OPAL TRANSPORT CARD

What does it all mean?

Part 1

Some three years ago, 7th December 2012 to be exact, the New South Wales Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, traveled by ferry from Circular Quay to Neutral Bay using the Opal plastic Card. The journey was uneventful and the card worked, ie, the turnstile opened and allowed the Minister to enter and exit. Back in Sydney Minister Berejiklian said:
“I was delighted to join customers on day one of this exciting trial. Opal will transform the way people travel in NSW and mean an end to ticket queues and fumbling for coins.”
Some three years later, 1 January 2016 to be exact, paper tickets are no longer available and anyone wishing to use public transport in NSW even for one journey, will need to complete Opal card form and wait to get his or her Opal plastic card. The face to face human interaction involved in purchasing a train, or a bus ticket is gone. What does all of that mean, if anything?

Firstly, loss of jobs for ticket sellers on railway stations and to printing companies who print tickets used in railway stations and buses. Secondly, I wonder if the NSW State Government told the public the full story as to why the Opal plastic card had been introduced?

In order for a plastic card to operate lots of electronic gadgetry needed to be installed in the turnstile and on the plastic Opal Card. I imagine this electronic gadgetry to be somewhat similar to that of Automatic Teller or Banking Machines (ATM & ABM). Unless deleted, the computer registered record usage of these machines are capable of keeping any transaction. In other words, every time I travel by either train, bus or ferry in NSW there is a computer kept record of my travel. I and am told that this record is stored for some 3 years and could be used and made available to investigators. In terms of security, perceived or real on my train, bus and ferry ride, the Opal ticket might as well be a plane ticket. Why cant I use my NSW Opal ticket to travel by air? Maybe one day Opal Air will start a revolution- I could one day travel by air on a tap on and off, have a great day sir welcome to Australia?!!

I do know for a fact that there is a 1982 Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act that allows the Legal Profession, and any member of the public, access to records and information. I also know for a fact that the Act in question does have specific ‘Public Interest’ Provision. But we commuters of NSW public transport are told nothing. 

Let me repeat what Transport Minister, Gladys Berejklian, said on 7 December 2012:
“I was delighted to join customers on day one of this exciting trial. Opal will transform the way people travel in NSW and mean an end to ticket queues and fumbling for coins.”

I do not know about you, but like politicians to sometimes tell the truth. The question is whether the now, State of NSW treasurer, Gladys Berejklian, knew the truth when she uttered the above quoted words. I know there are far worse things in this world than fumbling for coins.
…………………………………….

Remembering & Honouring
Emir AbdelKader
(The Algerian)
Part II

Before delving into the nobility, humanity, heroism, and courage of AbdelKhadir it is worthwhile to make brief mention of the sectarian conflict that had been raging off and on in Lebanon since 1843. To my mind the very root and essence of this conflict lays in the fact that El Shihabi Family conversion from Sunni Moslem to Maronite Christian. Like El Hashemite Family that ruled Saudi Arabia before Ibn Saud, hence (Saudi Arabia) they are thought to be descendants from the Prophet Mohammad. Thus conversion to Christianity, let alone Maronite version, was nothing short of anathema. The Shihabi managed to get the blessing of the Turkish Sultan and ruled their Christian followers from Beit El Din in the Chouf Mountain in Lebanon. Beit El Din is short few kilometers away from the Druze feudal Lords, Amir El Maan in Deir El Qamar, and Jumblaat in Mukhtarah. Whenever it suited the Ottoman interest they stirred up the bee hives and ‘small scale’ massacres followed. The smallest of these massacres took place in 1843 where several hundred men, women and children had their throats slit and small exodus from several villages in the Chouf Mountains took place. The next, significantly bigger massacre took place in 1856. But the greatest massacre which almost had the effect of wiping out Christians (particularly Maronite) presence in Mount Lebanon, and the potential of wiping out Christian presence in Lebanon took place in 1860 and saw the Victorious Druze stir up the fervour of the Druze stronghold in Huran and Swaida districts in Syria. Here comes heaven sent Emir AbdelKader and his few battle hardened surviving followers.

It should be noted that despite the so called bravery, the Christian route by the Druze was only achieved by the duplicitous double-crossing by Ottoman rulers instructing their soldiers to assure the armed Christians that they guaranteed their safety thus taking away their arms, when in fact they were sending them to their slaughter. The other factors were the deliberately false assurances about fulfilling their obligation of protecting Christians, repeatedly given by Sultan Abdelhamid Mehmet II in Istanbul to the French, Russian and the British.

 AbdelKadir, having few weeks earlier opened his residence as a safe house to frightened Christians in Syria and Lebanese Mountains. He warned Christian and Mulsim leaders and Heads of Christian communities of the impending massacre. Initially hundreds of Christians took up the offer of safety and as news of the marauding killers heading towards Damascus became imminent, thousands flocked to the safety quarters secured by AbdelKadir and his seasoned 29 warriors. AbdelKadir personally faced the marauding killers and addressed them in no uncertain language about the sanctity of human life and the religious tenets enshrined in the Holy Koran, other books of Islam, particularly that of Sufism and Fatimism. Perhaps the more important aspect of AbdeKadir to the marauding murders was the awareness of the likely backlash from Europe. Whilst AbdelKadir spoke his 29 warriors stood on their horses a cordon ready to take on the marauders.

Abdelkader saving Christians during the Druze/Christian strife of 1860. Painting by Jean Baptiste Huysmans.

The wisdom and influence of AbdelKadir prevented the certain outcome of a massacre that would have wiped out the Christian presence, particularly that of the Maronite community in Syria. Somewhat comparable to what 155 years later (2014-2015), is taking place to Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria in areas under the control Islamic State (IS).

When the facts of the Christians massacres became know in Europe France, Russia, and Britain sent troops that arrived belatedly to Beirut. The heroic deeds of AbdelKadir and his 29 Algerian worriers became known and flood of accolade followed. Amongst those accolades were the following:

On 2 August 1869 the French Age newspaper wrote:

"We were in consternation, all of us quite convinced that our last hour had arrived [...]. In that expectation of death, in those indescribable moments of anguish, heaven, however, sent us a savior! Abd el-Kader appeared, surrounded by his Algerians, around forty of them. He was on horseback and without arms: his handsome figure calm and imposing made a strange contrast with the noise and disorder that reigned everywhere."

The French government increased his pension to 150,000 francs and honoured him with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. He also received the honour of the Grand Cross of the Redeemer from Greece, the Order of Pius IX from the Vatican. Pair of inlaid pistols from Abraham Lincoln, gold inlaid shotgun from Great Britain, and ironically, not to be outdone Order of the Medjidie First Class from the Turkish Sultan, Abdelhamid, in Istanbul!

Remembering & 

Honoring

Emir AbdelKader

(The Algerian)

Part I

The word ‘Colonialism’ means a policy under which a country, the colonial power, maintains foreign colonies in order to exploit them economically. Students of modern history are often thought about the colonial rivalry between Great Britain and France in Africa the Middle East, India, and Asia in the mid nineteenth century. This dissertation is about an Algerian hero, Emir AbdelKader, whose full name is AbdelKader ibn Muhieddine born 6th September 1808 in Algeria and died in Damascus on 26 May 1883 aged 74.

Portrait of Abd el-Kader (1864) by

Stainslaw Chlebowski

In 1830 Algeria was invaded by France and when French troops penetrated the region of Ornan, AbdelKader's father led a harassment campaign and a year later he was elected Emir or Commander and asked to lead the rebellion against the French. Two years later, his 24 year old son, AbdelKader was elected to replace him. His command and skill caused the French in 1834 to sign a treaty known as "The Desmichels Treaty" (named after French General Louis Alexis Desmichels) the terms of which gave full control of the Ornan Provence to AbdelKader.  France’s honour was at stake and as such France recalled General Desmichels and replaced him with General Trezel. Hostilities resumed and again AbdelKader proved his, superiority, fighting, and command skill in the field with his faithful followers prevailing against Europe’s most advanced army. Some 3 years later in 1837 seeing the futility of fighting France sent General Bugeaud with specific instructions to sign treaty with AbdelKader. A treaty known as Treaty of Tafna was signed on 30 May 1837. AbdelKadir’s followers wanted him to take the title of Sultan but he refused and continued living in a tent. Although devoutly sufi muslim, he would employ Jews and Christians and put them in sensitive positions. Yet again the French were frustrated not satisfied with the Treaty of Tafna and in November 1839 reneged on the treaty and sent back General Desmichels but this time with specific instruction of scorched earth policy and behind the scene may a deal with the Berbers who hitherto supported AbdelKader. In 1842 AbdelKadir released his French captives because he did not have food to feed them and on 21 December 1847 he saw the futility of continuing the fight he surrendered to the French on the condition that he would be allowed to go to either Alexandria or Acre. On the documents evidencing his surrender he wrote: “And God undoes what my hand has done”. Needless to say the French refused to honour the terms of his surrender. AbdelKadir, his extended family and select number of close followers were shipped to France as captives!

After some seven years under house arrest in France during which some 25 members of his family and followers died (see memorial monument), and floods of representations, which included that of the poet Victor Hugo, and Lord Londonderry, for his release on 16th October 1852, President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte released him and gave him a pension of 100,000 francs upon promising never again to be involved in Algeria. After a short stay in Bursa, current day Turkey, in 1855 he went to Amara District in Damascus where he stayed and died in 1883 aged 74. On his way to Damascus AbdelKhadir dropped to see Charles Henry Churchill at his residence in the village of Abey in the Chouf Mountains Lebanon. Charles Henry Churchill became very close friend of Abdelkhadir and later wrote a book dedicated to the humanity, courage, and nobility of the man.

The humanity, courage, and nobility of AbdelKader ibn Muhieddine attracted the attention and the honourary awards of the entirety of Europe, that of the Vatican, and more specifically that of Abraham Lincoln who sent him a pair of inlaid pistols that are now on display in the Algiers Museum. 

Abraham Lincoln's gift to AbdelKadir

What did AbdelKhader do to deserve this worldwide accolade? In 1860 he and his handful of surviving Algerian followers stood up against marauding Druse and other fanatics stirred up by the Ottoman that had nearly wiped out the Maronite Christian community in Mount, and Southern Lebanon, and were now moving to complete the job in Damascus, Syria.

This display of courage and humanity is the specific topic of the next blog (Part II).

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Tomb at Chateau d’Ambois of 25 members

Of AbdelKader’s retinue who died during

imprisonment .