the news on nothing but the news

I'm not sure that there's much to say today, but I will have a crack at it.

I woke this morning and a sense of urgency was in the air. What was it? My partner was likely to be late for a dental appointment.

With morning ablutions completed, breakfast eaten, clothes carefully thrown on, it was in the car and off down the Parkway to that dental appointment.

A little later on the phone rings, she's stuck on the Parkway, it appears that there is work being done on the roadway or something and the traffic is not moving in either direction. Could I please ring the dental surgery and explain the situation to them.

Naturally I do what I am told. I would not be much good as a partner otherwise.

A hunt for the phone number ensues, followed by the call to the surgery. It appears that the surgeon is also running late and so the chances are that by the time she arrives they may well be ready for her.

Now that's what I call dumb blind luck.

No sooner had I written all of this, the phone rings again. It's my partner from the surgery. She has arrived there, they are still not ready for her. Much ado about nothing are my first thoughts then she tells me that it appears that the problem on the way was a vehicle overturned and lying on its roof.

Wow, this is big news! I suspect that this is a serious enough accident to appear on the evening news tonight, so we will all be able to see it in all it's dreadful gory detail.

BTW I hope that no one YOU know was involved.

This is what it's like when you have reporters on the road reporting the daily grind to you in all its pristine glory.

I am now waiting for my other correspondents around the world to give me some other items of news. It could be a long wait, so I might just end here for now.

Salut from Garpet

Information from a correspondent in Israel

It has become necessary to have around the world a network of correspondents, who can provide information.

In this particular instance, my information is provided by someone called Yaacov in Israel. I acknowledge that the sources is biased, but by alerting my readers to this, I hope that they will get at least the poignant cry for understanding that I believe, the message contains.

"Well as you probably heard, the Israeli Army decided finally to do something about the rocket attacks coming out of Gaza. Last Wednesday over 120 rockets were fired from Gaza on the settlements and towns around Gaza. Miraculously no one was hurt physically. Psychologically the damage cannot be measured. As soon as the alarm goes off, anybody living within 10 kms of the border has about 10 seconds to get under cover. Further on, within 30 kms of the border, people have between 15 -25 seconds to find cover. It's not a pleasant way to live. Think of the kids. Some damage was caused. There is a good chance that reserves will be called up today. If I get a call I will let you know.

I should mention that rockets were being fired on a daily basis for the past few years. Last Wednesday was a bit exceptional, because of the masses of rockets. Our government was a bit hesitant, because it is full of people who worry more about what the "goyim" (non Jews - Ed.) think, than what its citizens need. There are also elections coming up in about a month and the government has very good reason to believe its going to be whacked."

Of those of us who live in Australia, I think it is almost impossible for most of us to understand what it means to live in fear of a daily barrage of rockets, courtesy of Hamas or the fear of Israeli shells or bombs. Suffice it to say that for both sides of the population in or near Gaza, an unacceptable level fear is the common element.

From an Israeli point of view, life would be good for everyone concerned, if only "those people" in Hamas would stop firing their rockets. From the point of view of the people in Gaza it's probably fair enough to say, "if only those people in Israel would stop sending their planes over to drop bombs or sending the military across with their tanks and shells" life would be a lot better.

Is there no answer to this problem? I guess that based on past performance there is likely to be no answer besides more death, more injury, more mourning, more tears, and probably more tedious commentary from people such as myself.

Perhaps the best I can do is to wish that in the New Year "peace" breaks out again, if only for a while, even if it is once again at the point of a gun.

What if?

I was just reading the news and saw the item about Wild Oats XI.

I had been wondering up to this point in time why this vessel was trailing the other yacht Skandia. Apparently there is nothing like having a 2 metre shark stuck in your rudder to make you lose pace.

I wonder how much of a lead Wild Oats XI would have had without the shark incident? The new sail could possibly have increased the record even further had the shark not become entangled in the rudder.

Solo sailor thanks rescuers.

The ABC reports that the French sailor rescued off Western Australia's south coast at the weekend has described his experience as the worst five days of his life.

He has thanked the rescuers.

Talk is cheap.

At present, if I understand it correctly, rescuing one of these sailors in the Antarctic waters to the south of our continent costs money, big-money, I'm told it's in the vicinity of $1 million. So talk is cheap. Welcome, but cheap.

When the race organisers hold these competitions I think they should ensure that the sailors or competitors if you wish, get some form of insurance against the risk of their yacht being damaged during the race and the yachtsman requiring some form of rescue.

In the event that one of these conditions takes place I then think it is up to the race organisers and/or the insurance company to reimburse the country that has taken the trouble of rescuing the sailor. There is no reason that the taxpayers of the country that makes its warships available to rescue this sailor should be held accountable for the costs that are incurred in rescuing the sailor.

I do not want people to change their ways and stop challenging the elements in a race in which the sailor competes, I also do not want to to try and change the law of the sea which makes it incumbent on whichever country happens to own the waters in question to rescue sailors as a matter of course. My question is about who should be responsible for the cost.

In my opinion it should be the race organisers or their insurers.

Anyone care to comment? If not, have a very happy New Year.

Value for money

'Value for money' is the title of this note for a good reason Russia's Nikolai Valuev has just defeated American Evander Holyfield in a match for the world heavyweight or WBA boxing title.

What do you expect, the man is 7 foot tall and has the reach of a kangaroo's back feet (12 cm longer than his opponent,) One is 46 the other 35, I will let you guess which is which.

This is what the world is coming to, the Romans saw it when their empire was ending. They only had bread and circuses for the masses. We have more ambitious fare.

In Australia our Prime Minister is making announcements about billions of dollars being spent on the homeless, he has also guaranteed banking funds and no doubt we will soon see some more bread and circuses type material to help us get through the economic crisis that we are told by everyone else is already well and truly upon us.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, spend spend spend, put a few dollars [or better still one or more credit cards] in your pocket go out and buy all those things you can never wanted never needed, but just had to have.

I'm sure the economy will recover as a result of all this spending that we are doing in the shops right now. That's right folks we can welcome in 2009 knowing that everything is right with the world because Kevin has said so. Well not in so many words, in fact to be brutally honest he has started to make some statements about the reality of life, that perhaps the recession is going to reach Australia that perhaps we are losing the battle because we are not cushioned from the effects of the overseas debacle that has affected all of the first world nations [or words to this effect] to the point where governments are spending billions of dollars of their citizens' money to try and stop the recession from happening and finding out far too late that the recession is well and truly here and the money has gone.

I have no idea where governments find all the money that they're throwing at this fiscal crisis. In Australia maybe there is some truth to the claim that we are only spending the money that resides in our surplus. I'm not sure where other nations are finding their money. In an environment where the Americans have always said that free trade and lack of controls should be the way of the future, because it is the way of the free and democratic ways that are supported by all that is holy in the United States, we have this tragedy where the very lack of controls that were being encouraged seem to have resulted in the mess we now face. Not only has it affected the United States, but it has affected all those countries that put their faith in the United States as a global leader or to be more frank, those that want to participate in the riches that seemed to be flowing towards that country.

It seems to me that from 2009 onwards there will be greater controls over finances, there will be greater controls over banks, there will be greater controls on businesses unless those countries that are currently considered to be first world countries wish to slip back to being third or even fourth world nations.

There is no way of knowing whether we will pull out of this recession, and if we do what the world will look like when we have done so. I'm unlikely to see the end of this process which is why I asked the question why greed has been allowed to triumph, yet again.

In the past we have seen that when people are confronted with opportunities to make themselves rich without any fear of consequences about how they make themselves rich, then some form of disaster usually follows. We have seen this time and time again over the centuries. The economies may have been different the countries certainly were, the systems of government certainly were.

What was really different was that in the Roman Empire and the Greek empire there were slaves. We don't have slaves nor am I suggesting that we should, however what a difference that would make just think of the thousands of people who would need to be supported by the rich in each country of the world. It this the sort of world that we want to happen again? I hope not.

I am not an economist nor am I bright enough to figure out the way ahead I'm just one of those chumps who followed the logic that said if I work hard and I save my money and I spend only on those things that I need then I will be able to have enough at the end of my working life to support me in retirement until I am dead, perhaps there may also be a little left over for other members of my family so that their burden can be eased.

As it happens, I'm not sure what will happen to me and I am certainly not sure what will happen to all my readers, but I know that most people are having a very very good Christmas blowout because this might be the last they see of a "rich" life for a long time.

changes to the Michelin guide

A news item from the BBC suggest that a German woman is now editing the Michelin guide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7792384.stm

When you read this you won't believe it either. We know from the article that an English person was involved with the red edition of the Michelin guide until recently. This was enough of a shock to the system, but that someone involved being neither French nor male ends a distinguished and historic line of commentary on French cuisine.

There are great changes in the world and I guess most of us will simply have to go with the flow in a similar fashion I guess most of us will have to accept all of the changes that are occurring in the world simply because we live in it.

Were this not the case I wonder whether we would still be as shocked and/or as interested in such matters. After all if we are a colony on Mars or a colony on the moon would we care about what was happening back on Earth? I suppose not.

Still I wonder if we can maintain some standards while we live here - no offence meant to the person who obtained a position, but tradition is tradition.

Christmas a season to be jolly or . . .

Merry Christmas to all of my readers, friends, relatives, and anybody else I have not mentioned at this point. I also wish them a happy New Year and in my case what that means is that everyone is at least healthier and hopefully more wealthier than in the last year and certainly a lot wiser than they were before.

I'm not sure if this is too much to ask, but at present, I don't really care. It seems to me that wanting to wish everyone well is probably more useful if you at least explain what it is that you wishing for so, let's explore a little.

There are those of us who are planning holidays next year to other countries even though the illness that we have is likely to make that difficult if not impossible. I like the sense of forward thinking and I like the desire to plan in the face of potential adversity. For the individual concerned you know who you are my best wishes go out to you and I hope that you not only have a wonderful trip but that you are also capable of having many more.

For others who have made the decision to delay their travel overseas by at least one year, having recently crossed our own continent in their little four-wheel drives I wish them well with the rest period. Of those who have made it possible for me to be able to view digital television -- thank you. You have no idea what a relief it is to find someone who can read the manual outcome of what seems like a collaboration between Korean/Japanese/Hungarian/Arabic translation experts. This is the only way I can describe the handbook that came with the machines. I have no idea how anybody else translates these burnt offerings to those who can, may you increase your knowledge of electronics, and increase your ability to pass that on to practical application and practical help to others far less empowered than you are.

Dragon speaking naturally preferred

It is now several days since I acquired a copy of Dragon Speaking Naturally Preferred, Version 10. Setting up this new program has been a breeze, or at least far easier than it used to be when I first tried dictating programs like this one some years ago. What is really nice about this version is that it adds the ability to mimic or at least emulate an Australian accent and the user is provided with an Australian dictionary.

I have been trying to use it in various ways with various programs that I own, and it works in some more easily than it does in others. To my amazement I have found that within the program there are two items about which I was ignorant when I started. One is called dictation box, while the other is called Dragon pad. Dictation box is more like a simple text emulator while Dragon pad is more like a word processing program that is limited in size and scope. I have found that outside of what is available within the program a very old version of Lotus Word Pro and post-it notes text block seem to work best of all.

Not being a supporter of Microsoft products I'm unable to use the obvious interplay between Nuance and Microsoft. I have found that the program does not like to work inside of Google or Open Office environments. What I have found delicious is that the dictation program within Dragon speaking actually has a 'transfer' function. In other words once you have dictated what it is that you want to say and you have open, your blog for example, the program actually transfers your dictated text into your blog without you having to lift a finger. No more control - C and Control - V, just a voice command 'transfer', how good is that?

Obviously it will take many more days before I feel comfortable with the program and before it feels comfortable with me. Let me end this particular post on this note, all of this was published using the program and took just minutes rather than the time it would have taken had I typed it with one hand.

News from here and there

What to do about people who make comments on your blog?

I'm not sure I have the answer but I will say one thing if the person making the comment, is sensible enough, to leave their name and some way of contacting them then I can make a decision about whether or not to publish their comment.

Recently I received a comment from someone calling themselves ' Sarah '. Alas this person did not believe some form of forwarding address or some means of being able to reply to their comment other than to do so on my own blog. This is exactly what I'm doing however what I would prefer to do in future is to be able to find out who the person is that is making comments to me and be in a position to read their blog and make a comment back to them about their content.

Catching up on the news, we have just had a visit from two old friends from work.

I cannot believe the stories they have been telling us. They are both retired from the public service. They now live in Queensland and have purchased the necessary equipment to engage in the joyous pursuit of happiness through caravanning across Australia.

We have been regaled with the story of the recent trouble across the Canning Stock Route which goes from one side of Australia to the other. I cannot believe what they have been telling us.

Imagine if you will, that there are four or five people driving their four-wheel drives, presumably without their caravans or caravans that are built for off-road conditions, across some of the worst roads or tracks of Australia. The story we have been told involves corrugated roads extending for hundreds of miles where you are in touch with the rest of the world only through a satellite phone or occasionally if you are near a settlement by means of a mobile phone. We have heard about bolts shearing, tyres going flat, fuel tanks rupturing, bull bars being torn off, sweat, heat, sand, bushes earmarked as toilet pits, all this amid glorious scenery and wonderful tourist delights.

It is difficult to know what to believe, whether our friends are seriously insane or just revisiting their childhood when they talk about their adventures. I think they're really trying to recapture some of their youth and frankly I think they are doing a very good job.

What I find difficult to believe is how anyone can tolerate these kind of conditions for six weeks or more without going crazy. I suppose the answer lies in the nature of the relationship amongst the people we are talking about. If you are deeply in love and have come to accept all of the good bad and the ugly characteristics of your partner then you could perhaps survive these weeks of torturous travel or at the least what I would call torturous travel.

Not to be derogatory about the wilds of Australia, but I am more likely to travel with my partner in the sumptuous comfort of a camper van in France or Austria or Germany, indeed any place in Europe. Alas even these delights no longer tempt me thanks to the ongoing progress of my illness.

I am delighted to be able to report however, that I have done these journeys in earlier days and have benefited from them by adding some basic language skills from some of the countries that I visited.

Only today I was reminded that there were new words that I have learnt from my partner in life that have benefited our travels in many ways.

I have a story of our travel in Turkey that perhaps others may find of interest. Imagine if you will getting out of your hotel and being surrounded by (usually) young children with their hands out asking for money or in a market otherwise known as a 'shouk' where it is the vendors at their stalls asking you loudly and forcibly to buy something.

After several days of this pestering, one gets to the stage of wanting to find a means of not being pestered. In my case, the trick was to speak in Hungarian to those who asked me for money accompanied by an offer to buy some of their products if they could understand the language that I was speaking.

I managed to get away with this trick in most places, but not in Turkey. In Turkey one vendor at least be will able to speak the language, in my case this vendor just happened to be a silversmith.

The lesson learnt was to keep the big mouth shut or buy my beloved a nice present.

Pain amidst the passion and a request

I have been inflicted with yet another sign which tells me to shut up. I have been deprived of the use of my right hand and instead been inflicted with pain where there was none.

The loss of a right hand to a typist is monumental and since I have also lost the use of most of my vocal cords as well I need to try out the very best of those programs that convert sound into text to see if my now sibilant offerings will do the trick and enable me to type again. If not, then this is the end of my blogging days as well. I simply cannot afford to lose the use of my other hand to typing when I need it desperately for other purposes like dressing myself.

I would now like to ask all of those who are computer literate to an extent I will never be able to reach, to help me with information.

What is currently the very best of those programs that convert conversation into typed English text. At this point I do not much care whether it is 'tuned' to an American accent or indeed any other accent. With the product from my vocal cords I do not expect to be emulating any given accent any time soon.

Advice would be appreciated so that I can give myself a belated Chrissie present or something. However if you have tried it and it works for you then this is the best recommendation if you have not tried it then please do NOT give me the recommendations of the manufacturer, just tell me it's out there and I will try and find someone who has tried it and found it to work and work well.

I do need help of the kind that the choice magazines will not provide, real personal help from people who know, because they have tried to use a product and who as a result are able to tell me all the truths, good bad and ugly.

Thanks in advance to those who make their views known. Thanks to those who will ring me, send an email or a phone message or a reply to this blog via a comment.

I really need the info folks and fast. My lack of ability to communicate is perhaps even more serious than the cancer. It can kill me, the lack of ability to communicate easily just makes the continuation of existence miserable and THAT I think is probably worse than just dying.

Amazing what I value hey?

I wonder what others value and whether being able to reach out and say G'day and then chat is valued by others as much as it appears to be by me? Whether being able to register your thoughts on a daily basis and just get them out either to no one or to a group of people who find some things of value amidst the dross?

Don't really know, but I do want to find out - especially if you are all not too busy to say the magic "G'day."

Garpet

Welcome to Australia instead

I am sincerely grateful for the circumstances that landed my family in Australia and NOT the USA.

By the time my father wanted to emigrate there, it was no longer the place he had fantasised about for many years under Nazi and Communist occupation.

Australia was for all of us, a strange and harsh land, far from what at that time felt like the comforting arms of family and friends. For my parents, it never became the
"homeland" that they sought until they had the means to leave Australia's shores and actually travel to the USA and meet up with the remnants of their families who had become refugees then immigrants, finally residents, then citizens who continued to live there.

I think that they appreciated the possibilities that they could have had there, but they could also see what opportunities existed for them in Australia. They no doubt mentally compared what was possible in the USA and at what cost with what they had been able to achieve both for themselves and their family in Australia.

Overall, the opportunities in Australia were greater than they had realised and finally they were able to be glad about the circumstances that had brought them to these shores.

Alas they did not live long enough to see how much happiness the migration process had wrought for their family.

I am now retired and can honestly say that I have never been unemployed unless I wanted to be.

At present I am benefiting from my education, my previous employment and the massive amounts of learning that I was able to acquire here.

Financially, like many retirees, I am suffering a hit from the fall in share prices but my superannuation, though negatively impacted, has been well enough managed to remain capable of meeting my needs into the future.

Alas I am not well and my illness will probably put paid to any hopes for a medal for longevity but overall I am satisfied with my life and will no doubt write a few words for those that come after me so that they can learn from my mistakes and benefit from my sucesses.

Some People may forget but . . . . .

Some people may forget certain photos and remarks, but then again others may not.

I only forget where I got it from. If memory serves this is probably because an American sent it to me as is. The wording on the photos is not helpful, a Google search did not give me a source, but I assume it was taken in 2000 or thereabouts and in recent times as the race for the presidency took on a more serious bent, it became more interesting and dare I say, appropriate.

I am not going to enter into the massive amount of prose that has already been written about the new President elect of the USA. What I will say though, is that I have a few family members whose votes I can guess at and many others whose votes I suspect have been cast for one candidate rather than the other.

Regardless of who voted for whom, we now have a President elect who is historically significant, not only because of his ethnicity, not only because he personally can demonstrate what is still possible in America, but because he like other outstanding Presidents before him, faces the seemingly impossible task of dragging the so called leader of the free world out of the mire and misery of its current fiscal and economic woes, its current embroilment in hot wars around the world and what might turn out to be its current position as the world leader in many things .

Barack Obama is a person who has had to struggle for what he has become and thus is a person who has faced challenges before and beaten the odds and managed to come out on top.

I for one, wish him well and sincerely hope that he can restore the USA to the place that I remember from my childhood. A bright beacon of democracy, a land in which immigrants could find a chance to make something of themselves, a land to which my father sought to immigrate.

Peter is unwell

Some of you who are occasional visitors to this site may be wondering why Peter hasn't posted any news or views since April or hasn't returned any emails or moderated any comments.

He has been very unwell and is now unable to use the computer. Please go to the Oesophageal Cancer site on this blog and you can find out what has been happening to him since April.

Apologies if you have been expecting something from him.

Australians happy with immigration: survey

"A national survey on social cohesion shows the majority of Australians support the current immigration intake."

Survey author Professor Andrew Markus from Monash University says
the findings showed a positive response to Australia's immigration
policy.

This survey is a wonderful thing, as the good professor suggests later in this article from the ABC,

"96 per cent of respondents at the national level, so that's nearly
everybody, has a strong sense of belonging in Australia and that is a
very, very strong finding and very positive finding for this society."

I agree that is a wonderful and welcome piece of news.

What the survey also shows is the gross ignorance and carelessness of governments at both National and State and Territory levels.

I have a problem with a government which must be patting itself on the back for a job well done about immigration, but not thinking through the consequences of welcoming so many new people into the country each year WITHOUT it seems also considering what impact those people will have on existing infrastructure and services.

When you add to this potential misery the former treasurer Mr Costello urging Australians to increase the population with calls for having at least three children, "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country," we have a problem of national proportions that I do NOT see anyone recognising or planning for or taking any action about.

If someone was silly enough to leave the management of the consequences to the "market" then they are not only silly they are positively dangerous!

We realise that we need skilled immigrants to enable our society to cope with the work that is required by our expanded mining activities and elsewhere. We also realise that we need to increase the population by encouraging people who are already resident in Australia to have more children.

I applaud the rationale and I applaud the policies and their administration, but when will someone link these policies and practices to the levels of housing shortage, the high levels of housing unaffordability and the increased levels of mortgage stress?

When will governments realise that the need for childcare centres and additional school places, increases in the means of transport, health etc etc are all consequences of a policy and program of increasing population growth.

The reality is that when you increase the population to meet a shortage of workers for the current economy you also have to think through the consequences of your policies - especially if they work well!

In this case we have a large influx of people and their families into the country and we have also an increase in the size of families already in country.

This mass of people require a whole range to things to enable them to settle and to take up the work opportunities which are current in the economy.

Has anyone actually thought through what these people will need and what impact those needs will have on existing infrastructure and services in the community and even more to the point has anyone planned to meet their needs?

If not, then the racial tolerance that we have in our society at present is not going to last very long.

Get with it Australia - people and their families have needs, since it is up to State and Territory governments to meet those service delivery needs, there is an urgent need for joint policy and planning outcomes to occur to enable State and Territory governments to cope with the influx of new people coming into their bailiwick and the impact that their arrival will have on existing services.

When we hear about the transport system groaning under the weight of new demands, hospitals and health systems being unable to cope and we immediately think of bad management or slack staff or . . .

Does anyone actually consider it's because we have invited people to come and settle in this country and because we have invited parents to increase the population and then NOT thought through the consequences of these decisions

To cope with these massive growth in population each year and also to cope with the changing demographics that extended families and the growth in the aging population in Australia as the "baby boomers reach retirement age, government should be planning to change and increase the service delivery capabilities in education, health, child care, transport, water, sewerage, housing, waste disposal etc etc.

You can;t just open the doors to refugees and immigrants as well as increase the existing population and then expect the place to absorb all these additions and changes somehow without there being an impact on infrastructure and services.

Could someone in government PLEASE stop sleeping on the job?

The 2020 Summit

It takes a big event to get me to come out of my self imposed exile and the 2020 Summit was such an event.

I was fascinated watching the end product of the two days of discussion and regardless of any cynicism that you might read in the media one thing, at least for me, was certain - there were traces and elements of Gough Whitlam's arrival on the front stage of Australian political and government management back in the 1970's.

With those memories well and truly fresh in my mind I have to say that the concept of engaging with the population of a country to have more democratic and less bureaucratic government was one of the notions of that era as well.

Indeed the major transition for most people back in the 1970s was from a very tightly controlled form of government to something less formal and controlled and more reliant on the population as a source of energy and new ideas and enthusiastic (albeit voluntary) workers.

Coming after decades of Liberal and Country Party rule this was honestly meant to be a way forward into the future towards a more inclusive form of society and government.

Viewed in this light one HAS to ask the question - why is it that this experiment failed? Why is it that these great ideas about inclusion and commitment fail?

As an example only let's consider the AAP

The AAP aimed to develop a social welfare system that would place Australia at the forefront of social development (Hayden 1978: 122). It was an innovative plan as it sought to transfer decision- making power from centralised bureaucracies to regional structures, affecting all sectors of welfare from Federal and State to voluntary agencies (Graycar & Davis 1977:22). The AAP was seen as the instrument that would facilitate the planning and coordination of regional issues affecting social development. It gave local communities the chance to develop and control their services (Graycar 1978:357).

To achieve the aims of the AAP, Regional Councils for Social Development were established throughout Australia. These were to be the mechanisms by which a 'redistribution of power was to be effected' (Graycar 1978:357). They were to have responsibility for planning and co-ordinating services in their region. Regional variations in service delivery were to be recognised in the establishing of these Councils (Hayden, 1978:125).

This Prime Minister is actually going further than his predecessor - he wants to be able to create "a Federation that works" and part and parcel of this notion is the idea that somehow barriers between the voters and people of Australia have to be lowered so that government is truly representative or at least really in touch with what their aspirations and expectations are and what their frustrations are as well as any suggestions that they have for resolving the issues that are causing their frustrations.

Gough and Bill Hayden tried this nearly forty years ago and they ended up with some interesting results that frankly, the current government would do well to read up on and consider. After all there is no sense in making the same or similar mistakes - one should learn from history.

As someone who was totally enthusiastic and carried away with the notions of inclusion and involvement of the populace in governance I remain dedicated to the NOTIONS that underpin the principles that are being stated here. In principle I think it is a highly desirable thing to involved people in how they are governed and in the processes of government. How and whether it can be accomplished is I think moot.

So I welcome the challenge.

What I would like to contribute to this discussion are simply a few questions:

1. What economic conditions have to be in place to enable and facilitate change?
   
2. Do people have to have a stable employment and financial situation before they will risk change?
3. Is it true that in our immediate environment to the north of Australia there are millions of people who are at imminent risk of being unable to afford to buy food?
4. Is it true that the farming community in Australia, which has suffered the worst drought in at least living memory, is looking for a way to overcome their current lack of income for the years of the drought for some resulting in a debt situation?
5. Is it true that prior to the drought Australia was a major contributor of the food supply for millions of people in other countries including those to our north and as far away as Africa and Europe?
6. Is it true that with the price of oil increasing daily and to previously unimaginable levels the search for sustainable and renewable forms of energy there is now a focus on the production of vegetable matter that can be converted into bio-fuels?
7. Are the prices for bio fuel producing matter higher than the price for renewable food supplies?
8. Is it true that as countries like China and India emerge from very low levels of income their rate of consumption of animal protein usually rises quite rapidly.
9. Is it true that this change is requiring massive increases in grian production needed to produce meat and dairy products?
   

Once the answers to these questions are in I suspect that what they may tell us is that in the short term at least, some farmers are more likely to produce vast quantities of vegetable matter that is suitable for conversion to bio-fuels than what they were producing previously before the drought? If this suspicion is confirmed then I suspect that while Australian farmers may well find themselves in a position to make a financial killing their actions will have some serious impacts on the global food supply situation to the extent that it will contribute greatly to the ever shrinking availability of affordable food for millions of people across the globe.

I even venture to suggest that there will be a competition between the needs for fuel and food.

Any decision that does not deal with this reality will - at least in my view be one that could have dramatic results in both the short and the longer term.

Food takes at least takes quite a while to grow and then some more time before it can be distributed to where it is needed.

Millions of people who would be affected cannot continue to exist for the time taken to grow and distribute food thus there will in all likely hood be riots and violence as hungry people try to do something drastic to change whatever is leaving them in this state and past experience with this sort of human behaviour elsewhere in the world in the past SHOULD alert us to the problems that they cause and then the realisation of the issues in the past need to be multiplied by the numbers of people who may have now have the resources to buy things that they want but with nothing available on the shelves for them to buy.

It's a complex issue but one that I suspect will need in the VERY near future to be addressed and not through some collaborative and cooperative and consultative mode but rather through harsh almost dictatorial use of power to make people grow the food stuff that is needed and not to take their own needs for profits to influence their decision making - but to impose decision making that puts the world and Australia ahead of personal gain!

My fears may only be mine - but unfortunately there seem to be others who are saying similar things and they are far more qualified in this area than I am:

For example:

Key speaker at the national science briefing Professor Julian Cribb said the security of our food supply is "the global scientific challenge of our time".

The problem was more urgent even than climate change, said Professor Cribb, from the University of Technology in Sydney, because it will get us first . . . through famine and war. "By 2050 we will have to feed the equivalent of 13 billion people at today's levels of nutrition," he said.

"This situation brings with it the very real possibility of regional and global instability. Investment in global food stability is now defence spending and requires proportionate priority."

A "knowledge drought" – the lack of innovation to address farm productivity challenges – had added to the crisis, Professor Cribb said.

He called for a massive increase in public investment in agricultural research and development.

Farmers face challenges posed by drought, climate change, rising oil prices, erosion and nutrient loss combined with more demand for food stocks and biofuels.

Global grain stocks have fallen to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1960, while Australia's sheep flock is at its lowest since the mid-1920s, with about 86 million.

In September last year 2007 the Australian Bureau of Statistics found consumers were paying 11.9 per cent more for basic food items than they were two years before. That is almost double the Consumer Price Index rise of 5.9 per cent during the period.

See also:

UN Warns of food shortage riots

Meat Vegetable Prices to Skyrocket soon

A submission to government about world food shortage

then just type in "food shortage" in any good on line search engine and the number of hits will astound you.

People are thinking about all this NOW elsewhere what worries me is that there is not a similar level of thought in this country about these matters.

Sanitation and the lessons from history

I would like all of you to consider the issue of sanitation in countries that you have visited that do NOT have all of the mod cons of a first world country.

When travelling to countries with these issues did you get the same lectures that I received from concerned relatives and well meaning friends and doctors all concerned for your health?

You know what I mean, advice about what to eat, where to eat it, how to take care when washing your hands, how to take care when using whatever form of ablution and toilet facilities you were likely to encounter?

If you did then you would begin to understand the fascination that I had with the facilities that you see me sitting on in the ruins of Ephesus - a town in what is modern day Turkey - but a town that has been host over the centuries to such visiting notables who settled at Ephesus as the apostle John and Mary, Jesus' mother.

The city's fame today, as a major tourist destination, with one of the most intact of all Roman cities of the time depends on the fame of the Library or the art works or some other feature that captures the imagination of visitors.

Not so for me - what captured my imagination was the incredibly clever use of the location of the city (as it was at the time and the huge engineering works that had actually taken water from nearby sources and used them via aqueducts to channel water to the city and through it to the sea.

The process provided both running water for drinking, washing and sanitary functions like the now open air privy that is pictured.

Just imagine how these lessons from history could have benefited all of those who seem to have forgotten how the Roman Empire - so many centuries ago actually managed to bring the equivalent of modern day plumbing, sanitation and central heating to communities that today do not seem to manage to emulate what they had achieved with all the modern technology at their beck and call.

Sometimes I think it would not hurt human beings to stop and consider the lessons that they could learn from their past before they berate governments for not bringing them a better life today.

"The lucky country?" You have to be kidding!

I think it's obscene that we have a "housing crisis" in this country and that people are throwing up their hands in horror about the fact that Australia is now among the countries with the least affordable housing in the world.

All this while the the government keeps on importing over 130,000 people per annum to meet what it calls a "skills shortage "

Why is this obscene?

Because no one in the media (or at least not many in the media) have either picked up on the conundrum or actually brought it to the attention of someone in power.

It stands to reason that anyone arriving in Australia whether as an assisted migrant, part of a family reunion scheme or a refugee or indeed just a person with a temporary resident permit with a work permit is NOT going to come equipped with a home!

Thus we need at least as many NEW homes each year as it will take to house all those people we are welcoming into our country.

Add to this, all those new homes that are required to meet the needs of those families who took the last government's Treasurer seriously and as far as childbearing was concerned, had "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country."

Hello, all of these people will need different homes too.

Then there are those who are being thrown out of their homes, because they can no longer afford the rent or the mortgage and those who require different homes because of medical situations and . . . .

All in all you have a situation in which the forward planning of state, Federal and local governments is brought into sharp focus.

What they have NOT been doing is obscene!

They have not been planning to accommodate those they have invited into the country much less those who are already here who have been encouraged to increase the size of their families or whose circumstances are changing for a variety of reasons.

Did some dim wit in the Minister's office actually think that the total number of people who would die would somehow balance the total number being born or coming into the country for a mad ZPG type of scenario?

I cannot imagine this for an instant. However if someone did - for goodness' sake get them a new job carting cow manure - its more likely to appeal to their level of common sense!

Did anyone actually think of planning for the needs of all these incoming people and new born children, I mean planning for all of their needs and not just homes?

Infrastructure of all kinds is required to meet these growing demands.

Unless the required pieces of infrastructure are created in a "just in time" project management sense there will be always be one or more crises in housing, health care, roads, transport, traffic, power, water, sewerage and so on.

A lack of adequate holistic planning is slowly driving this country from one meaning of the "lucky country" to another, a darker meaning, where we are lucky to still be here and no thanks to good management!

This is probably the saddest advert I have seen

I always thought that the word "In God we trust" was one of the hallmark comments on US dollar notes. It's a sign of the times that a child from Africa, looking forlorn, is pictured on the back of bus with that slogan.

Mainly because it is highly unlikely that Yankee dollars are available so maybe only God is really left!

Walking the dogs can be a dangerous pursuit

Actually a very clever advertising gimmick for dog food. Looks real!

An interesting "QUIT" campaign

There is obviously one "QUIT" campaign in the world where people who are walking or catching public transport can all get the message.

Does anyone know WHERE this innovative campaign is or was taking place?

I thought I had heard it all!

I guess that with each day that passes and the older you get, the more convinced you can become that you have heard it all before and that anything else you are likely to hear is merely window dressing on an old theme.

I was wrong!

Today I heard something that helped me to understand the state of the economy in the USA and how insidious influences from that experience are spreading to our shores, courtesy of some of the programs of education that are being sold to government here in Australia as "Leadership Programs".

Let's just say that one of my sources has reported that at least one Australian government Department has purchased a two and a half day 'love in' otherwise referred to as a Leadership Program targeting people at the Executive Officer level 1 and 2 in the ranks of the Australian Public Service.

Generally, I do not comment on such matters - they are generally something that I leave to the public service to sort out.

However, what I am hearing about the content, set off my bullshit recognition radar.

Considering how much of this I have heard in a lifetime of devoted service THAT is serious!

If my source is to be believed, then I have to say that not only is the Public Service wasting money on a program that is totally out of touch with the reality on the ground, but more to the point, is teaching helpless and hapless young and aspiring public servants management techniques that are set to duplicate the disastrous situation which is engulfing the USA as we speak.

Apparently there is some notion, borrowed from the former CEO of a large American banking organisation, that people at a managerial level need to spend a pretty large proportion of their time looking after themselves, with even more large percentages of the time left over being spent in managing upwards, coordinating the work of others and networking. Leaving something like 10% of the total time at work for doing things like - what's the word I am looking for - oh yes "WORK."

The reality is that in Australia where we already have a skilled labour shortage and in the Public Service in particular, where the planned departure of the so called "Baby Boomer" generation into retirement is leaving a gaping hole of experience and expertise as well as sheer hard working people, messages like this are or at least should be total anathema to any Secretary or CEO or any of the people actually responsible for generating learning and development programs programs.

The reality for most people working in the Australian Public Service at present is that everything has be there NOW especially with the change in government that has seen Kevin 07 being swept into power.

There is an urgent need to prepare briefing papers, research and write policy documentation research and write responses to questions and just the sheer drudgery of working in teams of people whose numbers are continually lower than establishment, who are so new that they know nothing, who continually search for financial incentives being offered by jobs in other departments and who have a work ethic that is substantially different from those in previous generations.

The concept of having equal pay for equal work across the public service has been dealt a death blow by the previous government and now people at the same level, doing virtually the same kind of jobs with the same sort of responsibilities and duties are being offered very different levels of remuneration in different departments. One of the things that this means is that in many instances, it takes some time to recruit someone and train them in what is expected of them in a given department and during this period the work of the team or the section or the Branch or indeed the Division continues. It's unrealistic to expect new starters who are learning about their duties and responsibilities and learning about the policies and practices of the Department that they have joined will be fully functional for at least 3-6 months. Given that recruitment processes can also take something like 3 months - this means that with all the best intentions in the world it is unlikely that senior managers will actually have a full complement of staff on deck so that they CAN do just their managerial jobs of managing their staff.

For most, the reality is that they have to pick up the slack during this period to enable their staff to acquire the level of competence that is required or assign sensitive work to people who are not ready for it and then suffer the consequences of having to re-do the work to meet basic organisational standards. What then happens is one of the tragedies of this new work environment. Just when you have a staff member fully trained and functional he or she finds a more lucrative position in another location and the merry go round starts again.

Why are people looking for better remuneration? Well it's simple really, as the cost of living and interest rates goes up so does their need to earn more money to maintain their life style. Given that the current situation in the APS actually encourages this movement it's clear that no amount of razor gang activity or "leadership courses" that seem to exhort senior manager to fail in their responsibilities to get the work done and produce some measurable work outcomes from their teams is not helping.

What would help?

If I heard correctly, Kevin Rudd the new PM used to believe in having a public service that was hard working, capable of providing fearless and frank advice and being paid the same levels of remuneration for people working at the same levels within the Service.

Australians are already world leaders in working hard. With the world economy heading towards the toilet - this is NOT the time for some management "gurus" to spread the message that was
suitable for some senior Banking honcho around 20 years ago!

Bring back some of the honesty in government that seems to have lapsed over the last 11 or so years under a previous government, bring back equal pay for equal work by suggesting to the people in the Public Service that as from a certain date all Public Service jobs would be remunerated at the SAME level for each classification regardless of which department the job is situated in.

Remove all of the contracts that have made the public service seem to work like the private enterprise models that now seems to be proving through their failure elsewhere in the world that it was always a bankrupt system.

Let's by all means have programs to prevent stress and overwork in the workplace, but at the same time let's also remember that there are other issues out there that do not lend themselves to a public service that CAN be independent and provide fearless and frank advice much less just hard and honest work outcomes that can be relied upon by the Minister in charge as well as the public that these people serve!

A new day is dawning

What an interesting day it's going to be. The Poms are changing their immigration system. The BBC reports that they are implementing stage 1 of their four stage plan for immigration at present those HIGH skilled workers already inside the country who want to extend their stay can now do so using a new points based system.

I hope that by what they are doing they are not dooming the existence of the very British institutions that they have protected for all these years!

"By the end of 2008, every graduate with good English, on £40,000 or the local equivalent, will potentially have enough points to seek work in the UK.

But low skilled workers from outside the EU will be barred for the foreseeable future. The government believes it can fill all manual work vacancies from EU countries which, with the exception of Romania and Bulgaria, face no restrictions on working in the UK.

That is all very interesting news!

Leap day - or a workers lament

February 29th is an interesting day.

In reality it only comes around once every four years and it is a demonstration how people are generally squeezed out of at least ten minutes of their lives each year and once every four years they are slugged with an extra day of work!

Who can we thank for all this extra work load? Who can we thank for depriving us of 10 minutes of salary every year and then to top that off an additional day of work at no extra charge!

Well big Julie started it all off (yeah you know the one, Julius Caesar the one who finally got his in the rotunda, the guy whose travel journals some of us had to translate from his original Latin into something meaningful like English, the guy who kept putting all his verbs at the end of an extremely long sentence!)

Big Julie had the bright idea of making a year 365.25 days as far back as 468 BC and you really have to remember the BC because it means BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA and not alas, before the Caesars.

By 1267, the monk, Roger Bacon, made an astonishing observation.

He was smart enough to notice that the calendar had slipped some nine days in 13 centuries and that people were celebrating Easter on the wrong day.

Now of course you begin to understand the reason I asked you to focus on the BC or Before the Christian Era.

Had there been no "Christian Era" we would not have had Bacon and his observations and we would all have had big Julie's calendar to this day!

Alas, being a monk Bacon appears to have had a lot of time on his hands (so to speak) and wanted to adjust big Julie's calendar.

It didn't really matter to him, that he had no idea WHEN the real final days of Christ (the days leading to Easter) took place, nor did it seem to matter that the pagan celebration of of the Northern Hemisphere Spring, with all the fertility symbols that rabbits and eggs represent were not a really Christian things. Both he and Big Julie knew and used MATHEMATICS - you know the things that are used by the people we really loved at school, especially when they tried to explain long division and other arcane things like 'cos' and the meaning of 'pi' and of course all those other 'wise men' who want to ensure that the working classes get their just deserts, simply because it's mathematically correct!

Thank goodness no one took notice of his finding until 1582.

This time the person who took note was a real force in the world. Pope Gregory XIII (that's the 13th for all of you who can't read Latin numbers - a number traditionally associated with bad luck) adjusted the calendar to the one we use today.

A calendar moreover that has some interesting quirks of its own. Did you know for example that every fourth year is a leap year UNLESS it it divisible by 100 and not 400?

This form of calculation still makes the year a little under 26 seconds too long, but what the hey, it's as close as we are going to get without having to adjust every watch, clock and digital time piece around the world. (Mind you there is a great marketing opportunity there somewhere for someone who is brave enough to face the consequences.

So now we, the working poor, not only give up ten minutes a year for four years, but once every four years we are slugged with an extra day of work as well!

It's darned unfair if you ask me - and all because of mathematicians and the rich and powerful.

What's in the News - a Reality Check

"Sixteen Palestinians - the four boys, three adult civilians and nine
militants - were killed in missile strikes on Thursday, the medical
workers said.

The father of two of the youths wept in a Gaza hospital, unable to speak.

Medical workers said the boys were playing soccer when an Israeli missile struck.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the missile targeted militants who had fired rockets at southern Israel."

This is the story I read from the ABC News here in Australia.

The question now is what to believe from this simple set of statements?

I suspect that those who are hostile to Israel and its actions will focus on the statement from the medical workers.

The words "the boys were playing soccer when an Israeli missile struck" will of course convey the message that the Israelis are brutal, immoral, non caring people who attack and kill innocent children just being children, out innocently playing soccer.

Those whose point of view is a little more aligned to the Israeli cause might suggest that targeting militants who had fired rockets at Southern Israel is not incompatible with the story of the medics.

Think about it from a time frame perspective:

1. rockets are fired and take some time to hit their targets
2. Israeli authorities take time to check the sites where the rockets have landed take more time to see if their systems can trace where these rockets had come from and then take more time to organise a missile strike in response.

What I am getting at is that quite a deal of time is likely to have passed before the Israelis respond to the rocket attacks.

If Shakespeare was right and people undertake multiple roles and wear 'manifold garb' in life then it's possible for young people to be firing rockets at one time frame and playing soccer at another time.

If you can understand and believe that many of the militants in Gaza (as elsewhere) are youths (indeed many soldiers in all wars, insurrections, rebellions, terrorist actions are young people)

If you can understand that often in Gaza it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish between the multiple roles that people have to play in life.

Then, here is no doubt that at some point young people will play a sport or play the role of a child or a son. This does NOT prevent or preclude them from playing another role at another point in time including that of a militant who sets up and fires rockets into Israel.

One the one hand it's possible that the Israelis struck at militants and mistakenly killed some innocent children who were doing nothing more heinous than playing soccer.

On the other hand it's also possible that these youths who are described as children were in reality militants.

There is no doubt that another part of the news which refers to the death of a six month old child when a missile hit a militants house while he was there with members of his family is regrettable, but the Israelis will target militant commanders whenever they can find out where they are. If these militant commanders put their families at risk, that's just too bad.

Considering the response of one Hamas leader who suggested that their women will continue to bear children whose fathers will mourn them as martyrs when they are killed - suggests that perhaps at least some of the propaganda that hopes to horrify the world, with stories of nasty Israelis killing innocent civilian children in Gaza needs to be taken with several grains of disbelief.

Consumer Intelligence You can never have too much

It's interesting what you come across in your mail box. Here was a leaflet from CHOICE magazine

I thought great - here is a reliable source of information that is available to health consumers anywhere really since they are on the web so why not take advantage of it.

I have used the graphic which the proudly displayed in the pamphlet that was sent to my home so please allow me to acknowledge where it comes from. Personally I think it's a great graphic as it shows in great detail some of the elements that consumers need to be aware of:

1. Being cluey
2. Being value seeking
3. Having knowledge
4. Being scam aware and
   
5. Being discerning

It's not often that I feature something I can recommend on these pages, but I will this time.

They are great value - check them out!

Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think.

Apparently there is a book which is due for publication next month (not that far away really) entitled "Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think."

It's amazing what responses I have had when "discussing" the book - well really just the title and what little we know about it from the advertising on the BBC

Apparently, some 50,000 people who are of the Muslim faith in some 35 countries were surveyed by the Gallop organisation, on the instructions of its chairman Mr Jim Clifton way back in 2001, after President Bush asked "Why do they hate us?"

On the basis of the data obtained, an extrapolation has been made which claims to be able to, in effect, speak for Islam or at least adequately represent the points of view of some 1 billion of the faithful.

If you think this is a stretch you may be right - after all if you do your sums and see what 50,000 people mean statistically from a population of 1 billion and then ask how many were polled in each of the 35 countries and then make some sense of the relationships between the numbers polled and the total population in each of the countries then you will have sufficient data to begin to evaluate whether the poll and the book are useful or not.

Until then - all we have is the propaganda, by those who want to sell the book or more appropriately want us to buy it.

At least we can explore some of the more interesting 'leaks' that have been revealed about the contents of this book, so that we can determine whether it's worth spending money to find out more.

Apparently:

1. Those polled also said the most important thing the West could do to improve relations with Muslim societies was to change its negative views towards Muslims and respect Islam
2. the vast majority want Western democracy and freedoms, but do not want them to be imposed
3. many of the 7% classing themselves as "radical" - in fact admire the West for its democracy and freedoms. However, they do not want such things imposed on them.
4. most wanted the West to focus on changing its negative view of Muslims and Islam
5. most Muslims want guarantees of freedom of speech

As is usual with such leaks, any reader who is familiar with statistical analysis techniques would want to see the questions and actually ask how and where they were administered and how the choice of those surveyed was arrived at and loads of other questions about methodology and the population surveyed.

I guess that at present all we have are the leaks and the views or should I say opinions of certain people mentioned in the article who appear to have been given access to the poll and its results.

The rest of us I am afraid will have to buy the book to be able to read all about the survey and then hopefully have sufficient information to enable us to reach some conclusions about the validity of both the survey and the way it was administered and also the analysis of the results and the conclusions that have been derived from it.

One thing that has been revealed though, I think is or at should be taken at face value and actually listened to by all. This is in the first item listed in the leaks I have gleaned from the publicity:- "Those polled also said the most important thing the West could do to improve relations with Muslim societies was to change its negative views towards Muslims and respect Islam."

I really have no problem with this conclusion, indeed I support it 100%, with one teensy weensy proviso and that is that those who want us (ie non Muslims) to change, need to understand that positive attitudes and mutual respect are what is required on their part as well and not a one way street.

If we could look forward to all the relevant leaders standing up and pledging mutual respect and positive attitudes and agreeing that while there are different religious beliefs with different requirements about and for behaviour, there is also to be tolerance of others and their views and acceptance that those others can practice their views in peace.

When we can have that form of tolerance and mutual understanding and respect, then we can finally have a world community that wants to and is capable of working collectively towards securing all of humanity from the colossal dangers that it faces from environmental changes brought about by the residue of our existence on the planet, and by the fact that as time passes and there are more and more human beings on the planet there needs to be some careful management of the finite resources we have on above and in this planet so that we can all continue to exist on its surface in a state of relative well being.

To my mind THAT should be the goal of all - but when I say that I realise that I merely stating the thoughts I had in a dream and that reality is unlikely to produce anything like this view while human beings do not realise that we are all living in a closed and finite environment. Further that unless we start to respect and manage our environment, some of us and more likely many of our children and grandchildren and their descendants will have to 'carry the can' for our short sightedness now!

Shades of the American Wild Wild West

If you grew up as I did, watching American cowboy movies at the cinema - in black and white, then you knew, without any fear of contradiction, that the genre identified the good guys from the baddies simply by their choice of head wear.

The good guys always wore white hats and the bad guys always wore black hats.

If you have a chance, review the footage you have been seeing on your TV sets over the last few years, set in some of the countries within which there are now terrorist groups or alleged terrorist organisations that have come under fire from during the American led "war on terror."

It's in the light of this interesting take on American history that I read the most recent news item concerning Barack Obama. There he is pictured while on a trip to Kenya the country where his father was born, wearing a white turban.

This appears to be considered by all and sundry as a low down dirty trick and is considered offensive by many in the Obama camp.

Don't know about anyone else - if it were me, I would relish the fact that my attempted detractors had managed to get the message so wrong! After all Obama is wearing a WHITE hat!

Now if someone comes and publishes a picture with Hillary Clinton wearing a black hat or a black turban, I will simply roll over in great guffaws of laughter at the level of politicking that is now happening in the USA.

There is already some evidence that this is likely to happen - perhaps in Texas. After all, check out this offering from You Decide 2008

Then of course I could be wrong and all the 'rules' that the USA seems to have set in the past may be being overturned in the environment of the present;

For example:
Black Hat and White hat

The 'Good' Samaritan

It was hard to escape hearing Bible stories when people were growing up in Australia in the 1950's. Try as you might to duck classes in which someone tried to assist you with your religious development there were numerous occasions when it was simply more politic to stay at your desk and simply simulate an intense meditative state.

This would allow the words of whoever happened to be providing the address to wash over you undetected. In reality you reached a dream state in which you could really be thinking about when you were going down to the beach or . . . well anything really as long as it had nothing to do with the subject at hand!

It was thus with some trepidation that I read a news story this morning from the ABC which referred to a new form of suicide bomber in Iraq. We have had apocryphal stories about terrorists using young women with Downs syndrome as part of their horrific activities but this is the first time I have read about using someone in a wheel chair as the bomber.

What got my attention was the fact that all this took place in the city of Samarr which if my childhood memories are correct has something to do with the fabled 'Good Samaritan' of biblical fame.

A quiz for the 21st Century

"When is a militant a civilian?" - Whenever a terrorist organisation says so and points the finger at a government organisation that has just violently killed someone.

"When is a civilian a militant?" Whenever a government, under threat from terrorists kills someone in the territory that houses terrorists.

What's the real truth? - There is often no distinction between civilians and militants!

It's quite 'normal' these days to find people who seem to live their lives as ordinary civilians, minding their own business, raising a family, going to work, doing the shopping, visiting their relatives who also double as terrorists hell bent on, building bombs, learning, trying or actually succeeding in destroying someone else's life - virtually "in their spare time".

The world is a dangerous place these days and it seems that anyone with a grudge against anyone else has or at least claims to have, the 'right' to do something about it.

Such views are not restricted to the lunatic fringe in interesting regions of the world like the middle east!

In Texas - as I understand it, the concept enshrined in the old saying, "a man's home is his castle," has been given effect in legislation.

Now, anyone can apparently 'defend' his home against intruders to the point of using 'deadly force'.

Indeed a man is on trial in that state for trying to extend this principle to his neighbour's house,

After ringing 911, the emergency services, to report a burglary in his neighbour's home and being told to do nothing and wait for the police, this man took his shotgun and after a brief warning or challenge with something like:- "move and you're dead" fired and killed two people.

It seems both were illegal immigrants AND apparently undertaking a burglary in the home of a neighbour.

Is this man a civilian or a militant? Is he a terrorist or just a good neighbour?

Some interesting questions for a nation which is currently engaged in a "War on Terror".

Don't know about you - but I for one would NOT like to live in the new "wild wild west" that seems to be Texas.

Then again, I am not sure I want to live in Sderot or Gaza or Iraq or northern Turkey - Aw hell is there anywhere that it's safe any more?

The Moral Imperative - again!

Ralph Nader has announced plans to run again for the US presidency. The anti-establishment consumer advocate made the announcement in a televised interview on Sunday.

He said most Americans were disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties - who were not discussing the urgent issues facing American voters

People, he said, felt "locked out, shut out, marginalised and disrespected".

He called Washington DC "corporate-occupied territory" that turns the government against the interest of its own people.

Referring to the three main contenders in the race so far, he questioned: "Do they have the moral courage, do they have the fortitude to stand up to corporate powers and get things done for the American people?"

"We have to shift the power from the few to the many."

Coincidentally, a site that is normally outside my range of browsing pleasure popped up in response to a query. It was "Ask Moses.com" at http://www.askmoses.com

On this site I found that Rabbi Naftali Silberberg has written:

"Our sages teach us that when G-d created Man, he was concerned that the angels would be jealous, for Man is the only creation like them who understands right from wrong. So G-d consulted with the angels before creating Man and said, "Let us make Man."

The lesson from this is that one should always seek advice, even from those who are inferior to you."

Apparently, even when you are the Almighty and can create and/or destroy the universe and all things in it, you stop, pause, think of all those lesser, inferior creatures around you, and seek their advice – before you get on and do what you wanted to do in the first place.

All this emphasised with the moral imperative "should."

The word 'should' is OK from the mouth of the Almighty - after all who has a greater claim to the moral imperative.

When uttered by lesser beings though, it could be a worry!

So here is a tip for all Americans:

Be careful who you vote for in your next election.

You can know with considerable certainty that you will NOT have the Almighty in power, regardless of who you vote for.

At least make sure that the person you elect consults with the lesser beings around them, preferably those whose lives and well being are likely to be put at risk by the decisions that they make.

The chances are that if you choose wisely then perhaps they will tend to exercise restraint when they are tempted to use the 'moral imperative.'

Just remember that Nader is a two time loser - he tried and failed in 2000 and again in 2004.

2% of Americans voted for him last time and had his votes gone elsewhere, especially in crucial states like Florida we may not have had to put up with "Dubya" for the last few years.

Help the world or missile defence test

My readers will know that among others, I have also been suspicious that the stated intent of the USA in shooting a missile at an errant spy satellite which (according to the statements from the USA) has been threatening parts of the world with possible toxic gasses being released from it's fuel tanks if it survived intact a plunge back to earth after something obviously went out of control on the spacecraft.

Bill Gates the US Defence Secretary has now added fuel to this fire with the latest announcement as reported by BBC News, to wit:

The US defence secretary has said that the shooting down of a disabled spy satellite with a missile shows the country's missile defence system works.

Robert Gates said the operation "speaks for itself", adding the US was prepared to share some technology with China.

The comments came after China said the missile strike could harm security in outer space.

The US is making much of it's very public statements about this whole event and stipulating that it was in the best interests of the world's population to "take the shot" so to speak. It is now even offering to share some of the technology with China.

I don't know what game is being played here but I have a feeling that the Russians who have been suspicious of this whole episode since its inception are not likely to be amused.

Just think of the recent sequence of events and make up your own mind.

Russia accuses US and it's allies of trying to surround it with Missile Defence Shield equipment in Poland and in the Czech republic, Russia in response withdraws from certain treaties that it previously had entered into stating that it feared for its security.

US allies equipped with Aegis cruisers and destroyers have been testing weapons systems in Japan and elsewhere.

Tensions are high in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world as issues about oil supplies., global warming, the economic impacts of climate change and more domestic issues confront the world with changes on a scale that are likely to require drastic changes in life style for most of the developed world countries.

Ethnic tensions closer to home in the Balkans and the reluctance of countries in Europe and elsewhere, staunch allies of the US to continue to support US efforts which are ostensibly aimed at "the war on terror" in Iraq and in Afghanistan are all placing the world community at risk.

Increasing the tensions are any acts which can 'demonstrate' that one country is capable of shielding itself from missiles aimed against it buy another nation as this sort of capacity would give that nation an advantage over others.

Shooting down satellites, a major feat of arms and technology is not likely to reduce tensions.

So when Bill Gates suggests that the missile defence test has taken place and that the world is a safer place as a result it's time to question the roles and functions that the US military is undertaking around the world and ask a deeper question which is - in whose interests is it to continue to support some of the policies which the current lame duck President has fostered around the world.

Rabbit proof fences are not enough!

Anywhere in the world anyone inciting racial hatred should be an anathema for people especially those who claim to have religious convictions.

Inciting such hatred in children, with a view of assisting one or more of them to take the road to 'martyrdom' (read terrorism) , at least in the view of this author, is totally unspeakable and unforgivable!

People who treat the younger generation in this way do not have any legitimate claims to being "freedom fighters" or people protecting the religious teachings of Islam, they are simply immoral criminals.

Reuters reports that:

"A man-sized talking rabbit appeared on television in Gaza on Friday to denounce Danish newspapers over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that offended Muslims.

The latest in a line of cartoon-inspired characters that take the message of the Hamas Islamist movement to Palestinian children, the actor in the Bugs Bunny-style outfit also railed against "Zionist filth" and Israel's control of Jerusalem.

The Friday show "Tomorrow's Pioneers" on Hamas's al-Aqsa channel has become a weekend fixture for pre-teens since shortly before the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip last year.

A Mickey Mouse-type creation provoked outcry in Israel and was condemned elsewhere as inciting hatred among the young. The mouse, eventually shown being beaten to death by an Israeli, was followed by a talking bee and, now, by Assud the rabbit.

"I want the West to hear this. I want the Danes who offended the great Prophet to hear it," the rabbit said, gesturing to viewers after the show's co-presenter, a girl of about 12 named Sarra, condemned Danish newspapers for reprinting the cartoons after police accused several men of plotting to kill the artist.

"Where are you Muslims? Where are you Arabs?" said Sarra, wearing a headscarf and speaking with precocious eloquence.

"We are all a sacrifice for the Prophet. The soldiers of Tomorrow's Pioneers will redeem the Prophet with all they have."

It's obvious that "rabbit proof fences" are not enough.

The entire civilized world should rail against this form of propaganda and against those who not only allow, but actively promote it.

If Palestinians are seeking to convince the world that they should be welcomed into the civilized world then this is surely NOT the way to do it!

New government, new rules, lower productivity or fiscal lunacy.

In recent times we have been hearing about one thing in Australia CHANGE - a theme that seems to also predominate in the US Election scene.

At present in Australia there is a nationwide shortage of skilled workers in a variety of sectors and of course there is an outbreak of the obesity epidemic that seems to have found its way here, most likely from the USA, via their many variations on the "fast food" franchises and lifestyle as well as their current obsession with reality TV that features a number of shows dealing with unbelievably fat people who are labelled (appropriately as it happens) as the "Biggest Loser"(s).

In Parliament, the current Opposition has been hammering the new government about it's plans to ensure that there are policies and practices in place to ensure that there is not a rise in inflation and of course a wages break out.

The new government, still in it's "honeymoon" period, has been responding with exactly what you would expect, namely, that it inherited the current horrific fiscal situation from the previous government and the five rounds of interest rises during its term in office, its complete lack of planned investment in everything from infrastructure to education and of course its horrific industrial legislation.

All of which the current government is set to change, of course.

Whether for the better or worse still remains to be seen.

The new Rudd government has pinned its hopes on wages restraint in part, by setting an example, announcing a freeze on wage rises for politicians.

They also exhorted CEOs around the country to follow their example. To which, in more diplomatic language of course, the CEOs are likely to respond "fat chance!"

Another message from government has been that it will do its best to increase productivity and so off-set any possible wage increases that are likely to be sought by unions for their members.

Unfortunately for the government one group of people closely associated with the work of government, Australia Post, or the people who deliver the mail, has announced that it is looking for fatter "posties."

This of course will deal with the labour shortage and the reality that there are more obese people in the country.

It may however have some unintended and possibly far reaching consequences.

A weight limit of 90 kgs (198 pounds) has been in place for "posties" for some time because the 110cc motorcycles which are used to deliver the mail to individual letter boxes were thought to have a safe working limit of 130kg (286 pounds) -- that's 40kg (88 pounds) for letters and up to 90 kgs for mail men and women fully clothed.

Apparently, after talks with motorcycle manufacturer Honda, it was agreed the bikes could safely carry a "postie" weighing 105 kgs (231 pounds)

Of course this will mean a lowering of productivity, because each "postie" will only be able to carry 25 kgs of mail if he or she is at the higher weight limit, or worse, it will mean more work for those with lower weight issues - surely an unfair workplace practice.

The union representing mail men and women said the 90 kg limit had caused recruitment headaches for Australia Post, but the company denied it had staffing problems.

"Testing found a rise in rider weight up to a maximum of 105 kgs would not have any significant effect on the stability, handling or safety of their 110 cc motorcycle," an Australia Post spokesman told the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.

"By raising it from 90 to 105 kilograms means there will be other people that can now apply," he said.

You, dear reader, being smarter than our politicians, will already be starting to appreciate the number of unfortunate outcomes may arise from this news:

1. existing "posties" are likely to increase their consumption of fast foods, as they are no longer in fear of losing their jobs;
2. as they increase their weight, their productivity will decline as will their health;
3. while there will be no "wages break out" per se, the costs of delivering mail will increase substantially, as more obese mail persons are employed;
4. this will mean an increase in the rate of postage (that will be blamed on the rising cost of fuel etc so as to protect the jobs and bonuses of the people who made this decision in the first place);
5. it may of course also mean an increase in the number of people who make demands on an already stretched health services area;
   
6. this of course would increase the cost of living for "working families";
7. increase the odds of inflation;
8. increase the chances of the Reserve Bank raising interest rates yet again;
9. etcetera

Indeed the only good thing to emerge from all of this is that investors, aka "fat cats," who have been on a fiscal diet recently, losing money in the USA and elsewhere in the world thanks to some unwise notions about lending money to people who can't pay it back - with interest of course, will get on their bikes (no doubt motorized and possibly from Honda) and push their money into Australia where it can earn a decent rate of return.

This, in combination with the purchasing power of the Aussie dollar is likely to create the necessary climate where investment opportunities for people living off shore will increase while raising the cost of living for those who live here.

I don't know about you - but I am making preparations for a worst case scenario! Invest locally and migrate for the duration to the south of France where they don't need 'le fast food' as they have an abundance of healthy, nutritious and well cooked food.

With winter coming on in Canberra, it sounds like a plan to me!

"Don't let me be misunderstood!"

What a hoot!

Gen William Ward said Africom's intent had been misunderstood

The BBC reports that:

The US military has decided to keep the headquarters of its new Africa Command in Germany, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it.

Most African countries have been wary of plans to base the command, Africom, on the continent.

Africom's commander, Gen William Ward, said there were no plans to create large US garrisons on the continent.

The military command was created last year to unite responsibilities shared by three other US regional commands.

No one in Africa wants to host the US Military, except for Liberia the country that was colonized by freed African American slaves in 1822 who, with the support of the United States founded the country in 1847.

What a surprise!

There has been concern that Africom is really an attempt to protect US oil and mineral interests in Africa, amid growing competition for resources from Asian economies, says the BBC's Alex Last in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent ads.

Gen Ward said Africom was not about militarisation but consolidating existing operations under one single command, while helping Africans with military training and supporting peacekeeping and aid operations.

Does anyone out there actually believe this? Apparently not locally!

Now that the US is virtually persona non grata in it's own previous 'sphere of influence' namely Latin America, it's apparently looking further afield.

People are looking at Americans helping with their military training and support for peacekeeping and they immediately think about Korea, Vietnam, and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq, where there is now a chorus of a familiar refrain that sounds something like:

"Yankee Go Home!"

The Africans are chanting a different tune. This may refer to the "Yankee dollar", but without strings attached.