====================
Dear_Mrs_Natoli:
I respect the dream of your man, "John", to build a large "MacMansion" for your family of boys. When I visited your house on Cumberland Rd with my shopping jeep in tow, I observed your man drive off with his tradesman concrete mixer. He waved to me, a "pedestrian". With a name like "Natoli" and by the holly and ivy wreath on your front door, you are, I trust, a Christian. I also am, for the sake of the Australian and New Zealand bureaux of statistics, an old-fashioned "free-thinker" of X-ian background plus all the above religions the census form offered me to tick. I am a "trickle-down" multiculturalist. Those tribal Christians of the Eldoret, Rift-Valley, Kenya are at it again: "ethnic-cleansing". And family dogs can chew babies to death. The folk in Shanley St know me as an eccentric Australian and trust me, as I trust them. Will I sell my house, which my brother and I built, and from which I bought him out? Will I return to it with Council assisted care, in "The People's Republic of Moreland"? Or will I move to another Low-Care-Facility-Hostel, such as the Dorothy Impy Home, to which my mother, as the oldest person on it's "Ladies' Auxiliary", was given a life membership. Over the years I have noted, Mrs Natoli -- I'm sorry I don't remember your first name -- little peasant-like tricks your John plays on me -- as did Doug. John offered the use of a chain-saw to cut up a tree upon which I could sit to enjoy nature in my backyard. John feared I could stand on it to peer over your fence. But can you respect me as I have respected Old Doug, who respected the Helems at 34 Shanley St and the easement which runs along the back side of his property. I could put you to the test, which would be unpleasant. Doug had a shed, from which he excluded Melva, and painted it white on my side. David who drives to the city to work is more sophisticated and has removed the brick barbeque on the easement and roofed his small shed so that water will not run off to rot the fence; I speculate that David and his wife Daniella are a working couple who love their property, which I speculate is an investment sponsored by a patriarchal father-in-law, who shows contempt for me by the manner he neatly cuts branches over my side of the fence. That property to the North of me was financed and improved by the Essendon Football Club and it's star player of the South Australian Sporn family -- he and his father were both carpenters -- his sister is the net-ball champion. It's a boy thing keeping boundaries; it's territorial; it's biological. I remember the contempt for me by the son of the English Hancock couple -- his first wife dropped dead in that house. And the builder on the North-East corner who wanted to buy my brother's investment on the North side of Warwick St, after that builder separated from his Italian-Trieste wife. The boy born in Australia used to say, "Mummy says..."; "Daddy says...". That's "polycultural"! I can remember two or three houses here one of my friend John Allen -- of German ethnic background. His father was an ex-WWI soldier-settler. They tethered a cow for domestic milk. At the house on the West side of Cumberland Rd was a lived a Belgian war-bride. And John Boram, who lived with grand-parents and his divorced single mother and who became an aircraft flight engineer. My own father was a drinking, smoking, alcoholic victim of WWI. He was an NZ Anzac who put up his age and blamed his mother, God, and the British Empire. My brother once set fire to grass here, in spite of the snakes and blue-tongued lizards. But neighbours soon rushed to put out the flames. They also bought sleep-outs and helped each other erect walls for self-built homes -- with council approval. There are many more tales I could tell, such as of the hostel in Cumberland Rd, where new DP's, Displaced Persons', New-Australians', came. It will now be a Low-Care-Facility for the Dorothy Impy Home. When I turned five, I was evacuated from London with gas-mask -- "Loose lips cost lives" -- by train to the holiday sea-side resort of Torquay, Devon. I saw Spitfire pilots doing victory rolls during the "Battle for Britain". I have earlier memories, before and after the war and the London Blitz. My family thought Churchill was a war-monger and understood that carpet-bombing by brave RAAF navigators of Dresden was a crime and carpet-bombing by Hitler's navigators' of Arsenal served us right because my dad had a job at Woolwich Arsenal making bombs. During the Phoney-War, I remember the air-raid shelter shared by our snobby neighbours in Sydney Rd, Abbey-Wood. I remember the delight of picking up Shrapnel in the back-yard; and the men in blue over the back-fence who operated a barrage-balloon; I saw my parents lay the foundations for a free-standing bungalow, which was raised-up as subject to floods. During the Phoney-War, I stayed with my genteel great-aunts at Stone-Street House, Stone-Street, Kent -- a straight Roman-road; they insisted on naming me "Dennis". The married great-aunt was a talented fashion illustrator, who censored illustrations she mailed to her civil-engineer husband working on Singapore-Harbour; so I hope he had a loving sex-life there -- and maybe a Eurasian love-child. I could have been the child, rather than my younger brother, who caught the meningitis during the epidemic the authorities suppressed, and which left him deaf and blind in one eye. As a schoolboy in Gloucester I fraternised with Italian prisoners of war, POW's, who were happy to be out of Mussolini's Fascist War. They were tending a plantation of X-mas trees. For "trench art" they would fashion cigarette holders from hazel-wood and rings from silver coins, which they exchanged for soap. I was evacuated to the West-country heart-land by train and with gas-mask. "Loose talk costs lives". was the propaganda spin. Later I attended the Blaisdon village school, and did the Eleven-Plus and was put in the top of three streams at the Cinderford, Forest of Dean Grammar School. We were bussed in. When I took the Bell St bus past the Coburg High School, I felt sadness that the facade could not be saved as heritage. Perhaps Coburg Senior College carries on the tradition. We played softball, tennis and running in the shadows of Pentridge and balls were tossed back. The CHS students were multi-ethnic, eg, where are all the secular-Zionists now? The Australian Census form offered boxes to tick for major denominations; I’m an old-fashioned "free-thinker plus all above religions”; I include the secular post-enlightenment, "Book of Common Prayer", small-c catholik. I am worse than what an ignorant superstitious Wogboy peasant might understand. I am an apostate, a lapsed member of the One-True-Church, like ex-PM, Tony Blair of Britain, who was permitted a special dispensation by the male priest-hood to be wed by a priest in the sacristy, but not before the altar. A lapsed Anglican catholik! cf, "Once Upon a Time in Beirut: the Paris of the Middle East", "God on my side”(Andrew Denton), “Deer Hunting with Jesus". I believe in "the Purple Economy", subject to open integrated second-generation Aussie society at large and of more significance here in Melbourne. Cardinal Pell like Manix, asserted the Irish identity thing. Pell, as a representative to the Constitutional Change Conference, showed admirable ability to adapt for the selection of a GG, Governor-General, with reserve powers; the celebrity footballer, I voted for, did not. I have no ill-will towards my brother and his family. However upon learning of the bigoted and money-greedy trickery of his Exclusive Bretheren, I changed my will to favour an ex-Bretheren.
Your Good Neighbour
Bill Helem
==================Dear_Mrs_Natoli_II
Dear Teresa:
It was not I who phoned for the police: it was Mark Bradbeer, Charge-Nurse at the Parkville Hostel, 856 Park St, Parkville (Ph: 98587_2174, nurses desk).
My kindly Transition Care Case Worker, Social Worker Gail Morgan, has decided not to discharge me yet until certain needs are met after this weekend.
Mark Bradbeer was responsible for me and told me my checking out to guard my property for the night before the day of acute fire danger was against his advice. But he medicated me with a pain-killer. I signed the book and later saw he had written in it "Against Advice". I pressed in the code to unlock the front door and left for a "real" public phone a block away near the milk-bar. The pay-phone at the Hostel will not enable keying in for menus -- it just gobbles up your money!
Up the street I made several calls for emergency visits, i.e., from the plumber and from the Victorian State Emergency Service (SES). I dialled 000 was given the number 132_500 An operator told me SES teams were busy and took my details they had visited before when a branch fell across my power line.
So when at last at 8am the squad car from Fawkner came aggressively pounding on my front door I also thought it was in response to my request -- which it was not.
Mark had rung in his local police station and was visited right away by an understanding squad-car who promised to "look out for a frail 73-yr-old with terminal cancer guarding his property against fire and vandals". The message was misread between here and Fawkner: the squad was stubborn, threatening, treating me with menace and the conspicuous ready-to-use side-arm. Had the bald-headed tough with ear-ring seen too much TV-action, was he at war(?) (I took this officer's name="W_Duggan"; but he could be a good-guy who had newly shaved his head for charity!)
I like to think the police are heroes of a professional protective force. This is recognised internationally, as in ISCO. Yet some sub-culture cops are violating human rights; and I think it a violation of natural justice to dob-in a good neighbour without warning first -- the accuser should not be unknown.
I spoke to David before he left for work.
I am happy -- and surprised -- to be still alive. So an old man has the privledge of speaking up! I love youse all! And look on the funny side of life...and death! I am concerned for your John and his smoking and drinking, yet it made no difference to me! Those experts thought it was old-man's prostate; but the cancer was in the gut and liver system instead. Make sure John gets tested!
Best Regards
Your Good Neighbour
Bill Helem
=====================SUBMISSION TO THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL MATTERS
The Committee Secretariat can be contacted at:
Committee Secretary & Secretariat
Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters
Department of House of Representatives
PO Box 6021
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61 2 6277 2374
Fax: 61 2 6277 4710
email: jscem@aph.gov.au
I am Bill HELEM [ M as for Melbourne] of:-
Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours
================
The following is text of www.mapdot.info/soapbox.htm
================
Subject Classification: mapdot-x96-x2a-7iq-political-rights-and-electoral-reform-(Tutoring-Iraq-in-democracy)-[The-International-Covenant-on-Civil-and-Political-Rights,-Article-25]
DEMOCRACY: EQUAL VOTE EFFECT for CHOICE of GOVERNMENT viewpoint, mapdot-r73-industrial engineering an electoral system
Victoria and Indonesia required government sustained by a majority of parliamentarians. A hiatus continued while those MP's horse-traded.
Surely it would be more democratic to horse-trade first, then offer two programs for the people to choose between at a general ballot where every citizen's vote counts for equal effect -- not only swinging votes in marginal electorates.
[ There was a general election in Austria towards the end of 1999. There were three months of major party haggling into 2000, before a coalition working policy could be decided. It wasn't the citizens who decided. ]
At present in Australia, the over-all "two-party" preferred vote is a more valid measure of the will of the people than is the way the current electoral system allocates seats to parliament.
If a pure proportional representation electoral system were introduced, we would agonise again and again . Yet it is possible to guarantee a majority of seats for the side preferred by the people, such as by "topping-up" or "topping-down" then enable representation of minority groups to "have a say" -- including the "independents", who actually do become, in effect, a party.
Such a reform is required for basic democracy and would also be needed should we opt for a directly elected political president of a republic. How could a hypothetical John Howard look her in the eye, knowing that a hypothetical Kim Beazley was preferred by the people? She would have the moral authority to veto Howard legislation.
Parliamentarians and the republic will have more moral authority when every citizen feels that everyone's vote has an effect. The duty to vote should be for more than empty ritual.
Is it too late? Governments relinquish public functions and citizen's money to private and transnational corporations. And parliamentarians are losing the people's respect. If I live to see the day of the republic to wag my Aussie flag, perhaps the era of the state, as the British Empire, will be past. We then can cheer our Nike princesses. After Queen Victoria's Jubilee, Kipling wrote:-Lo, all the pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!=========================
REPUBLIC
LETTERS (The Age, 3/11/99)
I can't miss my Saturday-arvo The Goon Show on Radio National. Does that make me an Anglophile or a patriotic ABC listener? Maybe I can be both. The British Empire has long been a joke, including on The Goon Show. It's silly to still colour Australia pink on the world map. It's folly to still look to the United Kingdom to supply our nation with a head of state. I will vote "Yes" for the minor but symbolically significant changes to our constitution.
Our constitution is defective yet works because politicians play the game with honour. The proposed method to select or dismiss a president will have less scope for tricks.
A "real republic", where the spectators directly elect the umpire, would be a different game. It might have merit. But we would need to first reform the system of electing the prime minister and government. For example, Kim Beazley, not John Howard, was preferred by the people at the last general election. A popularly elected president would have moral authority to veto Howard legislation. ( The Queen, constitutionally, has this power.)
I voted Phil Cleary for the Constitutional Convention, I'm disappointed that he has adopted a spoiler strategy, and panders to an Irish ethnic victim view of history. I could evoke Huguenot ancestors!
Let's not cling to atavistic tribalism and ancient grudges; progressive Ireland and the UK are comfortable with their place in the world; so can be multicultural Australia.
BILL HELEM=========================
Submission to Constitutional Convention
In a genuine republic every citizen's vote should be counted with equal effect for choosing a government. The electoral system of Australia is better than of the UK and most democratic nations. We could improve it with a mechanism to guarantee that the side preferred by the overall majority of the people is allocated a majority in parliament. Such a mechanism is often known as "topping-up".
Topping-up is said to be not possible without constitutional amendment. Now is the time to enable real "one vote one value". Australia could be an example to the world in implementing the principles of Article 25, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The expressed will of the people is distorted when swinging voters in marginal electorates are more important than all other voters. And an equal number of voters in every electorate cannot cure malapportionment. At present, the overall "two-party-preferred-vote" is a more valid measure of the will of the people than is the method of allocating seats to parliament. Sometimes the winning side is robbed of the ability to form government. Andrew Peacock's team was robbed. A Majority-Side-Guarantee mechanism, triggered only occasionally, would ensure that the flip-flop point of the electoral pendulum would always be at the 50 per cent mark.
Another way, possibly constitutional even now, would be to have an identical algorithm under every seat: it would trigger an "explosion" under several least scoring seats to calibrate the flip-flop point.
I don't think an MSG mechanism would lock out minority parties and independents, or an aboriginal voice. Maybe there could be a device for them built in, which could also cure the excessive "landslide effect".
If Australia opts for a directly elected president it could be a dilemma when the government is not the people's choice. The president would have moral authority to veto government-initiated legislation.
This submission is not to compel such an electoral reform, but to have a constitution which would not prevent it.
BILL HELEM=======================
SHORTER VERSION:
A republic should count every citizen's vote with equal effect for choosing a government. We can improve our electoral system with a mechanism to guarantee that the side preferred by the majority of the people is allocated a majority in parliament.
Such a "topping-up" mechanism is said to be not possible without constitutional amendment. Now is the time to enable real "one-vote-one-value".
At present, the overall "two-party-preferred-vote" is a more valid measure of the will of the people than is the method of allocating seats to parliament.
Sometimes malapportionment robs the winning side of the ability to form government. A Majority-Side-Guarantee mechanism, triggered only occasionally, would ensure that the flip-flop point of the electoral pendulum would always be calibrated to the 50% mark.
Another way, possibly constitutional even now, would be an identical algorithm under every seat triggered "to explode" several least scoring seats. Also, the landslide effect could be reduced with a few representatives of minority parties.
If Australia opts for a popularly elected president, it could be a dilemma when the government is not of the people's choice.
BILL HELEM===================
I wrote the following letter before the 2000 USA Presidential Polls. My complaint against their system now reads like a prediction of that shameful scandal:-
The method used to elect the US head of government could be more democratic. Every citizen's vote should count for equal effect in the choice between Bush and Gore. A good opinion poll is a more valid measure of the will of the people.
Americans won't vote directly for presidential candidates: they'll vote for electors from their state to an electoral college. These electors will have promised to support a respective candidate. The number of electors for each state, according to size, is the same as the number of congressmen for that state. State-by-state, electors vote on a winner-take-all basis.
It could be that the overall preference of the voting citizens is for Gore yet the college elects Bush. That would not accord with The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 25.
In Australia, the MP's with the majority in the House of Reps are, in effect, an electoral college. Because at the last general election the overall preference was for Beazley, the very existence of the Howard cabinet is a violation of Article 25. Even the better democracies -- and the Commonwealth of Australia is better than the USA -- can reform to show the world.===========================
Submission to Electoral representation review for the MorelandCity Council by Victorian Electoral Commission
as at VEC Web site: www.tinyurl.com/35hls
I respectfully submit that:-
1. You recommend a procedure to avoid drawing a name out of the hat to elect the mayor. (Actually, it is the casting vote for the council majority which would be the significant result)
2. You recommend that each candidate be compelled to publicly allocate preferences for all candidates throughout all wards. ( This would inform the public. AND, you imagine, a "flow of proxies" could be used for topping-up the council with (say) three councillors-at-large or for another correcting mechanism)
3. Or, instead of Item 2, you recommend a method of measuring the overall so-called two-party preferred vote. (This would not necessitate "unsubdivision".)
I wrote in soapbox8.htm: "I'm for discussion from diverse viewpoints, for democratic action and for checks and balances....A healthy community needs checks and balances -- responding to moderated scientific change and valid feedback. Governance is cybernetic." Your review is serving good governance.
Best wishes,
Bill Helem,
Pascoe Vale, 3044
[ Comment: The electoral system is fundamental to the liberal/pluralist democratic nation. We must struggle to be a better example than USA or UK as a "nation-builder" in Iraq etc.. Maybe you (non-gender-specific)guys could dream up a system for Iraq!!]===============
The following is text of www.mapdot.info/soapbox2.htm
and at http://www.vec.vic.gov.au//WP_MorelandSubmissionHelemB.pdf
===============
Subject Classification: mapdot-x96-x2a-02c576-political-rights-and-electoral-reform-(City-of-Moreland)-[The-International-Covenant-on-Civil-and-Political-Rights,-Article-25]
Submission to Moreland Representation Review Victorian Electoral Commission [the uncensored version]
I’m pleased that your VEC Moreland Review prelim report.pdf “acknowledges the benefits of having an odd number of councillors. [Because]An odd number of councillors serves to prevent potential council deadlocks and so removes the need to confer on the Mayor the task of casting important deciding votes”.
The first item on my preliminary submission was:-
1. You recommend a procedure to avoid drawing a name out of the hat to elect the mayor. (Actually, it is the casting vote for the council majority which would be the significant result.)
Your recommendation of an odd number of councillors removes the potential occasion of using a hat! That, in my view, would be a travesty of democracy. It did happen in the days of the Coburg Council. It might have been regarded as “fair” or “sporting” for the alternative political teams; it was not “equitable” in respect of the votes of the citizens of Coburg ( the municipality, which joined Brunswick to “reform” as Moreland).
My position is:-
that there are better instruments for expressing, then validly measuring, then representing the will of citizens individually and overall for equal effect, than the electoral system you appear to be leading us into.
I believe that the overall “two-party preferred” vote is a valid measure of the will of the citizenry.
I like the proposed “structure” of eleven councillors to be elected from three wards, comprising two four-councillor wards and one three-councillor ward. Yet, the boys in the backroom know equal numbers of citizens per councillor can never prevent malapportion or gerrymander.
However, I ask:-
would it be possible under Victorian legislative requirements to have a notional “overall ward” to elect one councillor for each of the four-councillor wards?
That could go towards a “topping-up” mechanism to guarantee that the “side” chosen by the people could decide the “mayorality”, i.e., the government. Even having an odd number of councillors does not guarantee that. Furthermore, three wards means, three separate polls and elections. And even though it might look like equality to the candidate, councillor or electoral bureaucrat, it is not one-vote-one-value for each and every citizen, i.e., equal-effect.
I am not advocating a separate direct election for the mayor, as happens in some cities. But the reality is, there are ideological factions, political parties and caucusing. I approve of these as democratic; your preliminary report does not acknowledge they exist. I note your recognition of our multiplicity of “sub-communities”; I applaud how the ALP candidates represent them.
The majority caucus elects and sustains the “mayorality”, the casting vote and allocation of sub-committee / portfolio positions. The majority caucus at municipal, state and national levels is like an electoral college.
I did a tally of some of the words and phrases in your PRELIMINARY REPORT, Electoral Representation Review, Moreland City Council (1184Kb). Ask for a recount, if you like:-
democratic 2; democracy 0; “fair and equitable” 11; “fairness and equity” 1; fair[alone] 0; “equality of representation” 2; equality[alone] 3; political 0; party[as name of submission ] 3.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bill Helem, | bhelem@melbpc.org.au | www.mapdot.info/soapbox.htm | www.tinyurl.com/35hls | soapbox2.htm
A PDF version of above Submission to Moreland Representation Review Victorian Electoral Commission can be downloaded from this link. (16Kb)================
I respectfully submit the following idea to you to think through. I plan to put it up later, when I get on-line with a ftp programme to up-load the passionately re-written MapDot Protocol Web-pages. Where you and the cyberspace ideas-exchangers may read at www.mapdot.info/topics.htm
================
That-all-candidates-at-a-general-election-constitute-an-"electoral-college"-and-be -compelled-immediately-after-nominations-close-to-publically-give-a-preferential -vote-for-each-and-all-of-the-candidates-and-these-preferences-be-tallied-in-favour -of-four-"nominators"-who-may-be-or-may-not-be-one-of-the-candidates-these -nominators-could-be-called-"west"/radical(?)-"east"/conservative(?) -"north"/tough-minded(?)-"south"/tender-hearted(?)-the-winning-coalition-side -would-be-guaranteed-a-working-majority-of-seats-in-the-lower-house-of-parliament -but-the-"landside-effect"-would-be-prevented.==============
I congratulate the sportsmanship of the parties who accepted the change of government under Westminster tradition modus-vivendi, without rancour.
I submit that, if there is an issue upon which individual candidates have a "conscience-vote", it be electoral reform.
I regret the presidential posturing of our new PM (first-among-equals). It is an unfortunate consequence of the media, sound-bite and electoral-spin-doctors.
It’s a shame that the brains of back-room boys go into power-change and not electoral-equal-effect for each citizen.
Respectfully Submitted
Bill Helem
Citizen in the Electorate of Wills
(Thanks, I voted in the urology ward at Royal Melbourne Hospital)
================
2020 IDEAS FOR THE SUMMIT
Parliament House
PO Box 6021
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61 2 6277 2374
Fax: 61 2 6277 4710
email: jscem@aph.gov.au
I am Bill HELEM [ M as for Melbourne] of:-
Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours
That-all-candidates-at-a-general-election-constitute-an-"electoral-college"-and-be -compelled-immediately-after-nominations-close-to-publically-give-a-preferential -vote-for-each-and-all-of-the-candidates-and-these-preferences-be-tallied-in-favour -of-four-"nominators"-who-may-be-or-may-not-be-one-of-the-candidates-these -nominators-could-be-called-"west"/radical(?)-"east"/conservative(?) -"north"/tough-minded(?)-"south"/tender-hearted(?)-the-winning-coalition-side -would-be-guaranteed-a-working-majority-of-seats-in-the-lower-house-of-parliament -but-the-"landside-effect"-would-be-prevented.Respectfully Submitted
Bill Helem, Tuesday March 2nd 2008
=====================To Deloitte innovation program
RMIT
Dear Matt McIntyre:
I am:-
Mr Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours [But often nobody is there]
Parkville Hostel is a Low-Care-Facility for the Royal Melbourne Hospital. I have terminal cancer -- convicted but not sentenced as to how long to live or be treated. But I am surprised and happy to be alive. They are feeding me up and I gain strength. The cancer problem was mine and that of expert urologists, my GP and charge-nurses: we thought the cancer was in the urinary tract originating from old-man's prostate; but in spite of the tests scannings and probes under general anasthetic etc, they could not see the evidence that the cancer was in the gut and liver. Suddenly the scales fell from their eyes and I was permitted to take a PET scan at Peter Mac. However all have been supportive of my passion to rewrite my Web-site.
I have spent much time and creative thought in hospital and in spells day and night passionately rewriting my main Web-site page. I have just finished it -- but have not yet re-edited the other pages [with Notepad++]. Please have a look at the index page enclosed. I do hope you agree that the MapDot Protocol project has potential as a classification system for Web-pages. The use of Notepad++ has caused the insertion of not needed HTML code: I could cut-back the size of each Web-page -- other than the index.htm -- by about 10%. Most of the work was in adapting the pages of the earlier version to the new classification system so as not to break links, and, of course, in giving each page its classification mapdot-code.
The HTML markup code is plain and simple at "HTML for Dummies" level; the copy of that book has been stolen. The text of my main page is not simple, but plain is good.
Here I am electronically isolated: there is supposed to be a public phone here but it had been out of order for yonks; everybody in your world is expected to have a moblle phone. The public phone now works, but it will not allow dialing through menus: it just gobbles up your money; however a real public phone is just a block away near the milk-bar.
I am able to travel, most days, by wonderful tram, train, and bus. With my shopping jeep, I am a committed pedestrian with a parsimoneous life-style. On Tuesday I was just back from South Springvale contracting to hire a caravan to park at my home. Must move on determinedly. Pain-killers wore off, and new catheter caused bleeding. But an oxycodone has done the trick. Off to lay my Credit Union savings before the CentreLink Financial Info Services Officer at 9am on Wednesday. Must do the right thing. I'm an armchair-traveller: the world comes to me; and I enjoy being cared for -- and how polite are asian students there, and on public transport... respect for aged!
It was by chance I found the write-up about the Deloitte program in 'The Age' which I found on a train seat!
While I was in Royal Melbourne Hospital, I was robbed twice of my computers and programmes (But I do have registration codes). And I have suspects. Residents are not on-line, but I have been granted two sessions for browsing at the week-end in the Activities Room. That's a victory for grey-power! I don't identify an ftp program on the computer.
My kindly Transition Care Case Worker, Social Worker Gail Morgan, previously intimated that I had served out my time and she would discharge me on Tuesday. However she absented herself on Tuesday. Back from her long-weekend geological field-trip, has decided not to discharge me yet until after this weekend, when certain needs are met. Is she breaking conflicting rules... under which "programme"?? Gail Morgan and the other case workers have been supportive of my passion to rewrite my Web-site.
Please browse index.htm and do a Find for for "cancer" and for "Author Comment".
I am an activist for the Dads-Army who like to e-mail with the grandchildren generation, via facebook, etc.; maybe if I go down quickly, I shall will my computer to the Hostel residents (unfortunately, many here suffer from dementia or alchohol or other drug abuse). I do not see computer users as the Bell-curve, but as a bi-modal average.
My nephew, in Boston, put me on facebook which is how I can communicate occasionally, I don't have access to my Melb PC email box, bhelem@melbpc.org.au, which by now is probably stuffed up with junk. My hope is to build up strength to move back to my modest house in "The People's Republic of Moreland", where I have been active for most of my life. If I could live for two more years, I would support my newly-married nephew and his bride -- and they me; they want to move to Melbourne, as a better place to bring up children, after he gets his American citizenship.
And I am keen to upgrade my Web-site. And invite your students to help improve it and share in the credit perhaps. Especially if you consult with me for specifications for needed client-side spread-sheet or JavaScript MapDot Protocol geocode converter. I trust you will find MapDot Protocol geocode of interest and potentially worthy of promotion.PS: RMIT Connections:-
Perhaps a most useful and innovative course was: "RMIT, School of Applied Science and Mathematics, Mathematics Department, Microcomputer Productivity Packages" Revised by W Dodson, 1990.
It was at your TAFE and it was early morning invitation on a first-come-first-served basis. I was granted a certificate after passing and attending 200hr. Actually I passed and attended the extra hours for the Desktop Publishing course. I have the impression that due to internal politics, RMIT does not recognise the certificate. Anyway, there was great care not to let programs in or out of the classroom; and my publishing exercises were watermarked to ensure I could not use them. However, I was given a student card and access to the computer lab across Swanston St!
Back in the 1964 I was going to night school at the School of Management and completed two courses with shared subjects: Personnel Administration and also Work Study -- the Method Study part was more to my taste. There is a statue of a group of us in Swanston St(?)
At that time, I got involved in student politcs and was elected to the executive as "Junior Vice-President" to represent the night-school students. It was also the year of the NSW freedom-rides and planning for building Student Union facilities at RMIT. I was sent to Sydney (Uni of NSW) and to ABSCOL (Scholarships for Aboriginals) with our Student Union Secretary, Michael Komessaroff, as deligates and to report back. I also convened a student society affiliated with the Council for Adult Education.
Yours for P2P Info-Tech
Bill Helem (Sun 16th March 2008)
================Dear JA
Department of Psychology
School of Behavioural Science
University of Melbourne.
The day before I have used up my time as a temp resident in Parkville Hostel, is an appropriate time to read your documents and thoughtfully to answer your questionnaire. I can participate to some value. My attitude to the bowel cancer is: I am happy to be alive and to have been fed up (breaking all my old rules of diet) to gain strength and a determination to return to my old sub-standard home and supervise a few tradesman-improvements -- especially as the place was robbed and vandalised while I was in hospital!! My nephew has talent in house restoring, but also in over-aged partying, backpacker alcohol, and maybe other drugs, I speculate.
The long-weekend is a difficult time for me to make the phone-calls and public-transport visits. My social worker, has been away on a jolly geological field-trip in the High Country. And promised to visit me today, but has not yet done so. [She did not report in.] I have missed out on applying for subsidy for rent here @ 31.52 per day: Social workers -- the whole sequence of the ones I have been passed on to should have checked out that. Then there was the Form I filled in for claiming half-priced taxi fares, back in November. The Xmas holidays was the explanation -- or is it incompetence?? Must check it out. [The misunderstanding may have been mine: I am able to use, and choose to use, public transport on most days; have I been deemed to be not eligible?] They have been understanding of my passion to re-write my Web-site.... And I am alive!!
If I could live for two more years, I would support my newly-married nephew and his bride and they me, perhaps; they want to move to Melbourne, as a better place to bring up children, after he gets his American citizenship.
Yours for evidence-based research,
Bill Helem
34 Shanley St
Pascoe Vale 3044
Ph: 9300_2552 (When I reconnect)
www.mapdot.infoPS: I'm still off-line, but hope to get my passionately re-written Web-site up-loaded soon. Meanwhile, here is a preview. Browse index.htm and do a "Find" for "cancer" and for "Author Comment".
PPS: Some observations on the day you met me, suggest a cavalier attitude by the specialist oncology big-cheeses. I was willing to have you come in to hear him interview me: he objected. A week earlier I had an appointment with the top man, Dr Peter Gibbs, He rang in sick and cancelled. Maybe, I thought after losing sleep the night before, it was just as well, and a tactic perhaps. On the day we met it was not Peter Gibbs, but -- if you'll pardon the expression -- a Chinaman. He did not seem to be familiar with me or my case. I did observe at the door how casually two of the fellows swapped patients. Then there was the grump who objected to you and me being in the passage-way, over the line...
PPPS: I'm just back from South Springvale contracting to hire a caravan to park at my home. Must move on determinedly. Pain-killers wore off, and new catheter caused bleeding. But an oxycodone has done the trick. Off to lay my Credit Union savings before the CentreLink Financial Info Services Officer at 9am tomorrow. Must do the right thing.
PPPPS: I have a collection of day-by day jottings of names and impressions of caring staff and bed-neighbours. I'm a traveller: the world comes to me; and I enjoy being cared for -- and how polite are asian students there, and on public transport... respect for aged!
PPPPPS: My kindly Transition Care Case Worker, Social Worker Gail Morgan, back from her long-weekend geological field-trip, has decided not to discharge me yet until certain needs are met. Previously she intimated that I had served my time and would discharge me. Is she breaking conflicting rules... under which "programme"??======================
Request to Web-site Design SIG,
Melbourne PC User Group for Assistance
Dear Barry Andrews, James Cox & Members:
Please could you, or someone who lives in the area assist me.
I am member 5358 / 2009-01-01
Mr Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours [But often nobody is there]
Parkville Hostel is a Low-Care-Facility for the Royal Melbourne Hospital. I have terminal cancer -- convicted but not sentenced as to how long to live or be treated.
I have spent much time and creative thought in hospital and in spells day and night passionately rewriting my main Web-site page. I have just finished it -- but have not yet re-edited the other pages [with Notepad++]. Please have a look at the index page enclosed. I do hope you agree that the MapDot Protocol project has potential as a classification system for Web-pages.
The HTML markup code is plain and simple at "HTML for Dummies" level; the copy of that book has been stolen. The text of my main page is not simple, but plain is good.
Please could you upload it to overwrite the one I have on my Melb PC User space, ~bhelem. ( I think the file was index.html but it may be index.htm )
I was using the access code originally supplied I wrote it on a floppy, but that was stolen too.
Here I am electronically isolated: there is supposed to be a public phone here but it has been out of order for yonks; everybody in your world is expected to have a moblle phone.
A volunteer visitor anytime would be welcome, but do check to know if I am in: I may make little trips to Sydney Rd Internet cafe or library etc..
Residents are not on-line, but I have been granted two sessions for browsing at the week-end in the Activities Room. That's a victory for grey-power! A session is available right now (Sunday Arvo)
I am an activist for the Dads-Army who like to e-mail with the grandchildren generation, via facebook, etc.; maybe if I go down quickly, I shall will my computer to the Hostel. I do not see computer users as the Bell-curve, but as a bi-modal average.
My nephew, in Boston, put me on facebook which is how I can communicate occasionally, I don't have access to my Melb PC email box, which by now is probably stuffed up with junk.
I appreciate the move to Chadstone Centre -- the geo-centre of our membership, and so handy to public transport. I will be able to go there by half-price taxi, when the Commonwealth claim is eventually processed; but I find public transport via train, tram and bus suits me well. I hope to hobble in for the SIG monthly meet. ( I am hobbled by wearing a catheter etc.!) I'm only temp here, they want me to move on to another hostel; I was thinking of one near public transport to Chadstone; but I would prefer to build up strength to move back to my modest house in "The People's Republic of Moreland", where I have been active for most of my life. If I could live for two more years, I would support my newly-married nephew and his bride; they want to move to Melbourne, as a better place to bring up children, after he gets his American citizenship.
While I was in Royal Melbourne Hospital, I was robbed twice of my computers and programmes (But I do have registration codes).
And I am keen to upgrade my Web-site. And invite members to help improve it and share in the credit perhaps, whether group professional celebrity or of Dad's Army.
Yours for P2P Info-Tech
Bill Helem (Sun 17th Feb 2008)======================
Report_to_Moreland_Crime_Desk | Ref. No. LEDR473423
1151 Sydney Rd
Fawkner 3060
I am Bill HELEM [ M as for Melbourne] of:-
Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours
Thank you for your advice to assist me to follow-up as a victim of BURGLARY. I now do so by naming two major suspects. I invite you to visit the scene of the crime at 34 Shanley St, Pascoe Vale [off Cumberland Rd]. I suspect: A group of Juveniles at North-West corner of Cumberland Rd and Kent Rd. (I often passed friendly remarks as they ate fish-and-chips outside the fish-and-chips shop on the North-East corner of Cumberland Rd and Kent Rd); I also suspect as a con-artist, daren.done@iag.com.au (aka, Darryn Done). (You can confirm my suspicions I expressed to Supervising Nurses, Doris and Ashley, Ward 3-South, Royal Melbourne Hospital. I joked that he was my son and that he, who came from Manchester, had followed Manchester City Football Club, but I had chosen Manchester United.)
The juvenile-delinquents have a slow-learner brother whom they encourage to act-out, They have broken window panes from outside and on the rear door. They stole my book-club package on a Planet- Earth TV series, so I hope they learn something. They stole a software Painter 8 package. They stole my hedge-trimmer and whipper-snipper. They wrecked havoc in my rooms for fun. One Sunday evening after dark the gang were revving up a loud motor-car in the back yard of the house at the South-West corner of Cumberland Rd and Wicklow St. I visited and showed my face by my torch. Next morning I found a small plastic bag of dog-shit in my letter-box.
The Natoli family, whom I respect, have been playing tricks on me for years. Of late they have tossed balls over the fence, hacked down a tree over my side, and have tossed objects onto my roof and North wall. I suspect them also.
The major suspect is the team for which Darryn is a front-man and for which his Sydney girl-friend is historical researcher and his computer- buff knows how to dispose of the booty. (But I have registration numbers for software. Software is not owned by the purchaser; a licence to only use it is given). If Russian hackers or such go "phishing" and then the receiver of the stolen goods does a virus- checker update, then the software might be traced. This could be a case for stolen identity fraud squad.
Darryn has a day-job processing motor-crash claims for IAG in The City, he had an alcohol-problem keeping food from being vomited-up. Despite being partially crippled, he rode a bike in from nearby, off Royal Parade, and visited me with a "Green Guide". After I insisted in paying for it, he never turned up again, but my house was robbed.
Darryn has a "night-job" fronting for a self-styled-scientific project -- the only on in Australia -- the capture of ghost images on photographs and sound. He is hoping to buy advanced equipment. He sets up tours of old jails etc.. He has been interviewed favourably on popular TV. Was he a con-artist in the UK?===================== Report_to_Moreland_Crime_Desk_II | Ref. No. LEDR473423
1151 Sydney Rd
Fawkner 3060
I am Bill HELEM [ M as for Melbourne] of:-
Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours
Thank you for your kindly words regarding my terminal cancer. I am happy -- and even surprised -- to still be alive. So I don't feel resentment towards anyone. "Always look on the bright side of life... and death!"
Con-artist, daren.done@iag.com.au (aka, Darryn Done) and his team is now further confirmed as my prime suspect. Who would want to steal a collection of family photos? I was planning to put them on DVD-ROM. On the second burglary an antique fob-watch was stolen. I did take possession of a strange candle -- too late for finger-prints? And is there an IAG which processes motor-crash claims? Does he have a crim record in the UK?
I did invite you to visit the scene of the crime at 34 Shanley St, Pascoe Vale [off Cumberland Rd]. Have you done so?
What amuses me now is:-
How did the message phoned in to the police station for Parkville by the Charge-Nurse at Parkville Hostel GET LOST IN TRANSLATION by the time the Fawkner Squad-Car came pounding threatenly at my door?
Mark Bradbeer had rung in his local police station and was visited right away by an understanding squad-car who promised to"look out for a frail 73-yr-old with terminal cancer guarding his property against fire and vandals".
Please read, "Dear_Mrs_Natoli_II" for details.
Had the bald-headed tough with ear-ring seen too much TV-action, was he at war(?) (I took this officer's name; but he could be a good-guy who had newly shaved his head for charity!)
I like to think the police are heroes of a professional protective force. This is recognised internationally as in ISCO. Yet some sub-culture cops are violating human rights; and I think it a violation of natural justice to dob a good neighbour in without warning first -- the accuser should not be unknown.
I now have another suspect for you the bloke at the North-West corner of Shanley St and Cumberland Rd. He "borrowed" the council wheely-bin from me and filled it with nature-strip mowings. "Saint Stephen" I called him. But now I observe that it was to sell his house at plateau price and go tree-change with his wife to a family hobby farm. The house came to them through her parents. He has just been dismissed from "Trading Post" with severance pay-out. What a situation to learn how to dispose of stolen goods. She has had cancer and he has a drink problem. I wish them well.
Subjective Memoirs of frail-old cancer patient
-- condemned but not sentenced: happy to be alive and speculating
Bill Helem (Monday March 17th 2008)=======================
Request_to_Melbourne-PC_Users'_Group_for
_Home_Visit_Assistance
Dear Ian Felsenthal:
Please could you, or someone who lives in the area assist me.
I am member 5358 / 2009-01-01
Mr Bill Helem
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116
Parkville Hostel
856 Park St
Parkville, Vic-3052
To check if I am in:-
Ph: 8387-2174 Office Hours
Ph: 8387-2339 Nurses' Station, All Hours
Parkville Hostel is a Low-Care-Facility. I have terminal cancer -- convicted but not sentenced as to how long to live or be treated; it's the holiday break. The Network-Administrator is also on holiday [The Network Administrator is back from holidays (2008_01_15)]; maybe you could explain to him that I am an activist for the Dads-Army who like to e-mail with the grandchildren generation, via facebook, etc.; maybe if I go down quickly, I shall will my computer to the Hostel; maybe you could point out to him the advantage of plugging in via the electricity power plug. I do not see computer users as the Bell-curve, but as a bi-modal average.
I appreciate the move to Chadstone Centre -- the geo-centre of our membership, and so handy to public transport. I will be able to go there by half-price taxi, when the Commonwealth claim is eventually processed; but I find public transport via train, tram and bus suits me well; I would prefer to live in "The People's Republic of Moreland", where I have been active for most of my life. If I could live for two more years, I would support my newly-married nephew once-removed and his bride; they want to move to Melbourne, as a better place to bring up children, after he gets his American citizenship.
Can the Melbourne Computer Users' Group use it's influence to enable be to be listed early with Myers for an AUSUS Eee PC?
While I was in Royal Melbourne Hospital, I was robbed twice of my computers and programmes (But I do have registration codes).
And I am keen to upgrade my Web-site. And invite members to help improve it and share in the credit perhaps, whether group professional celebrity or of Dad's Army.
Yours for P2P Info-Tech
Bill Helem=================
Huey_Adrian_Sajan_at_H&M_Professional_Computers
I'm Bill Helem,
[I'm now back at my home in Pascoe Vale
Same Phone:+61 3 9300 2552
Or you can send an off-the-record (not-for-publication) message
Go via [FORM], then fill in the last field.]
Room 116 Parkville Hostel
Ph: 98387_2174 Office Hours
Dear Ricky, Financial Information Services Officer
CentreLink:
Thank for the options you gave me as I came to lay my Credit Union savings before you. And do the right thing.
It was Wednesday, the day after I was just back from South Springvale contracting to hire a caravan to park at my home. Thinking: must move on determinedly. Pain-killers had worn off, and new catheter had caused bleeding. But an oxycodone had done the trick.
I have been trying to contact you on the days since at the number you gave me, 13_2300, but you have always been engaged. So I send this note.
My kindly Transition Care Case Worker, Social Worker Gail Morgan, back from her long-weekend geological field-trip, has decided not to discharge me yet until certain needs are met. Previously she intimated that I had served my time and would discharge me. Is she breaking conflicting rules... under which "programme"??
I'm still off-line, but hope to get my passionately re-written Web-site up-loaded soon. Meanwhile, here is a preview. Browse index.htm and do a "Find" for "cancer" and for "Author Comment".
Yours for supporting aged in own homes
Bill Helem
To:- "The professional PC builders and PC retailers at H & M Professional Computers, mapdot-02c587-Glenroy"
Dear Hiey, Adrian and Sajan:
Thank you for your help, and the good price, for the new and more powerful computer you supplied me with to replace the one I was robbed of while in hospital with terminal cancer. I was robbed a year, almost to the day, after I bought the other one.
As well as working on my "MapDot Protocol" Web-site, I hope to play with Corel Painter via a tablet.
You can see above, that in whimsey, I gave Glenroy a mapdot geocode, 02c587 -- there must be many "Glenroys", especially in Scotland. I have repeated this in "References; external links" in index.htm to say, I'm thankful.
I spent many hours, even through the night, in Room 116 at the hospital low-care-facility hostel passionately rewriting that MapDot Protocol. I hope you find it interesting... or perhaps a project with potential. A copy is on this floppy. ( You will get an indication of my feelings, if you browse index.htm and do a Find for for "cancer" and for "Author Comment".)
I'm now back at my home at 34 Shanley St, Pascoe Vale 3044; same Phone, 9300 2552. Actually I'm in a caravan on the front lawn to supervise a clean-up and tradesman/handyman help before I can move back in. Hope I have the strength to survive! Meanwhile, Community Connections Program, next to St Vinneys, 163 Wheatsheaf Rd, are keeping an eye over me and more.
The beaut PC was easily set-up again in the caravan but not yet on-line. So this is a preview.
Best Regards
Bill Helem
--Bill Helem aka "ExtraMuros", Amateur-Editor
©
Bill Helem, Editors appointed by him or his heirs assert moral rights of creative integrity
of MapDot Protocol geocode and Web-page classification system sequence
yet invites you to reproduce and publish my MapDot Protocol list,
if you think useful. Even as freeware.
You may adapt the classification system for "in-house" purposed but you must not reverse or alter the sequence
But, the penfriend seekers on demo lists, don't republish without their permission!
1994;...last week of daylight saving RMH Low-Care-Facility March 2008 Melbourne.
e-mail: mailto:bhelem=[Shift-2]=melbpc.org.au
| Switch
to Refreshed Mixed O'seas Penpals 
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Go to latest update of MapDot Protocol Web-page classification system at www.member.melbpc.org.au/~bhelem