Thursday, April 7, 2011

The ADF culture needs to be brought into the present day - Just Grounds Community

The ADF culture needs to be brought into the present day - Just Grounds Community

I left the RAAF in the 1980's and I admit that when I was in their was a attitude against women in particular Female Defence force personnel. As ashamed as I am now for this attitude I was not someone that regarded women as second class citizens, but I knew of a number who did, and they were regarded as good blokes and real characters.
For anyone who never went through the services you may struggle to understand how this is able to fester, and that answer is simple, Senior Officers! They are so intent on not having the image of the forces dragged through the mud, they try to squash any incidents rather than see it hit the media, this includes assault, rape, and drunken behaviour.

I recall a medical orderly who was homosexual, at a time when this was not allowed in the service. This orderly was well known on the base as being gay, but no one worried about it. Unfortunately one day a picture of his kissing his partner appeared in a Adelaide paper, and due to this the RAAF immediately took action and drummed him out of the service before it could become a media spectacle.

This had occurred for many years for anyone that may cause a media storm, they always took the smoke and mirrors approach with personnel. I had heard of a number of sexual assault cases while I was in the service, but I only recall 1 of these that became public knowledge.


The 1 I recall was in fact a civilian female that attended the base disco, ended up going to her boyfriends room and was discovered in the early hours of the morning in bushes, she had been raped and murdered, this could not be made to go away and the mood from Senior Officers were angry this had occurred, but instead of taking a number of steps to assist and to admonish people that failed in their duties, they were angry because this reflected badly on the base, and on them.

This was the culture, of course because of this investigation the place was cleaned up and they made an effort to change the way reports were handled. Well we have heard enough over the years to know nothing has changed, and now these last few stories shows the culture has not altered in all these years, 37 years that I am aware of, and much longer when listening to others stories.

Now The Minister for Defence is rightly angry with the ADF for these last outbursts and abuse of a female, and the Defence Chiefs are attacking the Minister, when they should be agreeing with him.

The latest allegations of breach of privacy, I would have thought sexual abuse, and hopefully the AFP will find other charges. What was worrying is that the AFP, were considering if there were charges they could place against the guy involved. The Defence Force should have made a strong statement and kicked this guy out and then looked at the involvement of the others in this.

It is time to make a stand and see the Defence Forces culture brought into line with this decade, and if the fossils. Even when I made a short post on this I was surprised at the women blaming this girl? The only thing she did wrong was be strongly attracted to a guy who was a woman abuser. This isn't even a case of pics taken and promised to keep private, this was purposely webcast to his mates in another room without her knowledge. He must be dealt with and she should be protected, however, in this Defence Force you are more likely to see this the other way round.

Blogger: What a Mess - Publish Status

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I left the RAAF in the 1980's and I admit that when I was in their was a attitude against women in particular Female Defence force personnel. As ashamed as I am now for this attitude I was not someone that regarded women as second class citizens, but I knew of a number who did, and they were regarded as good blokes and real characters.
For anyone who never went through the services you may struggle to understand how this is able to fester, and that answer is simple, Senior Officers! They are so intent on not having the image of the forces dragged through the mud, they try to squash any incidents rather than see it hit the media, this includes assault, rape, and drunken behaviour.

I recall a medical orderly who was homosexual, at a time when this was not allowed in the service. This orderly was well known on the base as being gay, but no one worried about it. Unfortunately one day a picture of his kissing his partner appeared in a Adelaide paper, and due to this the RAAF immediately took action and drummed him out of the service before it could become a media spectacle.

This had occurred for many years for anyone that may cause a media storm, they always took the smoke and mirrors approach with personnel. I had heard of a number of sexual assault cases while I was in the service, but I only recall 1 of these that became public knowledge.


The 1 I recall was in fact a civilian female that attended the base disco, ended up going to her boyfriends room and was discovered in the early hours of the morning in bushes, she had been raped and murdered, this could not be made to go away and the mood from Senior Officers were angry this had occurred, but instead of taking a number of steps to assist and to admonish people that failed in their duties, they were angry because this reflected badly on the base, and on them.

This was the culture, of course because of this investigation the place was cleaned up and they made an effort to change the way reports were handled. Well we have heard enough over the years to know nothing has changed, and now these last few stories shows the culture has not altered in all these years, 37 years that I am aware of, and much longer when listening to others stories.

Now The Minister for Defence is rightly angry with the ADF for these last outbursts and abuse of a female, and the Defence Chiefs are attacking the Minister, when they should be agreeing with him.

The latest allegations of breach of privacy, I would have thought sexual abuse, and hopefully the AFP will find other charges. What was worrying is that the AFP, were considering if there were charges they could place against the guy involved. The Defence Force should have made a strong statement and kicked this guy out and then looked at the involvement of the others in this.

It is time to make a stand and see the Defence Forces culture brought into line with this decade, and if the fossils. Even when I made a short post on this I was surprised at the women blaming this girl? The only thing she did wrong was be strongly attracted to a guy who was a woman abuser. This isn't even a case of pics taken and promised to keep private, this was purposely webcast to his mates in another room without her knowledge. He must be dealt with and she should be protected, however, in this Defence Force you are more likely to see this the other way round.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Forget the Carbon Tax - try this? - Just Grounds Community

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Forget about a Carbon Tax if you want to help the environment, my way allows for a reduction in fossil fuelled electricity, a process that allows all to participate if they feel they need to do something, will harm no one when the Climate Change science finally wakes the Government up to they can no longer fool their electorates. and is a low cost alternative.

I suggested the Govt have green loans available for people to convert to Green housing as much as possible. Now my rationale for this is simple it would help people reduce household costs, nothing to do with a Air tax. The idea is simple people convert the loan is to be repaid via a loan levy on the individual or family, and if they want to sell the home, then the loan must be paid off out of the sale price. The sale price will automatically be higher as it has these conversions in it.

This way those that want to green themselves pay for the privilege, and those that don't aren't slugged unfairly. It sounds too simplistic, and it is, there is a lot more to it, but it is the way a Government can do something proactive for the greens and they can have a no interest term on the loan and then a interest rate on the remainder after say 3 years of the loan.

This encourages people to repay quicker, does not cost the Government a huge amount as the monies themselves are being repaid rather than just handouts and the Government has no reason to impose great big new taxes on us.

But I emphasize, this is not about Climate Change, this is about a more cost efficient alternative for the consumer, even if it is only for a period of 6 months in the year, it is savings. If they did this to schools during school holidays etc the schools could earn money by selling back to the Grid.

As technologies change, it will not be effected by doing this, it is a win win alternative.