By the way, if you enjoy the photos of the Tasmanian bush, be sure to see the movie “The Hunter” with Willem Dafoe. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I understand that the scenery plays a starring role. It doesn’t start here until today, but here is the trailer:
I went down to our venerable State Cinema (the oldest in Australia) on Tightarse Tuesday (I believe the polite term is Thrifty Tuesday) to see it and ended up watching “The Whistleblower” instead. It is brilliant and a real shocker. We don't need fantasy stories about vampires. They are right here among us and traffic in humans. The question is, what can we do about it? It doesn’t seem as if the UN is going to do anything, toothless tiger that it is.
I certainly hope none of us have shares in DynCorp or other companies like them who either actively take part or turn a blind eye to such activities and use diplomatic immunity and whitewash to deflect blame. There should be an immediate investigation and full protection for whistelblowers, victims and witnesses. It is an absolute disgrace!
I looked this company up in http://www.ethical.org.au/news/
which is full of other interesting info, but it doesn’t get a mention. Nor does there appear to be an organisation like this in the USA. Perhaps there should be, so we spend our dollars with companies who do the right thing.
Also on the subject of Tasmanian Wilderness. Here are some images of the 10,500 year old Huon Pine discovered on the West Coast a few years ago, though it doesn’t really show how lush it is.
Haven’t seen that myself yet either as the last time I was there, they had not yet worked out how to allow visitors to see it safely without risk of damage to the tree. The blue plastic shoes look like a good idea. The Russians were very big on them in museums.
Perhaps we should have them in all our National Parks to stop the spread of phytopthera.
Lastly, to end on a positive note re protecting our wild places and particularly it's small birds and animals, the RSPCA with support from high profile sponsors, has started a scheme to enable low income earners to have their furry friends desexed at a cut rate. With an estimated 150,000 feral cats already roaming in our bushland, it can only be hoped that this will at least help to end the continued dumping of unwanted kittens.
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