NOTE: Updates have been posted below, including the tally.
I need your help, because they need your help. Please read this whole story and consider if you can help. WUWT readers may recall this story: Death of a Feedlot Operator …in which the anal-retentive government of West Australia has “licensed” a family farm out of operation due to some shonky science and arbitrary application of the “sniff test”. Yes that’s right, cattle farms smell, so do pig farms, as does any farm. But now it’s reason to shut one out due to baseless complaints from the local greens. And, it all started when Matt Thompson started doubting global warming and talking about it publicly.
I’ve never made a plea to the WUWT worldwide readership for help, I’m making one now to donate to these people to stave off eviction. If nothing else, do it to spite the government of Western Australia and the greens (Environmental Defender’s Office WA) that have turned farming into a “crime”. The real crime is that government listens to these hotheads. From Jo Nova’s website:
4 days notice! The Thompsons are served notice of eviction.
Will, Abbey, Janet, Luke, Matt and Kate on their farm. April 2010
From Agmates (and many emails), news comes that The National Bank served notice today that the Thompsons have to be off their property in four days.
This is a family with four young children, who ran a profitable business; they filled in every form and ticked every box. They have broken no laws, and there are no outstanding environmental notices, but yet, they came to Western Australia with their life savings and they are losing everything. (Note: Matt and Janet are from the USA, Hugo, Oklahoma – Anthony)
Don’t bring your investment dollars to Western Australia — not while the Department of the Environment effectively controls the state.
The Thompsons waited a full year to get Works Approval for a 15,000 head feedlot. After they had already committed the capital, the rules kept shifting. They discovered they’d need ongoing licenses as well. After several years of ramping up the capacity on these licenses, things changed. Matt spoke out as a skeptic. About that time, the renewals were delayed, then the numbers were cut in half, and new conditions were added that were impossible to meet. To feed and supply water for thousands of cattle the Thompsons had to sign agreements in advance to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods they could not use, but had no way of knowing that at the time. When they appealed, it took 18 months to get “vindicated” but by then there was only six months left on the “two year” license. Not enough to set up all the contracts and run a business. The new sub-clauses meant that even licenses for a qualified “10,000″ head had vague untestable conditions: the license you have when you don’t have a license.
I am ashamed of what our government has done.
If the media won’t cover this, shame on them too.
I’ve written before in more detail:
Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape
Smell that evidence
There is much discussion on Agmates, and a call for donations (see below):
URGENT HELP – Thompson family in trouble
NAB had not long ago told Matt & Janet that they were not going to move on them before December 31st. But it appears that they have changed their mind.
Those familar with previous discussions on Agmates will know that the Thompson family have no funds available to them to face being thrown out on their ear by the bank. Donations are needed ASAP to help provide a roof over the children’s head. Please consider donating what you are able into the following bank account that has been set up so as any donations can’t be seized with all other assets of Matt & Janet including the few dollars left in their own bank account.
Account Name: L&S BallardDescription: Kate/Aby/Will/LukeBSB: 016 770Account Number: 439863697ANZ: Bintamilling Arcade, Egerton Street, Narrogin, Western AustraliaSWIFT Code: ANZBAU3M
=====================================
For International money transfers, or payment by credit cards, Jo Nova has set up a special PayPal donation button (in US dollars). This will go to her bank account, with an ID that means it will be recorded as a donation for Matt and Janet. She will transfer it to their account. I have complete trust here. Please give anything you can, no amount is too small.
I’m confident WUWT readers can turn this around.
LINK TO PAYPAL DONATION HERE
You can also use your credit/debit card if you don’t have a PayPal account.
(note this takes you to an intermediate page, which I have to do since wordpress.com won’t allow me to insert the full code).
Also for those who have other websites, or who frequent other forums, bulletin boards, and blogs, I ask your help in getting the word out.
As Michael D. Smith writes in comments below:
Let’s show the Aussie Government what “We The People” can do…
Thanks for your consideration – Anthony
================================================
UPDATE1:
Dale Stiller writes in comments: Thank you all who have sent donations for the Thompson family. You can also help by emailing your disgust to Main Stream Media in Western Australia. Below are a few email addresses.
W A Newspaper contacts:
The West
http:au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/contact/
(does not give a Perth email, only phone no (08) 94823111 )
Email for Sydney Rep Office (The West) cdsilva@wansydney.com.au
Western Australian statewide rural newspaper
W A Radio – Perth National:
ABC News Radio – http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/about/contact.htm
ABC News Rural – wwwabc.net.au/rural/contact/
ABC Midwest & wheatbelt http://www.abc.net.au/contact/contactabc.htm
=====================================================
UPDATE2:
Janet Thompson responds to the issues raised by some saying she said in a public meeting: “there will be no odour”. Given Matt’s and Janet’s extensive involvement in animal agriculture, including feedlots and saleyards, in the States prior to coming to Western Australia, I find it hard to believe that she’d say this. Here is an excerpt of her response:
The myth has been propagated that I stated at our original open public meeting in March 2002 that I made the statement that there would be no odour. In considering any proposition in which animals are to be located in one area, it is ludicrous for anyone to state that there would be no odour. (And, I submit, for anyone to blindly believe such a statement.) I know places that have one horse, and there is odour to manage. Whatever statement that was made that night has been taken out of context, and now many people who were not even in attendance that night are repeating this myth. We spoke about manure smelling when it was wet, and for that reason, found it desirable to be located on the south side of town, when prevailing winds are away from town. We were always open about this, and are gravely disappointed in friends who have not come to us to discuss things, but instead worked actively behind our backs to wreak havoc in our lives, and to attempt to destroy our livelihood, the livelihoods of our employees and contractors, and our life savings.
Here’s the document as PDF. FYI, You’ll see today’s date on it since I made the PDF today from a Word DOC sent to me.
Thompson Response to community members LCCC
========================================================
UPDATE3: HOW TO WRITE A LETTER Reader Mark from Australia writes and provides sample letter ideas for contacting MP’s in Australia and members of the media:
People should reword as they desire and add questions if they have any specialist knowledge or expertise, especially in the feedlot business. They MUST keep it civil. People should send FOUR SEPARATE letters or emails. One to each Minister. That is important. Each MUST be answered so they must put their return addresses on them. I will be sending mine as letters, today.
Be sure to edit this to cover the points you want to include and your own words. Note that simpler hand written letters are likely to carry more weight. It is important to distinguish between EDO Environmental Defenders Office (which is the Non Governmental Organization) and DEC Department of Environment and Conservation (which is the state department of environment and conservation, which is responsible for licensing and the decisions that have been made). In that vein, most of the questions should be about DEC, not EDO (although the funding ones are great to ask).
Premier The Honourable Colin Barnett MEc MLA
Minister for State Development
24th Floor, Governor Stirling Tower,
197 St Georges Terrace,
PERTH Western Australia 6000
Tel: (08) 9222 9888 Fax: (08) 9322 1213
e-Mail: wa-government@dpc.wa.gov.au
The Honourable Brendon Grylls MLA
Minister for Regional Development & Lands; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development
9th Floor, Dumas House,
2 Havelock Street,
WEST PERTH Western Australia 6005
Tel: (08) 9213 7000 Fax: (08) 9213 7001
e-Mail: Minister.Grylls@dpc.wa.gov.au
The Honourable Terry Redman MLA
Minister for Agriculture and Food
Address: 11th Floor, Dumas House, 2 Havelock Street, WEST PERTH WA 6005
Telephone: (08) 9213 6700 Fax: (08) 9213 6701
e-Mail: Minister.Redman@dpc.wa.gov.au
The Honourable Donna Faragher MEd(Hons) BA(Hons) GradDipEd JP MLC
Minister for Environment
10th Floor, Dumas House,
2 Havelock Street,
WEST PERTH WA 6005
Tel: (08) 9213 7250 Fax: (08) 9213 7255
e-Mail: Minister.Faragher@dpc.wa.gov.au
MINISTERIAL REQUEST – NARROGIN BEEF PRODUCERS
Background Information
Matt and Janet Thompson moved from the USA to establish a feedlot business about 4 km outside Narrogin, WA. The business started operation in 2003 and employed about 20 locals at peak. This represents a success for WA and a success for Australia in attracting foreign investment.
Following his publicly expressing doubt as to the effect of the cattle industry on ‘global warming’ in June 2008, the West Australian Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) took an interest in complaints by Narrogin greens against the Thompson’s business.
In 2008, the Thompson’s applied to the West Australian Department of Environment and Conservation for an increase in their licence capacity from 10,000 to 15,000 head. Instead, the DEC cut their licence conditions back to 6,000 head, effectively closing the business by removing its economies of scale. The feedlot remains closed. This closure also played a role in the suicide of one of the employees, Mr Lindley Boseley.
The reasoning given by EDO on use of regulation to destroy this business is not available but seems subjective, indeed, specious (Reference page 2 of EDO newsletter at http://www.edowa.org.au/newsletters/200803Newsletter.pdf).
The EDO newsletter is itself disturbing. It displays the hallmarks of both a ‘captured bureaucracy’ and an issue-motivated NGO. It is positively triumphs the ‘Green cause’.
Questions
1.The Environmental Defenders Office is jointly funded by the West Australian State Government and the Federal Government. Why is WA funding this organisation when it seems to be little more than an arm of ‘The Greens’?
2.On what scientific grounds was the Thompson’s licence capacity reduced from 10,000 head to 6,000 head?
3.Was the viability of the Thompson’s business considered by the EDO in making this determination?
4.What are the scientific or other relevant qualifications of those who made this decision within the EDO?
5.Was this decision subject to review by anyone with skills in determining its impact on the viability of the Thompson’s business?
a.If so, who, and what are their business qualifications and experience?
b.If the EDO decision was not subject to review to determine the impact of the decision on the Thompson’s business by a person with appropriate business qualifications and skills, why not?
c.If the EDO decision included no business impact review from a person qualified to determine its impact on their business, were ‘the rules constantly changed’ in respect of the Thompsons applications?
i.If so, why and on what grounds?
ii.If so what were the qualifications of the person(s) making these ‘rule changes’?
d.Was ‘natural justice’ denied to the Thompsons in their application?
e.What appeals processes were available to the Thompsons?
f.Were they made aware of these in time to make effective use of them?
6.Why are the Thompsons being evicted from their property on 21 September 2010 instead of in December?
7.Are the WA Ministers for State Development, Agriculture, and State Development and Lands aware of the ability of the EDO to close any WA agricultural business on apparently subjective and/or ideological grounds?
8.Are the appropriate WA Ministers (State Development, Agriculture, and State Development and Lands) aware that this case is now attracting very adverse international attention to WA, due to the Thompsons being international investors in WA?
9.Are the appropriate WA Ministers (State Development, Agriculture, and State Development and Lands) aware that this case is causing damage to WA’s ‘brand’ as a safe place for international investment in agriculture?
10.Is there a link between Mr Thompson’s ‘offence’ against a Green ideological belief in ‘global warming’ and the EDO’s patently apparent belief in that same ideology?
11.Was Mr Thomson’s business targeted by the EDO on the basis of this ideology?
12.Did the ‘Green ideology’ so apparent in the EDO’s publications play any role in their determination?
a.If so, why is ‘Green ideology’ permitted to destroy a business and 20 jobs?
b.If not, what was the scientific basis for their decision to deny their application for an increase in license numbers from 10,000 head to 15,000 head?
13.Will the WA Government review the funding and operations of the EDO to prevent further damage to WA’s ‘brand’ as an investment destination?
Yours Sincerely
NAME
ADDRESS
DATE
===============================================
UPDATE4:
Jo Nova reports that WUWT readers have given generously! Over $27,000 was raised in two days from 670 donations. My humble and sincerest thanks to you all for coming to their aid when asked. Jo Nova reports that the fund will go into the Thompson children’s names.
Of course the alarmist community has been silent, there’s not been one word of support that I’m aware of.
See the latest from Jo Nova of how the DEC defines ditches at farms, and you’ll understand the sort of green tyranny the Thompsons face.
People should reword as they desire and add questions if they have any specialist knowledge or expertise, especially in the feedlot business. They MUST keep it civil.
People should send FOUR SEPARATE letters or emails. One to each Minister. That is important.
Each MUST be answered so they must put their return addresses on them. I will be sending mine as letters, today.
Hope this helps.
If you must refer to me, then please just keep it as ‘Reader Mark from Australia’
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
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$50 from me as well
Good luck to you guys
Donated. We in the US take our precious freedom of speech for granted. It’s very sad that farmers in Western Australia do not have the same right to well-reasoned, albeit politically incorrect speech.
Phil from WA says: Our Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd (ex PM -Don’t ask) is in the US right now and if he fielded a question about this at a press conference it would go ballistic nationally here.
Maybe the New York Times could ask a question or two. They may even dedicate an inch or two of column space to the story. ‘news-tips@nytimes.com’
Apply people pressure. Make it go viral.
There’s a field full of heifers right next to my house. It doesn’t smell. I grow some of the meat I eat in the form of chickens. That ‘operation’ doesn’t smell either. In both cases this is because the animals are not overcrowded and fed on the wrong kind of food.
Neither of my previous posts on this thread show up, which only bothers me because it is sad for WUWT whose moderation standards I respect and keep to. There is rather a lot of political green-slamming in this thread. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, I do think that people are not distinguishing between a political wrong and a natural wrong. If the Thompsons are being evicted for political reasons that is wrong. But if a farming operation stinks to high heaven something is wrong there too and should be corrected.
Thank God for good ole PAYPAL! Wish it could have been more.
David.
Went to Fez this spring when it was cold and wet. There is a tannery slap bang in the middle of the city and even during the cold and rain the smell is horrendous – they give you sprigs of mint to hold under your nose to keep the evil smell away.
I live in the country and farmers are muck spreading at the moment but we don’t complain as it is part of the natural cycle of their year. As others have said, pig sh*t is the worst, chicken sh*t not far behind and I quite like cow sh*t (especially after the first two). When we first came here (24 years ago) the fields opposite were used for sheep grazing, then the farm was sold and a game farm started up and we now have pens full of pheasant and partridge poults for a few months before being released/sold. They don’t smell but the noise in the middle of the night when something spooks them is interesting and we have learnt to tolerate the additional flies that come into our house particularly when the pens are closest to us. It is only seasonal and the pens aren’t positioned near us every year.
On the plus side, we get quite a lot of escapees in our garden and my cocker spaniel throughly enjoys the sport; it gets her in training for the shooting season ahead!
If you live in the country you expect smells. Send those complaining folks to Fez and they might change their opinions and be a bit more tolerant.
Donation sent.
Donated. I’m from Western Australia and this is very sad to see. Thanks to Jo for organising help for the Thompsons. We do have a decent government and I’m sure the Premier Colin Barnett will do the right thing if the matter is brought to his attention.
Donateion sent! Let’s hope & pray they make it.
AtB
” Richard Sharpe says:
September 19, 2010 at 9:39 am
I wonder if Virveli is one of those organized complainers?”
Mr Sharpe, I am a nobody from Finland, not an organized person at, all I’m afraid.
(Mr Watts himself can testify to my IP location.) The marvels of the Internet make weird things possible!
I would have been worried if there actually had been an administrative or political misconduct of some sort, that would have been unlike the Australia I’m aware of.
I’m relieved to have found out, at least to my own satisfaction, that the local administration and the regulator come out clean.
If an enterprise is mismanaged, it will go under. That’s the cold fact of the free market economy. The Thompsons appear to be two healthy individuals possessing a lot of marketable skills (Mrs Thompson even being a local councillor), so they should be perfectly capable of generating their own income.
Can only afford $15, I’m afraid, but so’s you know, we in the UK also think its outrageous!
As stated Janet stated ‘we are producers’ ……we love producing things……’
There were 25 RESPONSES sought for the Thompsons feed lot (survey found from library documents, will post brief stats on this later).
But a report for Dept Environment and Conservation (DEC) on improving waste management and landfills in the Wagin area – which includes Narrogin Town (population 4238 Area:12km2 7700 tonnes waste disposal/annum p7) and Narrogin Shire population (865 1618km2) shows a different PICTURE (last pges of report and p42-6).
http://www.narrogin.wa.gov.au/Strategic%20Waste%20Management%20Plan.pdf
Various pages are of interest
Back pages of report for PHOTOS of local environmental practices
The differences in practices between the Narrogin TOWN land dump and the SHIRE dump p24-5
eg the townsfolk produce 3x more municipal waste than the rural people (table 5.3.1 p38) but this gets readjusted in the next table to waste/person and seems equivalent between town and rural?
p54 A survey (no appendix of the actual methodology, sampling or questionnaire)
p56-8 July-Aug 2008 Consultation and 2pg Questionnaire READ READ
49 dot points (are these 49 people or 1 h/hold with many gripes?) Town respondents are very unhappy with the general state of the town (So… move or get off your butt and go to your local council meetings!) BIAS – or is that self-fulfilling prophecy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias (for non-survey minded)
p60 6.2.2 FOR SUMMARY OF Q RESPONSES (which responses from what questionnaire) – No response from Shire people (were they asked?)
100% response rate (highly unusual) 129x Narrogin Town people Ox Narrogin Shire
end of chart Will you pay extra (no analysis of rates, rebates and employment/wage status) and table 9.1 also has no costs analysis p82
p Consultants, paid by state government:- Suggestions: –
Earth Carers http://www.wmrc.wa.gov.au/earthcarers (ORT tab and ‘who we are’ tab)
Cities for Climate Protection http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=2291 (check Board and Supporters and also global ICLEI http://www.iclei.org/ )
Climate Actions group to advise to change light globes etc small business GHG reduction
I have no idea where all these landfills, some of which burn off in open air and heavy metal flow-off are situated. but it seems piggeries and feedlots are the least of this regions concerns.
I am contacting Professor Fiona Stanley, Child Research, Telethon Institute Australian of the Year, who did the work on folic acid and spina bifida. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Stanley Surely she can understand the benefit of [green vegetables] and meat and cereal in diets. Sorry and dairy and fruit also. And nuts. That are grown and available from a regional area.
Beats the time it takes to ship or rail produce across the Nullabor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullabore_Plain
Australian Bureau of Statistics has 7 different geographical and ?electoral choices for Narrogin (http://www.abs.gov.au/ go to census data left hand side and then choose 2006 quick stats) ranging from 12km2 to 1,000s hectare2. Also an industry, income etc regional profile has been done for the area, but small area population = high RSE?
The attacks by bankers to control farmers is a very old war. Tie ’em down with endless impossible paperwork and unpayable debts.
Who else has seen moneymasters?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#
It’s kind of amusing that Anthony has randomly decided to sound the alarm over this particular assault by a bank on a farm. Where were you for the last hundered thousand such assaults that have happened during your lifetime?
Effectively the whole world’s farming is controled or being attacked by bankers at any one time.
This case looks like the one we’ve got where I live, the holmfirth vineyard.
http://www.holmfirthvineyard.com/
Ridiculous northern latitutude vineyard, ‘spose to exemplify global warming. Tons of money being pumped into hopeless venture, but gets loads of very biased AGW media attention.
Simply, bankers heavily subsidize some select farmers who support the AGW nonsense. Seems in this case, the bankers mistook the Thompsons as suitable AGW zealots, and are now correcting their mistake.
People try to manage the odor of farms? Since when? Since when do farmers have to be responsible for the flatulence of their animals? Sounds like a bunch of city people wanted to live in the country and not adapt to what the country experience is really like.
I’ve been following the story of this family for a long while now, and I’m very sad that they’re being evicted. I can’t help but think that they’re not the only ones facing this crap, and that keeping them from getting evicted now is just delaying the inevitable. I’d rather donate to whatever their new venture is than watch them continue to beat their head against a wall. I would rather donate towards a new start for them, and let a good author write the story of this nonsense in a way that captures public attention.
Donation dutifully transferred to the L&S Ballard account. Mark Steyn would be interested in this kind of cause too. He sums up these types, and circumstances, quite well. IMHO, a self-mutilating tendency (or better, a self-eating disease) is now almost rife throughout Western culture, seeded and promulgated by our overly-protected, child-like, ‘elites’, the policy effects of which, unfortunately up until now, have only really afflicted the burbs and the regional/rural areas of nations. When the green tape (just one form of this disease – see Steyn for others), that is increasingly choking Western power and water supplies, begins to cause more regular CBD black-outs and brown-outs, perpetual water restrictions, as well as hiking power and water prices, it will be in essence the first time these elites experience the results of their own policies/medicine. But I’m not entirely sure that they’ll wake up then either. We might just have to move them on/depose their kind before it gets to that stage – but civilly, via good argument and the democratic process, of course 🙂
I think Virveli’s comment above is correct, I did some Googling and found the comment below on the blog “Climate Progress” which seems to be an activist blog. Based on the name I guess that Virveli is a woman which of course is irrelevant (information only).
Virveli says:
August 10, 2010 at 3:37 am
My country Finland also should need to be added to the global list of the countries that made a new all-time-high temperature record during this heatwave crisis:
http://yle.fi/ uutiset/ news/ 2010/ 08/ all-time_heat_records_broken_in_july_1873440.html?origin=rss
The previous record from the year 1914 was 35.9C, the new one stands at 37.2C!
Also a new all-time-high record for an August temp was broken on the 7th and 8th days of August (33.7C).
—-
What Virveli didn’t mention is that the last winter was really cold. For some strange reason the new record temperature was measured at an airport 🙂 . Personally I think the old measurement cannot be compared to the new one. They don’t measure the same thing.
I am glad I donated because here in Finland the same kind of sick efforts from green organizations allied with government officials can be seen. Individual fishers have essentially been eliminated through green activities forbidding hunting of seals and Great comorants.
Anthony I contributed to this because you asked me to. But I have to say I’m not too keen on bailing out people who move to semi-communist countries and discover that they no longer have freedom. The Australian people are going to have to learn that socialism/communism is a really bad idea and apparently they are going to have to learn it the hard way.
REPLY: Thanks for donating – Anthony
David Segesta says:
September 20, 2010 at 7:55 am “I have to say I’m not too keen on bailing out people who move to semi-communist countries and discover that they no longer have freedom.”
As distinct from those who stay in semi-communist countries like the US, Canada and the UK, and discover that they no longer have freedom? Unfortunately, essentially the same ideology has become dominant across the globe.
What concerned me most about donating was whether the money might not end up effectively funding the enemy (eg by keeping the Thompsons off the dole and paying taxes a bit longer, but without changing the final result). However, I decided it would still be worth it, on the basis that such international support may embarrass the bureaucrats out of all proportion to the monetary amount. An international scandal could affect their careers!
biddyb says:
September 20, 2010 at 2:55 am
If you live in the country you expect smells.
Huth replies: I live in the country and it isn’t smelly.
Jeremy says:
September 20, 2010 at 7:10 am
“….and let a good author write the story of this nonsense in a way that captures public attention”.
Don Benito Pérez Galdós, where are you?
Virveli, in you post of September 19, 2010 at 9:11 am you say;
“I researched a bit into this:
From the minutes of the Narrogin Shire Council, where Mrs Thomson sits as a Councillor, May 17, 2007:”
But following YOUR link and actually reading the council minutes, Mrs Thomson is listed as a Visitor. Now why would a concillor be listed as a visitor rather than a Councillor?
In your next post you say; “The Thompsons appear to be two healthy individuals possessing a lot of marketable skills (Mrs Thompson even being a local councillor), so they should be perfectly capable of generating their own income.”
They were generating their own income until changing government regulations made that impossible. You also seem to be implying that just because they have the ability to work and make money it is OK that they lose their life savings and/or that people should not help them when they are in need. That would have been unlike the Finns I’m aware of.
Around here we have discovered that by locating our temperature sensors at the East end of the Runway we can get a new all time record aomost anytime there is a West wind. especially if a jet has a last minute delay for some reason we can produce daytime high temperatures in the 40 C range sometimes without even melting the snow.
This issue reminds me of the folks near here who moved in next to the Trap range and then sued to shut it down because it was noisy.
David Segesta says:
September 20, 2010 at 7:55 am
Australia had in the 1960’s also a left wing government that sent everybody to the beaches, by lowering the retirement age, doing such a mess, that the then obscure and unknown UK’s viceroy had to intervene by order of Her Majesty to stop the generalized madness. (If my memory is right)
Is it the Moon resposible for this?…..Sure!….Ban Ki MOON.
Lars, a couple of points:
-There are “less than 5” female persons called Virveli as well as “less than 5” male persons called Virveli according to our VRK, all born between 1940-59 (The exact numbers of very uncommon names are not published.)
-The Great Cormorant are hunted in Finland this year;
-The Winter 2009-2010 was not especially “hard” in Finland;
-The weather station at the small Joensuu-Liperi airport meets all required criteria with large distances from any runway. The actual station description is found at the FMI site;
-The records temps in summer 2010 were not limited to a single time nor place;
I’m not going to publish the links here, as we’re OT already. Consider this as a hint for your search engine usage.
“You also seem to be implying that just because they have the ability to work and make money it is OK that they lose their life savings and/or that people should not help them when they are in need. That would have been unlike the Finns I’m aware of.”
ddpalmer, you’ve seen the wrong Finland. You may not be aware of the fact that our great depression of the 1990s was the greatest depression ever to have taken place in any industrialized country. Scores and scores of people found themselves in a similar situation than the Thompsons.
If you really feel the need to help people in need, I’m sure a local charity in Narrogin would be a better place to direct your contributions to.
As for the elected position of Mrs Thomson, may I direct you to the official Shire site:
“Janet Thompson
Jantet was elected in October 2007. She and her husband Matt, own and operate Narrogin Beef Producers, a 10,000 head cattle feed lot south of Narrogin. Janet and Matt have four children Kate, Abby, Will and Luke. Janet’s background is in finance and agricultural economics. She enjoys all sports, reading, speaking and writing and is currently involved in writing and producing a local play “The Fundraiser”.”
http://www.narroginshire.wa.gov.au/contact_details/councillors_more.html
(“Councillor profiles”)