Some Old Stuff I'm keeping here for the record

Tax or vision
MARGO KINGSTON'S Webdiary
Tuesday, March 13 2002
...Merrill Pye is depressed and frustrated by the petrol excise freeze
and the new homebuyers subsidy...

Do we have anyone who cares for the future in any position of
power, or is it only the ruthless, grasping & generally thoughtless
who bother to obtain or can plot to get it?

On March 5th's Webdiary you said John Howard said "...It is the
people's money, and they want it used in an intelligent fashion,
particularly when we've retired so much debt already." Whether
justifying a previous denial of basic supports to a decent human
society by producing a surplus was "wrong", or not, this petrol excise
cut is NOT using it in "an intelligent fashion"!

Jerry Schneider, professor emeritus of civil engineering at the
University of Washington in Seattle: "It makes me very
sad to see large sums of money being spent on ... dumb
things instead of technologies ... that hold some potential for
dealing with the truly horrendous congestion,
carnage and pollution that we are experiencing in all of our large and
medium cities."

The same goes for the ruddy pathetic, disgustingly
short-sighted policies our government has recently
been following.

I have similar feelings in relation to the new home payment.
What about the idea of only getting the allowance IF assorted
sustainability/low energy/recyclability/use of recycled
material /water saving/&c, &c, technology was used? And a higher
allowance for more such features! These are things already available,
just awaiting some large-scale use. Quite a few are Australian
products.

I was bitterly confirmed in my contempt for the cupidity &/or
stupidity of various groups by the lost opportunities in a number
of large-scale developments in the last 5 years or so.
Ignorance is curable & can be forgivable; stubborn unwillingness
to improve or learn is less so, particularly when the results are
so damaging.

=============================================

Straight from the heart
MARGO KINGSTON'S Webdiary
Wednesday, August 30, 2000

Howard and human rights - here's your feedback, the most
since the diary started.

Merrill Pye
... imagine a jackboot stamping on a human face, over & over
[1984, G. Orwell] --
or to update, perhaps we could swap jackboot for stylish
polished slip-ons.

To apologise, I regret I haven't been able to adequately address
the absolutely stunning piece of, of -- what would you even call
it!? -- announced today by what I'm ashamed to call the Australian
Government.

Fair go mate (remember that?), the UN does have its problems;
so have the Christian church(es) & other religions or beliefs;
so blasted well has humanity as a whole. Does that mean you tear
up even the most basic of human(e) social foundations? Break
down the bedrock - the mortar - of human respect? Here we could
speak of babies & bathwater; spitefulness to nose & face, any
number of cliches.

If we want to protest internationally about trade problems or overseas
abuses of various sorts, we could think on the saying ''Do as you
would be done by.'' Or is this what they want, which is even
more worrying?

Our elected representatives seemingly wish to ally themselves
-- thereby daubing _every_ Australian with that dark & sticky tar
-- with the basest of tyrannies, dictators, ''warlords'' & ''strongmen''.

Nowadays people associate Germany with two world wars, & the
horror of the Final Solution. For a hundred or more years before,
though, it was associated with philosophy, poetry & music. Can we
be so sanguine about Australia? ''The price of liberty is eternal
vigilance'' and you must know for what to be vigilant.

Was originally going to say I was dumbstruck, but don't think
that'd hold up to examination. Couldn't start until galvanised
when Margo spoke on LNL tonight. So much more to say but this
is long enough. Have had unsuccessful & depressing experience
with most of my idealistic causes, but am cheered that there are
others who care about things I consider important.

==================================================
In Remembrance
MARGO KINGSTON'S Webdiary
September 11 2002
The Webdiaries of September 12 and 13 last year follow

TRAGEDY
Wednesday, Sept 12, 2002

Merrill Pye in Sydney

My worries for reverberations continue, but down the bottom of
Pandora's Box was hope. Just maybe some sort of common feeling
might come out of this. New York and Washington DC now maybe
can feel like Belgrade and Baghdad did. Those pretty pictures,
like movies or computer games, missile-cam and night-vision,
now connect with reality, with pain, grief, loss and destruction.
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/28/2002 09:46:00 pm