trace particle detection tests on drivers

[mullray]

NZ told the yanks to go F themselves in the very early eighties Luke. Speak to a kiwi about the yanks and you'll learn very quickly most Kiwi's have very little respect for all things American.

 

They'll tell you pretty straight just what they think of this redneck Bush and that their Politicians don't seem to have to blow the yanks to do well economically and not be invaded by the yellow peril (which is a distinctly Australian paranoia).

 

 

Seems to me NZ and all the other nations who despise American policy are doing just fine. That'd be most of the world Luke.

 

Go to England and meet all the Brits who hate the yanks and their own government for joining up with them - meet the guys and gals on the streets who stand there with coffins pronouncing 1 mill plus Iraqi's dead. Go to Europe and ask around a bit. You'll soon learn that Australia is unique in that our politicians are about as red necked as their's (the US) and that's why we've aligned ourselves ideologically with the US.

 

Point taken about the vote. You are dead right. Vote Green and pray one day other Australian's will also.

 

Then of course you have the other option in democracy. Vote with your feet and leave what you can no longer stand watching and refused to participate in while watching in disbelief that others followed like sheep. I used to be proud of this country - it was an honour to call myself Australian. Now its a disgrace. This is not the Australia we were once proud of mate and that only leaves me saddened and looking forward to a life elsewhere.

[bufo marinus]

Jeeeez it's not that bad just yet mullie, is it?

These swabs were trialled in Qld too, police set up a road block for 3 days straight between Cairns and Townsville outside Cardwell and swabbed every vehicle on the road. No one was arressted as far as I am aware as it was just a trial. My friend tells me steering wheels and glove box lids were swabbed.

Surely a good alcohol wipe will get rid of most cannabis oil?

[mullray]

Maybe not ..... Don't know but after 11 years of Howard I'm pretty damned over it.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Yep, Ureka Stockaide is just gone. like the japs wrote their part of WW2 out of their history books, we've written every social disent we had in Australia. ned Kelly is painted as an "icon", yet the Gebraldabri (sorry for the lousy spelling) letter is something I personally have never seen in it's entireity? Why not?

 

Ned Kelly was a Irish peasant, whos family was involved in the old country with the conflict of Ireland V England. His struggle in this country is a continuance of what his family left behind, and one we still fight. Of ruling classes and peasants.

 

it's all jazzed up now, given fancy names and departments to protect us, but if you ever come across a book about the secret life of Ned kelly, you'll see another reason why he isnt taught in schools anymore. the bloke was a leader of disent. When they went to hang him, about 75 % I think of victoria signed petitions to havehim released. he struck a cord with the under-class, the ureka stockaide did and a number of other instances the kids wont ever hear in our schools.

 

the politicians sat in the planning of the school history curiculum , to be sure certain things would never be revealed. They want to teach about sacafice for nation, the bigger picture, the greater good, ask not what your country can do for you....that kinda crap. The biggest military diaster we ever experienced was at Gallipolli, and yet we celebrate it . i's good to have a ready harvest f people prepared to lay thheir lives down , as an ongoing tradition. but it's not good for governance to have people recall when the civillians nearly unseated government, when you can look back in history and se peopel fighting for rights that we have given up on, in concepts and areas that have not changed.

 

Why isn't the horror of Breaker Morant told in schools? So we too will walk blindly ito disaster, do as we're told and pay the price for mistakes that aren't ours. We can't have people recalling things like this when they're told to go ahead and do something that seems wrong at the time.

 

the Ureka Stockaide amongst other things was a protest against the government charging us (the people) the right to dig in the dirt in hopes of finding a scrap of money to getout of poverty.

Today, you can't even go to your local mud flats and dig worms to sell for bait without a similar lisence. But it's more than that, it's a small thing in life that reflects a big picture.

 

See why t hey dont want old problems being revisited? we're still suffering the same control as back then. They don't want us seeing the anger and unrighteous way they made us pay for the right to dig in the mud back then or now, and they dont want us seeing our struggle with the government in the same light as Ireland struggles with England.

We might not have gone to arms yet as ireland has, but the basic reasons why it could happen are there simmering. Well, it's not simmering, diseent is a dirty word now, because the youth at least in Australia have no point of reference when dissent ever was a good thing, represenatative of the people.

 

I bought books ont he ureka stockaide for the kids to learn.

 

Lisences to dig mud, simialrities with Ned Kelly and the letter he wrote we hear litle of, citing his views of a need to re-calibrate this country's system..A system remarkably simila rto what he left in Ireland.they're small things, but they're the tell tale signs of thinsg that are wrong. Laws are supposed to protect us the people. Not control us.

 

Anyway, I love Australia, i just don;t know how to see it changing back from a country of dobbers, where telling on each other is a thing to be proud of. Where self determination is a joke..

 

I'm going for a smoke.

 

c ya

 

rob

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

You know, I think I might have played some part in completely loosing track of the thread. Sorry 'bout that, but look how passionate it makes ya feel.

 

One thing I'd like to say about it all in a kinda final expression of hope/concern is the repulbic idea.

 

I seriously crave the concept , ideology , self determination a republic represents and it squarely lays me in favour of that movement. While at the same time, i don't rust ANybody to get us amodel that will reflect that hope in real terms.

 

I think of how all the negatives of a Morncachry, the genuine possible fear that certain obligations legally to a country who is so far away under a rule I can't control. plenty of madmen inhistory who have taken over the rein of king/queen and driven the people into the dirt. Even if the house of commons/lords now controls things or not, still leaves my destiny ion a governement I can do nothing to control.

 

but look at the republics we have got.

 

USA. Russia. Chile? you could go on for hours, and wonder who do we know any different to those who took those countries there. it would take a carefully worked out ssytem of people who really care about you and me to get something we'd be improving on perhaps. Long time since I recall a politician like that..

 

But still, I ache for a republic for the ideology it could be.

 

What do you do?

 

rob

 

PS. sorry for the ramble. I do that a lot with my mouth too...

[mullray]

No, I think a lot of threads go off on the same tangent and that is our rights and our freedoms. We all tend to be concluding the same - we're steadily losing our rights. Yes, and sorry Luke it may have sounded like I was having a go at you but that wasn't the case.... I am passionate about this. I grew up in the sixties and seventies - I was a young man in the seventies; life was full of hope and the prospects of humanity evolving and this has flipped 180 degrees within about 10 years. Its very hard to take and I'm not angry but very saddened. I have watched our fundamental human rights steadily eroded now for the past 20 years and for the young it may be easier to accept because they never had those rights.

 

You start losing faith and when you have no faith theres nothing.

 

How did we create a world where our kids can't afford a home anymore but rich bastards own ten. How is it that we are still letting people just like us starve to death when we've got enough food to feed the entire planet with. As you get older I think life can become harder because you know that everything you once hoped for while young and optimistic simply wasn't to be and that instead of moving forward somehow we managed to slip backward.

 

They're talking of drafting a human rights bill for Australia also - lets pray that happens.