When I read the title "As I write, Sydney burns", I first wondered if FW
has suddenly become a tabloid press newsfeed (after all, it wasn't the
city itself that burns), but then I discovered that Keith has found another
most absurd twist to attack the social nation-state: Now he blames welfare
for forest fires !
> The forest fires are also worse this time because car-loads of young men
> from the inner parts of Sydney are driving to the suburbs and starting
> additional fires themselves ("most, if not all", according to a police
> spokesman on BBC radio). Thus, a considerable part of the Sydney police
> force is now engaged in trying to arrest these arsonists to prevent further
> tragedies.
>
> The young men are welfare recipients. Clearly, they have little sense of
> community. Australia has been immensely prosperous in the last few years
> and has the most generous welfare system in the world.
FYI, Keith: In southern EU countries, it is usual that forest fires are
orchestrated by mafia clans who need new building sites in the areas of
the last protected forests. Now, do you really think that the jobless thugs
(pardon, I meant "mafia employees") who start the fires need any incentive
for doing so **from receiving welfare cheques** ?? I would guess that,
on the contrary, receiving welfare cheques would *reduce* (to zero?) their
incentive to get hired as arsonists by the mafia...
As usual, Keith is trying to put out fire with gasoline (this time literally).
The solution to this problem is certainly not more privatization and
neoliberalism, but a system that gives back meaning and decency to
people's lives.
> __________________________________________________________
> �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in
> order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow
> _________________________________________________
> Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> _________________________________________________
How most suitably this quote describes Keith's postings...
Chris
