[meteorite-list] Aussie Meteorite Rant...was sale of scorpion bight main mass by http://qmig.org

From: Mr EMan <mstreman53_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:04:18 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <872587.54125.qm_at_web55208.mail.re4.yahoo.com>

Bob, standing firm or not-- you are talking out your rear. Everything you've ranted about is based on falsehoods and the fake facts you or your countryman invented. I've had a decent respect for you Bob, but this fairy-tale is an insult. The description of Haag "raping and pillaging" is a over the top. It is an attempt to revise history by creating a set of "false facts" underpinned in hyperbole. Contrary to your claims it isn't the truth you are trying to share.

For the record and admittedly from memory, let me recount the circumstances of what ignited Australia's meteorite export law. Haag did not go to Australia looking for a "lunar meteorite". He wasn't at the Millillibillie looking for chondrites to pillage. He was collecting Millillibillie when an unusual rock was brought into the collecting station. Were it not for Haag it would still be out there on an ant hill, unrecognized. Milli is a eucrite, Calcalong was a lunar so where are all these chondrites you are complaining that he raped and pillaged?

When Calcalong Creek was recognized as lunar, an Australian Academic went ranting and raving and when he couldn't extort Haag to give him the entire meteorite, he went whining and crying to Parliament to get it back. He couldn't but they threw him a bone so he would shut up.

You had politicians that saw an angle and exploited it. They were able to keep the Aboriginals repressed yet again but forcing them to sell their finds to the state at state set prices. If meteorites were such an important cultural heritage then why didn't the academics go looking for meteorites themselves? Why did they go uncollected? Why has Australian meteorite science been stagnant for the last 20 ears? Haag offered half of the Calcalong Creek lunar in a spirit of cooperating and the Australian academic (who's name escapes me) told Haag to pack sand.

Until that time there were no laws regarding meteorite export and Haag was paying the Aboriginals to collect them on their own land. Using the same criteria, you are a rapist raping the Australian "Herritage" yourself, prostituting yourself for profit. Sounds like your main rant is that you didn't think of the raping and pillaging first. Just using your own hyperbole to illustrate a point.

I understand you claim to be venting, but venting is no excuse for spreading facts that you know aren't true. Lay off the exaggerations, stick to the science and leave politics to scorpions. Good luck in getting your export permits.

Elton


--- On Fri, 12/12/08, Bob WALKER <qwalkra at mailbox.ezadsl.net.au> wrote:
> I need to unwind and vent a bit about why I have to sell a
> few of my prized finds...
>
> Rewind the clock twenty years or so when a young Robert
> H**G visited Australia and rewarded our fair country by
> raping pillaging and looting and illegally exporting many
> Australian chondrites...
Received on Mon 15 Dec 2008 09:04:18 AM PST