BS: is our Community losing to Corporation?

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 08:53 AM

People here are talking about "Queensland BECOMING a Police State".
Well as the good song says :

"... I never died, said Joh"



Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 09:07 AM

Excerpt from an interesting letter in our local newspaper ("The Range News") this week :

" ... Maleny means nothing to Woolies, nor its people, just our dollars. A company that can undercut business and run at a loss until the competition collapses is unethical and abominable. A company that makes its suppliers suffer indignation and substandard prices is a disgrace. Shareholders' demand for greater returns is no excuse for shameful practices. A company should make profits by offering a better product, (rather) than just lower prices ... "

It ends by quoting Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel :
"Take sides, neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."



Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: DougR
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 02:15 PM

Foolestroup: do you consider yourself a "progressive?"

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 08:15 PM

Ooooooooo, that used to be dangerous talk in the 'Uncle Joh' years, DougR...

I remember working on the concept of a board game involving the infamous 'three is a crowd and thus an illegal demonstration' law - you had to get a certain number of protestors down George St, (avoiding being distracted by the many pubs) past the fat police seargent and to the State Parliament building...

Interestingly, one of my mother's relatives was the Lutheran Pastor (later on he became head of the Lutheran Church) who first taught Joh the basics of Public Speaking as a young man interested in politics...

I also went to Uni and became friends with John Sinclair - son of the man involved in FIDO and a certain infamous court case...

I consider myself extremely conservative (if it ain't broken, why 'fix' it? - e.g. selling Telstra, privatising banks already publicly owned, water, electricity services, etc) - the problem is that I find many of the attitudes of the alleged 'Political Conservatives' extremely narrow minded, short sighted, and blatantly and greedily selfish.

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 05 Aug 05 - 02:58 AM

Beware the Corporate Expansionist catch-cry :
"YOU CAN'T STOP PROGRESS!"
(taken from Marcus Bussey's pieces at www.malenyvoice.com)

" A Pilgrim's Progress
Whenever you hear the word "Progress" linked with development, as it has recently been in Maleny, you should become suspicious. The word is deceptively simple, yet it is a highly charged political weapon in the war on community, the environment and those who would resist the rampant expansion of big business and government into local contexts and environmentally sensitive areas.

Western society has had a passionate relationship with progress but it has been something of a poisoned chalice and we now weigh each gain in terms of physical comfort, personal wealth, convenience, increased speed, and technological capacity against, patent loss of individual meaning, erosion of rights and liberties, environmental degradation, social and personal stress, wide-spread cynicism and a loss of belief in the future. The future has in fact been colonized ahead of us by a toxic and aggressive form of progress that purports to serve community when it serves corporate capital and authoritarian forms of governance.

Progress as we (and others) have experienced it, has been a mixed blessing. It was progress that lead Europeans across the waves to new lands at great cost to their indigenous populations. Yet it was also progress that challenged the power of monarchs and brought about new forms of democratic government. It was progress that built factories and belched out pollution wrecking the lives of generations of people and degrading the environment. Yet again, it was progress that gave us electricity and a range of treatments to many of the world's ills.

At this level of analysis we can easily be distracted into point scoring, yet this litany misses the point. At all times when real advances have been made their has been a positioning by specific groups to maximize advantage and direct energy into forms of social organization that create passivity in the populace, a compulsive obsession with choice and change, and huge wealth for a privileged few. This preferred vision of 'progress' has been well marketed and many accept it unquestioningly, unaware that it effectively robs their children of a future we could feel proud of.

This brand of progress has been naturalized: many can think of no other form of development than increased commerce, increased expansion of the market globally and locally and an increased range of techno-toys to both amuse and facilitate commerce and globalisation. Many feel captive to this image of the future. This is an image that has direct implications for the present when groups, such as the one in Maleny resisting Woolworths, are marginalised by a combined rhetoric of progress and property rights and many who might join their ranks shrug their shoulders with a premature sense of defeat in the face of a triumphant progress.

Many such would-be supporters from middle-Maleny cannot see a way out. It is this socioeconomic group that a recent study lead by Dr Richard Eckersley, from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU in Canberra, found to be suffering great stress. A moral tension lies at the heart of their lives because they behave in ways contrary to their beliefs. Why? It seems that they feel caught – they believe they need to keep up with the pace of change which feels highly unstable and therefore they struggle to create their own safe haven to keep the unpredictable out. Interestingly, Eckersley also found that many were changing life-styles in an attempt to break the cycle they are caught in. I am one such individual, a pilgrim in search of a different, more inclusive 'progress' that flies in the face of the current logic implied in the catch-all of corporate expansionism "You can't stop progress!"

The point of this letter is that we may not be able to stop progress, but we can certainly choose what kind of progress we want. We in Maleny have the choice between a form of progress that degrades community and the environment while channeling profits out of the local area into huge corporations, or a form of progress that embraces the communal and builds local economic and social diversity and strength. The choice is ours, yet it is being taken away from us. We need to remember that we are ancestors of the future and that our legacy will one day be weighed and measured. As it stands, there is little doubt that many of us will be found wanting."


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Aug 05 - 07:42 PM

... and remember a stroll through the stream of most people's souls will not wet your ankles...


from Deteroria... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 11 Aug 05 - 06:54 PM

2005 - or 1984?
Obi Obi Development Site - First Slab Pouring Day, Wednesday, August 10th :   
It has been estimated that there were close on 100 police, once again from as far away as Bundaberg. Police escorted the concrete trucks from Conondale (30km away) and cordoned off the roads, the site - and the Pub, all to protect construction of an unwanted, unwarranted Woolworths ("the UN-Australian") corporation supermarket.

Trouble is, there were only 3 onlookers (and 1 pooch)!!!

Maleny people can be forgiven for now seriously considering that this whole (ongoing) debacle is being treated as a Terrorist/CrowdControl Training Exercise for the Police ...

Add to that the recent technical difficulties being experienced by many locals with regard to their phones and internet sites : rumours abound of either The Feds phone-tapping - or at least Woolworths Corporate Industrial Espionage - after all, ANYthing's possible nowadays, regardless of whether you're into Conspiracy Theories or not ...

A local chap who flew his helicopter over the site, with a photographer on board - keeping completely within the known, established laws, mind you - has literally been interrogated by senior police officials and also had complete lies about him and his activities (and his employment details) spread across the Sunshine Coast newspapers.

Anyone attending the weekly, weekend Community Rallies (held in Cooke Park and processing peacefully and lawfully down our main street to Tesch Park, opposite the Woolworthless site) gets their presence filmed and photographed by Police - so our visages are all on "police files" now!!!
In fact, anyone coming close to the site at other times is also photographed (this is our MAIN thoroughfare remember!!!) and it has been proven that they are using long-range listening devices , both at the site AND around the town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This whole affair started with the People of Maleny innocently assuming that they had a right to voice their opinions, even when different to Govt or Big Business. The longer that all this continues, the more evidence is being amassed to the contrary ...

BUT! remember, it's not only Maleny and its people at stake here - remember the original "Big Brother"*** ...
(and what about last week's penultimate episode of "Dr Who"??!!) :

So, Stay Alert! (yes, I know, the world needs more Lerts!)

"Coming Soon, to a town near You!"

Cheers! R-J

PS    and they still haven't returned our confiscated Community Platypus character suit!!!!


visit the site (new data all the time, and currently being revamped - also news of other Community's struggles around Oz - and the World) :
www.malenyvoice.com


*** http://www.shire.net/big.brother/

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 01:05 AM

Well, I suppose it is alright for me to visit you them - I have had my mug videoed by the Boys in Blue in the past when I used to attend La Boite Theatre during the Joh Years.... wasn't the Special Branch supposed to be disbanded? Or is it now hiding under the guise of the Anti-Terrorist Squad - Orwell Style?

Of course, Beattie has publicly expressed his admiration for Joh, as did Joh for Der Feurer...

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Aug 05 - 08:21 AM

"WALMART personnel KILL shoplifter!!!
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3303871
_________________

Remember that Woolworths and Walmart are buddies......

I WON'T SHOP THERE!
Eternal vigilance is a safeguard of liberty and a society that wishes to remain free should watch its government at all times with the intensity of a hawk that stalks its prey."


taken from Soapbox (http://web.aanet.com.au/roh/soapbox/)
via www.malenyvoice.com


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 05 - 08:56 PM

I'm sure the security guards were among the many who are grateful for the low paying jobs provided by WalMart. Lets wait and see how far they go to defend the actions of the security guards. My guess is that WalMart will do everything they can to distance themselves from the actions of their employees.

dianavan (left my cookies at home)

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 01:52 AM

If you wish to show some support for the valiant Communities attempting to resist the Corporate Takeovers of their towns, please consider purchasing a CD from this website :

http://www.peculiarhand.com/pages/atogm.html

For every CD sold, a proportion will go to the Community fund in Maleny :
http://www.peculiarhand.com/pages/good-reason.html

But that aside, the music is just plain good fun – and let's face it, we all need a bit of respite from the numerous negative impacts of Globalisation that bear down upon us nowadays ...


Cheers! R-J
Down Under

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 01:54 PM

"When the last fish has been caught
When the last river is polluted
When the last tree has been cut down
Only then will you realize
You can't eat money."

(Chief Seattle) ???

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: Peace
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 02:03 PM

It is credited as "Cree Indian Prophecy", but who knows.

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 04:19 PM

Heard an apt and telling comment on the TV tonight. Scottish fishermen, questioned about failing fish stocks off the coast of Scotland looked at the evidence and stated:

"It took us 17 years to knacker the Clyde."

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community loosing to Corporation?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:23 PM

It's sad to say that after all we have learned and experienced, the song remains the same...


"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"

Subject: RE: BS: is our Community losing to Corporation?
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Jul 08 - 12:45 PM

A Corporation has legislated for itself to have full and complete human rights equal to and superior to those enjoyed by a living human being.

A platypus doesn't enter into the equation for rights or fairness by the laws Corporations pay to have enacted.

If legal remedies can not be found or afforded for the Platypus, an ironic intervention might be the "accidental" poisoning of Woolworth owners by the poison that Platypus produce.

Yes among the bizare attributes of a Platypus is the fact that they produce a defensive toxin.