From: gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Sheep in Organizations
Distribution: world
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 93 04:53:49 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


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

Newsgroups: sci.environment,sci.energy