Australia’s overseas aid used to promote image of Paladin and Bannerman uranium mining companies
Paladin, which has been the subject of some controversy in Malawi over job cuts, was last year linked to a funding application through its employees’ charity – Friends and Employees of Paladin for African Children.
Paladin’s (African) Ltd general manager, international affairs, Greg Walker, who was invited late last year to be Australia’s honorary consul to Malawi, was involved in the process, according to 2012 correspondence from Australia’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Matthew Neuhaus, to Mr Walker. The letter obtained under freedom of information confirmed Mr Walker’s successful application for the employees’ charity funding proposal.
The Aidwatch director Thulsi Narayanasamy said it was not the place of the Australian aid program to fund the corporate social responsibility programs of wealthy mining companies.
Firms use tax money for aid projects : http://www.smh.com.au/money/tax/firms-use-tax-money-for-aid-projects-20130129-2ditd.html#ixzz2Jbp0RzOT January 30, 2013 Rory Callinan
WEALTHY resource companies operating overseas are tapping into Australian taxpayer funds to set up aid projects potentially benefiting their corporate social responsibility credentials.
Aid and mining watchdogs have expressed concerns about the practice, arguing the corporations are wealthy enough to bankroll their own aid and that linking donations to controversial mine operations is a conflict of interest.
Nine mining companies all operating in Africa have been linked to the successful applications via the Foreign Affairs Department’s Direct Aid Program – a scheme that allows heads of missions to give up to $30,000 to local causes.
About $215,000 of taxpayers’ money went to the mining company-conceived projects last financial year, including a school for the deaf, providing trade skill training to local workers, establishing women’s groups and digging wells. Two applications involved uranium mining companies, Paladin Energy in Malawi and Bannerman Resources in Namibia. Read more »
Stop Northern Territory aboriginal Intervention laws – Australia’s Catholic bishops tell Senate
Bishops slam NT intervention extension Big Pond News, May 07, 2012 Australia’s Catholic bishops have urged the Senate to block draft legislation to extend the Northern Territory intervention in Aboriginal communities.
Labor’s Stronger Futures draft laws are likely to clear the upper house with bipartisan support when federal parliament resumes this week. Read more »
Catholic Cardinal and priests join call to abolish nuclear weapons
700 prominent Australians call for nuclear abolition, National Catholic Reporter, Feb. 16, 2012, By Joshua J. McElwee More than 700 prominent Australians — including former prime ministers, defense ministers, and Catholic bishops and priests — have signed onto a statement calling on their country’s government to adopt a “nuclear-weapons-free” defense posture and to take steps to initiate a global treaty to abolish nuclear arsenals.
The statement, which was put together by Australians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention and announced Jan. 25, includes signatures from 713 Australians who have received the Order of Australia, an honor granted by Queen Elizabeth II to note achievement or “meritorious service” and similar to a knighthood in the United Kingdom.
Among the Catholics who have signed onto the statement is Cardinal Edward Clancy, who served as the archbishop of Sydney from 1983 to 2001. Jesuit Fr. Frank Brennan, former chairman of the country’s National Human Rights Consultation Committee, and Fr. Michael Tate, a former ambassador to the Holy See, have also signed. Read more »
Killings of Iran’s scientists – an ethical test for Australia
these killings pose an ethical test for Australians too.
It’s easy to condemn terrorism when it’s carried out by official enemies. You don’t need much moral courage to stand up against Emmanuel Goldstein.
But Israel and the US are key allies of Australia, and, on almost every issue of import, our government marches in lockstep with theirs.
Killing Iranian scientists: when terrorism isn’t terrorism The Drum, JEFF SPARROW, 16 Jan 12, Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage – torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians – which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side…
George Orwell might have been describing almost exactly the Western response to the murder spree currently underway in Iran. Read more »
Does your superannuation fund invest in uranium mining?
Disclosure would also allow fund members who oppose uranium mining, for example, to discover whether their retirement savings are invested in a miner with substantial uranium mining interests.
Portfolio details must be disclosed, SMH, John Collett, August 20, 2011 – Super funds will soon list their investments for all to see The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants superannuation funds and fund managers to disclose the investments they hold. Disclosure among super funds and fund managers is patchy. Some will list the biggest 10 holdings in their disclosure documents and perhaps on their websites.
But investors are mostly left guessing on how their super is invested – the biggest investment most people will have alongside the family home. Read more »
An Australian apologises for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
We inherit from the past our own conditions of living. We inherit the burdens, responsibilities and sacrifices, as well as the opportunities. Whether I like it or not, I am part of the rationale against you, that led to the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All this I owe to you, Japan, when I apologise. ....
Apologising for the bomb: a letter on our anniversary. The Drum, Luke Stickels, 5 August 11
Dear Japan, Today marks 66 years since your city, Hiroshima, faced the world’s first ever nuclear attack, and I thought I would write to apologise……..
at approximately 8.15am on 6 August, 1945, the United States dropped a gun-type atomic bomb called Little Boy on Hiroshima. Between 70,000-80,000 people, or approximately 30 per cent of Hiroshima’s population, were killed instantly by what the subsequent US Bombing Survey termed “inefficient” nuclear fission, which nevertheless cleared 12 square kilometers of the city and 69 per cent of its buildings.[1] I am sorry that Little Boy was not even less efficient; in fact I wish it had failed altogether. Another 70,000 of your people were injured, with 90 per cent of doctors and 93 per cent of nurses among the casualties, significantly disabling treatment for the injured and substantially raising the final death toll. Read more »
Uranium exports and the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
On the back of purported concern over climate change, there is increasing noise from vested interests about the need to sell uranium to India, allowing the country to limit its coal use and high greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a debate we need to engage with. We simply cannot avoid Australia’s moral and political hypocrisy in this area.
Fuelling Catastrophe: Uranium, Climate Change and Elephants - News and Events, Monash University, 7 March 2011 Dr Gavin M. Mudd,
In the midst of a debate about a proposed carbon tax – a tax we have to have (and should have had years ago) – there is another environmental proposal being prosecuted by a select minority of the Australian Government that is getting much less attention: uranium sales to nuclear-armed India. Read more »
Catholics must be cringing at Cardinal Pell’s views on climate change
The coolist Cardinal’s hopes were dashed a week later when data came in confirming that 2010 was, indeed, the hottest year on record – even despite the European deep freeze………………….
Climate policies slashed to pay for a natural disaster, Crikey, 29 Jan 2011, “……..Catholic leader Cardinal George Pell, who influences an even greater congregation, wrote a week earlier of his delight at the extraordinary freeze that had hit Europe in late December – an event that just so happened to have killed dozens and ruined the travel plans of millions – because he thought it disproved the theory of man-made global warming.
“Nothing so delicious has happened,” he wrote, since President Obama’s aircraft was snowed in at the global warming summit in Copenhagen in 2009. Read more »
Scientists and the ethics of uranium and nuclear weapons
Considering Australia, he argues, is a country with abundant uranium reserves, our scientists should refrain from activities that have the potential to indirectly aid the production of nuclear weapons
The Responsible Sci
entist: A Philosophical Inquiry, Eureka: Ethics Research, Australian Museum, December 2010, WINNER – The Responsible Scientist Setting a Moral Compass for Scientists As atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the final stages of World War II in 1945, the world witnessed the devastation that science could inflict on humankind.Since that moment, countries around the world have been called to account on their nuclear weapons programs. But what responsibility rests on the shoulders of the scientists who make such grand-scale destruction possible? Read more »
Wikileaks Whistleblower defends principle of free speech
“When governments stop torturing and killing people, and when corporations stop abusing the legal system, then perhaps it will be time to ask if free-speech activists are accountable.” – Julian Assange
A dream come true for WikiLeaks founder, DAILY NATION 2 Dec 10, The founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks whose exclusive dossiers have captured the attention of the world is a man who seems to have achieved his dream. Read more »
The other side of BHP Billiton’s Annual Report
Threatening lives, the environment, and peoples’ future – An Alternative Annual Report on BHP Billiton 2009-2010 In this 25 page report, case studies question BHP’s record on human rights, transparency, and ecological justice.
“………..This report examines a number of BHP Billiton’s operations around the world. The collection of case studies highlights the disparity between BHP Billiton’s ‘Sustainability Framework’ and the reality of its operations.In the year 2009-2010 BHP Billiton has continued itsinvolvement in many controversial mines, is advancing riskyand unwanted projects….. Read more »
BHP Billiton- uranium and coal miner – not an ethical investment
the problems of decommissioning nuclear power plants and disposal of waste and proliferation, as well as BHP’s carbon footprint, – reasons for not holding the company.
Turbocharged: ethical investments beat the market, Sydney Morning Herald John Collett, October 13, 2010 “…….Some of the largest that run ”socially responsible” funds have BHP Billiton among their biggest shareholdings. It means their investors have more money in BHP than any other company. Read more »
Greenwashing in Australian banks and “ethical” funds
Many ethical funds will claim to be committed to socially responsible investment but how green are they?…Australian banks investing in coal over renewable energy at a rate of seven to one. The banks invested $5.5 billion in the coal industry, as against $784 million in renewable energies.
Environmentally-friendly investments, How green are they really?, Sydney Morning Herald, Adam Courtenay, October 12, 2010 - The government may have rediscovered a political commitment to carbon containment but few investment houses have shown any signs of moving with the environmental zeitgeist. Green investing, in its purest environmental sense, remains anathema to financial advisers and mainstream fund managers, and investors with a deep green conscience are badly served by the sector.There are only a handful of truly green investment funds available in Australia and most struggle for subscriptions. Read more »
ANZ, National, CBA, Westpac hypocrites with their huge investment in coal
Greenpeace Slams Australia’s Big 4 Banks’ Coal Power Investment, Renewable Energy News, 4 Oct 10, A report prepared for Greenpeace Australia Pacific has found Australia’s big four banks are pouring huge amounts of money into the most polluting form of power generation: coal. Read more »
U.S. Nuclear Agency’s grisly tests on monkeys
Monkeys blown up in grisly tests, Northern Territory News, BEN LANGFORD, September 10th, 2010 INPEX is relying on experiments where monkeys, dogs, sheep and ducks were suspended in water and blown up by explosives to test the effects of marine blasting. Read more »
This month
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http://www.cleanenergymap.gov.au/ Clean Energy Future – Australian Government
- AUDIO Miners falling short on Indigenous consultation: Oxfam http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-17/miners-falling-short-on-indigenous-consultation/4696040
- and this Nuclear future unclear for Lucas Heights. http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/05/16/3760616.htm?
Youtube: From Fukushima to New York: Continuing Dangers of Nuclear PowerAnti nuclear action below: - more info at Action Australia « Antinuclear and at Event details « Antinuclear
EVENTS -
- Now - until June 2 – Melbourne PROTEST! ARCHIVES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/exhibitions/protest/index.html
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May 25 – Tennant Creek, Northern Territory March and Music for Muckaty NO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP- Six years on and still strong! http://www.facebook.com/events/326459734149343/
- July 24-26 - Brisbane - Clean Energy Week
Australia’s anti nuclear hero – Dr Helen Caldicott
As I write this, Dr Helen Caldicott is in Korea, keeping a commitment to lecture there, despite the tense political/military situation. In recent weeks, she has lectured in USA ,and Canada, following the landmark symposium “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident” http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf# which she organised in New York in March. Christina MacphersonHelen Caldicott MD The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Helen Caldicott, has devoted the last 38 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.
Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1938, Dr Caldicott received her medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1961. She founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1975 and subsequently was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Mass., until 1980 when she resigned to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war.
In 1971, Dr Caldicott played a major role in Australia’s opposition to French atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific; in 1975 she worked with the Australian trade unions to educate their members about the medical dangers of the nuclear fuel cycle, with particular reference to uranium mining.
While living in the United States from 1977 to 1986, she co-founded thePhysicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. On trips abroad she helped start similar medical organizations in many other countries. The international umbrella group (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) won theNobel Peace Prize in 1985. She also founded the Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) in the US in 1980….
IN the United States in 1995, Dr Caldicott lectured at the New School for Social Research on the Media, Global Politics and the Environment, hosting a weekly radio talk show on WBAI (Pacifica), and becoming the Founding President of the STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) Foundation.
Dr Caldicott has received many prizes and awards for her work, including theLannan Foundation’s 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom and 21 honorary doctoral degrees, and she was personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize byLinus Pauling – himself a Nobel Laureate. The Smithsonian has named Dr Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century. She has written for numerous publications and has authored seven books, Nuclear Madness, Missile Envy, If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth(1992, W.W. Norton) and A Desperate Passion: An Autobiography (1996,W.W. Norton; published as A Passionate Life in Australia by Random House), The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush’s Military Industrial Complex (2001, The New Press in the US, UK and UK; Scribe Publishing in Australia and New Zealand; Lemniscaat Publishers in The Netherlands; andHugendubel Verlag in Germany), Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006,The New Press in the US, UK and UK; Melbourne University Press in Australia) and War In Heaven (March 2007). Dr. Caldicott’s most recent book is the revised and updated If You Love This Planet (March 2009) updated 2012 as Loving This Planet
She also has been the subject of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, If You Love This Planet, which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1982, andHelen’s War: portrait of a dissident, recipient of the Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Direction (Documentary) 2004, and the Sydney Film FestivalDendy Award for Best Documentary in 2004.
Dr Caldicott currently divides her time between Australia and the US where she lectures widely. She founded the US-based Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI), which evolved into Beyond Nuclear. Currently, Dr Caldicott is President of The Helen Caldicott Foundation/NuclearFreePlanet.org, an educational outreach project that informs people of the dangers of nuclear power and weapons. The mission of the Foundation is education to action, and the promotion of a nuclear energy and weapons free, renewable energy powered, world….. http://www.helencaldicott.com/about/
Few speakers can match Dr. Caldicott’s ability to simultaneously educate, entertain and ignite an audience. Senator Edward Kennedy has called her “one of the most eloquent voices on earth” and actress Meryl Streep says “Helen Caldicott has been my inspiration to speak out”. http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/dl/caldicott_bio.pdf
