Dialogue with fellow “Fortian” Robert King

Posted on by

Wayne,

Nice to hear from you.

I have no interest in following or supporting Julian Assange. It’s NOT a subject that comes up when we get together.

All the best,

RVK 19 March 2026

(Explanation: By “we”, Bob means Fort Street “old boys”. W.H.)

Bob, this is an e-mail I received (in a mass e-mailing) from Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange’s half-brother. Mary Kostakidis is a Fortian and I once wrote to suggest to her the idea of trying to mobilise “the old school tie”. She rejected the idea fairly abruptly but with the passage of time it occurs to me that I may have tried the wrong approach. I should have spoken to other Fortians about the idea of supporting her rather than speaking to her about the idea of other Fortians supporting her. In any case Gabriel Shipton’s asking me for money seems equally misguided. I am the last person to be approached as a significant financial donor. I share this message with my friend and comrade Nikos Vakolidis, orthodontist in the northern Greek city of Ioannina. Let’s just discuss it between ourselves for starters, Bob, Nikos has not been abrupt with Gabriel Shipton as I have so perhaps whatever we conclude between ourselves could be conveyed to Gabriel if Nikos wants to oblige in this way.

Take the advice in the p.s. and read the Sydney criminal lawyers’ report.

How is everything else with you?

Best wishes,

Wayne Hall

p.s. I cc fellow Fortian Les Thompson from our year, who lives in France, and invite him to join our discussion if he chooses.

Gabriel writes:

Mary is facing a racial vilification complaint brought by the Zionist Federation of Australia over social media posts she shared on X/Twitter. Last year, she fought to have the case struck out, but the Federal Court denied her request. Now, after a second mediation attempt has ended without agreement, the case will go to trial in the Federal Court starting 30 November 2026.

Stand with Mary — donate now

“Nobody believes that the allegations against Mary are anything but a coordinated effort to silence reporting and criticisms of the behaviour of a foreign power,” said Information Rights Project Founder Gabriel Shipton.

This is why your support matters. Mary now faces a costly, drawn-out battle in the Federal Court.

“Australians have a right to be informed, and the case against Mary Kostakidis is trying to deny us those very rights,” said Gabriel.

Mary has made clear she won’t back down, but legal battles of this scale require resources. We urgently need to raise funds to ensure Mary has the support she needs.

Most supporters give around $30. Combined, your contributions can help Mary access the resources to fight back and help to defend our right to speak freely and stay informed. Will you chip in today?

Donate Now

Thank you for standing up for the rights of all Australians to speak and be informed.

In solidarity, Nevena The Information Rights Project

P.S. Read more about the case https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/zionist-vexatious-legal-action-against-kostakidis-will-go-to-trial-after-failed-mediation/

Bad tempered afterword from Wayne https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1451

Response:

Bob, thank you for getting involved. I am pleased to tell you that my inventive collaborator Nikos Vakolidis responded to my unsuccessful donning of the old school tie not with ridicule or silence but blowing the dust off his own old school tie. Apparently he went to a school in Ioannina called the Zosimaia school, with a history as proud as or prouder than “my” proud Fort Street, who actually sing in their school song (or did in “my day”) “Fort Street’s name rings round the world” (do you mean to say you haven’t heard of “us”?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM6GsXP4_3Q

It was only in 1913 that Ioannina was brought by the Greek army out of the Ottoman Empire and into the modern Greek state. I wonder what proud words they were singing in Nikos’ school song!

The “pride in ancestry” habit seems to be catching on so let’s bring Phillip Adams into it. Phillip is an Australian with a hidden Greek name who prides himself on being descended from the Greek revolutionary Anagnostaras and who played a sterling role in defending Julian Assange.

Since Julian Assange’s release from prison but continued imprisonment in unchallenged false accusations, Phillip has prioritized denunciation of Zionism, where he has plenty of company, mostly below the intellectual level he occupied when he was prioritizing defence of Julian Assange. It is still unclear, though, whether Julian Assange thinks that the job of defending him was being done better by Phillip or by, say, Yanis Varoufakis. Phillip gives his opinion on that subject in the link immediately above.

Electoral politics

Posted on by

https://halva.proboards.com/post/3237

At least the Australian Federal Parliament and all the state parliaments apart from Queensland have bicameral legislatures. The demands of universal suffrage can therefore be met if only one of the two parliamentary chambers is based on universal suffrage. There are many disadvantages to universal suffrage and historically it has not applied everywhere in the parliamentary system. Experience during the COVID “pandemic” suggests that most people want to follow the dictates of what they perceive as authority and in many cases also to target their fellow citizens who are perceived (by “authority”) to be defying authority. It should not be unacceptable to accept this as a fact of life and try to find ways to minimize its negative consequences. Would providing an alternative to voting based on universal suffrage help towards achieving such an objective? Sortition (choosing politicians by means of a lottery) had a part to play in the ancient Athenian democracy and should be included among techniques to be given rational consideration. The most obvious relevant problem would be that it could result in the elevation of inappropriate people. This could be countered by having a court whose task is to identify not who would be appropriate to play a part in public life but who would NOT be appropriate. Citizens who feel they are called upon to be public figures (or propose somebody else for such a role) should be encouraged to state this publicly and then the court (with assistance from input from the general public) should decide who is to be excluded. Experience suggests that the population in any case is much better at saying what they don’t want than at saying what would be a good idea for implementation. The selection of the parliamentarians would then be made by sortition from among the eligible candidates. These candidates would comprise a second parliamentary chamber. The parliamentarians in this second chamber would speak as individuals, would be off limits to journalists and other would-be intermediaries and would communicate directly with the public and with their colleagues. There would continue to be the kind of politics and politicians with which we are now familiar but they would be competing for a mandate with the second chamber. Which chamber would make decisions and which would be advisory would be determined by the outcome of a referendum to be held every five years or other agreed period and there would be no other referenda. The political base of the second chamber would be comprised of people who have indicated that they do not wish to vote for the politicians and candidates in the first chamber and they would not be allowed to do so unless they made a decision to join or rejoin the electorate for the first chamber. This idea was first discussed among people of our acquaintance during the COVID lockdowns by participants in the World Freedom Alliance and is on the record, with further elaboration, at: https://halva.proboards.com/post/2531

Stratos Pantavos

Posted on by

A chance meeting at the harbor in Aegina yesterday with Stratos Pantavos was a welcome development for me because the Steering Committee of the Aegina Active Citizens’ Association, of which we are both members, is not programmed to meet until 28th March and there is a lot to catch up.

Stratos has been with our initiative around Capodistrias and, for a period, Altiero Spinelli, right from the beginning, i.e. for nearly twenty years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCDso57HBV4

He co-chaired the meeting at which we were addressed by the late Giulietto Chiesa during the visit of this distinguished Italian politician (and former Europarliamentarian) to our island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wPniHFeXiM&t=7s

He chaired another meeting on European integration in 2019 https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=727

The east-west orientation that Giulietto Chiesa (and indeed Spinelli) were attempting to rescue has been replaced in our day by a new orientation seeking to integrate “the global south”.

If he were still with us today Chiesa would (arguably) be part of this.

Stratos is well suited to link our initiatives past with its present, particularly given the emergence of activists intellectuals such as Lorenzo Maria Pacini.

Can a bridge be built between voices such as this and their evident and/or would-be counterparts in the “global south”? https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1444

The transition is not going to be managed entirely in English. The Italian and Greek languages will play a larger part in the proceedings, and for that Stratos is a more suitable than I am, for I know only the latter language, not the former (though I did finish Latin at school).

Wayne Hall

Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange and the Cape Byron Lighthouse project

Posted on by
Dear Wayne,

We have an urgent update on our campaign to stand with journalist Mary Kostakidis.
Mary is facing a racial vilification complaint brought by the Zionist Federation of Australia over social media posts she shared on X/Twitter. Last year, she fought to have the case struck out, but the Federal Court denied her request. Now, after a second mediation attempt has ended without agreement, the case will go to trial in the Federal Court starting 30 November 2026.

Stand with Mary — donate now

“Nobody believes that the allegations against Mary are anything but a coordinated effort to silence reporting and criticisms of the behaviour of a foreign power,” said Information Rights Project Founder Gabriel Shipton.

This is why your support matters. Mary now faces a costly, drawn-out battle in the Federal Court. 
“Australians have a right to be informed, and the case against Mary Kostakidis is trying to deny us those very rights,” said Gabriel.
Mary has made clear she won’t back down, but legal battles of this scale require resources. We urgently need to raise funds to ensure Mary has the support she needs.
Most supporters give around $30. Combined, your contributions can help Mary access the resources to fight back and help to defend our right to speak freely and stay informed.

Will you chip in today?

Donate Now

Thank you for standing up for the rights of all Australians to speak and be informed.

In solidarity, Nevena
The Information Rights Project

P.S. Read more about the case here: 
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/zionist-vexatious-legal-action-against-kostakidis-will-go-to-trial-after-failed-mediation/

Reply:
I agree with you.

Here is some recent input from our side:

1. https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1448

2. https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1446

Why aren’t you and I collaborators in the same organization?  Are you in the Cape Byron Lighthouse project?   If you were, we would be in a stronger position e.g. to enlist the open assistance of Vice-Admiral Heraklis Kalogerakis and get him to be a “Lighthouse keeper” (at the Aegina lighthouse).

 https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1442

I am not happy to be just a source of finance for your initiatives. If I had money I might be less unwilling. 

Wayne Hall

p.s. Mary Kostakidis has also been unfriendly towards me. She did not respond well to my trying to activate “the old school tie” as we happen to have gone to the same school. I support what you and she are doing, but it could be done more effectively if I were in your loop, or better, you were in mine.

Here is Jewish Australian Alon Cassuto taking advantage of the global reach of the English language in order to enlist the sympathy of the world in a way he could not do if he gave his message in Hebrew. If one is permitted to have one’s cake and eat it too, why not do so?

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1953984195551017

https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1403

Western Australian secession and Greece

Posted on by

Dear Anne (Twomey),

I am writing to you in response to this video of yours:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XFyCGoxnR4&t=909s

sent to me by my Melbourne political friend Lorraine Pratley, whose acquaintance I made years after having left Australia permanently to live in Greece. I am a graduate of the University of Sydney but have not lived in Sydney since 1970, apart from one year in 1979.

I have ordered the book on Western Australian secession that you mention in your interview. I was attracted to the subject through my affectionate admiration for Gigi Foster, with whom I have had two-way verbal communication only through one video, which she unfortunately did not want to have aired very publicly. Perhaps one day she will change her mind. I have not yet seen what she has to say on the subject of Western Australian secession but am very curious to see what she has to say.    

Yesterday I attended the opening of an exhibition on my home island of Aegina that was devoted to the life and times of Greece’s assassinated first governor Ioannis Capodistrias.

https://www.aeginaportal.gr/politismos/gliptiki/41985-o-kapodistrias-stin-aigina-prooimio-gia-ton-kyverniti-ta-egkainia-tis-ekthesis-sti-dimotiki-pinakothiki.html

Everyone who spoke at the inauguration was oriented towards the date 26th January 2028, which is the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the modern Greek state in Aegina and 240th anniversary of the raising of the Union Jack at Port Jackson in New South Wales. Aeginetans have for many years tried to secure recognition of the date 26th January 1828 as the date on which the modern Greek state was founded. 

This is what Wikipedia says: In 1827, Ioannis Kapodistrias, was chosen by the Third National Assembly at Troezen as the first governor of the First Hellenic Republic. Kapodistrias established state, economic and military institutions. Tensions appeared between him and local interests and, following his assassination in 1831 and the London Conference of 1832, Britain, France and Russia installed Bavarian Prince Otto von Wittelsbach as monarch.[104] Otto’s reign was despotic, and in its first 11 years of independence Greece was ruled by a Bavarian oligarchy led by Josef Ludwig von Armansperg and, later, by Otto himself, as King and Premier.[104] 

Following years of lobbying by Aeginetans, in 2012  the ceremony held annually in Aegina on 26th January was recognized in a Greek presidential decree as “a national festival of local significance”. This was welcomed in Aegina but by many is not recognized as going “far enough”. 

Speaking personally, but not entirely as an individual, I see similarities between the constitutional problems of the Hellenic Republic and those of the Commonwealth of Australia. In Australia they came very much to light in the discussion around “the Voice” referendum  The young Greek-Australian Kanellos Patsios 

https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1313

says “Greece is experiencing an identity crisis and must go back to  the origins of the Greek state”. The Voice referendum in my view was (and IS) symptomatic of a similar identity crisis of Australians who have tried to discover who they are by examining the origins of human habitation on the Australian continent tens of thousands of years ago. Australia’s political origins in fact are to be traced to the establishment of the New South Wales Legislative Council

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5kT5XdEKE&t=1s 

in 1823, following the defeat of Napoleon and shortly before the establishment of the modern Greek state in Aegina on 26th January 1828. 

This was the starting point in Australia for the process that led to Federation and everything that follows. 

In 2026 the president of the New South Wales Legislative Council  is Mr. Benjamin Franklin.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E3GwaVA5fI

Mr. Franklin’s name is so serendipitous that even if in 2028 he is no longer president of the New South Wales Legislative Council he should be invited by the Aegina Municipal Council to participate in the ceremonies in Aegina celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the modern Greek state. 

https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1349

Do you agree?

With very best wishes,

Wayne Hall

Aegina, Greece

PostscriptThis gives a general idea of the proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YldpGXWsDQ4&t=3sGigi Foster’s contribution starts at minute 13.24. But is her enthusiasm enough to sustain the whole undertaking?