I am moving, please follow me

Dear friends, this blog is moving to another location. Please follow me to:

www.middlegroundview.wordpress.com

I hope you will come in for a visit. I am plannig to post heaps in next few days, especially on National Broadband money waste.

You will also be able to read my book there (soon).

Please tune in.

Labour's new thought bubble

I am sure you have seen it by now - staring at you from bus stops and billboards, bothering you in print media and on TV: bubble-people telling you to eat better, exercise more and look after yourself. Sigh! Here we go again. Remember the 'Life - be in it' campaign that ran for 20 years or so? The animation was less flash but it delivered the same old, droning message. As if there is still someone left in this country who doesn't know that going for a walk is better then sitting on the couch, that eating an apple is better then ordering fried chips. Alas, if only it was that easy. My wife told me the other day that all the Government needs to do is fix the public transport. Think about it - there would be less congestion on the roads, people would walk more, it would even help combat that Climate Change that they say they so care about. Except that the public transport system is a disaster. The system is so broken that no-one would seriously trust it to get anywhere on time. So broken that most people I know would be too frightened to go near a train station at any time other then peak hour. Therefore fixing it would be hard. Very, very hard. But throwing some taxpayer money at an ad campaign is just so easy. I only hope that next time Australians will see through the spin and burst this stupid Government's bubble. Until then you can just keep reading my ad-free blog.

Desalination plant crazyness

To all those of you not from Victoria the Sunshine State, let me catch you up. We the Victorians have been paying through the nose for a certain Desalination plant that was meant to save us from slow Climate Change-induced dehydration.

The problem is - it's been raining non-stop last 6 months or so and the plant's construction hasn't progressed much.

Now we find out that the Wanthaggi Desal plant workers have been getting $50 an hour more (not $50 an hour - $50 an hour MORE) then workers in the same jobs elsewhere.

This has made me so mad that I had to write a poem about it. Maybe one of the readers can put it to music. Here it goes:

DESALINATION BLUES
Put back your hard hat and steel cap shoes
while the rain is coming down.
I've got Desalination Blues -
it's the biggest game in town.

Wonthaggi's tills are ringing mad
It's a jackpot - full and proper
while I'm putting Victoria in the red
with taxpayer-funded copper.

You see my friends, I'm not a dweeb.
With my Union's might and power
I sit and watch the raindrops drip
at 100 bucks an hour.

Where are the worms?!

Here is some good news for all those who like something for nothing (that means all of us). The Nillumbik Council will teach you to compost and even give you a compost bin or a worm farm, all for nothing. The programme is paid for by Victorian State Government.

Now there are lots of things we all would love to learn. I personally would love to improve my backstroke, take up knitting or fly a para glider. But why on earth does the State Government feel the need to pick up the bill for those of us who want to compost? Why is composting different from, say mountain climbing. And one more thing, the articles that 'Worms are not included with the worm farm'. So that tapping you are hearing is me composing a letter:

'Dear State Government, I demand an explanation where are the worms?'

China stockpiling iron ore - Australia should take note

What's the one thing that can send Australia broke in a matter of weeks. No it's not a natural disaster. We car recover from that. I am talking about the possibility of China cutting of commodity imports. If that happens Australian economy may not recover. The frightening thing is, right now China is rapidly building stockpiles of iron ore, coal and other commodities. Why? To protect Chinese economy, maybe. To exert pressure upon commodity suppliers like Australia? Is that so impossible to imagine? This year's federal budget is completely reliant of Chinese export duties. What if the exports stop? Very frightening.

Red cross endorses an act of petty violence

Peter Gray, the man who threw a shoe at John Howard on Q&A will have his shoe auctioned off by the Red Cross.

It's easy to throw shoes at John Howard or George W Bush. There is no risk, no danger of facing torture and imprisonment as you would in the Arab World. The question is, why would the Red Cross indirectly endorse such a man and such a low act? I thought that Red Cross is suppose to fight violence, not promote it.

Sending immigrants to Malaysia is a very bad idea

Malaysia is a country with a dual legal system: one system for Moslems, one for non-Moslems. Moslems are forbidden by law from eating on Ramadan, drinking alcohol and secluding themselves with a person of opposite sex. Last year at Valentine's day Malaysian police swooped on hotels in the capital arresting Moslems found alone with non-related persons. This is the kind of country Australian government is sending migrants to. What if an Afgani asylum seeker decides to also seek asylum from Malasia after being sent for processing there by? I don't know what the law in this situation would be but the lawyers are guaranteed to have a field day.