A Friend of the Sound sent this letter to me recently, as a response to the Albany Advertiser's article, May 6th, 2010; "Offshore Oil, Gas Project Holds Promise."
DEMOCRACY IS ALIVE AND WELL! (AND IF YOU PAY US ENOUGH, WE'LL RETURN IT SAFELY).
I'm excited to hear the Albany is set to benefit from the next resource boom. It's fantastic that the state government is supporting actions to mitigate climate change and we are all doing our bit to ramp up the race to peak oil. Future generations? Who gives a damn. While the oil glass is half full, let's drink it down, before the bartender gives it to someone else.
I bet the whales are excited too, about the pollution and seismic disturbances they "won't be exposed to."
And the timing of this announcement couldn't be better, which the daily spewing of 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. A company with the pretty name of Arcadia Petroleum is bound to be more accountable than BP, for sure. You can even ask them .... oh they can't be contacted for comment? Nothing has gone wrong yet, has it?
Another benefit is to the democratic process. Mines are famous for their love of public participation and comment. Just look at how excited Grange is about what we've got to say about the dredging of the harbour for iron ore shipments. And we're all pretty glad to get rid of that ugly little cove under the old pea factory, it's the last reminder of natural coastline on the south side of the harbour, after all.
And the astronomical economic benefits! All you renters, wave your eviction notices in the air if you are as excited as I am about rising accommodation and food costs.
Maybe we'll even afford to find, or rebuild, the town jetty that disappeared overnight! Maybe even a new beachfront hotel!
Lucky, lucky us!
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Excellent and very funny. And so on the money....
ReplyDeleteThe word 'disfigurement' popped into my mind when I saw the photo of that beautiful Cove. And I thought how so many things of our natural world are disfigured (or are presently being disfigured such as "The Gulf of Mexico" to name a more obvious hu/man - male collective - example and blunder).
ReplyDeleteFurther, I was thinking what the world of fish beneath that sparkling water at the Cove looks like? I was wondering what fish nurseries/sanctuaries are to be found inhabiting the reef hollows and unseen worlds patrolled by skipjack, herring and ray.
I was also thinking what momentum could be generated when writers such as Toa and Winton might create if the Cove was to be workshopped at a writer's conference... And what might Kim Scott and other Noongar writers bring to such an event? I suspect such things have already happened, or have already been talked about, and so I apologise for being so unaware. But we have to live in hope, right?
You can't tell me that Grange and the Albany Port Authority have told the whole truth. I mean did the people of Esperance know in advance what lead shipments would do to their town, air and ocean? Will the Albany Port Authority and Grange be as forthcoming in what they know as the Esperance Port Authority (was forced to after the lead contamination occurred?)
The word disfigure also has another meaning besides the destruction of beauty. To disfigure also means to disguise, and it would appear to me that whenever development involves the destruction of beauty, especially destruction for economic gain, the party/parties involved become the masters of disguise.
I wonder if the building of the Albany Opera House is an attempt by the AP Authority to placate and deflect the public's criticism and concern of their future ambitions, to disguise their real aim in making the port the economic and mining hub to rival that of Esperance?
Yes. Thanks for your comments =l=. I like the idea of writers workshops and any way of getting more people to visit the Cove, because it is so pretty and hardly anyone knows it's there.
ReplyDeleteumm, about that cove...
ReplyDeletebest approached by boat, don't you think?
The track down to it is already badly eroded, and if we make it a site of pilgrimage then some half wit will ask the City of Albany to pave the path and install steps and handrails! :(