Australia & New Zealand- we're happy and we know it!

If Gallup’s World Giving Index 2010 is any indication, then Australia and New Zealand are prosperous, happy and generous nations:

Australia and New Zealand are, jointly, the most ‘giving’ countries in the world. These countries both boast a World Giving Index score (the average of their scores on ‘giving money’, ‘giving time’, and ‘helping a stranger’) of 57%. ….

both countries appear in the top twenty for all three behaviours…..

The link between the giving of money and happiness is stronger (a coefficient of 0.69) than the link between the giving of money and the GDP of a nation (0.58). It would be reasonable to conclude that giving is more an emotional act than a rational one….

The Queensland University of Technology’s Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies February 2011 report on major gift giving indicates that most of this giving is historically done in Australia by people making donations ranging from $1 to $3,000.

In New Zealand the most common form of giving is the ad hoc donation of money or goods to an appeal, with the highest level of support going to clubs/community organisations and primary/secondary education, according to a 2009 discussion paper.

So all those ordinary wage earners, self-funded retirees, pensioners and generous others residing on each side of The Ditch who are buying jam from street stalls, raffle tickets from school children, emptying small change into the hands of door-to-door charity collectors or sending modest cheques to a worthy cause – take a bow because you lead the world.

Profile of a McDonald's fast food customer

Pic from ourweed.com

The discovery of 79g of marijuana inside a McDonald's brown paper takeaway bag led to police confiscating a total of 130g from one fast food afficianado on the 6th June 2011.
Locals are pointing to the possibility that he was a customer of the McDonald's hamburger joint in Yamba.
Just another reason why franchisee Scott Campbell's name is not top of the pops in that small NSW coastal town.

Will NSW Nats MP Steve Cansdell take up Lynne Mowbray's challenge?

On Page One of The Daily Examiner on 9 August 2011 one distressed local threw down a gauntlet in front of the Nationals Member for Clarence and Parliamentary Secretary for Police, Steve Candell, who is part of the NSW OFarrell Government:

ON WEDNESDAY afternoon several people at a Maclean car park witnessed an incident involving three people who appeared to be severely affected by alcohol and drugs.....
The two males continued harassing the woman to get back behind the wheel and continue driving as she was the only one who appeared to possess a licence.
It was obvious the two males were agitated. One appeared to be extremely volatile and aggressive and the other reeked of alcohol.
They ended up taking off in the car, driven by the highly intoxicated man and leaving the woman behind.
This incident was reported to the police out of fear these people were a mobile time bomb.
The Maclean police station was unattended at the time and the communication machine on the wall was faulty....
He explained there was no police presence in the Lower Clarence area on that day and an earlier domestic violence matter at Harwood had to be attended by the only available police car, which had to travel from Grafton.
I was in disbelief there was not one officer on duty in the whole of the Maclean, Yamba and Iluka areas.
As the police officer relayed this information to me I couldn't help but flash-back to three years ago when I witnessed a motorist asleep behind the wheel of his car, which was parked in the middle of the road leading into Maclean, at night with the lights off.
After waking him that night he appeared hostile and to be under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. I followed him into town as he drove on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic.
I phoned the police twice, pleading with them to stop him before he killed someone, but I was told there was no police presence in Maclean, as they were called out to Yamba.
There were several other accounts of people being forced off the road as he headed towards his destination.
I remembered the gut-wrenching hopelessness and desperation I felt when the police called me back a short time later and asked me to come into the station the next day to provide details for a coronial inquest into the man's death. He ended-up hitting a tree at Ashby at high speed.
I remember how I sobbed uncontrollably, knowing I did my best to save this man but the “system” let me down.
The lack of police in the area that night not only left me scarred for the rest of my days, but also affected the police who attended that scene, the tow truck operator, the undertaker who attended and the family, neighbours and friends who were left to grieve.
The system let us all down that night.
In his new appointment as Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services, I challenge the Member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, to table this editorial in parliament.
The days of talking the talk are gone. It's now time to walk the walk.
Your electorate is lagging in police numbers and it's up to you to not just fight for change, but to deliver it. You have been given the baton and now is your time to run with it.
Give our police the control they need in their own area and enough police officers to staff our stations and reduce the work-related stress of our officers.
I can't help thinking that if we had our police station in Maclean staffed three years ago, that man would still be around today. It grieves me to think that while we play politics it is our community that suffers.
Please end this absurd disregard for our struggling officers and this community's safety and peace of mind.

Put a hand in your pocket for the Horn of Africa

No glib comment is needed as a reminder that famine is always with us somewhere in the world. This time it is the Horn Of Africa and Somalia in particular which is bearing the brunt of widespread drought and crop failure.

So come on Aussies, put a hand in your pocket and send a donation to the Australian fundraising arm of the United Nations Refugee Agency, Australia for UNHCR and the East Africa Emergency Appeal online by credit card or call 1300 440 433 or 1300 361 288 (within Australia) to find out how/where to send cheques or money orders.

“All donations in response to this appeal will go directly towards UNHCR's emergency relief operations in East Africa, providing much-needed essentials like food, clean water, shelter, sanitation, survival kits and emergency feeding and nutrition programs.

90 cents in every dollar donated will go directly to the field to help people in need in East Africa.”

Photographs of famine victims found at Google Images

Never a truer word said by CNN

Australia's best place to visit....
Then a pod of dolphins explodes from the water and the hype about Yamba suddenly appears understated.

Anony-mice

Yamba

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.

A plea from the heart by the digitally disadvantaged

A not uncommon complaint heard right across the Clarence Valley.

Dreyfuss in July 2011 on a Clarence Conversations forum:

The area around Melaleuca drive in Yamba is in desperate need of upgrading by Telstra. When the subdivision was first done telecom and the developer did some “clever” thing with the phone lines designed to save money and that now stops the residents from getting effective ADSL connections. Speeds of 0.22kbps are common, ADSL 2 is offered by Internet Service Providers (ISP) but not available, is some cases residents are being refused ADSL connections all together. When you contact Telstra about getting the lines upgraded and they say talk to your ISP, then you talk to you ISP and they say there is nothing that can be done until Telstra upgrade the phone lines talk to Telstra. NBN may be some 5 years away (if ever), the mobile reception in the area is appalling so wireless is not an option. This area is only 4 kilometres from the Yamba exchange and less than 1 kilometre from the Treeland Drive retail district! How long will the residents be forced to suffer because of the original cost cutting by Telecom (Telstra) and the Developer? I urge anybody that is affected to contact the Grafton office of Janelle Saffin 6621 9909 email Peter.ellem@aph.gov.au

AntoniusFM in August 2011 on the same forum thread:

No ADSL in Wells Crossing, satellite is no option (too slow, too much delay), so using wireless, which isn't that great (1.5 Mbps if i am lucky), especially because i need it for my work (self employed IT consultant). I would have wished the government invested a bit more in wireless technology. The NBN sounds nice, but there is no way in the world we are going to have fibre optics where I live. Very disappointing !