The Bywong Soapbox

August 18th … I was musing over the Battle of Long Tan yesterday.  A very celebrated battle in the Vietnam jungle, by a brave contingent of Australian soldiers who held their position against overwhelming VC forces.  There was a nice dedication and memorial service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Canberra..  It was very moving..

The Long Tan Rubber Plantation

Then I recalled the L’Oreal commercial that’s been airing on Australian television….  Starring, guess who?  Hanoi Jane!

Yes folks…  Hanoi Jane (Jane Fonda) has crept back into the public eye with a skin cream commercial.. Evidentially, she thinks this new generation ( Hanoi Jane’s an old bird ),  won’t know about her traitorous episodes in Vietnam.  Yes, old Jane traveled to North Vietnam at the height of the conflict to ‘entertain’ the North Vietnamese troops and sling mud at Coalition Forces, including the Americans & Australians.  There she sat, posing on an anti-aircraft gun that would be used to shoot down American & Australian aircraft.

Hanoi Jane - A Traitor

Well, I haven’t forgotten.. and I refuse to allow any L’Oreal into this household..    Send a message to the manufacturer and the the TV stations that air the commercial..  Boycott the product and switch the channel.

eu-lo-gy

/?yul?d?i/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [yoo-luh-jee] Show IPA –noun, plural -gies.

There’s not a lot that one can say about Rob Apathy, that hasn’t already been said.  A short ‘eulogy’ is far from adequate. He would have tried to define the word for what it was, as I have above, in the analytical spirit he would have shown for his own eulogy.  I can only hope I’ve done him justice, for as he said to me in a posthumous letter… “Of all that I leave behind, I will miss you the most”.

He was a kind-hearted man, who would go out of his way to help you in any way he could.

He tried to see the good in everyone he met and extended kindness and council to one and all. The only person he was ever unkind to… was himself.

A brilliant man; he knew no boundaries when it came to the quest for knowledge. Not only did he amass a long list of life’s accomplishments. He kept on learning …researching … looking for the answers.

Here was a man who took it upon himself to learn conversational Italian while in his 70’s. He not only learned to speak the language, but was able to read and write it as well.

But, what was Rob to me? Rob was my friend & brother. We shared happiness and sorrow. Used each other as sounding boards for our philosophies, our problems and ideas.

Whether it was to do with photographic or artists technique; Or whether it concerned building a radio telescope or erecting an Amateur radio antenna, we worked out the problems together.

Rob Apathy - A Friend

Before his physical abilities were hampered by weight, hip joints and bad knees, Rob was a familiar face at our property. He’d often ride his motorcycle or just drive over to our place and test our palates with various Hungarian delights, which he would conjure up in our kitchen for dinner.

A good evening would quickly slip by with good wine and conversation and turn into an overnighter for Rob, as we would never let him travel the roads late at night. We were always glad to have his happy, smiling face greet us the next morning. He knew he was a welcomed guest in our house.

In the last few years he was confounded by the various disciplines of religion. He turned to analysing religions for what they were, looking for some sort of truth, or perhaps, looking to expose the untruths. He was never clear on just what he searched for. But in Robs’ fashion, he once again became a recognised authority on the subject.

As I said to his son Rodney, “I hope he finds his god… whichever one that happens to be today.

My wife Liz and I will miss him terribly and to cover all the bases, I made sure he had some coins to pay the ferryman.

So, the Canberra bureaucrats want to make it impossible to dine al fresco outside of most restaurants or at the very least, severely limit the number of covers you can accommodate on the sidewalks.

What’s the answer to keeping your tables AND your all important covers?  Do like they do in Chicago.

Hit the roofs for al fresco dining

Put your diners on the roof.  Many buildings in the local dining areas have suitably strong and accessible rooftops.  The city is complaining that pedestrians are being inconvenienced by having to dodge all the al fresco tables & chairs.  Put them to use on the roof and see how long it takes for the politicians to try taxing THAT cash cow.

Could you imagine rooftop dining at Canberra House?

The garbage tips around  Bywong, Wamboin & Sutton were implemented for the disposal of residential rubbish.  With the size of the Macs Reef Road tip in relation to the sparse population in the area, the tip should have lasted several tens of decades before they even began to ‘look’ a bit full.  The rules of the time assumed only ‘residents’ would be able to deposit their refuse at such tips.

A tiny omission  in the Council rules didn’t differentiate where the residents’ rubbish was being generated, so of course, every nefarious builder or contractor who happened to live in the local area, began using the tip as their own, private, Toxic Waste Facility. Dumping huge amounts of industrial/commercial waste & refuse.

Yes, over the years, tonnes upon tonnes of builders and commercial refuse has been dumped at the local Residential Tips and the glorious Council has turned a blind eye…. until now…  (smell the money yet?)

Now, the Palerang Council acknowledges the tips have been so overfilled with industrial waste, they, of course, must now be closed and the burden of cost put onto the local residents to replace the tips with the latest buzzword of the times….. “The Waste Transfer Station”

Rubbish! And you should take that literally.  The latest plans for the disposal of local, Shire generated rubbish include Roadside Pickup (which means hauling wheelie bins up 500metre driveways) or Expensive transfer stations, where residents will be charged a minimum of $4 a pop to toss a few black plastic garbage bags into a skip. Even more tithe if you bring a trailer.

You have to sit back and wonder which garbage collection contractor has the ear of the Council (or perhaps some councilors pocket)…  Or why turning an existing tip into a transfer station would incur an environmental study (at a paltry $60,000), to determine the existing tip site is suitable for a transfer station to transfer the same sort of refuse that’s been buried there for years.

Now comes the good part.  Whatever the outcome, the residents of the Western side of the Shire will incur additional rate charges of anywhere between $400 and $1200 dollars… Annually.  All because some local resident/builder/contractor thought he’d save a few bucks by dumping his toxic industrial waste at the local tip, rather than actually have to pay for disposal in Canberra, where the waste was generated in the first place.

Oh yes… I personally followed a string of dump trucks from a site in Canberra, all the way out to the Macs Reef Road tip.  There were 6 truckloads in all.  All dumping their loads at the local tip, all smiling at the tip attendant as they went back to Canberra for more loads.

Instead of charging the local residents or the inconvenience imposed by these contractors, perhaps the contractors themselves should be forced to front up the cash to fix the problem. After all, had they been on the Up & Up, we might not have a landfill closure problem.

Occasionally,  I find solace in taking the trash to the tip as the local tip seems to be one of those places where you’ll run into interesting neighbours.  Having deposited my recycling in the appropriate bins, I was dropping a few old monitors off in the recycle area when I happened across the lad that does the website for the neighbouring community of Wamboin.  Well, Bruce and I began extolling the benefits of the treasures you find at the tip and asked me if I’d like a Digital TV set top box that was acting up.

Well, rather than let him toss it in with the rest of the trash, I took it home with me and fired it up to see what was the problem.

But first, let me digress and explain what these things are….

Australia is turning off analog TV signals in the very near future.. Everyone will need to embrace the new Digital TV technology, by either getting a new ‘digital ready’ TV, or getting a set top box converter to use with their old analogue TV.  The advantage of the digital clarity is well worth the few ten’s of dollars to get a set top converter.

Anyway…. Having recently purchased an ‘all singing – all dancing’ Digital LCD TV for the bedroom, I was debating what to do with the aged Grundig analogue beastie in the TV room.  A pretty flash, large screen TV in it’s day, it was now getting long in the tooth and ready for a trip to the tip.

Enter Bruce, with his tired SRT 5390 Digital TV recorder/converter.  Yes, this thing even has an 80Gb hard drive for recording your favorite programs, just like a VCR, but digitally… on the hard drive… no tape… AND he had the remote with it as well!

So.. I plugged it in and made the proper connections to the TV.

Well… It would work for a few minutes, then seem to lose the signal.  When a digital TV loses the signal, the picture either goes black or turns to a mess of pixelated squares.  So, it did have a problem and I went straight to the Internet forums to see if anyone had the fix.

Sure enough, the SRT 5390 had a documented problem with the power supply and the fix was to change a couple of electrolytic capacitors for ones of a higher voltage value.  So, a quick trip to the local electronics store, about 78 cents worth of parts and 30 minutes of my time to de-solder and install new capacitors.

The results?  A Digital Set Top Box Converter/Recorder that works like a new one and the satisfaction of being able to breathe a year or so of life back into an old TV.

Thanks Bruce… If you happen wander by, I’ll crack open one of my homebrew stouts and we’ll sit on the veranda to muse about the mysteries of the rural lifestyle.

How Greasy can you get?

I just saw an interesting ad on television tonight….  It was one of those ‘Political Statement’ type adverts, by none other than ‘Kingsley’s Chicken’.

Kingsley’s is accusing the Rudd government of holding back their chicken joint expansion in the Canberra area.

How, you ask?….  They blame the government of refusing to allow 457 Visa applications to be filled.  The 457 Visa is for overseas immigrants who want to work in Australia..  Now what does that suggest to you?

It suggests to me that the greed of Kingsley’s Chicken has gotten the better of them. It also suggests to me that this chicken outfit want to hire cheap, overseas labour, so they can expand their greasy chicken empire in the Canberra area and put a few more dollars in their pockets.

Get a grip Kingsley’s.. Hire local Australians to run your chicken outlets.  Too expensive, you say?  Tough shit… Plan on building fewer chicken outlets and pay a bit more for local labour.

What’s better for your image? Greed or Civic Duty?

There’s an interesting article on the Bywong Community Association website that talks about the Macs Reef Road Tip and the vote to turn it into a Waste Transfer Station.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Last Council meeting in March narrowly voted for the waste transfer station proposed for Macs Reef Road but it could still come unstuck if money is not found to build it. Discussion by Councillors about the 2010/2010 Management Plan to fund works will be happening soon. Bywong Community Association would like to urge all Bywong, Wamboin and Sutton residents who want a local waste management facility to contact all the local Palerang Councillors to urge them to follow through on their agreement to build a new facility at Macs Reef Road. Email all Councillors via councillors@palerang.nsw.gov.au”

“If the money is not found to build it”?    WTF!

Palerang Council

All the council has to do is backcharge the local resident Building Contractors who have been filling the tip with contractors rubbish from Canberra  for the last 20 years..  You see… if you have a residents tag, you can dump all your contractors garbage from your Canberra building sites in the local tips and bypass the need to pay a fee at the Mugga Lane Tip in Canberra..  where the shit belongs in the first place.

Find the money… indeed!  Cough it up  ‘Palerang Council’, as it’s your turning of the blind eye for so many years that created the problem in the first place.

Well, Here we go with a new toy, or tool, if you want to call it that.

I’ve just made this post to my blog, on my new iPhone and a little WordPress app.

Neat, eh?

The heading says it all, to take a quote from one of the sweetest politicians in Australia.

A lasting friendship

For the last seven years, this enterprising ex-pat has been quietly running a low-power American Multicultural radio station, out in the middle of the wine district around Lake George and just a few tens of kilometers from Canberra.

Dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s, it quietly promotes multicultural Baby Boomer music, with a slant towards American 70′s Rock, Soul & Blues.

No Government funding, not many advertisers, but a plethora of avid listeners, the little station goes on day after day, keeping to the constraints of it’s limited license allocation.

Now, could someone please explain how the Chinese Government can set up a Propaganda station, smack dab in the middle of Canberra, Australia’s National Capital.

Not only is there a Chinese Propaganda station running 24/7, it’s also using the same Tourist Information frequency as the American Multicultural station, but at some enormous power level that allows it to be heard over the entire ACT region and deeply into New South Wales as well.

A slap in the face to both the great democracies of the United States of America and the Australia Governments to have the Communist Chinese flaunting their propaganda within earshot of both the US Embassy and the Australian Parliament House.

The Chinese

But then again… depending on just who’s country is the flavor of the month….I suppose all Governments are equal… it’s just that some are more equal than others.. (sorry Mr. Orwell, that semi quote just fit the theme so well).

So, while the Chinese station, with it’s direct feed from Beijing, keeps waving it’s red flag over Canberra, the little American multicultural radio station will keep on pumping out it’s eclectic tunes and waving the Stars & Stripes to whoever might still be interested.

And nobody really gives a shit.

So if the Federal Government really gave a shit about the horrendous P-Plate accident statistics, you’d think they’d have instituted some sort of program to enlighten these suicidal, post-pubescent, little fools who think they’re indestructible.

What’s the solution?  OK Government, grab your chequebooks and listen closely….

One day a week, let’s say…. “Wednesday”, year 11 Physical Education Classes or Sport practice shall be replaced by a qualified, full-blown Drivers Education class.  This means the Phys-Ed teacher goes to attain a certificate and becomes a Driving Instructor. A demountable with full Driving simulators are provided at each school facility and a few Driver Training cars are leased from local car dealerships under an advertising subsidy program.

Instead of a Wednesday Phys-Ed class, once a week ALL year 11 students will rotate into the classrooms, demountables and ultimately, road training vehicles, under instructor/teacher supervision, and learn how to drive, defensively. Learn how to drive a controlled skid, how to swerve, how to brake.

Most importantly… How NOT to be an arsehole showoff for one’s peers. Which usually (according to the carnage I’ve been seeing on TV), ends up in the death of the the automobiles’ passengers.

Wake Up Australia!  Shock-horror TV commercials and the cops dragging half crushed – blood encrusted cars around to the shopping malls aren’t going to save YOUR kids from killing themselves on the road.

P-Plate parallel parking

The Government must stop and consider the outcome if these kids keep killing themselves.  Whoops! Three more voters dead.. Whoops! 2 more voters dead..  Whoops! 4 more voters dead.  A terrible analogy, but it seems to be the only thing (besides sex scandals) that the government pollies seem to understand.

C’mon Rudd.. Abbott.  Some P-Plater might someday be responsible for the death of your kids.  Pull yer finger out and put a good Driver Education program in place.  I’ll even step aside and say you guys thought up the idea. You could even put your ridiculous political mud-slinging aside and call it a bi-partisan effort to stop teenage road deaths.

This Government has initiated much lamer programs for millions of dollars in tax payer dollars, what have they got to lose by trying this one for awhile…  Even if it saves one P-Platers life, it might be worth the cost.

That is, of course, if the government really gave a shit.