Catholic Church shuts down Aboriginal healing centre

by Millicent Caffrey

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney last month closed the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in Alexandria and the Aboriginal Healing House in Picton, ending the employment of two long-term workers.

Brenda McDonnell worked with the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in Alexandria for 11 years assisting in the welfare of the Aboriginal community. She says she was given no explanation for the termination of her employment.

“I honestly don’t know why this is happening,” Ms McDonnell said, describing her immense contribution to the Archdiocese. “I had to bring in $45 to $50,000 each year to maintain the house. It was a beautiful place for women, spiritual bonding and healing.”

Barbara Asplet worked for 25 years in the ministry and was co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Healing House in Picton, which provided programs for women suffering from trauma associated with the Stolen Generation and for victims of domestic violence, sexual, drug and alcohol abuse.

Supporters of Aboriginal rights stood in the rain on December 1, in front of the nativity scene at St Mary’s Cathedral, to protest the decision of the Catholic Church to close the Healing House and end the employment of these two women. They were blocked by security from entering the church, but a small crowd of visitors to the cathedral stopped to listen to their speeches.

Ms McDonnell described the Church’s actions as a “huge injustice” and said she it had made her lose her faith as a Catholic.

Director of Catholic Communications Katrina Lee said the Church’s decision was to reflect the changing needs of the community.

“We would like to introduce even more experienced professional people,” Ms Lee said.

Founding member of the Indigenous Social Justice Association Ray Jackson said the Church’s decision was “just another bastard act by Cardinal Pell.”

“I don’t know what another bastard act is.” Ms Lee said. “That is because I don’t know of any previous ones.”

In February of this year Cardinal Pell banned the Australian Reforming Catholics, a group partly focused on the spirituality and harmony of Aboriginal people, from using a Church in Rose Bay to hold their annual general meeting. Pell has also been criticised for stating in 2006 that the issue of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church was “obviously connected with the problem of homosexuality.”

According to the Archdiocese, the Healing House will be reopened in Sydney after Christmas. Mr Jackson, however, doubts this. “Once the Healing House gets sold, there is no trace on that money whatsoever. The Church can do what they like with it.”

Hungriest Place on Earth

 In this April 8, 2010 file photo, two-year-old Nyagod Kuel attempts to eat on her bed in a hospital ward in Akobo, southeastern Sudan. Two years of failed rain and tribal clashes in this Sudan region bordering Ethiopia have laid foundations for a humanitarian crisis the U.N. mission dubs the "hungriest place on earth." A recent survey found that almost 46 percent of children in the region are malnourished. Lise Grande, the top U.N. official in southern Sudan, said most humanitarian agencies regard a malnutrition rate of 15 percent at an emergency threshold. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

Funding illegal Israeli settlements? Priceless.

by Bernard Keane

 

Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law.

It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.

All three have in the last week ceased enabling donations to WikiLeaks. Neither Mastercard nor Visa have explained the basis for their decision to do so. PayPal has backed away from its initial claim that the US State Department told PayPal WikiLeaks had broken the law after the claim was discredited. This is the third occasion on which PayPal has suspended payment services for WikiLeaks.

Israel subsidises over 100 settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law. Another 100+ are “illegal outposts” even under Israeli law. All benefit from extensive support from the United States, channelled through a range of Jewish and right-wing Christian bodies, all of which have charitable status under US law. The International Crisis Group’s report on settlements in July 2009 identified the important role played by US charities. Israeli newspaper Haaretz has investigated the strong support provided via US charities, and Israeli peace groups have also targeted the generous support provided via private donations from the US and Canada.

Credit card transactional systems play a key role in facilitating this support for illegal settlements. Here are some examples.

• The Shuva Israel group, an evangelical Christian group based in Texas, is accused by Israeli group Gush Shalom of channelling money to fund the illegal West Bank settlement of Revava. You can donate to it, says the Shuva Israel website, via Mastercard, Visa and Paypal.

• The One Israel Fund, used as an example in the International Crisis Group report, boasts of being “the largest North American charity whose efforts are dedicated solely to the citizens and communities of Yesha”. You can donate to the One Israel Fund, according to its website, via Mastercard, Visa and Amex.

• The website of another right-wing Christian group, the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities describes support for settlements like Argaman, which are illegal under international law. You can donate, their website says, via Mastercard, Visa and PayPal.

• One of the highest-profile groups is the Hebron Fund, the centre of a 2009 row when the New York Mets were criticised for hosting a fundraising dinner for the group. It provides extensive support for the extraordinarily aggressive Hebron settlement, described by one Israeli group as “an ongoing war crime”, while the Fund itself has been linked to praise for an Israeli mass murderer. According to its website, it receives donations via all major credit cards.

• Worst of all is the extremist SOS Israel group, which has incurred even the wrath of the Israeli Defence Force by rewarding Israeli soldiers who disobey orders to evict settlers from illegal outposts (i.e. inciting mutiny), and which has offered a bounty for Palestinians shot by IDF soldiers. The SOS Israel website describes a number of ways you can make your “generous donation” to it, including credit cards. Crikey’s token $2 donation via a Visa card was successful last night.

At this stage WikiLeaks has breached no international law and no laws of any country, but Mastercard, Visa and PayPal have all blacklisted it. All three continue to enable the support of settlements that are in breach of international law, in some cases of Israeli law, and in defiance of US policy on settlements under successive Republican and Democrat administrations.

Crikey invited Visa, Paypal and Mastercard to comment but none had responded by deadline.

Congratulations

To our dear Prime Minister Julia Gillard,

On behalf of the Australian people, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you.

As our first female PM you have truly transformed the perception of this great land as one filled with beer swilling, thong wearing, mosquito slapping ockers. You have taken us to an unprecedented level of recognition on the international stage. No longer will Australians remain confused with Austrians, nor will they be mistaken for strange sounding British people.

We are now known as a tough and uncompromising nation. We don't cut corners when it comes to the invasion of our land by undesirable and frankly malodorous "asylum seekers" on leaky boats.

The Labor government has done all it can, even putting some of these refugees up in a motel in Darwin! And those spacious facilities at Villawood are nothing to scoff at, so we can only roll our eyes when these so called asylum seekers start hacking at their wrists, climbing on roof tops and killing themselves.

What were they expecting? Human rights? This is Australia, for God's sake.

Now, from the recesses of that ginger coated head of yours, has emerged what can only be described as an ingenious plan.

Instead of having these foreign people commit suicide in our state of the art facilities, why not just send them packing back to where they belong and avoid the bad press? Who wouldn't like Afghanistan anyway? Sure, there a few hundred rather large craters and countless destroyed buildings from bombs dropped by our steadfast ally, the United States, but other than that, I hear the food is quite good.

And as an Australian citizen who holds complete trust in my democratically elected government, I have no doubts at all that you will honour the commitment which ensures a return agreement will contain assurances that deported asylum seekers not be harmed. Of course it will also include reintegration packages to discourage this cheeky buggers from ever hopping on a boat back to our fair country again.

Some might also say doing deals with a notoriously corrupt government isn't the best political decision, but hey, I'll trust you on this one!

Ms Gillard, I applaud you for setting a fine example to the rest of the world on how to treat those who dare to flee a country which we helped destroy.

I can only hope to be like you when I grow up.

Warmest regards,

Your fellow Australian.

Lomography from Ukraine

I want to go to (the?) Ukraine.
Check out lomography from this interesting little country here.

Queen Black Acid

Menomena are a band from the U.S. and have been around for ten years. They mix gui­tar, glock­en­spiel, bass, bari­tone and alto sax, keys, per­cus­sion and vocals, play­ing sev­eral instru­ments at once and swap­ping between songs to create a blissed out sound. I'm loving 'Queen Black Acid'. The lyrics are a beauty and the song smooths out your mind like a chrome plated iron.

 

I get so caught up in my ways
sometimes I overlook the simple plains
I feel like certain times in my life
are met with certain times for pain to thrive
you're five foot five, not a hundred pounds
I'm scared to death of every single ounce
and worst of all is when it's calm
cause I know the sea won't be calm for long

you bring me down

I walked right in through the rabbit's door
and walked right into the rabbit's hole
I made myself an open book
I made myself a sitting duck

I don't know how I missed the signs
I must have passed by them a hundred times
you barely notice what I say
you're busy looking round the room instead
I get so caught up in my ways

I walked right in through the rabbit's door
and walked right into the rabbit's hole
I made myself an open book
I made myself a sitting duck
I'm walking down this rabbit trail
my feet grow heavy with every step
I stop to eat and take a nap
and now I can't find my way back

you bring me down
so down 

VOMIT

There are parts of this interview, aired by the ABC on the 7.30 Report that make me feel so, so sick.
  

KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Kurt Campbell is the US State Department’s most senior official, with responsibility for the Asia-Pacific region, and he asked to come on the program to counter the damage from today’s exposure in Fairfax newspapers of the US embassy cables critical of Prime Minister – or then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s foreign policy record. I recorded this interview with the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in our Washington studio.

Kurt Campbell, Australians woke up to a headline this morning that said “US condemns Rudd”. What do you say to that?

KURT CAMPBELL, US ASST SECRETARY OF STATE, ASIA-PACIFIC: Ah, I have to say we’ve been living over the course of the last two or three weeks with just enormous challenges. Every day we wake up, issues associated with WikiLeaks. It’s been extremely difficult for us. And to be perfectly honest, this is another one that causes us great heartache. No relationship’s more important to us than Australia. And to be perfectly blunt, I’ve worked with a lot of people over many, many years and I’ve really focused on Asia for most of my career. Few people have made such an impression, not only on sort of the foreign policy national security imperatives of a country like Kevin Rudd has done in Australia, but he has an enormous respectful following in the United States and throughout Asia. So I think these are just deeply, profoundly unfair and he’s just taken some very unfair shots and I think it’s important for both friends and admirers to stand up and speak out, and that’s what I’m doing here tonight.

KERRY O’BRIEN: But does that mean that your own embassy in Canberra is out of step with the sentiment at the State Department and the White House level?

KURT CAMPBELL: Well, look, you know, some of these cables come from a previous administration. I don’t know all the context. And frankly, the release of cables are in the tens, hundreds of thousands, so, I can’t speak to specific cables. We don’t know the validity of all of these in particular. All I can tell you is that in meetings talking about Asian architectural issues, about China, about how to think about security challenges of the 21st Century and climate change, in meetings with President Obama, with Secretary Clinton, with Secretary Gates, no leader I’ve encountered has the respect and level of when he speaks people listen, as Kevin Rudd has had in the American administration. And I say that with no bias. I’ve seen very clearly how much he punches above his weight and frankly how much Australia punches above its weight in our diplomatic undertakings.

 KERRY O’BRIEN: But everything you’re saying right now is going to be seen by a lot of people as an exercise in damage control, that these are the things you have to say to undo the damage?

KURT CAMPBELL: Look, all I can tell you is that this has hit us broadside in almost every country. I’ve not talked with Foreign Minister Rudd about this. It’s late at night. I can tell you that we have many of these challenges on really an hourly basis. I called you, I wanted to do this. I don’t see this as damage control, I see this as stating very clearly how I see it and how our government sees it. We were – when we look at what Kevin, what Foreign Minister Rudd has accomplished in terms of – we would not have joined the East Asia Summit if it weren’t for his prodding. He played a role that was enormous in trying to salvage a success last year in Cancun. He has played a critical role in how to think – how we should think about China’s role for instance on the Korean Peninsula. On almost every issue of consequence – Burma, South-East Asia, the role of India in Asia, we consult with Rudd on a very regular basis. There’s no foreign official that I spend more time with in quiet consultations. And so this is just a fact. And all I can tell you is if you have any doubts about this, take a look at the pictures from the AUSMIN that took place in Australia just a couple of months ago, or look at the US-Australia Leadership Dialogue. It’s not just respect, it’s true affection.

 KERRY O’BRIEN: He’s been painted in these US cables as impulsive, not consultative with the US. And if we go back to last year, I remember talking to you about what you had to say at your confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where your comments were interpreted as pouring cold water on Kevin Rudd’s call for a new strategic Asia Pacific community. Was that a case in point?

KURT CAMPBELL: No, no, I disagree with that, and in fact if you look at what I said, I tried to be very clear in my confirmation hearing where the United States stood and where I stood. Confirmation hearings are – you know, your whole life is hanging in the balance, and you’re stressed and you’ve been up for days preparing, and so sometimes things come out slightly different. And what I tried to convey to both Foreign Minister Rudd and to the mission here was that, you know, I think my tone wasn’t exactly right. The truth is that we came out with a slightly different position than the one Foreign Minister – then Prime Minister – Rudd advanced. However, the overall conversation in the United States – we weren’t even thinking about joining the East Asia Summit. We weren’t even thinking about engaging deeply in South-East Asia. His role was decisive. Everything I’ve seen in my interactions with him, he’s deeply consultative. He has his own views and he will advance them strongly, and frankly that’s what’s impressive.

KERRY O’BRIEN: You told me in that interview that Kevin Rudd was one of President Obama’s best mates. Can you say with confidence that that’s still the case?

KURT CAMPBELL: Yes, but I think as importantly today – remember, Kevin Rudd is now serving as Foreign Minister. I would say, today, when we had discussions with the secretary and her staff, she was very clear about how uncomfortable she was with these revelations, understood that it put Foreign Minister Rudd in a very difficult position. But what’s impressive over the course of the last several months is they have developed a very close relationship. They consult regularly. So, the depth of his engagement with our administration is not just at the presidential level. It’s with our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, key Asia staffers at the White House and also the Secretary of Defence.

KERRY O’BRIEN: What is the State Department’s current view as to what laws WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has actually broken by releasing the leaked documents and diplomatic cables? Because there’s been confusion about what actual laws the US believes he’s breached.

KURT CAMPBELL: You know, to be perfectly honest, I am not a lawyer. We have teams of lawyers that are working on this and there is lots of speculation in the public. I don’t think I can advance the case here in that respect. And so I best not talk directly about those issues. All I can tell you is that, as you well understand, they have been deeply challenging, embarrassing and they’ve created great damage. But I will also say we have enormous important work to do in the US-Australian relationship and I am proud of what we’ve accomplished and what we need to accomplish in the future and I stand by the relationship and I stand by our relationships inside the Australian Government.

KERRY O’BRIEN: Kurt Campbell, thanks very much for talking with us.

KURT CAMPBELL: Thanks very much.