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The Forum > Article Comments > Democracy versus leadership in Poowoomba > Comments

Democracy versus leadership in Poowoomba : Comments

By Jennifer Marohasy, published 31/7/2006

The 'Big Question' is: why did John Howard insist Toowoomba vote on the issue of waste water recycling?

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Since we've been discussing water supplies, demographics,
poverty and Africa, here is an interesting URL to an
article in the Guardian in London about this very topic.
We humans ignore these things at our peril.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1857730,00.html
Posted by Yabby, Saturday, 26 August 2006 2:56:51 PM
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What I’ve shown, Yabby,is your corporate mates’re guilty as charged…e.g., NCP…all major parties support it because it delivers market-control and massive profits to transnationals…no theory…you’ve clearly no capacity to check donations or grants lists to compare the two…

Unsurprising really…facts really aren’t your forte…

…you’ve also little perception of rainfall diversity in this country…rainwater from many roof areas in urban and rural communities may also contain contaminants (e.g, spray drift or toxins from vehicle exhausts)…it’ll also need filtering…another cost. Not insurmountable, but not owning the home, or living in a high-rise’ll limit likelihood of the tank option being applied anyway. Perhaps you could take your own advice and ‘get-off-your-butt’ to see how-the-other-half-live…not everyone can afford additional costs involved in procuring additional water. For some, available water may have to come from underground…involving costly bores, pumps and the electricity, solar panels or fuel to pump the water…you need to consider concepts from everyone’s perspective, Yabby.

RE: Africa…’ The real problem in Africa is that our
darling missionaries went there, gave them vaccines etc to halt
diseases, so the population boomed.’

…so in your opinion…giving ‘them vaccines, etc to halt diseases’ is ‘the real problem in Africa’…

‘I never said anywhere that Africans should not have
access to vaccines.’

…Yabby, make some attempt to stick to a semblance of truth…that’s exactly what you said…

For you to talk about tinkering with nature…would be laughable if your previous comments about African babies and chimps weren’t so spurious…your suggestions involve considerable tinkering with nature…and nature is certainly proving to be an exacting accountant with the tinkering that has already happened over the past few generations.

RE: Your article from the Guardian…the article confirms…’ Part of the reason is cultural, with bigger families seen as a sign of security. It is also because of fears of high levels of infant mortality.’

If even third world Brazil can provide drinking water for 10 million people or so (without resorting to recycled sewerage)…then water for around 80,000 Toowoombans should be a piece of cake in Australia…

tbc...
Posted by Meg1, Monday, 28 August 2006 1:05:55 AM
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Cont...

In parts of the world which receive little or no annual rain, sails have been built on cliff-tops to catch moisture in cloud banks and provide water that way…but Australian governments prefer to provide options they know are unacceptable to many in order that their corporate mates can profit still further…conspiracy? Not likely…

Some parts of northern Australia can have in excess of 2m of water a month…but a serious lack of forethought or planning, means that will pour tonnes of topsoil and debris out to sea and on the GBR in FNQ…amongst other places.

‘Farmers will have to crunch the numbers, like everyone else, to
see if what they are doing, is actually profitable. It takes
about 500l of water to grow a kg of wheat, worth 20c.’

…Perhaps you mean that’s what your corporate mates are prepared to pay them…

‘Given that water is worth far more then 40c per Kl, it might in fact be far
more profitable for them to sell the water to the city slickers,
forget the crops and go fishing or something.’

So, what will Yabby eat once Coles and Woolies run out of milk and bread? …or war in various parts of the world cuts off our markets for foodstuffs we’d like to eat? Your denial of all rational consequential thought will not feed you when Australia’s farmers are priced out of existence or denied the water needed to produce their crops…Europeans know what it is to starve when you fail to appreciate the necessity of a farming community. They’ve learned the lessons of history and continue to show a determination to remain as self-sufficient as possible when it comes to their food supplies…likewise the USA…

As an island nation, we would be foolhardy in the extreme not to do the same…for defense alone, let alone for economic reasons.

…perhaps you’d do yourself a favour if you went fishing yourself Yabby and started to look outside your narrow little square…and think of the real picture…the whole picture…for more than just you…
Posted by Meg1, Monday, 28 August 2006 1:10:49 AM
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Meg, you have shown absolutaly nothing, except make vague conspiracy
theory claims, without any factual evidence.

What many politicians as well as economists are saying, is that
we should use the water that we do have, more wisely and they
are correct. Sheesh, luckily for Queenslanders you don't run the
treasury there, the state would be broke really fast, with your
hairbrain schemes of harvesting clouds from cliffs etc and then
alot of that water gets used to grow grass to make hamburger cows
for McDonald's in America.

You also show a lack of knowledge about farming. Milk and bread
are produced in abundance without irrigation in Australia,
so thats another theory of yours down the toilet of inaccuracies.

Perhaps you lack the attention span to digest what I wrote on
vaccination. It goes hand in hand with family planning, or you
get exactly the problems that you have in Africa. ie. a population
explosion, poverty and hunger. Africa's population has increased
from 133 million to 800 million in the last century. Unless that
is addressed, it will increase to 1.8 billion by 2050, according
to the UN. More poverty, more hunger, more misery.

In fact its a global issue. It took 1600 years for the world's population to go from 300 million to 600 million. It took just
12 years to add the last billion to our numbers.

Meg, you need to get back to true Australian values. Aussies
used to solve their own problems, achieve things themselves.
Now people like you think that Govt needs to do everything for
you. If you want good drinking water, its falling on your roof,
so use it.
Posted by Yabby, Tuesday, 29 August 2006 10:49:14 PM
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‘Sheesh, luckily for Queenslanders you don't run the
treasury there, the state would be broke really fast, with your
hairbrain schemes of harvesting clouds from cliffs etc and then
alot of that water gets used to grow grass to make hamburger cows
for McDonald's in America.’

Hmmm…now there’s some irrational Yabby at his ‘best’…the ‘hairbrain scheme’ isn’t mine…nor did I suggest it for use here…Toowoomba doesn’t have the required cliffs directly off the ocean, nor the other factors necessary, as exists in places using that particular method of cloud harvesting…you see Yabby, you’ve just proven that you are incapable of looking outside the square…you mind is cemented shut…with little to occupy itself with.

…as for the Qld treasury…they’re on a fast track to nowhere already…without the present resources boom, they’d be history overnight. The present government’s management history is appalling – in every respect…including health, the most visible.

While you’re flushing your ‘toilet of inaccuracies’ you might accept that I used the analogy of bread and milk to represent all food products…in fact the Victorian dairy farmers would dispute your arguments regarding water…they’re facing horrific price rises on their irrigation water for the coming year and are down to 7% of their allocated water being actually sold to them. Eungella (near Mackay, Qld) has had their dairy industry obliterated (compliments of National-destruction-of-all-things-Australian-Policy) and Milla Milla and Malanda on the Atherton Tablelands (which largely relies on rainwater for cropping and dairying) has had their dairy industry decimated also.

RE: ‘You also show a lack of knowledge about farming.’

No Yabby, I have a significant knowledge and interest in farming and farmers in this country as I see a great nation ruined by short-sighted and spurious politicians and bureaucrats who are feted and funded by an increasingly arrogant and destructive corporate sector…tragic that Australia has one of the most unproductive corporate sectors in the developed world…with one of the highest failure rates (at 29% and rising), yet they are what largely dictates government policy in this country…on both sides of politics.

Tbc…
Posted by Meg1, Friday, 1 September 2006 10:49:59 AM
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Cont…

RE: ‘attention span’

ROFL…people in glass houses and all that, Yabby…you clearly have problems focusing on a train of thought…from one sentence to the next…in fact, you often self-correct (or destruct) before the following paragraph.

RE: Africa…countries like Uganda have population problems created by government policies…their government insists the people must have large families to survive…so that the government attracts higher funding from aid agencies…you have the bull by the tail again Yabby.

RE: ‘true Australian values.’

True Australian values have for the past two centuries been Judeo-Christian values…Yabby…I suggest it is you who needs to ‘get back to them’…

As for solving my own problems and achieving things for myself…read my posts again and jot down some notes so you overcome your difficulties with attention span…I don’t ask or expect from government what I am capable of myself…I have my own bores and sewerage systems…I do not have any town supplied water or sewerage on any of my properties…and open your mind, Yabby…rain doesn’t fall adequately on all the roof-areas of all Australians to supply all their needs.

/(*~*)\

RE: relying on ‘the authorities’ to put in place legislation to protect the best interests of Australians…here’s an example of who ends up ‘protecting’ the public in the aftermath of the corporates having their way with government policy…the USA is a little further down the track, but we’re catching up fast…

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=70089&m=2FQN831&c=qzczqvaujggwedy

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=70241&m=2FQN831&c=qzczqvaujggwedy

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=70111&m=2FQN831&c=qzczqvaujggwedy

…another final water ‘purification’ method…still not 100% able to remove e-coli… (#~#)

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=70203&m=2FQN831&c=qzczqvaujggwedy

...check the facts, Yabby…those that should be safeguarding the public interest here aren’t any better…the Federal government legislated to allow the introduction of caffeine into softdrinks at the request of softdrink manufacturers and against the best interests of the public, particularly children…

…I have NO confidence in government to ‘solve my problems’ and certainly won’t leave it up to them to take care of my interests…in any respect…nor have I ever suggested I do.

<(o_o)>
Posted by Meg1, Friday, 1 September 2006 10:52:17 AM
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