Risks to your health from CT scans

I could not believe what I was hearing from a work colleague about the amount of radiation you get from a single CT scan

The radiation dose from natural background radiation (radiation that we all are continuously exposed to from cosmic rays, radioactive materials present in the earth and building materials, and radioactive materials normally present within our own bodies) is approximately 3 mSv per year. Therefore, in every three-year period you receive the equivalent of a CT scan from natural background radiation.

How the hell do you slip slop and slap from that one? Especially if you need to go and get one?

Then again there are even more worrying articles around:

for example at www.cancer.org

Those full-body CT scans advertised at some health care centers may be delivering as much radiation as a low-dose atomic bomb, according to a new study. And that means people who get them could be raising their cancer risk, researchers from Columbia University report in the journal Radiology (Vol. 232, No. 3:735-738).

"The radiation dose from a full-body CT scan is comparable to the doses received by some of the atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where there is clear evidence of increased cancer risk," said David J. Brenner, PhD, D.Sc, lead author of the study and professor of radiation oncology and public health at Columbia University in New York.

He calculated that a 45-year-old person who has one full-body CT scan would have a lifetime risk of dying from cancer because of that radiation of about 1 in 1,200. But if that same person got a scan a year for 30 years (30 total scans), his risk of dying from cancer because of that radiation would increase to almost 1 in 50. However, a person's overall risk of dying from cancer is affected by many things, including age, smoking and other lifestyle habits, and genetics.

Iraq Again

MPs in Iraq have approved a new government by a large majority despite failure to agree on several top posts.

Seven posts were left vacant, including oil and defence, but Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari promised that they would be filled very soon.

BBC News

Pete's Point:

Well finally the parliament in Iraq has accepted the cabinet proposed to them - except of course for at least two of the positions that are the most important in the land - Minister for Defence and Minister for Oil.

I have been watching with some interest the furore about how long it is taking to get a government in place. Let's put it into context.

The Iraqis have never had a democratic government before.

The Americans who are teaching them all about democracy - after all of their experience with democracy take at least three months from the end of an election to get their cabinet and government up and running.

So why is it surprising that the Iraqis, on their first attempt are taking about the same amount of time?

I do have one suggestion that would solve some of their issues - stated with a slightly wry smile of course - why not appoint two Americans to the posts of defence and Oil Ministers? Then the Americans would have what they want while the Iraqis would have nothing to argue about any longer.

An interesting comment

Blogs have power in proportion to the credibility of their authors. An unfamiliar blog is treated with the same skepticism as any random page on the Internet or press release from an unknown vendor. Credibility must be earned. This is something usually cultivated over time, during the course of multiple return visits, as readers observe the author's responses to external events and readers' comments. Visitors also will peruse archived entries to take the measure of a new blog. Those blogs that represent the authentic voice of a real person by consistently offering a cohesive set of insights over a period of time will achieve the necessary level of credibility for success.

Gartner Research
Copyright 2004
G00124367
20 October 2004

Pete's Point:
I guess this brings us to the real issue for this blog. What is the credibility that is attributed by you - dear readers - to the content of this Blog?

Comments welcome!

Death of Sir John Mills

For many of us this news is not unexpected, but it is still sad. Over the years I have watched many of the movies that this actor has made and I have always found that his skills could take me out of myself and into the world that he was portraying.

I have no idea of the kind of man that he was or how he came across to his family and friends. All that I can say is that I will be watching his movies again and again and each time remember fondly someone who continues to give pleasure with his talent and skill.

Requiescat in pacem.

Speaking of the next generation . . .

I am not surprised that this person lives on "Bullit Avenue" it seems so appropriate somehow!

I was reminded today how old I am getting by a friend whose son is now in his thirties and is expecting his first child.

I don't feel old, despite of the grey hair, the protruding waistline and of course the grumpy nature of the commentary that I produce from time to time.

I feel enervated however as I contemplate the challenge that is ahead for the next generation.

Their tasks I suspect will include cleaning up the mess that we have left them and an even bigger chore which is to make this world a better place for their children.

What will they do this with? Democracy?

Who knows. As we speak there is a changing of the guard taking place under our very noses and we can't see it.

The recent discussions between China and India were perhaps the most monumental sign of portents for the future. Containing well over two fifths of the world's population China and India vie with each other for the position of the world's most populous nation. In China in one city alone, Shanghai, the same number of people reside as exist in Australia as a whole. In combination the productive power of the Chinese and Indian economies can only be guessed at as they head further and further into developed nation status.

If you add to this mix the peoples who live in the territories of the former Soviet Union then you have a production work force and market the size of which dwarfs what exists now in all of the other countries combined.

Then of course there are the Asean nations which also present a formidable work force and potential cheap market place.

The "Pax Americana" which the right wing, (and in some instances religiously motivated) zealots in America are trying to impose on the world, before the power they have acquired through their propaganda and undoubted temporary military superiority is eroded, may work or may be sounding the death knell of the American dominance in our lives.

I suspect that the world will indeed form into several trading and military blocks once again and the resources of the world will once again be pillaged with more rapacious fervour than ever before, to satisfy the needs of all of those people who are currently the "have nots" in the world.

It is interesting to see how the Australian government is nudging its way forward - almost like a person addicted to gambling who is making some each way bets on the future.

On the one hand in case the Americans do not lose their power we have signed up with them in a free trade deal that is likely to keep us economically viable. If on the other hand they do lose their financial and other influence we are making up for lost time by engaging with China and no doubt soon with India to try and ensure that we do not lose out if they get the power and the influence. At the same time as this is going on we look to our immediate north where there are potential customers and a work force numbering in the hundreds of millions and make some investments now in future relations through our support for the victims of the recent Tsunami, truly a 'godsend' in more ways than one.

Add in our interest in oil and gas in the Timor sea, the fact that we own over one third of the world's supply of uranium as well as humongous deposits of minerals that are needed by these newly booming economies and all of a sudden you may get a different picture of why it is that Australia is trying to strut the world stage with our involvement on so many fronts.

Is this what the next generation will be facing? I suspect that it is.

The last time that I witnessed behaviour that resembles what I see on the Australian political front today was on a farm when the pigs were about to be fed.

There was a sense of joy, exultation even as the farmer approached with the slops and with the feed that he was about to empty into the trough. The atmosphere of expectation and level of maneuvering to get into place to be able to get the greatest share of the goodies was palpable.

It is this same emotional overlay that I sense when I witness the current Commonwealth government's outlook towards the next financial year when they will finally control both houses of Parliament and all restraints on their enthusiasm to impose their political will on the hapless Australian public are lifted.

Indeed it is with almost messianic zeal that the government is approaching the future. Their advisors must be drooling in anticipation of the plethora of legislation which can be created and rubber stamped through the Parliament. With no effective opposition to speak of the checks and balances that are generally so characteristic of a Westminster system have been removed and for the next few years we are in for a deluge of legislation that will attempt to 'liberalise' the face of Australian politics.

The very concept of collective bargaining against rapacious employers is under threat with the advent of the industrial relations legislation which is likely to be imposed upon us. Already one minister - in charge of DEWR has imposed restrictions in his department which preclude anyone working there who does not wish to sign up to an AWA (Australian Workplace Award). In this department there is no point in belonging to a union and there is no point in suggesting that you would like to have a CHOICE - there is no choice. It is accept the conditions that are on offer or go without a job.

Combine this with the messianic zeal of certain ministers to:

• bring back laws which prevent women from controlling their own bodies;
  
• attempt to take over the educational systems in this country and make them (no doubt) for profit organisations which are more concerned with the 'bottom line' than with providing people with an education;
  
• change the health system to facilitate the interests of big business rather than the welfare of the citizenry;
  
• sell assets that the taxpayers paid for once and ask them to 'invest' in them once again;

That is the future that is facing Australians as we head off into the next financial year.

I wonder how many people in this country will be grateful for the 'benefits' that their voting behaviour will bring into their lives? I wonder what will change in three years time as the impact of the changes which will be wrought in the next few months come to bear on their lives.

Let us all contemplate what we as Australians want our community to be like and what we are prepared to put up with and what we really want. Then let us take our issues directly to our politicians and make it quite clear to them how their behaviour is likely to influence our future voting behaviour. After all there is no point in relying on the opposition, we forgot to give them the power to curb the messianic zeal of the current government, so I guess we just may have to do the job ourselves this time or suffer the consequences.

All Life Is Problem Solving

All Life Is Problem Solving: "All Life Is Problem Solving: Learning and Knowledge Making in an Evolutionary and Critical Perspective"

I've named this blog after a statement from a lecture of Karl Popper's, delivered in 1991 near the end of his long life. "All Life is Problem Solving" also became the title of a book of his essays published posthumously in 1999 by Routledge. I love the phrase because it sums up his wonderful work in epistemology, ontology, philosophy of science, and political theory performed over a period of nearly 70 years -- his general theory about how new knowledge is made, or, if you like, how learning occurs.

The Theory of Knowledge Making

Knowledge is made, he thought, through a simple three-step process found in evolution, in individual psychodynamics, and in social interaction. That process is:

* the problem
* the attempted solutions
* the elimination.

Pete's Points:

I would like to have as many people as possible consider a visit to this Blog. If you are interested in an exploration of the universe in which we live and the inner mind with which we facilitate our existence, then this is one site that is worth the visit. Do not expect a quick read and do NOT expect to leave the site without engaging your 'little grey cells'

Academics?

The BBC Trumpets:

"Academics have voted to boycott two Israeli universities over their alleged involvement in "illegal activity" in the occupied territories.

Members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) decided to suspend all links with Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities. . . . . .

Sue Blackwell, an English lecturer from Birmingham University, said: "Most Israeli academics serve in the army's reserve forces."

Pete's Points:

So what?

All Israelis are required to undertake compulsory military service - there is conscription in that country. When people finish their compulsory military service they REMAIN available in the reserves until such time as they reach an age when this service is no longer required.

Ignorant comments are apparently not limited to ignorant people. Academics who express their ignorance in public in this way should forfeit their right to teach inquiring young minds when their own appears to be closed to information that is easily available.

Blood Suckers!

I was horrified listening to the local news. Just imagine, the local government of the Australian Capital Territory has come up with another revenue raiser, an idea that their political opponents call, "mean spirited" which is political double talk for "we are jealous that we did not think of this first."

Payment for parkingwill in all likelihood be introduced at the two main hospitals in Canberra .

"Mean spirited" is probably the lightest comment I would make about this proposal.

Just imagine how this works.

We, the taxpayers have worked our fingers to the bone to raise the money which pays for the hospital including the car park and all of the people who work there as well as all of their equipment. When we get sick, we pay once again (usually through the nose) for the services that we receive there and also for the drugs and the medical consultations we need prior to going in as patients and of course afterwards to aid our recovery.

Then of course there are the dollars extracted from our salaries in the form of the Medicare Levy and naturally not wanting to be penalised some of us also take out private insurance. The fact that there are huge waiting lists for what are known as 'elective' procedures. Elective? Let me tell you that "elective" can include surgery, chemo and radio therapy for cancer. That's elective?

Anyway to add insult to injury (literally) our loved ones who come to visit us in the hospital while we are in bed and recovering from some treatment or other will now have to pay once again for the privilege of caring for us and for coming to visit to cheer us up and to provide some reason for our continuing to live and to recover.

That's not "mean spirited" that is crass and exploitative. At a time when at least one of the people who can bring income into a household is incapacitated, when the costs of all of the medical procedures are driving people into debt if not poverty THIS is the time that the local government wants to impose another financial burden in the form of car parking costs.

Get a LIFE you blood sucking "representatives"! Stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution!

Anniversary

Just to let you all into a secret. Today is a red letter day. Today I have worked for thirty years in the Australian Public Service.

Not that anyone would know or care. At work there was no celebration of the event, no gold watch, no certificate of longevity, not even an afternoon tea or something to celebrate this milestone.

One of the things that you can learn from this experience is one of the home truths about the slogans that you will hear in the work place.

"Staff are our most valuable asset" - translated, obviously refers to our cost and not to how much we are valued, appreciated or even acknowledged.

Of course I could be wrong, the acknowledgement could be in the mail.

Naturally those of us who serve, will continue to be loyal and dedicated and ever anxious to please and to provide a high level, high quality service to the Australian taxpaying public knowing that at least they appreciate our provision of a public service - in spite of the all too frequent critique of the public service in the media.

Mutterings of a Grumpy Old Man

Saw another episode of the series on Grumpy Old Men and I have to confess to becoming addicted. There is after all so much to identify with.

Let me start this epistle with my current disgust at the 'broken promises' that have been made to an entire generation of people who all seem to be called 'baby boomers'. I don't know what others may remember, but I certainly remember being awed by the possibilities which were mentioned to me for my future. A life which would have more leisure time in it as scientific advances brought with them labour saving devices that would enable me to work as hard and as productively as ever, but in less time.

The reality is that we have in fact had science deliver on its promise and we have had labour saving devices introduced into the work force.

The computer alone is responsible for enabling people to write and send letters literally weeks faster than when we only had our pens and paper and of course the ubiquitous typing pools. The computer has enabled faster calculations, faster accounting, faster reporting indeed faster everything.

So where is my promised leisure time?

Nowhere, that's where.

Instead of my being able to take a fraction of the time to undertake the work that I used to have to undertake and then enjoy the benefits of these labour saving devices by having a wonderful life, I am now in a situation where I do perhaps 100 times more work per day than I was ever able to do without the toys we currently take for granted, AND being told by some kid who masquerades as a brilliant manager that I will have to do even more to become more "productive."

Not only has the buying power of my wages deteriorated, and the cost of things escalated, but there is also an expectation that I will stay at work LONGER to produce even more, because each year I have to find my company a "productivity dividend" for the privilege of roughly the same wages. Then of course if I do get more wages the rise in my pay is barely able to keep up with the costs of the things that I have to buy to stay alive and meanwhile my productivity continues to improve and to what end?

We are in a nutty cycle folks and we are being sold a pup!

Someone is getting richer, but it is certainly not me and probably not you either!

Then of course we have the situation where the jobs we once enjoyed having are being taken over by people overseas who are even worse off than we are and so we get to be worse off as well while someone gets richer by paying someone else even less than we cost.

The only sensible thing I see in this madness are the people who are saying, "Stop the world, I want to get off!" As some of us reach those years in which we can afford to relax and actually take some time out to smell the roses, people like the Treasurer are telling us that we have to get back to work and be even more productive because the country needs us and similar jargon.

Bullshit!

Let's call a spade a spade. The governments of Australia knew at least forty years ago that we had a population bubble and that there were going to be people who were in the 50's and 60's around this time who were coming to the end of their working lives and who had been promised early retirement as the 'bonus' for working hard and increasing productivity. NOW they are trying to tell us to keep working because the 'country needs you' or there is not enough income for the pensions we expect (and that we paid for other people to have) and so on.

Enough is enough I say. We older folks hold the balance of power. We can, together muster more votes than all of the other demographic groups combined. Just for once let's not listen to the political crap that has been fed to us over the years. Just for once let's get greedy enough to grab the opportunities we have worked for all our lives. Just for once let's elect some politicians who see it OUR way instead of pandering to their own views of how the world should be. Just for once let's actually get something for ourselves instead of always trying to "do the right thing" for others.

I for one am sick of being exploited for the benefit of those who are getting richer while I keep working harder to help someone else malinger away their days being unwilling to earn a living for themselves.

And THAT is the view of another 'grumpy old man!'

New Pope

So maybe the Cardinals were NOT teasing. They certainly appointed this Pope in a hurry. As for the people who were taking odds and suggesting a favourite never became Pope - they were wrong!

Given the trial in Italy of Mr Calvi who was associated with the fiddles that surrounded the Vatican Bank, in the not so recent past, I wonder if any of the Cardinals had a "you beaut" idea about sneaking out of the conclave and laying some bets on the selection of a Pope so as to replenish the Vatican coffers?

Now THAT would be insider trading with a difference!

A partial retraction about the AASW

In my post Another Fun Item from the AASW I alluded to the fact that it was not possible to have a Director for the Branch without the Branch being properly constituted. I am afraid I was only partly right and so have to correct the record.

Recent correspondence from Ms Samuels who is playing the role of Director of the WA Branch has clarified for me what has been happening. She writes:

Dear Mr G,

Thank you for your inquiry and interest in the AASW and the WA Branch. My apologies for not replying sooner - I have recently had a baby and even more recently returned to work so it is almost impossible to reply to all emails, work, manage a young family etc etc. I was also preparing for the AASW Board Mtg held in Canberra from the 15 - 17th April so only got back late Sunday night.

The current arrangements in WA have been undertaken with ongoing legal consultation and approval. I refer you to section 107. of the By-laws (attached) whereby an administrator can be a person or persons with the role of carrying on the business of the branch until a new COM can be elected.

We are pleased to be working towards the election of a new COM in WA.

We have held Special Meetings every year since the resignation of the previous COM and our members who attended have endorsed the work of the Administrator/Co-Ordinating Group.
Please feel free to contact me again if you have any further queries.
Kind Regards
Melanie Samuels

She has of course been kind enough to attach the By-Law of the Association to which she refers and this is also published for the interest of my readers:

Australian Association of Social Workers

By-Law
Procedure for the Temporary Administration of a Branch

Introduction

The object of these By-Laws is to provide for the business and affairs of a Branch to be administered on a temporary basis:

(a) from the time of the resignation of all of the members of a Branch Committee of Management until the election of a replacement Branch Committee of Management in accordance with any By-Law;

(b) to ensure the continued good governance of the Branch; and

(c) for the purpose of the continued administration and effective operation of the Branch until the election of a replacement Branch Committee of Management.

The following By-Laws will be the regulations which govern the appointment and conduct of a person or persons to manage, on a temporary basis, the Branch.

1 Definitions

1.1 “Branch Administrator’ means a person or persons appointed by the Board pursuant to this By-Law to manage the Branch for a temporary period.

2 Appointment

2.1 The Board, by resolution, may appoint a Branch Administrator if the Board resolves that:

(a) in the opinion of the Board, the Branch Committee of Management, due to the resignation of the Branch Committee of Management, is therefore unable to continue to manage the Branch; and

(b) a Branch Administrator should be appointed.

3 Period of Tenure

3.1 A Branch Administrator, appointed pursuant to By-Law 2.1, will continue the due administration of the Branch until:

(a) the time that a Branch Committee of Management is elected by the members of the Branch, in accordance with the Constitution and any By-Laws, including the “By-Laws for the Election of a Branch Committee of Management and Director”; or

(b) the Board, by resolution, removes the Branch Administrator.

4 Duties of Branch Administrator

4.1 While a Branch is under the control of a Branch Administrator, the Branch Administrator must:

(a) Control the business and affairs of the Branch;

(b) Perform any function, and exercise any power, that the Branch Committee of Management could perform or exercise if the Branch were under the control of the Branch Committee of Management;

(c) As soon as practicable, hold an election for a Branch Committee of Management in accordance with the Constitution and any By-Laws; and

(d) Hold the office of a Director on the Board, as the representative of the Branch.

While this letter and this set of by laws answers the question about how someone can be a director of the company without being elected at an AGM it does NOT answer my questions about the facts that the proposed EGM to be held on June 8th to elect a COM will have to be re-done according to the constitution within 90 days of the end of the financial year and that the two year terms being offered to COM members may in fact be illegal in spite of the fact that there is Branch By-Law which stipulates such two year terms as it appears that the constitution would suggest annual elections and the Board is not, at least in the view of this author, able to enact By-Laws that conflict with its own constitution.

I wish the members luck

Cardinals are teasing

Well, I never would have thought that the 100+ cardinals in the Vatican could be described as having the behaviours of a tease. However that's just what has been happening. They sent white smoke up the chimney getting everyone's hopes up about having a new pope before the black smoke came through the chimney dashing those hopes.

Maybe it's been so long since they had a papal election that everyone has forgotten how to make the thing work and perhaps they joined the 'paperless society' and put everything into the computer and forgot to do a back up?

The only saving grace is the age of the Cardinals in the conclave - most of them would have been alive when the last pope was selected and so one of them probably knew what to do.

Could it be that simple? Ineffective record keeping? In the Vatican?

NAH!

Some morning musings

I have two relatives overseas who have come to mind today as I write to them two very different letters.

One is in her nineties and is about to have yet another birthday bash. Keep on keeping on seems to be her outlook on life and she is making a fabulous job of it I must say.

Another of my relatives recently lost her husband and is going through a terrible time right now, still in mourning and still looking forward and not really seeing much to look forward to.

As I wrote to them both, (neither has access to the Internet) I wondered at the differences that personality and time can make.

My ninety (plus) year old relative also lost her husband a considerable number of years ago - in the 1970's to be exact, and while I am certain that she went through her period of mourning she bounced back and married again, lost her second husband, no doubt went through another period of mourning and then bounced back again and is still going strong.

My other relative is still in the stage before what I hope will be her 'bounce'.

When you get the glad tidings that you are about to die from cancer or some other dreaded disease, it is relatively easy, believe it or not, to accept your "fate", lie down and simply let life roll over you like a large truck.

It is not so easy to get yourself ready for the knife, for chemo therapy, for radio therapy and and other possible nasty illness that could strike you down while you are incapacitated. Somewhere deep inside there has to be some motivation to tell death to go an bugger off, that you are not ready to go yet. It helps if you have wonderful friends, relatives and work colleagues who can and do say a few words to whatever version of deity they worship. Their support is just the reinforcement you need at a time like that.

My poor sick computer has just had to go in for radical surgery. It not only faced going under the screwdriver, but had its memory taken out and replaced, and it's innards exposed and twiddled with. A few days and dollars later it is a changed beast. It now has four times the memory it had and seems to have an arrogant and jaunty step in its functioning.

If only it was as easy and as cheap to do that with our own lives.

Alas we all know that life is not a dress rehearsal and that you are 'on stage' all the time with almost no time off the 'set'. Still, if we do have to make a comparison, then life really is a little like a soap. It is certainly full of drama, if does come in episodes which really do seem to have their beginning, middle and end and in which the characters are both recognisable and sometime monotonously familiar.

Maybe that's what we all represent by our lives - a drama series played out on a cosmic wide screen with billions of plots and sub-plots to keep the citizens of another galaxy fascinated by our antics.

If that's the case - I want a new writer!

The very final word on my outages

I have been able to find a young computer expert who has shown me the error of my ways. While I was tearing my hair out and unable to log on and manage my Internet connections within a day he found that my modem was suddenly unable to function well thanks to Microsoft's SP2 package. He found a new driver and suddenly all is well with the modem and I am once again able to log on to the net and stay logged on.

He then proceeded to add value by examining the computer for other possible bugs and issues and found a litany of issues which he then proceeded to fix to the best ability of the equipment I have available.

This is what I call service! I was absolutely delighted to part with my money for a job well done.

Well done Romi! Thank you

This is what I call a government!

Brown tells Rover bosses: pay up

Oliver Morgan, Jamie Doward and Heather Stewart in Washington
Sunday April 17, 2005
The Observer

Gordon Brown is to demand that directors of the failed MG Rover must return some of the £40 million they took from the business as pensions and salaries, and set up a fund for the thousands of workers made redundant.

As the government announced an inquiry into the company's complex finances, to be led by Sir Bryan Nicholson, chairman of the Financial Reporting Council, Treasury sources said that the Chancellor agreed with other senior government ministers that the 'Phoenix Four' - the directors of the collapsed company - should share the workers' financial pain.

Pete's Points:

This is what I call appropriate action by a government. What is interesting is that this is a Labour government in England and not the Liberal government in Australia. If only Mr Howard and his colleagues were to extend their version of "mutual obligation" to include senior managements - when they fail - they should pay and not get off scott free with their loot

Just A Thought or Two

Have you ever had one of those mornings when you want to go out for your constitutional and you simply CAN'T find your house keys?

That's been my morning so far. There are only three places I could have left them in the house and I have searched each of those places three times.

The last time I searched I found the keys. They were exactly where I thought that they had to be only hidden in a fold in the fabric.

Two thoughts emerge from this:

1. You will always find whatever you are looking for in the last place you look; and
2. There are gremlins in the world who hide things from you in plain sight so that you can panic for a while as you keep looking for the things that are there, but you just can't see them.

I am sure there is probably a more interesting explanation for this phenomenon and one that psychologists will have a field day with - however I am blessed if I know what it is and I can tell you I don't care - I have found my keys!

Hotel Accommodation Not Good Enough for Asylum Seekers?

Twenty die in blaze at Paris hotel used to house homeless migrants
By John Lichfield and Rhiannon Harries in Paris
16 April 2005
From the Independent on line edition
Twenty people, 10 of them children, have been killed in a fire at a hotel in central Paris used to house homeless immigrants. It was the most deadly fire in the French capital for two decades and it provoked a furious row about the provision of suitable accommodation for immigrants.

Terrified guests jumped from the upper storeys of the six-floor hotel after the blaze broke out in the early hours of yesterday. Some of those who died were killed by the fall, others were overcome by fumes as they slept.

All the victims were believed to be from African families housed by the state or the city in the downmarket Paris-Opéra hotel for ¤20 (£14) a night. More than 50 other guests, including American and Canadian tourists, were treated at a first-aid post established in the Galeries Lafayette department store across the street.

Pete's Points:

I am very sorry to hear that so many people were killed and I am appalled at the potential suffering of those who remain to bear the brunt of the aftermath.

That said, and at the risk of being thought insensitive, I find the comments from people who object to people being housed in hotels in the middle of large cities and suggesting that it is not suitable accommodation for asylum seekers, a bit rich.

I am sorry, but as someone who was a refugee I KNOW what it is like to be in a camp with barbed wire around the compound and with the constant demands for your papers before you are allowed to go anywhere.

I can assure the bleeding heart do gooders who are now caterwauling that to house people in a hotel is inappropriate that this was considered to be the lap of luxury for my parents and myself when we left the camps and were able to live in cheap, but decent accommodation, in the middle of large urban city (in our case it was Vienna) and be in a position to take our meals nearby in cheap, but decent eating establishments and stay alive and in good health living in freedom while our situation was assessed and our request for asylum were processed.

It certainly beats the situation imposed on asylum seekers in this country who are either behind barbed wire in the desert or on some off shore island.

Get a GRIP is what I would advise. I think the French were doing a much better job than our government seems to be managing and a damn sight cheaper for their taxpayers as well!

an amusing aside - Vegetarian and Carnivore

A vegetarian was trying to convince a dedicated carnivore about the benefits of eating vegetable matter. The carnivore looked up and exclaimed, "Vegetables? You want me to eat vegetables? Ridiculous! That's what my FOOD eats!"

Changes at Work

One of the delights of being older is the opportunity to experience the vagaries of time especially the swinging of the pendulum. Sounds strange? Don't know what I am talking about? You are obviously not old enough!

For those of us who have been around a while it seems blindingly obvious that there are just so many ways in which people seem to be able to manage their affairs. What is fashionable one day is out of style the next and then after a period of time, almost when no one is looking anymore it sneaks back to make a reappearance.

Recently you will have seen my comments on the fact that one web site has been attributing the invention of the bikini to some poor schmuck who rediscovered it in the 1930's. Alas for him there are mosaics that are thousands of years old in Sicily in an old Roman Villa which depict girls wearing bikinis.

It is much the same at work. The organisation and its structure and its management approaches all seem to follow cyclical pathways that wax and wane with some 'new' management idea popping up and some young person alight with the enthusiasm of discovery is waxing lyrical about a new way of managing people or outcomes or outputs or whatever.

I was privileged the other day to discover yet another of these charming young people. He came to visit me in my office eager to elicit (or so he said) my views on governance and structure. During the meeting he proceeded to enlighten me about his views on how things should work. Having already had the benefit of some years of experience in these matters when he was still in knee pants I mentally sat back and watched while he drew his pictures on a pad and demonstrated the connections between elements in a governance structure with suggestions on how it could facilitate better outcomes and outputs.

When he had finished, I picked up a pile of paper I had been hiding under my desk and placed it in front of him - nicely and professionally drawn with Microsoft Visio and printed in colour and LO and BEHOLD the drawing was almost exactly what he had painstakingly developed to show me how things should work. His reaction was amusing. He held up the drawing, compared it line by line with the quick jottings he had made on his pad and then in a sort of weak voice said something like, "They are more or less the same, aren't they?" I replied, "Hmmm, yes, they do seem to be similar don't they?"

It was at this point that my young friend asked if I had any more drawings of governance and management arrangements. Sympathetically I produced a few more of my drawings and laid them before him and of course offered (as nicely as I could) to let him take them with him for consideration. This was an offer which he of course gratefully accepted.

When he left the office I was kept bemused by the thought about how often I would have to continue to see repetitions of the wheel being re-created - albeit with a new twist - a different sort of rim perhaps or a pneumatic tyre or maybe even a wheel made from different materials. All 'new' from the perspective of the person presenting the idea but unfortunately just another version of the wheel as far as I was concerned.

It may well be time for me to consider retirement. There is simply no room in this world for us old folks who seem to do nothing else than spoil the fun of discovery for the young.

Some new and interesting news on the AASW

I find it increasingly puzzling to read the stuff that is emerging from the Australian Association Social Workers.

As stated before they are a company and are thus governed by their constitution - or are they?

Article 180 of the AASW constitution states:

"180. The members of all Branches must meet annually and within ninety (90) days after the end of the financial year, to elect:
a) a committee of not less than four members of the relevant Branch to be called the Branch Committee of Management; and
b) a Director to the Board. "

NOW REMEMBER the power of the Board is limited (or at least SHOULD BE ) by the Constitution. So in other words they should not be able to make rules that transcend their powers.

The Article above stipulates that a Branch has to meet annually AFTER THE END OF THE FINANCIAL YEAR - EACH YEAR.

The By-laws created by the Board claim to enable the following in Clause 7 (d):

"Members of a Branch Committee of Management shall be elected for two (2) year terms."

OOPS can you see the inconsistency?

The intention of the constitution is obviously to have annual elections for Committees of Management while the By-Laws seeks to frustrate this intention by permitting 2 year terms.

Which should have precedence? The constitution or the by-laws created by the Board.

Er . . . no contest really - the constitution, since the Board's powers are derived from it they cannot do things that go outside of the powers that they are given.

Why is the company not being overseen by the watchdog of companies?

Why do the members not complain?

If the members are complaining then why does the company not respond to their complaints?

The more I hear about this organisation the more I would like to see its internal affairs investigated for irregularities.

We have people in the community who in good faith have joined this organisation and have paid their membership fees and are relying on good governance by the people who run their organisation.

I think it is time for these good people to take a look at how their money is being spent and how their faith in good governance is or is not being rewarded.

If they find that they are not being governed according to the rules then they can take action at their annual general meetings or at a special meeting that can be convened at the behest of just 100 members.

Why is it that they do nothing?

Violence - Why is there so much of it today?

The last story about Grumpy Old Men has put me in mind of waxing lyrical about some of the more offensive things that I see about me on a daily basis. I wonder how many of you, dear readers, either share my views or find them totally at odds with your own? I would be pleased to hear about it.

Let's see, we have already discussed body piercing and we have already spoken about the insecurity of males who find it difficult to do what comes naturally in the current politically correct environment.

Let's now discuss another aspect of life that seems to be endemic. Violence.

I find it it intolerable to see so much violence in our society today. I keep wondering why it is there. My own musings on the subject seem to centre around something that I observed when I was growing up, the relationships between anger and frustration, anger and boredom, anger and anomie.

I know that if I am to be really honest with myself, then each of the times that I get angry there is a close association between the flash of anger and at least one of the three other elements, frustration, boredom or anomie.

I wonder if it is the same with others? I suspect it must be since we all seem to share some common characteristics as human beings.

Assuming that this may be the truth let's examine the behaviour of people who we see being violent.

The children that were on the streets the other day rioting in the western suburbs of Sydney for example. Were they frustrated by their socio economic conditions? They do after all live in a ghetto of people who were placed together in suburbs which were created by the housing authorities as a way of providing housing to those who for one reason or another could not afford their own. Were they bored? Were they simply lacking any sense of a moral and social code?

Food for thought there.

Let's look further afield. In Iraq it would be fair to say that there are people there who have been suppressed for a considerable number of years by the secret police and the political repression under Saddam Hussein. Equally there are people there who enjoyed the largess that was bestowed upon them by being part of the oppressive minority who now no longer have what they regarded as their just deserts. Do either of these conditions produce frustration? I think so. Sure enough what do we have just along side of this? Violence.

Indeed we could look at almost every situation on the face of the globe and see something similar. Whether it is fair to draw the conclusion that anger is almost always associated with frustration, boredom or anomie is still moot. Personally I know that my experience has taught me to look for these signs and when I see them to get the hell out of the way of the person who is manifesting them because they are dangerous.

As individuals who are able to observe and to then react to change our environment, what is there about today's society that creates so many violent people? Assuming that my hypothesis is correct, we should be looking at the causes of frustration, boredom and anomie and seeking to redress them in some way so that people are no longer placed in the position where the natural reaction takes place. Maybe this would be a more efficient way of spending money than incarcerating people.

What do you think?

Grumpy Old Men

There was a lovely show on the television the other night entitled "Grumpy Old Men". No this was not the movie which featured some American stars, rather this was a revealing exposé of the current perceptions of some famous (usually British) males around the world who are now in their 35-55 age group.

Without a doubt the most amazing thing about their views was the extent to which I found myself agreeing with them. Let me give you just some of the instances they cited as their views.

They hate body piercing with a passion. From their point of view (one that I share completely) the current passion for body piercing is an anathema. Rather than being seen as an adornment or as an enhancement of existing beauty it is seen as a complete disfigurement of the human body and something that is as uncomfortable to the person who has been mutilated in this way as it is to those who need to interact with them.

They are completely lost when it comes to what to do about women. All of them were brought up to be courteous and polite and since their childhood of course so much has changed with the advent of Women's Liberation that they now no longer know what they can do without being thought of as male chauvinist pigs or as sexist beasts. The choice about opening doors, offering one's seat on a bus or a tram, the choice of whether or not to pay for a drink or a meal, all of these things that they took for granted when they were growing up are now nothing more than a traumatic decision making chore.

The mere fact that a woman chooses to wear clothing that reveals most of her anatomy while at work for example drew some of the most scathing criticism. They have learned that it is not up to them what a woman should or should not wear and that's fine. However whether they are permitted to look at the goods on display or not is another question. On the one hand, they ask, if the woman chooses to display the merchandise, then there must be a reason for it, the reason surely being that she wants to be noticed, so what's wrong with noticing? Similarly they find it impossible to understand how women with huge beer guts can get away with wearing mid-rif tops that flaunt their fat or low slung pants that reveal what they call the female equivalent of the "builder's crack" showing their thong underwear. If this sort of demonstration is considered 'off' in males, then they ask, why is it not considered off in females and more to the point if women can comment about men who demonstrate such crassness then why can't men comment on it when it occurs in women?
I could go on with a whole litany of their observations, but rather I encourage others to view the series for themselves and see what it is that they identify with and in what respects their own views differ.

The real point at issue is the level of frustration which was being expressed by these people. Frustration that the things that they hoped for in the 1960's and the 1970's had turned to dust. The world was not a better place - indeed from their perspective it was far worse in many ways than the one they had inherited.

Was this their fault? Perhaps it was, which is perhaps why these men, as I say successful men, all seemed to be dejected and depressed. The conditions that exist today is somehow perceived by them as their own failure.

What I think they missed in their analysis is that it is NOT TOO LATE to make a difference. In some ways the revolutionary ideals with which they started their development into adulthood are still valid and they still have time to make a difference.

The reality is that baby boomers need to take up the challenge and exert their political and numerical power once again. They are still the largest group in our society and still the largest purchasing power in the world, they represent the largest group of voters and the largest group of people who CAN still make a difference in our outlook and in the way in which this society continues. The question is whether the get up and go with which they started their lives has now got up and gone or whether it is still present and able to be firmly grasped and utilised with the political savvy that has been acquired.

Let's move from this cult of worshiping the young back to worshiping the aging. For the next ten to twenty years THEY are the power that has to be reckoned with and they still have an opportunity to undo much of the damage that they are responsible for. Let's hear it for those grumpy old men who do not want merely to rail at the things that have gone wrong with their dreams but now want a second chance to fix those things.

That's the way to go in my opinion.

Planning for the Future - NOT!

Having commented yesterday on the lack of sound childrearing practices among at least some of the population at large let me comment today on the lack of planning for the future by our elected officials.

I have been increasingly horrified by the realisation that our governments (and I do mean plural) at the state and federal level of all political persuasions over the last 30-40 years have been doing nothing about the future of the country that they knew about and that was predictable some 50 years ago.

The so called Baby Boomer generation was born immediately after the war so there is no excuse - certainly by the 60's for people to remain unaware that there was going to be a large cohort of people who would be leaving the work force taking with them their intellectual property, their labour and their expertise. It is thus surprising that only in very recent times has there been a caterwauling set up by the Treasurer about how expensive this is going to be for the economy and how people will simply have to work longer and not expect pensions and not expect health care and so on.

Why not? We who are in the baby boomer generation have paid for all of the services that have been handed out to others during our working lives and we expected - however foolishly, that the government having the best interests of its citizens in mind would behave like the proverbial squirrel and put some money aside for the events that they could predict were coming. THAT is what is meant by risk management and risk mitigation.

But no, KNOWING the certainty that people would be getting older and leaving the work force, knowing that as they got older they would want to avail themselves of the same 'rights' and 'entitlements' that they had paid for with their taxes and knowing that they would require health services as bodies aged and failed what did the governments do? They preached good sound management to everyone and then did bugger all about it themselves.

As people reach the required age to leave work after thirty or forty years what are they faced with? The leisure time that they worked their proverbials off to attain in those years? Hell no! Work longer and work harder because the costs of everything are going up, it is now a user pays society, there is not enough money in the kitty to refurbish our infrastructure, to make health care affordable, to provide education to those who need it and can benefit from it without a crippling cost and all the while simply RAKING IN the tax dollars from those of us who are mad enough to work for a living on a pays as you go wage.

The companies get to pay less tax, and then can offset their expenses while we have to pay more and are unable to offset our expenses. Indeed we now pay more GST on everything we buy while governments get billions more in revenue, still don't fix things and then claim they are poor and badly done by.

Where is the money going?

Well we spend nearly two billion dollars on a donation to the people of Indonesia, and that's just the donation God only knows how much the operational costs of the defence forces are. We go to Iraq for goodness sake - why? What do we get for this expenditure of the taxpayers money? We have the highest costs of petrol ever with the government raking in 38 cents in the dollar in excise and then another 10 cents in the dollar for each transaction between the wholesaler and eventually the public.

It's a rip off!

We are not getting out money's worth. What's even worse people are actually falling for the crap that is being disseminated by the politicians that the sale of all of the public assets that WE paid for is a good thing because we can PAY AGAIN to buy shares in companies that we 'owned' already as taxpayers.

Is it just me or is the world going to hell in a hand basket and some of us still vote for the people who are taking us there?

Why do I have to keep paying?

Having dealt with the rearing of children yesterday, I was most unamused by the discussions which the Treasurer has been having with the media recently. In one of the most paternalistic set of comments it has been my misfortune to see from this government to date there was discussion about how 30-40 years ago the bleeding obvious was apparent, namely that there was a population bubble, and that even blind Freddy could have seen that around about now there would in all likelihood be a problem with large groups of people heading into older age and hence leaving the work force - leaving with their intellectual property, leaving with their experience. At the same time these same people would be expecting the same level of services from government that they had been paying for the generations that came before them and would in fact require access to the more modern medcial facilities that their taxes and their lives had helped to fashion and bring into being.

What would a prudent series of governments have done about this KNOWN risk to the country? Well most people would say that the prudent government would have recognised the issue and started to save well before the event took place so that they would have in place the required money to put back into the welfare of their citizens when the time came.

Not in Australia. Instead we have had a series of governments of all politicial persuasions which have spent the money we have raised for them with some of the highest taxes in the world and are NOW telling us that we have to keep on paying for the privilege of staying alive. We have to continue in work for longer, we have to make other arrangements for our financial well being because the pension system would be sent broke unless we do so. We have to keep paying extraordinarily high taxes to be able to help pay for the infrastructure that has not been repaired or maintained and is now wearing out. The litany of 'we have to . . .' comments just keeps growing.

I for one am sick of it!

Let's just look at the way that businesses contribute to all of this. They already have marginal tax rates that are far less than many earners of wages and they have opportunities to discount more tax because of their expenses on the business. Yet they use more of the resources than all of the people in their daily lives and in spite of their constant yammering about how badly done by they are, they continually make record profits year after year by passing on their costs and their expenses to us, the poor schmucks that have no choice but to pay for their goods.

Let's talk about infrastructure. Who causes more wear and tear on the roads - you and I as motorists going to work or for the trips to the supermarket or the sports ground or large commercial vahicles which are on the roads 24/7? Who pays most for the usage? Gee, this is hard to caclulate - we do - the average motorist. Who gets richer? The companies who cost the charges of their freight into the cost of the goods we buy and of course the government who cops at least 38 cents in the dollar for our petrol costs as well as the additional 10% for GST. In essence that is 48 cents in the dollar that is going to government coffers each time we pay for petrol and what do they do with the largesse? They sure don't fix the roads.

You can do the same calculations with almost anything that requires an infrasctructure to maintain from water to electricity, gas, telephones etc. In all cases OUR costs are rising, the costs to the businesses that profit are off set by tax deductions and we are being asked to do more and more just for the privilege to stay alive and healthy.

Not fair I reckon.

Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child - no longer

For the last three days I have been seeing programs on the television that have one thing in common - parenting skills - or rather the lack of parenting skills.

In recent times we have all been less than entertained by the behaviour of young people who either riot in the streets, 'hang out' in malls and in pedestrian areas at night, seemingly bored and bent in some instances of doing SOMETHING - usually destructive or anti social.

I am afraid that I too am one of THOSE people who blame the parents. If the documentaries that I have seen recently are any indication of what is going on out there then all I can say is be afraid, be very afraid, the children that are being raised (so to speak) these days are nothing but a problem for the rest of their lives, to themselves and to the community in which they are going to live.

What seems to be missing from parenting I have seen is the ability to set limits for children, the ability to say no, the ability to maintain a calm consistent response to the greatest levels of provocation, tantrums and what is known as acting out behaviour.

Children these days get their way on just about everything and in some of the instances I have been seeing they are actually training their parents rather than the other way around.

I know this sounds bizarre but maybe it is time that we did things a little differently. We do require that people learn to drive before we let them unsupervised onto the streets of our community, we require licenses for many things, we require continual learning and some examination of the skills that have been acquired. I am sorry to say but I think that it is time to consider parenting as one of those skills that may require an education. People certainly do not seem to have picked up the skills from their parents and as a result we are breeding and raising several generations of children who are now adults who are out of control.

It's time this was stopped and some discipline and some limits restored to child rearing.

Dr Spock recanted on his notions of child rearing some years ago. His latest comment was to use his book more frequently and a little lower down than had been the case.

Perhaps some parents can take that lesson seriously for a change and stop raising juvenile delinquents.

The Water Cooler Syndrome and the Bottom Line

One of the things that I like about working is the opportunity to think about what is happening and what should be happening in the work environment.

Unfortunately thinking about things and then being able to DO anything with the thoughts that you have are two different things.

In work places in which there is a 'water cooler' or "coffee clutch" or "smokers corner" culture, you have the beginnings of what is referred to in the literature as a 'community of interest'.
I have spoken about these before in these pages and what I want to do today is to mention some of the lack of progress that can be made with them in the current 'do more with less' work environments.

What I am finding is that there are numerous colleagues who are really enthused when you approach them about thinking through issues and developing practical suggestions for change. They stay focused and continue to be enthusiastic on each occasion when you approach them.
However their enthusiasm seems to wane when it comes to DOING anything beyond having a chat about things and actually undertaking some of the hard work that is related to progressing an idea into a work in progress.

The rationale for their lack of activity is a many faceted as there are possibilities in the work place. Most of them however seem to centre around the reality that there is so much work and so little time to do it in that there is no space and time left for the creative processes much less the accompanying work that is required to get an idea from the idea stage into a productive and implementable reality.

I wonder if any has done a cost benefit analysis on the diminution of productivity that arises from getting people to be so 'productive' in doing things that they have no time left for thinking about what it is that they are doing and how they are doing it?

Perhaps some organisations would be better placed if they actually encouraged people to think before they do - you never know they may actually see some improvements to their bottom line by doing so.

Governance

Governance. This seems to be the word on people's lips more frequently than ever these days. I guess that the events at Barings Bank, ENRON, HIH and a number of other companies are the reason why there is such a high interest. Their fall from grace and indeed from the stock market leaving thousands of investors, creditors all out of pocket has left a sour taste in the mouth of many.

The solutions which are being found nationally and internationally range from legislation in the USA which demands better record keeping to all sorts of responses from consultancies and advice offering purveyors of software or hardware solutions.

There is just one solution which does not seem to be on offer and that is good old fashioned hard work attached to something that is referred to in the text books but seems to be missing from the work place - good old fashioned duty of care.

I am continually amazed by people who manage to go to work each day and focus their attention on what they call 'customer service' which amounts to a smoke and mirror game to make the person and the organisation look good by offering to provide whatever the customer wants.

The reality is that for many of the organisations that win awards for customer service and for excellence in their front office there is an organisation which has been gutted and left unattended in the back office. The back office which provides the necessary underpinnings of the way in which business is carried out, the back office which ensures that the front office looks good.

Since most organisations have a history that goes back at least ten years or so, the organisational foundations that were in place then were more or less robust enough to keep the organisation sailing along regardless of whether or not there was much care taken to maintain its back room systems, processes and procedures.

Ten years later though, with many of the people who knew how to make things work now heading off into retirement in the sun set years of their life, with the current crop of new 'you beaut' managers who have no history of doing things or knowing how to do things other than promoting themselves and their career paths there is a vacuum into which pours the demand to refurbish and restore operational functioning.

The answer, most people think lies in reorganisation and governance.

I would suggest that while I am not averse to either or both of these solutions as a start, I hope that things do not end there. It would be my view that attention and financial attention should be paid to the foundations of the business. Things like standards, processes, procedures, skills and competence of staff to be able to do the work for which they are being paid, control of the information which is flowing into and out of the organisation in ever larger volumes and with more frequency of change.

It is these back room functions and foundations that are the real success of any business and not the flash Harry operatives that get all the glory and get all the money from their remuneration packages.

Let's hear it for the real workers - the ones who really keep an organisation going and let's give some meaning to the word governance that enables those who are left who know what to do and when to do it the opportunity to get on with it.

Also from Reuters - another oddity

KIBBUTZ MAANIT, Israel (Reuters) - A Texas oilman is using his Bible as a guide to finding oil in the Holy Land.

John Brown, a born-again Christian and founder of Zion Oil & Gas of Dallas, can quote chapter and verse about his latest drilling venture in Israel, where his company has an oil and gas exploration license covering 96,000 acres.

"Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favored by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil," Brown quotes from Moses's blessing to one of the 12 Tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33:24.

Pete's Points:

I guess American Christian extremists have taken a lead from their President. He thinks he can do anything on earth and so some others are starting to believe that they can do anything under it.

Amazing!

It would be even more amazing if he actually finds anything.

What I also love about this article is the spelling. I keep wondering whatever happened to educated editors. I cab live with "favored" but "MOSES'S"? You have to be kidding!

Pope Reborn as Superhero in Comic

Wed Apr 6, 9:38 AM ET

Oddly Enough - Reuters

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Pope John Paul II is being reborn in a Colombian comic book as a superhero battling evil with an anti-Devil cape and special chastity pants.

Reuters Slideshow: Comic Book Portrays Pope as Superhero

The first episode of the "Incredible Popeman" is about to go on sale in Colombia and shows the late Polish pontiff meeting comic book legends such as Batman and Superman to learn how to use superpowers to battle Satan.

"The pope was a real-life superhero, of flesh and blood," said Colombian artist Rodolfo Leon, a non-practicing Catholic who has been working on the comic book for about a year.

Like any self-respecting superhero, the Incredible Popeman has a battery of special equipment. Along with his yellow cape and green chastity pants, the muscular super-pontiff wields a faith staff with a cross on top and carries holy water and communion wine.

In the comic book, the pope dies and is reborn with superpowers beyond the infallibility Catholic doctrine gave him on Earth.

Pete's Points:

I was wondering when the first social comment would be made.

An interesting site for those suffering from Cancer

I would like to recommend a site to those of you who are suffering from cancer of one form or another.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network Physical Guidelines Index

This is one place where you can look up most if not all of the types of cancer that seem to be around and look at the recommended treatments for given variants among the cancer types.

The beauty of this site is that once you have been diagnosed with a type of cancer and the doctors are sitting around and telling you that they will treat you you can check to see what it is that they are talking about and be in a position to ask some informed questions.

I hope this helps someone else.

Yet again about the USA

Try this link http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0405-25.htm

It leads to an article by George Monbiot on Mr Wolfowitz and the World Bank and demonstrates quite clearly some of the fiscal agendas of the USA to dominate world markets since the 1940s.

What's that about a level playing field?

Greg Hitt writes in the Wall Street Journal April 5, 2005

Moving to blunt China's clout in textiles, the U.S. launched a series of trade investigations that set the stage for imposing import curbs on Chinese-made apparel. The Bush administration's announcement comes amid a surge in textile imports from China and complaints by American manufacturers and their supporters in Congress that the U.S. textile industry is fast losing ground. In a written statement, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the move was a "first step" toward determining whether the U.S. market is indeed being disrupted, and whether the disruptions can be attributed to Chinese imports.

Pete's Points:

Once again we have evidence that a level playing field for the USA is one which just happens to tilt in their direction.

There is no surprise from those of us in Australia who are regularly clothed by the Chinese in this country. They provide excellent quality clothes for a price that cannot be met by local manufacturers. I guess for the Americans private enterprise and competition is only a good thing when they have the upper hand.

Get with the program guys, YOU brought capitalism to the world, YOU brought competition to the world, YOU destroyed customs barriers and trade barriers in the name of free trade - now live with the consequences.

A Cute Story from the States

MEDFORD -- It's a distant memory for most of the country, but President Bush's campaign swing through Southern Oregon is fresh for hotel owners still waiting to get paid nearly $19,000 for expenses incurred by the administration last fall.

Three hotels, including the Rogue Regency, the Red Lion and the Jacksonville Inn, report they have been waiting almost six months for bills generated mostly by the U.S. Secret Service during President Bush's whirlwind tour through Jackson County, according to an article by the Mail Tribune newspaper.

Owed $3,332.72, the Red Lion Hotel in Medford sent a letter on March 28 to the president at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The letter written by the hotel's accountant Kirsten Yunuba Stephens, said: "My question to you: Is this how you help balance the budget at the White House by ripping off retailers in the towns you visit? If that is the case please do not come back to the Rogue Valley."

Published by Behind the News this is just a little 'cute' - I mean fancy Mr Bush going to "Rogue Valley" and the debt being created by the secret service that is actually part of the Internal Revenue Service or the tax department.

Did you read about the Aboriginal Embassy?

There is an article about police storming the Aboriginal tent embassy yesterday to pick up someone who, it is alleged, had stolen some emblems from a public building and not kept a court date.

If the place was really an embassy then the police would not have any rights to enter the territory as it would actually be foreign soil on which they have no jurisdiction. Since Australian indigenous people claim that they own Australia anyway it is ridiculous that they should create an 'embassy' to a government that they don't actually recognise which exists on what they claim is their own soil. It is even more ridiculous to claim embassy status in a situation where the people who live there have no "government" to represent.

Apart from being an eye sore outside on the grounds of the old Parliament House and a curiosity for the Japanese tourists who crowd around and take pictures what good does this 'embassy' do? Who does it serve? What message does it convey to anyone?

I am not hostile to indigenous peoples in this country. I just think that this particular expression of their sovereignty is counter-productive.

ACT Government and Asbestos

While we are on the subject of governance and mirth let's hear it for the ACT government. They issued some legislation recently with all of the good intentions in the world. It was legislation to help protect poor tradesmen who could come into contact with Asbestos when doing repairs around a house.

Great idea, well intentioned.

Alas the implementation seems to leave a little to be desired.

I received a letter from my real estate agent today which tells me that I am required by this new law to declare what I know about asbestos on my property.

You have to be kidding! When I bought the property there was no requirement to test it for asbestos and so of course I have no idea.

So what am I going to say on this official form? "Blowed if I know?"

Being a careful and conscientious sort of bloke, I called my agent and asked if there was someone I could call to inspect the property to find out. They gave me a number and I called. This is a firm of home inspectors who advised that in the ACT only the CSIRO has the facility to test for asbestos. They further advised that to make the test they would have to come to the property and take a minimum of 10 samples from the walls etc. (no doubt leaving holes) and each of these would cost money to take and to have tested. The overall cost they estimated at around $1000. However they advised that they could not really undertake the work because the legislation did not have any guidelines attached to it so no one currently knows what is going to be expected of people who own property and so they were advising people to hold off until the matter was clarified.

Meanwhile I am still stuck with this idiotic piece of paper to which I have to add my signature only to say something along the lines that I have no idea whether there is or not any asbestos on my property. The cost to me is at least a 50c stamp and an envelope, not to mention the phone calls about all this but in addition as part of the rates that I have pay I am paying some public servants to send and receive forms that will have no substantial value to anyone.

On top of the recent legislation to require people to pay land tax on their property when they cannot own land in the ACT and when the ACT government also does not own the land that they lease out this is just more idiocy from a government in which either the advisers, or the politicians or the public servants who work out the details need some coaching on how to create legislation and mechanisms of implementation.

Come the next elections I guess I will have to review the record of this government and its ineptitude and vote accordingly.

Another 'fun' item from the AASW

People who are members of the AASW must be having a field day with the number of interesting decisions they are making these days - especially in Western Australia.

There is an advertisement in their latest newsletter (or at least the latest one that is on the web) which states that there is to be special meeting of the members in WA to 'reconstitute' the WA Branch which it appears has been managed by some form of guiding group for some time. Indeed sources have suggested that they have not had an election since 2003 when the entire Committee of Management resigned en masse and went off to form a different association in WA to represent social workers in disgust with the way in which the Association was being managed.

There are several hilarious things about this advert, one is that the meeting is set for June 8th 2005. The constitution of the AASW clearly stipulates that each Branch is to have an Annual General Meeting within 90 days from the end of the financial year. Thus these poor people will have to attend a meeting on June 8th to elect a Committee of Management which can only last for 90 days from the end of June. Daft I call it, and a waste of the members' money.

To make matters worse, they indicate in the advert that the newly elected committee is expected to have a two year term of office. Oh dear, which part of their constitution did they forget to read this time? Why the same clause - there are to be elections every year within 90 days from the end of the financial year. Of course they also forgot the clause that stipulates that the Director that they elect will serve for THREE years - something that is set out in yet another section of their constitution.

To add insult to injury they also stipulate that there is a nomination form attached which can be filled out by members who hope to nominate someone to serve. Just try and find it! It may have been attached to the paper copy of their newsletter, but it seems to be missing from the electronic version.

Do people seriously want to pay money to become members of an Association which is actually a company governed by the Corporations Law when this is the level of governance that they can expect locally?

Do people really want to elect a group of leaders who cannot read and interpret their own constitution, can't spell the words which they have read, can't proof read their newsletter and still expect to provide leadership and representation for the profession in WA?

Sometimes I am embarrassed by what I read - this is one of those occasions.

Telstra and line noise

Well folks I have had my test with the Telstra people and the advice that they have provided is that my modem is too fast for their line. So since I only rent a phone line for use by a phone and it supports phone calls I cannot complain about the fact that my V92 modem can only operate like a V34 and not drop so many packets of information that the poor modem thinks it is having conniptions and drops the line. At around 25 cents a re-dial and with really slow in and out put this is becoming worse by the day.

BTW for those of you who have similar problems try this test.

Set up a new account in your computer called MOLD the number to contact is 1800637254 and in the set up you should configure your modem by ticking the box for SHOW TERMINAL WINDOW so that you can actually see the results of the test.

Follow the prompts and you too can see how useful Telstra's line quality is in YOUR neighbourhood. Then go out and complain to the government that still owns part of this company that you really would appreciate them rolling out the optical fibre cables that they talked about so much some years ago but which have still not arrived in YOUR neighbourhood.

Slowly I am coming around to the realisation that to obtain an ADSL modem is THE answer for the moment.

Amazingly Telstra have a "sign up now and save the connection fee" offer just now. Also amazingly this problem only seemed to happen AFTER I cancelled my long distance and overseas calls with Telstra and took up an offer from Transact.

Could they possibly be providing a lesser service to me now that I am no longer one of their customers for all the services?

NAH! Just a conspiracy theory that should be put into the dust bin - still . . . it is a remarkable coincidence.

I don't think I will give them the satisfaction of giving in just yet. As someone who started computing in the age when 300 baud was considered fast even 31200 is a lot faster. No pictures of course and no games over the Internet for a while - but I think I will wait until Transact actually gets its wiring out to my suburb and then transfer all of my business to them. That will be my way of getting even.

Australian Association of Social Workers - Some not so recent gaffs!

Australian Association of Social Workers - Some not so recent gaffs!

Centrelink (the descendant of the Department of Social Security) is one of the largest employers of qualified social workers in the Commonwealth Government. It is an orgainsation in which social work celebrated its 60th anniversary last November. It is an organisation in which, in even more recent times, social work has performed magnificently in the provision of services to people in crisis both at home in Australia and in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Not only do the staff in Centrelink provide services to the most underpriviledged groups in our society they also provide social work training to students around the country.

How does the AASW treat this organisation and the colleagues who work there, many of whom are members of the Association?

"National President of The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), Peter Richardson, is calling on Australia’s 12-15,000 qualified social workers to refuse to implement the proposed changes to Indigenous welfare. Many Social Workers are employed in the Public sector, including Family and Community Services and Centrelink." This was the headline in 2004 of a press release by the President of the AASW.

Social workers employed by the government are required by law to carry out government policy unless it is either illegal or unethical. Since the policy and directions of the government fall into neither category, the press release merely indicates level of political immaturity and irresponsibility that is coming from the Association, its President and of the Board that governs it. The fact that the press release refers to the Department of Family and Community Services, which is a policy Department that does not provide services or employ social workers as such, is yet another indicator of the lack of knowledge and understanding of how social services work in this country that is exhibited in this press release.

The 'call to arms' from the President of the Association achieved nothing beyond making the Association a laughing stock in most quarters and bringing it and social workers in general who were no doubt assumed to have called upon him to make this comment, into disrepute in others

The then CEO of Centrelink (herself a qualified social worker) made it clear to the Association that it did not welcome stupid and irresponsible commentary from the Association especially since Centrelink provided the Association with considerable funding in support of its work.

I suspect that the National Manager in charge of the Social Work Service within Centrelink was also less than pleased with the Association for having brought it and the members who work within Centrelink into a situation in which they are perceived to be encouraged to break the law and their contract with their employers simply because of some enthusiastic if misguided social commentary by the President of the Association

Indeed it is interesting to note that the President of at least one Branch not to mention at least two Directors are Centrelink employees.

I wonder how they and other members of the Association who happen to work within Centrelink felt when the press release came out? I have it on good authority it was issued without any consultation with members of the Association who manage social work within Centrelink. I wonder whether there was any consultation with the Board or whether it was just the President who decided to speak out on behalf of the members that he does not appear to represent.

"Not happy" would be my guess.

And yet more on the Australian Association of Social Workers

I am coming to be fascinated, once again, by the stories that are emerging from the Australian Association of Social Workers. The stories are about management incompetence which may well border on activities that are either marginally within the law or possibly even outside the law.

In the not so distant past there were sagas within the Association of Social Workers concerning the rogue behaviour of members of the Board and more particularly of the Executive which were (it was hoped) ended by the sudden resignation of both the National President and the Chief Executive Officer and their departure from the scene. Both of these people of course have managed to fall on their feet and are now the proud possessors of lucrative and highly paid jobs in the public and the NGO sectors.

The condition of the Association that they left behind carries with it the legacy of their administration. It is this legacy that is the subject of my current interest.

One would have thought that a bunch of people, who are all at minimum four year university graduates, subscribe to a Code of Ethics and who all would say that their main interest is in 'helping people' would have enough brains to manage their professional association without it getting into trouble.

Alas this does not seem to be the case.

Lets take some of the stories coming out from the woodwork.

In Western Australia, the entire Committee of Management (these are the people elected by the members of a Branch in a state or territory) resigned en masse because they could not stomach the goings on of the people in the Board of the Association. Since 2003 there have been no AGMs nor any elections in that State so the people who still mindlessly pay their membership fees are actually unable to exercise any control over their organisation. Indeed matters have been so incredible in that state that the former COM members started a completely new social work organisation which also provides indemnity insurance to its members and arranges activities for them.

So we have the ludicrous situation in WA where there are two organisations claiming to represent social workers with one working along democratic harmonious lines while the other seems to collect the money and discourage democracy.

There is a "Director" on the Board of the Association whose headquarters are in Canberra, but it appears that this director was appointed by the Board. An interesting turn of events which appears to be precluded by the wording in their own constitution.

Let's see what this says:

180
"The members of all Branches must meet annually and within ninety (90) days after the end of the financial year, to elect:

a) a committee of not less than four members of the relevant Branch to be called the Branch Committee of Management; and

b) a Director to the Board"

Since this has not happened since 2003 there cannot be a Western Australian Director, can there?

Yet there is one and laughably, this "Director" appointed by the Board which has no power to do so has been putting forward proposals to alter the constitution and has been participating in deciding what is to happen in the organisation.

"How can this be?" you ask. Well, let's see. Another section of the same constitution, Section 123, gives you an answer which, were it not tragic would be laughable.

123. The acts of a Director or Secretary of the Association are valid notwithstanding any defect that may afterwards be discovered in their appointment or qualification.

This section gives the Board of the Association virtually carte blanche to appoint anyone they wish to become a member of the Board if the members are silly enough not to exercise their right to a vote and then absolves them of any liability.

This lack of accountability is further ensured by the provisions of yet another section of the Constitution namely section 208 which states:

208.
The Association may indemnify a person against liability for costs and expenses incurred by that person in her or his capacity as officer, Auditor or agent of the Association:

a) in defending any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, in which judgement is given in favour of the person or in which the person is acquitted; or

b) in connection with an application, in relation to any such proceedings, in which the Court grants relief to the person under the law.

Interestingly of course it is the "Association" in this case which MAY indemnify a person thus it could be argued that if all of the Directors were suddenly to be accused of breaches of the Code or Ethics or of violations of the Constitution or of breaking the law then they may well be out on a limb because no on in their right mind would indemnify them for having done the wrong thing.
Then again there is always the insurance which is taken out in all organisations that could be resorted to as a way of providing indemnity.

At present we have a bunch of people elected by the Members of their Branches who are not required to listen to the wishes of the people who elect them and who do NOT listen to those wishes, who make the rules as they see fit to provide the 'guidance' for the organisation and who have demonstrated that they are not above bending if not breaking the rules of the Association in the way that they appoint people, manage the affairs of the Association or indeed spend the hard earned money of the people who pay the membership fees.

Does anyone wish to comment on this or put the story straight in case I have been misinformed?