Author: Wan Kerr

Food Connect is a local business that feeds many Westenders through its regular food boxes and wholesale provision for local food cooperatives such as Turnstyle.

Through the wonders of online fund raiser Pozible, they have raised $12,000 to send Aussie farmers and representatives to join with representatives of the 200 million strong, global family farming movement (La Via Campesina) at their 6thInternational Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia in June 2013.

This is an incredible, once in a generation opportunity, for Aussie voices and views to connect with those of famers from 58 other countries in La Via Campesina’s 20-year long struggle to end the globalization of hunger.

The facts as we know them:

Small-scale agriculture, based on agroecology and food sovereignty, is the only model of food production that offers a sustainable future for the planet and its peoples; The corporate-driven industrialised model of agriculture seeks to deliberately destroy this small scale agriculture and the lives of those who practice it; La Via Campesina, as the authentic voice of the peasant, is the only organisation capable of maintaining the integrity and legitimacy of this model of sustainable agriculture and protecting the rights of those who practice it If they are to survive, Australian family farmers can no longer remain isolated from the knowledge, experiences and global solidarity that comes from meaningful engagement with the global family farming community that is La Via Campesina

On their return from Jakarta, the delegation members will form the core of the Australian- LVC connection. Their role will be to:

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• Build on and strengthen the LVC/Australia family farmer alliance;
• Coordinate ongoing LVC/Australian family farmer cultural exchanges;
• Initiate a range of activities to share their learnings and experiences with other family farmers across Australia; and
• Help to establish an Australian Family Farming Organisation which can be accepted for formal membership of La Via Campesina.

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Today in Yeronga, Alice Langford, president of Brisbane South West Chamber of Commerce and Connie de Cunha, president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Australia Philippines Inc, formalised the agreement between the two groups.

Local businesses attended breakfast at the Yeronga Services Club to hear Ms Cunha outline the opportunities for business in the Philippines. With a six percent growth rate, the Philippines is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and with inflation at three percent, this is a sign of increasting prosperity in the country.

Ms de Cunha said, “India may be the manufacturer of the world, but the Philippines is the human resources sector.” Philippine workers send home over $20billion every year to their families. This is about the same size as the revenue of the entire Australian electricity generating industry. ($22.5b according to BREE)

She said the reduction in corruption and focus on education has lifted the country out of poverty and made it a gateway to Asia. The Aquino government has been focused on democratic rights and supporting the economic development in the interests of the people, after years of the notorious corruption of the Marcos regime. She said the nation is built on a small business eithic that is an extension of family culture.

Manager of Brisbane South West Chamber of Commerce, Roger Taufel, was on hand to facilitate the deal but has been left out of the photo so that Westender could work the sisterhood puns to full advantage. We assume that his natural charm and graciousness will let the ladies have this one. “advantage play on,” as the AFL umpires say.

Business interested in the SW Chamber can find out more at the cleverly selected web address www.chamber.org.au.

Photo: Queensland Minister for Communities, Tracy Davis (Centre back) and Minister for Housing, Tim Mander (Right front), seen here at Brisbane Common Ground for the announcement of Queensland’s signing up to the NPAH.

Micah Projects, a not for profit organisation working with hundreds of people in Brisbane who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, has welcomed the signing of the National Homelessness Partnership Agreement between the Australian Government and the Queensland Government.

According to Karyn Walsh, Coordinator of Micah Projects, “This means services can continue, and individuals and families can access services, to help prevent and end homelessness.

“We are relieved that the agreement is signed,” said Karyn, “but very disappointed that it is for only one year, and that the continuation of the agreement was not included in the federal budget.

“We recognise that the Queensland government advocated for a four year agreement, and are disappointed that the Gillard government did not see the value of a four year term, which obviously gives greater security to services.

“It is now a matter for both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to rectify this, and ensure that a commitment to continue the investment into the future is embedded in election policies.

“It is essential to continue to fund programs which prevent and end homelessness for individuals, families and their children,” says Karyn. “It makes sense for everyone; individuals, families, children and the community as a whole benefits. In the last 12 months, Micah Projects has assisted 2940 people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, 820 of whom were children.

“We were able to intervene early to prevent homelessness for 240 adults and 182 children who were about to become homeless,” said Karyn. “At the end of our support with them, 86 percent of these families were still housed in sustainable housing.

“Through our Street to Home and Supportive Housing services, we were able to break the homelessness cycle for people sleeping rough and the chronically homeless. The number of people sleeping rough has been reduced by 49.7 percent, and 66 percent of rough sleepers, or people who were experiencing chronic homelessness, remain housed.

“Brisbane Common Ground is the first permanent supportive housing project to be funded, and it is critical for funding to continue. Common Ground Queensland and Micah Projects have had so much community support in bringing about another solution to chronic homelessness in Brisbane, and we need a range of options to ensure we keep our vision to end homelessness a reality.

“Homelessness is never static,” said Karyn. “The number of people overall experiencing homelessness has increased, but we are pleased that our work with rough sleepers, carried out in effective partnerships with Queensland Police, Support Link, Mater Health Services, St Vincent’s Hospital and other NGOs, has contributed to a substantial decrease in people living on the streets. Integrating healthcare with our partners, including Medicare Locals, has been vital to our success.

“We know from experience that we have to maintain consistent and assertive outreach to people on the streets to ensure that they do not remain there and are housed, to prevent chronic homelessness from increasing.

“With growing cost of living pressures and higher rents, it is also critical to ensure we provide assistance early to prevent families and vulnerable adults from falling into homelessness.

“Children with their parents have a growing presence at homelessness services, and we know we must be attentive and proactive in keeping families housed.”

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Protesters will today oppose the World Statesman Award to Indonesia’s President Susilo Yudhoyono from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. The demonstration is in support of the intense criticism of the award from groups suffering from religious intolerance in Indonesia and groups advocating for religious freedom, human rights and justice. The protest will condemn the honoring of Indonesia’s President by the Foundation, which describes itself as dedicated to promoting religious tolerance and human rights.

“We will be demonstrating to set the record straight.” said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. “President Yudhoyono must not be allowed to polish his image while incidents of religious intolerance increase, the prospects for justice for past rights violations diminishes, and violations by Indonesia’s security forces continue.”

Background

The Appeal of Conscience Foundation plans to give a highly controversial World Statesman Award to Indonesia’s President Yudhoyono this week. The award has generated heated controversy in Indonesia, inspiring demonstrations and other protests. More than 8000 people – from inside and outside Indonesia – have signed two petitions opposing the award. Several churches, minority religious institutions and human rights groups in Indonesia have written the foundation calling on the Foundation to withdraw the award. They are especially worried that the award will give the wrong impression internationally about the state of human rights and religious tolerance in the country. The Foundation has yet to respond directly to their concerns.

When President Yudhoyono first took office, he promised that his administration would promote human rights and tolerance. Nine years later, the prospects for accountability for past rights violations have receded; religious intolerance has grown. Indonesia’s security forces have become increasingly abusive in West Papua. Police and soldiers who violate human rights are rarely held accountable. Serious human rights violations by members of the military are tried in military courts where soldiers, if convicted, receive light sentences.

Recent examples of religious persecution include the March 21 demolition of the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi after an order from the regional government. Four Ahmadiyah places of worship were closed within a month in West Java. Last August, members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java, were forced from their homes members of the majority Sunni attacked them for so-called blasphemy. They continue to struggle in a makeshift camp in a sports stadium.

In 2006, President Yudhoyono issued a regulation on building houses of worship that makes it extremely difficult for religious minorities to construct their buildings. He signed a law that allows the listing of only six religions on Indonesian ID cards, basically discriminating against more than 350 other small religions. In 2009, Yudhoyono sent his cabinet members to defend the blasphemy law when it was challenged at the Constitutional Court. They mobilized Muslim militias to harass the petitioners and their lawyers. In April 2010, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, which provides criminal penalties for those who express religious beliefs that deviate from the six officially-recognized religions. The court said it is lawful to restrict minority beliefs because it allows for the “maintenance of public order.” In 2008, Yudhoyono issued an anti-Ahmadiyah decree, threatening to five years jail term for anyone who “propagates” the group’s teachings.

An ad hoc tribunal to investigate and prosecute the 1997-98 the disappearance of human rights activists has yet to be established, though it has been approved by the legislature. Yudhoyono’s own coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs and Attorney General have rejected the official human rights commission’s findings that the government’s anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966 – which included mass killings of up to one million people, enslavement, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance – constituted a crime against humanity. The truth commission and human rights courts authorized by the 2006 law on Aceh have yet to be established. There has been no accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian forces in Timor-Leste, where as many as 183,000 were killed, or West Papua, where at least 100,000 have died.

On taking office, President Yudhoyono declared that solving the September 2004 murder of Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia’s best known human rights activist, would be a test of “whether Indonesia had changed.” The President and Indonesia have failed the test. He has refused to release the report of the fact-finding team he set up early in his Presidency. The murder involved the national intelligence agency and serving and former military officers; none of them have been brought to justice.

Additional background can be found here: http://etan.org/action/action2/sby_award.htm

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There have been no reports of injuries and it is unclear where the shots exactly came from, but it has left the protesters shaken.

The Tara blockade has pitted hundreds of local farmers against the mining companies in an attempt to stop the drilling and fracking of the Kenya gas field, which has produced tension between the two groups.

Early morning photos showed protester’s utilities and small cars blocking the roads used by hundreds of mine vehicles at the Kenya gas fields in the dark and wet.

By mid-morning the sun was out and the knitting nannas and the police were in place and supporting the blockade.

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Hundreds of people gathered in the centre of Brisbane today to protest at the actions of agribusiness giant Monsanto. The promoters of the pesticide RoundUp, which kills everything except the company’s genetically modified crops, are lobbying law makers around the world to promote their products and protect them from lawsuits.

The company has been implicated in leakage of genes from its genetically modified crops which it then uses to bring lawsuits against farmers who do not buy its products, claiming they have ‘stolen’ their genes.

The Farm Bill before the US Congress has been widely billed as the Monsanto Protection Act. See related story yesterday.

Brisbane’s rally was one of many rally’s around the world, all conveniently ignored by the mainstream media. Independent press like Westender is critical in ensuring that governments are held to account in governing for the interest of their citizens, rather than coorporations and their highly paid lobbyists.

The Greens candidate for Brisbane, Rachael Jacobs spoke passionately at the Brisbane rally, pointing out that the Greens are the only elected representatives who have been elected without donations from corporations seeking to influence politicians.