Perth Voice Interactive

Photo scores!
I AM not a soccer fan. I am not a sport watcher at all. But last weekend’s photo on the front page of the Voice (August 2, 2014) of Bayswater City Soccer Club’s cup win, was filled with so much shared joy I could not help but be moved. Excellent!
John Plant
Egina St, Mount Hawthorn

Time to choose your side
YOUR front page headline said, “Kids targeted” (August 2, 2014). In view of news reports of the extraordinary number of Palestinian children killed by Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza, I assumed the article would cover some aspect of this tragic massacre of innocents.
The first sentence made it clear the article actually referred to a very different sort of offence.
It said: “Children at a Jewish school have been labelled ‘Zionist scum’”. Different offences but with some similarities: both deplorable. both outrageous, though carrying dramatically different scales of damage to children. Brick walls can be cleansed of derogatory insults to students but ethnically-cleansed dead Palestinian children cannot be brought back to life.
Increasingly the public mood is turning against Israel’s policies. Its delaying tactics, slick excuses, endless dead-end investigations, and blatant lies, smoothly uttered by a well-oiled PR machine are sounding hollow. It’s all propaganda. The brutality is unacceptable. Anger and resentment are rising. Unfortunately an unknown vandal has daubed the Carmel School in Yokine with a caustic slur.
There are better ways to protest one’s disapproval of Mr Netanyahu and his government’s wanton destruction of Gaza and its people. Join a protest group, write to foreign minister Julie Bishop, other members of parliament and newspapers. Call talkback stations, don’t buy Israeli products and keep spreading the word. Avoid hate.
One day, when the world reflects on this period of history,  it may see clearly the whole story of the bloody and devious colonisation of Arab Palestine by the Zionist enterprise and how that process created the very oppressive conditions which define life in Palestine today. On which side of history will you find yourself: with the oppressor or the oppressed?
Vincent Sammut
Franklin St, Leederville

Stirling for service
WE are all facing a forced amalgamation of local government bodies. Some reasons given are:
• greater efficiency;
• bringing greater potential to communicate with ratepayers as a result of increased resources;
• provide better services for ratepayers;
• decreased rates as a result of efficiency arising from increased size.
Recently I had to  communicate with a ward councillor of the City of Stirling. My email to him brought an immediate positive response.
Within four days I’d received a detailed email from a Stirling employee concisely answering my queries and requesting me to contact him if the response was not satisfactory.
Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to the City of Bayswater. The contents were similar in nature and very precise. Of course I also cc-ed the letter to the three Bayswater ward councillors. Response from councillors to my letter? Zero. Reply from the City of Bayswater? Still waiting patiently.
What I have found is Bayswater—at both staff and elected ward councillor levels—actively discourages communications with elected ward members while Stirling councillors welcome questions from ratepayers with Stirling employees responding in a positive manner.
The re-aligning of boundaries will create a larger City of Morley out of Bayswater at the expense of Stirling. If my experiences with the two local government bodies is a reflection of what is to come I hope those in the City of Stirling, who will be swallowed up by Morley, will fight to prevent it.
As an aside, I have also approached two state MPs (one each from both sides) for assistance on this matter relating to Bayswater and both have been anything but helpful.
Nick Agocs
Dianella

#spring is in the air LOL
ON the tiptop twig of my liquidambar, where buds prepare to launch, a honeyeater out-twitters Twitter.
Sprays of fresh green appear on a nearby wattle.
The first five days of August were glorious for Perth.
Can we therefore bet safely on an early spring? Borne in mind should be some recent gruelling weeks and that three weeks of the calendar winter remain. More pockets of rumbustious elements could be in store—winter’s tail.
To ensure they become ancestors our birds are instinctively preparing to mate, nest and rear chicks. Local councils and developers need to exercise restraint in chainsawing trees at this time.
Without trees, to combat pollution and help maintain wildlife, our own wellbeing  is being jeopardised.
To our four corners this message needs to be twittered.
Ron Willis
First Ave, Mount Lawley