Well, some time ago, I started a thread about the fight our Community here in Maleny (SE Queensland, Australia) was putting up against the giant greedy grocery retailer, Woolworths.

(perhaps some kind LINK Pixie will do me one, here?!)

Whilst it was heartening to see another thread here recently, reporting Vancouver saying NO to yet another Walmart, I am sad to say that this morning, 150 police were mobilised to remove our Community protesters (of all ages), so that the Hutchinson's construction equipment could move in.

It is a very sad, dark day for us. It has been PROVEN that the site (on a lovely creek bank at the entrance to our town) is a PLATYPUS breeding ground. Woolworths plans to excavate the site to a depth of maybe 2 metres to build an underground carpark, with around 50 x 1 metre pylons to hold up its ugly Big Box building. They had already bulldozed many huge trees (including native species), some 18 months ago.

Strangely, the rare and ancient Duck-Billed PLATYPUS is being used as an Aussie Icon at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan and our Prime Minister has been photographed with an 11-metre long "mascot" Platypus (or, "paying lip service to the duckbill" as my partner, Poor Misery, describes this act).

The Expo's theme is Nature's Wisdom - about how we are looking after our world. Over in Japan the platypus is being revered as a beautiful animal whilst in its homeland, Australia, it is being destroyed.

Here is what some of the Expo website has to say :

" ..........visitors meet the star of the Australian pavilion, an 11-metre-long model of a platypus on a riverbank. The platypus was chosen because it existed 65,000 years ago and has remained largely unchanged since that time. It is a small, sensitive creature that requires a clean environment in order to survive. With the cleanup of our riverways, its numbers are starting to grow again. The message here is that by caring about all of our creatures we provide the environment for safe and sustainable development in the future...."

You can visit this site at http://www-1.expo2005.or.jp/en/ and learn more.
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a very saddened "Rich-Joy" ...