Animal farm...

[richardda1st (Richard)]

Peter make up youre mind, what is your beef?

Bojan's assumption has as much if not more credability than you have.

Warren has made a good point (back on topic) that you have ignored.

Did you say Gough? Why????

Trevor, read all the replies.

As I mentioned in a previous topic, "Carefull with that rope Peter"".

Doug, it is hard to let these sort of opinions go unchallenged, but you are right. Doug I have seen that you also have been caught up in similar pointless topics.

ps. Whats the harm anyway?

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

I honestly can't believe how naive some people are what you are saying is you might as well jail all politicians, all local govt councillors and all business people as they are all crooks.

thats the point but obviously you for one just don't you get it ???

Oh I get it. And an excellent idea it is too. But to be really useful this joyous action must be followed by some more substantive actions. If you follow your line of thought through you might just see what they are.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by richardda1st

Peter make up youre mind, what is your beef?

A Australian Citizen has been drawn and quartered and very little to has been done, seemingly for political expediency.

How would you feel if it were a member of your family??

Originally Posted by richardda1st

Did you say Gough? Why????

The man is an erudite left wing icon (some of his quips in Hansard were inspired) and led the ALP in from a rather long spell in the wilderness....hence I admired him.

If I were an ultra conservative old Gough would hardly be on my notable Aussies list.......I guess you missed that?

Frankly both sides of the (Oz) political fence now leave me cold....the spin
has long since replaced substance.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

[Gough] is an erudite left wing icon .....

If I were an ultra conservative old Gough would hardly be on my notable Aussies list.......I guess you missed that?

Point taken Peter. But in a pretty analogous situation Gough denied all knowledge of the Balibo five. His govt did a lot of good but just don't put him on too high a pedestal.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Frankly both sides of the (Oz) political fence now leave me cold....the spin
has long since replaced substance.

Foreigners ask why we bother having two political parties. A few years ago I would have been able to pick some differences. These days they are completely interchangeable.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

Point taken Peter. But in a pretty analogous situation Gough denied all knowledge of the Balibo five....

No argument there. It would be interesting to find out who advised whom of what...but indeed, it was also a shameful display of spineless foreign policy.....

[avandonk]

What I find far more reprehensible is these companies are selling our minerals and natural gas reserves for bargain basement prices. Anyone for LNG for their car or truck at 2C per litre? I do not care what they do to each other as they all have the same morals as the Godfather in Mario Puzo's book 'The Godfather'. Whenever something really nasty is done to someone it's always 'nothing personal it is just business'.

Western Governments abrogated many of their powers and thus their duty of care to their citizens with Globalization. They can no longer wield any sort of big stick as the big corporations have them and use them on anyone that gets in the way of their massive profits. China Inc is just such a corporation.

China Inc got very upset when they did not get full ownership of the company selling them the Iron ore. Stern Hu is just someone who got caught in the crossfire. A bit like the Balibo five they were an inconvenience that had to be eliminated.

Doing these nasty deeds in secret is part of their Modus Operandi.

Riding the tiger is exhilarating but you do it at your own peril!

In 1937 my Grandfather who was the equivalent in Indonesia of our Minister for trade was jailed for NOT taking bribes to overlook import and export duties! He was charged with taking the bribes he refused! It was only rich powerful Chinese friends of his that got him out. Yes you guessed it by judicious distribution of bribes. The Dutch Government was too far away to do anything useful. The locals were too busy playing their own dubious games.

Unfortunately the only people who the so called rule of law applies to are the ordinary people. If you upset the powerful it is not much use.

Why am I not surprised that nothing has changed for millennia? Just like in a play, the only thing that changes is the cast. They then go ahead and do it all again!

Bert