HUMAN RIGHTS & EQUALITY FOR ALL,FREEDOM & JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE, ZIMBABWE, BURMA, EVERY COUNTRY SUFFERING FROM WARS, DROUGHTS, STARVATION, MILITARY ADVENTURES, DICTATORSHIPS, POLICE STATES, RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION, HOMOPHOBIA, CENSORSHIP & OTHER OBSCENITIES.INTERNATIONAL ASYLUM SEEKER SUPPORT
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I am nearly 91 years old and I have read a great deal since I started reading at the age of 5 or 6.
During the subsequent 85 years I have read things which are interesting and educational and enlightening, and I have read a great many things which were just for entertainment.
Some of what I have read has been ridiculous and full of nonsense and just plain stupid.
The inside and outside of this leaflet contains some of the most absurd, nonsensical, homophobic rubbish that I have ever looked at and, believe me, that is saying something.
All of this nonsense is because the Australian parliament is so full of stupid and ignorant people that we are left with a political vacuum which allows this bullshit to be perpetrated on a public who don't understand what it is all about and who absorb a great deal of the crap these people spout as if it was gospel, whereas it is all untrue and perpetuates stereotype and falsity from start to finish.
How long before people begin to understand that they are being taken for a ride by unprincipled and are of hypocritical so-called religious "persuasions" who are ignorant, evil, malicious and don't even know what they are talking about.
This is the sort of trash that people were afraid would happen if this sort of campaign went ahead, and it is no doubt what the Australian prime minister hoped would happen.
We discovered that Unit 1 at 12 Murphy Grove, Preston, Vic 3072, belonged to the Department of Health and Human Services of the Victorian State government some time after we had bought unit 2 and moved into it in February 2001.
Unit 1 is what is called transitional housing which we are given to understand is so that the tenants who are placed there are in some sort of emergency situation and are to be in this transitional housing unit for a limited period of time, until more suitable accommodation can be found for them.
The property is supposed to be managed by an organisation called Loddon Mallee Housing Services, trading as Haven; Home, Safe whose address is 52-56 Mary Street, Preston, Vic 3072, phone number 03 9479 0731.
At the moment, 19 September 2017, the Tenancy and Property Manager is Susan Hallorina. (email: susan.hallorina@hhs.org.au and web address http://www.havenhomesafe.org.au)
The two units are what I believe are called villa units and unit 1 is the front one and faces onto the street, Murphy Grove.
This has had, as far as we can make out, 13 different tenants or groups of tenants, with differing numbers of people each time, some being adults only, some being women with children who have been in situations of domestic violence, some have been migrants and some whose circumstances we have not been able to find any details about.
The tenants who have lived there have been good, bad, and impossible, and the reason that I am writing this blog is that the current tenants fall into the impossible category.
I notice that in the web pages of Haven; Home, Safe, there is no mention of how this organisation explores the needs of the neighbours of the housing they manage, so that people like us seem to have no recourse to the people who are thrust upon us and we have no support.
My only recourse is to publicly expose the ugly side of what is happening to us at the moment and hope that some organisation acts on this mess and helps to calm our situation down somewhat.
Don't hold your breath!
Attached hereto are some illustrative photos with more to come when possible.
It should also be noted that the people in unit 1 seem to be in possession of 3 cars.
Notices at the entrance to 12 Murphy Grove and outside unit 2 about No Parking in the driveway seem to have been not noticed by the tenants of unit 1 until at least two complaints were made to the organisation supposedly looking after unit 1. There is still the occasional vehicle parked in the driveway.
Darebin Council do not seem to have been in any hurry to get the residents of unit 1 to remove this junk from the pavement outside 12 Murphy Grove.
Forty years after police killed Black
Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko, no one has been prosecuted.
That’s despite five officers being denied amnesty by the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission. As the country commemorates another year
since the struggle hero was killed, the inquest into Biko’s death should
be reopened. The recent inquest into Ahmed Timol’s death sets an
example.
By GREG NICOLSON.
In 2014, auctioneers Westgate
Walding tried to sell Steve Biko and Ahmed Timol’s original autopsy
documents. Biko’s had a reserve of R70,000 to R100,000. The families of
Timol, who was allegedly killed by apartheid police in 1971, and Biko,
killed by police in 1977, hired the same pathologist to conduct
autopsies. He left his records to his assistant and when she died they
ended up with her children. Then Westgate and Walding tried to sell the
autopsies, including certificates from pathologists and post-mortem
reports.
The auction was interdicted, but the grotesque
attempt was symbolic. How can someone so blatantly disrespect South
African struggle heroes, who were killed while fighting for freedom,
their remaining loved ones, and the country? It’s simple, really:
because justice, much like democracy, has never quite arrived and we
commemorate the dead without actually honouring them.
Today marks 40 years since the 30-year-old
activist and intellectual Steve Biko died of brain injuries after he was
arrested in Port Elizabeth. He was severely beaten by cops, shackled
and driven naked in the back of a police vehicle to Pretoria where he
died in a prison cell. He had an international reputation and his death
drew condemnation from around the world. But no one involved in the
killing of one of the country’s most important struggle leaders has
faced consequences. Not during apartheid. Not in democracy.
Biko was arrested in August 1977, like others who
were seen as influential to the student protests a year before. The
then minister of justice and police, Jimmy Kruger, claimed he died in
custody while on a hunger strike. He was said to be the 20th person to
have died in custody in the preceding 18 months. Journalists exposed
Kruger’s lie and an inquest was established.
“On the available evidence the death cannot be
attributed to any act or omission amounting to a criminal offence,”
ruled the magistrate.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
disagreed. Five police officers applied for amnesty – Harold Snyman,
Gideon Nieuwoudt, Ruben Marx, Daantjie Siebert and Johan Beneke. The TRCrejected
their version of events, calling them improbable and contradictory. It
said they weren’t credible witnesses.
“They had clearly conspired to
conceal the truth of what led to the tragic death of Biko soon after the
incident and have persisted in this attitude before us.”
The amnesty applications were rejected, but in
2003 the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute. It
said there was insufficient evidence to justify charges, with a lack of
eyewitnesses, but it might reconsider its decision if new evidence
emerged.
On Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma will visit Kgosi
Mampuru Prison and lay a wreath in the cell where Biko died. “Steve
Biko fought white supremacy and was equally disturbed by what he saw as
an inferiority complex amongst black people. He emphasised the need for
psychological liberation for black people, to accompany physical
liberation to undo the damage caused by apartheid,” said Zuma on Monday.
“He advocated black pride and black self-reliance, believing that black
people should be their own liberators and lead organisations fighting
for freedom.”
Commemorations that don’t call for justice are
disingenuous. That’s where Timol comes back in. Officially, an apartheid
inquest found the former SACP leader died after jumping off the 10th
story of Johannesburg’s infamous John Vorster police station. His
family fought for years for the NPA to reopen the inquest. After
resistance, or perhaps incompetence, the NPA finally reopened the
inquest, which was held recently in Pretoria.
Witnesses were called to the stand. The gruesome
details of apartheid police’s detainment and torture techniques were
once again revealed. Different versions of how Timol died were
interrogated. Pathology reports, after the auctioneer who owns them
allowed access, were scrutinised. The court is still to deliver its
findings, but Timol’s family was finally allowed a chance to find out
more about what happened and who might have been responsible.
Such inquests are legally established to make
four findings: who died, when they died, how they died, and if anyone is
responsible and should be recommended for investigation and possible
charges.
Biko’s death received far greater attention than
Timol’s. But neither the media reports, the 1977 inquest, or the TRC
process can be seen as sufficiently comprehensive. Five people asked for
amnesty for Biko’s death, but do we know all the facts? Were there
others involved who did not come forward? How many people were involved
in the attempted cover up? Can new evidence be unearthed that could
justify criminal charges against those involved?
Whether the inquest into Biko’s killing is
reopened or not will likely depend on whether his family wants to pursue
it. There are pitfalls. Timol’s family had to doggedly pursue the NPA
to get the process started. Then they had to sit through painful
testimonies.
But Biko’s legacy is only becoming more and more
important in South Africa. His voice has an increasingly prominent
influence on modern politics, particularly amongst student activists
calling for rapid and far-reaching change. The country deserves to know
more about how he was killed. It deserves to see those involved
cross-examined in a courtroom. DM
The same-sex vote, put on for the amusement of the Australian population is a total fraud from start to finish because they would have one believe that if the yes vote succeeds, they will then put a vote through the federal parliament changing the definition of marriage to include the clause - "including same-sex people".
This postal vote idea is to fool people into believing that something will definitely be done to institute same-sex marriage - but the vote is non-binding,and if the vote is yes,when it gets to parliament the parliamentarians can just ignore it or reject it.
Where is the certainty? where is the sincerity? where is the honesty? This government, and indeed its loyal opposition which in 2004 supported the changes to the marriage act reinforcing for ever that marriage would only ever between a man and a woman.
Who do you believe? Who do you trust?
To me it is all a fraudulent activity and a waste of time and money.
I will not waste my time - or money giving it any support or further thought in the whole process.
Today, Thursday 7 September 2017, The Victorian State government has once again refused to consider the introduction of a safe injecting room in Richmond in inner Melbourne, despite so many of the residents of the area approving the idea of having such a trial injecting room for Melbourne similar to the one which has been operating in the King's Cross area of Sydney - that most progressive of states (not!! sic) - for some years with great success.
What is their problem? are they getting money out of the drug dealers in the state? Is some other problem, such as religious fanaticism stopping them, or are they, after all, not as progressive as they would like us to think?
At the end of the day, more people will die because the government of Victoria has failed to act - yet again - on a matter of vital importance to the community.
And in the longer term they are failing in another way, because drug control doesn't work and the answer is to legalise the drugs that are causing the most harm, and control their use by selling them in a safe supply system. But unheard of while the USA controls the way drugs are sold around the world.
In Gaza, entire
families sit in the darkness of their living rooms, with candles
generating the only light. Dozens of families have lost loved ones in
house fires.
Propane is scarce, and small generators are unsafe and hard to
come by. They are usually smuggled through tunnels and poorly made. One
of my college professors lost three children (a 14-year-old and
eight-year-old twins) after their generator exploded.
Gaza residents face so much hardship and pain, just to secure one of life's basic necessities.
When the electricity goes out, the silence is deafening. Everything
grinds to a halt: refrigerators, televisions, hospital equipment, water
pumps and fans. Modern life stops. The quiet allows us to imagine what
the world was like before we were immersed in the noise of car horns and
the hum and buzz of modern machines. Later, the quiet is replaced by a
storm of sound as generators whir and screech back to life.
I will never forget the afternoon when I asked my father how long he thought the blockade would last.
"A few months, my son. A few months. It won't take long," he answered.
A few weeks ago, more than a decade since the Israeli blockade of Gaza
was implemented, I spoke with my father again and reminded him of what
he said that day. I could practically feel his sorrow and grief through
the phone.
"I don't know how many 10 years there are in one's life," he
answered, crushed by the naivete of his statement all those years ago.
How is it acceptable that in 2017, Gaza's residents,
including my own family, have to spend so much of their time worrying
about water, light and food? What justifies a policy that causes
toddlers like my younger brother to soak in sweat during the night and
place their cheeks on the cool tile floor to escape the heat of Gaza's nights?
No peace can come from forcing thousands of people to wait
until dawn for their weekly share of water, while on the other side of
the border, Israelis take dips in swimming pools and enjoy unlimited
access to fresh water.
Nowadays, if you ask Palestinians in Gaza how they are doing, they
might answer: "Alive, due to lack of death." This commonly used
expression captures the dreadfulness of everyday life in Gaza.
It pains me to say this, but Gaza will inevitably fall apart.
Every second in Gaza under Israel's blockade - where water and medical
care are luxuries - is tainted by tragedy. Every time a family cannot
afford to put food on the table, every time a house fire claims yet
another victim, every time a cancer patient cannot acquire life-saving treatment or another desperate person ends their life, the horror of the blockade comes into full view.
So long as Israel maintains control over Palestinian lives but denies them their basic rights and freedoms, it cannot call itself a democracy.
The United Nations hasdeclared Gaza"unlivable",
and the blockade creates a slow, collective death. What will it take to
convince the international community that the people of Gaza, like all
people on this Earth, deserve to live in dignity?
More and more people are joining the effort to advocate for Palestinian freedom, including by participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It is time we end the blockade on Gaza and set the Palestinian people free.
Jehad Abusalim is a doctoral student at New York University and a policy analyst with Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Think labour parties and think progressive - right? Wrong!
Think injecting rooms for druggies to have somewhere safe to monitor their use of drugs, such as the one in Sydney at King's Cross, and think of Richmond in Melbourne which is the ideal area for a safe injecting room where it is most needed, and think of the Andrews government's emphatic refusal to even contemplate such an idea.
Lives are saved by having such facilities and this has been acknowledged for years in overseas countries and in some areas of Australia, but in Victoria? As Eliza Doolittle says, "not bloody likely!".
The above sign was seen in an upstairs window above a shop in High Street, Thornbury, Melbourne, and the sign reads:
BRING THEM HERE
CLOSE THE CAMPS
When one assesses the total number of human beings involved with this disaster, the number is so tiny in proportion to the refugee problems everywhere else in the world that it adds to Australia's shame that this has been allowed to happen at all, and to continue for so long without roars of outrage from the Australian population.
Which all goes to show how dulled are the senses and sensibilities of the Australian population.
And then think of the numbers who come by plane who outstay their visas and the responses of the politicians to the whole sorry saga.
It is all totally heartbreaking, and do you think anybody will read this and feel ashamed of their attitudes to asylum seekers? Of course not!
Peter Dutton makes one ashamed of the human race, together with his government and their loyal opposition.
Each time the federal government does or says something about asylum seekers that hasn't been done or said before, it doesn't take long to see they have all sunk to depths no one could have believed was possible.
Their cruelty is no different from the dictatorships and police states which we have seen so much of in the 20th century and which has carried on into the 21st century. It just reaches new levels of depravity all the time.
It is only a matter of time before politicians in Australia follow the lead of their zionist masters and start a genocide of sorts against asylum seekers who now seem to have no possibility of resolution to their problems after fleeing from the countries which were persecuting them.
