Me To The Kimberley!

2008-06-19T10:24:00.001+08:00

I am joining a team of people spanning many generations (meaning there are young people and not so young!) to the Kimberley Region of WA - Halls Creek specifically in the Sept/Oct School holidays.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE -
I am wanting people to join me in a missional discipleship course, just one night a week in the 6 weeks prior and post the trip to Halls Creek. This course is explained well here. And starts mid August.
More on the journey here.
It will be a life changing experience, but places are limited!

Dare you to contact me!

Interesting Topics at Conference.

2008-06-19T08:35:00.002+08:00

I am heading to Sydney at the end of July to meet up with some of the Youth Vision Australia crew I work with. Whilst we are there we are going to attend a conference put together by Youth Works - "A Theology of Youth Ministry Conference". Not sure I have heard of them before, but it looks interesting to say the least, I have heard of the Sydney Anglicans who are behind it all though... interesting to say the least :) So I would say they are the youth department of the Anglicans.
Here are some of the topics -
- All things to all people - the incarnational youth ministry.
- The Spirit of Gen Y
- Missiology For Youth Ministers
- Implications of Missional Ecclesiology for a Missionary approach to, and understanding of, Youth Ministry.

If you ask me it could be a Youth Ministry breakaway session at a Forge conference! Look at those topics!

Warrior King Lover and Monk

2008-06-18T11:01:00.002+08:00

I have to do a talk at a camp for year 9 boys from Mirrabooka High. These kids are tough, fringe kids, hand picked, a kind of mini Brat Camp.

Each day we have a theme.
Man as Warrior (Pioneer, Adventurer, protector)
Man as Lover (Love, honour, respect)
Man as King (Leadership)
Man as Monk (Spirituality)

I want a kind of object lesson for each one, even something they can take home, a rock, a picture, a ... something??

We are out in the bush, so I don't have a heap of space in my pack to carry stuff, so any ideas??
Any help???

Climate Change

2008-05-29T13:52:00.001+08:00

Every year weather-related disasters kill an average of 45,000 people and a further 245 million people are affected through homelessness, loss of income and destruction of infrastructure. The vast majority of those killed or affected in these events live in developing countries. The number and severity of these events is likely to increase. The UN issued 15 disaster response appeals in 2007, and all but one of these were related to climate and weather events.
from this great (and disturbing article)

It is This Thursday Night!

2008-05-27T10:23:00.002+08:00

How Are Your Tax Dollars Spent?

2008-05-26T07:50:00.001+08:00

Compassion and $400 million thrown out to sea
BY MICHELLE DIMASI
Canberra Times, May 23, 2008

Within the next couple of weeks, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship will be handed the keys to Australia's newest detention facility, the Christmas Island Immigration and Reception Centre.

The Howard government facility has not come cheap: a staggering $400 million of public money has been spent constructing this 800-person detention facility. Yet only 400 people are held in immigration detention centres across Australia and no one is currently being detained in Christmas Island's existing facility.

Most Australians could be forgiven for knowing little about the new centre. Christmas Island is so far away that it may as well be part of Indonesia. It lies 320km south of Java and 2630km north-west of Perth. The island has about 1400 permanent residents. It is best known for the annual red crab migration, when millions of tiny crabs make the dangerous journey from the island's jungle to the sea. But dangerous journeys and migratory movements are not confined to the crab world on Christmas Island. Since the early 1990s, Christmas Island has been the first port of call for many asylum seekers who escaped persecution in their homelands and made the perilous journey across the Indian Ocean in the hope of being allowed to settle in Australia.

In the wake of the Tampa crisis, the Howard government created the so-called Pacific Solution, whereby asylum seekers would be detained and processed off-shore, in Papua New Guinea or on Nauru. The aim was to deter and punish people who tried to exercise their right to claim asylum, a universal right bestowed on all human beings.

The government also introduced legislation to excise Christmas Island and other islands from the migration zone. In 2002, it announced that it would construct a 1200-person
detention centre, at an estimated cost of $197.7 million. By claiming that its construction was a matter of urgency, the government prevented the proposal from being scrutinised
by the Public Works Committee.

The Howard government was not afraid to spend millions of dollars to ensure that this would be a maximum-security detention centre. It contains lockdown zones, which
allow staff to separate detainees from one another, and has CCTV directly linked to Canberra. It is heavily guarded by two fences with high-tech detection systems. To prevent detainees from hanging themselves, shower fixtures are positioned on sharp angles and the hooks behind cell doors flick down when too much pressure is placed on them. The building is built low into the ground to prevent detainees from seeing beyond the tropical jungle walls of the detention centre. It is troubling to think about how this maximum-security island detention centre may affect the mental health of those detained there.

Since Labor has come into power Australia's asylum policy has changed. The detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island have been shut down and the Pacific Solution has been scrapped. While the Rudd Government ought to be applauded for abolishing the Pacific Solution, it remains to be seen what it will do in relation to the new Christmas Island facility.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has said that no children and families will be held in detention. Essentially, this means that the centre will be of little use if there were boat arrivals similar to that in 2000 and 2001 - inevitably including families including children. Where would families be accommodated?

While the Howard government had to turn to the Pacific to overcome the challenges created by its uncompromising stance, the Rudd government has a different problem to contend with: how to find a use for a $400 million island detention centre so that this project has not been a total waste of taxpayers' money.

Restless

2008-05-23T19:43:00.002+08:00

Been restless of late.
I have had a few projects on the go that have not been instant gratification type things.
- The car purchase drove me up the creek and took weeks longer than I thought it would, but ended well.
- My 'project' in the shed has hit a block in that a pump refuses to pull the 'product' through and the company I bought it off have been too busy to help for days.
- I have been putting off the service on my scooter for $$$ reasons and today I decided to do it myself. I am no mechanic, but I thought it would be easy. I could not get the oil plug out, and even if I could the oil would have gone everywhere as the stand it right where you would put a container. So I thought I would just pull the spark plug instead, I simply could not find one! I put it all back together and will wait for another day...to take it in for a service :)
- I am building a small roof over a bit between my shed and the side fence. I went down to a friend factory who is into roofing yesterday. He had a bit, just the size of what I wanted, he was busy, so I can back today. In the past 24hours one of his workers decided upon an annual clean out...of my sheet of colourbond!
- I am floundering in what I want to read. I read Kingsolvers Animal Miracle Vegetable, recently, that was a good read. I am reading Colossians Remixed by Walsh at present, a great read. But I keep wanting to pick up a novel (like Breath by Winton or the sequel to Pillars of The Earth, World Without End...or anything) and get lost in it.
- I have course in Rockingham in the morning on how to make Biodiesel, should be good.
- Thinking about changing jobs next year and all that will mean.

Restless...

My Night of Video Continues :)

2008-05-19T20:22:00.001+08:00

My mate Jules is very funny and very talented - enjoy the departure of his beloved Holden!

He really is a Looser And Should Not Hold Office

2008-05-19T20:15:00.000+08:00

I Love a Good Act...with a twist :)

2008-05-19T19:15:00.000+08:00

Mark Sayers makes a point

2008-05-19T08:53:00.001+08:00

I am looking at a young man’s car parked close to mine. On the dashboard of the car is a plastic figurine, it is Bart Simpson, he is pulling down his pants, and ‘mooning’ the world. Normally I would not stop and think about this, but this time I am shocked. I am not shocked out of a sense of oversensitive Christian piety, I have grown up with the Simpsons, and when it comes to butts I am the owner of one myself which has provided me with great support during my life. I am shocked however because I think of all the passionate, stubborn, activist, wildly revolutionary young people of history, who have fought to change the world, to bring down corrupt governments, overturn oppressive laws and regimes, who have given their lives on battlefields to improve the world. Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were misguided, but they believed in something. Of all the slogans, of all the messages that this young man could have sent the world, he chose this one. Bart’s nihilistic, plastic moon, exposes more than just are bare butt, it exposes our total lack of cultural depth, and reveals to us just how superflat our culture has become...Read full article at Mark Sayers brilliant blog ...

Test Drive the Beast

2008-05-19T08:35:00.004+08:00

Ok I know, as my wife reminded me, I did not want a 4x4. I spent my driving life in 4x4's and have trashed the environment and spent enough money fixing expensive parts and replacing expensive off road tyres... but sometimes it's all just too attractive! Our church crew had a day in Gidgie yesterday and the boys went off for some male bonding ! jack ran like a dream. Thanks Dave R for the video, love your work. (Sorry about the scratches on your new car Christine :(

Finally A New Truck! (and other bits)

2008-05-18T10:17:00.003+08:00

We are now the proud owners (after about 6 weeks of searching) of an old 1993 mint condition 3.1L Turbo Diesel Holden Jackaroo.

Tried to make our first batch of diesel Fri night and the engine/pump is stuffed - aghhh

Off to do a wedding today, went to print out the wedding certificate and put it in the printer upside down - aghhh
Went to print of all my notes for the service and the document is there and there is nothing in it, not a thing! This has never happened, obviously it happened because Word is a Windows programme. I should be using a Mac programme! Another that happened that has never happened before is that the couple I am marrying asked for a ful copy of the entire service at the rehearsal. So I had printed it off before it disappeared - I just rang the groom and he has it!! Phew!