Centrelink Sadistic Megalomaniacs

I've been working part-time at a University for the past four months since I arrived back in Australia (George Orwell's 'Utopia')

I go in everyday and teach a course. It takes about an hour to get to work. The money is not much but it covers petrol,speed camera and parking fines, my rent and food. The work is challenging but gives me a much needed focus in life at present.

I got this job myself without the help of any state or Government agency.

I want to contrast the attitude of Centrelink now to what it was fifteen years ago when I last claimed social security in Victoria.

In those days, the days of a Labour Governmnet, Centrelink staff were polite and helpful. 'Customers' as we were referred to, were assumed to be innocent of trying to cheat the state until proven guilty.

Ordinary people were often less sympathetic to the unemployed, but Government agencies such as Centrelink were very helpful to us.

Now, in 2009 in Adelaide I find the reverse is true. Individuals seem quite friendly (albeit with the stand-offishness inherent to most 'Dinky-Di' Australians)

But Government officials and petty bureaucrats have developed an officious attitude. There is a pervasive robotic, mindless, box-ticking mindset which sees even quite senior officials unable or unwilling to make decisions. As Hitlers deputies' did at Nuremburg, this army of petty officials justify their vindictive megalomania by quoting moronic regulations. Full of their own self-importance, some of these sadists use my tax money to push ordinary citizens around. Like Himmler and Goering they take pleasure in their jobs.

They do not practice what they preach themselves. If they have chosen this job and like it they are  then they are dangerous sadists who should be rooted out by the new Labour Government and told like everyone else that they should find another job.


See how they like being told that!

These petty bureaucrats think they have been given a legal and local license -a  "Fatwah" by the conservative Governments (and the voters who voted for them) to intimidate innocent people.

"It's ok to be a Bastard!" has been the message in the last decade.

They have been told by 'Big Brother' (The Mass Media) that it is ok to bully, harrass and intimidate your fellow citizens and look after your own interests.


By way of illustration here is my story. I am sure it is repeated every day hundreds of times around this Utopian lucky country of ours..


Even though I am working, I keep applying for social security so that I maintain my concession card to pay for medication from Chemists. This means I am officially still on Centrelink's books even though they pay me virtually nothing. They occasionally pay me a few dollars if I am sick (as my employer doesn't, because I am 'casual' like many employees these days) or if it is a week semester break between sessions.

The recent Government re-reorganisation of jobseekers has now seen me switched to  another Job provider called 'Jobs Statewide' (JSW) who proudly announce that they have 'won' a contract to provide jobs for job seekers.

Interesting word that they think thay have 'won'.

What is it they have won?

It certainly sounds like they have won a prize in a raffle.

It seems they have won a prize - that of being allowed to push their victims, other innocents and a few malingerers around.

What greater pleasure can there be in life than that?

On Monday, I found an e-mail in my 'Trash' box from Jobstatewide (JSW) 'reminding' me that I had an appointment the NEXT day (Tuesday) in the centre of Adelaide (miles away from where I live) at a time when I was teaching at University.

I had never heard from 'JSW' Jobs statewide before. how can i be 'reminded' of something I had heard nothing about?

I assumed they must be my new provider to whom I had been assigned by Centrelink.

I was annoyed that I had been sent a 'reminder' -when I had never even been sent an appointment in the first place-and at twenty four hours notice!


Moreover, the E-mail said I was 'not allowed' (Is this legal?) to reply to Jobstatewide by using the reply button on my E-mail.

This was an unsubtle attempt to force the 'customer'(or victim) myself into phoning them at the customer's expense.


Anyway,I overcame my indignation and did as I was requested- phoning Jobstatewide at my own expense on the Monday afternoon-immediately after receiving this junk e-mail-to tell them that I was working on the Tuesday.

I asked them why they didn't know that I was working?

I had ,after all, been filling it in on my forms every two weeks for the past four months.

They didn't even know I was working!


The thought occurred to me:

Was I just some number on the computer whose file is not even read before I am phoned. ?

Surely not-in a country where millions of tax payer's dollars is put into an educational system which is supposed to teach us to be critical thinkers and problem solvers?

Surely not! This is Australia...

That turned out to be exactly the case.

I phoned JSW and told them they should read the file and check with Centelink before they send out E-mails at such short notice.

Three days later I got a letter from JSW (Jobstatewide) making an appointment at the same time on the same day of the following week and making all sorts of veiled threats about what would happen if I didn't show up!

The letter started off with

"You are required to attend an appointment..."

So rude!

Such a presumption of guilt!

The arrogance of these people!

Who do they think they are talking to?

Ned Kelly?

An Al Qaeda suspect?



I thought about phoning them but felt that that was pointless as they had ignored what I had said in the previous phone call on Monday.

I E-mailed them on the Thursday night saying I couldnt attend because I would be at work on the Tuesday.

The next day, Friday, I was at work and was called by Centrelink who wasted a half an hour of my time going over all the aforementioned events.

During this call they adopted an accusatory tone from the very start of the phone conversation.

They spoke to me as if I were a criminal.

It was clear neither Centrelink nor Jobstatewide had even bothered to read my file before contacting me.

I pointed this ut to them quite clearly. Neither of them knew I was working at a University.

If they had read my forms they would have found that I had also been doing voluntary work at three agencies for the previous three months as well as my work at the University-and that therefore I easily qualified for the small amounts of money the they had been paying me every so often.

Moreover, when Centrelink realised that I had indeed been working it did not stop the mindless bureaucrat on the phone from continuing to talk to me as if I were an errant teenager rather than a tax paying citizen who has more than complied fully with all his obligations.

First of all she claimed that she didn't know where I was working.

(Because she hadn't bothered to read my file before phoning)

And then she kept insisting I needed to attend appointments with JSW implying that I had lied to JSW on Monday about my working on the Tuesday.

This robot eventually phoned my employer then and there, wasting more of my time, as I was waiting on the phone and after wasting all this time, eventually changed her tone as I explained to her that I intended to have nothing more to do with JSW as they had clearly on Monday misrepresented the contents of my phone call to centrelink in a predictable attempt to cover up the fact that they had not even bothered to read my file.

This story illustrates for me what has happened to the 'lucky country' in the last decade while I have been in Borneo

A veritable army of petty bureaucrats (liberals) have appeared and started to harass and intimidate those less fortunate than themselves.

A hostility of almost sexual proportions can be detected in the way these Government petty bureaucrats now address their 'customers' (You and I). I have been on the receiving end of these people for the past six months in Government Departments.

The power has gone to their head.

Don't they realise that their innings is over ?

Their number has come up?

That the corporate business model has failed?

That the 'blame the victim' approach is no longer acceptable.

These petty bureaucrats (like Hitlers "Brownshirts") are people who have amounted to nothing in life yet thay have the right to harrass and intimidate anyone.

They should be rooted out of the system.

Friendship and cowardice

Most of us are cowards.

We wait for tragedy to befall our friends, convincing ourselves we can do doing nothing to prevent it, so that we can feel good about ourselves when we wring our hands in sympathy.

It feels good to come to the rescue!

Collusion and Collaboration

Everyone colludes to a certain degree with their oppressor.

Everyone gives consent to a certain degree to being oppressed.

The Germans to Nazis, the Iraqis to Saddam Hussein, the Iranians to the Ayatollah.

Australians also consent to being oppressed. They have colluded to allow the development of their own version of George Orwell's 'Utopia' in '1984'

The chilling, bureaucratic and officious Australia where people are treated impersonally: where people are intimidated by a bureaucracy in which the person is a mere number on a computer.

Australians have allowed this to happen.

They have colluded.

They are collaborators with the armies of bureaucrats who intimidate everybody these days.

Rupert Murdoch

Hello Rupert!

I hear you are going to charge people to read your manipulative crap on the internet.

Someone just might take exception to you one of these days.

It won't be the socialists who get to you in the end Rupert - socialism is a dirty word thanks to you.

'Megalomania'

'Crimes against humanity'

Try the Xanax.

It keeps you calm-until you wake up in the middle of the night.

Adelaide. Let's pretend

Here is a a very old game. Everyone knows it.

It is called 'Let's pretend'



Let's pretend our work is more important than anything else.

Let's pretend we will make time for our friends.

Let's pretend we're not 'too busy'.


Let's pretend we're not afraid to lose what we have.



Lets pretend people read what we write.



Let's pretend we give a damn!



Let's pretend we have friends.

Let's pretend!

It's better that way.


It's just a game anyway...

(Z) Zambia and the End of Kilmore(8)

Zambia

The final six months before leaving for Zambia were more relaxed because I knew I had a job. I can still remember the day when I rushed down the drive of Sutherland street to get the post with my contract from Zambia. How excited we were! Going back to Africa had always been a dream and as a Principal of school! In the meantime, we spent six months trying to get ourselves Australian citizenship  This was because as a permanent resident should we leave Australia we would have had to return within a 2 year period or we would lost our permanent residence. In order to obtain an Australian passport, we were very fortunate to meet a federal government Labour member of parliament Mr. McClelland who assisted us.

Basically, I explained to him that I had to leave Australia because I couldn’t get a job in Australia.

We eventually got our citizenship and our photos in the local press. I was again impressed by the sympathetic response to our plight from an official –in this case a Federal Member of Parliament. Officialdom in Australia in those days was very much more in touch with ordinary people –much more so than in the United Kingdom or Ireland. This is an aspect of Australia which I really appreciated.

I’m afraid it has all changed in the past ten years . the ‘Liberal” Party and the people who supported them in the final decade of the twentieth century have destroyed the traditional connection between the less fortunate citizens  and the Government. In my opinion those Liberal politicians and their supporters should be held accountable. The  Liberal leaders, including Howard,  should be tried as criminals for corrupting the middle class. The  middle class, in particular the tradies have been seduced and enticed by Liberal poloicies which appealed to greed and selfishness,  and are all now proud owners of an SUV and two   houses worth half a million each while the rest of us can’t scratch two halfpennies together. That is the problem with our democracy–it encourages people to be selfish and has given them the moral legitimacy to be greedy...The media and even the civil institution such as Church and schools have been persuaded too.

Well, I packed up all my belongings into forty boxes and six suitcases and headed for Zambia –leaving Marie and the kids behind in the freezing winter in winter  with skeleton furnishings eating off a few plastic plates. The plan was for them to follow in a fortnight after I gave the ‘all clear’ from Zambia. one thing was for sure: I was not going to repeat the same mistake I had made in Australia of arriving with all my family including a pregnant wife, without the resources to get out in an emergency.

I caught the plane to Harare via Perth. I had decided to pack everything in 44 boxes, leave them in Sutherland street ready for collection until I sent word from Lusaka.

The first shock was on my arrival at the airport in Lusaka. There was along queue waiting to go through immigration. I could see a white man at the front of the queue on the Immigration side who I assumed to be the Director 'Funky'. He seemed to be having an argument with some officials. Not perhaps surprising as it was Africa after all. As I got closer to the front of the queue I could see that the argument was becoming more animated. Moreover, Funky seemed to be swaying on his feet, back and forth from left to right. His face looked flushed and he was clearly under the influence of alcohol!

It struck me as  a little  strange to be drunk when meeting your second in command! but i dismissed the thought quickly. Undaunted, I put out my hand in greeting. To my surprise he didn’t even take it! He just started talking to me, complaining about some problem he was having with an official.

I had just completed a 24 hour journey and was not in the best shape myself.

He ushered me to the car park of the airport where a group of Africans descended upon the land Rover and lifted my bags into the back. It was pitch black. I knew I was in Africa again !

We left the car park at high speed in his four wheel drive with funky  cursing and swearing at the airport officials. As we started down the road the next thing I knew I could see flashing lights approaching us. They passed us on the other side of the road and doubled back to follow us. The next thing I knew a police motorcycle had overtaken us and ditched us on to the side of the road. There then followed an altercation between the inebriated 'funky' and the policeman. It sounded quite ugly and I was worried about spending my first night in a cell. But funky  seemed to win the argument in the end and we sped on home.

The first thing funky  did was offer me a drink. He then proceeded to tell me that our house, which was being renovated, was not ready.

After about half an hour he took down a photo of the staff of the school and started to go through them one by one with his finger making comments such as “He‘s useless” or “She’s a bitch!”.

I was numbed by it all, eventually made my excuses and went to bed. I had been back in Africa for about three  hours.

Anxiety kept me awake for most of the night.

In the morning I awoke to American hospitality-‘make your own breakfast’ . The coffee is there - the milk is in the fridge’ - that sort of thing. I can’t remember the details much.

I remember Tom taking me to the renovated house and announcing that there were no doors, windows, plumbing or electricity. What really concerned me was that there was little discussion as to where Maria and the three children would stay while all this was sorted out.

 funky and his wife had no children-they therefore didn’t understand how a family man’s mind works. Wife and children come first, then me. Not that he was really a bad host –he had an expansive American generosity –but with the school’s money. He took me to restaurants etc-where we had to produce a ‘brick’ of banknotes to pay for the meal. There was hyperinflation.

The real problem was the school. It seemed like funky was in the middle of a fierce tussel with the Chairman of the Board. I was not able to get to the bottom of it properly –but I got close enough to know that I didn’t like the sound of it. The next thing I knew I was asked to attend meetings with funky and the half of the Board who was not on holiday. The chairman and the other half were on holiday.

 It subsequently turned out that the board was split.Half supported funky, but the others wanted  him out. After I returned to Australia, the anti-funky group contacted me and asked me if I would replace funky, if they got rid of him.

 funky  drank heavily and on one occasion he was quite rude to a newly recruited young female teacher who was staying in his house for a couple of nights because her accommodation wasn’t ready either.

I think this was the last straw-or I lost my nerve-I don’t know which. I never know. But I decided in my mind that I was not going to risk bringing the family out to this situation. I just didn’t have the confidence that funky could be relied on. I had three small children. I knew once we arrived we could not go back again-as I did not have enough money-just like in Melbourne.

“Once bitten twice shy”.

The problem was Marie had her heart set on coming to Africa – and it was such a disappointment for her to hear my news from Zambia. .It almost broke her heart when I told her how things were. She had already said goodbye to everyone and was counting the minutes till she could leave Melbourne forever.

Even getting back to Australia from this position was going to be difficult as I had no money. I used a bit of guile and persuaded funky to reimburse me for my baggage allowance – even though I had not actually ordered the baggage to be sent yet! I claimed I needed the local money until my salary was paid-which was true of course. I then used this money to purchase a one–way ticket to Melbourne.

After only five weeks I persuaded funky  that because of the delay in the arrival in the family due to the house not being ready, I would have to return to Melbourne to sort out a problem with our rental accommodation. This was just an excuse –but he bought it!

When I got back it was to a very dejected Marie in an almost empty house in Sutherland Street.

We decided it would be too risky to proceed. I faxed funky. He called and was philosophical. He asked me ‘What are you going to do?’ He said.


‘I’m going to go underground for a while-disappear from the international school scene’ I replied.

My brother Roger called from Ireland. Being 7 years older than me, Roger and I had always had a formal relationship. I don’t think he had a high opinion of me and I think  he had always thought me too adventurous. After all I had ignored his advice about going to Australia in the first place. But he has a sound heart and is probably the most straightforward, if conventional, of all the Nixons. Mother used to say "Roger would always try to do the right thing". He offered to help me out financially with the move from Melbourne and  the search for a job. one thing in his favour was that having no children and a working wife, he was 'loaded', which I was not.



 I could hear my voice breaking on the phone as we spoke. I almost broke down. This caused us both  embarrassment. Nixons simply do not cry.  My brother  was certainly uncomfortable and I could hear the irritation in his voice. I have never seen a member of the Nixon family shed a tear, apart from myself. (although this was actually the second time because I  had broken down in my office a few days before my resignation in Melbourne).

Within three weeks we were in Queensland and had left Melbourne forever.
.

Socialism and Barack Obama

I love Barack Obama of course. But have you noticed how even he keeps talking about "Middle-class America' in his election speeches?

'Middle class' was a dirty word in the seventies in the UK (don't know about the US) Quite rightly too.

What about the working classes, Barack?

The 'working poor' who do part-time work?

The huge number of people who don't have Mummy and Daddy's property and money behind them?

No, I'm not talking about businessmen, Real Estate Agents,  Insurance Salesmen,  Accountants or Lawyers.

I'm talking about Teachers and University Lecturers!

Because I am a socialist it makes it very difficult to admit that human nature is so thoroughly idle!

But it is true. We just love to get something for nothing.

It might be a bargain in a shop or it might be a newsy letter from someone to whom we are too lazy to reply.

We just love to cheat each other!

We want to have our cake and eat it at the same time.

Greed and sloth rule!

But I am a socialist, nevertheless. I would not join the legalised and legitimised bullies in the conservative ranks who would push their grandmothers off a bus if it meant an extra car, house extension, or a quieter life free from having to think about their neighbour.

Down with the Bourgeoisie!

The French were right at the Bastille.

Off with their heads!