- luv-talk - luv.asn.au

Re: [luv-talk] local government (Andrew McGlashan)
by Petros 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

Russell Coker wrote: ----- Original Message ----- > On Fri, 22 Feb 2013, Andrew McGlashan > <andrew.mcglashan(a)affinityvision.com.au> > wrote: >> There may be areas where Aboriginals need extra support, but that >> is > also true of every other group of Australians whom make up our >> > population today. > > I really don't think that straight white men need extra support. I read Andrew as: People with drug problems need support. People with alcohol problems need support. People with violence problems need support. Unemployed people need support. I find it interesting that most migrants from all backgrounds find their feet in the Australian society over time. To the credit of Australians, there is a lot of goodwill and support to make it happen. Compared to many other societies Australia is a very open tolerating place. People want to live here. Yes, they want to celebrate their own culture - and are able to do so - but they want to live an Australian life of freedom in their daily life, tolerated, with less stress than where they come from, most of them better off than where they come from, and other attributes they enjoy to have here. There is some pressure to accept Australian values (e.g. to respect the law system and not resorting to violence in disputes, as some will have experienced in their place of origin) but that is widely accepted. Until now we have not been able to integrate the Aboriginals that well, and there is still some dispute about how to achieve it. Until now, we do not think it is a good idea of having a Sharia based system for Muslims in our country even if some Muslims may claim it would suit them. And there will be Muslims who would not like that at all. They are happy to be escaped a society that punishes them like that. We are very uncertain how far autonomy for Aboriginals should go. Should we tolerate spearing to settle disputes, as it is still practised? And, what about an Aboriginal who does not want to live that way? It is not that the Aboriginals where noble savages in paradise before "white men came". Their was violence, the average life expectation far below our "white society" standards, many kids did not survive their childhood etc. Coming back to the people who need support.. it is complex without "cultural problems". Everybody who had experienced a friend with alcohol problems will say that - and I have a close friend who is just "lost". His very supporting wife left him after 14 years because she and her daughter could not cope with it any longer. And what to do with a group, a place where many of them are drinking, as I remember the outskirts of Alice Springs, e.g. There will be many families where mother drinks, father drinks, uncle drinks. How do you help here? And will be a constitutional recognition help them in any meaningful ways? I do not have an answer but I don't think anybody knows. Goodwill is there, I believe. "What to do?" is another question. There is struggle between thoughts of assimilation and thoughts of giving them wide cultural autonomy. There are three reasons to support the first one: - It works for most migrants - They still value their own culture - Even some older Aboriginal seem to look back at mission times as better for them, as today's life. A note about the last one: I don't support missions in the way they worked 50 years ago. But our "Western society" evolved since too. E.g. a lot of children born out of wedlock were subject of forced adoption then. And, at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty about the "how to" leading to a mess and lack of continuity in dealing with this issue. Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Fwd: local government
by Petros 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

From: "Rohan McLeod" > Well referendums are usually to change the constitution; > so I am interpreting "governmental recognition" as 'constitutional > recognition'. > Whether constitutional recognition of local government would necessarily > increase their power, > would seem to depend on the proposed change. The local governments seem to work in a grey area now, as far as I understand it. It starts with the election process which is violating the most basic of all democratic rules, the "one man one vote" rule. "I want to have a say where I pay my taxes" does not cut it. If so, Coca Cola, Apple and Shell should be allowed to vote for the Australian Parliament. (Or they are getting exempt from paying taxes;-) Well, we already sell the position of the City of Melbourne Mayor to some Chinese property businesses. Welcome to the Chinese Democrazy! It works on the similar base over there, governments and business side by side for the great mutual benefit of the biggest and the best. A constitutional amendment to recognise the role of local governments could be good if it cuts back some of these irregularities. I wonder why they exist here and are not thrown out by now. Did nobody go to court to defend his democratic voting rights? Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] beginning a Hacker/Maker Space in Footscray
by David E Payne 20 Feb '13

20 Feb '13

The first of a series of discussions about this project starts at the site on Tuesday 26th of February, 6:30-7:30pm. This is being organised via Eventbrite https://footscraymakerlab1.eventbrite.com.au/ > I thought this was just about the triangular building at > the stated address. > No! > OmiGORE NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > > > Tony Smith http://www.ynotds.com/ looked around > there Friday. He said the possibilities blew his mind. > > Lonely Planet is staying but most of the block between > Moreland, Parker, Maribynong & Lyons Streets is to be > repurposed, including that huge building along Lyons st. > One of Tony's associates, John Martin is hoping to establish > the Docklands Science Park somewhere on this site. > http://docscipark.com.au/index.html > > The other side of Maribynong St is a broad gauge rail line > which has just been cut off by the Regional Rail Link so > this could be used for a tourist rwy or I dunno railgun or > rocket sleds? The other side of that is the Maribynong River > & a canal runs along the other side of Lyons street. > > THIS. COULD. BE. > AWESOMENORMOUSOMETHINGREATERRIFICOLOSSALICOUSTUNNING. > Or the biggest missed opportunity since the Docklands > Redevelopment. > Probably some of each, but let's not leave it up to others > & chance! > > > I guess we need to be a bit careful who we tell how much > right now. I know one person in the mass media who I think > already knows about the meeting. > Fortunately she won't rush to beat everyone else with a > counter-productive piece of populist excreta. Even if she > wasn't about to go on maternity leave. > > Even Rachel Buchanan can wait. > http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/industrial-landscape-becoming-a-deser…

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local government
by Andrew McGlashan 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

If you needed a reason NOT to support any referendum giving local councils full governmental recognition, you cannot ignore this shocking news story! This link avoids the pay wall of The Australian newspaper and has more information than the summary below the link: http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/councils-snooping-on-phone-use/story-e6f… http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/councils-snooping-on-phone-us… Local councils snooping on phone use by: Jared Owens From: The Australian February 18, 2013 12:00AM LOCAL councils are seizing data from residents' mobile phones without warrants to chase unregistered pets, illegal rubbish dumping and unauthorised advertising. Federal surveillance laws enable enforcement agencies -- such as police, corruption watchdogs and the Australian Taxation Office -- to seize telecommunications data to conduct criminal investigations, enforce fines or protect public revenue. But the laws are increasingly being used by other public bodies, such as local governments and Australia Post, which have collectively made more than 800 self-authorisations for personal data in the past three financial years.

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Re: [luv-talk] is Marriage dying?
by Petros 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

From: "Russell Coker" <russell(a)coker.com.au> > http://www.alternet.org/marriage-dying > > Interesting article about the support for marriage being a way of attacking > poor people, interracial couples, and other couples who aren't liked by the > people in power. http://www.acoss.org.au/uploads/ACOSS%20Poverty%20Report%202012_Final.pdf Table 4: Risk of poverty - proportion of people from different groups living below poverty lines in 2009-10 (%) 50% of median - At risk group 60% of median Single, no children: 25.3 41.5 Lone parent: 25.0 36.4 Couple, no children: 8.4 18.5 Couple, children: 9.0 14.0 Obviously living as a couple decreases your risk of being poor. It starts with basic income safety: With two people at work you do not loose all earned income if one is out of work. Of course, couple does not equal marriage. AFAIK (and from experience) Australia treats married couple and de facto relationships equally in most aspects (e.g. taxation). In Germany it is different. There are quite high incentives to marry for financial reasons. Whether it covers a $27k wedding and a potential divorce is debatable;-) Regards Peter

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is Marriage dying?
by Russell Coker 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

http://www.alternet.org/marriage-dying Interesting article about the support for marriage being a way of attacking poor people, interracial couples, and other couples who aren't liked by the people in power. The assumption that marriage has to cost $27K is quite strange though. It's one of the problems of using the mean value when the median is more appropriate. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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regex puzzle
by Jason King 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

enjoy. http://boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/grid.pdf-pages1.jpg http://www.coinheist.com/rubik/a_regular_crossword/grid.pdf

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Fw: beginning a Hacker/Maker Space in Footscray
by David E Payne 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

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Free Vintage Hardware
by Dave Hellewell 13 Feb '13

13 Feb '13

I can no longer be bothered to care and find space for: 1 * DEC Alpha 500au 1 * Sun UltraSPARC Enterprise 2 1 * Sun Netra T1 105 (I have some spare memory for this too) 1 * Sun Netra st D130 storage array 2 * Sun Sunfire V20z 2 * Cisco Catalyst 2950 24 port If you are interested in any of these please contact me off list. I cannot deliver, and pick up is from Brighton East. Otherwise they're off to hard rubbish unless someone can recommend a more sustainable method of disposal. Cheers, Dave

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RHCE
by Christopher M. Bailey 11 Feb '13

11 Feb '13

Hi All, Just signed up to do my RHCE through Seek Learning, I'm guessing after around 20 years of using Linux there's gunna be some stuff I know, some I don't and some that I've forgotten. What I'm wanting to know from those who have done the course is, are there any good companion websites or books I should look at to help me move through this a little quicker and easier? TIA Chris

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