Dear Arjay,

All I can do is hope that under a new
administration America will take a
different path to the one
the Bush Administration walked, and the
same one McCain and Palin
intend to walk if elected.

Fingers-crossed that Obama wins.

Just as Robert Kennedy's speech spoke to Foxy it spoke to me the song too.
And just as the message was needed then it is needed now.
It will be tomorrow too humanity has its good its bad its ugly it always will.
We in my view do have great leadership now, not just in Australia but soon in America.
The crisis has been a shock to us all,some talk even of forgetting the climate change actions.
Just think about that.
Forgetting the wellbeing of the planet in favor of money and lifestyle not shared by all.
In just one city in America we are told 80.000 are homeless, living on the street sleeping there.
Yet daily we see empty homes slowly falling apart?
We must not expect greed stop to driving many but Foxy has reminded us we do still produce great men.
Polycarp/David I am not sure humanity can leave it to your God.

Arjay,
How right you are. People have no idea how hard its going to be in a few years. Probably worse than the great after the war (much more).

Australia could not be in worse hands either. A totally inexperienced man acting as PM. You couldnt get a worse combinatation if you tried.

I dont know what costelo is doing but I hope the Government have had the brains to listen to him.

There will be some good things to come out of all this however despite the pain. People will learn to appreciate the simply things in life again and their neighbours.

Who knows they might even cut back on imagration-might'

Somehow I really dont think so with Rudd there. At least our Army will get a much needed lift.

Start growing your veggies Fruit and get a few Chickens is my advise to people.

It might come in helpful down the track when China ups the price of food and goods.

Or when the UN slam USA UK and Australia as war criminals and stop the ships by way of sanctions.

Still sink or swim you wouldnt have a better country to do it tough in.
Australia is still the best country in the world with some of the best people.

In which case we are he richest country on earth.

The gross distortions of values are represented by the following confliciting realities.

1/ We have now the longest sustained drought in living memory.

2/ Rudd plans to increase immigration intake to an all time high.

As I said to a friend at gym yesterday "Fine.. lot's of people but what the heck will we DRINK?"

About 12 yrs ago I had a strong sense of urgency of the need to become as self sufficient as possible. It was almost like a premonition of what we seem to be facing. Now..looking around from my perspective of a chunk of land which has the potential for 90% self sustainablity (food/water/Electricity/income) I feel vindicated.

There is another song "little boxes made of ticky tacky...and they all look the same" oooo yeah. Narre-Warren/Hallam.. arrgggggh.. lot's of people....but no soul.

Thanks to everyone for your hearfelt inputs.

As the author Tor Hundloe says,

"Today we desperately seek solutions
to climate change, water scarcity, pollution
and Third World poverty..."

However, as you all point out -
we do need to better understand
how we got into
this mess - and how to get out of it.

I agree with Belly,

I too am proud of our current Government.
Our country's leadership is strong, and it
is reacting well to the current economic
crisis. The opposition needs to be
Congratulated for supporting
the decisions which are being made.
This speaks well for its current leadership.

We can only hope that there will be a new
administration in the White House.
A well read and wise one.
One that will be interested in building
a just, and sustainable global human society.

I listened to Imran Khan being interviewed
on "Enough Rope" with Andrew Denton last night.
He made an interesting point, "Terrorism is an
idea," Khan said. "You can't fight an idea with
guns. In order to defeat terrorism, you must
win over the hearts and minds of the people involved."

Thanks Foxy each of us has a view but lets look at it this way.
Today we fear tomorrow and fail to understand we survived yesterdays challenges, some of those had to be as bad as todays fears surely?
Some flit from opinion to opinion abandoning all memory of the stand they took yesterday.
We are in fact well lead, and history will note it well.
And even if the world money crisis goes on to get much worse we may gain.
A system that includes accountability will surely be one outcome.
Obama is headed for the White house that just has to be good.