Archive for December 2011
In an Age gone by I was employed by the Victorian Social Welfare Department, I had done most of the relevant courses and part of the training was to work in the Mental Health Department, during that time I had the good fortune to spend a lot of time in what was then the ‘Wards’ with most of the lads that suffered from Downs Syndrome. At first I found it slightly depressing and then after I was educated by them, “en-mass” I relished it and looked forward to work every day. It was far better than working with criminal recidivists who would stab you to death to get your keys.
These were innocents, I concluded that they were normal and we cruel beasts hunted one another, and wasted our lives chasing ‘vanity’. They taught me a lot about myself and the world. In the government system of the day, compassion was rare, they were given the bare necessities of an existence. They were confined with not much to do. They did not make old bones and died young. When that happened it was the pits.
One of the treats that they would appreciate was the radio music just off the channel, so it suffered from repetitive interference. I was popular as I knew how to tune it for them, my guys loved it.
When I was sent back to work in the prison system, I missed that experience but never forgot. Someone sent me this by email and the memories came flooding back. The truth within it has to be read, it is a joy, so please devote a minute of your time to read and learn, we have all got to keep learning. ron.
GOD LIVES UNDER THE BED
I envy Kevin. My brother, Kevin, thinks God lives under his bed. At least that’s what I heard him say one night.
He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped to listen, ‘Are you there, God?’ he said. ‘Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed…’
I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. Kevin’s unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long after the humour. I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in.
He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labour. Apart from his size (he’s 6-foot-2), there are few ways in which he is an adult.
He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.
I remember wondering if Kevin realizes he is different. Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life?
Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to eat his favourite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed.
The only variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child.
He does not seem dissatisfied.
He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work.
He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day’s laundry chores.
And Saturdays – oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That’s the day my Dad takes Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. ‘That one’s goin’ to Chi-car-go! ‘ Kevin shouts as he claps his hands.
His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights.
And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips.
He doesn’t know what it means to be discontent.
His life is simple.
He will never know the entanglements of wealth of power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be.
His hands are diligent. Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it.
He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Kevin knows how to relax.
He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others. His heart is pure.
He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue.
Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances, Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry or sorry. He is always transparent, always sincere. And he trusts God.
Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child. Kevin seems to know God – to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an ‘educated’ person to grasp. God seems like his closest companion.
In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my Christianity, I envy the security Kevin has in his simple faith.
It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions.
It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap. I am. My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances – they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God’s care.
Who knows if Kevin comprehends things I can never learn? After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God.
And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I’ll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed.
Kevin won’t be surprised at all!
When you receive this, say a prayer. That’s all you have to do. There is nothing attached. This is powerful.
Just send this to your friends and do not break this, please. Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a lot of rewards.
FRIENDS ARE ANGELS WHO LIFT US TO OUR FEET WHEN OUR WINGS HAVE TROUBLE REMEMBERING HOW TO FLY
God Bless
Results of 200 Questionnaires
Is Council Making the Right Choices for You?
Survey on Council Tick Yes or No
Would you like to see a Change of Faces in the Gympie Regional Council after the elections?
Yes / No 99.5 % said YES
Are you satisfied with the achievements of all the Current Local Councillors? Yes / No 100 % said NO
Are you satisfied with the achievements of our Mayor?
Yes / No 99 % said NO
What changes would you like to see in the next Council Term.
(please number 1 (One) as your first priority and so on.)
Score was deducted from 4000 points, (as 1 was the lowest, the points had to be reversed) this is the shown recorded figure which is a great indication as to which issues the people of our shire find the most needed.
Lower Rates ( ) 3340 2 nd place
Better Roads ( ) 3250 3 rd place
Better Storm Drains ( ) 2620 5 th place
Cheaper Rubbish Collection ( ) 2710 4 th place
No Fluoride in Water ( ) 2080 10 th place
Better street lights ( ) 1370 14 th place
More Kerbs and Gutters ( ) 2140 9th place
Flood Proof Gympie ( ) 2410 8 th place
Better Gympie Bus Terminal ( ) 1690 11 th place
Flood Free Bridge over the Mary ( ) 2440 7 th place
More Video’s in the Library ( ) 1040 15th place
A New Swimming Pool ( ) 1450 13th place
A Larger Art Gallery ( ) 870 16th place
Councillors that Represent the People ( ) 3370 1st place
More Sports Facilities ( ) 1640 12 th place
Referenda with Rate bills ( ) 2540 6 th place
Optional.
Name ………………………….. ……………………. Email………………………………………………………. Address ………………………………………………………….
Notes.
Some of the comments were interesting, some were uncertain as to what referenda was, and I had to explain that it was a survey that made a decision on an important issue, (just for example Fluoride or anything else in the water) which really returned decision making directly to the people. (as used in Switzerland and California) One person, did not want a change of faces in council as she had no idea what Council did or did not do, did not understand that the rates affected her rent costs and scored the changes required on the basis of what she wanted to be given as hand-outs. I decided to leave that one in and score it, as percentage wise it was indicative of a part of the Gympie population. I specifically did not ask people immediately close to me to fill out the form as we all talk about these subjects anyway. About 50 % of the 200 customers and friends knew I was going to stand for Council at the next election. Only one person was oblivious as to what Council elections were for.
Letter to the Editor.
Choice
Re- Sunday Trading Shopping Centres. GT reported on 17th December 2011, “Mayor Ron Dyne has reportedly described Sunday trading as inevitable, but expressed his concern at the probable impact on small shops.” A “Half and Half” Solomon politicians statement, trying to suit both sides, but lacking the wisdom of Solomon whose famous decision exposed the truth. Where is the leadership in an answer like that? Up to date council’s only message has been “Roll over and Cop it”. Divisions, Doubling Rates and Levies, New Tip Dump Fees, Un safe Bridges, Toolara Super Dump. With grinning media tarts, in their best clothes, pose for the camera at the tip. Councillors, take an ‘oath of office’ to represent us, instead on every subject they say its “Inevitable”.
We are not slaves of the state, or slaves of the council. We a have a say, we can act, we can at least vote, we can chose.
Gympie At Present is Dead on its Feet. We need leadership not control.
The council, twice a year sends out its Extortion Notice, ‘pay or lose everything’. I proposed to council 7 years ago that a Referenda, (Formal Survey) be sent out on important issues and these could be collected with the Rates payment. They could be used to formalise council’s actions and future policies, they could be used to petition the State or Federal government, expressing the people will.
We are faced with government bullies, council bullies, two headed, ( Colesworth ) monumental multinationals who pay governments, buy canneries, buy farms, buys any opposition whatsoever and closes it up. With there huge financial resources they can find ways to circumnavigate double time penalty rates. When they are so few employers what choice does our youth have?
Yes, they can buy and sell our government and councils, Colesworth’s also have a right to buy and sell as we all do. However we can Act. We all have the ability to chose where we shop, and who we support with our hard earned dollars. If we chose to not support the small shopkeepers with our trade we deserve to lose our community hubs. Then, no community to communicate with, no choice of where to shop, Colesworth A or Colesworth B. It is not ‘Inevitable, again you can chose how it works. leadership or control?
Ron Owen
Gympie. 4570
Is this the way we are being treated. Is it wrong to resist?
The Banks always have the best buildings, but do they pay for them with our Wealth?
To Improve the Economic Stability of Gympie Region we all need to understand more about Money and the Banking Industry.
Professor J. K. Galbraith, once said, “The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”
Do you believe that no banks ever lend money that is deposited with it? Do you believe that when a bank lends money it CREATES IT OUT OF NOTHING – THIN AIR!
Do you believe that bank loans are merely pen and ink entries in the credit columns of a bank’s ledger? And these days, are simply pixels in a computer?THEY HAVE NO OTHER EXISTENCE?
Do you understand that practically all the money in the community – and the country – comes into circulation as a debt to the banks?
Do you understand that money loaned by a Government bank, like the Reserve Bank is just as much a debt to the people as if it were loaned from a private bank to the Government? As before the Government loans or grants the money, they have to borrow it from the four main private comercial clearing house banks.
Do you understand that “fixed deposits” are a un plausible smoke screen to hide the facts of the Banks creation of credit?
Did it ever occur to you that the banks enjoy this unique facility of creating credit and putting the nation progressively into a deeper debt-bondage because they create FINANCIAL credit against the REAL credit wealth , (industry/production/food) created by the people?
Do you realize that every time a Government borrows money for a public work, the people are debited with the liability (in perpetuity), but are NEVER credited with the value of the asset? Our Taxes just keep paying of the interest to the four clearing house Commercial Banks
Do you know that every repayment of a bank loan cancels the amount of the loan out of existence?
Do you know that Treasury Notes are Government I.O.U.’s — national pawn tickets for pledging the assets of the country to the private banks for the loan of OUR OWN gift which is financial credit?
For we scorn to live in slavery, bound down with iron chains.
Is this the way we are being treated. Is it wrong to resist?
The chains of bondage were an unfortunate part of the convict’s settlement of Australia. A country born within the chains of servitude. Slavery. We all have a different mental picture of what a slave is. Some may picture a biblical slave, or the galley slave, of the American plantation slaves. The first slaves in the Americas were white, Scots, English, Irish dissidents from Britain, sent to be worked to death in the sugar plantations. There are many variations of slavery and in the last century it has had a metamorphosis, a dramatic transformation.
The Chains are still the common threads but they are fabricated differently, they are more sophisticated, but are just as hard and constrictive.
In the early half of the 20th Century, Australia and the western world had a bright concept of freedom, a hundred years of struggle had come to fruition. Freedom, was a cause worth fighting and dying for but, when the wars were over, every national socialist tyrannical chain they had fought against, was gradually imposed on the western populations.
Most young people growing up with the chains firmly in place have had no chance of remembering freedoms that were enjoyed in the last century. The right of owning property were quickly bound by the imposition of Hitler’s Central Planning scheme. Australians land owners, owned the land and what was beneath it and what was on top of it. Today, try stopping the state from mining underneath, or in some instances you cannot even cut the grass. It is like that movie the ‘Matrix’, the people are really trapped, a virtual world is created. We are told we are free so often that we believe it, until hard reality hits. Today the Chains that bind us are virtual money and virtual debt, both intangible but impossible to escape from. Science has freed us from the tyranny of distance. We believe we have the freedom of movement, until we go to the airport. We believe we have the freedom of speech until we speak out against the new State imposed religion of ‘everything goes’. We believe we have the freedom to defend ourselves, until you need to utilise that freedom. We believe we have the freedom to protest, until you see the police outnumbering the protestors packing your friends into a black van. You think that you own your house until you get the rates and a levy bill twice a year, then you realise you only rent it from the State and the Bank. They tell you precisely what you can or cannot do with it. Do you have the freedom to have a swimming pool, to have a tree, or to cut the tree down, have a dog, a chicken? Am I right? Is freedom lost, can it be regained, or am I just too cynical and are we really free?
Ron Owen
24 Mc Mahon Rd
Gympie 4570.
54825070
There are a lot of Slippery Rats in Canberra
We are being told that we are going to have a referendum on including Local Government, that our Council within the Commonwealth Constitution. A famous Roman Lawyer, always asks, “Who Benefits”. The answer to that does not need much guessing, the staff, public servants, the Councillors.Once the Local Councils come under the Federal Government instead of the State, there will be huge increases in salaries. As DrDavid Mitchell B.A, LL.B. LL.M. Ph.D. explains in his submission, there is much they are not telling us, such as that the Local Councils are all recognised within the State Constitutions. If you have a problem with a council which is the most accessable your State representitive of the Federal? Are any of the Federal Departments present in Gympie, besides the Centrelink? It would suit the Council if the Governing body was as far away as possible. Don’t go for this, stick with the Local Council you can see. If they get what they want and they all come under Federal Public Service awards who do you think will be paying for it in their rates. That’s right you and me. Ron.
STOP THE REFERENDUM_TO_AMEND_CONSTITUTION_-_LOCAL_GOVERNMENT
By
David Mitchell RFD 27.10.2011 B.A, LL.B. LL.M. Ph.D.
No Shortage of Signs, where Your Millions Are Spent.
When most Non-Profit Associations have to pay out to the Council for Leases and Material Change of Use applications. Some of these Non-Profit Associations have maintained public infrastructure at no cost to the Council and are then rewarded by council enforcing Leases which have 60 day notice to quit within the provisions of the imposed council lease. All of those would be surprised to find out how differently other Non Profit Associations are rewarded.
Most of the Non – Profit Associations that I am involved with do not receive any financial or in kind assistance from our council. During the last 12 years of this involvement Council has been hard in heart, wanting its pound of flesh from any proposals. It has requested Security Bonds, increased public Liability insurance, shifting guidelines with ever increasing hurdles. So I was amazed at the latest minutes of General Meeting 23 November 2011 Late Item 1 Application for Funding for One Mile Ovals under Regional, (Excerpts)
“Development Australia Fund Round Two. Details of Funding
Value of grant requested $975,000 Value of project $1,950,000
Some of the land for the project is currently privately owned in Freehold title. Council officers have had several discussions with the owner who has indicated his willingness to sell the land to Council for the project. Those talks have covered pricing and it is expected that Council will enter into a contract to purchase before 25 December 2011.
Maintenance of the additional fields proposed under this project will add approximately $50,000 per annum to Council maintenance cost for One Mile Ovals.
G41/11/11 Moved: Cr I.T. Petersen Seconded: Cr R.A. Gâté”
Council buying Land, coming with million to extend the One Mile Ovals. Yes, they are a credit to Gympie, they look great. We have to ask why some Non – Profit Associations have the golden hand shake from Council ? Is it votes, well even if they had a few thousand that is insignificant in comparison with some other shooting associations, or fishermen. How long has the new swimming pool been waiting.
An extra $50,000 in maintenance when Council cannot afford to maintain the parks it has and volunteers who try to help them maintain are harassed. Is is just another conundrum, Pork Barreling or Self interest? More Jobs more Rates, Catagory 5 instead of 4 and they get an extra $20,000 per year.
Ron Owen
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Government cannot give anything that it does not steal from someone else.
‘Jobs for the Boys’ at Ratepayers Expense, Is this Another Form Of Corruption?
Tony Jakeman letter of 25/11/11, correctly asks the question of Cr Engeman, (If) “no increase in council staff….why are we having to keep expanding the premises to fit them in?” He follows with, “we have been told on numerous occasions the council offices are bursting at the seams with staff” Obviously, if Cr Engeman’s numbers are correct, Outdoors staff are being replaced by Office staff. Council must have found a new way of fixing the roads from an air conditioned office. Mr Jakeman, states. “Mathematically Cr Engeman appears to win hands down” “Appears” would not properly describe “Evasion”, as twice in this newspaper, I have asked Cr Engeman the following question, the first time was in early October,
“So before Cr Engeman gives us more sanctimonious lessons on keeping things factual, he should address the real cause of councils expanding extortion, which is the increase in wages since, say when the staff was at 269 in June 2006, during the last term, and now when the staff is at 487?”
This is the relevant figure as this comparison will show why our Rates have been galloping. Many will wonder why he omitted this comparison in his letter of so called clarification. This public information is easily available for Cr Engeman to include in a Letter to the Editor, it is the relevant cause of this debate, which is ‘Rates’.” Every time he refuses to answer the above question with reams of useless information is only a means of camouflaging this question.
Those remaining are hardier, even more resistant to control, they reproduce and multiply at an even greater rate. The only treatment which has any chance of success with these bureaucrats, hiding in the stygian crevices of the Council offices is the exposure to direct light. Cr Engeman calls for “Strong Debate” but that is forbidden, as these days General Meetings at Council are over in 30 minutes. Only debate, with the threat of bright exposure will send them into frenzied paroxysms, like Dracula, they will crumble to dust when the spotlight is turned on them. That is what is needed in Gympie Council.
Ron Owen
24 Mc Mahon Rd
Gympie, 4570
07 54 825070
Graham Engeman is a well known public speaker, when is he going to answer the questions about the increase in staff wagers.