WARS – ANZAZ DAY _ AMERICAN DUPLICITY (Peace or Profit)

ANZAC DAY ..Gives cause for thought …My first experience of reading a first hand account of a surviving ANZAC was recently by Albert Facey in his book “A Fortunate Life” he was there he killed and survived  …. In the repeat of wars we made the same mistakes ..I had an experience traveling in France so I wrote a poem . So I post it as my reflections on .ANZAC DAY .

Note about why I wrote this poem

On a visit to Bayeux in Normandy , including going to Bayeaux to see he Bayeux Tapestry which records yet another battle in another war of 945 years ago I also visited a WWii D Day beach code named Omaha, where battles involving Americans took place.

I stayed at Le Bayeux Hotel owned by Madame Mireille Bajum who was a proud member of Chemins de la Liberte  (Paths of Freedom Association. This was a commemorative and tourism oriented association involved in promoting the D Day landings and battle path. Sign posts on this battle path throughout the roads in Normandy along the route the D Day Invasion Forces to describe it for tourists as The Freedom Path and American tourists flock to proudly visit like Aussies go to Gallipoli. Just a different war.

As a commendable business promotional tactic Madame Bajum produced a postcard which was obviously themed for her, mainly, American customers.                         She asked me to comment on the poem, obviously thinking that I was an American (which I laughed off being an Australian – I consider one of the greatest misconceptions that Americans in general have about peoples of the rest of the world is that they all want to be like Americans and in my experience nothing could be further from the truth.)
So I was irritated at the American guests in the hotel foyer lauding in the thanks and past glory of their very very late participation in  D Day and the ending of WWII. Especially with the knowledge that America’s failure  was due to their corporations profiting from both sides from war trade and what I think has been USA’s justification for most all wars they have been involved in since then, profit.

  It hit home to me then after visiting the Omaha Beach battle site the continuing waste of wars of all wars and also fed up with parochial American redneck chain emails in recent years exhorting support for the US troops in Iraq/Afghanistan (you know the ones ,photos of the poor suffering troops and if you don’t pass it on your not a patriotic American and we’ll come and get you!!) and further fed up with the continued unnecessary involvement of Australia and America in Iraq and Afghanistan and formerly in other places like Vietnam

I wanted to make the point that corrupt American trade in arms businesses pressured to keep America out of WWII so it could profit and keep on selling arms and supplies to Germany until long after everyone else was involved in the fight (September 1939 Australia joined UK but not until 1942 for the USA and then only by default, with the main USA presence dribbling into the UK even later than that during 1943, culminating in DDay on 6th June 1944.

This is the same corrupt American capitalism of today that pressured to invade Iraq for the profits and trade of oil.

The combination of places and thoughts all inspired certain ironies, the approaching of ANZAC Day during my travel and remembrance of this failed battle in another war (Gallipoli WWI). Feelings not dwarfed by a remaining  frustration at former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (and Blair and Bush) ignoring my protests about going to war in Iraq and his sycophantic crawl to President Bush and American interests, Also
  Michael Moore‟s recent protests and expose of the wealth of the Forbes 400 rich Americans being more than that of the wealth of 150 million other Americans!!
Plus being in France (where my perception is that the general populous seem to value and demonstrate their earned democratic rights more effectively than most of our other entrenched English speaking so called modern democracies).

Also a strong angst at a certain perceived adulation by American and Australian tourists of the supposed moral superiority of their country in all things relating to war which I feel persists to this very day.

All these perceptions (correct or incorrect) seemed to jell together at the time and highlight the continuing erosion of the democratic process in our countries caused by apathy and jingoism….

All these things highlighted to me the unacceptable, enormous, continuing waste of lives in past and present battles and wars.

So caught up in the emotion of time and place standing on Omaha Beach and having never done so before, I answered Madame Bajum with my own poem and I thank her for her inspiration.

Remember that the Americans were only part of D Day in Normandy and the barb in my poem is the fact that if America had helped the Allies from the start of the WWii millions of lives might have been saved !

                                         ANZAC DAY REFLECTIONS

WHISPERS FROM A GHOST OF ANOTHER WAR PAST,                                                 ON ONE NORMANDY D DAY LANDING BEACH CODE NAMED OMAHA,.THE  ETEREAL SIGH OF ANOTHER SOLDIER WASTEFULLY GONE; TO HIS VISITING GRANDCHILD, STANDING IN REMEMBERANCE IN THE SAND ON OMAHA BEACH.
                                    A war yarn (I have called)
                                     “OMAHA YEARNING”

  I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
  True freedom path I am still owed.
  Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fight on for me

   Cry for me my unsighted child but,
  Hear a wavering truth from our starry striped smile.
  Tis but a false benevolent grin, cast from cynical trade.
  Selfishness much profit made caused our delay to help.

  Our cousins called us in thirty nine!
  Would I have died had we been on time?
  We came late, in forty four
  To France, to Omaha Beach, to war.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
  True freedom path I am still owed.
  Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fraternity

  My fatal pirouette a dance macabre
  Advanced our charge, in yards, by eight
  I never knew. Were we too late to end all war and Liberate?
  Think hard our family’s sacrifice.
  Those mourning howls, my pregnant wife, my unseen fruit.
  I weep to think that you are fooled by talk my battle exploits grand
  A century on and from in this sand I cannot understand.

  I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
  True freedom path I am still owed.
  Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. For liberty

My sacrifice unjustly used
  Incites the nationalistic fuse.
  Has our country nothing to amuse to keep it sane?
  More fighting wars in other lands?
  Excused by reasons politic and gain Same tolls this time on desert sands.
  Home masses must be surely drugged or sleep?
  To be manipulated by a tiny clique, four hundred strong!
  Is our venerated democracy gone?
  Responsibility my unseen child is now yours to keep for
  Please! In my memory, try to cease war.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – fight on for me -True Democracy.

 I answer through this pride in me as
through toes in this sand a grandchild hears your desperate plea
Patent clear my tears don’t sooth your spirit’s fears.
 So I cry a solemn promise Pa to fight your cause against all wars.
I will strive to rouse our selfish and indifferent people
To hear your honour ringing from this lands liberated steeples
To rise in future only to peaceful actions – to mark your sacrifice.

  I stand here on Omaha my toes in sands of your repose.
  Your freedom path to me is given
  Rest now – your soul contented be
  Your cause is not Forgotten – nor Omaha
  We fight on, your fight, for true democracy.

G.J.Pead 2011

USA War Business – A Pathetic Waste, An Erosion of Our Human Souls

Note about why I wrote this poem

On a visit to Bayeux in Normandy,France in 2011 I viewed The Bayeux Tapestry which records yet another human battle in yet another human war 945 years past. I also visited the nearby D Day beaches where battles of World War II took place and I walked on one beach code named Omaha and stayed at a Bayeux Hotel where the Madame proprietor was a proud member of Chemins de la Liberte (Paths of Freedom Association). This was a commemorative and tourism oriented association which also sign posts the roads in Normandy for tourists along the invasion route the D Day forces fought labeling it as “The Freedom Path”.
As a commendable business promotional tactic Madame hotel proprietor had produced a somewhat sycophantic poem on a postcard themed for her American customers with American flags overwritten with the words of her poem about only the Americans sacrifice on D Day.
As a motel guest I was given a postcard and asked me to comment on it if I wished obviously thinking that I was an American (which I laughed off being an Australian – I consider one of the greatest misconceptions that Americans in general have about peoples of the rest of the world is that they all want to be like Americans and in my experience nothing could be further from the truth.) so I was irritated at the American guests in the hotel foyer lauding in the thanks and past glory of their late participation in the ending of WWII especially with the hindsight of Americas failure and ,what I think is suspect justification for most all wars they have been involved in since then.

It hit home to me then after visiting the Omaha Beach battle site, the continuing waste of wars of all wars. Also fed up with parochial American redneck chain emails in recent years exhorting support for the US troops in Iraq (you know the ones ,photos of the poor suffering troops and if you don‟t pass it on your not a patriotic

American and we‟ll come and get you!!) and further fed up with the continued unnecessary involvement of Australia and America in Iraq and Afghanistan and formerly in other places like Vietnam.

I wanted to make the point that the same corrupt American trade businesses pressured to keep America out of WWII so it could profit and keep on selling arms and supplies to Germany until long after everyone else was involved in the fight (September 1939 for Australia but not until 1942 for the USA and then only by default with the main USA presence dribbling into the UK even later than that during 1943 culminating in DDay on 6th June 1944).This is the same corrupt American capitalism of today that pressured to invade Iraq for the profits and trade of oil.

The combination of places and thoughts all inspired certain ironies, the approaching of ANZAC Day Remembrance of another failed battle in another war (Gallipoli WWI) and an on-going frustration at

– former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (and Blair and Bush) ignoring my protests about going to war in Iraq and his sycophantic crawl to President Bush and American interests

– Michael Moore‟s recent protests and expose of the wealth of the Forbes 400 rich Americans being more than that of 150 million other Americans

– General modern global politics

– Being in France (where my perception is that the general populous seem to value and demonstrate their earned democratic rights more effectively than most of our other entrenched English speaking so called modern democracies)

– and also an angst at a certain perceived adulation by American and Australian tourists of the supposed moral superiority of their country in all things relating to war, which I feel persists today.(

these thoughts were reinforced ,I think, by the obscene champagne celebrations of Bin Laden‟s killing. However,the poem was written beforehand).

All these perceptions (correct or incorrect) seemed to jell together at the time and highlight the continuing erosion of the democratic process in our countries, by apathy and jingoism and highlighted to me the unacceptable, enormous, continuing waste of lives in past and present battles and wars.

So, having never done so before, I answered Madame Bajum with my own poem and I thank her for her inspiration.

Re comments about Saving Private Ryan – A poem I wrote in Normandy Omaha beach where the Americans landed.
14 August 2011 at 03:39
Remember that the Americans were only part of DDay in Normandy and the barb in my poem is the fact that if America had helped the Allies from the start of the WWii millions of lives might have been saved.
The horror of the scenes in the film still only touch on the reallity which is aparent when you stand on the landing beaches. I am glad to hear young mens responces to the film but I do hope they see no glory in it an mabe reflect a little on the bad in the American war machine.
POEM

(WHISPERS FROM A GHOST OF ANOTHER WAR PAST, ON ONE NORMANDY DDAY LANDING BEACH CODE NAMED OMAHA. THE SIGH OF A SOLDIER, GONE; TO HIS VISITING GRANDCHILD STANDING IN REMEMBERANCE IN THE SAND ON OMAHA BEACH)

“OMAHA YEARNING”

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fight on for me

Cry for me my unsighted children

Hear a wavering truth from our starry striped smile.

A false benevolent grin cast from cynical trade.

Selfishness much profit made caused our delay to help.

Our cousins called us in „thirty nine

Would I have died had we been on time?

We came late, in forty four

To France, to Omaha Beach, to war.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fraternité

My fatal pirouette a dance macabre

Advanced our charge, in yards, by eight

I never knew. Were we too late to end all war and Liberate?

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me.Democracy

Think hard our family‟s sacrifice.

Those mourning howls, my pregnant wife, my unseen fruit.

I weep to think that you are fooled

by talk my battle exploits grand

A century on and from this ground I cannot understand.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. For la Liberte

My sacrifice unjustly used

Incites the nationalistic fuse.

Has our country nothing to amuse to keep it sane?

More fighting wars in other lands?

Excused by reasons politic and gain Same tolls, this time on desert sands

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. L’ égalité

Home masses must be surely drugged or sleep?

To be manipulated by a tiny clique, 400 strong!

Is our venerated democracy gone?

Responsibility, unseen child, now yours to keep it

Please! in my memory, try to cease it.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.

True freedom path I am still owed.

Forget me not – nor Omaha – fight on for me -True démocratie

Through sand and toes your grandchild hears your desperate plea.

Patent clear my tears don’t sooth your spirits fears.

My obligation owed draws this grave given promise

to your cause against all wars,

I will work to wake and rouse our selfish apathetic peoples

To hear honour ringing from your liberated steeples

To rise to again to peaceful action – to mark – Your Sacrifice

Poem : Gary James Pead 05-04-2011

gpead@hotmail.com
I stand here on Omaha my toes in sands of your repose.

Your freedom path to me is given

Rest now – your soul contented be

Your cause is not Forgotten – nor Omaha

We fight on, your fight, fair true democracy

1

2016 ANZAC DAY STILL MAKES ME SAD..

Gary Pead 25/04/2016 Anzac day was the most spiritual day of the year this ex catholic usually a quite small town dawn service. The day has become far too commercial and jingoistic to my mind but is none the less a solemn reflective day with the seemingly futile repetition of the message of the wastes of wars.
So I re -post my poem
First posted 25 April 2014 ·
ANZAC DAY makes me sad so I share my point of view with a poem I know it won’t be read but I feel better having my say…..
On a visit to Bayeux in Normandy a years ago, including The Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux which records yet another battle and another war of 945 years ago I also visited a D Day beach, code named Omaha, where battles of World War II took place.
I stayed at Le Bayeux Hotel owned by Madame Mireille Bajum who was a proud member of Chemins de la Liberte (Paths of Freedom Association) which was a commemorative and tourism oriented business association, which also sign posts the roads in Normandy along the route the DDay Invasion Forces took showing it as “The Freedom Path” for tourists to follow.
As a commendable business promotional tactic Madame Bajum produced a poem on a postcard (copied below) which was obviously themed for her, mainly, American customers. She asked me to comment on it obviously thinking that I was an American (which I laughed off being an Australian –
I consider one of the greatest misconceptions that Americans in general have about peoples of the rest of the world is that they all want to be like Americans and in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
I was irritated at the American guests in the hotel foyer lauding in the thanks and past glory of their late participation in the ending of WWII especially with the hindsight of USA’s continued war mongering for the sake of their business profit interests then and since then.
It HAMMERED home to me after visiting the Omaha Beach battle site, the continuing waste of wars of all wars.
I wanted to make the point that the same corrupt USA corporate business pressure to keep America out of WWII so it could profit and keep on selling arms and supplies to Germany until long after everyone else was involved in the fight caused perhaps many millions of deaths that may have been prevented. ( Australians joined the war in September 1939 but not until 1942 for the USA= and then only by default with the main USA presence dribbling into the UK even later than that during 1943 culminating in DDay on 6th June 1944).
This is the same corrupt American capitalism of today that pressured to invade Iraq for the profits and trade of oil.
The combination of places and thoughts all inspired certain ironies, the approaching of ANZAC Day Remembrance of another failed battle in another war (Gallipoli WWI) and an on-going frustration at
– former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (and Blair and Bush) ignoring my protests about going to war in Iraq and his sycophantic crawl to President Bush and American interests
– Michael Moore’s recent protests and expose of the wealth of the Forbes 400 rich Americans being more than that of 150 million other Americans
– General modern global politics
– Being in France (where my perception is that the general populous seem to value and demonstrate their earned democratic rights more effectively than most of our other entrenched English speaking so called modern democracies)
– and also an angst at a certain perceived adulation by American and Australian tourists of the supposed moral superiority of their country in all things relating to war, which I feel persists today.( these thoughts were reinforced ,I think, by the obscene champagne celebrations of Bin Laden’s killing inciting devisive nationalism. However, the poem was written beforehand.
All these perceptions (correct or incorrect) seemed to jell together at the time and highlight the continuing erosion of the democratic process in our countries, by apathy and jingoism and highlighted to me the unacceptable, enormous, continuing waste of lives in past and present battles and wars.
So, having never done so before, I wrote this poem
Gary Pead.
05 / 04 / 2011 POEM
Setting:
(WHISPERS FROM A GHOST OF YET ANOTHER PAST WAR , ON OMAH BEACH IN NORMANDY, FRANCE. THIS IS THE GHOSTLY SIGH OF A US SOLDIER TO HIS VISITING GRANDCHILD STANDING IN REMEMBERANCE OF HIM IN THE SAND ON OMAHA BEACH)
“OMAHA YEARNING”
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fight on for me
Cry for me my unsighted children
Hear a wavering truth from our starry striped smile.
A false benevolent grin cast from cynical trade.
Selfishness much profit made caused our delay to help.
Our cousins called us in ‘thirty nine
Would I have died had we been on time?
We came late, in forty four
To France, to Omaha Beach, To War.
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fraternité
My fatal pirouette a dance macabre
Advanced our charge, in yards, by eight
I never knew. Were we too late to end all war and Liberate?
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me.Democracy
Think hard our family’s sacrifice.
Those mourning howls, my pregnant wife, my unseen fruit.
I weep to think that you are fooled
by talk my battle exploits grand
A century on and from this ground I cannot understand.
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. For la Liberte
My sacrifice unjustly used
Incites the nationalistic fuse.
Has our country nothing to amuse to keep it sane?
More fighting wars in other lands?
Excused by reasons politic and gain Same tolls, this time on desert sands
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. L’ égalité
Home masses must be surely drugged or sleep?
To be manipulated by a tiny clique, 400 strong!
Is our venerated democracy gone?
Responsibility, unseen child, now yours to keep it
Please! in my memory, try to cease it. .
I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – fight on for me -True démocratie
Through this sand your grandchild hears your desperate plea.
Patent clear my tears don’t sooth your spirits fears.
My obligation owed draws this grave given promise
to your cause against all wars,
I will work to wake and rouse our selfish apathetic peoples
To hear honour ring from your liberated steeples
To rise to again to peaceful purpose. To mark your Sacrifice.
I stand here on Omaha my toes in sands of your repose.
Your freedom path to me is given
Now rest – Your soul contented be
Your cause is not Forgotten – nor Omaha
We fight on, your fight, for True Democracy

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Comments
Lynne Roach
Lynne Roach I cant say i LIKE this Gary, because it is very sad., but i guess that’s the point. Very poignant. You should really publish it!
25 April 2014 at 17:46 · Unlike · 1
Eileen Mullard
Eileen Mullard I think I have read before. Well done Gary! You are spot on in all of what you say! And I also agree to Publish this please!
25 April 2014 at 18:13 · Unlike · 1
Julia Rowley
Julia Rowley Pretty good poem Gary. I can relate to the verse having been there also.
25 April 2014 at 19:03 · Unlike · 1
Anne O’Neill Radcliffe
Anne O’Neill Radcliffe Well said Gary!
25 April 2014 at 19:49 · Like
Gary Pead
Gary Pead Geez Julia … bloody Busan !!?? a little bit further north and you can catch up with Rowley’s mad mate Kim Jong-un!! seems like a quite, sparsely populated piece of countryside for a relaxing time smile emoticon might be better off back at Ubud?
25 April 2014 at 19:52 · Like
Angela Bailey
Angela Bailey Very well said sir Gary! Something to think on this Day. My grand dad is buried in Normandy where he fell with his fellow soldiers long before the Americans arrived. Lest we forget.
Angela Bailey’s photo.
25 April 2014 at 20:17 · Unlike · 2
Gary Pead
Gary Pead Thanks Ange and thanks to your Gdad .The story is so much bigger than the late arriving Yanks (taking nothing away from their sacrifice) like Gallipoli 34, 000+ English dead against 8000 + Australian even if it were mainly their /own comanders fault.
25 April 2014 at 20:35 · Like · 2

Climate Change Droughts and Deluge 2010 to 2015

All Climate Change predictions have become fact in a very short time and will now proceed to irredeemable tipping points if governments don’t start acting For The People not profits.

My brief response to a request from colleagues in London who thought Australia was leading the way in the management of water in response to Climate Change.

After the Deluge

Labor needs to work for The People: Surely any elected official should at least listen.Why aren’t they?

LETTER SENT TO ALL STATE & FEDERAL LABOR CABINET MINISTERS     NO RESPONSE !!

Labor Party changes to involve and listen to ordinary members is not working Inexperienced political career path advisor’s are influencing the Labor Party towards a path of self destruction.

I have been canvassing Labor politicians with realistic policy  implementation and re-election ideas since Beasley that would have worked had they been even partly considered.

I try through this Blog once again to be taken seriously surely it is incumbent upon any elected official to at least listen.

From: Gary J Pead

President Mermaid Beach Branch Qld. C/- Email gjpead@gmail.com Mobile : 0414607426

26 / 06 / 2015

To :

Dear Mr George Wright,  Secretary Australian Labor Party and Labor Shadow Ministeries, Members of Parliament and Labor Party members,

With the governments pending superannuation policy announcements today it is with the greatest sense of urgency that I put before you three main ideas as solutions for the current political plight of the Labor Party and Australia’s real economy.

The pervading opinion, of people in my area ( and we believe all over Australia), that prevents Labor from gaining majority support are Labor’s vacillating and mothering policy statements of fairness without any specific, solid and concrete policy actions  that will advantage them in their hip pockets and in their daily lives. These following suggestions provide the leadership directions for real advantages to ordinary Australians they can and should be implemented both at Federal and State levels.

These solutions derive from the expertise and experience of the members of my Labor Party Branch, Mermaid Beach, in the Gold Coast City the largest non capital city in Australia. The Gold Coast City (Population 535,000) is a perfect current example of widening inequalities in Australian society where the majority struggle to pay a mortgage and increasing utility bills while the rich continue to profit from those inequalities. The Gold Coast City is also a perfect example of a whole city unwilling to follow current Labor mantras even in the face of shocking alternative Liberal National Party leadership, not one seat was won by Labor in the January State election.

I have personally presented solutions to the Labor Party as far back as Beasley and on housing affordability in 2007 to Tanya Plibersek when she was the Minister for Housing. With moderate changes those solutions remain viable and I would emphasise the crossover advantage synergies of one scheme to another (for example rooftop solar scheme crosses with lower costs of living, carbon reduction, job creation , infrastructure investment, sustainable energy production and more.)

In this correspondence I will list the three solution actions without detail.  Any single solution, on its own, if espoused by the Labor Party, could be the difference in winning popular support in Australia to ensure a Labor victory at the next federal election.

Financial Transaction Tax to increase government budget revenue base (the world needs Australia to lead on this)

• Citizens want to ensure that the financial sector makes a fair and substantial contribution to public finances.
• With all other options having been explored and austerity measures unacceptable to most Australians the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax, of one half of one percent (0.5%) on all financial transactions is the most equitable course and acceptable to the majority of voters because it is most likely to tax the well off at a very low rate.
• Originally devised by Nobel Economics prize winner James Tobin, the European Commission has proposed this form of tax again in 2013 and the current state of deficits in countries across the globe indicate that introduction of this tax is inevitable (except for intransigence from the huge global banks ) and Australia through the Labor Party should lead the way with its introduction as it did with the climate debate and the carbon tax both initiatives that have been subsequently vindicated by global support.

National Solar rooftop Installation Scheme:  This suggested scheme is a refinement of existing Labor Party Solar and Climate Change policy which will carry the popular support of the people because it is directly advantaging the hip pocket of every Australian, it leaves politics behind in addressing household costs of living/climate change/energy sustainability / job creation and IT links with the National Broadband.

• This solution focuses on cost of living relief for every residential household energy budget ongoing into the future with the Policy concentration on making individuals self sustaining in energy production and therefore not beholden to a profit seeking shareholders boardroom, and enabling a higher disposable household income which will help lead a consumer recovery in the Australian economy.
• The funding of the solar rooftop installations shall be provided from all Australian superannuation funds (including the Federal Future Fund) thus making best use of Australian superannuation fund resources for the benefit of Australians the cost of which will be met from the reduction in the level of existing energy costs.
• The technology now exists to enable individual households to generate and store energy permanently much cheaper than existing energy suppliers so as not to be reliant on energy supplied through a grid network.
• Such a scheme can be designed to be controlled to supply excess power from individual homes to the national grid through use of the National Broadband Network.
• Such a national scheme will further accelerate existing Australian solar research and design
• It is widely acknowledged that large infrastructure schemes such as this will provide immediate supply, installation, and maintenance jobs in the building industry.
• Lower household expenses will stimulate the economy with more disposable household income assisting a consumer led recovery.

Housing Affordability There are two areas that need to be addressed: bank financing practices and negative gearing. The Labor Party urgently needs to have a constructive response to the governments’ superannuation announcements today (which we know are only Union bashing) by a solution to use super funds for the benefit of All Australians whilst providing a safe reasonable return for the funds.

• Currently in America, after years of devastation, the housing market is starting to pick up. The one big difference for American homebuyers is that their housing loans are predominantly fixed interest loans at 4.5% over a period of 30 years. This creates a certainty of repayments for the borrower which stabilises the whole economy. Historically, in Australia similar conditions have prevailed. To encourage people to relocate to Canberra the Federal government provided fixed term loans of up to 50 years; my family acquired a property in Yarralumla with a government loan of 50 years at 4.5% in the 1950’s
• Currently in Australia this certainty does not apply. With far less banking competition in Australia, banks profit gouge with variable interest rates predominant. On most every Australian home loan there is an omnipresent impending Reserve Bank rate increase announcement every month posing the greatest risk for stability and certainty for future family household expenditure budgeting. This uncertainty, along with job uncertainty, is the cause of the greatest instability for the whole economy; however, even the threat of job and income uncertainty is muted by knowledge that family housing and shelter is secure.
• The solution is to get rid of the excess speculation in the housing section of the property market which is causing price and rent rises by using Australian’s superannuation money to finance stable long term fixed rate family home loans.
• This use of collected superannuation is not new or unique; it need only be an nationally expanded and controlled version of the Members Equity Bank (which Greg Combet helped to establish in 1993) which already offers shorter term fixed mortgages, but only to their members. He told me recently that the current returns to his various Union superannuation fund contributors are 7.5%.
• Did you know that the average overall performance of the many the investment portfolios of super funds over a period of 30 years are likely less than 4%? So government legislation to use some of those funds for a 30 year fixed residential at a couple of points above, say 6.5%, only for the family home is a good and safe investment option.
• With this type of investment in Australia’s essential housing and shelter the superfund money stays in Australian to support and help Australians and is not punted on overseas shares, derivatives, property speculation, currency exchange etc.
• Australians are asking for answers why is Australian super spent on Westfield property trusts in America? Why should QIC (Qld State Government super money) own shopping centre properties in the UK before using those funds for Australians in Australia? The Labor Party has a chance here to show clearly that they are looking after ordinary people and not just playing adversarial politics.
• Housing affordability is on the top of most everyone’s list as being one of the pressing problems for everyday Australians. As an independent Property Valuer with 44 years experience in all forms of the property industry, here and overseas I am in a unique position away from all vested interest property groups to offer impartial advice. All governments must recognise the fact that lobbying and advice from vested interests such as banks, finance industry and property institutes will negate implementation of any effective remedies for the Australian people and the LNP will back those vested interests. Research and advice from independent bodies such as ACOSS must be given full weight rather than vested interests.

———–

I would like to discuss all of these schemes with interested sections of the Labor Party and any or all current members of Federal and State parliaments. It is essential for the Labor Party to have an understanding that various ministerial and shadow ministerial portfolios are inter -reliant and for example a knowledge of what difference a rooftop solar scheme can make to residential rents, consumer spending, overall housing affordability and job creation will assist all politicians present the Labor Party as the only viable government choice at election time. However, we must present these options to the public now, argue for them strongly against the criticism and bring Australians along with you, not pack up the tent at the first sign of opposition.  I look forward to contact from you

Your sincere comrade:    GaryJ Pead  (MRICS. Val)(President Mermaid Beach Labor Branch, Gold Coast City, Queensland)

D Day – Useless wars – Inequality – USA’s great achievements are clouded by its chief business,Wars.

MY D-DAY REFLECTIVE POEM
Setting:
THIS POEM IS THE GHOSTLY SIGH OF A FALLEN AMERICAN SOLDIER, TO HIS VISITING GRANDCHILD WHO IS STANDING IN REMEMBRANCE OF HIM IN THE SAND ON A D DAY INVASION BEACH CODE NAMED “OMAHA”

“OMAHA YEARNING”

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. Fight on for me

Cry for me my unsighted children
Hear the insincere truth from our starry striped flag.
A false benevolent grimace got from cynical trade,
Selfishness, much profit made, caused our delay to help.
Our cousins called in “thirty nine” Would I have died had we been on time?
We came late, in forty four
To France, to Omaha Beach, To War.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me Democracy

My fatal pirouette, a dance macabre,
Advanced our charge in yards by eight.
I never knew, were we too late to end that war and Liberate?

Think hard our family’s sacrifice,loud mourning howls, my pregnant wife, my unseen fruit.
I weep to think that you are fooled by talk my battle exploits grand.
A century on and from my grave I cannot understand my country’s’ wars in other lands.

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – Fight on for me. 

  Excused by reasons politic and gain My sacrifice, unjustly used, Incites the nationalistic fuse.
Have our leaders nothing to amuse than fighting wars in other lands to keep them sane?
,
Same tolls, this time on desert sands.

At home people must be drugged not in the present to be manipulated by the moneyed one percent.

Such strong inequity in our fabled country.

Is our lauded democracy gone?

Responsibility, unseen child, is now yours. Please! In my memory. Take up cause against all wars

I lay here on Omaha your toes in sands of my repose.
True freedom path I am still owed.
Forget me not – nor Omaha – fight on for me -True Democracy

Through these sands your grandchild hears your desperate plea.

Patent clear  the daily peel from Normandy’s liberated steeples and my tears don’t sooth your spirit’s fears.

Blood obligation, plain common sense  draws my promise for your cause, 

To rouse all peoples always for  a peaceful purpose Against all wars.
To mark your Sacrifice.

Your lineage here, on Omaha, my toes in sands of your repose.
Your freedom path to me is given- Now rest – Your soul contented be.
Your cause is not Forgotten – Nor Omaha.
We will all fight on for True Democracy.

Note on D DAY POEM

Poem : Gary James Pead 05-04-2011
gjpead@gmail.com
.
On a visit to Bayeux in Normandy  including The Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux which records yet another battle and another war of 945 years ago I also visited a D Day beach, code named Omaha, where battles of World War II took place.
I stayed at Le Bayeux Hotel owned by Madame Mireille Bajum who was a proud member of Chemins de la Liberte (Paths of Freedom Association) which was a commemorative and tourism oriented business association which also sign posts the roads in Normandy along the route the D-day Invasion Forces took, showing it as “The Freedom Path” for tourists to follow.
As a commendable business promotional tactic Madame Bajum produced a poem on a postcard (copied below) which was obviously themed for her, mainly, American customers. She asked me to comment on it obviously thinking that I was an American (which I laughed off being an Australian and Australians were an unusually small part of D-day numbering about 3000 mainly air force servicemen Australia’s’ Prime minister Curtin having defied Winston Churchill to concentrate our fight against the Japanese in New Guinea).
I consider one of the greatest misconceptions that Americans in general have about peoples of the rest of the world is that they all want to be like Americans and in my experience from travel; nothing could be further from the truth.
I was irritated at the American guests in the hotel foyer lauding in the thanks and past glory of their late participation in the ending of WWII especially with the hindsight of USA’s continued war mongering for the sake of their business profit interests then and since many are even now interpreting 2015 US actions as “Red Ragging” China in the South China Sea.
It HAMMERED home to me, after visiting the Omaha Beach battle site, the continuing waste of wars of all wars.
I wanted to make the point, without diminishing the heroics and sacrifice of the American soldiers that the same corrupt USA corporate business pressure to keep America out of WWII so it could profit and keep on selling arms and supplies to Germany until long after everyone else was involved in the fight caused perhaps many millions of deaths that may have been prevented. ( Australians joined the war in September 1939 but for the USA it was not until 1942 after Peal Harbour and then only by default with the main USA presence dribbling into the UK even later than that during 1943 culminating in D-day on 6th June 1944).
This is the same corrupt American capitalism of today that pressured to invade Iraq for the profits and trade of oil.
The combination of places and thoughts all inspired certain ironies, 1- with the Australian ANZAC Day Remembrance six weeks previous of another failed battle in another war (Gallipoli WWI)
2- an on-going frustration at and never to be forgive actions of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard (and Blair and Bush) ignoring my protests about going to war in Iraq and Howard’s sycophantic crawl to President Bush and American interests.
3- Michael Moore’s ongoing protests and expose of the wealth of the Forbes 400 rich Americans being more than that of 150 million other Americans and the growing global unrest of with Inequality.
4- General modern global politics
5- Being in France (where my perception is that the general populous seem to value and demonstrate their earned democratic rights more effectively than most of our other entrenched English democracies)
6- and also an angst at a certain perceived adulation by American and Australian tourists of the supposed moral superiority of their countries in all things relating to war, which I feel persists today.( these thoughts were reinforced ,I think, by the obscene champagne celebrations of Bin Laden’s killing inciting divisive nationalism.
However, the poem was written beforehand.
All these perceptions (correct or incorrect) seemed to jell together at the time and highlight the continuing erosion by apathy and jingoism of the democratic process in our countries.
These things combined at a moment to highlight to me the unacceptable, enormous, continuing waste of lives in all past and present battles and wars.
So, having never done so before, I wrote this poem

THE MURDOCHS THE MOGULS, SYCOPHANTS OR MONOPOLIES/ OLIGOPOLIES! WHO IS TO BLAME?

 I say Sycophants first (they allow monopolies/oligopolies to form), second comes monopolies/oligopolies  (they distort the free market and dramatically increase the cost of living for their own profit motives)and third but not least are the moguls doing what they do best (even though some are crooks and some are philanthropists)

In the UK it is way too convenient for the politicians, current and past, to get let off the hook of proper disdain and censure from “The People” by tuning the spotlight onto the Murdoch affair.

My story and opinion

 Rupert Murdoch has my Grandmother’s Pianola

In the mid-1960s my late father, James(Jim)H Pead, MBE. Sold to Rupert Murdoch and his father Sir Keith Murdoch his Australian Capital Territory, Canberra based newspaper “The Territorial” which Jim had started to counter the dominating monopoly of the sole Canberra newspaper “The Canberra Times”.

Murdoch’s News Limited then combined other acquisitions from other Australian capital cities to launch the first truly national, broadsheet newspaper “The Australian” initially based in Canberra.

Jim’s  “The Territorial” partner Ken Cowley went on to become Murdoch’s 2IC for  News Limited until he retired in the 1990s also at that time Jim helped gain a News Limited regional managers position for my uncle, his brother, also a position he retained until his retirement in the nineties.

During my uncle’s tenure Rupert Murdoch and his second wife Anna would sometimes invite he and his wife to functions at Murdoch’s 19^th century (that’s old for Australia!) rural homestead property “Cavan” near Yass northwest of Canberra.

Somehow it transpired that instead of offering it to his musical niece my uncle gave Murdoch  from my grandmothers estate a beautiful piano/pianola, which was  subsequently transported  from Canberra out to the “Cavan Homestead “. Where to my knowledge it remains today.

I can only surmise that my uncles’ gesture to Murdoch was somewhat sycophantic in nature given the disparity of their respective positions.

So whom do I blame for the demise of a family heirloom? Rupert Murdoch? ( The Mogul); or my uncle? (The Sycophant).

Well I don’t actually blame either in this case but If I had to make a decision of blame I could NOT, blame the Mogul ; Murdoch.

Now then:   How does this relate to the current Murdoch fiasco?

Despicable and unforgiveable though the deeds by Murdoch’s  people and companies are, are we going to let the SYCOPHANTS & MONOPOLIES go free of blame in the ever growing distorted society of the super-rich and the rest of us?

I say the Thatcher’s, Blair’s, Brown’s, Cameron’s Hawk’s, Keating’s, Howard’s  and their condescending bureaucrats (the faulty bureaucrats increasingly blameworthy only because the politicians ,especially those listed above, have eroded the effectiveness of public institutions by politicising the government’s bureaucratic institutions) should shoulder the principle blame for this erosion of democracy.

For at least two generations now politicians and their governments (in the UK, Australia and indeed the USA) have consistently NOT ACTED FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD AND THE GOOD FOR THE GREATER NUMBER.

This has therefore allowed huge business corporations like Murdoch’s to simply pressure and control governments because of their sycophantic political and bureaucratic acquiescence.

These pressures will continue from large corporate companies because they are unrestricted in their preferred central business aims and objectives which are to create monopoly trading circumstances to provide their companies (ergo : shareholders) ever increasing cumulative profits.

Not for these large corporates the ignominy of a traditional success from a steady reasonable annual and on-going long term profit. They are allowed by ineffective government regulations and controls to bow to the pressure of their greedy short-sighted boards and shareholders to seek super profits and these super profits come out of the pockets of ordinary people.

These corporate  aims and objectives still exists and defies the acknowledged wisdom of sages like David Suzuki who says quite obviously to any thinking person that “In a world of finite resources ever increasing profits are unsustainable” and the potent lessons of the Global Financial Crash.

The modern tools of business are now formulas formed through the deceits of marketing, advertising and monopoly powers, for profit There is not leadership towards regulation for common sense or any moral philosophy for the benefit of the greater good for the greater number.

Affected areas from monopoly trading are vast and are not limited to media they also include, oil, power, communication, financial (banks) transport (Rail and road toll companies) and one of the worst is retail shopping malls.

 Retail shopping mall’s monopoly over retail space has raped and pillaged small retail business almost out of existence and has been the cause of the greatest upwards price increase pressure on the cost of living expenses for the past twenty years. In Australia we hear constantly about the increase cost of bananas (the treasurers favourite) and petrol as causing spikes in the CPI causing justification for the reserve bank to impose further punishing sanctions on mortgage holders by increasing lending rates. However the inexorable increase in shop traders rent & occupancy costs, which have to be added onto every item that they sell, is never mentioned.

All the above of monopoly trading examples are enterprises where past governments have successfully run and developed huge cash flow income businesses for the greater good which have improved the lot of their people. This was done without extracting unconscionable super profits and syphoning those profits to a fortunate few to make the super-rich even richer. Some examples of successful former Australian government owned enterprises include the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and also a major shopping mall in Belconnen in Canberra. All of these sold off by government and now in private monopoly/oligopoly ownership and in no way can be described as enhancing the greater good of the country’s citizens.

The current Murdoch drama in the UK (and not enough in Australia and USA) does expose some specific illegal media practices for which legal redress and or compensation will no doubt be had, HOWEVER, this focus continues to do no more than relive the pressure on governments to wake up to and examine all the other elephants in the room, elephants which have contributed to UK riots, occupy movements and general public dissatisfaction at the ignorance of their democratic input.

Murdoch (aside from the obvious outlawed media crimes) has done brilliantly what he has always done and that is to continue to build and expand a worldwide corporate empire. If sycophantic political and other interests had regulated differently his monopoly of print media would certainly be less.

His contemporary Australian billionaire Kerry Packer once said at an Australian parliamentary inquiry into his alleged tax evasion, something like “What sort of a fool businessman would I be if I did not exploit every tax loophole so as to pay the least possible tax!” so therefore business corporations will and must do what they can get away with (within the law) but there are signs now of the political and bureaucratic sycophants hardening up, with restrictions on Murdoch excluding him from BskyB in the UK  but tough regulation on the financial industry have not been forthcoming anywhere the sycophants are still at fault. Our treasurer in Australia hasn’t played hard ball with the banks (we only have four)or even thought of shopping mall problems  which would conflict with the likes of another australian billionaire Frank Lowy and his Westfield Corporation.

So as it is being played out now the idiots in government and opposition feel that they have the upper hand by finally saying they will not kowtow to one man in the media business but whilst they have been ingratiating themselves with Murdoch and ignoring the realities of the media world over the past twenty years we have all known that hacking has been possible and highly probable in almost all business and private circumstances.

Hacking in particular has been in our collective psyche for years, I remember Princess Dianna and some phone messages with some rugby boy and Indeed  contemporary author Steig Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and his Millennium Trilogy novels of early 2000s ( now feature films) are entirely based on the use of hacking information used by a journalist.

Murdoch will probably suffer this wave of indignation for his illegalities and keep his other Sunday papers going and if he sells them off he will happily be more eligible to hold visual media without a crossover conflict. If the share price drops the Murdoch family will buy up more stock and be more entrenched in their family empire. Blind Freddy can see that Rupert is more interested in the now more profitable visual media. So this will all blow over and Murdoch’s Empire will be fine.

For the greater public good,( in whichever country you care to choose involving these same global companies), a quantum change needed. Needed across all industry sectors, not just Murdoch’s media sector.

It is imperative now  for the  political and bureaucratic sycophants to act across the board in all business rulings to regulate to ensure  anti-monopoly and super profiteering  behaviour, to promote  diversity and sustainability in business as well as in the environment  and this is the very antithesis of these global monopolies’ preferred requirements.

The sycophants and acceptance of monopolies need to change more than Moguls like Murdoch.

One example outside the Murdoch furore, also involving another Australian Billionaire is Frank Lowy’s Westfield shopping malls and retail shopping malls in general.

These are retail centre monopolies more often approved by sycophantic government regulators and town planners unwilling to acknowledge current and on-going problems such that have contributed, for example, predominantly to the current retail High Street devastation across the United Kingdom and also to massive small retail shop failures in Australia accompanied by general devastation shopping diversity, to which most female shoppers will attest.

The supermarket oligopolies are bankrupting citizens with unconscionable food cost increases (increases, which ironically they would partly blame on the rentals charged by those other shopping mall owner monopolies) as do the fuel industry, power industries and it is all the fault of the incumbent sycophants who will not regulate against these monopolistic empires.

Don’t be distracted by a single industry issue and put all the blame at Murdoch’s feet he does what he does best!

It is convenient to have a scapegoat but go to the source of the problem, the lack of regulation, political leadership political will, bureaucratic oversight and knowledge all of which are not helped by a lack of journalistic investigation and incompetent journalistic imagination which does not help highlight the overall problems.

This Hacking scandal should be used as the catalyst for desperately needed moral and philosophical change.

Perhaps go back to the years Captain Cook was first sighting our Australian coastline and regard his contemporary Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy of the 18^th Century, as most appropriate to apply to our modern world. As worded by Bentham’s contemporary, political theorist, Joseph Priestly as a suggestion to regulate fairness, his quote is “Act so as to produce the greatest good for the greatest number”.   This is a sentiment/philosophy which our past and current sycophants selfishly do not consider in regulating monopolies.

Blame or no blame! Mr Murdoch; I would still like my grandmothers pianola back.  For the common good of course !! Lol