A Jolting Star: Another Extraordinary Day
We stood on an ancient shore. It is a privilege to stand on this planet with you. In the citadel of the forest, in the conquered territory of the suburb, a vaulting paradise, a slithering contempt. We walk like kings. We are granted all our wishes. Truthfulness. Compassion. Forbearance. High intelligence. Good health. Today it was Power; there where they walked among us, there in the forest, with its primordial feel, these churches established quickly on ancient threads, all to adapt. All to accomplish a mission. We moved through those waters. It was another day where he kept forgetting to breath, and he remembered those lines from someone at the cafe: "Don't they have air where you come from?" "No," he had responded, truthfully enough, more truthfully than they imagined. And later, those Watchers oin the Watch; "He's having an out of body experience."
Really? You don't say.
Call it by a name. Shout it form the rooftops.
All the same day they kept shouting the same word: Action. Action. Gird your loins. Prepared for battle. No, prepare for victory.
They will all be rounded up, those who besmirched my citadel. My church. The Sacred and the profane. This my sacred place, as we moved through the waters and watched with fascination the locusts flying from tree to tree, their grating sound, the hallucinatory screech, the holes on earth that shot upwards into the firmament, the corridors, the many corridors which led straight to God, or what the humans perceived as God in all their limited ability to catch the firmament, to ride the waves of history, to change the course of nations.
We bless you. We walk with you. We protect you; but beware. Tread carefully through these dangerous shallows. We have already walked across these poisonous scapes, we have already dodged the acrid geysers belching sulfur, and for sure worse in the mud pools. We came to you. Be careful what attaches.
Shout it from the rooftops, when secrecy no longer serves.
But then. The sacred and the profane. Prepare for history. Those modern chariots, they felt so strange in his hands. We have lived many lifetimes. We will be there for you.
We are prepared to negotiate.
We come to you in nighttime. Be not afraid.
Unless, of course, you come to us in deceit, you try to take advantage. Come pure of heart, to use the old expression, and yes, we will negotiate.
Your species is about to take the next great leap.
We are not all enemies. Some of us are love. But we were born to fight. The wraiths were already out there protecting the flanks.
We come to you in nighttime.
On this, another extraordinary day; in this extraordinary piece of history.
Go In Peace. Do Not Be Afraid.
Come to us pure of intent, and we will reward you a thousand fold. Not with the wealth of nations; with things that disappear within a generation or two. But with someone else. Something that will change the way you think forever; and protect this sacred place for generations to come.
Go In Peace.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://asenseofplacemagazine.com/coalition-spin-kings-real-reform-in-aged-care-trumped-by-re-announcements-and-a-deluge-of-cash/
Coalition Spin Kings: Real Reform in Aged Care Trumped by Re-Announcements and a Deluge of Cash
By Dr Sarah Russell with Michael West Media
The federal Health Department has learnt a thing or two from Scotty from Marketing. It has just announced version seven of the aged care pandemic plan. Never mind that the previous six versions never existed. Expecting accountability from the Coalition government is mere tilting at windmills, writes Dr Sarah Russell.
Where to start in listing the deceitful behaviour of the Coalition government regarding aged care.
Is it that the “7th edition” of the Updated National COVID-19 Aged Care Plan has just been released by the federal Health Department when there was no 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th edition? A great trick from Scott Morrison’s marketing playbook – revise history by giving the impression there were six earlier editions when in fact there were none.
That the government continues to make announcements that are just re-announcements?
That it continues to throw huge amounts of taxpayers’ money at aged care providers but refuses to tackle the real changes that are needed?
That it can demand accountability for the $1.5 billion in pandemic funding given to aged care providers but it won’t demand accountability for the whopping $21 billion the providers receive annually?
And on it goes.
Bonanza For Providers
By all accounts, the pandemic has been a cash bonanza for aged care providers, with funding announcement after funding announcement. While these give the impression the government is doing something, until it tackles the systemic failures that led to the deaths of 665 residents in aged care homes, the government is pouring our money down the drain.
The government announced its first cash injection in May: $205 million to contribute to the extra costs of managing Covid-19, including “screening visitors”. Yet most aged care homes, which had locked out visitors back in March when the pandemic took off, continued to keep families locked out.
In some aged care homes, visitor lockout didn’t end until November, six months after the funding was provided.
In August, the government provided a further “$245 million injection into all facilities”. According to the media release this money was to “fund and support enhanced infection control capability, including through an on-site clinical lead”.
A further $132.2 million has just been announced in response to the royal commissioners’ six recommendations in Aged care and COVID-19: a special report. Yet several of the funding initiatives are re-announcements.