Hear, hear Russell. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments and
your insight into the minds of the general public. It's always irked
me considerable that JFK and co, which includes all ER's (not TV
doctors, economic rationalists) be they Labour or Liberal, federal or
state, are happy to shed 1000's of productive - in a social sense if
not short-term economic, I stress the short term, I expect the long
trm econmic costs of such ER will be enormous - jobs but won't get
rid of jobs in native forest logging industry which are totally
econmically irrational ie they are being subsisdised by goverment
money just to keep the industry viable. When it comes down to it, the
arguement seems to be "you'll destroy our way of life, our heritage,
my Granddaddie was a logger and his granddaddy before him" - what
utter rubbish!!! People have had this type of battle for ever,
whenever a powerful few who benefit from something immoral haveto try
and stem the tide of oppostion - It's undoubtedly what the slave
owners cried and the people who used child labour. Its waht the
"Mountain Cattlemen" say, its probably what Chirac says!
I was thinking about why the goverments should continue to
support such industries and I guess it's just a combination of big
business pressure and the fact that the people in those loggin areas
would control those electoral seats - even though they are few in
number.
What is incredibly scary is the tactics the loggin industry gets
away with - the TV adds, the newspapper adds, the letterbox drops
etc. How are the greenies suppossed to combat such big money lies?
When I argue continuosly with my Dad who is now a "retired"
(read: Jeffed) teacher who is still as pro JFK as ever, and doesn't
beleieve a word of Greenie 'propaganda' but is happy to lap up all
the anti-Green rot, who doesn' beleive I know a thing about anything -
including anything about the environment which I think I might know
just a little more than him, when I argue with him about all these
issues and this is a supposdly educated man, I really despair.
The only thing that keeps me going at times is the knowledge that
there are others out there who are jsut as angry! Thanks, Russell,
you've kept me sane for another day.
By the way - the latest attempt by the feds to protect our
forests is about as crappy as you can get - and its no wonder they
are giving only three weeks for the Greens to respond to it and
haven't even given them proper maps of the areas. It's no wonder the
loggers are happy with most of it (excpet for nth NSW, but they think
they can live iwth that - or perhaps get it changed) when the 15%
figure consists largley of tiny fragments or areas which are not even
forests!
See you all at the Forests Rally in Melb on Sun 22 Oct!!!!
Sean Pywell.
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