fitzroyalty

It was an intense year for me. I’m sure at some point in the future the only things I will remember are the spectacular surprises - seeing Lewis Hamilton finish third in his debut Grand Prix and meeting Tori Amos four times - the rest will fade into the past.

Babka is on holidays, so there is no bread. I think I will forage elsewhere rather than attempt this recipe!

I am rarely bothered by noise from venues in Fitzroy - it is the people on the streets that actually make the most noise. One shop nearby obviously hears amplified buskers.

Forner WA premier Charles Court is dead at last. The Liberal who made Jeff Kennett look like a complete socialist will not be missed. The only thing he did that I noticed as a child in Perth when he was premier was that he shut down the Perth - Fremantle railway line. I went with my parents to a protest against this, which was my first political rally. What a visionary he was to see that public transport reduced the profits of his oil industry mates, and hence had to be removed. He was a parasite who ruled for the rich. Good riddance.

I accept that there was a ’stolen generation’ of Aboriginal Australians, and that these children were forcibly removed from their families for political and ideological reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of their lives with their families. Many children were removed because the white government thought it knew best, not because the children were neglected or abused.

Now, white government officials are so paranoid and politically correct that they prefer to allow Aboriginal children to be neglected and abused by their families and their communities than to expose themselves to the accusation that they have removed children from the care of their families for political purposes. It’s deparately sad and tragic that government policy has again failed Aboriginal children.

Lowitja O’Donoghue and other Aborignal activists are determined to see an official government apology made to all Aboriginal people for creating the stolen generation. I think it would be a good thing for the federal government to acknowledge that former policies were not appropriate.

What is far more important is dealing with the current, political correctness caused madness that has the judiciary failing to enforce the law in order to prevent jailing Aboriginal youths and men for rapes, sexual assaults and other violent crimes (usually against other Aborigines). It is apalling that despite their own poor circumstances these men are allowed to make others suffer. Deaths in custody should not prevent violent people from being locked up for the safety of others, especially children.

The Aurukun child rape case is a disaster. The girl has been abandoned by her family, her community and the law. I find it hard to believe the statements of the (then) 10 year old girl’s family that they were let down by the legal system. After all, the girl was first abused by ‘a close family member’ before she was 5 years old according to reports.

They have subsequently failed to protect her from abuse by other members of the community. As for Aurukun Mayor Neville Pootchemunka, his son was one of the rapists. How can he claim the town was let down by the law? He failed in his role as a father and community leader. The people are the cause of their own problems.

Obviously, the broader explanation for community dysfunction is the lack of a point to life in remote communities. There is no economy, no work, no need to plan for the future, no need to provide for yourself or your family, and a never ending flow of money in the form of passive welfare. I totally support Aboriginal leaders like Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton in championing an end to passive welfare. Pearson also advocates permanently removing children being neglected and abused. I agree.

The consequence of removing almost all the children (if failure to be sent to school by their parents is considered a form of neglect) and imprisoning many of the men sentenced to violent crimes would be to empty and close the worst communities. They are already too small and too remote to be viable. This could force them to be closed forever. The remaining people would need to move to larger communities or towns in their regions.

The government now needs to remove many children for their safety. Is the government ready to own the consequences of such actions?

Facebook responded to me about my issue with being warned for exceeding the unknown number of posts using the Notes app (which I had uninstalled or deleted months ago):

Facebook has limits in place that restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site, including posting or importing too many notes. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with the specific rates that have been deemed abusive.

Your account was warned because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions.

Once logged in, please slow down the rate at which you use certain features. We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

So although I had removed the app, it was still silently and invisibly sucking in the RSS feed from my blog without my consent. And because I was using another app to do the same thing, I was importing everything twice (without me knowing it) even though it was only being displayed once.

So I was correct that Facebook caused the problem. I had chosen to use the Flog Blog app to import my feeds instead of Notes, but Facebook did not accept this in an honest and transparent manner. This is the nasty secret side of Facebook - it makes it almost impossible to get your stuff out of it once it is in it.

Deleting the app should delete all its contents, but it doesn’t. I have had to reinstall the app, then delete every post manually before deleting the app again. I will have to do the same with every post in Flog Blog. Sneaky, nasty, unfriendly Facebook. I will now significantly limit the content I put in it.

The more I discover about these kinds of behaviours, the more I believe that Facebook is a front for the US government.