A jaw-dropping quote of the week

"Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow's conventional wisdom."

{Ralph Peters in The Journal of International Security Affairs on 25th May 2009}

An ugly side of Yamba, Australia's Best Town

The flood brought out the best and worst of Yamba. Many people, especially SES volunteers, were superb, but some greedy business operators saw the flood as an opportunity to line their pockets.

A letters contributor in The Sydney Morning Herald has highlighted Yamba's ugly side.

Flood victims hung out to dry

Being a city bloke, I had been under the misconception that small towns pulled together in a crisis and extended a hand to those in need. It doesn't appear to be the case with Yamba, on the Clarence River, which is still cut off by the floods.

My in-laws, who are age pensioners, arrived there on Monday last week for three nights at a caravan park. Nine days later, they were paying full price for a motel room after moving from the park, where "company policy" required the manager to continue to charge full price for their flimsy cabin near the rising river.

Other guests in town are running out of money and their predicament seems to be met with "tut tut" statements from the locals. City folk like me will remember this sort of opportunism the next time we are asked to feel sorry for small-town folk.

Henry Lebovic Haberfield

Petiton against the decline of Maclean District Hospital autonomy

The Daily Examiner 13 May 2009

Lower Clarence Valley residents, unhappy with the proposed loss of the positions of chief executive officer and director of nursing at Maclean District Hospital, have started a petition to the NSW Minister for Health.

This petiton can currently be signed at Yamba.

As the flood waters are receeding it is expected that from today on copies of the petiton will also be at Iluka, Maclean, Woodford Island and villages elsewhere on the Clarence Coast.

If you consider that a hospital is better run when it is managed locally then this is your chance to say so.

If you want to check where the nearest copy of the petition is, call Jim Agnew on 0419 193 525.

One American perspective on Obama's response to Korean nuclear gamesmanship

U.S. comedian Andy Borowitz takes a look at Obama's response to recent events in Korea:

One day after North Korea launched a successful test of a nuclear weapon, President Obama said that the United States was prepared to respond to the threat with "the strongest possible adjectives."

In remarks to reporters at the White House, Mr. Obama said that North Korea should fear the "full force and might of the United States' arsenal of adjectives" and called the missile test "reckless, reprehensible, objectionable, senseless, egregious and condemnable."

Standing at the President's side, Vice President Joseph Biden weighed in with some tough adjectives of his own, branding North Korean President Kim Jong-Il "totally wack and illin'."

Later in the day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the North Korean nuclear test "supercilious and jejune," leading some in diplomatic circles to worry that the U.S. might be running out of appropriate adjectives with which to craft its response.

But President Obama attempted to calm those fears, saying that the United States was prepared to "scour the thesaurus" to come up with additional adjectives and was "prepared to use adverbs" if necessary.

"Let's be clear: we are not taking adverbs off the table," Mr. Obama said. "If the need arises, we will use them forcefully, aggressively, swiftly, overwhelmingly and commandingly."

More from Andy Borowitz here.

As Carley saw it [Lower Clarence flood photos]

Clarence River lapping Maclean levee wall, May 2009

Carley Grayson has posted twenty Clarence River flood pictures at Captured By Carley.

It's hit 'em when they're down time at Fiscal Star

On Tuesday Fiscal Star released its May 2009 report on local government sustainability.

NSW North Coast councils Ballina Shire, Byron Shire, Coffs Harbour City, Richmond Valley, Tweed Shire, Lismore City, Clarence Valley, Belligen are all listed as 'unsustainable'.

This is the definition of sustainability used; "A council's existing policies are assessed as financially 'sustainable' only if any operating deficit, infrastructure backlog or excessive net financial liabilities that presently exists could be corrected without the council having to resort in future to substantial adjustments to its existing revenue-raising and/or expenditure."

Bl**dy brilliant fellas - the flood waters haven't even receded yet and our noses are being rubbed in the fact that decades of cost-shifting by the big boys in Canberra and Sydney will probably see rate hikes across the Northern Rivers in the next few years (except of course for Grafton which seems to have perfected a perfect beggar's lurch whenever it approaches Clarence Valley Council).

Still, I'm not too sure that I trust this starry research mob, as they have only bothered with what the report calls the top 100 councils and Kyogle Shire doesn't rate a mention even though this area is usually an active partner in whatever cost-sharing measures the Northern Rivers manages to establish.

If you want to read the short Fiscal Star-Dexia puff piece go here.
If you want to read the full 2009 Review of NSW Local Government Financial Sustainability go here.

Proud descendant of the Yaegl people is joint winner of inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award

Jessica Birk

A young Indigenous artist living and born on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Jessica is a proud descendant of the Yaegl people, from northern NSW, on the mighty Clarence River.

Jessica's work was recognised on Wednesday night at the Australia Council's National Indigenous Arts Awards. At a ceremony at the Opera House, she and another printmaker, Fiona Elisala, from the Torres Strait Islands, were named joint winners of the inaugural Emerging and Young Artist Award.


Birk, 24, has exhibited her work with some of Sydney's most prominent indigenous artists, including Bronwyn Bancroft and Sally Morgan.


She met Bancroft as a child at Cromer Public School, when the artist helped the students with a mural.


"She was incredibly inspirational to me when I was a kid and when I met up with her in later life, she became a mentor," Birk says.


Like many artists, she uses her work to express her mixed heritage. Unlike many, she finds it easy to reconcile the two halves of her upbringing.


"You can belong to more than one place and more than one culture," she says.


"Belonging on the northern beaches is something I've grown into.

Belonging up there [in the Clarence Valley] was something I was born into - a gift from my ancestors and my family." SMH ( 27/05/2009)

pics: www.jessicabirk.com