We are indebted to Frank for another sanguine, salutary and scintillating piece for the near north west frontier.

An unendorsed, and non- compliant sign that was removed to ensure public safety and uphold the principle of law and order.

That slither of land, rather much like the Peoples’ Republic of Moldova, that is not entirely devoted to mining, prisons or uranium dumping for this next missive. We at pcbycp are somewhat confused, as Frank has a different take on the intervention. We who enjoy the info-tainment as presented to us by The Australian, The ABC amongst others as Daily NEWS are disappointed he can’t find a positive spin on the Intervention.

We at pcbycp still cherish our Terrorism Hotline  fridge magnets, and hope with some enthusiasm, that the upcoming Federal election  will be inspiring us with stories of Reds under the bed. The yellow Peril. Border violations, and whatever else is done with some theatricality to make us all insecure, slightly xenophobic and fearful. It’s a war winning and election winning formula.

The intervention was a boon for sign writers. ( accredited and endorsed sign- writers).

More from Frank now. He writes;

 

 

 Доброго вечора друзі

In June 2020, the Government of Ukraine prioritised the usage of coal at Ukrainian power stations to reduce the import of natural gas used at the power stations for electricity production.
In 2016 Ukrainian coal production was 40.9 million tonnes (excluding production from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.)

The Donets Basin contains 90% of Ukraine’s coal reserves.

Our gift to the people of Ukraine? A lump of Coal. If it serves us to create a fair and equitable society it might as well serve them as well.

Recently the Russian army breached the front-line between Ukraine and the Donetsk People’s Republic. The big winners? The arms manufacturers and dealers. The big losers? The people of Ukraine.
Australia is once again punching above its weight. It is donating 70,000 tonnes of coal to Ukraine. The coal is being supplied by Whitehaven Coal, a company which made significant contributions to the Liberal Party.
Make of that what you will.

In Kieran Finnane’s book, ‘Trouble (On Trial in Central Australia)’ In the Introduction she describes the Alice Springs Courthouse. This from page 2:

“…Lately graffiti has appeared on the footpath in front of the entrance stairs, small letters stencilled in black: ‘This is the front line.’ It says.
It’s discreet enough for nobody to bother scrubbing it out. I’d like to know who did it, and what kind of battle they think is going on inside…”
I opined that the front line at the Alice Springs Courthouse was the same one I alluded to when I started writing the Musical Dispatches from the Front after the 2007 Intervention.

The Country Liberal Party said it planned to introduce the Sentencing Amendment Bill 2022 to the Northern Territory parliament this week, a legal reform which would mean mandatory prison for anyone who assaults a frontline worker.

“We know that police and frontline workers are being assaulted at hideous rates and, as crime continues to increase across the Territory, unfortunately, what we’re going to see is more people on the frontline assaulted while doing their job,” Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said yesterday. “It’s really important to us that we send a serious message to would-be offenders that, if they assault a police or frontline worker, they are going to have an actual term of imprisonment.”

Big Prisons are a RIVERS OF GOLD for shareholders and the construction industry. Promoting JOBS and GROWTH!

The big winners? The prison industry in the NT. The big losers? Yapa (Aborigines)

So why does all this make me think of the Sudeten Czechoslovaks and the Donetsk Ukrainians?

подумай над цим Frank

PS- I only have three copies of My Yuendumu Story left (out of 600). This was way beyond my expectations. A second print run depends on very hard to assess demand. I’m finding that writing volume 2 is rather tricky. More than half the readers of Volume 1 were you, the Dispatchees. If you can be bothered, your comments, suggestions and criticisms will be gratefully received. As per usual I promise not to shoot the messenger
Just some nice music (from Colombia a few days ago) to finish with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW2M0pjc1K8

Russia still committed to Urban renewal in Ukraine. Just as the Australian Government is devoted to helping Aboriginal Australians find meaningful roles as ‘clients’ in the Prison Industry.

Not in the public interest, and more secret than the payout to Dyson’s victims? (these women both signed a ‘working with Dyson certificate’)

Once again we reluctantly are compelled to continue this narrative. A narrative so shocking, so breath-taking in its revelations of human behaviour and activities hardened by war, that no level of journalism can convey the suffering and hardship endured by our four hapless heroes. 

Embedded, entombed, entangled in the vicious cycle of power shifting, graft and corruption that guides contemporary government policy and pre-election appointments to highly paid public sinecures and boards, they must stand alone and bear the horrific consequences. Not  bound. Not bored but board-less.

More secret than the source, (not in the public interest) of who paid for Christian’s legal fees. (The bloke on the left knows but cant tell cos he and Chris are mates. Mateship being higher in value than public interest).

The consequences in daring to believe that there might be more to life, than croneyism, money and the distortion that comes with being on the board of Crown Resorts, The High Court bench, the AFL, or Bet 365. Knowing that at least bet 365 is keen on the public actively participating in its wealth making enterprise.  ‘Is there no end to this corruption of public office’? We hear you say. Hopefully not, for as Vladimir says, ‘corruption, once entrenched  is a difficult thing to stop and besides, winners are grinners’, and ; ‘Absolute Power might corrupt, but that aint so bad’. Who could disagree, but are our heroes winners? Are Sophie and Dutto yet to take out the booby prize? With more booby traps than a children’s crossing at Bucha, the stakes are high, medium rare, and under-done. The ultimate question, will this do them in? Or hapless and heroic are they yet to prevail to die all over again, for a lost cause?A punch up at the Oscars?  Or is this talk just fatalism? Lose or win, in the upcoming federal election, the lobbyists will grin, and have their own party content that in Canberra as elsewhere there’s always a  party when the taxpayer foots the bill. For which ever party wins,  we all know, things will remain the same. Hold tight, we’re in for a bumpy ride, and the child door lock is broken… 

More secret than Witness K’s prosecution. In the public interest not to know how far Alexander Downer was prepared to screw the East Timorese.

We return to our saga….

“I think we’ll pass the cinema’. They sidled down the dusty dark streetscape, eerily quiet now the conflagration had ceased above them.   Benny-boy, as trained by his SAS service, threw a few spare grenades into a building marked ‘Kindergarten’.  ‘Just to make sure’. We heard the dark thud and consoled ourselves that if things got worse and Sophie and Dutto resorted to hostages and human shields we’d have that avenue covered.  ‘Move on’! Benny matter of factly commanded, and obligingly, with Terry still puffing on his Camel, we sidled, backs to the wall, down the street. ‘What’s that building’? Ces pointed to a building with a very large, concrete fascia with an X clearly delineated on the stucco, ‘Oh that’! Terry remarked, ‘That was building X’. 

“What happens there’? Terry flicked the ash fro his camel, took a long drag, and wiped his hand across his overalls, ‘ Oh that, it was the experimental laboratory’. 

“Experimental, what do you mean what type of experiments’? , 

Terry phlegmatically as ever pulled another Camel out, lit it with his time-worn zippy lighter, and exhaled; ‘Simple experiments, stuff like  testing the human body under doses of radiation, simple surgical procedures and projects deemed too sensitive to proceed further with.. projects that tested the viability of mutants for assignment on specific tasks, like decommissioning nuclear reactors, poison gas, germ warfare, biological warfare and more recently developing newer strategies to enhance the value of clean coal’. 

CLEAN COAL I though you’d said this facility had been shut down for years’?

More secret than the wheel- barrow load of evidence that was considered not in the public interest in the Zac Rolfe trial?

It has, just that in the 50’s we were looking at Clean Coal then. Why then? 

Well it’s simple during the White Australia Policy we thought that black coal as an energy source didn’t align with our core values, so we tried to turn it white. That involved a lot of chemistry, and being white it was termed ‘Clean Coal’.  Get it? 

We looked dumbfounded? Were all the experiments as bat-shit crazy as that? 

Nup, not really, but they were all signed off by ASIO, CSIRO and the Department of Finance as being visionary and good for business. And besides they were too sensitive as projects to allow the public in.  They wouldn’t understand the hidden value and spin-off’s’. 

‘Spin-offs’? Ces ejaculated with a forehead smacking whack of incredulity.  “Clean Coal’!!! 

‘Yep you might laugh, but by trying to make the coal white we were able to give the washing powder industry some new strategies for germ removal, and particularly hard to remove stains, like grass stains on cricket gear and the like. In the 50’s this was a significant breakthrough, and in the end it was guaranteed by Lever and Kitchen, Palmolive and Life-buoy. It gave us,  (Australia) the edge in a competitive global market. What happened to the research then’?, we felt weary at Terrys description, ‘Oh we did what we always do, sold it off to the yanks so they could produce it better and cheaper, so then, they could flog it back to us at twice the price. That’s robbery!  

No it aint, its ANZUS, and the way Big Business operates in this country. . And besides anything else experimental was deemed too sensitive to release’. 

‘Too sensitive,’? Ces, seemed exasperated at the stupidity of the facility.  ‘Was that because of the nature of the experiments? Was it classified for political reasons’? 

Terry took another drag; ‘Well ,yes and no, there were just some experiments that went a bit off track’. 

More secret than Vlad’s plan for best supporting act on-stage with Will Smith at the 2023 Oscars?

Would you like to explain? 

Well it went like this’,

And before Terry could open his mouth we heard a curious sound.  The sound that metal sheet makes when it is being torn whilst being beaten in a low percussive rhythm by a large soft object.  We all froze, it was coming from the direction of building X, and as we stood stock still and retreated into the niche again we felt that something within that building , dormant for years had been awoken . Was this the end of the line? Had  the Minotaur moved to Maralinga? Or is it something more sinister than imagined? Imagine this, the next episode could be worser. And the event more horrible-er and the tension more draining-er than the upcoming Federal Election. 

Tune into the next episode, ‘Three hapless  non- alcoholic cheers for Sophie’, or ‘King Canute’s Saxon name was always CNUT, Is there an anagram in that?