Are there blue skies, nothing but blue skies.....
This morning a group was addressed by an organization.  It was an appeal for funds.  'Right in your local suburbs are brothers and sisters who are poor, they are very grateful for assistance to buy food or pay energy bills etc.  A local small groups of volunteers visit those in need to provide the help we are asked to finance.'
  The maximum amount of social security for job seekers for a single person with no children is $267.80 per week.  I believe this figure has been unchanged for years and years.  A minority of our brothers and sisters will never do very well on an allowance of that size.  Most accommodation would cost more than that.
  Their difficulties and the current payments result in failure and the system puts the responsibility on the good will and actions of charity workers. The government exploits the charities.
  Mature age citizens who get social security are often allowed various generous measures at the same time as they enjoy good levels of disposable income.  Compare that to a long term job seeker and the tiny amount they exist on.
  It calls for more justice in the system, designed and championed for the common good, free of insinuations that 'my taxes are being wasted' provided that the payments are regulated against fraud. Unlike others, welfare is part and parcel of this society and does good.
  As for the mature aged and superannuation, it can be taken for granted that a high income earner will end up with relatively abundant superannuation benefits while it is the low income earner who really needs big concessions and help in order to accumulate anything for retirement.

'Together we can do heroic things'  'When you give to Vinnies you're helping our volunteers rebuild lives this winter'
$50      Can provide warm blankets for men and women experiencing homelessness
$100    Can buy a week's worth of essential groceries for a struggling family.
$200    Can help pay a family's utility bill this winter
$500    Can provide a safe haven for a woman and child escaping domestic violence
$1000  Can prevent a family from being evicted from their home this winter.
St Vincent de Paul Society NSW  vinnies@vinnies.org.au

Its war

 

War on waist.  I surrender!
Australian Broadcasting Corporation is promoting a WAR ON WASTE....rethink plastic usage, the wiles of fashionable cloths, BYO coffee cups, supermarket and household wastage of good food these are but a few of our wasteful ways that demand attention. Study ABC web site and their other media.
What would be a creative use for old xray films?

Bizarre.  Tooth fairy is in demand. 
All power to free to air TV.  Bizarre lineup on TV Wednesday evenings where it is tempting to waste a  few hours of this precious life on new season, Fargo and then The Young Pope, on SBS free to air.

 Red check patterns on and off the court.
 Red check made a political statement in Indonesia this year but Ahok and his supporters did not do well and he has been found guilty of blasphemy and gaoled.
   A similar charge of blasphemy and a three year sentence to Cipinang gaol was made against a journalist, Atmowiloto, several years ago and there may have been other convictions.
  Thus, factions have been active for some time and a move, however slowly, towards establishment of a stronger religious state is observed in Indonesia.
  It is the age of rediscovery of identity and of what a true religious believer should be.  It is also an age of secularism and of pluralism.  Some resort to conservatism and a return to the tried and true and resist change.
  One small indication possibly of the rise of nationalism is seen in early photos where once Indonesian women did not necessarily cover their heads with a scarf. .
  On one hand leaders make charges to safeguard their religion from a breech of etiquette but a sense of proportion is appropriate in a justice system where very big crimes against society would be to the fore, for instance, crimes that indirectly burden the well-being of the average person and hold back their standard of living which is not high.  
  The kingdom of heaven or a religious state ideally is all about the here and now and, without too much difficulty, seen as life-giving giving priority to true justice for all -  materially spiritually and politically.

Change

A deconstructed clown and an additional special name on a familiar company.  'Party our way' says the sign hidden behind the post.
The interior is well done and the menu had a big revision in the last year.
Self selection was commenced and the health worries over the food remain as well as the materials that go to landfill as no sorting or recycling is ever apparent.  

More or less change

Forever Citroen cars sported a sharp chevron logo. Then the logo became more streamlined. Is nothing sacred?
 Now the logo is very abstract and unrecognizable. The logo changes and the cars become more conforming though the Cactus model has a few unlikely features.
Is it still smooth and comfortable? 
A comfortable ride has something going for it after noticing the rough ride that goes with some cars.
I know a certain medium sized van with a certain wheel base that requires certain calculations to turn and simply drive straight into the parking in a shopping centre and rarely is it just right. A minor problem really.
The massive 4x4 and over-the-top things on wheels put my driving to shame.

   

changes....

May the fourth estate be with you!  Clippings all the way from the 1980s.   Shock... horror... regret.. The Sydney Morning Herald workers are on strike over drastic cut backs by Fairfax press who has survival in mind.  Who will be the hard copy foil to Murdock News Corp press in The Australian and the dreaded Daily Tele? 
Subscriptions have been know to rise following the recent attacks on the press in the USA.
Fairfax is on-line as well theguardian  Australia edition and the New York Times has opened an office in Sydney described as an experimental outpost. Everything is on-line, ABC etc.
 
What if Facebook did not remain in the hands of a semi-benevolent millionaire and became  malevolent?  Legislation is highly desirable to safeguard the massive Facebook data base from political or economic manipulation along with the social.  It is very slack to ignore the risk.  As they say, some institutions are bigger than any government.  Take care.

Eco blog

As if beached marine life. Female and male life savers lined up to sprint to their rubber duckie, jumped aboard to join the crew, full throttle out to a set-up off-shore where they enacted a rescue, I'm guessing, then raced back to the shore.  The photo does not convey the fast pace.

  Looming on the horizon are two of the coal ships that queue for coal from the Port of Newcastle, the fossil fuel city.
 The post-coal era will come but not soon enough. Progress. Westpac Bank announced it will not finance coal developments which is greeted both with applause and with outrage.
  Current tales in Newcastle are about upheavals in preparation for the super-car races of note,   meaning certain roads works have closed the roads and residential areas are very cross at finding themselves on a speed way. The east precinct is vintage style, where high rise or modernisation is probably banned - apart from super-car events!
  A new light rail to serve the long lean main street is about to start installation.  Apartments are spring up in the western precinct and change is accelerating in inner city Newcastle.