Isn't it great to see people with such a sad history fitting into our society so well?

The Karen have a culture which they are proud of, and are delighted to share it with the community.

It is, I think, a credit to the Bendigo community that they have been so embraced.

The Karen are an object lesson in the way dispossessed people can be assimilated into another community. 

In my retail job, I deal with the Karen every day. They are a pleasure to serve. They are always polite. They have gone out and found employment, with the dignity that gives.

While they are pleased to retain their culture, which is colourful and a welcome addition to our city, they do not, in any way, demand we accept their culture over our own, or claim to be "offended", or " outraged" by the Australian way of life.

On the contrary, they embrace it like a drowning man.

The Karen refugees are, I suggest, a template for what is expected of displaced people coming to our city.

Very recently I had a short stay in hospital for surgery at Bendigo Health and my recover stay was in surgical ward 35, level four.

I would like to congratulate my surgeon, staff and nurses for the wonderful care and treatment I received night and day during my stay. To the nurses, especially on ward 35, special thanks.

I am not opposed to the use of bins for organic waste. In fact, it is great. However, I am a little confused as to why we now need to have a council-approved alternative.

As far as I know, and correct me if I am wrong, there is no local law that states that households must possess and put to use a compost bin or a worm farm. But now it is being enforced by Bendigo council.

So we now pay for the bin and send all the organic waste to a place where it is processed back to compost to be purchased back by councils with whose money? You guessed it! Yes, your money.

Are there any jobs created for our unemployed? There are jobs created at the recycling plant, though it be far from Bendigo. 

When I asked about the possibility of rotting prawns, fish, meat etc in the summer months the council representative came up with a brilliant solution: "What we do in this case is freeze all the waste that would possibly cause rotting and foul odours and then place it in the bin on the day of collection."

What if you don't have a freezer big enough? Does it have to be a council-approved freezer? 

For as long as I can remember, gardeners have composted their waste and, fair enough, some people don't have the skill or the time. 

The organic waste bin belongs to those who cannot manage the waste and not for those who have managed composting successfully by their own means.

I have the organic police coming soon as they have requested an appointment with us as we rejected the service and it will not surprise me if we do not meet their standards. 

So the question still remains, when did the new law pertaining to a mandatory requirement for households to have a council-approved alternative to the bin come in? We are bluffed into needing the bin by the creation of a non-law that requires us to spend more money to avoid the bin payment. 

We had a green waste service already in Bendigo. Would it not have been smarter to extend this service and create our own composting plant here where the jobs are really needed?