The Federal Election- Ethics and Values are they missing?

We live in a world of great change, and it is amazing to me that concerns within Australia which were never considered previously are suddenly on the Political agenda, and money thrown around as a bribe to achieve votes. Where do Values, ethics, compassion for people and genuine concern and action for environment come into it? This election is critical for preventing any escalation Global Warming, and changing Australian Politics from fear driven negative energies, to creating positive change. What do you think?*

Values- Mick from Grafton.

Now that an election is drawing very near, it is probably a good time to reflect on our values, ethics and morals as a nation. What is it that Australia, and being an Australian, stands for or represents these days?
Have we become a nation of “I’m alright Jack” self centred individuals, who care nothing for the suffering going on all around the planet. Do we care about anything but ourselves and our immediate needs? We are happy to trade with China; it brings in billions of dollars to the economy and keeps a relatively small number of people in high paying mining jobs.
However, China invaded Tibet, killed large numbers of Tibetans, ruthlessly suppressed their religion, and lately has brought in large numbers of Chinese to Tibet, so that they now outnumber the Tibetans (ethnic cleansing). Also, China executes or imprisons political dissidents, and other “criminals”- such as practitioners of Falung Gong meditation. And some of the Chinese goods you buy are produced by slave labour in prison camps. But hey, trade is good for the economy, so who really cares how China treats its minorities and dissenters! Perhaps we will have cause to regret this trade down the track a few years – we exported scrap iron to Japan prior to World War 2, and had it re-exported in a form we did not appreciate during the war.

Another indicator of our rapidly declining standards (ethics and morals) is the fact that many political parties and politicians blatantly lie to the electorate, distort facts, or rely on fear and scare tactics to get re-elected, and the voting public are accepting of this behaviour. The Wheat Board got caught out paying bribe money to the Saddam Hussein regime to sell our wheat there. This regime was later considered so heinous that it was necessary to invade Iraq to get rid of the ruthless dictator who ran it. Yours and my tax dollars are being spent maintaining Australian troops in Iraq, when we were paying bribes to them before. Does this strike you as inconsistent? However, there are some in Australia who think that the only mistake made was in getting caught – it doesn’t matter who you deal with, as long as you are making money out of it! There is also much greed and unethical practices amongst our corporations and their management. Fraud, embezzlement and price fixing rear their ugly heads from time to time. Governments are reluctant to police many of these matters because it would mean offending those they take political donations from (e.g. Tobacco Companies which deliberately target children to get them addicted at an early age). Mark Twain commented that it was difficult to get someone to understand something when their pay packet depended on them not understanding it.

We also seem to have caught the scourge of materialism from America. Our lives seem to revolve around our possessions. We continually want more, bigger, better, the latest model, etc. We will often replace an item that is working satisfactorily just because we can. We define ourselves by our “status” in a materialistic world – how much we earn, how much “stuff” we have, do we have the right “look”, are we keeping up with the Joneses. Many of the financial pressures Australians are under at the moment are self created. Our parents and grandparents started out in small modest houses. Now we “want it all”, up front, with all of the bells and whistles - two car garage, en-suites, central heating and cooling, fully carpeted, huge rooms, in-ground swimming pool and spa.
The environment that sustains us is having to pay the cost for this crass and mindless materialism and greed.

Other signs of declining values in Australia are the return of racism, cruelty to animals, religious intolerance, zenophobia (fear of foreigners or anything “different”), homophobia, and the worrying rise of religious fundamentalist fanatics. These are all bad portents for the future of Australia as a tolerance, just and free society. Apathy is also a sign of our declining values, and unwillingness to take a stand on anything. Socrates made the famous statement that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. Unfortunately, today many people would not even understand what this statement means, as their thought processes and character are so shallow that they could adequately be replaced by a two dimensional cardboard cut out representation of themselves. Money and the economy are *_not_* all important! We are defined by what we do, and how we behave, and not by what we say (empty talk), or what we own.
It is time to make a stand, show courage and character, be prepared to stand apart from the mindless herd, as an individual of worth. Your survival _will_ depend on it!

Climate Change - What can we do to help?

The impact of environmental disasters will affect us all in one way or another what can you personally do to aid the world in general and your family?

Climate Change and You

By now many people are starting to take climate change seriously (except perhaps for our Federal and State Governments). Farmer’s got all excited after one decent fall of rain in last few years and thought that the drought was over, and being climate optimists (or having large debts to service) they borrowed more money so that they could put in a crop, and hope for a bumper harvest. What we have witnessed since has been seedlings wilting and dying from lack of any follow up rain. The drought isn’t over, it also isn’t a drought that will suddenly end, and everything will be back as it was in the “good old days”, so that we can carry on with the behaviour patterns of the past. What we are witnessing is just the start of rapid climate shifts around the planet. Far worse is yet to come. World grain prices are going through the roof as crop yields in Australia and many other grain producing areas are either much lower that expected, or have largely failed due to erratic rainfall. Other areas are experiencing severe flooding, e.g. sub Saharan Africa, parts of Europe and South East Asia. In an ironic twist, while many crops are dying for lack of rain, other crops have been destroyed by floods and prolonged inundation.

Our food supply system is dependent on inputs of vast quantities of petroleum products (diesel, petrol, oil). Petroleum products are needed in the production and transportation of foods, and in the production of herbicides and pesticides that are used to protect the crops from insects, diseases and competition species (weeds). And as anyone with a car will know, fuel supplies are dwindling and prices rising. The petroleum is running out, the human population continues to grow exponentially, and our soils and ecosystems are being rapidly depleted. A triple whammy! What this means to you and me personally, is that we are entering a period where food supplies will become unpredictable, and many shortages with concurrent high prices will occur. It is therefore time to start making preparations to allow you to reduce the effect that food shortages will mean to you and your family. It is time to start learning how to be more self sufficient in many ways. So what can you do to prepare yourself for what is coming? Plant fruit and nut trees around your property. Get them in now, they take several years to grow large enough to give you a good yield, and get their root systems down deep. Those with larger properties are luckier in that they have room to plant more fruit and nut trees, while those with quarter acre blocks can still find room for a least half a dozen fruit trees. I found room on my ¼ acre block for an apricot tree, a plum tree, a mandarin tree, a mulberry tree, a macadamia tree, a fig, a Calimata olive, a pear tree, an apple tree, two passionfruit vines (growing on wires strung along the back fences), and a blueberry bush. There was already a good sized Mango tree, a grape vine, Lady Finger Banana trees and a peach tree growing in the yard when I purchased the property. I also found room for 3 Oak trees, 2 Deodar Cedars and a Lacebark tree. So don’t tell me you don’t have any room to plant anything. I have had a couple of failures, frost killed the paw paw tree and the lychee tree did nothing for a year and then died.
The next projects for me are a vegetable patch (in a raised garden bed since I have clay and not soil on my property), a large water tank, and at some stage if I have sufficient money, solar hot water and a few solar panels. Those of you who are renting can still do something. You can grow vegetables in those foam boxes that you can get from the green grocer. Just add potting mix, fertiliser and some seeds (or seedlings) and water. The rest is up to nature. You can also have some fruit trees growing in large pots that you can take with you when you move. There are grafted fruit trees that have 2 or 3 types of fruit on the one root stock. You can also grow fruit trees espaliered along walls of courtyards or fences. If you get motivated enough to grow your own, you eventually might want to make or buy fruit and vegetable drying racks so that you can store excesses from summer to tide you through the winter. Those with enough room, and who don’t mind the hassles can also entertain the idea of having egg laying chickens in a coop. You can trade your surpluses with someone else for what they have to offer.
In this brief treatise, I have given you some hints as to what you can do to prepare for the future. Remember all of these things take time to grow or bring into reality, and if you leave it till too late to start, then it is you (and your stomach) that will bear the consequences.

Michael

The Environment

MB on EdgeJoined: 29 Oct 2006Posts: 17
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 am Post subject: Our Environment

What is happening with our world? Are the wild weather patterns our fault? Does Mother Earth tell us she is not happy with her treatment? Is is time for us all to take responsibility for our actions instead of blaming politicians or big corporations? What could you personally do to help give this planet, our home, back its natural balance? Peace be with you


dragonflySite AdminJoined: 01 Nov 2006Posts: 32
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:32 am Post subject:

In Defense Of Mother Earth. Thank you for this topic, one current and urgent for all of humanity. It is my opinion that not only should we take responsibility immediatley for our own personal share of inconsiderate abuse of the environment, but it is also by implication our fault as I see it, if by our complacancy we also allow politicians to decree a dark future for our children, and children's children, and all life on earth.

We are all responsible for global warming, but we can change this for the better. We are powerful beings when united for a cause. I am annoyed, and at times embarrased to be an Australian, when our political representives lack insight, not farsighted enough in their vision to see decisions, hard ones, need to be made yesterday to save the planet! What we need in our policy makers are powerful, wise, politicians, who see beyond economic rationalism as the only governing force. Not to cling onto fossil fuel or uranium as the only alternatives, but see beyond, and choose clean green alternatives no matter what the initial cost. Perhaps the latest statistics on GLOBAL WARMING IS A REMINDER TO US ALL what is at stake, and that personal agendas should be overlooked, such as votes at the next election, in favour of a compassionate all embracing stance on the environment. Far sighted decisions need to be made now, and upheld for the good of the planet.

I am personally sorry Al Gore can't represent us in Australia, his far sightedness, wisdom and courage has to date been sadly lacking in Australian Politics in my opinion. There are men and women of great integrity who are farsighted in Australian politics, but they are not in positions now to make immediate changes, and this saddens me.

What the world needs in my eyes, are leaders of the calibre of Al Gore, who put all they have into their truth, no matter what the personal cost. I am sure there are, just needing public support to come to the fore. It just might be the public is not only looking, but desperate for just such potential leaders to show themselves, possibly then I would feel more optimistic for our planet. We HAVE the power to change the world for the better. Sometimes we just need to open our eyes and see the blessings we have, but take for granted, to see the threats and be motivated to move as one in Mother Earths defense.


coradcorJoined: 29 Oct 2006Posts: 36
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject: Is the current rain tears from heaven?

I went out west recently and witnessed a fatal accident with a young girl in her early twenties dying. It happened directly behind our vehicle. It was strange. There were many rescue workers there that had been obviously trained to make priorities..i.e. the living first and the ones that are without hope of living have less of a priority. Its practical. But my friend and i strangely enough were drawn straight to the girl and felt compelled to help her, to bless her, to pray for her. My friend held her head as she died. Later on i received a text message from another friend who always psychically seems to be aware of what is happening... and she told me that a great wave of compassion had suddenly hit the world from God. And it was making her feel like crying. She was not aware at this stage of the accident. It was interesting because at the crash site i kept feeling all these waves of compassion (for her, for her mother, for her family) which also made me cry. And then it began raining not long after!! Out West where there is a drought there has hardly been any rain for a long time. And the rain has spread out over the state and continued all the way home the next day. I really felt like the rain was the 'tears of compassion' from God. It felt very clear. Does our state of mind effect the weather as much as governments? If we were to be overwhelmed by compassion for either our fellow man, the earth itself, or one single person who is in pain, would this break the drought? Blessings


MichaelJoined: 30 Nov 2006Posts: 14Location: Grafton
Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:08 am Post subject:

The Biosphere of Planet Earth, otherwise known as Gaia acts as a superorganism which used negative and sometimes positive feedback loops to maintain conditions suitable for life to persist on the planet. The control mechanisms have detected "a major disturbance in the force" created by humans and are now moving to correct this disturbance.

We - the human race are about to "corrected" in a big way, for our actions are making it difficult for just about every other life form on the planet to survive. Gaia - Mother Nature (karma) or whatever name you wish to use for the process has a number of tools to correct the disturbance we are creating. 1. Using feedback loops, the climate changes we make will bring about changes in our ability to feed ourselves - we will die in large numbers and restore balance to the system. Any organism which breeds beyond the carrying capacity of its environment pays the penalty in a population crash.

We have been able to temporarily cheat this outcome to date by use of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, and massive inputs of energy. However we are rapidly running out of aces up our sleeves for this one. And because of the cheating, the population has had time to grow much larger, and the correction will be proportionate. 2. The disturbed environment we have produced will create conditions suitable for those vectors which will act to reduce our numbers eg. mosquitos (malaria, ross river virus, nile river virus, murray valley encephalitis, etc) rapid development of new or returned diseases and miroorganism (aids, turberculosis, plague, pox, etc, etc). 3. Competition for ever dwindling resources due to human overpopulation will lead to wars - result reduction in population of the disturbing force. 4. Mass destruction of the environment and large scale extinction of species will remove most of our support system which keeps us alive and healthy (physically, mentally and spiritually) - end result population control and removal/reduction of disturbing force, restoring balance (in geological not human time scales). Soils take thousands of years to develop, if we repent of their destruction too late, bad luck human race - no food.

Therefore to use biblical terms, we are about to reap what we have sown. In time (large amounts of time), balance will be restored to the earth. New species will have evolved to fill the niches created by the destruction caused by humans, but we - the human race will not be around to see the new earth that restores itself to health in 10 or 20 million years. Mother Earth, or Gaia, or whatever consciousness the Planet has, will regard us as a failed experiment, not to be repeated.
Michael