Letters To The Editor

Breast foot forward

On Friday, August 6, the Australian Breastfeeding Association is hosting a breastfest. Many sites around the Australia will be conducting these events. We hope to set a new world record for the number of women breastfeeding simultaneously.

In Lismore, we will be gathering at Heritage Park at 11.30am. The count takes place at 12noon. We are inviting all breastfeeding women and their supporters to join us.

We are also celebrating our 40th birthday with a shared lunch. Please bring a plate of finger food to share. We will provide the cake.

We hope this will be a historic event. Please join us and be part of it. More information is available on our website www.breastfeeding.asn.au.

Ros Fleetwood
Lismore Group Breastfeeding Counsellor

Do you hear dead people?

TS Elliot's memorial in Westminster Abbey, London, has a fascinating inscription: "The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."

It raises an intriguing question: Can the dead communicate with the living? Many people have stories of extraordinary happenings in their lives relating to deceased relatives or friends that are inexplicable. It might be the appearance of a deceased loved one, the discovery of a lost and precious item belonging to a deceased person or a song with particular meaning, heard in a place of special significance. The possibilities are infinite.

I am currently researching the topic with a colleague for a book to be published in Europe and the USA. I would be grateful if any of your readers might share any such experiences with us, with a view to publication. All correspondence will be dealt with the utmost respect and confidentiality.

Publication of any stories received will be subject to the final approval of their author.

Anyone wishing to share an experience with us can write to the following address: Audrey Healy, 3 Canal Close, Longford, Co. Longford, Ireland. Alternatively email to yourstory@eircom.net.

Audrey Healy
Ireland

Three wise men

Again after 2000 years we have three wise men bearing gifts of hope for the future of humanity. These gifts are: 1) Star Wars 2) Weapons of mass destruction 3) Global warming.

Please use with great care.

G Fuga
Lismore

Seeing is believing

In the July 15 edition of The Echo I was surprised to see a letter by Cr Ros Irwin referring to me by name in reply to a letter that I never sent to nor ever appeared in The Echo. I believe that it is deceptive and unjust for Cr Irwin to target residents out of context and is perhaps typical of her heavy-handed approach toward those residents who disagree with her and question Lismore City Council's competency.

Laurence Keane
Goonellabah

Pension woes

I must reply to Mr Larry Anthony's spiel (Echo, June 29) which is deceptive and misleading about Labor scare mongering about concession cards. It is the Lib-Nat Coalition who are intent on cutting concession cards to pensioners. The true fact is, the parties you represent wish to means test pensioners whose property values exceed the limit imposed by Coalition Government. It is no fault of elderly persons on pensions whose property values have increased over the years and pay increased rates and taxes on same. But still have very little cash up front, "if any".

So, do you wish them to sell up and live in a humpy? They are still people who deserve a quality of life, whilst on a meagre pension which they probably contributed to over their working life, so leave them alone.

Your side bit about Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients doesn't wash. They are not pensioners so as far as trying to deceive the public you should bare your soul, drop your duds, touch your toes, and suffer the consequences.

J Harvie
Goonellabah

The spoils of war

The Greeks will spend 1.2 billion US dollars on security alone for the upcoming Olympic Games. A fourfold increase compared to Sydney 2000. Unfortunately I don't have any shares in the industry, but I do hope that all those who have made an absolute killing since September 2001 will at least send a Christmas card to Osama bin Laden, thanking him for making it all possible. And that goes for all those American Neo-conservative hawks too, who were all dreaming about an event just like the one on that fateful Tuesday morning.

Their right-wing think tank, the Project for the New American Century (whose founding fathers included amongst others Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz) came up with a report in 1997 outlining their national security policy agenda. The PNAC report was a neo-imperial call for an expanded American security perimeter that would be capable of "multiple constabulary missions" aimed at preserving a "Pax Americana".

The authors of the organisation's security blueprint were alert to the benefits for their agenda of a catastrophic attack on the United States, noting that "the process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic or catalyzing event - like a Pearl Harbour."

For the aggressive unilateralists at PNAC - many of whom are now firmly ensconced in top jobs in the administration of George W. Bush - the September 11 terror attacks were a political godsend, in that they created a climate of fear and trauma that made it much easier to promote their aggressive, first-strike agenda.

If reading this makes you think that I am implying something outrageous, then please consider the following: It has recently come to light that in 1961, the CIA suggested to President JFK that 30 Cuban migrants should be used to destroy two federal buildings in Los Angeles, as a pretext for a US invasion of Cuba. But he turned down the offer when they estimated that between 1000 and 1500 people might be killed. The very fact that such a plan was suggested and considered is quite revealing.

Also, I think it fair to suggest that had it not been JFK, but a somewhat less scrupulous, more hawkish president (take your choice) then the plan would've gone ahead regardless. After that, of course, there would have been an official inquiry. And guess what? It would've probably blamed the whole fiasco on intelligence failures, declaring that everybody acted in good faith.

I sincerely hope that we won't have to wait another four decades before we discover the full truth behind today's "intelligence failures" too, so that we can hold responsible everyone for their criminal acts of "good faith".

Tom Koo
Alstonville

What a rage!

Many thanks for The Echo's coverage last week of our fundraising benefit gig and anti-war rally, Rage Against HoWARd. The night was a raging success: 600-800 people attended, raising over $4,000.

Our thanks to the Italo Australia Club and to everyone who came and contributed to the night's success, especially the 19 different solo or ensemble acts that donated their time and considerable talent for the cause. These benefits are only possible because of the generosity of local performers, and their power as artists. Thanks a million folks.

Central to the gigs success however, was the genius of Mr Jimmy Willing, the local artist, printmaker, puppeteer, songwriter and performer who designed the RAH motif, organised the publicity, drew together other local acts and secured Tim Freedman's involvement. Jimmy's involvement in the gig was at every level, consistent with his passionate opposition to HoWARd and his support for The Greens. Thanks for everything Jimmy, and good luck with your new (and hopefully prophetic) CD single Old Howard's Dead & Gone.

As a former Greens candidate who received tremendous support over several campaigns, I'm pleased that the gig helped launch the campaign for Mark Jackson, our Greens candidate for Page in 2004.

For those who have not yet met him, I can advise that Mark is someone I've known and respected for many years as a committed and effective environmental activist and campaigner. Mark has my full support and confidence as the next Greens candidate for Page.

My life is now busy teaching, studying and preparing for the arrival (in mid-October) of our new baby, so I'm pleased to have passed the baton to Mark. I encourage everyone to support Mark, get involved in The Greens election campaign and maintain the Rage against HoWARd!

John R Corkill
Summerland Greens
RAH organising crew

Cloud seeding

As the fields, crops, trees and dams of the North Coast federal electorates become again dry and headed towards drought while millions of tonnes of moisture float out to sea in the form of clouds, I invite our federal members to tell us through their segments in The Echo just what they have done to get the current rush of federal spending to include cloud seeding so we all do not suffer the difficulties and losses we made in the last big dry.

Your readers, the older ones of them, will remember CSIRO successfully developed the technique of seeding clouds so that rain would fall in the target area - with a reasonable degree of success. Other countries are starting to make use of the technique, so why not get the federal funds to save us from another big dry - urgently.

Nat B Wheatley
Alstonville

Howard's retirement

The media recently reported PM Howard had reached 65, the (current) official male retirement or age pension age in Australia. It is clear that retirement is far from John Howard's thinking. There is no way he would want to leave the position of power that he currently enjoys with all the trappings of office and surrounded by grovelling 'yes' people who are constantly reassuring him that he is making the right decisions for the nation.

One of the pleasures that some retired people have been able to safely enjoy prior to the invasion of Iraq was to tour different countries in Asia and Europe with fellow tourists from other parts of the world. In most cases when the local people discovered that you came from Australia and were not British, or more importantly, American, you were rewarded with a special welcome. This gave you a good feeling and a sense of pride that your country was so highly regarded by the local people, many coming from very poor and underprivileged backgrounds.

Since John Howard's unconditional and subservient support for recent American ('you're either with us or against us') foreign policy this respect for Australians will have now disappeared and in many countries, particularly the non-Christian ones, we will now be regarded in the same light as Americans.

John Howard will be forced into political retirement only by the Australian voters or by his political party. During that retirement period he will be confronted with a nagging question; after having been given the unique privilege of being PM did he leave this country in at least the same or, hopefully, better condition than he found it, ie a safe, independent and internationally respected country? His conscience will struggle to find a positive response. He will not then be surrounded by the grovelling 'yes' people to reassure him when he starts to ponder on the integrity of his past decisions.

Claude Palmer
Goonellabah

Save us all

Dear Mr Bartos. You are talking about a reality check, yet every time I read your contribution, you seem to support one against the other. That is involving people who have strongly objected to your views - repeatedly. Divide and rule? That's old socks.

I do not personally know any of the recipients of your attacks, yet I seem to find myself in agreement with some who did bother to respond to your selfish and misguided diatribes.

Academic? My backside! There is nothing academic about warmongers, now or ever! That's only plain power-play. Nothing more to it.

Just because you find yourself on the side of power, it will not mean that you'll remain there. Go home and do a mediation instead. That would assist academia - in general - tremendously, as opposed to spewing venom towards one's that don't toe your line.

Some of us had been through experiences, others are smart enough not to have the same circumstances repeated. Who is smarter? The ones who care to alert others that it's the same experience to learn from, instead of choosing to re-live it!

Mr Bartos, your patronising attitude had been heard, assessed and retired on the pages of The Echo for now. Unless you come up with a convincing argument on behalf of aggression, I'd suggest that you do some soul searching to find the source of that aggression.

Until then, please save us all from the manipulative expressions.

Stephen Lang
Tilba Tilba