Monthly Archives: October 2013

Public versus Private in Sweden

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

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http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Education/Basic-education/Reading/Free-schools/

Sep 7, 2007

Independent schools flourish in Sweden

by: Karyn McGettigan

As autumn marks the start of another school year in Sweden, many students face a choice between public and private school. In the wake of a 1992 school reform, independent schools are growing in numbers and popularity.

While many parents choose public schools for their children, an increasing number send their children to independent schools (friskolor). The number of independent schools in Sweden is growing even faster than the children who are attending them.

The Independent School Reform of 1992 made it possible for families to send their children to any school — public or private — without having to pay fees. The law states that children have equal right to education regardless of gender, ethnic or political background, and economic status of their families. Several checks are in place to ensure equal conditions for private and public schools throughout the country.

No fees allowed

Often with a specific focus — such as religion, art, music, or sport — independent schools in Sweden can open as long as they meet the nationwide educational requirements. Once accepted by the Swedish National Agency for Education, the schools receive government funding and must in return not charge any student fees; they are, however, allowed to accept private donations.

The growing interest has resulted in consequences that continue to be investigated. Some people have voiced concerns that it will lead to unfair competition between independent schools and more traditional municipal schools, and that some municipal schools may face the threat of closing as a result. Certainly, the new system is sure to gradually open the traditional Swedish model to new alternative methods of teaching.

Canberra – Whatfor Art Thou ? A Competition

28 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by in Emmjay

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Time Waster by Emmjay

Over at our friends’ place at Crikey, they ran a competition about whether Canberra was wonderful or the armpit of the Nation:

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2013/10/21/is-canberra-the-worst-city-in-australia/

My Entry didn’t place (how surprising), but I liked the idea of a succinct take on our National Capital –  and stuff them for a laugh !       Here it was:

Canberra – Remandberra

Lest I be criticised because of a perceived bias against our Nation’s hapless capless, let me first say that there are some extremely pleasant and cheerful folks who dally there on their way to somewhere significant.  I think I just made that up to create a false sense of balance.

They allegedly hold massive art extravaganzas in The National Gallery.  People go in droves but few return.  It’s like a cubist Bermuda Triangle.

But that’s it for Canberra.  It’s a place that people drift into – the same way as they do in a remand centre.

Canberrans have the appearance of mice that have just received invitations to the Snake’s Picnic Day.  Things will soon get far better or much worse – depending on the caprice of what is laughingly referred to these days as “a career move”.

And like a remand centre, Canberra is a place with dodgy food and even more suspect travelling companions.  I say “Take a return ticket, a cut lunch and watch your back”.

Emmjay of the Pig’s Arms.

There is only 1 rule in the Pig’s Arm’s Canberra competition: Max 150 words. 

Have a go yourself ! 

Best entry wins FM’s Pig’s Arms black polo shirt – (never worn !)

as seen on the famous Emmjay Edition of Seniors’ Quarterly

Music, Glorious Funky Music.

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Algernon

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beat 1
Playlist by Algernon


My dear heart – Shawn Robinson


Drumbeat – Jim Ingram


Cousin of Mine – Sam Cooke


B Movie – Gil Scott Heron


Heartbreaker – Dionne Warwick


Last two dollars – Johnnie Taylor


I’m Losing you – The New People


I’m Losing you – The Temptations


Gypsy Woman – Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions


Sail On – Lionel Richie with The Commodores


Doodlin –Baby Washington


Below the Funk – Rick James


Key to my happiness – The Charades


Poon Tag Man – Shirley Brown


Shake Shake Shake – KC & the Sunshine Band


Cut the Cake – Average White Band

Louie the Fly is still around.

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

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Louie the Fly is still around.
October 24, 2013

During the smoke haze some days ago I noticed the flies were in a frenzy as well. The sky had an eerie orange tinge. People seemed tense and walked faster than normal. It reminded me of the last days of shopping before Christmas. Perhaps the threat of fire and Christmas are related. Both are filled with a dread that something might not have been done or achieved. Did we really have enough food in the house for the upcoming festivities, and now, have I cleaned the guttering of dry leaves?

As we took our daily walk along the river with our Jack Russell Milo, I happened to choke on a fly which promptly got ingested. It reminded me of our life on the farm. Even though we left the farm three years ago, many memories persist. The best of them were the large house and the old settlers cottage from around the late 1880′ or so. We had a pool. I drove a ride-on mower and tractor to slash and keep combustible growth to a minimum.

Fire in summer was always on our minds. We had bought a petrol driven fire fighting pump and a wide arrangements of large diameter hoses with brass couplings. The first thing to go is often the supply of electricity, especially in farming communities when electricity poles catch alight. We had 40.000 litres of water from the pool at our disposal. We also prepared ourselves with buying a large generator that would give us enough power to run our sprinkler system and water taps around the farm and spare settler’s cottage. On most farms water is supplied from tanks or dams by electric pumps that get activated when a tap is turned on. We had a water license allowing us to pump 6 million litres from the Wollondilly river.

We were well prepared for bush-fire but still had anxious days when fires used to break out in the area. Fires could start by a farmer using a tractor to slash ,hit a stone, and a spark would ignite a fire in no time. Other fires were proven to be deliberately lit by bored youths. The mind boggles!

During the bushfire periods I always used to scan the sky for a hint of smoke and watched the local news. A previous bushfire in the sixties had destroyed most of the local community including a school and church.

One of the most amusing times were to be had on internet sites where the farming community used to chat with each other. Some of the responses were priceless.

A favourite subject to prop up during the heat was flies. How many did you eat today, was asked? Someone replied; I had at least twelve today, how about you?

In most French, Spanish, Greek movies, sooner or later, a scene props up whereby in the shade of a large oak, the family sits outside with a perfectly chosen outdoor setting and a table decked out and laden with food and wine. People are convivial and wild gesturing adds to the excitement. Romantic and idyllic with perhaps a bee humming around the family about the worst threat to the event.

Did you notice on the TV news about the wild-fires, the flies buzzing around the news readers faces? I felt like getting the spray can out.
We can honestly say, those scenes would be hard to achieve here. We know, we tried many times. The flies made outdoor dining on a farm impossible. The only way to do it would be to wear black netting around one’s head and pop in the food by quickly lifting the netting, even so, flies would be opportunistic and get in. Unable to escape, yet another fly would get ingested.
That’s how it was.

Tags: French, Jack Russell, Wollondilly river
Posted in Gerard Oosterman | Edit |

A surge of re-speck back to the humble sausage.

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

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Grilled-sausageThe science is out and so is cholesterol as being the main culprit for heart attacks. It is stress and sugar. Hoorah, I’ll have two kilos of ‘country beef’ sausages please. Even though our butcher has gone with the times and now advertises selling ‘meat solution’ he has been inundated with requests back to sausages and lamb cutlets. In fact, a surge for those items has been recorded in our local newspaper ‘The Wollondilly Express.’ 🙂

I have no trouble with sugar and have no pangs of lust for the Danish Pastry or Dutch Cream Delights. Show me a raw herring or a chargrilled dripping-hot sausage and I feel like a honeymoon, whatever a honeymoon feels like. I am delighted with that latest news. An hour long program on ABC’s catalyst praised the efforts in medical research stating that the emphasis on heart disease being caused by fat was wrong. How come skinny people were succumbing to heart disease while the rotund sausage lover roamed the streets late at night, shouting songs of love, and indulging in misdemeanours, al done in robust health?
Here have a dekka at this lot;
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/heartofthematter

Disclaimer; apart from short mention of “Danish and the word Dutch” , the link to Europe is not intentional and a total fictional use of language and word order. Please note also that the article is ABC science and not intended for those steeped in leering, sneering and trolling.
Enjoy!

PS:You published your 475th post on this blog.
I am rather proud of that number.
Gerard.

The Apology

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

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The apology,

According to a reader on the P/A I am guilty of having written hundreds and hundreds of boring articles, worse, I have been found guilty of slighting Australia in conjunction and aid from Norway, Sweden and The Netherlands. I am guilty as charged but how to apologize? Let me try.

Do I go out and in deep sun-drenched suburbia, embrace a sheet of zinc alum and ask for forgiveness. I am so sorry colour-bond, I know you mean well and you never rust either. How could I have been so cruel? You give generously to all within your sun-locked boundaries and no nasty neighbour can ever be detected. No blade of grass can ever abuse you.

Next is the pebble-creted driveway so sweetly curved upwards to the triple remote garage. So sorry; please allow me to prostrate myself humbly for having slighted you so badly. I will never ever do it again. Here, allow me to varnish you and let your pebbles shine for ever brightly. You have given so much welcoming and loving traction to the Michelin and Kuma tyres. I am so sorry.

Oh, the horror of the hurt I have knowingly inflicted on all those kind beds of nodding petunias, those havens of suburban peace and tranquillity, harbouring and giving respite to the tortured souls of the Westfield shopping malls with local pubs and clubs. How can I make up? Would you like some water, some kind Leghorn manure to boost your cheerful growth? I am sorry.

The leaf blower. I am so sorry. How can I make up for having accused you of noise and mayhem while all you did was blow away leaves onto your preying neighbours property or into the kerbs of endless avenues. Allow me to take you out for dinner and lubricate your twin carby cylinder. Anoint your inlet suction and empty the bag. Please, let me.

As for the crispy manicured lawn. The worst of all my misdemeanours. Let me sink on my knees and prise out all those lugubrious weeds with sinister intent on multiplying themselves during the dark of the night. Here let me mow you with my Victa and I’ll rake you lovingly in neat heaps, ready for the mulcher who I have never abused. I always held the mulcher in high esteem. I don’t know why.

Last but not least, the Venetian blind. Let me dust you. Please accept all my Christmas cards which I will stick through your slatted shiny apertures. If you like I can also give you a nice trade in for the vertical ones but how to attach the cards. I can also perhaps show contrition by getting boxes of twinkling lights to adorn the roof and garage door right up to the fence and along the lawns.
I won’t do it again.
PS: for those having read hundreds of boring articles. Why did you, how could you? Avert your eyes.

Judi Moylan: Abbott is being unduly provocative.

24 Thursday Oct 2013

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Disclaimer: Please note that this is an article by Judi Moylan published in various media including Newmatilda. It is not about Italy, Norway, Sweden or Holland nor about Gerard.

Asylum Policy A ‘Vortex Of Political Posturing’

By Judi Moylan

Asylum Policy A 'Vortex Of Political Posturing'

The Abbott government’s Operation Sovereign Borders is unduly provocative, writes former Liberal MP Judi Moylan, as she concludes her series on the history of Australian border policy.

This is the second in a two-part series about the history of Australian border policy. Read the first part here.https://newmatilda.com/2013/10/21/echoes-white-australia

The Gang Of Four

When Parliament resumed in 2005, four Liberal Party Members of Parliament, Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent, Bruce Baird and I, met to discuss concerns about indefinite mandatory detention and its impact on children.

Petro Georgiou had commenced drafting a Private Members Bill to amend the Migration Act. Once the drafting was complete, the group met with then prime minister John Howard to advise their intentions. To avoid the embarrassment of a split on the benches, the prime minister asked for time to speak to his cabinet colleagues.

During the hiatus, the mistaken and unlawful detention of two Australian citizens, Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez Solon, aroused considerable public disquiet and sympathy. Cornelia Rau was erroneously held in immigration detention for 10 months and Vivian Alvarez Solon wrongly deported and “dumped” at the Manila airport in a wheelchair. Inquiries into both cases led to a damning exposé of inadequate care, lack of openness and scrutiny in the system and the pervasive culture of “denial and self justification” within the Department of Immigration.

Public alarm over detainees covertly held indefinitely heightened with the case of Peter Qasim, a stateless person detained for seven years. Qasim’s case became a cause célèbre when it was taken up by prominent businessman Dick Smith. The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the government’s decision to soften its hard line on mandatory detention. Under a headline ‘Free at last, but a prisoner still of his tortured mind’, it disclosed that Qasim would be one of 50 people locked up for more than two years, who would now be summarily released on bridging visas.

Churches, non-government organisations and a growing number of web-based social media commentators exerted growing pressure on government to change the policy. The threat of a private members bill was a crucial element in the government’s turnabout. The government announced that “a child shall only be detained as a matter of last resort”.

The Ombudsman was to review cases of detainees who had been in detention for more than two years and make recommendations about their release. The minister was required to report the recommendations to Parliament within 15 days, but could not be compelled to act on them. Other elements of the changes forced by the backbenchers included an agreement to place time limits on the processing of protection visa applications and offer the existing 4000 refugees on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) permanent protection within 90 days.

Winding Forward, Winding Back

In 2007 the Rudd Labor government was elected. As the boats slowed, the new government made good its election promise to dismantle the “Pacific Solution”. It ended TPVs and abolished detention charges. Mandatory detention and ‘excision’ of the migration zones remained firmly in place.

Two years later, boat arrivals bounded from seven in 2008 to 60. A deepening sense of panic gripped the government. A withering attack was unleashed by the Opposition accusing the government of not protecting the borders and encouraging smugglers.

The government suspended processing refugees from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka claiming that the situation in both jurisdictions was evolving and that the “Taliban’s fall, durable security in parts of the country and constitutional and legal reform to protect minorities’ rights have improved their circumstances.” This led to increased periods of detention, overcrowding and outbreaks of violence. Incarcerated children became a resurgent issue.

(read more by clicking the link above)

Why does Australia imprison women, children and men?

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

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October 23, 2013

Echoes Of White Australia

What motivates a democratic, peace-time government to imprison innocent men, women and children? Former Liberal MP Judi Moylan looks at the divisive history of Australian border policy.

Few matters have been more fiercely debated in the Australian Parliament or more unsparingly ventilated in the media than the recent and ongoing treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat.

To understand what motivates a democratic government in peace-time to implement policies that imprison indefinitely thousands of men, women and children who have not been charged with or convicted of any crime we must turn to historical, social and political attitudes.

Though countries around the world guard their sovereign powers jealously to determine who may enter, the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia has been particularly high profile and divisive. This article seeks to understand why.

The White Australia Policy

Immigration has been contentious in Australia since the early days of European settlement. It was an issue during the establishment of the Federal Parliament in 1901 when two early bills underpinned what became known as the White Australia Policy.

The Pacific Islanders Act prohibited islanders from entering Australia and the Immigration Restriction Act imposed an English language test, effectively barring entry for most non-English speaking people. One Member of Parliament said: “No matter what measures are necessary, Australia must be kept pure for the British race who have begun to inhabit it.”

Between 1945 and 1955 one million immigrants came to Australia. Even after the Menzies government signed up to the 1951 UN Convention, refugees continued to be selected according to the colour of their skin.

(You can read on clicking above link.)

Tags: Australia, Boat People, British, UN, White Australia
Posted in Gerard Oosterman |

Foodge #47 – The Secret in the Carpark

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Emmjay, Foodge Private Dick

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Story by Emmjay

Merv ?

Yes, Foodge.

Did you see that show on TV last night where they dug up Henry the Eighth in a carpark ?

It was Richard the third.

A round of snickering swept through the pub – “Richard the Third” being slang for “turd”, but owing to the extreme laziness of the Pig’s Arms patrons, it was usually Shortened ( Billed) to “R3” as in “Manne, go outside and clean that doggy R3 off your shoe, please mate, ta”.

“Richard the Third”, Foodge corrected himself. (Snigger, wave 2).

Yeah.

I was just thinking”, said Foodge.

“Pop” a thought bubble visible to everyone except Foodge appeared beside Merv’s head.  It read “Oh, struth, here we go !”

“You know that shiela who reckoned he was buried under the “R” in the carpark ?” asked Foodge.

Yeah, I thought she was havin’ herself on.  You know “R” for “Reserved” said Merv.

“Yeah, but no.  She was right, Merv.”

“Yeah, I know, but it was a fuckin huge fluke, Foodge.”

“I don’t think so”, said Foodge. “I think she was claw footed”

“Clairvoyant”, Merv offered.

“Yeah, what you said”, said Foodge.  I think there was something in the message in the carpark that that shiela picked up on”, said Foodge.

“Where’s this going Foodge ?” Merv wondered.  This time his lips gave an audible update on the thought bubble.

“I was just thinking…”, repeated Foodge, “I think Harold Holt is buried in the Pig’s Arms car park”, and he opened up the sluice gates for another Trotter’s Ale.

“What makes you think that ?” Merv said, preparing for a long run of leg pulling.

“You know that metal plaque in the car park next to The Pig’s Legs Waxing and and Beauty Parlour’s drums of discarded eyebrows ?” said Foodge.

“What metal plaque ?” said Merv.

“The one marked ‘PMG’ ”, said Foodge. “I reckon that stands for ‘Prime Minister’s grave”.

“Do you, now ?” said Merv.

“Nah”, said Manne. “People notice when a PM goes missing.”

“For some reason, I am given to recall that Harold Holt went missing”, said Hung warming to the task of setting Foodge up nicely – with an added faint smile of approval at the remembrance of Harold Holt getting his snorkel in a twist.

“Nah” said Merv. “If it was Harold Holt down there, the plaque would say ‘PMH’”.

“Nah”, said Granny. “That’s a kind of condiment sauce thing in a square bottle.”

“I think you’re thinking of ‘Worcestershire”, said Merv.

“Nah, that’s HP sauce”, said Hung.

“I was thinking that it could be Harold Holt buried in the car park of the Pig’s Arms”, said Foodge dragging the wild speculation back onto the rails. “

“I think you’re on to something, Foodge”, said Merv. “I’ll call up Terry and see if some of his mates from the University can give us a hand and check this out properly”.

Righto”, said Foodge. “I’ll park the Zephyr over the plaque for protection.  This could be a Libnat Party sacred site.

“Merv doesn’t know anyone in the University”, Granny whispered to Hung.

“Course he doesn’t” said Hung.

Merv’s thought bubble evaporated in the shape of a Cheshire cat.

to be continued …..

The Dutch are at it again.

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-22/dutch-take-russia-to-maritime-court-over-greenpeace-ship/5036792

The Dutch government has taken Russia to the international maritime court to try and free 30 crew members of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.

The group faces piracy charges after being by arrested Russian troops last month during a protest at an oil platform against drilling in the Arctic.

A Dutch government statement said it was asking for the release of the detained crew and the Greenpeace ship before the German-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

“Because the Netherlands find that the ship’s release and the freeing of the crew is an urgent matter, it has now decided on this step,” it said.

The activists from 18 different countries are being held in the northern Russian city of Murmansk before another court hearing in November.

Piracy carries a 15 year sentence in Russia