Monday 30th March 1998

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Recent stories exclusive to  (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
UN agrees to make our fresh water a "global commodity".... beware farmers - your fresh water dam WILL cost you! 28th March
Courier Mail's national affairs reporter Peter Charlton attacks MAI concerns and breaches ethics guidelines 28th March
The US Government's global "Cablesplice" project, fact or fantasy? 26th March
Pauline Hanson endorses 12 state candidates. 22nd March
News Limited bucket opposition to the MAI. 21st March
The proposed privatisation of Telstra 16th March 1998
Queensland State Candidates meet the people 15th March 1998
One Nation, the First Year 12th March 1998
Pauline Hanson tackles the MAI in Parliament while the media re-writes history 10th March 1998

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Current topical links (available to all readers):
[Links to the MAI] [Queensland One Nation State Election website]
[Sign the "I'm so sorry Pauline" book]
Archive of weekly features (available to all readers):
[The Canberra Column] [Economic Rationalism]

Today's Headlines
an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
Since October 1995

You fresh water - a new "UN" commodity

On the 21st March 1998 the UN met and decided to make "fresh water" a commodity which can be traded, like currency, by speculators. If you have a dam, this will be assessed after the UN ratify this new development, and you will be liable to pay the speculators for the water that falls out of the sky.

Australia, it would appear, are a party to this new international treaty.

Here are extracts from the article:  

PARIS, March 21 (Reuters) - A United Nations conference on managing the world's limited fresh water supplies agreed on Saturday that water should be paid for as a commodity rather than be treated as an essential staple to be supplied free of cost.

The three-day conference, attended by environment ministers and officials from 84 countries, said costs should remain low and the poor must be assured of access to fresh water.

and:

"There has to be a balance found according to the capacity of each category of user to pay for it,'' Jospin said.

France's conservative President Jacques Chirac, who invited the conference to meet in Paris, told the delegates on Friday that water prices had to rise.

"No more barren wrangling over the market versus the state,'' he said. ``Water has a price and zero price is a forewarning of scarcity.''

News Limited's Courier Mail credibility trashed at the top

Words from the horses mouth. Yesterday I spoke to Ann Fussell the Courier Mail editor to whom I addressed my right of reply following the article by Peter Charlton on the 21st March "Conspiracy Theories" (on the MAI) in which he refers to my company. My "right of reply" despite not being published in the paper was partially used by Peter Charlton in his follow-up article "Gurus of Gloom" in the Courier Mail on the 28th March.

During the course of last week I spoke with Des Houghton, another editor at The Courier Mail who asked me to reduce the length of my right of reply to about 900 words. This I did - sending him the revised version by email which he confirmed having received.

Ann Fussell yesterday confirmed that she had seen the second article by Peter Charlton and told me that the second article had been directly influenced by the Editor in Chief, Chris Mitchell, and that she had had no control over how my right of reply was handled.

Just more evidence of the censorship and distortions that plague this paper.

The Wik debate reaches a high-point

John Howard's ten point plan on Wik is expected to be put through the Senate for the second time this week prompting a grab-bag of lobbyists to make a last dash to Canberra to try to influence key Senators.

Amongst the lobbyists are the Wik people, Queensland graziers and mining groups. The Cape York Land Council members and 27 people from Wik in northern Queensland flew from Cairns to try to influence the Senators and to watch the debate in the Senate.

Cape York Health Council representative, Alastair Harris, said, "The Wik are a people whose culture has survived until now, but that survival must be brought into question if the ten point plan comes through and they lose their access to their traditional territory."

Cooktown Mayor Graham Elmes, for the graziers, said, "The Prime Minister gave us an iron-clad guarantee in Longreach that he would make no concessions on his ten point plan. We want to make sure he doesn't go to water when the legislation gets into the Senate."

Key Senator, Brian Harradine, was locked in negotiations with the Coalition - in its first passage through the Senate last year Harradine's vote saw it being rejected resulting in this second passage which, if rejected, will force a double dissolution forced election.

Yesterday the government's Senate leader, Robert Hill, said, "We certainly take Brian Harradine's position very seriously - he is negotiating in good faith (and) he knows that we are bound by the principles of our ten point plan.

"It's been our objective to get the Bill passed because we think the Australian people want to ... move to the next issue."

Political:

"Princess Precious" Kernot opens Dickson office

Labor's new recruit opened her new campaign office in Strathpine yesterday. Chubby opposition leader, Kim Beazley, was there to oversee the event.

The media were distracted by the upcoming launch of the ALP's Mark Latham's new book, "Civilising Global Capital" which presents the view that those on social security should be required to repay the tax payer money they receive when they get employment.

You say:

Subject: Is water: a resource for humans, a commodity for the market, or something else? What is happening on this theme?

I learned about another conference, held in Paris on the problem of fresh water shortages and possibilities of supply. This was announced by a short message of Reuters press agency. On March 28, 1998, Scott Balson , of Global Web Builders  confirmed the information about the Paris Conference thanks to a message of March 23, picked on Austext International.

This information came to me through the MAI-Not list. Scott made some comments on the Austext message, and so did Don McAllister

I also received on March 25, 1998, from Mark Roberts, from Texas a  message related to the same subject, and whose content can interestingly be compared with the speech of the German Minster of Economic Cooperation. This message came to my by Ecol-econ.

The conclusions I draw from these messages are very preoccupying. The globalization process under way now within a growth-oriented economy, functioning essentially through a market whose performance is exclusively measures in terms of short-term monetary profits is reaching is becoming extremely dangerous. Its architects, their technical and economic experts, their political and managerial followers and the fraction of the public which passively accepts the process under way have apparently exceeded the limits of sanity.

This is a serious matter and it requires careful analysis and reflection.

First let me state that the subject is my specialty. I have worked most of my professional life as a civil engineer, specialised in water resource development and management, and an Earth scientist, specialised first in civil engineering geology, then in groundwater geology, and finally, in information management on all aspects of human inter-effects as they relate primarily to land and water. In the latter specialisation, I developed a solid background knowledge in many complementary fields, related to land and water uses, economics, social and cultural aspects of human behaviour, political aspects also, etc.. I also worked on computer modelling technologies.

I did considerable research on the theme of co-operative information management as a tool tore duce risks of errors in land and water resource development, and obtained a doctorate of science. I then came to Canada, attracted by the environmental management policies announced in the early seventies. This led me to learn the hard way that co-operation is not kosher in information management, even though it is part of the official discourse. I also learned many things about the manner in which assistance to developing countries was distorted in a process of public funding of business development in the "donor" nations...

All this is perfectly consistent with the logic of the economic system in place now. Information is a weapon used by the ones to control the others. Never mind that this mode of information "mismanagement" contributes immensely to the present non-sustainability..

Aid to poor parts of the world is not a priority in the economic growth under way, unless it serves the economic powers in the affluent parts of the world.

The game is one of control, short-term monetary profits for a few, power for fewer, all this at the expense of all the rest, people, others forms of life, ecosystems, now and later. .

I was naive, and believed in the generous official discourse that was used as a wrapping to the harsher economic reality. It was the easier to believe that it corresponded to the real requirements of the situation as I could see it in the many countries where I had the opportunity to work. I persisted in my ideas,  kept on proposing my methods in spite of a clearly negative reception form potential users, especially in industry and government,, but also in academia. Therefore, I ended up blackballed by the system, always with a kind smile and soothing words from those who did the job of making sure my ideas and methods were not looked at, let alone used.

This is said dispassionately, without hard feelings. I did not fit the dogma of the time, and I had to be disposed of. Yet, this introduction is in my opinion necessary to indicate that I am qualified to write on the subject and perhaps to establish some sort of credibility. People interested can check on my personal Website.

I have therefore examined carefully the post sent by Rich Winkel, and submit my analyses, comments, conclusions and recommendations in a series of a few posts:

Message # 1 This introduction

Message # 2, Summary of the contents of Rich Winkel's message

Message # 3 Comments on the speech made at the conference by the Foreign Minster of Germany

Message # 4  Comments on the speech ,made by the Minister of the Environment of Germany

Message # 5 Comments on the speech by the Minister of Economic Cooperation of Germany

Message # 6 Comments on the speech by the World Bank's managing director

Message # 7 Quote of the news about the Paris conference and summary of the comments by Scott Balson  and Stu McAllister

Message # 8 My conclusions and recommendations.

I apologize for such a cumbersome process.  However, I am convinced that this set of events relative to water offers a concrete basis for effective action to stop the globalization process under way, to slow down the present destructive social, cultural, economic and ecological trends,  and gradually to change them, so that they will contribute to establishing a stable and livable society in a sustainable world..

With my best wishes.

Yves Bajard..

Subject: reith

Last week Peter Reith was on TV trying to explain how good the unfair dismissal caper would be. He didn't convince Paul Lynham and he sure as hell didn't convince me. His argument?......."It will create 50,000 jobs" The guy is a dead set drop kick!

Check this out;
"A key business group has admitted the Federal Government's claim that 50,000 jobs will be created by exempting small business from unfair dismissal laws IS A GUESS." (Sunday Telegraph. p13. March29th)

from
S.E. Wagger

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Below are some images taken over the weekend. A "bird of paradise" cloud flies resplendent over Karana Downs; the Internet Kid, Alex Balson; some mixed-blood Aborigines at the College's Crossing festival; a parachutist "hits the spot" at College's Crossing.

Have a good one.

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