Australia

Rael awards Stephen Hawking 'Honorary Guide' title

LAS VEGAS, May 10 - After Professor Stephen Hawking recently decided to withdraw from the Israeli President's Conference, Rael, leader and founder of the International Raelian Movement (IRM), decided to award him the title "Honorary Guide of Humanity."

Hawking reportedly withdrew from the conference to support an academic boycott against Israel that is being enacted to protest that nation's occupation of Palestine.

"Here is one of the greatest minds on Earth, showing the way for all to follow," Rael said of Hawking, in a statement released today by the IRM.

Geography: 

Aussie coal industry "ripe for financial implosion"

Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock interviews John Connor, Exec. Dir. of the Climate Institute in Sydney. Their new report shows the Australian coal industry can only burn a fraction of their reserves before the climate spins out of control. The big coal companies are over-valued, based on reserves that are "unburnable" - a big risk for the Australian economy. Listen to/download this 19 minute interview here: http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/climate2013/ES_JConnor_LoFi.mp3

Related articles: Coal ship boarded by Greenpeace activists off the Great Barrier Reef | Philippine climate activists expose risks of dirty coal | Australian based company Ambre Energy pushing coal export in Oregon | Coal dust and climate change: Newcastle residents march against proposed T4 coal loader | Time to cease expansion of coal to reduce climate change says Ad

Geography: 
Promotion: 

WGAR News: Upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia - 48 events from 13 May 2013

Newsletter date: 13 May 2013

Click on the links for details of the events ...

Event: Wed 1 May - Sun 30 June 2013: Redfern, Sydney, NSW
Photographer: Barbara McGrady
"Barbara is a Gamilario/Murri woman has been photographing
the social history of contemporary Aboriginal life for over
30 years. From Sports to politics, her vision is a unique
perspective from within a community empowering her
subjects by this virtue alone."
Event details: http://headon.com.au/event/barbara-mcgrady

Event: Fri 10 May until 1 June 2013: Northcote, Melbourne, Vic
The Power and the Passion

The Stringer weekly newsletter - May 12

Welcome to The Stringer’s weekly newsletter - The Stringer went live February 20
NEWS update: More contributors and writers have joined The Stringer as we continue to extend our reach nationally and internationally. We are also keen to share with you that in the 80 days we have been bringing to you The Stringer we have been reaching an audience in such high numbers that it was beyond our expectations. We are establishing a healthy national reach but also an international social reach.

South Africa, 20 years after Apartheid, doing better than Australia

by Gerry Georgatos - May 11th, 2013
Australia incarcerates its Aboriginal youth at the world’s highest rates, it imprisons one in 14 Western Australian Aboriginal adult males and it removes one in 14 children from Western Australian Aboriginal families into the care of the State, and for Aboriginal peoples the whole of the Northern Territory is a prison built brick by brick by the Commonwealth, and this prison is loosely known as the ‘Intervention’.

Since 1992, the rate of Aboriginal incarceration in Australia has grown 14 times faster than that of non-Aboriginal incarceration.

Promotion: 

Peace groups attack defence white paper

Peace groups have condemned the Federal Government’s Defence White Paper (DWP), as a continuation of excessive military spending and continuation of outmoded thinking on defence and security.

“Billions will be spent on ships, submarines and planes as the current excessive military budget of over $26 billion a year or $67.5 million per day is increased to two per cent of GDP,” Denis Doherty from the Australian Anti-Bases Coalition said.

Geography: 

Our pressure is working

Thousands of Australians are joining The Greens' campaign to end huge fossil fuel subsidies to mining companies.

Our Parliamentary Budget Office costing that shows that the three biggest tax breaks for these companies will cost the Budget nearly $14 billion over the next several years is shocking. The pressure we can exert with support from you and strong community campaigns can have a real impact.

Geography: 

Poverty Hustlers

Poverty Hustlers, such as governments that promise false hope on action to end poverty or even charities that do nothing more than provide relief to the poor, should move aside for those that want to see an end to poverty in Australia. Freedom from Want Filmmaker has just launched a 130 billion dollar plan to end poverty in Australia that it hopes the federal government adopts.

Geography: