escalator over the hill

Preamble to THE WORLD IS RICH.

It has been a little while since I last had the time to post to my blog. In the interim I have busy with  a range of volunteering projects  Primarily focusing on the environment my direct political activism and the writing of articles for the  Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) Facebook page. The research takes a fair bit of time. I have decided that I should post simultaneously those Facebook articles here.

Climate Energy Regulator

Other activities of a political nature include taking on the Climate Energy Regulator where the process for Farmers to participate in a Carbon Offsets program is arduous and not designed to encourage participation. This is not the fault of Government but that of the Department. Bureaucracy gone mad and clearly those involved are not aware of the daily work commitments, financial stress Family Farmers face. The people charged with delivering a sound Government policy are totally out of touch with reality. This will surprise no one who has ever engaged with a Canberran  Public Servant  or one of the many American Global consultants that we Australians pay a fortune to design  and implement processes that don’t deliver.  But more of that later.

Currently I have found myself in the role of a de-facto lobbyist for the Farmer directly to the Minister and via twitter.

I have also found myself taking the sharp end against the NSW Government policy for two pieces of O’Farrell government legislation, the Crimes (Criminal Organisation Control) Act 2012 (the anti-bikie club Bill) and the new consorting offences recently inserted into the Crimes Act.

Civil Liberties “In Search of Stupidity”

Those who are following me on twitter will be well aware of the position I have taken on this legislation and I will speak at the next party conference against the imposition of these highly undemocratic acts and attacks on our Civil Liberties. You who have ever read my” about me”  here my posts on Children’s rights, bullying or defamation made against me by of all people a Human Rights Lawyer and a Criminologist who once lectured in Canberra will understand my passion for fairness.

Bikie 1%ers

The so-called  “anti-bikie” legislation breaches fundamental rights; in particular freedom of association, equality before the law, freedom of speech, and the presumption of innocence (the defence has the onus of proof of innocence). I understand this is a breach of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Australia ratified in 1980. AND freedom of association is a fundamental plank of Australian domestic law.

I believe strongly in protecting these values however the current threat that compromises these fundamental  Human Rights. It is interesting and perhaps uncomfortable for some The United Motorcycle Council is attempting to ensure that the erosion of civil liberties for all Australians does not occur. You will see when you read the address by Professor Paul Wilson of Bond University the last time such Laws were enacted was in 1950 with the Communist Party dissolution Act.

The new consorting laws are directed towards entirely innocent people who, if they consort on two occasions with two people convicted of indictable offences, commit a crime punishable by maximum 3 years jail. These consorting laws are a breach of freedom of association principles, give great discretion to the Police; again more of that later.

Did you know in New South Wales we don’t have a verified Charter of Human Rights but Victoria does and was passed in 2006. Victoria’s human rights charter is based on the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the main international human rights treaty which has been ratified by, and is binding on, 167 countries (including Australia from 1980).

On more personal matters I have recently enrolled in an animal carers program as I am continually rescuing lost possums and have started to either build or modify possum boxes.

I have with North Sydney Council and 16 of my neighbours embarked on a beautification project under their “Street Alive Scheme. Again if you have follow me on twitter you will have seen some of this. Yes more later but what I can reveal is that there is a good likelihood that this could become a reality TV show …we shall see

For details

Streets Alive

http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/2771-streets-alive.asp?intSiteID=1

Community Garden

http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/6494-community-gardens.asp

I continue with my physical rehabilitation and you will often find me taking neighbours “older dogs” for a walk. This is so I can keep pace 🙂

The World

On the Global front (Syria and Libya) my lack of blogging is to my chagrin though again. I have been heavily working hard to counter the mis-information and false flags that are being raised currently against the Sovereign Syrian People.

Those who have not followed my tweets my position is that there is a conflict being fuelled by external powers with interests that along with the War on Libya are not in the interests of the greater Syrian secular population Alawite Armenian, Sunni  Kurdish or Christian, Currently main stream Western media is filling the airways with bias lies and distortions.  I did write an article on this some months ago but needs fine tuning  for  today

A “Rough Ride” Charlie Chaplin

For my blog revival  I wanted to post  about Charlie Chaplin as my return to escalatoroverthehill

THE WORLD IS RICH.

Sometime ago  when going through some old press cutting about an Aunt of mine and her involvement in Progressive movement I thought what would have been her view on the environment movement today.  She having been a fairly well-known Radio TV and Film personality active in the Campaign for Nuclear disarmament (CND) would surely have been involved. I then came across a reference to Charlie Chaplin and recalled his great speech in his Film “The Great Dictator”.

This speech I believe resonates with our struggle for the environment that straddles across all borders and should  be  an inspiration why Australia should be proud to be at the forefront of a progressive Global Environment initiatives including a price on Carbon, new jobs  and abolition of greed of the miners and the fossil barons.

Chaplin’s speech reminds us “The Earth is Rich” and “we are not machines” or should we allow ourselves to be “used as cannon fodder” for the Abbots of today who strive to maintain the position of privilege.

‘m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889

Born into poverty Chaplin’s childhood was fraught with hardship, that lead to one of “the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told His early years were spent with his mother and brother in the London district of Lewisham  His Mother  had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no support for his sons Chaplin was sent to a workhouse at seven years old  in Deptford at a building later to be a place where  his acting was to be celebrated years later at the then original site of the Albany Empire.

The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as “a forlorn existence”. He was briefly reunited with his mother at nine years old, but the family was forced back to the workhouse in July 1898. By age 13 Chaplin had fully abandoned education.[39] He supported himself with a range of jobs, but said he “never lost sight of my ultimate aim to become an actor.

By 1908, Sydney Chaplin had become a star of Fred Karno’s prestigious comedy company “Fred Karnos Flying Circus later to travel to the US. The troupe included Stan Laurel

Chaplin’s first talking picture, The Great Dictator (released in 1940), was an act of defiance against Nazism. It was filmed and released in the United States one year before the U.S. entry into World War II. Chaplin pointed out in his autobiography; attempts were made to stop the film being made: It was a satirical portrayal of Hitler and this was to trouble Charlie after the War as at the time it was being made in 1938 the existence of the Death Camps was unknown.

During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of “un-American activities” as a suspected communist. J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to keep extensive secret files of 1900 pages on him and tried to end his United States residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second European front to be opened to support the Soviets in the World War 11

In 1952, Chaplin left the US for what was intended as a brief trip home to the United Kingdom but found his US entry permit revoked for being a suspected ex-communist under the US Code of Laws on Aliens and Citizenship, Section 137, Paragraph (c), which permitted the barring of aliens on grounds of ‘morals, health or insanity, or for advocating Communism or associating with Communist or pro-Communist organisations.’

Chaplin decided not to return to the United States, writing:

“Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America’s yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted”

Chaplin’s political sympathies always lay with the left. His 1930s films were openly political. “Modern Times” depicts workers and poor people in dismal conditions.

It was this film that brought him to the attention of  J Edgar Hoover and the FBI. In 1947 Chaplin was subpoenaed to appear before the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) by which time he had left for exile of those who stayed and faced the HUAC  320 people were placed on a blacklist  list that stopped them from working in the entertainment industry.

 The final dramatic speech in The Great Dictator, posted today was critical of following patriotic xenophobic nationalism without question.

I thought it appropriate to post it today has much of the speech have references that parallel with our struggle to combat the Liberal and Abbot lies, our struggle to keep focus to save the planet. This is not just for Australia but for all of human kind and the other voiceless creatures who inhabit and with whom we share our  ”House” Note the introduction by Herr GARBAGE 🙂

Enjoy the speech: Davie

These are some excerpts:

“

We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful

Greed has poisoned men’s souls –

has barricaded the world with hate;

has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:

machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.

Our knowledge has made us cynical,

our cleverness hard and unkind.

We think too much and feel too little:

More than machinery we need humanity;

More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written

“the kingdom of God is within man ”

– not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness.

You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security.

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting – the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world.

A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings – and at last he is beginning to fly.

He is flying into the rainbow – into the light of hope – into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us.

Look up. Look up.”