|
3 Jun 2006 @ 10:03, by Salama Shaquana
My faith in the voice of the people has been restored this week with a landmark victory that led to the reversal of a decision that had been made by two of our State Governments and our Federal Government to sell off one of our most significant national assets, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.
Snowy Hydro is to remain in public hands after a community-inspired back flip by Prime Minister John Howard. Within an hour of Prime Minister Howard announcing yesterday that the Commonwealth would withdraw its 13 per cent stake of Snowy Hydro from sale, the NSW and Victorian governments did the same with their larger shares.
The turnaround is the result of unprecedented community anger at the proposed $3billion sale. This decision just goes to show that if people stick together and speak out they can bring about change.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme is an engineering marvel and one of the seven listed engineering wonders of the modern era. Its construction marked a major turning point in Australia's multicultural history. It was Ben Chifley in 1949 as the then Australia Prime Minister, who told the people of Australia, "The Snowy Mountains scheme, the greatest single project in our history, is a plan for the whole nation, belonging to no one state”. Over 100,000 workers from 30 countries toiled for 25 years to build the Snowy Hydro-electric scheme. More than 130 people died during the construction.
While it generates only 3 per cent of the country's power, Snowy Hydro supplies about 2,100 giga litres of water to the Murray Darling Basin, supplying inland irrigators along the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. So this decision also had a noteworthy impact in retaining one of our major water supply authorities in the hands of the people and not private enterprise.
PEOPLE POWER long may it reign
|
|
Category: Activism
1 comment
4 Jun 2006 @ 17:10 by : Here's a site
about People Power: http://www.workingforchange.com/ I believe, like you, in People Power. Indeed THAT IS the Place where our only power lies and can be AMPLIFIED; in uniting in cause!
and here's another way to assert People Power: http://www.electricitybook.com/?hop=pesnetwork this site gives us tools to sidestep the Official Avenues for -like in this case- Electricity!
Whenever I talk about sidestepping the Official Means/Methods/ Ways of Doing Things, this is the kind of actions I try toi encourage us all to take, coz these methods makes us ever more independent of the Official -by the Controllers-controllable Mastodont power grids, which they can shut offf without even a moment's Notice!.... and besides; these most of the new localized methods are MUCH MORE Earth friendly; less invasive, less toxic etc! So, why not, eh?
Other entries in Activism
27 Oct 2015 @ 02:04: My Domains
18 Nov 2008 @ 23:51: The Day John Kennedy Was Shot
9 Nov 2008 @ 11:47: Now, About Bill Ayers...
11 May 2008 @ 03:44: Pangea Day and Unified Science
11 Jan 2008 @ 10:07: Full Frontal Feminism
2 Jan 2008 @ 01:01: The Catastrophic Support Circle
11 Dec 2007 @ 21:05: Step Into the Stargate of Transformation - posted ONLY by Brenda
6 Dec 2007 @ 21:15: Changing the Course of Human History: 2008 a most pivotal year
31 Oct 2007 @ 22:51: NEW ADDITION - Planetary Grid Activation on Mt. Zion
21 Oct 2007 @ 10:13: Questions for Al Gore
|
