I watched a very brief clip of Zuckerburg being question before the US Congress over the data breaches of Facebook. I couldn't help it, the guy questioning him sounded very much like the head guy in the Ape trial against human Taylor in the original Planet of the Apes. Good grief, it's uncanny!
This video is from the BBC, an extraordinary video depicting what homophobia is like in 2018, and how that affects gay people. The simple act of holding hands in a park becomes the centre of attention for all passers by, some who react well and others who don't. How the couple holding hands sees everyone watching and how the couple reacts to that. The pressure felt over a simple goodbye kiss. The question asked "Why is a goodbye kiss no walk in the park?" David and I bought our wedding rings here in eastern Sydney, Australia recently. Eastern Sydney is territory where gays feel OK, the central hub being Surry Hills and Newtown now. We got the rings at the local shopping centre and the lady serving us at the jewellers there was well and truly fine with us doing so. After we selected and paid David was right next to me and I gave him a little kiss. It was just an automatic reaction for him, he turned around straight away to see who was watching (he told me later there was a school girl who smiled). The thought even crossed my mind for a second whether to do it but I just thought fuck it and dived in. I've lived around here for over 30 years and I know it's gay friendly. David has only been here for our 5 yrs together and so still a bit wary. He still felt the need to scope out people who maybe might throw insults, at the very least. All this over a one second kiss. It illustrates the point, imagine if this was in the block of 12 seats that voted No in the survey in Western Sydney, not that far from us. Obviously I'd never kiss him in public there or even hold hands. If we did live there, after the survey we'd have likely moved east. Certainly I'd have never wanted to buy wedding rings out there, we'd have travelled into the city to do so. I don't know how any gays can live there now after the postal survey results. We'd feel really unsafe. Again, just because we have marriage equality doesn't mean we're equal. It's a first step is all. We won't have true equality until a same sex couple holding hands and kissing whilst walking through a park will attract no more attention or opinions, no more reactions than a straight couple doing the same. BTW, the video has captions for those of us (like me) who find the heavy accent almost impossible to understand at times :) David has lived over there for a few years and so has no problem. I on the other hand am from Taranaki, New Zealand, grew up mostly on an isolated farm. Sometimes to me it's like they're talking in an entirely different language :s *Update:The full screen works better on the BBC site here.
Those in the straight world could be forgiven to thinking that the LGBT have won everything now that we have marriage equality and we have nothing to complain about anymore. Alas I wish that was true, as gay hate crimes are still happening in Australia. If anything, it's clear we have a long long way to go before we can be accepted across society amongst all people as in straight marriages, or simply being straight.
Marriage equality has passed at the end of last year, but these attacks still go on. This one was in Melbourne (a city renowned for it's multiculturalism and embrace of all) in January, on Australia day. Whether the patriotism to Australia day and it celebrations emboldened yobos to once again reject gays and do a good old fashioned poofta bashing I don't know. But bashed he was. The cops are still searching for these three assholes so if anyone down there in Melbourne knows anything you can contact crime stoppers 1800 333 000, or their website www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
Brendan, 36, was set upon after he left Sircuit Bar in Smith Street, Collingwood, after a night out with friends for Australia Day.
Detectives say he was followed by three men for a short distance before they called him a "f---ing faggot" and assaulted him, rendering him unconscious. The attack occurred at 2.45am on Saturday, January 27, on Smith Street between Victoria Parade and Mason Street.
Brendan was left with cracked ribs and a fractured skull. He couldn't open his left eye for about three weeks.
The medical insurance worker said on Monday he hoped no one would be deterred from going out at night as a result of the attack.
"I don't see myself as a minority... [The attackers] need to get out more," he said.
"I don't want people to look at this and think they need to stay home and hide from this. I think more people should go out and enjoy life."
Yarra Ranges Crime Investigation Unit detective Shane Flannery said the men appeared to be Caucasian and were wearing dark clothing, though it was difficult to tell as CCTV footage from nearby buildings did not pick them up.
"No one came forward to police at the time to say that they witnessed it, which is why we're appealing now for them to come forward," Detective Senior Constable Flannery said.
The offenders fled after the attack, while Brendan was helped by friends who rang an ambulance.
"It's a homophobic attack on someone that was walking in the street and minding their own business," Detective Senior Constable Flannery said. The Age
After turfing Abbott over losing 30 Newspolls in a row, now Turnbull has done exactly the same. His flash in the pan popularity crumbled when people realised no policies had changed and he might as well be Abbott. He couldn't stand up to the loony right and the gov has been run on many issues from the back benches. Turnbull appears to have only wanted the prime minister-ship for another feather in his hat, not to do anything meaningful.
For example marriage equality remained in limbo because the loony right wanted a plebiscite on it, which was defeated in the senate when Labor listened to the LGBT community and became concerned about the damage it would do to us. If Turnbull had any balls he'd have allowed his party to have a free conscience vote on the issue as the numbers were there since the previous election to pass it. After a while the loony right came up with the postal survey idea, which despite being challenged in the high court by the LGBT, went ahead. Causing untold pain and angst, simply because Turnbull was too gutless to allow a free vote. Like many other issues, Turnbull owns this, because of his lack of character, conviction, and spine. He's no leader, just a well paid puppet.
Of course now Abbott is asking why he was turfed over 30 Newspolls and Turnbull isn't. Abbott fails to see that it's the Abbott policies that are the problem, no matter who heads up those policies as prime minister.
Tony Abbott has again challenged Malcolm Turnbull to explain why he should remain leader, after hitting 30 Newspoll losses.
It’s the same benchmark the Prime Minister cited as his reason for knifing Mr Abbott back in 2015.
Ray Hadley asks the former PM why there shouldn’t be an immediate leadership spill.
“If it’s a trigger to get rid of one Prime minister, why can’t it be a trigger to get rid of a second Prime Minister?”
This has got to be the funniest video I've seen in some time. At least Turnbull's good for something :s Turnbull challenged and turfed Abbott a while back citing 30 Newspolls in a row as one of the biggest reasons why. Turnbull won the prime minister-ship and had stratospheric polling for a big Turnbull polling honeymoon. Australians were ecstatic that Abbott was gone and that Turnbull wasn't Abbott, and had huge expectations for moderate Turnbull. However he fizzled. He became Abbott's and the right's puppet. No policies changed because he needed the support of the right to retain his prime minister-ship. We still had Abbott ruling from the back bench. The collective disappointment was palpable. It wasn't a crash but a long burn. He was a failure. And now tomorrow will be the 30th Newspoll in a row that the Turnbull gov has lost, just like with Abbott. Because he might as well be Abbott. The media here is going nuts about it. Abbott is stirring shit asking why was he turfed then? Rumour has it he knows the gov will lose the coming election and he wants to be opposition leader. It's the only thing Mr No is good at. Stay tuned......
I guess it's the 2nd Amendment in one hand and a gun in the other? You know, like a bible in one hand and a gun in the other? Like the radical Muslims? Honestly, this is serious stuff. How can somebody broadcast in media across the world inciting US gun owners to shoot those of the politically left persuasion? Imagine if anyone on the left did that.
And these far right loonies are the first to preach about "freedom of speech". However it's obvious they only mean freedom of speech for them and nobody else. Anyone who disagrees with them is labelled unpatriotic, or wanting the Muslims to come in and throw people off buildings. Now there's a board member of the NRA over there saying for gun owners of the far right persuasion to keep their guns with them so they can shoot the lefties, as the lefties are like "rabid coyotes tunning around" so they deserve to be shot. So what about freedom of speech for lefties like me in the US? Has Nugent made a serious death threat against them because they have different political views? Have far right loonies over there taken him seriously? Will there be a political hate crime with a gun happen after this? Those of the left have every much a right to say what they think as the next person, even if the next person watches and believes Alex Jones and Ted Nugent. In a democracy everyone can put their view without fear of violence against them for doing so. Every single person has that right. Not just the lunatics with guns.
“Don’t ask why. Just know that evil, dishonesty, and scam artists have always been around and that right now they’re liberal, they’re Democrat, they’re RINOs, they’re Hollywood, they’re fake news, they’re media, they’re academia, and they’re half of our government, at least,” Nugent said according to conservative media watchdog Media Matters.
Nugent continued: “So come to that realization. There are rabid coyotes running around. You don’t wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.” Newsweek
My daughter sent me this one. What a laugh. I wonder if she'd show that at the child car centre she works at? Not that I'm a drag queen but we have one coming to our wedding :) Update: I've just learnt off David that their won't be a Drag Queen coming to our wedding, it will be a transgender. I think that's even more wonderful! *embarrassed*
BP has since abandoned it's prospective efforts to drill for oil off the pristine Great Australian Bight, evidently after it all became too infeasible to do so. Concerns by Australia's environmental authority about an oil spill in such remote and treacherous waters, the effect it would have on an untouched ecosystem (notably a breeding ground for whales who migrate there every year, passing Sydney on the way to do so, and other species there that aren't found anywhere else in the world) not to mention the sustainable fishing and tourism industries that rely on it.
I should note here that BP when abandoning it's prospects dumped it's leases to Norway based Statoil, which has a reputation for risk taking and drilling where no one else will. The fight against the oil giants and Australia's precious offshore environments is far from over. Under freedom of information legislation it has come to light the pitch BP was putting to Australia in it's bid to drill for oil in these waters. Incredibly, they spun that an oil spill would be good for local coastal economies because of people being employed in the cleanup. Such logic is staggeringly obscenely ignorant and considers nothing at all of the true consequences of a disastrous oil spill in the Great Australian Bight. It's even a stupid statement economically. Plus BP's oil spill containment response system is located clear on the other side of the world, leaving the spill to go unchecked for weeks on end before they did a thing about it. Bight waves are over four times bigger than in the Gulf of Mexico. Australia has no capacity to deal with such a spill. Australia's Wilderness Society describes the effects thus:
“An oil spill in the Great Australian Bight from a deep sea well blowout would be a disaster for fisheries, tourism and marine life,” said Wilderness Society South Australia Director Peter Owen. “The damage would be irreversible. “A spill would be devastating for South Australia’s $442 million fishing industry and its tourism industries in coastal regions, worth more than $1 billion. The two industries employ more than 10,000 full-time positions. The Bight’s pristine waters are a haven for whales, boasting the world’s most significant southern right whale nursery as well as many humpback, sperm, blue and beak whales. It’s also Australia’s most important sea lion nursery.”
Winter spill
The Wilderness Society commissioned independent ocean scientist Laurent Lebreton to model oil spill scenarios in the Great Australian Bight. Lebreton’s work has been endorsed by Flinders University Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, Matthias Tomczak. Lebreton looked at what impact an oil spill like the Gulf of Mexico disaster would have on the Bight as well as three other scenarios. He modelled 1,000 spills for summer and winter conditions for the four different scenarios using 20 years of environmental data. “The model shows that an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight could result in the closure of fisheries in the Bight, Bass Strait and even the Tasman Sea. Even a low-flow oil spill could impact all of southern Australia’s coast, from Western Australia right across to Victoria through Bass Strait and around Tasmania. “We don’t need a Gulf of Mexico disaster in the Great Australian Bight. A winter spill lasting that long but with just 10% of the flow would most likely impact Kangaroo Island within four months, highly likely enter SA’s Spencer Gulf and Gulf of St Vincent and more than likely reach Victoria and possibly Tasmania. “In summer, it’s highly likely a low-flow spill would reach WA’s Twilight Marine Reserve within four months, posing a serious risk to this important Southern Right Whale calving area. “A Gulf-scale spill could destroy marine environments in the Bight and oil contamination could even reach as far as Sydney and New Zealand, with a 10% chance of hitting the South Island within six months. The Wilderness Society
As far as the South Island of New Zealand FFS!. I guess BP's response to that might have been that it would be good for the coastal communities because people would be employed cleaning it up? After growing up in NZ I absolutely know what their response would be to that! They banned nuclear warships from their harbours and pissed off the US no end in that, such as they care about their environment. The US even cut off intelligence to NZ over it despite the ANZUS alliance, but Australia gave it to us anyway so it didn't matter. NZ got the last laugh BTW as they refused to take part in invading Iraq...... but I digress..... So here is the outing of assholes BP, splashed all over the Sydney Morning Herald. A Fairfax major newspaper, lots of reputation and nothing like the Murdoch rags. It's entirely ridiculous, disgusting, audacious, arrogant, and any other words I can't think of right now, and show's the contempt BP has for our environment, our industries and Australians. It appears BP has learnt nothing from the disaster they created for the US in the Gulf of Mexico. The sooner the world moves to renewables and strips these assholes of their power the better. They've had their time; last century.
Coastal towns would benefit from an oil spill in the pristine Great Australian Bight because the clean up would boost their economies, energy giant BP has claimed as part of its controversial bid to drill in the sensitive marine zone.
BP, which has since withdrawn the drilling plan, also told a federal government agency that a diesel spill would be considered “socially acceptable”.
BP made the statements in an environment plan submitted to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority in March 2016.
The company had been seeking to drill two wells off the South Australian coast, raising fears of an environmental disaster akin to BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, first published by London-based website Climate Home News, showed the government authority had identified serious shortcomings with BPs environment plan.
In a letter to BP, the authority said a number of statements should be removed or supported by analysis. They included BP's claim that “in most instances, the increased activity associated with cleanup operations will be a welcome boost to local economies”.
BP also claimed it had not identified any social impacts arising from the event of a diesel spill and “since there are no unresolved stakeholder concerns ... BP interprets this event to be socially acceptable”. Sydney Morning Herald
Ed Moreno today, diagnosed with HIV in 1990. He appears in the video below
Ed Moreno at diagnosis
The U=U (Undetectable=Transmittable) campaign is about spreading the current facts about HIV and challenging the entrenched stigma that still exist against HIV in Australia, despite huge advances in treatment and life expectancy over the decades. People still genuinely believe that you can catch HIV by using the same cutlery as the person, or from a cough or a sneeze, even a kiss.
This just isn't the case, and actually never was anyway. But today with treatment HIV+ people become "undetectable" (have a viral load so low as to not be detectable by current tests). This means, as a scientifically proven fact, that you can't pass it on even during unsafe sex. Study after study has shown this. 90% of HIV positive people in Australia are undetectable. Now with the advent of PrEP (the HIV drug Truvada taken once a day by an HIV negative person) which is 99% effective in stopping an HIV infection if it occurs. It has been put on the PBS. This is a huge move forward on it's own, giving the HIV negative person the power and responsibility for their own sexual health. No longer can one blame someone else for getting HIV. Indeed the question by HIV negative people "Are you clean?" can now be countered with "Are you on PrEP?" Yesterday I was getting some run of the mill meds from the local chemist (I still go to the Albion St pharmacy for the HIV pills as I worry about stigma at the local chemist) and whilst waiting sat down next to an old lady, with a walking frame and all who obviously knew the chemist well. I wondered to myself how would she react if she found out I was HIV+? Ironically it's not the virus that is our greatest enemy today. It's the stigma of having it.
It is now shown that with effective and sustained treatment, the virus cannot be detected by standard blood tests or transmitted during sex.
More than 26,000 Australians were living with HIV in 2016, according to the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales.
Of them, more than 90 per cent had an undetectable viral load.
"
A person living with HIV like myself, takes my medication every day," said Nic Holas from The Institute of Many.
"That one pill stops HIV in its tracks, it stops the virus replicating."
he organisation is behind a new push to end HIV stigma.
The U=U campaign — which stands for "undetectable equals untransmittable" — involves Mr Moreno and four others sharing their HIV experiences.
Mr Moreno is now 53 and calls Melbourne home. He personally knows the impact of outdated views on HIV.
"I had an experience not too long ago of someone wanting to keep my cutlery and cups separate," he said.
The gap between science and perception extends to those with the virus, Mr Holas added.
"We've been living under a very dark cloud of HIV for many decades," he said.
"HIV positive people hear it [the U=U message] and [say], 'Oh, but what if?'"
Mr Holas stressed the U=U campaign was grounded in strong scientific research.
"Some of the greatest scientific minds in the field, at an international level, have endorsed the U=U statement," Mr Holas said.
"There is effectively zero risk of transmission, so don't worry about it." ABC
You can find the whole story of what happened the other day here, when the neighbour's 4 year old daughter looked at David after he said hello to her with her saying straight out to his face "You're not good people". This is the exact same story I related today to my psychologist, who I've been seeing since I was diagnosed in 2009. We've developed an extraordinarily good professional relationship over that time as he helped me through some extremely tough times. At one point a couple of years later he said he just couldn't believe the bad things that kept happening to me. But that's another story, suffice to say his own father suicided years back and so he's one of those rare psychologists that actually gets where I'm coming from. At times it's been from an extremely isolated depth that very few would understand, let alone be able to treat. But he's been there through it all in such a professional manner that can't be faulted. In those years there's been very few times that anything I've said to him has had such an effect as the story I told him today of the little girl next door. I went though the whole sage as I did in the blog post, but I didn't title it before I started the story as with the blog post. So he had no warning when I announced at the end when she told David "You're not good people". His head went back and after some seconds he said "Ohhhhh....." and was silent for some more seconds. He was shocked/stunned. That such a thing had come from a 4 year old girl. Obviously the parents had told her that we we not good people, and all the disgusting prejudices and stigmas that it involves because we're gay. I bet they voted No in the survey too. So I explained how I'd posted all about it here on the blog and once I've done that it's usually like I've let it go and can move on. But this time was different I said, it was still there after I posted. Over the course of the next few days I got quite depressed about it, to be expected I guess but usually what people may think of me I don't care less. It was because it had come from such a small child that threw me. When the cops came to check on the place after nearly 3 months of them disappearing the cops rang the real estate agent, in the process, who were managing the property. They found in doing so that none of them living there are the leaseholder. He lives elsewhere and was the one paying the rent when they were gone. David has had experience with this (his ex was a lawyer) and reckons such an arrangement is illegal in Australia. David even stated to them when he gave them the letters that were falling out of the letterbox (no, they didn't even arrange for their mail to be picked up by anyone) that the cops said that they weren't the leaseholders. The husband said it was a relo of his. David said his face almost drained to white, and he heard a big argument between him and his wife in another language shortly after in which at one point english was used "He knows, he knows". Pretty damning. David wants to carry it further, getting in touch with the real estate and all after what happened. I told him I just don't want the drama and aggravation. Psychologist agreed with me. You can't take action on everything you see that's wrong. I just think Karma will get them in the end. Besides, as I said in the other post, their daughter's going to give them hell on earth when she gets older and with Australian friends her age. I know, I've got a 27 year old daughter who put me through a living hell in her teens, and we're Australians! What's more there's 3 of them in there in a tiny 1 bedroom flat that was divided off of the main house (which we have). She doesn't even have a bedroom of her own as she's forced to sleep in the lounge room. We've often heard her still up long after midnight as she can't go to bed until they do. At some point she'll realise that this isn't normal and demand her own bedroom. Anyway bla bla bla.... They've been extremely quiet over there since they got back. Let's hope it stays that way. I don't want David getting an excuse to go to war with them as when he goes to war he sort of gets unhinged verbal diarrhoea :s Everyone who 's known him for a long time knows it's only a matter of time if he friends people and they do the wrong thing by him he'll go into nuclear war. I hope peace prevails :) I myself am much more pragmatic. Just don't make friends in the first place. Problem solved. But that's just not David, very outgoing and engaging personality makes friends at the drop of a hat and after a while gets hurt by them. What do you do?
Victoria has had a bill tabled in parliament for debate, which would take away the religious privilege of automatically receiving tax free status simply because they are a religion organisation. Instead they will have to show what charitable work they actually do to receive said tax free status.
The bill has been tabled by a member of parliament from the Reason Party. Although it's unlikely to pass, it's being described as a first step in broaching the subject of taxing religions in a parliamentary forum, and may spark debate across Australia of the legitimacy of religions that automatically don't pay tax simply because they're a religion. What comes screaming to my mind is the example of the Weetbix case, an Australian and New Zealand icon that makes bazillions here, not having to pay tax because they're owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church. It's therefore automatically classed as a charity because of the religion. So what charitable work does Weetbix actually do? It says on their website that they partner with charities to address hunger, none of them listed were partnered before 2001, despite the company being in existence since 1898. Yes charitable work is all fine and good for a tax exemption, but do they spend 100% of what they earn on such charitable endeavours? If not where does the money then go, to the church? To proselytise? At taxpayer's expense? Presently this is all fine and dandy as the legislation is OK with "advancement of religion" attracting tax free status. This is what the Reason Party MP wants to change. Lot's of secular commercial companies take part in charitable work too. Working for a large company there was all sorts of things they used to do. A gold coin donation for a sausage sizzle at lunch time for example, the proceeds going to a charity.
On her website Patten has written that "religious organisations should be treated equally and be subject to the same laws as other organisations". "Religious institutions receive automatic tax exempt status. I believe that the 'advancement of religion' should be removed from the statutory definition of charity, so that religious organisations do not enjoy automatic tax exempt status. "Most people understand charity to be the voluntary giving of help to those in need – it is that compassionate activity that should be tax exempt. I do not in any way oppose tax deductions for genuine charitable works by religious institutions which benefit the wider community, but I believe that only genuine charitable work should be tax exempt." Patten has also criticised the fact that many faith-based institutions remain unincorporated associations in Victoria. "I believe that faith based institutions should have a corporate identity, so they may then sue and be sued, just like anyone else," she has written. "This is particularly relevant to victims of institutional child abuse." She has also said commercial enterprises owned by religious institutions should be subject to the same legal and financial laws as other commercial entities. The Victorian government has previously said it does not plan to change the current system. But the bill could have implications across Australia. Reason says it is "effectively the first step toward parliamentary debate around the country to allow religious institutions in Australia to be taxed". Since its introduction there have been calls for the category of basic religious charity to be removed from Australian legislation. And former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has said removing tax concessions for churches could push recalcitrant ones to take firmer action over child sexual abuse. Secularism UK
I note the continuing resistance of the Catholic Church in Australia to mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse being related in the confessional, despite the horrifying findings of the Royal Commission into institutional child sex abuse and the huge over-representation of the Catholic Church in those findings.
A far right pastor claims he's resurrected an ant after squashing it when it bit him on the leg. What's more he claims the ant looked at him after the resurrection :s
No doubt he believes in the talking snake as well? He supported Trump during his campaign as his "Christian policy liaison".
“This was the most incredible one,” Amedia said as he recounted how during a recent trip to Israel, he was bitten on the leg by an ant while praying and instinctively swatted it, before crushing it into pieces with his thumb. “All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit speaks to me so clearly. It was as clear as I have ever heard,” he said. “It was the voice of the Father. The Father calls me son, and the Father said, ‘Son, look at the ant’ … And then the Lord said to me, ‘Son, I hear the cry of an ant.'” “I began to weep inside of me,” Amedia continued. “And then the Lord said, ‘Son, take your finger and touch the ant.'” Amedia claims that when he did as instructed, “the power of God shot out … and the ant, it came alive and the pieces all were together and it jumped up on my finger, came up very slowly my palm, and stopped right there as if it was looking right at me.” Right Wing Watch
Casper is a real fidget, he doesn't seem to like staying in one place very long and not very much a lap cat at all. However on occasion he falls asleep on the PC chair. The same chair I used to rock his sister Chloe to sleep on. Surprisingly he likes being rocked too, must be a cat thing, and I even nearly got him settled enough to sleep the other day. He lies on my arm the same as his sister did too, although he's bloody really big and my arm can get tired.
The stigma and shame of having HIV continues into this century, despite it now being a manageable disease with little consequence to the wider community. But in some parts of the world it's still criminalised, the consequences to those communities being that HIV positive people go underground for fear of being punished, don't get treated and eventually an HIV outbreak happens. There's even one case in the video where an HIV positive man, with an undetectable viral load, was convicted for having sex and got 25 years jail. In the US. Stigma is the worst enemy of getting rid of HIV.
Normally I'm a tough old bird and very little phases me. However this one was different. The thing about discrimination is that it always hurts, no matter how old and tough we think we are. Soooooooo ........ we've watched this lovely little lady grow up from birth and had casual interactions of saying hello and wot not. She's a little darling full of the joys of life (as they all are at that age before they turn into evil teenagers). Always smiling and happy. A pleasure to see. The neighbours are asylum recipients from Bangladesh where they were suffering persecution from Islamic nutters bent on hating anyone not of their particular strain of Islamic nuttiness. They've lived next door for some years now, although it wasn't until David moved in that we got to know them some. David, unlike me, has a very outgoing and engaging personality and got to know everyone around the place. Recently the neighbours disappeared, early in January we estimate (the house is divided poorly and we can hear each other on occasion). They left two windows open about 10cm and after a while their mail was falling out of the letterbox. We worried about that being an advertisement for thieves and so collected it to give back to them if or when they returned. They told non of the neighbours here that they were going somewhere for an extended period. What's more I noticed on the PC that they'd left their (secure) WiFi on, adding to the mystery. We started to worry then that if they'd left that on, what else might be left on in the place? What if there was an electrical fault? This 100 year old house would go up in flames very quickly. Although it's double brick there's a lot of wood and other flammables. After nearly three months, and after talking to the other neighbours about it, we decided to ring the police about WTF was going on over there. They arrived after planning the next day, with a couple of detective inspectors who also thought something was awry and suspicious. They got in very quickly as the bathroom window wasn't even locked, not even a bit of wood to stop it sliding open FFS. They didn't find anyone in there but told David that it certainly looked suspicious and if they'd been David they have rung the cops too. And guess who arrived back the very next day? The neighbours. We couldn't fuckin believe it. How could someone bugger off for nearly three months, tell nobody around the place they were going, leave the windows open and the WiFi going, and come back nearly three months later like nothing had happened? It just beggars belief. How could anyone be so stupid? Anyway I think they went back to Bangladesh to see all the relos before their daughter started school. At least that's what I gathered from the fathers mumble after I asked "Where have you been?" But despite their complete stupidity we looked out for them, collected the mail, and even rung the cops over how concerned we were about their well being. And so they came back the next day. They thought it was funny when we told them how not only us but other neighbours were so worried about what might have happened to them. Laughed in our faces to be exact. And then came the killer blow........ to David, but at the same time both of us. Upon going into their place the little four yr old girl was temporarily left in their kitchen on her own just inside their front door. David was outside telling them that the police had been in there the day before as we were all worried. They looked completely exhausted after what I guess was a long flight. The little girl likely not, after sleeping on the flight. David didn't tell me about it for a couple of days afterwards, he was so upset I guess. He spoke to her saying "Hi T___". She replied "You're not good people". Coming from someone so young it's obviously not her fault. It's her parents indoctrinating her to be against gay people like us. I bet they voted No in the postal survey too. To finish, after dwelling on this a few days now and unloading about it here (the whole reason I started this blog in the first place) I think my overall point is this. I've always supported refugees coming here fleeing persecution and I detest what's happening in our offshore gulags locking them up forever. I vote Greens not Labor because of that one policy of theirs alone, racing the Liberals to the bottom using race to do it, all because of a few vital election seats in western Sydney full of racists. But I digress..... My main point is wondering why people who have been persecuted for their difference and get asylum here, becoming Australian citizens and all that stands for (as our neighbours have) then why would they bring their own prejudices and hatred towards people like us of difference to Australia? Why oh why did they come here if they aren't going to celebrate difference as a national strength like the great majority of Australians do? This is Australia, the most multicultural country on earth with far more immigrants per capita than even the US. Why did they chose Australia to flee to if they can't embrace our fundamental belief as a society? Perhaps they just need time. Their daughter's going to give them hell over it when she gets older in school and around Australian friends. But right now it just hurts.
This all came about under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison (ATM) gov. The bright sparks, no doubt at the urging of their glorious leader Ru...
About me
After 30 years of very physical full time work in the printing industry our print dept was outsourced and we all lost our jobs. As I'd gotten HIV beforehand and was having trouble attending and doing work I discussed with my HIV doctor whether I should apply for the Australian Disability Support Pension. He agreed,and I became a DSP pensioner under the new Gillard rules of adherence that now sees 75% of DSP applicants rejected.
Have been diagnosed with PTSD, severe depression, chronic kidney failure, and of course HIV. I'd become suicidal in 2009 after 3 extreme life events in a row; My best friend killed herself in the US (I don't make friends easily BTW), my teenage/young adult daughter had me charged by the police with a minor problem, and I was diagnosed with HIV. All in three weeks.
Some say god won't give you more than you can bear, my reply is "Well what happened to me?" If not for the HIV support here in Australia and me being able to have access to it I'd likely be dead by now. Unbearable pain often causes suicide, no matter physical or mental.
Today I've not worked since being made redundant. I remain with episodes of depression and panic attacks, sometimes severe. I may be fine and happy to leave the house, at times I'm paralised in bed, secure and safe and not willing to face the world.
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