Patriot

The other day, whilst out on the highways riding my bike, a semi passed me going the other way.  As is the practice among the truck driver demographic, there was a perspex wind deflector mounted on the bonnet of the truck, proclaiming a message to the world.

And the message was:  "PATRIOT"

I was totally impressed.  A warm fuzzy feeling engulfed me as I experienced the realisation that Australia was in safe hands.

When I got home I googled "patriotism".

I think the best find was:    Global Patriot "patriotism without borders"   Well worth a read... 

Keeping You In The Dark About Agent Orange

... and a whole rainbow of Dioxin Agents Of Death sprayed on Vietnam by the US during its "war of liberation".

From 1961 to 1971 over 77 million litres of herbicide were dispensed over southern Viet Nam by the US military through the code-named ‘Operation Ranch Hand’[...]. The Vietnamese reported early on during the operation that human health was being adversely affected by widespread dispersal of defoliants. Agent Orange, a 1:1 mixture of 2,4,-D and 2,4,5-T, was the most prevalent herbicide used [...].  (read more >>>)

They sprayed the countryside.

They sprayed the rice paddies.

They sprayed the water supplies. 

It was chemical warfare.  And it has now left a legacy of four and a half million Vietnamese, most of them  deformed children of those who lived in the sprayed areas.

One of the often quoted "reasons" for the US invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on his own people, killing around five thousand.

So, d'oh... why doesn't the US now invade itself?

But I digress...

Last Wednesday, the Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, and the Vietnam Consul General Mai Phuoc Dung, and the Vietnamese Ambassador Hoang Vinh Thanh, and playwright and actress Kate Mulvany, attended the opening of an art exhibition held to raise funds for the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.   It was a well attended event with over 300 people turning up.

Kate Mulvany, who suffered from her father's exposure to Agent Orange while he served in the Australian Army in Vietnam, read extracts from her play "The Seed".

As part of the extensive publicity disseminated about this event, all of the major print, radio, and TV media outlets were sent press releases notifying them of this event well in advance.

NOT ONE OF THEM ATTENDED !!!

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME !!!