Once I cried: 'Oh, God Almighty! if Thy might doth still endure,
Now show me in a vision for the wrongs of Earth a cure.'
And, lo! with shops all shuttered I beheld a city's street,
And in the warning distance heard the tramp of many feet,
Coming near, coming near,
To a drum's dull distant beat,
And soon I saw the army that was marching down the street.
Then, like a swollen river that has broken bank and wall,
The human flood came pouring with the red flags over all,
And kindled eyes all blazing bright with revolution's heat,
And flashing swords reflecting rigid faces in the street.
Pouring on, pouring on,
To a drum's loud threatening beat,
And the war-hymns and the cheering of the people in the street.
And so it must be while the world goes rolling round its course,
The warning pen shall write in vain, the warning voice grow hoarse,
But not until a city feels Red Revolution's feet
Shall its sad people miss awhile the terrors of the street
The dreadful everlasting strife
For scarcely clothes and meat
In that pent track of living death the city's cruel street.
Henry Lawson
And so it was, in infinite shadows and beneath the trees, in caring weights. Finally someone said what everyone in Redfern already knew to be true, that it was not safe for white people to go down the Block, that they were likely to be bashed. Pastor Bill Simon has released his book, Back To The Block, with the Prime Minister's wife Therese Rein weeping as he told stories of being a member of the stolen generation. This is the same government which appears determined to wind back the clock and remove still more fathers from their children. They weep tears on an emotionally convenient, emotionally charged moment. And ignore the cruelty and injustice which lies all around, implement policies which make these people's lives worse. Hypocrisy and cant, it was all he could think of. They talked about it everywhere, in his local cafe, A Little On The Side, finally someone had said it: it is not safe to go there as a whitie.
This is The Block where tens of millions of dollars of public money are poured every year; money some poor bastard "whitie" has had to work hard in a factory for, to pay taxis so public servants and politicians could give it away on self serving causes they consider worthy. The nation is full of immigrants from war torn countries who arrived with almost no resources and built prosperous lives out of hard work. And then there's the indigenes; almost entirely welfare dependent, full of grievances, bitter at the soft blows of victimhood which rained constantly upon them, bitter at the past injustices perpetuated against them, enthralled by the victimhood industry which constantly encouraged them to see themselves as different. To think it's perfectly alright to spend four million dollars of public money on a community centre which can only be used by the 16 local families who live down there, because everyone else is in danger of being bashed if they go there.
Everyone who lives in this area has stories to tell, of being bashed, bashed, bashed, in corners, outside pubs, outside the station, walking down back lanes, in the main street. Tiny little Asian girls are their favourite victims, because they are cashed up and defenseless, with their little designer handbacks and credit cards from daddy in Hong Kong. No one speaks for them. We have all said sorry now, thanks Kevin, but no one says sorry to all the local residents who have been bashed, no one. Bill Simon, a priest, they talk about it at A Little On The Side, a priest justifies the bashings saying they are white, they've been taught to hate whites, the whites that work to pay for their welfare, for their entire lives, and so it is forgivable. A priest teaches violence, why doesn't he stand up and tell them to behave with decency and honour and stop bashing the locals.
Well, there is no answer because everything has been justified by race. So hundreds, some said thousands, turned up on the Block, the parasite public servants and the worthy troops of do gooders and all those people who clearly don't work from one year to the next, and have plenty of time to be showing up to events such as this. They show up and once more the streets are full and attention focuses on a tiny block of vacant land, worth a fortune because of its proximity to the station. We are crystal clear and paralysed, not just with the most harmful hypocrisy, the cant which justifies the worst kind of racism, treating and indulging one group differently to the rest. Because the gangs of totally unsupervised eight and ten-year-olds who go round smashing cars and overturning garbage bins makes it all worthwhile, we can see the little gangs of thieves targetting the tourists, and we ignore them.
And we ignore the massive cost as the police go down there yet again. And I hear the policeman as he leans over to speak to a woman on the side of the road: "You were there when she died?" The prostestations of innocence are not believed. We have derided our own values. Truth is of no consequence. All is spin. In a country dominated by the superficial, ruled over by Mr Sheen, pseudo eggheads hoping the public will fall for their nerd impersonations, mistaking it for intellect. How cruel life really is. Unjust. And so he saw Margaret bleeding on her balcony, tears in her eyes; and Margaret is one tough little cookie. He sees Gersch hobbling after being gang bashed by ten of them, kicking into him on the ground, kicking into his back, into his head, barely able to walk for days. And they knew him. But they still bashed him. And no one says: this is wrong, don't do it. Their elder stands up and says: it's alright, they're white.
That's the state of race relations in Redfern; after the glow of saying Sorry and the parties which erupted on the Block, as everyone, teary, came rushing to the fore. Cash up. Cash out. See the stairs leading to nowhere. Pay taxes to support arrant nonsense. Treat everybody differently depending on their race. Inculcate a sense of grievance. And watch as the little ferret drug dealers dart here and there, waiting for their next victim to be stupid enough to try and score off them, watching for an unlocked car; encouraged by their elders.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8103577.stm
Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have held another big rally in northern Tehran, witnesses say.
The protest came hours after Mr Mousavi urged them not to march in the centre of the city where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supporters were rallying.
Tough new restrictions on the foreign media mean the BBC is unable to confirm the scale of the opposition protest.
It came despite an offer to recount votes the opposition disputes.
The new media restrictions have been imposed amid apparent surprise and concern among the authorities at the scale of popular defiance over Friday's official election results, correspondents say.
The government demonstration today certainly didn't look on the scale of the opposition demonstration on Monday, and also the people didn't look as enthusiastic.
I think the opposition has been slightly disrupted. They were going to have a rally in the same location and decided not to to avoid confrontation. The rally that has broken out this evening is completely spontaneous. Just people who have been exchanging e-mails and somehow worked out where everyone is gathering. They have closed down the mobile phone network here but people are still managing to communicate.
There is no doubt in my mind that the opposition are not being deterred, even by the shooting there was at the demonstrators in Tehran yesterday and reportedly in seveal other cities.
President Ahmadinejad was declared the easy victor of the presidential poll on Saturday, with results giving him 63% of votes against 34% for Mr Mousavi.
But the opposition alleged widespread irregularities.
The powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount some votes from the poll, in a move backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25648359-2702,00.html
KEVIN Rudd is considering offering Peter Costello a job, revealing he wants to use the former treasurer's experience in the service of the nation, despite Mr Costello's decision to retire from parliament.
Although the Prime Minister has no particular role in mind, Mr Costello likes the idea, confirming Mr Rudd had approached him about the idea of an undefined appointment in the future.
The former treasurer, who announced on Monday he would not contest the next election, revealed the approach yesterday.
He also insisted he would leave parliament still committed to workers being allowed to have contracts with their employers without union involvement.
Mr Costello also warned that higher inflation and "whirring interest rates" were likely in the future, because of government spending in response to the global recession.
Earlier, Mr Rudd called for change in the political culture to embrace former politicians, saying: "Mr Costello is a highly intelligent individual who's made a big contribution to Australian public life.
"So I would not rule out at all the possibility of appointing him to a position in the future. This is a nation which should properly harness its talent."
Mr Rudd said the Howard government had failed to use significant talent from the Hawke-Keating period and described it as a national tragedy.
"We actually need to change our political culture a bit so that good people, intelligent people who have extensive national and international experience, can be properly deployed," he said.
Mr Costello said Mr Rudd had invited him to his office after he announced his retirement and was "very supportive of some things that I might be able to do to help the country".
"If I can, I would like to," Mr Costello said.
"Obviously I have to earn an income. If, in addition to that there are things that I can do to help Australia on the international stage, I would like to."
Reflecting on his 20 years in parliament, including nearly 12 as treasurer, Mr Costello told reporters he was proud of his public service and pleased he had managed to leave at a time of his own choosing.
http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,25648914-31037,00.html
NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal will today begin spruiking the state Budget he has called a "beacon of hope".
Mr Roozendaal confirmed a deficit of $1.3 billion for the current financial year, but a modest $86 million surplus is forecast for 2011/12 on the back of several measures in the Budget.
He will present the Budget at a lunch in Sydney organised by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia this afternoon.
The Government revealed it will halve stamp duty on new homes and rein in public-sector spending in an effort to swing back to the black within two years.
The stamp duty cut from July 1 until the end of the calendar year will be available to anyone buying a newly built dwelling worth up to $600,000, saving homebuyers up to $11,245.
The measure attracted mixed reactions. Urban Taskforce Australia welcomed the move, while the Real Estate Institute of NSW said the cuts should have been made across the board.
The Government has vowed to reduce public-sector spending by amalgamating 160 agencies and offices into just 13 departments in what the Government describes as the biggest overhaul in 30 years.
Related Coverage
Among the Budget winners are the sick and the elderly, with a record $15.1 billion health Budget and taxpayers, with no new taxes.
But commuters may be disappointed to learn there are no newly announced projects to help deal with congestion.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon said overall there was a lot to applaud in the Budget as it would move the state in the right direction by stimulating demand.
However, the NSW Business Chamber was more circumspect about the Budget and the $1.3 billion deficit, saying the economy is in a precarious position.
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