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- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!DIALix!tillage!gil
- From: gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
- Newsgroups: sci.environment
- Subject: Sheep in Organizations
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <726209629snx@tillage.DIALix.oz.au>
- References: <58223@dime.cs.umass.edu>
- Date: Tue, 05 Jan 93 04:53:49 GMT
- Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents
- Lines: 69
-
-
- In article <58223@dime.cs.umass.edu> yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu writes:
-
- > >You may find it of interest that we in Australia have no declaration
- > >of human or citizen's rights in our Constitution? We have the choice
- > >of getting on with one another or coming apart at the seems, without
- > >recourse to some "higher authority" enshrined on paper somewhere for
- > >the lawyers to be bludgeoning us with.
- >
- > The benefits of living in a former penal colony. Congratulations.
-
- Yes indeed, after the American War of Independence closed off your
- continent as a dumping ground for convicts and felons in the pursuit
- over several centuries of British domestic policy. But whatever our
- humble origins, our country emerged as the last great opportunity for
- experimenting with the dynamics of multi-cultural society, and the
- future is bright indeed.
-
- You might recall that we did not need to go to war or shed any blood
- at all in order to gain our independence, but patiently took our time
- and developed peaceful means. It is you folks lagging behind us now,
- as a matter of fact.
-
- > >If our Constitution is open to interpretation, that empowers me to
- > >interpret it myself, as anyone else has a prerogative to exercise that
- > >together we can get things done we want done (including managing our
- > >natural environment).
- >
- > Yes, I know that you folks are also clearcuting your remaining forests
- > and are digging uranium mines on other people's land, but that hardly
- > seems boastworthy.
-
- Yes, clearcutting forests remains a problem we are yet striving to do
- something about; one legacy of the incapacity of certain parties to
- settle their differences. We have an enquiry underway now into the
- implementation of CALM forest policy here in Western Australia, in
- fact, and I regret that we are unable to do much from this end about
- the other States when people have been turned away from addressing the
- issues by activists screaming at them all the time.
-
- They have had more than abundant opportunities to come up with viable
- options over the past twenty years, with an enormous public following,
- very large campaign accounts, ready access to the media, sympathetic
- governments in power, and the ear of the electorate. But they blew
- their chances at every turn by attacking and blaming everyone else
- instead, and are now pretty much discredited as a political force.
-
- So you should also be aware that we are now returning to cultivating
- hemp and other crops as replacements for wood pulp, getting farmers
- involved with adding soil amendments from mine waste dumps, and a
- host of such cooperative joint ventures, as well as a great deal of
- work in dispute resolution and public participation protocols within
- the wider context of hybrid systems development, rather than sitting
- there waxing lyrical about the dreadful state of the world.
-
- Uranium mines? I should hope so. The social, health and environmental
- problems we have experienced with coal are legion, and while we have
- super-abundant supplies of natural gas and other fuels, again, we do
- intend to keep our options open. We see ourselves as a responsible
- world citizen, and seek to ensure our continued involvement in the
- development and maintenance of technical and environmental standards
- for the nuclear industry alongside any other.
-
- You don't solve problems by shying away from them, fellow. Research
- facilities here are as good as anywhere in the world, most especially
- in medical radiology and energy systems.
-
- Gil
-
-