Water: More precious than Gold
|
Water: More precious than Gold
|
|
|
Mercenaries in Australia? Really… If we think about it, the idea of mercenaries in a First World country like Australia really does seem extreme. We would have to wonder why a large corporation with virtually unlimited funds would not be able to create a dialogue with protesters… Why do Ross Mining refuse to seek to educate the general public in regards their actions at Timbarra? Surely it is better to educate than to eradicate? But perhaps there is a reason why Ross Mining are going for the jugular, so to speak. And perhaps the reason is very near by. Perhaps it has something to do with the operations of another mine nearby at Mount Carrington. Mount Carrington is a wasteland. The very same type of cyanide leach mining operations there have poisoned the land and made it useless, and it has also poisoned the river systems in the general area. Talk to the old folk downstream from Mount Carrington and you will soon get the clear picture that the mine there has drastically affected their lifestyle. Who swims in the rivers there anymore, who fishes there? Life has changed since the gold mine, and not for the positive. The money from the money didn’t go to the local people… It disappeared into Corporate Coffers. But the pollution did! And what is more, the mining company is gone, but all their pollution still remains. Mount Carrington is a ecological disaster… And would you believe, it is a SMALL mine compared to what Ross Mining are preparing for Timbarra Mountain. What is more, Mount Carrington had no where near the significance either culturally or ecologically that Timbarra has. It would be difficult educating the public that the loss of cultural and ecological significance was in any one person's interest other than the corporate profits of Ross Mining. The ONLY real argument is that jobs are provided… And yet if we take the gold bearing water from Mount Timbarra, and bottle it, the local people would generate FAR MORE income. This would provide more jobs, over a longer period, and create more money than Ross Mining will ever hand out to the population of Tenterfield. But no one in government seems to have been able to help with a program to educate the people how to make the most of this amazing natural resource. Certainly Ross Mining aren’t saying anything… Even though they would make more money themselves if they took up this alternative. This is what I can’t understand. A company is in business to make money, and yet when the obvious is in front of you… That bottling the beautiful Timbarra waters would make more money than mining the mountain… They just do not see it. It is like wearing blinkers. And when people protest the mine, Ross Mining seem equally unable to understand that these people have a valid argument. That the pollution remains long after the profits are exhausted… So they escalate conflict and bring in heavies to beat up the peaceful protesters. When this doesn’t work, they contact Bikie Gangs, who refuse them on principle. So… When this doesn’t work, they approach mercenary organisations such as Sandline Pty Ltd and Defence Systems Limited seeking to bring in Mercenaries? Astonishing… I find this approach to be so utterly blind, and based in a attitude of aggression that, hopefully, will simply no longer be acceptable in the 21st Century. But what does hiring a mercenary really mean? In simple terms, it means non lethal chemical warfare. Not Sarin Gas or anything like that, but certainly it means painful debilitating chemicals that immobilise an opponent. PEPPER & CS SPRAY = CONTROL THE POPULACE Pepper Spray is one of these, which when sprayed in your face is like Hot Chilli juice has been squirted in your eyes. The pain can be extreme. Further examples is how a mercenary may use a soft baton, but it still hurts. What is more, it is meant to hurt… That is the whole idea of crowd control. It is based on the infliction of Pain and the creation of Fear. But the worst of all the techniques is a little trick called C S Gas. It causes a state of dry retching that makes you unable to move, which is fine in theory... But if you are an asthmatic it can kill you. Try Breathing Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner, and see how you cope! It is a similar effect. (That's a small clue as to how the protesters would have defended themselves if the Mercenaries are brought in) However, the Mercenary will have use this "non-lethal" gas only to protect himself against threatening attack by a dreadlocked vicious Greenie… Remember the rabbit in the Monty Python Movie about the Quest for the Holy Grail? They may look harmless, but watch out! Those Greenies might bite! Mercenaries wear bullet proof vests, and know how to use weapons. Not only do they know how to use them, they ‘intend’ to use them if they are given instruction to clear an area. To what level will this go? Who knows… But imagine if word of all of this gets out, and ex-military personnel from Vietnam decide to work with the Protesters. They know all sorts of tricks… Simple things like Mister Muscle oven cleaner can be most effective at immobilising guard dogs, and it is very available in any supermarket. It is not illegal to carry oven cleaner… Yet used on a human it can result in death. These ex-vets are also trained in jungle warfare, have no love of authority, and may well feel motivated enough by the clear unfairness of the odds against the Greenies to "help out" and do things to balance the odds. Given enough anger, who knows how an action of bringing in Mercenaries by a private company such as Ross Mining will escalate. I for one wonder why such a thing is even permitted in a country like Australia. We have no history of gun abuse, mob violence or assassination. We have virtually no record of extreme violence used in ecological protest… Yet a company such as Ross Mining calls in mercenaries? Prior to this they have used the resources of the Australian People to fund their protection of their mine. By using the State Police to guard themselves, they are effectively forcing every Australian in New South Wales to fund their activities. Let’s look at this clearly … A private company involves themselves in an OBVIOUSLY volatile business project that means they will without a doubt attract large scale protest action from Ecological groups. Conflict was not just a potential in their business decision, it was a GIVEN. It WAS going to happen, especially given Ross Mining’s reputation, both here and internationally, as environmental rapists. So they get a license to mine, and when the inevitable occurs, they expect the public to bail them out of their self created troubles? It makes no sense. Sure, they hire security personnel, but in the end it is police resources that are eaten up protecting the interests of a private company. I own a large property near Byron Bay. If I choose to mine it for Gold, I would expect to see people coming up to me to protest my action. It is a given that there will be protesters … Why? Because people ARE concerned about this sort of thing happening in their own country. Now would "I" get police protection from protesters if I undertook such an operation? As they say in the classics… Not bloody likely mate! Nor would I expect protection for an enterprise that I undertook, other than the obvious process of dealing with theft, etc. The sort of thing Police normally do. Yet when my vehicle is damaged in a hit and run accident, and when I report the registration number to police, they shrug and say it is an insurance matter. They can’t be bothered, and they are too busy. A further example… My car was purposely rammed from behind by a truck. Then it took off … I was driving with my son in the seat beside me, and the driver rammed the back of the car. When I pulled over, he kept going, so I wrote down the registration number. Naturally I report it to Police, expecting some sort of action against someone who is obviously a dangerous driver. At the every least I expected a look of shock on someone’s face… But when a check finds that the registration number I recorded proves to be false, the lack of interest from the Police is utterly amazing. They didn’t want to know… They didn’t even want to file a report on the matter. A dangerous driver in a 40 tonne truck with an illegal trailer who rams people on the highways is not considered important enough to even rate a report … But when a Greenie is protesting in the forests to try and save the planet from cyanide and arsenic pollution… The Police are there to enthusiastically prosecute the innocent while refusing to prosecute those who are clearly shown to be guilty. Remember, it was clear that Security Personnel failed to produce adequate licenses or identification. People had their fingers almost severed, people got badly beaten and ended up in hospital, logs were felled in public forest, locked gates were erected on public roads, unlicensed security personnel lit fires that endangered the lives of others and created a public nuisance of themselves in other instances… Not one of these people were charged… And further, when this level of insulation against prosecution fails, when it seems that the so called security people and Police can’t deal with a bunch of Greenies… What do Ross Mining do? They decide to call in Mercenaries. The police are already protecting them on the perimeter, and now they want defence against Greenies inside their walls as well, and they need MERCENARIES to do this? IT'S A NASTY RABBIT !! It IS a script from a Monty Python movie. "It's a nasty Rabbit!" The only problem is that it is real. And the very real problem is that it is happening here in Australia… A so called First World country. It make me wonder what on earth is happening in the Third World countries! I will lay odds one to nothing that there are not many surviving Greenies in Uganda! Ross Mining wanted a specialist force that could live in the bush around their mine, and clear the forest of any "Environmental Terrorists" that cropped up. The idea was to protect their machinery from being vandalised. They have also advertised for local Bush Men to prowl the surrounding country side away from the mine site. The job is apparently to take photos and report any potential "Greenie Terrorism". But let's take a look at how these operations happen overseas. Shortly before the handover of West Timor to the UN forces, mercenaries were in there protecting the interests of the Mining Companies. These Mercenaries are the same sort of people that patrolled the Mining Companies interests in Timor, often flying about in helicopters dressed up to look like Red Cross helicopters. But of course, no one was hurt! After all this effort they just said that the "insurgents" were naughty boys and sent them home. The guns were obviously merely for decoration. Of course, if these "insurgents" happened to turn up to a Red Cross helicopter and find it full of soldiers with large guns, and if these "insurgents" then happened to fire on these soldiers thinking they were about to be shot… Well the mercenaries would have to act to defend themselves. Keep in mind that an "insurgent" is usually a native of Timor who is protesting the way their environment is being destroyed by mining companies, and the way that their rivers are being polluted, the fish killed and the water made undrinkable. Obviously the only solution is to shoot them. GREED IS THE PRIME MOVER Greed. That is all it is. It is fair that a company conducts a business, and it is obvious to all that mining must occur… But when companies are taking it on themselves to hire private armies to defend themselves against the indigenous population and Greenies then we really must begin to question their negotiating skills. Facts speak for themselves… Ross Mining made the indigenous Guardians of Timbarra BANKRUPT, beat up the Greenies, use the public Police as a private army to protect their interests, and generally acted in a manner that indicated they considered Timbarra their personal property. We really have to stop and ask why? Why are they doing this? Why are they polluting the Timbarra plateau with cyanide, why are they destroying the natural environment, and why are they acting with apparent abandon in regard brushing aside specific legal processes? For the oldest reason on Earth… Gold. Profit… They desecrate the Temple for the profit they would make. No wonder they put Jesus on the cross, he went against the Money Lenders. To companies like Ross Mining it would appear that the Gold is far more precious than the Water from Timbarra. And if you ask the ethical questions to them of the process they have employed, they are quick to hop onto the high horse, and claim "We have done everything in an above board manner." Well… I guess we shall see what the public thinks. However, it comes back to taking the matter through the courts and proving to the world that Ross Mining may well have been doing things by means other than the "legal" process. Do you like the ideas of mercenaries in your own back yard? Do you like the idea of a public police force actively acting in the interests of a private company? WHAT THE MERCENARY SAID ABOUT ROSS MINING We spoke to a converted mercenary, and we asked him of his opinion of the matter with Timbarra. He was aghast at the action they had taken so far, and when asked if he would condone working for them, now he knew the facts, he answered "Absolutely not." He went further. "When I was 16 I was a skinhead. I just wanted to harm people, and looking back I can see I was a fascist and a racist. I was even in the National Front for 4 years. But ten years in the army brought some changes… I tidied up, became more disciplined, and less angry. And then after that ten years I began to ask hard questions…" "What am I here for? What am I going to offer that makes this a better place for my kids?" … "These are the sort of questions that have begun to run through my head lately. I have begun to realise the need for community, and I can see how companies such as Ross Mining are like dinosaurs…" "They just want to take, to get what they can… And they will use any means to justify and protect their right to take. There is no way now that I would ever work for a company like this… But as little as four years ago I would never have questioned it. Back there it was a simple equation: They paid the money, I did the job. That was it…" "I have gone in to countries to break up union action, I was involved with Bouganville, I have done all sorts of stuff… But now I am really asking why. What is this supporting? How is this making the world any better?" This is one mercenary who, after seeing the facts, refused to work for Ross Mining. Maybe you have shares in a company like this? Maybe
you might like to reconsider where you are placing your money? MEETING RUSTY *
An Aboriginal Face *
RUSTY HARRIS |
|
|
|
