Helsinki Trump and Calling off WWIII

As the flurry of lies, disinformation and fake news swirls around a largely constructive meeting between the Presidents of the USA and the Russian Federation, the real news is understood by studying the systematic behaviours of both sides. Germany has ordered the return of all its gold holdings in the USA (some were missing – surprise surprise). Russia has liquidated its US Treasury Bonds.

China and Russia have stockpiled gold to back their currencies with and have built an alternative SWIFT exchange system and an alternative yaun denominated oil futures market. Both countries are integrating the economies of Eurasia via the new Silk Roads project - arguably the most significant development of the 21st century and one steadfastly ignored in the West.

Iran is pulling out of the US dollar for oil trades. Russia and Iran have blocked the US/Israeli attempt to turn Syria into an Islamist hell hole and run through it an alternative gas supply from the ME to Europe. Russia has also stymied the US/Isaeli attempt to seize Crimea and use Ukraine as a base from which to destabilise Russia. Europe is caught between USA sanctions on Russia (which mostly hurt Europe) and the desire of Europe’s (largely unelected) elites to stay part of the US Empire.

Trump may cut them adrift, hence the involvement of GCHQ in trying to destabilise the Trump presidency and the fake news narrative about Russia controlling the US Presidency. In other words, while Russia and China position themselves for a long war (Trade, propaganda, intelligence, proxy-wars and ultimately actual invasion), Trump appears to be calling a truce.  That, frankly is good news.   

Talkin' About my Generation

With all the talk these days about the hard working, deserving and thrifty baby boomers vs the coffee gulping millennials who have to serve coffee because there are no real jobs any more and they can't afford a house....there was another generation which was my generation.

Now we are fortyish. Some of us have children who are millennials. A lot of us spent 10 years getting over our parent's divorces, or our own, or had careers first, and now we are caring for toddlers while other people's kids are going to Uni and getting married. Our parents are 70 and our kids are 7. We are too tired to be hip and politicians don't notice us. Some of us rode the property wave and some just got dumped.

This is an article from a childhood friend of mine. I also remember taking the last $20 out of the bank and feeling ashamed as I looked at the paper slip. I also remember dressing out of second hand shops, and borrowing lifts because I didn't have a car, and washing other people's cars for cash in my 20s. I also remember my pastor shouting me a plane ticket to go with him to a church plant in North Jakarta, walking the slums and talking with the local people and feeling....rich.

Enjoy this article from Dr Amos PhD.

https://aquietlifeblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/i-dont-want-to-forget/

Religious Freedom in Russia - open letter to Vladimir Putin

President Vladimir Putin

Russian Federation

23, Ilyinka Street

Moscow, 103132, Russia

 

Dear President Putin

I am a dual British/Australian citizen living in Australia. I am a professional policy analyst working for the Government, and I also teach a course in civics and international relations: (www.3ptraining.com.au).

I write regarding religious freedom in the Russian Federation.

My concern is that the current regulatory regime regarding sects and cults is too restrictive and too subjective when applied to legitimate congregations that do not happen to be Orthodox. I fully understand that Russia may not wish to encourage American sects or extremist groups of various kinds. However the rich 2000 history of the Christian faith, encompassing as it does the first Celtic Christians, Romans, Orthodox, African, and many Protestant confessions, when taken as a whole, is greater and deeper than East/West divisions. It does not lend itself to excessive regulation.

My own local church (http://www.embassychurch.com.au/) is a Pentecostal congregation of less than 50. We meet in a rented a theatre space in the local school. The school is in a poor suburb and we raise money for their uniforms, provide charity for single parents, help provide breakfast for the children, support charity in Kenya, and work with other organisations to save young women from sex trafficking and prostitution. We confess the Bible but are neither Catholic nor Orthodox. We have no presence in Russia but similar churches do. Many are small but focus on the local people rather than buildings. My concern is that they not be overly restricted or subjected to the whims of local officials.

In the bigger context many traditional and conservative people in the West look to Russia for moral leadership. We have, frankly, been betrayed by our national leaders. Australia just legalised homosexual marriage and even speaking critically of this can result in heavy fines. Religious freedom in the West is dying at the hands of cultural Marxism and the disciples of the Frankfurt school. We elected Donald Trump on a policy of friendly relations with Russia. We are not ignorant of the fact that the US supports terrorists to murder our brothers and sisters overseas, and we welcome Russia’s leadership in combating extremism. In that context we are concerned that excessive regulation of Christian groups in Russia is unhelpful.

I myself have never visited Russia but in the late 1950’a my great uncle Bill Smale was given the ‘keys to Leningrad’ in view of his work in the Welsh unions.  In high school I wrote on behalf of prisoners of conscience in the USSR. I wrote weekly for a year and a half without receiving a reply. I don’t know if that person lived or died. I deeply respect your commitment to the Orthodox faith and hope to visit Russia in the future.  

 

Yours sincerely

Three Cheers for Poland

Hhhmm, so according to Australia’s state broadcaster the EU is concerned about the rule of law. Someone better explain that to Julian Assagne who spent years asking prosecutors to interview him on a spurious rape charge but claims the right not to be kidnapped and shipped to a concentration camp. Oh, and apparently the EU is a democratic project – it’s just that France has been in a ‘state of emergency’ for how long? and EUcrats are fine with Islamists marching under ISIS flags and calling for the destruction of the Western civilisation but in the UK street corner preachers are arrested and in France opposing gay marriage can land you in jail for five years.  53 million abortions in the US since Roe v Wade and perhaps a seventh of the population of the UK killed in the womb since legalisation but that’s a win for human rights apparently. Oh, and then there was that little ‘regime change’ that handed Libya to the terrorists, and everyone was OK with genocide of Christians and Yazidis in Syria and butchery on Donbass because that’s all a proxy war with Russia….because, like, war with Russia is a good idea (always worked out well in the past - not). Gosh, imagine people in Poland being upset about that! How dare Poland depart from the secular humanist script for humanity… Oh the horror…

 

The EU should only ever have been a Northern European currency and customs union with cooperation around consumer and safety standards. It has become a dysfunctional monster that is facilitating the destruction of traditional Europe. If perverts in Brussels begin dictating the social policies and judicial norms of sovereign nations it is time for those nations to leave. Eastern Europe should form its own union starting with free trade agreements with both Russia and the EU. Anything else is just war by other means. Britain's future lies with the Commonwealth. After all, what has continental Europe ever done for Britain apart from provide killing fields for our young men and a playground for the Rich?


...and what would be so terrible about Poland getting along with Russia for a change? Are Russian's inherently evil? Is it because Vlad killed 'our' terrorists in Syria, didn't hand over Crimea to NATO, and defended the territorial integrity of his nation? Is it because Putin is the authoritarian leader of a country that was a lawless basket case 15 years ago and is relatively stable and prosperous now? Is it because he has an 80 per cent approval rating whereas Western 'leaders' struggle to get approval ratings in the high 30's?

Technically Australia is also at war with Russia. The Unites States told us we had to do sanctions so we did. That is technically an act of war. For a country with three operational submarines and less than 60 operational battle tanks and an air force that is not combat capable we are very brave. In foreign policy terms viz the US Australia is like a prostitute who offers her services free of charge.  Let’s hope the Polish revolution heads South. We need it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-19/why-you-should-care-about-what-is-happening-in-poland/9460332

Indigenous Reconciliation - Barriers and Opportunities

 

Photo credit: Wayne Quilliam, Courtesy of Manningham Gallery

 

So what is ‘reconciliation’ and what does it look like? After decades of talking, advocating, and taking concrete steps towards ‘reconciliation’ between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, the question has to be asked, ‘what is the goal or end point we are striving for?’

 

The unspeakable answer to that questions is that reconciliation has been achieved. We know that because:

• There are no legal or institutional discriminations against Indigenous people but there are a raft of positive discrimination measures in all States, Territories and the Commonwealth.
• Indigenous people have privileged standing before the law. They have, collectively, more rights than white people. That includes land rights, cultural rights, resource rights, and a certain status among opinion leaders.
• Indigenous people have access to the riches of two ancient cultures – their own, and the Judeo Christian Western culture.
• Australia has a land rights legal regime that would be the envy of any other nation.
• Australians have apologised in many and varied ways over a number of years both generally for the wrongs done to Indigenous people, and for specific actions such as abducing children (note that white children were also abducted for similar reasons and this nation was founded on white slavery).
• Uniquely among all the countries on earth, the Australian government has issued a formal and specific apology.

 

These are unique national achievements that should be widely acknowledged and celebrated. While racism will always exist (you may as well try and stop prostitution) Australia as a whole is one of the most accepting places on earth; it’s one of the reasons I live here….and yes, when I arrived here as a child I was called a ‘pommy bastard’ and told to go back to my own country, but I got over it.

 

So why are we still talking about reconciliation and made to feel guilty? Ostensibly it is because Indigenous people as a whole score very low on all the socio-economic indicators and this is assumed to be the fault of ‘white Australia’. Since it is presumed to be the fault of ‘white Australia’ it is assumed to be something the government can fix. This is a shockingly shallow analysis that owes a great deal to white cultural assumptions about the ‘noble savage’ who enjoys some kind of inherent moral superiority having enjoyed an Eden like state of blessedness before 1788. This is of course just latent racism dressed up in PC garb, but it is the reason why we are told to genuflect before one of the world’s most primitive cultures – one that spent 40 thousand years not inventing the wheel, written language, buildings, sail, the paint brush, and whose contribution to music consists of a hollow log. This view has now reached absurd proportions demonstrated by obligatory ‘welcome to country’ statements at government conferences where Aboriginal ownership and custodianship are acknowledged. That would make sense in, for example, Arnhem land. It is laughable in Melbourne. Sorry, but Indigenous people don’t actually own Melbourne. We stole it and we are not going to give it back. Move on.

 

Very little of this comes from Indigenous people themselves. It is a white middle class fantasy projected onto them (which fact is also insipidly racist).  However, as natural opportunists Indigenous people are not above milking our stupidity. I have a colleague who has worked extensively in Aboriginal communities who assured me that there exists a whole class and strata of ‘leaders’ who are not truly community leaders but who get good salaries from various government agencies for perpetuating Indigenous welfare.

 

Which brings us to the real issue: the lousy living conditions of many Aboriginal Australians, which brings us to the next unspeakable truth: if you matched one for one every disadvantaged Aboriginal with a Dutch or Jewish person and put them in exactly the same circumstances, the Dutch or Jews would be fully employed and prosperous within a decade. Disadvantage would be negligible. Why?

 

We are all basically the same. What make some individuals, communities, societies, and cultures successful and others lousy, are cultural values and moral norms. These developed in Indigenous societies to adapt to circumstances completely different to today. Any improvement in the Indigenous situation therefore requires the abandonment of some beliefs and values in order to adapt to the new reality. Concrete examples:

• Indigenous people insist on living in communities so remote that they will never have jobs, services, health care or opportunity. By living in these communities they choose to condemn their children to a future with no hope. Any other cultural group would pack up and move. Indigenous elders choose to ruin their children’s lives because their belief in ancestor worship prevents them from leaving their ‘country’.
• Indigenous (some groups) tradition that elders can choose brides, and girls can marry at 14 is ..um… shall was say ‘not helpful?’
• Collective ownership of resources makes perfect sense in a nomadic tribal society. In a sedentary capitalist society it makes saving and investment impossible, rewards sloth and punishes productivity and enterprise. The practical outworking is that working Indigenous people often cannot save enough to buy property or start businesses because they are being bled by their unproductive ‘relatives’.
• Tribal obligations trump work obligations. Would you employ someone who turns up to work regularly and on-time or someone who has to disappear from time to time for indeterminate lengths of time to attend a cousin’s funeral ‘up country’ or do ceremony?

 

Those unwilling to acknowledge reality cannot adapt to it. Parks Australia for example employs Indigenous rangers and pays them on the same day as everyone else. That is hugely problematic because having that amount of money on one day obliges the Indigenous rangers to share it with their ‘relatives’ leaving them broke by next pay day and hence unable to buy a house and struggling to make rent. The obvious answer is to pay smaller amounts more often but that would be discriminatory so Parks Australia won’t do it. The Indigenous rangers refuse to tell their useless relies to get lost. Consequently they experience lifetime financial disadvantage. According to the social left this is all the fault of white Australia (who actually gave them the job in the first place).

 

Ditto with welfare cards and grog. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that alcohol is devastating Indigenous communities. This problem can be largely solved through a welfare card system which allows purchases of anything except alcohol, drugs, and gambling. This has demonstrably worked and would save the lives of many children, but it is discriminatory and therefore racist so we have to let the children suffer. Actually, having grown-up in the rougher end of town a similar scheme for white people would be a good thing but the Left will never allow it.

 

It is this kind of insipiently racist non-thinking that is the real problem; and if we really care we need to leave PC politics in the bin where it belongs and have the kind on authentic conversation that Noel Pearson is talking about.

 

So is there hope? I believe there is but only if well-meaning white people get out of the way. It is high time we stopped thinking of Indigenous people as possessing a superior culture and high time we held unhelpful beliefs up to scrutiny. In that context it is highly ironic that the Left are now beating up on Indigenous elders for voting against same sex marriage because it contradicts their traditional cultural values. Apparently they now have to be cultural Marxists as well as noble savages, but we digress….

 

As noted above, Indigenous Australians are uniquely advantaged and many of them are doing just fine. They are uniquely placed to pick and choose those values that will be most helpful to them from two extraordinary cultures. First their own culture which enabled them to adapt and survive in a very challenging environment, to navigate a vast continent without compass, and to remember ancient hunting grounds that have been flooded since the last ice age ended. Secondly, they can adopt values from the Western culture which developed written language and mathematics, explored the whole world, came up with the concept of human rights and democracy, created industrial civilisation, and put man on the moon.

 

Those best positioned to make the cultural translation are probably those who worked with the original translators. Those translators were not pastoralists or archaeologists but missionaries who lived with Indigenous people, taught them to read and write, translated the Bible into their tongue, and taught them the white man’s ways without booze and violence. While the Left find this an embarrassment, it is remembered with gratitude by many elders. It is from this legacy that, I suspect, lasting change will come.

ADDENDUM

Not content with having their own TV channel (NITV which is very good BTW) and more rights than anyone else, some Indigenous people have now sided with the unions to push for a treaty because apparently that will give them more rights. What rights exactly? With whom would this treaty be made? In a democracy we elect national leaders based on proportional electorates. How will Indigenous leaders be chosen to treaty with? Under common law all that is not forbidden is permitted, so rights cannot actually be given by the government they can only be taken away. How then will a Treaty enshrine rights? If we want to protect rights, such as freedom of speech, we need to change the constitution, and that requires a constitutional convention. If you though the postal vote on SSM was expensive try one of those.

If Unions Australia are to be believed, a treaty will in some magical way reduce the child/infant death rate in Indigenous communities. ...um....how exactly?  Its a timely reminder of why I am not a union member. Oh, and apparently working for the dole is racist. OMG. No, its about changing the psychology of entitlement and victimhood and teaching life skills like showing up for work.

Its all emotional psychobabble but it can be used as a cover for extorting money from the community which I assume is the real agenda . See below the email I just received from Unions Australia:

Dear Erik,

Last year, Indigenous people from across Australia met in Uluru, where they developed the “Uluru Statement from the Heart”.

The statement was hugely significant. Our first people came together, and agreed that we need a treaty. This treaty would ensure that their people would be properly recognised in Australia. They declared to trek across our vast country, to demand to be heard.

And they invited us to walk with them.

The Turnbull government ignored these historic calls. In a stunningly disrespectful gesture, the government just rejected calls for proper rights.

Indigenous people die younger of preventable illnesses, are more likely to be locked up, are less likely to finish school, and most recently, the Turnbull government is forcing people into a racist work-for-the-dole program.

Now Australia’s first people are coming together to plan the next phase of the campaign. They have not given up. They are demanding basic rights.

The next stage of the plan is hold a meeting in Sydney next week, and they need some assistance in getting there, flying and bussing in hundreds of people from across the country for this three day event is hugely important, and quite expensive. Can you chip in $20 to help people make it to Sydney to take part in this important meeting? If you do, you will be helping indigenous people come together and fight back, you will be demanding that they be heard and given their rights.

It’s important that everyone who needs to be there, can get there, and you can make all the difference.Chip in $20 to stand in solidarity with our comrades whose ancestors have lived on this land for millennia, to help them fight for their rights. Thanks for your support,

 I rest my case your honor.

 

Bring Back the Sith! - sexual poltics in Star Wars

Watched Star Wars episode 8. Visually stunning - yes. Action packed - yes. And yeah I do like Rey. But there is more here than meets the eye.

 

The first Star Wars (whatever episode that was) was about two young lads who save a princess from a castle (OK Death Star). Then she gets dressed up in a revealing golden bikini to be enslaved to a really big …um slug..um… and has to get rescued again. It’s basically a 'boys own' adventure with some messaging about the Cold War. Communists and feminists were predictably pissed off while everyone else went to the movies and had a good time.

Time moved on and Rogue One had a lot more nuance with strong male and female characters struggling together, between and within themselves to overcome emergent evil. I found it compelling, gritty and real (apart from the obligatory cheesy speeches). Star Wars episode 8 in contrast was basically a feminist tract in which all the male characters were evil or deeply flawed who need rescuing by stronger and wiser women. All the female characters on the other hand were flawless. The Empire is run entirely by men except for one token female warrior in deliberate contrast to the Rebels who are now gender equitable in the ranks but run by women generals. Taken together the episodes neatly chart the progress from patriarchy to equality, then to anti-masculinity and female domination.

 

Having killed off or neutered all the strong male characters the rebel alliance is now run by Democrat voting feminists, a brow beaten X-wing Pilot, a Wookie, and a confused young woman who is seeking to resolve her family issues by having a teenage relationship with a Sith Lord. That actually makes sense because he is the only male character left with his balls intact who isn’t a Wookie. My guess is they will get together around episode 10 after she has rescued him emotionally and psychologically. Once they have, you know…’brought balance to the force’ she will go off to save the Galaxy while he will be a stay at home Dad. By then the Rebel alliance will include cross dressing men and gender fluid non-conforming trans-species weirdos. Watch at own risk. Either that or the Empire will die of vitamin D deficiency and just give up….seriously those guys look like vegans do at the end of a long winter.

For the record I have no problem with stay at home Dads or career women. I do have a problem with portraying men as all deeply flawed and women as perfect. Its sexism and its wrong.

 

Oh, and today I got a circular email from my work boss. In a chronically short staffed organisation which employs 746 women and 619 men they are finding money to employ a “Diversity and Inclusion Business lead”. So much for bringing balance to the force. Where are the Sith when we need them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Contradictions in Capitalism

If you are struggling with the contradictions in capitalism this Christmas spare a thought for those of us on the left. We hate colonialism but subsidise immigration. We hate Australia day but can’t cope without running water. We believe in human rights except for the unborn. We hate racism and the Russians. We believe that ‘love is love’ but we reserve the right to bully and abuse anyone who dares to contradict us. We care about children, we just don’t think they have a right to a father. We hate Christianity because it is patriarchal and heteronormative, but we celebrate Islam. We believe that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution but we think homosexuals should have it. We stand up for minority rights, except for Christians. We think all races are equal but we don’t think white people should have children. We want gender diversity, but not thought diversity. We want gender equality but not for men. We oppose domestic violence and the objectification of women, but we think pornography is liberating. We think homosexuality is fixed but gender is fluid. We don’t believe gender or race is real but we define our politics around it. We believe in free sexual expression but not free verbal expression. We cannot cope with being offended, but we reserve the right to libel, mock and ridicule those who differ from us. We are violent but we are victims.  We hate capitalism but we despise the working class. We oppose discrimination, but believe that everything bad in the world is somehow the fault of a white man somewhere. We think that to make things fair for everyone we have to control everything.  Because we have the truth we have the right to impose it. Our love is conditional on your obedience.  Now shut up and get in line.