URBI ET ORBI, No. 1 / 2 October 2007

URBI ET ORBI
No. 1 / October 2, 2007 – Updated edition -- Priceless publication: introductory copy
Newsletter about social security and related matters: pension, but at what price?

ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This newsletter was initiated by a pensioner who was treated by Cen­tre­link in a manner where one is compel­led to think about alter­na­ti­ve ways of basic survival without sacrificing one’s dignity and that basic right that gua­ran­tees the life worth of living. Centrelink is act­ing in a way where rethinking of its ap­proach to the fundamental issue of survival of a person is necessary; we are unsure if Centrelink has peo­ple’ interests at he­a­rt. Person is more than just a number. Reason for this letter is that there is no use to complain; no one listens and, in case someone does is even worse, one gets pu­n­ish­ed for talking loud his or her mind. Here we are try­ing to establish a newsletter where we shall be able to com­municate and exchange our experiences and ideas with­out revealing our true identity to indi­vi­duals, agen­cies or insti­tu­ti­ons we want convey some sort of message. This newsletter comes out in open after long deliberation and dilemma; the initiators of this newsletter realized that things will never im­prove or improve sufficiently until they are addressed publicly. Pen­si­oners, including the initiator, did complain and protest before, but their complaints and protests usually hit a deaf ear. Because of the nature of illness, the initiator had no option but succumb; his chances were very limited and bound exclusively for this illusive pension. Earli­er the whole game was played by Centrelink more tactfully, and it se­em­ed somehow bearable. It was in the last three to four years that Centrelink let the cat out of the bag and changed their act: started to demand more than one possibly could give without a loss of dignity. Therefore, this newsletter is caused by Centrelink; they wanted it, just did not know how to ask, so their prayers are being answered.
However, we expect to be hin­der­ed by those whom we thread onto calluses, so we will try to keep our profile as low as possible; also we will have to avoid the servi­ces of the normal agencies in delivering this letter to our re­a­d­ers. It is up to our readers to secure each copy of this newsletter by subscribing to it, eit­her on line using our e-mail ad­dress or through the post using our postal ad­dress. We will have the news­letter in the prin­t­ed form as well as sending it over the internet, trough email. What we need? The success of the news­letter depends mainly of ex­pect­a­tions; if this news­letter re­a­ches the right person then that is it, that is what we need to be suc­ces­sful. But to get there we must start so­me­where. So, we do need help of the people willing to help with this project. Yes, we do need may­be more than any­one is capable or pre­pa­red to give, but be not deter­red please to offer what you can: multiple of small help­ings make up for a big one enough to make this project work.
Here is the list at the first glance and later we may per­fect it. We need people to help us, volunteers or paid wor­kers for preparing main­ly to work on computer from their own homes or our office once we have one, printing and dis­tri­buting the newsletter; these people could work with­in their own communities. But we need an office; a house could be leased for that pur­po­se;­ furniture, com­puters and equip­ment. Then some sort of transport. And we need money to pay over­he­ads and the employed staff; and to hire a capable and willing law firm. Your ad (or just donation) will help to cover costs.
This project will become ever more expensive as it grows; the size of the project depends on the money being spent on it. In short: the more we spent the richer we be­come. It is intended to influence the whole world and en­ga­ge it in co-operation in the field of eradicating the po­verty. Idea behind this project is contrary to One World idea that is promoted by big corporations these days that strive to unite the world under their rule by the method of blackmail due to economic mani­pu­la­ti­ons. Their idea is based on the enrichment of the world govern­ment, so that the same govern­ment is able to give to poor that what was taken from people and thus made them poor in the first place. Here we strive not to govern but to educate people and thus make people rich: only by not being plundered in the first place, by being rich, people will be able to make a progress; it always has been and will be that the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. Real reaches are there where no beggars are present. Rich is not evil.
This is not an attempt to form a new political party, because that new party would be re­qu­ir­ed to work within (clearly or not) defined system; no party that works within an accepted sys­tem will challenge the very system that gives it raison d’etre. All political parties act as the players, ob­ser­ving the rules. But also we are not trying to be sub­versives ourselves; we will gradually take our own business in our own hands and take care of it. It is like pollution: the govern­ments in of the world are doing little or nothing against it, but every individual is able to do something for his or her health if they want.
As everything has its opposition, it is to expect that this newsletter will not be welcomed by everyone; some pe­o­p­le, be they rich or poor, will feel threatened by it. They are generally those individuals who have vested interests in the lu­c­ra­tive business of poverty and also those who, knowingly or un­knowingly take privileges for rights; or who have sold their rights for the privileges. And one might ask what we actually want, so we will tell them and ask if they want what we do not want. In future newsletters we shall dis­cuss at length about particulars and here are just a few points to consider.
Information is the power behind real power; and to enslave some­body one needs to know everything about that per­son. So they give you the pension and then threaten to take it back, just to squeeze from you some more info about you; often that information bears no real relevance to the pension. Even if the Centrelink acts on government’s be­half, trying to gather as much info about its subjects as possible, it is illegal; government is here to govern, look after nation’s business by people’s mandate, not after pe­o­p­le’s private matters.
We are trying to establish the real purpose of the pen­si­on as well as its worth. There are people who are for sale and also those who are already sold; but there are also kinds of individuals around who are not too desperate, not willing to sell themselves. If a pension is just a vehicle to enslave a person I am the one of those who will do their best to resist and fight for my freedom; the real poverty is not in losing the pension but in losing one self. To find one self one spends sometimes lifetime.

Ed.

TO AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AND CENTRELINK

This letter is directed to every person interested in re­ad­ing what is put forward to government; what is all about. Author is willing to debate the contents with rea­so­n­able peo­ple; and also their problems could be debated and/or pre­sent­ed in open; to protect their privacy all names will be suppres­sed. It is about Centrelink, their de­mands that pensi­oners must reveal their private future plans and intentions; as if they are sure that a pensioner is destined to be their customer for­ever. Well, in that case the tax-payers are entitled to know it too. Surely there must be some line Centrelink cannot cross; while ful­fil­ling their contract with the government they must ob­ser­ve human rights and privacy of a person they deal with (their cus­to­m­er). It appears that there is no such line in ex­is­ten­ce, so we better draw one before is too late. They claim that pen­si­ons are paid out by them; not by the Australian govern­ment but by Centre­link, on behalf of the govern­ment, of course. A question re­mains: What does a pen­si­on consti­tu­tes and how much does it cost? If the product -- which is syn­the­tic and a very poor copy of its original in realness -- is un­afford­able to customer, what alternatives are there that Centre­link could offer to their un­sa­tis­fied custom­­­ers? Yes, I have my utopia about how it should be; it will be presented to public at the end of discourse. It is simple, and I am sure that I am not the only one in the wo­rld with that idea running through his head; there must be good reasons why that idea is not implemented yet. It seems that the poverty is in the world not by chance but rather by design.
What I am ready to reveal now is that there at Cen­tre­link they are very crafty bunch, when it comes to legal plun­de­r­ing: they propose seemingly fair laws which are en­act­ed by government so that they are in position to make their business away from the eyes of the law or court. Thus Centrelink is able to demand of pensioners anything they want; the pension is here like Damocles’ sword, used as a threat where by not complying with Centrelink’s requests the pension comes into question; by the pension being threa­ten­ed, the pensioner’s ex­istence is threatened. Some people might think that there is no­thing wrong with that, I do not want to argue nor do I want to make anyone angry; I do not agree with that, I must con­fess, so I am going to find some other way of survival. I am grateful to Australia for looking after me when I was, and still am, in need, but I do not want to participate in activities whe­re I see Australia being plun­dered in my name; nor do I want to be used as a peon and be plundered in the name of Aus­t­ra­lia. I know of a very horrible case in the Institute for the Blind in Maylands, some 20 years ago: how the blind people were plun­dered. It was a terrible account to listen to; but those peo­ple were blind and helpless. I am not blind, not yet anyway.
What Centrelink proposes, the government arranges for parliament to enact; thus practically transfer­ring business and power to Centrelink bypassing the law. All those regulations have more than one valid meaning, which could be taken in consideration; but is taken only the one that suites those in power of translating it, and one can put interpretation of their desire. So, they have im­ple­men­t­ed a checking system comprised of non­-governmental, inde­pen­dent bo­dies, as they emphasize it in their official docu­ments: the Authorized Review Officer (ARO), the Social Se­curity Appeal Tribunal (SSAT) and the Ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­ve Appeals Tribunal (AAT). This way their (plundering) activities can be evaluated for possible blunders and if ne­ces­sary the original decision will be re­ver­sed thus protecting their activities from possible ex­posure at the court of law. Should the AAT decide to pass the original decision not over­turned, then the cus­to­mer is directed to argue the case in the federal court with strong forewarning that if the customer looses the case, which by now has became very twisted and com­p­li­ca­ted, the cus­tom­er will bear all the costs incurred by the case, thus bypassing a proper and usual civil procedure, pure black­mail. From a business point of view I can under­stand the go­vern­ment’s readiness to offload the work in public do­main onto a private or­ga­ni­zation, but am not willing to agree with it; because with the work­load and res­pon­si­bi­li­ty in public do­main the government has prac­tically sur­rendered its own right to govern in the same domain. Pen­si­oner is here for­saken, prac­tically sold out to foreign inte­rests. I see it that way; if you see it differently it is up to you, I do not want to argue.
This may interest my creditors! Long ago, roughly be­tween 1996 and 2000, when I did suspend my pension and was working through four financial years, three months in each financial year, Centrelink accused me of cheating by not telling them about my earnings with­in 14 days, so that my earnings can be averaged through a financial year and thus my pension would be re­duced ac­cord­ingly. Thus, they say, I have caused an over­pay­ment. I argued that I was not their customer for the time my pension was sus­pended. Their argument was that re­gard­less I still must tell them every­thing. It was a sim­p­le case but in the mean time has become so complicated that my lawyer said that nothing could be done and I was pre­sen­t­ed with $556 bill, being for reviewing all the material. Cen­tre­­link imposed on me a debt of some $25,000, later redu­cing some of it by ARO and SSAT thus still owing to the Com­mon­wealth some $17,000. Thus they were able to reduce my pension payments for $75.30 and they are still deducting that amount from my pension. Even with a pension sus­pend­ed I was supposedly re­qu­ired to notify them immediately about my earnings so that my pension can be recalculated; they did find it by matching taxa­tion records that I was earning money.
In another more recent case in 2006, I have been misinformed by Centrelink about the length of time I can stay abroad; two of their of­ficers have said to me on two different occasions: 6 months. My pen­sion was stopped after 3 months and I stay­ed 5 months. This erro­ne­ous informa­tion, or intentio­nal mis­in­for­ma­tion, enabled Cen­tre­link to make profit of some $2,000 (in pension money that was not paid out to the customer), and caused me to run a huge debts with my cre­dit­ors. I did try to argue but seeing it is useless, because SSAT in their report totally ignored the incident with those two different of­fi­cers, despite of being aware that ARO actual­ly did contact one of the of­fi­cers, who could not re­mem­ber exactly what was being said at the time, but would never have said that the pension por­tability was six months if is only three … and so goes their crap at nausea; I just dropped the matter this time. Interestingly enough, ARO, SSAT or AAT officials should be the people who never before had any contact with my case, but one of the two SSAT officials’ name was the same name that I happen to come in contact with some years ago; that person has, back then, informed me that Centrelink can garnishee my bank account without a court order.
The damage caused by this erroneous information is really hard to describe to Centrelink and their staff, be­ca­u­se they have designed the system the way that I, as a pensioner, should never have a slightest chance to come in contact with money. But I did come in contact with money: legally, trough hard and honest work at the time when I suspended my pension. I shall say it here, how I did it, knowing very well that they will try very hard to block this possibility for future at­tempts; but for those intelligent and hard working minds will always open new possibilities, and to parasitic minds is only left the re­a­li­za­tion that they are always behind, as the in­s­pi­ra­ti­o­nal beggars.
Most recent example of how Centrelink earns its crust. I was de­ter­mined to go by the book this time with the portability of the pension: three months. I flew out on 16/6/2007 late evening after 20:00 and returned to Perth on 16/9/2007 at 7:30, more than a half a day earlier than they have pre­scri­bed by their law. Centrelink wrote a letter on 9/9/2007, can­cel­ing my further pay­ments; they did re­in­sta­te them 17/9/2007, after I visited their office, but the pension is now newly granted, subject to the rules of probate and it would not surprise me if on Friday, when the payment is due to hit the bank, there will be no payment. Surely enough, that payment was reduced by roughly $70 and my status has changed in the grant of pension, as on 17/10/2007. That’s how Centrelink ope­ra­tes; they claim that their computers are set up that way, which could be the true. I strongly suggest that com­puters are deliberately set that way (a) to make sure that pen­sioners are robed and (b) take away the blame from officials, because they cannot help it but do it that way. I have had that same problem with them before. And again a pensioner loses and Centrelink wins, thus they make profit and get greener; every dollar counts to them, they won’t lose the face. They have none to lose. By now I have realized that there is little or no point to lodge a complaint with ARO or SSAT.
I am willing to repay my debts to my credit­ors! I ac­cep­t­ed the offer to have a credit card; ma­ny com­pa­nies are offer­ing them to working people, one of which I was at that time. The credit cards were my pro­tect­ion against pos­si­b­le black mails by Centrelink. Every­thing was going well until Centrelink did dirty on me and stop­ped my pen­sion. It was done at the moment when I was abroad and unable to re­ar­ran­ge the continuation of pay­ments to the cre­di­tors. Today I am hounded by my creditors and here I can say only that I am willing to pay my debts but am not able at the moment, because Centre­link is unlawfully taking away a big chunk of my only income; the moment I get some job I shall attend to the matter. I em­phasize that they take my money unlawfully, because they are not wil­ling to clear the matter in court; if any of my creditors could help to get this matter to the at­tention of the court of law, I would be most grateful. Centrelink pro­claims that someone is receiving pen­sion unlaw­fully, but is un­willing to go to court and clarify the matter in a lawful way. Instead they im­pose their own pu­nish­ment on pen­sioner thus robbing a recipient of their law­ful in­come, in the name of Au­s­tralia, as is the case with me, amongst many. Australian go­vernment pays out pen­sions, but Cen­tre­link will always find some excuse not to pay to pen­si­o­ners the full amount, thus part of it is mis­ap­pro­pri­a­ted and ends up in Centre­link’s kitty, out of Australia’s reach and/or control. That’s why they are in green today. It is not a pensioner that burdens tax-payers, but Cen­tre­link, be­cause the money is now mis­ap­pro­pri­ated, thus missing. So, I do not want to participate any longer in helping them to plunder Aus­tralia trough me, thus ma­king me accom­p­li­ce in their operations at my own expense. I can hardly believe it.
Rather to die standing then to live kneeling! Everyone is initially free (born free), but we all get entangled trough the life time; gra­du­ally we all want to come to our originality, to become again what we always were and are. The same is with me: I want to break free. In order to survive until the things come to their rightful place, so I might have to con­si­der taking a refuge in a country or countries of lower living stan­dards and cheaper living costs. If pensioners do not want to disclose their private affairs to Centrelink, their basic right to live are thre­a­ten­ed to be taken away from them; a free person is not obli­gated to declare their private affair neither to Centrelink nor Immigration De­partment, or anybody else. Here we have situation where the pen­si­o­ner’s basic rights are being usurped, forcibly taken away from the per­son, as the person concerned did not willingly consented, but was forced in to it. Pension is here, as it seem, as a tool to take and have control over all those people who depend on it; is this tool used by the Australian government? I doubt it. Rights cannot be shared; be it hu­man rights, individual rights any rights, including the rights to govern. Because they are innate and integral part of the person they cannot be borrowed or lent, nor can they be given or taken away by any agency; in order to be able to mani­pu­late any person’s right or rights, an agency is usurping the power to do so. It is privileges that can be given and taken away and they are usually not worth that paper they are written on. But there are too many of us who mix rights with privi­le­ges, thus giving the realness contained in rights away for the il­lu­si­ons wrapped in the privileges.
I am still here looking for a friend and a home! When I find what I am looking for I will then reveal the details of my life-story; again, not to Centrelink. My overall si­tu­a­ti­on now is that I am an invalid pen­sioner since 1984, living alone in a government hous­ing apart­ment in Perth. My children are grown up and they are on their own, so I am on the loose so to say and would like to find some friend for intellectual ins­pi­ra­tion; peace­ful existence, no much drama. I would like to find some­body with whom I could share my existence thus making it less costly and more enjoyable. I am still wondering: what happens if I find someone (or something) and not declare to Cen­tre­link, and how much it cost? I must say that I am very skeptical to find any inspi­ra­tion in persons working for any govern­ment, not only Aus­tra­li­an go­vernment; those indi­vi­du­als might offer information of a sort, but never inspiration. A fri­endship of this kind would look like a kind of a police station, where no one can be trusted. One always wonders if a pensioner must de­clare all his/her fri­endships to Centrelink, so they could adjust the pension accordingly to their per­cep­t­ion of the every par­ticular fri­end­ship. A woman friend of my ex-wife has quit the job which was petty cushy for her at the time as she was a senior offi­cer, beca­u­se she could not stomach it any lon­ger to inter­ro­ga­te customers. That was then, 20 years back, when De­part­ment of Social Security (DSS) was an Aus­t­ra­li­an or­ga­ni­za­tion, therefore more humane than today’s Cen­tre­link, which is, as it seems, a private company ba­sed in the US.

Visit www.google.com and search for infor­ma­tion about Social Security.*
My hobbies are in intellectual field of thinking and writ­ing (and helping those who are other­wise helpless, are they pensioners or other), for which I like to have peace and time, though I my­self am timeless and live in the realm of ti­me­less­ness. To under­stand me better, I am a constant traveler; be it mentally or phy­si­cally, or both. I am there where I want to be: a soul with­out barrier but also with­out a home never­the­less. My home is there whe­re my heart is; and I can feel that my heart is not in this govern­ment housing apartment where I phy­si­cally live, in Perth. Centrelink wants me to declare all my plans, in­clu­d­ing travel ones, which might be their right; I do not want to argue with them, but at the same time I do not want de­cla­re my plans. Also won­der­ing if I should declare to Centre­link all my hobbies so they could adjust my pen­sion ac­cord­ingly? But it would cause a problem because they have no capacity to un­der­stand so I could never explain to them all these simple things: my thoughts, my wri­tings or in­ven­ti­ons. An invention is that only in the realm of perception; but because different people see things dif­fe­rently, which is normal, so they per­ceive them dif­fe­rently too. And by ex­plain­ing unex­plain­able one gets punished. Parasites of all kinds are also doing their bit of work in order to cling to the victims; the effort itself may be the same but the per­cep­tion of work is different. And if the victims cannot shake them off, they then usually ac­cept them as a ne­ces­sary or lesser evil, thus pretending not being the victims, by cooperating.
As a recipient of Australian pension I am required to comply with their rules which impinge my privacy; not that there is anything that I could possibly be ashamed off, but on principles I do not want to tell them what I regard is none of their busi­ness. On the other hand Cen­trelink holds position (but not right, not yet) that eve­ry­thing is their business. For that reason I have de­ci­ded to try my best in finding what I deem necessary for me to avoid un­ne­cessary harassment and to have a pea­ce­ful life in this country: a new abode and a suit­able job. I may have to travel over the globe many times to find what I want to find, but I will find what I seek, despite being harassed every time at Perth Airport by Australian cus­toms when I return from my trips: where I have been and what was the nature of the trip, as if they don’t know all about me.
When I find what I seek! When I find a new abo­de and secure a suitable job, then I will immediately sus­pend my pension and, when the time comes for the age pension (in two and a half years time), I may travel to Cro­a­tia and try to get an age pension in that country I originally come from (even though I grew old in Australia); so there shall be no need then for a double deal­ing by paying it to me through the Australian govern­ment or Centrelink but di­re­c­t­ly to me. If there is a legal pro­vision for that and I happen to be successful then, for the sake of clarity and to save Australia from possible erroneous or in­ten­t­ional payouts of the pension to my name, I shall demand very str­o­n­g­ly my name to be de­le­ted from Cen­trelink’s records. I am an Aus­t­ra­lian citi­zen and I will still be one without being recorded in books of Cen­tre­link, like other Aussies; not every Australian is a pensioner.
I am aware that Centrelink is already making some efforts to push me off, to offload me onto the govern­ment of Croatia. But before they do any calculations they should consider to repay their debts to me first; which is pretty steep. I have already told Centrelink how I do calculate their debt and I stand firm by what I say: the amount of money withheld must be doubled and an appreciation of $1,000 per month should be paid starting with 1. October of the year before the AAT was held. Further more Centrelink must pay all my costs related to my loss they caused. I had to sell everything for plain survival. And we must not forget to include the interests on all this, which are the same as the Cash Converters’: 30 % per month.
Centrelink causes me (and many other pensioner) feel asham­ed and makes me feel as being a person of lesser or no worth to Australia and the community et large; Cen­trelink makes me small and worthless in front of myself, ma­kes me crumble, and always did; Centrelink is denying my freedom and always did. These tactics are used by those who intend to overpower people through inti­mi­da­tion, and Centrelink is one of those organi­za­ti­ons that know what to do. Before I was very, very sick and felt as being helpless; but lately my life started to take dif­fe­r­ent shape and I be­gan to see the light, started to feel that fre­edom within myself; began to hear that forever-whis­per­ing voice telling me about my freedom: It is there, right in front of your nose, just open your eyes and you will see it. Yeah, I see it now and I re­cog­nize it as mine, So, I am ready for it and I am going to take it. As long I am not on my dying bed and am capable of holding up my freedom, I am not going to give it up; not vo­lu­n­ta­ri­ly, just like that. I do not want to argue with anyone, but only that every­one minds their own business; so I want to be out of be­ing anybody’s business.
I must find a place to live! I must go out of this apart­ment in Perth, where I was placed under surveil­lance by Cen­tre­link few years ago (and possibly still I am), and find some other abode somewhere else, not neces­sarily in Perth; I cannot trust Homeswest as it is a govern­ment enterprise, the same as Centrelink, so sooner or la­ter they could find some excuse to harass me. Like everyone else, I want to live in pe­a­ce, so I think it would be wise for me to be cautious and avoid any and every possibility for them to find some excuse. I could look after some pro­per­ty while owners are away on business or holidays. Or with other friends to rent a bigger pro­perty and share the ex­panses, thus every person has their room.
I must find a suitable job! In order to survive away from Centrelink I am searching for some position in me­tal in­du­stry that is physically not too demanding. As a qualified tra­des­man and came to Australia from Ger­many where worked for eight years holding posi­tions as a Welder Class One at MAN (Bru­e­c­ken­bau) and SIEMENS (Tra­fo­werke) in Nuern­berg, and as a fitter at AEG (Turbinenbau) and ORENSTEIN UND KOPPEL (Waggonenbau) in Ber­lin, KRAUSS­-MAFFEI (Lo­ko­mo­tiven und Panzerbau) in Munich-Allach. I am look­ing for a position as a supervisor in some workshop or con­struction site (Baustelle) any­whe­re in the world! I must admit that I am on invalid pension since 1984 and did not exercise my skills, so I may have had become rusty. In order not to reveal too much of clas­sified information about my person to all those irrelevant individuals or agencies, here is men­ti­on­ed a bare minimum.
*Centrelink is accountable to its base in the USA, where is a welfare centre for many coun­t­ri­es, not only Australia. The afflicted countries may be lulling them­sel­ves into a dream that the agencies are estab­lish to look after their interests but the reality is that those agencies are there as a component of the One World idea; sheep are now in wolf’s care. Don’t take me wrong: I could not give a dime abo­ut what anybody is after, as long as is not expected of me to even understand them let alone agree or, even worse, de­mand from me to support their ideas. I do not have to, nobody does.
Comments or/and help welcome. I look for­ward to cre­ate a publi­ca­tion of a sort to benefit us all; the pro­blem is deeper than it seem and affects not only Australia but other countries as well. One thing I have learned by now: when­ever and whatever was something done by me I did it with very little help; so, I do not expect much just that little bit. Until next issue; thank you for your time and patience; here is a specific story narrated in a specific way and light.

Regards,

B. J. (CRN 603-026-910H)

2 October 2007

A LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA

To: Honorable prime minister of Australia, Mr. John Howard

Dear Sir,
I am addressing this letter to you, your person who is prime mi­ni­s­ter of Australia, elected by Australians to lead us into a future blessed with reasonable happiness for all of us. As one can see from my open letter to Australian government, here enclosed, it may have not been achieved.
Here I would like to express to you my personal gra­ti­tu­de for your efforts and, which I be­li­eve, honest intentions in trying your very best for Australia and Australians. Also, I believe that one should give cre­dit and prize where it is due; your govern­ment did do much for Aus­tra­lia.
However I do understand that it is very difficult if not impossible to make everyone happy in a process and that it is reasonable to expect some casualties in the battle for the betterment of all Australians; therefore I do accept them as long as they are not by design. But, as is, I wonder if the pensioners are being sacrificed to alleviate the bur­den of other class of Aus­tra­li­ans, or just class. If so, I can tell you right now that even if you abolish pen­sions all together, the tax payers would have to pay the same, always higher taxes. But, you probably know it. And by having in place policies that need extensive laws that are contradictive will inevitably create an environment where ex­pert advice is not enough but rather the experts in and on the field will be necessary.
I would like to emphasize that this letter is not a letter of a com­plaint but rather an attempt to help you to realize the injus­ti­ce and treacheries that are going on in the name of govern­ment and con­sequently in your name. By presenting my case you may be able to do something about and prevent further treacheries in our society in the name of government.
I am determine to know what constitutes a pension; am I rece­iving my pension in accordance with my human or civil rights pro­tected and guaranteed by law, or am I that someone that is privileged to receive something that may and/or may not be lawful thus can be given and taken away at any time?
As a free man I have dignity and integrity to resist any tem­p­ta­tion and/or succumb to a bribe or anything un­law­ful that could com­pro­mi­se my freedom; as accepting a privilege, for in­stance. The strength for the protection of my dignity and in­te­g­rity I draw from that freedom; so, I do not need to suc­cumb, though I can understand some people who have no choice but to succumb.
Since I do have understanding for government’s attempts in trying to make things work, I would like to comment on the policies it tries to apply. Generally speaking, ex­cept in very abnor­mal cases, people are not machines or computers that can be easily readjusted or re­pro­gra­m­med to suit newly developed con­ditions and environ­ments; people are meant to adjust con­di­tions and en­vi­ron­ment to their needs, not vice versa.
Therefore, every change of environment will have a dramatic effect on vast majority of population; it puts all those in­di­vi­duals, who are dealing with, under a strain. Thus a change in any policy may have a hidden agenda of creating a condition where people are under a stress and do not know what to do; thus automatons are being cre­ated, as servants to serve the ruling class.
Except in cases where a human being is already un­der­gone a chan­ge caused by stressful conditions and thus have themselves changed and/or have become auto­ma­tons, majority of people suffers and their dignity and integrity is now being tested; just remember Jefferson’s words, look around and you my see how right he is: all those who have sold their freedom for little pri­vi­le­ges have lost both.
As I said in the beginning, I do believe that you and any other government in Australia have Australia and Austra­lians at heart and that you would never knowingly accept any decisive policy that would put at risk the values you postulate and stand for; especially the freedom of Aus­t­ra­li­an people. For that reason I am making this effort in try­ing to alert you to the dangers of the policies of the Cen­trelink, that are enacted in the name of the government.
Some of the enacted policies are unfair and some have a hidden intent to create a possibility for plundering those who could be plun­dered; they are those people who are registered with Centre­link, pen­sioners, jobless, sick and alike, in short those most in need of help, most un­for­tu­na­te and the poorest of poor. Centrelink can­not put its clutches on some rich business person. Need­less to say, these poor persons constitute easy prey; that makes things even uglier.
However, I am here not trying to say that all of their policies are treacherous or unfair, but will rather try to describe some of the actions of theirs that affect me. I will battle my war alone and what I regard as unfair I will not comply with, regardless of the threat that my pension may be cut off, and thus my very existence being thre­a­tened. Only what I ask is not to be asked by them how will I survive.
As I said, I am neither going to compromise my free­dom nor my privacy for the pension; despite Centrelink’s forceful demand that I must tell them. The very word must indicates a term where the act­ion is not that of a free will, a voluntary one, but rather prompted by a force or fear from a force. I can tell any­body and everybody that I must nothing; one must only die ¡­ and pay tax, as my son used to tell me once.
I like to stick to the law and feel responsible only to the law of the country and to nobody else. But Centrelink would not wish to discuss this matter in court of law; is it that they do not want overload the courts of Australia, because there are too ma­ny cases that are not clear, so they impose their own undis­pu­t­able judgment upon helpless pensioners ¡­ or is there a hidden agenda present? Or is ti fear of pre­cedent, which could cause a payouts to all plundered Australians of the past.
Centrelink’s modus operandi works unchallenged: in my case, they ac­cu­sed me that I owe them money, but would not want to clear the mat­ter in court; instead they are deducting from my pension $75.30. In court their machinations would be exposed for once, and what is more important they are unlawfully taking away the money that is allocated to me. But this is not all.
Being a pensioner, they know that I am not able to find $5,000 to start the case in Federal Court against them, as they suggested and threatened me with all court costs if I happen to be unsuccessful. (See enclosed material for more detail). It is about some $17,000. The other time they have done me for two months of my pension that is in excess of $2,000. Even if I happen to be successful and get back that $2,000, there I would be still at the losing end, $3,000.
Because of ramifications, their modus operandi is more sinister than that: as a pensioner I can have an interest­-free loan ($500) from the government, which I repay in six months; but as the one who owes money to Com­mon­wealth I am not able to use that facility. Who knows how handy would this money come; one with know-how is able to have a good use of the money and put it to his or her ad­vantage whereas some other person may have no significant use of it; and this is exactly what all is about, it must not happen.
As for inviting a friend or a relative to visit me here in Aus­tra­lia, it creates a big problem just by being a pen­si­o­ner; and if that pensioner owes money to Commonwealth, then he or she is not able to invite anyone. Can try but once the application is rejected the invited person is doomed to have any tourist visa cancelled; at the same time the data collected remains property of the collector, for possible fu­tu­re use. As in my case, that pensioner has no option but visit his friends and/or relatives abroad as often as he finds it fit. Therefore I feel in no way obligated to tell anyone anything about other person that I visit; it would be unethical and trea­che­r­ous towards that person or per­sons. It is bad enough that they have to bear some costs associated with my person; they would not like to be punished by Cen­tre­link.
[Added by editor: It would be a breach of trust and person’s safety and security and, at the same token, the person is unnecessarily exposed to a foreign agency or agencies (since there is sharing of info at work, who knows where the particular info may end up); if one, as an Aus­t­ralian, is treated by the Centrelink in that way, what a non Australian could expect. Because of being persecuted one does not trust Cen­trelink in the same way as the Cen­tre­link does not trust their customers, the pen­si­o­ners; Centrelink is looking at a pensioner as a potential criminal, as one who has only one thing on their mind, how to cheat Centrelink..]
And then that de facto business which now goes hand in hand with de jure; in absence of firm moral guidance, we are not able to con­demn sin so we accept it, in a very selective way of course, as a part of our every-day com­pa­nion. But it does come very handy indeed to Centrelink when they want to cut the cost, thus creating de facto relationships by their design, only to be able to made ac­cusation for drawing a single pensions whereas there would be one combined one and plunder their newly wed de facto couple. So, there is no sin per se as long as the government, or Centrelink, can make money out of it. What if a person is legally married to one person and lives with an­other one? Centrelink is just interested in this other person, and that de facto relationship conveniently ignoring a legal marriage thus the law is here bypassed or suspended. But we all are aware of it.
I really have had it by now; so I shall add just the new­est two things and finish this letter. Just want to tell you that I have sent the open letter last Saturday or Sunday to Centrelink and they must have re­ce­i­ved it on Monday, 1 October 2007. Yesterday (5/10/2007), I have re­ce­ived a letter from HSA (Health Services Aus­tra­lia), dated 4/10/2007 were they have arranged an appointment with me for 18/10/2007. I have changed the date of my appointment with HSA (Health Service Australia), from Thursday, 18/10/07, to Monday, 15/10/07.
6 October 2007, 9:52AM, Saturday. There was knocking on the door. It was electrician saying that he has to access the switch and do something there; apparently Homes­west has ordered him to. I was watching him undoing a yellow bridging in the middle of the top bar; when I asked why, he explained that before it was a regulation to put it in but now it is not necessary any more under new regu­la­ti­on, it is now optional. He did have some kind of wri­t­ing pad, a clip-board, where were three apart­ments: mine, and that of my next door neig­h­bor, and one more that I did not pick up. However, when the man left, I have put another bridge at the same place but did it in­con­s­picuously with the same wire color; now I am interested to see what happens. It is optional. Something’s cooking, just one cannot know what. The sa­me was with the smoke alarm few years ago, with a red light oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly flicking; like the camera on my mobile phone, where I can send photos via email. I have disconnected it.
And finally I would like extend my best wishes to you Mr. Howard and to all your co-workers. I sincerely hope that this letter was of some help to you. There is much more that I would like to talk about but as for now it should be enough; it made me tired to write all this, and probably will make you tired if you have managed to read it from one end to the other.
If you endeavor to write back whichever method you choose, ple­ase use my email address too; I am aware of the fact that Internet is not 100% secure way of com­mu­ni­cation, but nothing in life is 100% anyway. Also, I hope you do not mind me I presenting this letter to other people.

Sincerely yours,
B. J. (CRN 603-026-910H)

6/10/2007

* * *

Updated 20/10/2007: On 8 October 2007 Centrelink has sent me a letter, which I received 16/10/2007, two hours before my flight was due, and made another appointment for me for 23 October 2007 to evaluate my ability, after being on pension since October 1984. One on 15/10/07 and the other a week later!

CRN 603-026-910H

LETTERS TO CENTRELINK

To: Centrelink, International Services Hobart TAS 7000
Dear Sir / Madam,
Following our recent telephone conversation here I am sending you the written note required by you which states that all par­ti­culars about my employment dates in Croatia are already sent to you; this is all and any further pres­su­re of that kind (or any other kind) by Cen­tre­link upon my person will be regarded as share intimidation.
I would like to use this occasion to remind you that our country is still meant to be ruled by law of Australia and that any kind of intimidation is deemed illegal. No person or organization, eit­her private or government, can have a lawful excuse to pressure or intimidate any person or organization in Australia.
If you at Centrelink are not sure about your legal rights or/and res­pon­sibilities then it would be wise to check and test them in a court of law, to establish exactly where you stand. You may claim to do the business on behalf of Australian government; and you may regard yourselves as being a part of Australian government*, but even so, you have no right to intimidate or threaten in any way any person or organization in this country.
*Governments change according to elections, which is due to a de­mo­cratic process, so there is no room for Cen­trelink the­re: people do not elect Centrelink; rather it is business between government and Cen­trelink. But, go­vern­mental body changes and Centrelink stays un­chan­g­ed, like a body above govern­ment. One wonders if that body is really based in Australia and looks after interests of Aus­tralia? Since Centrelink demands that the private plans and in­tentions of a pen­si­o­ner must be revealed, please find enclosed a copy of an open letter to Australian government and Centre­link. It is a first such let­ter in a row in which my dealings with Centrelink will be dis­cus­sed publicly, as well as dealings of other Austra­li­ans with Centrelink.

Regards,

B. J. (CRN 603-026-910H)

30/9/2007

SPARKS

We all know that a state has its over­he­ads and a social security ap­pa­ra­tus should be accounted as bureaucratic expense and as nonprofit able institution. Its perfect state of affairs then would be if it works within the budget: if it oversteps the bud­get is a sign that there are some discrepancies where the state is being plundered and soon there is inquiry and some­body gets busted; state cannot be plundered. What about the sheep in wolf's care?
What if that organization does not plunder the state and still makes profit: does anybody wonder where the money comes from? Since the agency is not taking money from the state, then it is obvious that the profit comes from their customers.

Ed.

Your home is your temple

Your home should be there where your heart is; and in your heart is the centre of your universe. It is the epi­cen­ter of all your inner desires, the source of your life and for­ever aspiring destination; it is your destiny, even though you may not be aware of that.
Keeping your home beautiful will add extra value to your existing life, thus make you happier in your life; your life emanates from your heart, from your home. It does make big difference how your home looks like, because our environment does influence us.
Everyone likes to admire and to be admired but not eve­rybody is ready to admit that; so, people tend to choose as an object of their admiration something or someone that is not exactly themselves but close to all of them. Thus they build churches for their idols.
And now I will ask you a question that you should have had an answer all your life, but the question got lost somewhere in hastiness of life that we all take a part of: what is the difference between the church that you visit once a week and your home where you live?
The answer is obvious but you do not want to think about, because you neglected it for so long: it is you. It is you that makes all the difference in the whole uni­verse of yours; your indifference affects you, your very heart and thus your loved ones as well.
If you feel the spark of life getting weaker and finding hard to find anything to look forward to, that is because of going trough a rough patch in your life; and when one is sick then he/she is an easy prey. Don’t give up, there is life and beauty for you to enjoy; we will help you to find it.
Start with your own home; we will help you to find the way to decorate your home thus transforming it into a virtual paradise on earth. We know the way and the pe­o­ple who will do this for you for a fraction of the re­gu­lar market price. Something that is generally thought that only very rich could have is actually within reach of an ordinary person. Enquiry by contacting: abode113-home@yahoo.com.au

+ + +

FOR FUTURE DISCUSSION

Maybe you are not a pensioner yet but it won’t do any harm to ask yourself now the questions that will press on your mind once you come to the stage of being a pensioner:
*Do I as a pensioner have the right to visit a doctor of my choice? What happen if I do?
*Do I as a pensioner have the right to trust the people of my choice? Do I have to trust someone because of their uniform?
*Do I as a pensioner have the right to go where and when I want to go without spilling to anyone my private business?
*Do I as a pensioner have the right to love who and what I want to love without being automatically considered married in a de facto rela­ti­on­ship or church, whichever comes or expires first, and thus charged some small fee taken of my pension?
*Do I as a pen­si­oner have the right to live the way I want to live in accordance with my conscience and ex­pec­ta­ti­ons, or I must live as a pensioner meeting someone else’s ex­pec­ta­tions?
*Do I as a pensioner have the right to travel where I want, without compromising safety and security of mine and other people, by telling anyone including Centrelink the time of my departure?
They are worried about their security and safety, that’s for sure; what about other people’ safety and security!
Yeah, everyone has every right under the sun, but these rights are dead; if one wants any right to have alive they will have to fight for their own rights. Only the brave have the real rights, and only for the time they are brave to defend them; the rest of humanity have just the privilege to enjoy rights of the brave. The rights of man are like the fruit in the tree: the brave will pick them, thus he will show how you should do it too.

(See my Email line of essays, especially one dated 18/12/2007 that was sent off 19/12/2007, presented here slightly edited. If unable to reach email to: urbietorbi20@yahoo.com with Re: email 18/19-12-2007 in the "subject" line.)
Bruno HRUST.

+ + +

TRANSLATORS, DISTRIBUTORS AND BUSINESS ORGANIZERS ARE WELCOME: If anybody wants to distribute this news­letter please let us know and we shall equip them with the authorization to do the distribution on our behalf. We aim to distribute this newsletter worldwide and especially in the countries affected by this system of social security (that is mentioned in the newsletter), so we need people in respective countries to work with us; we need people for organizing translation, printing and distribution of this newsletter in their respective countries. We also need capable people who are able to take over the business of organizing printing, distribution and marketing; advertising experts and people to work from their computers too.

CONTRIBUTORS, LAWYERS, COMPUTER/INTERNET AND WEB EXPERTS ARE NEEDED TOO: Although the initiators of this newsletter have more than enough of their own problems with Centrelink that could keep them busy for very long time, we want to broaden the scope of this letter to the extent where will be too many of the people involved with it for anyone to ignore it. Identities of people cooperating in the project shall be protected from any unnecessary exposure; so, anyone who has anything to say on the subject of social security is encouraged to send us their stories and related material for review by a qualified lawyers so that our writers can be given guidelines for presenting the material to public view.

PLEASE NOTE: This is introductory copy of this newsletter and is randomly distributed; to assure each and every copy of this newsletter, please subscribe and subscriptions will be mailed or emailed to you. As an introductory issue, its contents are slightly abridged; please subscribe to view full content. If opted for the subscription to be delivered by mail, then the delivery address is needed; otherwise, for delivery by email, it is important to enter our sending address into your address book before we send you the newsletter to ensure that our email is received in order. The subscription for 10 issues is $40, to cover the costs of printing and posting. Upon clearance of funds (cheque, mail order, or electronic transaction) the subscriber will be given detailed instructions. However, donations by those able to donate are welcomed and will be accepted with gratitude as sign of their approval and support; please sponsor someone you think would like to read this newsletter but for some reason is not be able or is not likely to acquire it.

Address: URBI ET ORBI; PO Box 5014; Midland WA 6056; Australia.
Email address: urbiandorbi@yahoo.com

=========

Added/Edited on January 20, 2008.
NOTE A: The particulars of the bank account have changed to the bank account of the above mentioned person, which is understandable enough of which person we speak here. There are reasons for this move: 1) to give excuse to and let Centrelink do whatever they can do and see how low can Joe go; and 2) the mentioned pensioner is going to refuse to have that dole as a pension under these oppressive conditions and has decided to suspend his pension, or cancel it all together if necessary, until he applies for an age pension in 2 years time, or if the condition changes (which is very unlikely).
The above mentioned pensioner is going to find employment of a sort and does not want to declare his income to Centrelink; they say he must, but that is only what they can say; they cannot do anything about not to declaring an income when not on their "pay roll" (of course, they can raise another debt against that pensioner, and this is exactly what the above mentioned person wants and reckon with).
NOTE B: In the published article is the hidden knowledge of immense value for people who know what to do with it. That knowledge will be now given only to those who want to buy it, ie. in exchange for a donation, or to the author's friends and the Followers of the Truth in a form of written article delivered privately either via mail or email.
So, if anyone wants to donate can send a cheque to:
Mr. Branko Jakopovic
PO Box 5014
Midland WA 6056
Australia.

P.S.: This article is submitted to Blogger.com and should be accessible trough Google.com by typing in Bruno Hrust or at http://brunohrust.blogspot.com . If anyone is interested in hosting these blogs of Bruno Hrust please email to: brunohrust@yahoo.com.au .