tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19715837721640684442024-03-13T15:43:25.990-07:00La VeritàLeonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-88375097862865057772017-09-02T00:09:00.000-07:002017-09-02T00:56:42.909-07:00Change the day, but keep the date<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Sunday, September
3, is Australia’s Independence Day. This is not a day that is celebrated in
this country. The truth is, very few would be aware that September 3 marks the
anniversary of the day that Australia first cut the cord to the Mother Country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In all the
current emotional debate around the significance of Australia’s national day it
is important to start with the facts. The same goes for all the controversy
around Section 44 of the Constitution and MPs’ allegiances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The main contentious
passage in Section 44 reads:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“<i>Any person who is under any acknowledgement
of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a
citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a
foreign power … shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator
or a member of the House of Representatives</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The High Court
will determine the legalities of MPs’ citizenship status today. However, for
the public debate it is important to know that when this was written there were
no Australian citizens. There certainly were Australian characters, and the
term “citizen”, was used essentially to distinguish between those who lived
here and those who were just visiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">However, Australia’s
permanent residents were all British subjects. Therefore when the Constitution
referred to “a foreign power”, it meant foreign to the British Empire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Five years after
Section 44 was written, while ruling on a case between the Attorney-General and
Ah Sheung, the High Court stated: “We are not disposed to give any countenance
to the novel doctrine that there is an Australian nationality as distinguished from
a British nationality.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5mXUDN_ygD5lu7S27SJdKvuw6zI61Bo8uAumOpE-agWq6IRaMSkV4y4xNgc9dbqyvlKtLZskptCdix17chTCQvkqyEu2WohygptQPyJZkN94eQO-zehJIIk5CoftEorhfpquE2g86Ty9/s1600/JohnCurtin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="870" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs5mXUDN_ygD5lu7S27SJdKvuw6zI61Bo8uAumOpE-agWq6IRaMSkV4y4xNgc9dbqyvlKtLZskptCdix17chTCQvkqyEu2WohygptQPyJZkN94eQO-zehJIIk5CoftEorhfpquE2g86Ty9/s320/JohnCurtin.jpg" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Curtin, The first Prime Minister of an independent Australia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The ANZACs,
although made up of troops from Australia and New Zealand, were officially
British soldiers under Imperial command.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A quick skim
through the newspapers and Hansard in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century certainly
gives the impression that, although Australia was strongly parochial, it was also
proudly British.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When the United
Kingdom opened the door to independence for its dominions with the Statute of
Westminster in 1931, there was no vocal appetite to take up the offer Down
Under.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Australia’s
independence was forged in the furnace of World War II.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It was 75 years
ago, as the war raged in Europe, Africa and the Pacific – with the Japanese
bombing Darwin and sending submarines into Sydney Harbour – that the Curtain
Government became concerned it did not have any authority over Australian
troops on board British ships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgckGq_VpF1kjkSSY-VOlaps1O0uxs86RUxUJHzwaSOvBkT4ThocW_7OqlwyGiXUkRBtA5GdxApyIa_ir4uqyvjqie1Pgbnze-04HDMeKFWGeR84nEr0vLUVHW7GeVgD1OxUvdcTja_hI9f/s1600/Benchifley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="477" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgckGq_VpF1kjkSSY-VOlaps1O0uxs86RUxUJHzwaSOvBkT4ThocW_7OqlwyGiXUkRBtA5GdxApyIa_ir4uqyvjqie1Pgbnze-04HDMeKFWGeR84nEr0vLUVHW7GeVgD1OxUvdcTja_hI9f/s320/Benchifley.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben Chifley was the first Prime Minister to hold Australian citizenship, although he remained a British national.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This is when it
decided it would be a good idea to action sections of the <a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/exhibitions/federation-gallery/statute-westminster-adoption.aspx" target="_blank">Statute ofWestminster,</a> declaring Australia’s independence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“We are an
Australian Government responsible primarily to the people of Australia,” said
the then Foreign Minister Doc Evatt. “We need this legislation in order to
remove burdensome restrictions and unsatisfactory delays which still clog the rights
of Australians to control their own domestic affairs.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Despite
reservations of the conservative Opposition, the Statute of Westminster
Adoption Act was passed on October 9, 1942, but its affect was back dated to
the “Commencement of War between His Majesty the King and Germany”, September
3, 1939.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So the
Commonwealth of Australia entered the war as a British dominion and came out as
an independent nation, albeit under the Crown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">However, the
idea of Australian nationality remained a “novel doctrine”. Australian
residents were all still British subjects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The post-war
immigration boom was rapidly changing the nature of Australia down the pathway toward
the multicultural society we have today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“There is
amongst Australians a growing sense of our Australian national identity — reflecting
the growth in our population and in our stature amongst the nations of the world,”
said Australia’s first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, in 1948. “The
Government accordingly considers it to be desirable, progressively and by
whatever means are reasonably possible, to give primacy to the expression
'Australian citizen'.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">With that he
introduced the Nationality and Citizenship Bill, for its second reading in the
House of Representatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“The introduction
of this Bill is proof that Australia has really grown up,” said the Member for
Wilmott, Gil Duthie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Again the Bill struck
opposition from the conservatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"We must
have a care that in creating the new, we do not destroy the old, and that in
this new-found freedom we do not impetuously impair our allegiance to the
Mother Country,"</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">said
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Eric Harrison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“We are
drifting further and further apart in outlook from the Mother Country, and it
appears to me that we are veering more and more towards a policy of
isolationism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Nationality
and Citizenship Act was passed in 1948, to take effect from <a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs187.aspx" target="_blank">January 26, 1949.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But still,
Australian citizens remained primarily British subjects and their nationality
was officially British until the Gorton Government in 1969 amended the Nationality
and Citizenship Act to give primacy to Australian citizenship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEzyQUqHx9VokwIHQ8b93k0FQysYnh62iAfR_NgZHQqENMHd9ilEOVHBkyj3JcHcn3R9lg6K6KvUSLAt4N-uQIE3bn2EyAgSOSYEb3IOCLpifdnb9LSpyyleghOk_JS0hrWNG8HK0kZWT/s1600/John+and+Bettina+Gorton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1329" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEzyQUqHx9VokwIHQ8b93k0FQysYnh62iAfR_NgZHQqENMHd9ilEOVHBkyj3JcHcn3R9lg6K6KvUSLAt4N-uQIE3bn2EyAgSOSYEb3IOCLpifdnb9LSpyyleghOk_JS0hrWNG8HK0kZWT/s320/John+and+Bettina+Gorton.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Gorton with his wife, Bettina. He was the first Prime Minister to hold Australian Nationality.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It was the
Hawke Government in 1984 that finally did away with Australian’s dual
citizenship status. From then on they were no longer British subjects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There is much
debate right now about Australia Day, January 26. Both major parties officially
support the date, but you don’t have to be clairvoyant to notice it is with
diminished enthusiasm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Nobody is
pushing for Independence Day, September 3. Perhaps the way forward is to stop
focusing on the raising of the Union Jack on January 26, 1788, claiming the
British colony of New South Wales.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Instead we
should celebrate the more inclusive January 26, 1949, when the newly
independent nation of Australian granted citizenship to its diverse population.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">For Australia
Day, we can change the day, but keep the date.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-86456792835438512152017-08-19T04:53:00.000-07:002017-08-19T04:53:52.037-07:00Bob Menzies was a British citizen<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While he was Prime Minister of Australia, Robert
Menzies did not have Australian citizenship. His nationality was officially
British.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He retained his British citizenship all his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In fact every Prime Minister and MP up until the Hawke
Government in 1984 were British citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Why was this not a problem under Section 44 of the
Constitution? I guess that’s a question for the High Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fact is the term <a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/fact-sheets/fs187.aspx" target="_blank">“citizen” of Australia </a>was just
an administrative concept to distinguish between those who lived here and those
who were just visiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Up until World War II – when Prime Minister John
Curtin shunned Britain and legislated
<a href="http://lmcdonnell.blogspot.com.au/2017/08/australias-independence-day.html" target="_blank">Australia’s independence </a>– Australia was a British colony and its citizens were
all officially British nationals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So when Section 44 of the Constitution refers to a
“foreign power” it was referring to nationalities other than British.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So why is it a problem that National Party Deputy
Leader Fiona Nash or Senator Nick Xenophon are entitled to British
Citizenship? I guess that’s a question
for the High Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Australian nationality was not formally introduced
until 1969 when the Government of John Gorton passed an amendment to the
Nationality and Citizenship Act (1948).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But even after that, Australians continued to be
British subjects until the Hawke Government repealed British citizenship for
Australians as part of the Australian Citizenship Amendment Act 1984.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So does that mean Bob Hawke or John Curtin are
responsible for all the problems of dual citizen MPs we are facing right now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">I guess that’s a
question for the High Court. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwcnW3nr2gnQ_OxOhguNh2einAyHTKb0v3n3iQIkW34LpZvncUImKRo7RqVveMyN5rKq-BbFfSVHRoeofBSOL0u5eX-YUEzhF8aCczenqlgCHWWGWLo14djYsi7pZUXztIwzi9CxXaagW/s1600/Curtin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="425" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwcnW3nr2gnQ_OxOhguNh2einAyHTKb0v3n3iQIkW34LpZvncUImKRo7RqVveMyN5rKq-BbFfSVHRoeofBSOL0u5eX-YUEzhF8aCczenqlgCHWWGWLo14djYsi7pZUXztIwzi9CxXaagW/s320/Curtin.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Curtin and US General Douglas MacArthur meet at Parliament House on 26 March 1942. <i><a href="http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/curtin/" target="_blank">Picture Courtesy the National Archives.</a></i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-14939417200273264052017-08-15T18:57:00.000-07:002017-08-15T18:59:30.102-07:00September 3: Australia's Independence Day <div class="MsoNormal">
There is much debate right now about Australia Day, January
26. Like loyal subjects we celebrate the day we became a British colony and
raised the Union Jack. I guess as we are still under the Crown, it is disloyal
to celebrate – or even talk about – Australia’s official Independence Day,
September 3.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Loyalist, I guess, back in the day felt that declaring
Australia’s independence was a slap in the face to the then King of England.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But for the record, the United Kingdom granted many of its
colonies the permission to be independent nations with the Statute of
Westminster, December, 1931.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Australia finally took up this offer during World War II on
October 9, 1942 with the Westminster Adoption Act. However, it’s effect was official
backdated to the beginning of the war, September 3, 1939.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we really want a national day that all Australian’s can
celebrate, it should be Independence Day, September 3. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Siamo Dio,</i> We Are
God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn0_HUHOjaWV81TeivwjR2Z_007FhqFDco1GYY6i2hjezx6fefYkq8CK3YDYZ62GAp2Pt6dJ6pCMlNx7RCjH2fOBEHq5zOsSCybWh_3bqRpU-Rp0j4cgWbVkkBklGKY2r4Q5VTM7_ou4Kr/s1600/Independence+Hansard+October+9%252C+1942.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="119" data-original-width="902" height="42" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn0_HUHOjaWV81TeivwjR2Z_007FhqFDco1GYY6i2hjezx6fefYkq8CK3YDYZ62GAp2Pt6dJ6pCMlNx7RCjH2fOBEHq5zOsSCybWh_3bqRpU-Rp0j4cgWbVkkBklGKY2r4Q5VTM7_ou4Kr/s320/Independence+Hansard+October+9%252C+1942.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-82727182506686352252016-10-29T21:30:00.000-07:002016-11-25T02:06:49.887-08:00The Flow<div class="MsoNormal">
Being one with the flow takes constant thought and effort<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A river is hard to read.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just when you think you are floating effortlessly along it
takes a turn,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mid-stream moments ago is now marooned in a dank pool<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amid the polystyrene and the plastic bottles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A river is so much more than water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dedication to traditional technique is a trap<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Stay with the fast water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Anticipate, left, left, one right, left, left, left, now
two”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Devotion to rosary rhythm leads you blind<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Past the wrens and willy wagtails under the willows.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A river is so much more than water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Routine can run into rapids round any corner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Can I buy you a drink?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Daddy look at me.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’ve found someone else.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“You’d better be sitting down for this.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Ronald Dworkin
died as the meteor exploded over Siberia,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The brunette
dressed as a man stole ten minutes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">For coco and a
cupcake, </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Bloody Sunday widows
won fifty grand for their dead,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the summer breeze lifted a skirt in Acland Street.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s the flow,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That mystical moment when moving becomes dancing,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rocks part as you sail through with the white water. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A river is so much more than water.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suddenly stillness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The banks retreat towards the horizon,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The water vanishes into tranquil reflections.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sky, stars, moments, those words, that day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moving like the Hajj, we all drift past the shore into the
vast blue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A river is so much more than water.</span>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-13555237832385424092015-12-12T17:40:00.002-08:002015-12-12T17:40:27.986-08:00The World’s Great Big New Year’s Resolution<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Steady on with all the cheering over the Paris Agreement
adoption. Let’s just keep this in perspective. It is essentially an early New
Year’s resolution. The good news is all the politicians of the world seem to be
aligned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to achieve that alignment they have issued lots of <a href="http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/analysis---a-la-carte-action-on-climate-change/41835616">politically
promises</a>. We all know how solid political promises are. These promises don’t
even have a deadline. They will be delivered “As soon as Possible”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My New Year’s resolution is to go on a diet, become a vegan
and lose half my weight “As soon as possible”. Which can also mean “When Hell
Freezes over”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Australian ABC’s reporting of this historic event – like
sadly much of the news media – is factually wrong, and if it was true to its Charter
it would immediately issue a correction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In its summary of the deal it states that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Historic Climate
Deal</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Deal to limit global warming to "well
below" 2C, aiming for 1.5C (<b><i>wrong. This is only a wish. The current
international pledges go nowhere near this goal</i></b>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Greenhouse gas emissions need to peak "as
soon as possible", followed by rapid reduction (<b><i>“as soon as possible”
means “whenever”</i></b>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Deal will eliminate use of coal, oil and gas for
energy (<b><i>This is just wrong. The agreement makes no mention of “coal”, “oil”, “gas”
or “fossil fuels”</i></b>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Fossil fuels to be replaced by solar, wind power
(<b><i>Again there is no mention of “solar” or “wind” power</i></b>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Developed countries to provide $US100b a year
from 2020 to help developing nations (<b><u>this is a political promise. “Show me the
money”)</u></b></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Paris Agreement is a great
achievement, but it is the first step in a long journey. It is certainly not
what the ABC and many “Green” organisations and news media are hailing it as.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you want the reality, read the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">New York Times</a>. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-84991853942950596512014-10-21T22:41:00.000-07:002014-10-21T22:41:59.589-07:00ISIL recruits our right-wing politicians and shock jocks<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Terrorism is extreme public relations. This is not some
new phenomenon that has suddenly arisen in the Middle East and is threatening
the free world. It is simply warfare 101 – propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The objective is to manipulate public opinion in order to
achieve your goals. The weapon of choice is the oldest and most powerful known
to mankind – fear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Success for the current ISIL terrorists will depend on
their ability to recruit politicians, commentators and, most importantly,
members of the media into helping them spread fear and division in our
communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Terrorists use fear in the same way politicians use it to
win votes, media use it to sell papers or attract viewers and advertisers use
it to sell everything from insurance to soap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So what exactly are the terrorists after?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A key objective of wartime propaganda has always been to
win over our vulnerable youth – young boys and, albeit to a lesser extent,
young girls. Those going through that malleable, impressionable, often
rebellious stage of life – from teens to mid-20s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The young ones that World War I poet Wilfred Owen
referred to as “<i>children ardent for some
desperate glory”.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of our soldiers are recruited in their salad days.
We’ve all heard the stories of boys lying about their age in order to qualify
to be sent to their slaughter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s that idealistic, “invincible” age when our kids are
most at risk of dying in a speeding crash, suicide, or being lured into some
cult or cause, like Philby, Burgess and Maclean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s also a beautiful age when they are searching and
passionate like the early years of Dylan, Jagger, Joplin, and Cobain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ISIL is after our youth, and they need outspoken,
opinionated journalists, broadcasters and politicians to help round them up and
push them towards the cause. They need people who promote division, fear and
rage in the community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The debates about the burqa are just perfect. Any
comments or actions that marginalise muslims is just what ISIL needs right now.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Their objective is to use fear to tap into those rich
veins of xenophobia flowing through our sprawling white-bread suburbs in the
same way our politicians do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Those who can, terrorise communities by delivering “ordinance”
– napalm, cluster bombs and even nuclear bombs – from 30,000 feet. Those who
can’t have to be more innovative, like the IRA and the Jewish Underground fighting
British rule after World War II, the Resistance fighting Nazi’s during World
War II, or the Palestinians today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One big mistake that many of our politicians seem to make
is assuming that foreigners who don’t speak English must be stupid. They need
us Westerners to tell them what to do – to train them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As Kurt Vonnegut said: “<i>Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing long
division with Roman numerals.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ISIL has proved that today you don’t need expensive
ordinance and mass killing machines. A knife, a well-chosen victim, Youtube, a
few naïve politicians and media personalities can be assembled into a very
effective terrorist weapon system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The result is to spread fear and energise xenophobes into
assaulting muslims, and attacking mosques in our communities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Our concern is young men, very juvenile in their outlook
and often very insecure,” as Professor Greg Barton, director of the global
terrorism research centre at Monash University, said in the <i>Australian Financial Review</i>. “If they
have an experience where their mother, their sister or family member was
treated badly, that only contributed to their anger and sense of alienation.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But it doesn’t even have to happen to their family
directly. When they witness attacks in the media they can well imagine it
happening to them and their families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Almost all the messages and information coming out of
Iraq and Sudan at the moment, from all sides of the conflict, reek of propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We are getting all sorts of stories about how “evil” this
“death cult” is and the atrocities they are inflicting on the hapless people of
Iraq. Some of this may well be true, but I feel most of it is about as true as
the stories of Iraqi soldiers going into hospitals in Kuwait and murdering
babies in humidicribs in the lead up to the first Gulf war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I find it hard to believe that ISIL could have such
spectacular success on the ground war without considerable support from the
communities they were invading/liberating. Remember they haven’t come down from
outer space – they are Iraqis and Syrians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This looks very much like the war so many warned would be
the result of the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s just a run-of-the-mill turf war in the Middle East
that we have for some reason decided to join in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks to the excellent work of our security services and
police, ISIL would find it impossible to get its soldiers into our country. So
it’s up to their propaganda corps –the terrorists – to infiltrate our
communities and turn just a handful of our young people into terrorists. Just
like the British boys who blew themselves up on the London Underground in 2005
with devastating results.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So far – with the help of our tabloids, politicians and
the usual racists – they are doing a bang-up job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need to be aware. This is war. Words are powerful
weapons and very dangerous in the wrong hands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sacrificing our liberties is a mistake. We need to stand
up for our principles. To create an environment where everyone feels free to
express their true feelings – where our angry youth can vent their vile rage
without fear of prosecution or persecution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The answer comes from blogger </span><a href="http://www.iwrotethisforyou.me/2007/08/fur.html"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Iain S Thomas</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">: “<i>Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard.
Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your
sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you
still believe it to be a beautiful place.” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-54246335163288267962014-10-10T05:30:00.000-07:002014-10-10T05:30:36.204-07:00Time to make the faux fur fly<div class="MsoNormal">
The growing movement to get churches and universities to
divest their share portfolios of fossil fuels would have to go down as one of
the most pathetic, naïve campaigns in history.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a journalist who has worked in the fossil fuel industry
for many years I can tell you selling their shares is not the way to hurt the
industry. Many of the major fossil fuels
companies are buying back their own fracking shares for Christ sake! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here’s a bit of inside information for Bill McKibben, 350.org,
and all those municipal councils, churches and universities who have joined or
are joining the fossil-fuel divestment movement – stop splashing around in the
kiddies’ pool.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you really want to hurt the fossil fuel industry I have
two words – faux fur (“fake fur” for those too young to remember Brigitte
Bardot).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you really want to hurt the “big polluters” don’t boycott
their shares, boycott their products. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And what better way to start than by mobilising Hollywood
and the fashion industry. Faux fur is pure fossil-fuels, it’s made from
petrochemicals and coal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Get Hollywood to go back to Mink. How hard can that be? They
may not openly admit it, but you know the women would love it! Have you ever felt
a Mink coat? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And for the men, bring back hunting! Oh yes, if you’ve ever
tried it, you will know deep down how much you’d love to go back. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think of the environmental benefits here in Australia if we
could turn all our feral animals – rabbits, foxes, camels, pigs, deer -- into
furs. The bilbies would be dancing in the forests. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Believe me if you can get celebrities and the fashion
industry to go fossil-fuel free that will do far more damage to share prices than
a few unis and churches selling their interests.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Promoting divestment of fossil fuels while continuing to be
a loyal fossil-fuel customer is only cutting off your nose to spite your face. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your objective is fossil-fuel free, you need to get out
of the kiddies’ pool, put your togs on and swim some laps.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fashion is just the beginning. Once we get rid of faux fur,
spandex, nylon, polyester etc, you could then take it to the next phase.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Google “How to turn
my car into a chicken coop”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I guarantee if you can get that movement going the oil
companies would start divesting their own shares.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then it’s time to focus on going 100 percent renewable
energy for our electricity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, as an insider, I can reveal that this is a lot easier
than they are telling you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They are distracting you wind and solar – again, kiddies’
pool.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apart from being hopelessly inadequate – wind and solar are
both dependent on fossil fuels for their raw materials – silicon, lubes and
greases. So forget about them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Real renewable energy comes from hydro and biomass – we need
more dams and more wood. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For relatively little cost we can convert Hazelwood into a
wood burner. This has proved to be a
very effective tactic for meeting renewable energy targets in Europe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even Australia exports wood pellets to Europe to help meet
renewable energy quotas and in some cases burning wood is cheaper than coal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well we could really ramp up this energy by burning wood for
baseload power in our coal plants. Think of the jobs created by resurrecting
our timber industry. Then watch what happens to the price of coal shares.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are serious about going “fossil-fuel free”, don’t get
churches to divest of their shares, get the congregations around the world to
divest of fossil-fuel products.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Lent, Catholics could rid themselves of their synthetic
clothes, plastics, smart phones, computers, TVs etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Go back to hunting for Lent! Then watch who divests of
fossil fuels.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dive into the deep end, really go fossil fuel free.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you don’t, you’re obviously a “climate sceptic” who
doesn’t care about our planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-79768317490944814092013-05-24T04:39:00.000-07:002013-05-24T04:39:24.225-07:00Barista<br />
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am making the coffee.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I, am making the coffee.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am real. I am here.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am here, now, making the coffee.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For you. Just for you.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am here, now, making the coffee</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just for you.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You, me, the coffee, now, here.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This. All this.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You are reading about me here, now,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Making the coffee for you.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just for you. It is for you.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here, now, I am for you.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You, me, the coffee – this is real.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is real.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is it. It is something.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You, me, the coffee, here, now – this is it.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are it.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: #feeebd; color: #383838;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We are it.</span></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-59255845729297329512012-08-14T23:30:00.000-07:002012-08-15T03:17:10.851-07:00Our return to the dark side<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The so-called
“Pacific Solution” to Australia’s refugee issue is a fraud and a national
disgrace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The politicians on both sides may have deluded
themselves into thinking that they really care about the refugees, but its
crap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Their
objective has nothing to do with refugees – it’s all about getting re-elected.
It’s all about opinion polls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The whole
issue hangs on two flawed assumptions:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;">We
are being inundated with boat people.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-indent: -18pt;">The
rest of the world wants to come and live in Australia.</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Compared to
refugees around the world, the boats coming to Australia are an issue only to
the politicians and the journalists who feed on them. The numbers are just not
significant that is <i>la verita</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That the
masses in Australia should be ignorant and parochial enough to think that “this
is the best little bloody place on earth” and therefore we must protect it from
being overrun by the hordes is only natural. For the politicians to join in
this delusion and feed it is unforgivable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Very few
people in this world ever want to leave their home – that is <i>la verita</i>. Australia is a great place, but so is Disneyland.
They are great places to visit on holiday. But if you ask people from anywhere on earth
where they want to be, where they want to raise their children, you will soon
realise “there’s no place like home”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That’s where
they were brought up, that’s where their parents were brought up and that’s
where their grandparents were brought up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So don’t
worry Aussie’s, they are not all planning to come over here to steal your
telly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We have some
of the most poverty stricken people on earth living just off our shores –
almost within swimming distance – but they are not piling on to boats to get to
“a better life” in Australia. They want to stay home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Boat people
do not come from our near neighbours, they come from war zones. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So, with
respect, Mrs Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, here’s an idea – if you really want to
stop “boat people” coming here, then why don’t you stop bombing their fuckin’
homes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If you really
want to stop refugees, focus your efforts and your resources on ending the
wars, and achieving the UN <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">Millennium
Development Goals</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now really,
why the hell do I have to write this stuff? What has happened to our
journalists?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’m really
busy right now. I left newspapers 15 years ago. I am just recovering from the
flu and I was looking forward to having a nice easy day on the couch playing my
son’s Xbox.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then this
morning, as our politicians are debating their “Pacific Solution” legislation
in Canberra, I hear Richard Towle, UNHCR Regional Representative for Australia,
New Zealand, PNG and the Pacific, reveal to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/un-refugee-agency-on-offshore-processing-plan/4199544">Fran
Kelly</a> that he hasn’t yet been consulted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Talk about
ruin my day! I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it! What the fuck is going on! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now the
legislation has just passed the House of Representatives – well hoo-fuckin-ray!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And
protesters have come out in the streets to object – well God bless them, but
they haven’t got a chance. They don’t understand the political forces, the
levels of delusion they are fighting against.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With no
leadership in Canberra, most journalists out to lunch or out of a job, and both
major parties now singing to the choir of xenophobia. the poor refugees haven’t
got a fuckin’ chance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Let’s be
clear here, former Defence Force Chief Angus Houston may be an expert at
creating refugees but he is not an expert at dealing with them -- Richard Towle
is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As Richard
told Fran this morning he had “some concerns” with the Gillard Government’s “Pacific
Solution”. Which is diplomatic speak for “it stinks”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">His idea of a
regional solution would involve raising the standards of treatment in the
region, not lowing Australia’s standards. That’s why he wasn’t consulted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The fact is
torturing refugees is not the way to solve the problem. Nor is it the way to
thwart the people smugglers. The way you do that is make it safe for people to
stay home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And as for
Tony Abbott singing the praises of the Howard solutions – and calling on the
Prime Minister to apologise for criticising them – I would like him to explain
to me why those responsible for implementing the Howard policies should not be
charged under The Crimes Act with child abuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As Richard
mentioned in passing this morning we are still trying to deal with the mental
illnesses caused by the Howard policies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I still
shudder when I remember a child being returned to Wimmera Detention Centre
against the medical advice (and protests) from the government phychiatrist,
back in those dark days. Torturing refugees maybe a vote winner in this
country, particularly in some marginal electorates, but it is also a crime
against humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I’m not a
lawyer, and I’m frankly too busy to look it up right now, but I would like Tony
to explain to me why members of the government can be exempt from child-abuse
laws – particularly given that the Immigration Minister is the legal guardian
of unaccompanied minors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If this had
happened in Bosnia in the ‘90s, we would be pursuing them to the ends of the
earth. So why aren’t we charging all those who knowingly inflicted harm on
refugees, and all those public servants who sadly “were only following orders”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That’s
enough, it’s time to start treating refugees like refugees. Don’t make me have
to tell you again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-75293200842772173222012-06-11T00:58:00.000-07:002012-06-11T00:58:56.369-07:00Adults only announcement on energy<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is with
great sadness that I have to make an announcement. The solar and wind energy
dream is over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is my
responsibility to make this announcement because nobody else can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The last time
I felt like this was when I had to fess up to my children that there is no
Santa Claus – it was always just me and your mum. Those nasty kids at school
who teased you for believing, I’m afraid, where right all along. “I’m really
sorry honey for not telling you earlier, but I didn’t have the heart. You so
wanted to believe it’s true.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s the same
with society’s love affair with solar and wind energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All the major
energy corporations of the world have known this for a long time. But whenever
they try to say it they just become the “nasty kids at school”. Saying hurtful
things like: “Solar is the energy of the future – and always will be.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All the
politicians who have known this for some time can’t say it, because if they did
you wouldn’t believe them and they would just be voted out of office. As the
global financial crisis bites our politicians are trying to quietly creep away
from all the grandiose solar promises they made.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The major
institutional investment firms that underwrite the energy industry have known,
but why should they tell, it’s none of their business. They just go on
investing our pension funds in fossil fuels like they always have.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This doesn’t
mean to say that we won’t see wind turbines or solar panels anymore, we will.
Wind and solar is beautiful, clean energy and we should use as much as we can
afford. But it’s time we realised it is not the panacea for the imperative problems
facing civilization today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Wind and
solar will always be to energy what bicycles are to transport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It all has to
do with one word – capacity. Those mentioned above – and engineers everywhere –
understand the importance of this word. But the rest of us in the egosphere are
easily confused by it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">For example,
I can ride my bicycle down a steep hill at probably 100 kilometres an hour (60
miles per hour). So the speed capacity of my bike is 100kmh. But that doesn’t
mean that I can ride my bike 100 kilometres in one hour. In fact I don’t think
I could ride 100 kilometres in a week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A little motorbike,
on the other hand, that has a top speed of 100kmh, has the same speed capacity
as my bike. However, it could feasibly travel 100 kilometres in one hour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">My bike and a
motorbike can have the same speed capacity – 100kmh – but very different
“capacity ratios”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Over any 100
kilometre stretch the capacity ratio of me on my bike – that is the percentage
of the journey I could do at my speed capacity of 100kmh – would be about 1 to
2 percent provided there were some really steep downhills. Whereas the capacity
ratio of the motorbike would be closer to 100 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
100kmh-capacity bicycle is not the equivalent of a 100kmh motorbike, and for the
same reasons a 100 megawatt windfarm is not the same as a 100 megawatt gas
turbine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Bicycle
technology keeps getting better. Today’s bicycles are significantly faster and
lighter than bikes 20 years ago. In
fact, bike speed capacity has reached 220kmh (<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Eric Barone, downhill on snow, in
2000). But this doesn’t mean that it’s only a matter of time before bicycles
will be competing in the motorcycle Grand Prix.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In the same way wind and solar
technology is getting better and better, but, sadly, it will never be competing
with fossil fuels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Politicians have long been playing
to delusions about energy promising to deliver a “clean energy future” based on
renewable energy. Here in Australia we have one of the, if not the, most conducive
environments for solar energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Politicians here have no problem
getting the public, journalists and even academics to believe we are about to
switch over to a “Solar Dawn” any day soon – a “Clean Energy Future”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">But in its current <a href="http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/Documents/ewp/draft-ewp-2011/Draft-EWP-chap7.pdf">Draft
Energy White Paper</a> it gazes into a crystal ball to model what we could have
in the year 2050. The best it could dream up for solar is 3 percent of our
electricity by 2050. Three percent, and only if there are some technology
breakthroughs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I’m really sorry kids, but there
you have it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The competition in the motorcycle
market is between names like Ducati, Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha. There will never
be bicycles competing here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Competing in the power generation
market is coal, gas and nuclear. Right now there is no viable alternative. There
will never be wind and solar in this league. There is some renewable energy
making a marginal contribution, but this is almost entirely hydroelectricity
and biomass, essentially wood-fired power generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Yes, there will have to be a new
energy frontier sometime. But there is no way of predicting what that will be
or when. In the meantime we have to work with what we’ve got. Wind and solar
are not new energy sources for the future – they’re old energy sources. They have
both been around longer than bicycles and we have tried so hard, particularly
in the past 30 years, to make them work. But they just can’t do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Once again, it really saddens me to
have to announce that this dream is over. And the ones I feel the most for are </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">the Greens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I know how
much of their platform relies on, particularly, their solar energy vision, and
I hate to have to tell them that the big corporations – those “nasty kids in
the playground” – were right all along. There is no Santa and there is no solar
energy future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So why am I
doing this? Why am I bursting their balloon? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Because I am
a big admirer of the Greens and the environmental movement as a whole. I have
been voting Greens for as long as Australian Governments have been throwing
refugees into jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As far as I’m
concerned, the Greens are the only party with a grown-up approach to the many social
issues that are important to me. I want to see them adopt this same grown-up
approach to energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We face some
very serious energy challenges today and solar dreamers are poisoning the
debates and preventing the discussions we really need to have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Greens
have been a powerful political force in Germany since 1980. Germany has adopted
one of the most aggressive attempts to make solar power generation work. It has
spent billions over the years and yet today it only gets about <a href="http://www.iea.org/stats/electricitydata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=DE">1 percent
of its electricity</a> from solar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Greens have
done a lot over the years to improve our environment and raise environmental
awareness. Now we need them championing rational approaches to the huge problem
of supplying the world’s growing need for real energy while, at the same time, reducing
our emissions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-12963061854114476832012-04-08T17:18:00.000-07:002012-04-08T17:18:50.861-07:00Titanic – the greatest disaster in Newsland<div class="MsoNormal">I have always been fascinated by our fixation with the The Titanic sinking. It certainly was a very tragic event and a great story, movies etc. But since then there have been four worse peacetime maritime accidents. Who could name two of them?</div><div class="MsoNormal">The worst of all time happened just 25 years ago. The Dona Paz sank in flames after a collision with a petrol tanker killing more than 4300 people – almost three times the death toll on the Titanic.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The difference between the two is that one happened in “Newsland”, while the other only happened in the real world. I used to work in Newsland, it’s an amazing place. But it’s nowhere near as amazing as the real world. Today Newsland seems to be drifting off into space and I’m beginning to lose touch.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I few years ago I thought about the Dona Paz and why it never made it to <a href="http://newmatilda.com/2005/06/22/our-racist-news-values">Newsland.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">I can’t wait for the Dona Paz 3D movie.</div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-9631811391323078302012-02-28T19:57:00.000-08:002012-02-28T19:57:00.117-08:00Exposing the Secret Power of Our Superheros<div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU" style="clear: left; color: maroon; float: left; font-size: 36pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I </span></span><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">N order to be a superhero it seems there are two prerequisites – the ability to perform spectacular feats and anonymity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The first is self-evident – I mean, derr, if you can’t perform spectacular feats the interview is over. But the need for anonymity is an enigma. Sure, it is obviously convenient. The last thing you need when you’re a busy superhero is your “Bat Phone” running 24/7 with cries for help from people who really are just too lazy or stupid to solve their own problems. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, “convenience” does not completely explain the mystery. There is something fundamental about superheros that shields them from public gaze. It appears to be linked to the suppression of ego and lack of charisma. In fact they tend to be anti-egotists – introverts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now I know what you're thinking – Batman, Superman, introverts? Have you seen their costumes, you dick?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But these flamboyant vigilantes aren’t real superheros, they’re fictional characters. They are caricatures of superheros created by egotists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Egotists depict superheros as narcissists who feel somehow compelled to at least try to conceal their insatiable need to be the centre of attention. Hence their outrageous garb tends to include a mask. Like a string bikini, it’s a faint flag of modesty fluttering in a gale of rampant exhibitionism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Real superheros don’t need masks or costumes, because they are actually invisible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I discovered their existence quite by accident when I stumbled over the keys to their camouflage. When I peered behind their curtain I was astonished by what I found. Their influence permeates every facet of our modern life. I suddenly realised just how dependant we mortals are on them. They are continuously performing spectacular feats, day-in day-out right in front of our faces and yet we just can’t see them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We walk by, oblivious, humming to the tune on our ipod.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They are everywhere, controlling our lives. They regularly hold mass meetings right in the middle of our capital cities where they honour esteemed members and bestow awards for magnificence, but I guarantee you won’t read a word about it in the newspapers or hear a mention on the television.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By some mysterious conjuring, they have induced a somnolent, narcotic effect on the community – their camouflage cloaks their activities no matter how spectacular or astounding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We called for their help recently when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan crippling the nuclear power stations, and when BP’s Macondo well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, when floods and cyclones ravaged Australia in 2010 and an earthquake shattered Christchurch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So powerful is their magic that when I expose their identity their spell will immediately kick in. You will be overcome first with a sense of disappointment. Feeling let-down you will not notice the veil quietly closing as your attention is diverted elsewhere and they drift back into invisibility.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These superheros are our engineers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Throughout history, engineers performing spectacular feats have transformed the human race from a tribe of clever monkeys who poked sticks into holes to get the ants out into what we are today. It’s a process that continues at an ever-accelerating pace – yet how many of us could name just three of them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was engineers who built the pyramids, the Acropolis, the Roman aqueducts, the Great Wall of China, the steam engine, the combustion engine, aeroplanes, spacecraft. It was engineers who moved vast armies across theatres of war and delivered the devastating ordinance that changed the political course of history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yet when we think back over all these events, or read the historic literature, there is not a lot to recall these engineers. As a society we focus on the egotists – the charismatic political leaders, generals, admirals, or decorated heroes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;"> “W</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">e shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...”</span><span lang="en-US"> What was implied by Churchill but never stated was: “Exactly how we will achieve all this will be up to the engineers.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;">“</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."</span><span lang="en-US"> Again the missing quote: “Exactly how we will get there and back will be up to our engineers.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We know who went to the Moon, we know who sent them, but who knows who got them there and back? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every time we get behind the wheel of a car, step on to a train or a plane or into an elevator, or drive over a bridge we put our lives into the hands of these superheros with their algorithms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fictional Hollywood superheros have bi-polar personas. One is the charismatic, gaudy exhibitionist who uses super powers to save the world in spectacular fashion. The other is the opposite – a nerdy, introverted character who blends into the community with a bland, everybody camouflage, shunning like kryponite the limelight that we egotists bask in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This logic would suggest that for a real superhero trying to blend into Hollywood, the modern egotists’ Holy See, these poles would be reversed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Consider <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr" target="_blank">Hedy Lamarr</a> – here’s a superhero who disguised herself as an egotistic megastar in tinsel town. Feted as “the most beautiful woman in the world”, her adoring fans were oblivious to the superhero who was busy trying to save the world and who had a hand in changing the future course of mankind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the dark days of World War II, Lamarr applied her covert electronic engineering skills along with a Hollywood neighbour, avant-garde composer George Antheil, to design something they knew the US Navy desperately wanted – a secure torpedo guidance system.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, their frequency hopping communications design, US Patent 2,292,387, was ahead of the electronics technology of the day and so it did not see service during that war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It first saw action 20 years later when the heat was turned up to boiling in the Cold War. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the world and the human race moved towards the brink of destruction, the Lamarr-Atheil anti-eavesdropping technology was used by the US Navy to develop secure communications between its ships, blockading Cuba.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Lamarr-Atheil spread-spectrum communications system, originally based on the idea of synchronised pianola reels, lies behind a range of modern secure wireless communications applications in systems from US defence satellites, to radio transmissions, to mobile phones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">Lamarr helped save life on earth, including mankind, from destruction, yet managed to avoid being named along with other Hollywood egotists Oprah Winfrey, Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball on Time Magazine’s list of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_414857204">The 100 Most Important People of the 20</a></span><span lang="en-AU"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_414857204">th</a></sup></span><span lang="en-AU"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2020772,00.html" target="_blank"> Century. </a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Instead Lamarr is remembered for her beauty – and for being the first woman to get her tits out in a feature film.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So how exactly did she do it? (Remain invisible that is – not get her tits out.) How do these engineers so effectively hide their activities? How do they construct mammoth buildings, fly millions of people around the world, tunnel beneath our cities, put a man on the Moon, wrap the globe in an instant-communications network, span vast waterways with dangling steel without ever really being noticed? Given that drunken pop stars can have their faces splashed across news outlets around the world just by falling down outside a nightclub, or swearing at a photographer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU" style="clear: left; color: maroon; float: left; font-size: 36pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A </span></span><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s I said, I think I have discovered the secret to the engineers’ powers of invisibility – it’s the pencils they use. Those seemingly stupid little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_pencil" target="_blank">retractable pencils</a> that look like pens. Only engineers, or people who think like engineers, can use these pencils. If an egotist like me tries we keep breaking the lead until we fling the contraption at the wall in frustration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My father was an engineer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a child I recall how he used to correct my maths homework using his stupid retractable pencil. I was never any good at maths. When forced to do my homework, I would sit gazing blankly at the hostile sums my teacher set and try to remember a morsel of what she said in class.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But nothing would come. Instead my mind would wander off to some distant imaginary land where whatever I was doing would make me a superhero and the centre of everyone’s admiration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then my father, knowing I was making no progress, would fold his newspaper and place it on the coffee table and come over to help me. He would take his magic pencil out of his shirt pocket. “These sums aren’t that hard,” he would say while pressing the button on the end and focussing on getting it just right before releasing the button, closing the tiny jaws around the protruding lead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“All you have to remember is that ...” After dragging me back from my imaginary land where everything I did was magnificent, he would then humiliate me by doing each of my equations with his pencil asking me questions along the way like “what’s 13 minus four?” I would look blank.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> “13 minus four?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Silence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> “Surely you know what 13 minus four is!?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What he didn’t realise was that whatever the question, I couldn’t hear it. Instead all my mind was processing was the situation of me sitting here being tested and judged by my father and failing on every count.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He would just persist doing my equations in the margin of my exercise book. His sums and his process didn’t match my teacher’s in any way. But surprisingly his answers were always right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“That’s not how WE do it,” I would feebly suggest. “We use New Maths.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Maths, is maths, however you do it,” he would say before leaving me ashamed, as he went back to reading his paper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My father never talked about his work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With his slide rule, theodolite and magic pencil he changed the lives of many people in the UK, Africa and Australia. These people are not aware of his role in their lives. Engineers don’t cut the ribbon when their work is done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Nigeria he built roads and bridges. This was a time when there was very little infrastructure in the country. He had to improvise on a lot of the services taken for granted in a modern, developed country – services such as ready-mixed concrete. My father had to mix his own concrete for the bridges and culverts on site with local labourers. He was constantly getting out his little pencil and adjusting the formulas of the mix in order to prevent cracking in the piles under the variable wet and dry tropical conditions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“How are the piles going Peter?” the other expats would joke back at the club, suggesting he may have had an unspeakable medical condition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">When an engineer constructs an all-weather road to an otherwise remote town or village they profoundly change the outlook of that society and its people forever. The same goes for connecting</span> communities to the electricity grid, train network, gas or water supply, sewerage or even broadband internet. But rarely are we who live in these communities aware of who these engineers are or of the incredible feats they have to perform and the perplexing problems they have to overcome in order to get us what we take for granted.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0bhv17ZyYKEU5GzLPpVd-IkRLi9PEtkHW_jDHemQXY7Au1bOI-qOyOjoTnRHoPi_DqRquN0HeWEdR6_2Qzus1s30TNuMTlU41_lDq0O9_gqnFeTjrFljDDnRyf3-wha0VoZBp3kpVjIp/s1600/nigeria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0bhv17ZyYKEU5GzLPpVd-IkRLi9PEtkHW_jDHemQXY7Au1bOI-qOyOjoTnRHoPi_DqRquN0HeWEdR6_2Qzus1s30TNuMTlU41_lDq0O9_gqnFeTjrFljDDnRyf3-wha0VoZBp3kpVjIp/s320/nigeria.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span lang="en-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">My father, Peadar, with my mother, Nadia, at one of his work sites in Nigeria. </span><span style="color: #990000;"><span lang="en-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">When an engineer constructs an all-weather road to an otherwise remote town or village they profoundly change the outlook of that society and its people forever</span><span lang="en-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU" style="clear: left; color: maroon; float: left; font-size: 36pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I </span></span><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> discovered the powers of the retractable pencil quite by accident not long after the turn of the century. I was working as an “embedded” journalist in a large corporation that was run by, and dominated by, engineers. Their stationery cupboard was full of these pencils disguised as pens. Whenever I presented something I had written for them to review, they would take out their retractable pencils, triggering a visceral flashback to my homework days. They would correct my spelling and grammar and then explain why some of the intuitive conclusions I had cleverly reached were based on flawed assumptions. These engineers were always calm, gracious but never condescending and, like my father, always so infuriatingly bloody right.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was constantly energising around “brilliant”, innovative ideas only to see them torn to shreds by these quiet engineers with their confounded retractable-pencil logic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But eventually I grew to enjoy these clashes with logic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With fellow journalists we could sustain a loud, complex argument for hours, fuelled by beer and what Barry Humphrey’s referred to as the authority of total ignorance. With engineers the energy behind the idea would last for mere moments. It was either a good idea, in which case they would suggest further reading – essentially all those who had developed the same idea down through history – or it defied logic and would fall crashing to the floor like an improvised flying machine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gordon was one engineer I particularly loved bouncing things off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Gordon, if the laws of physics are sound then everything is predetermined,” I suggested one day. “Molecules have no choice in how they react, their reactions are set. Therefore, at the molecular level, our destiny has been set since the moment of the big bang, just like the destiny of balls on a pool table once you break. True?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">Gordon commended me on coming up with such a big idea, then calmly explained <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle" target="_blank">Heisenberg’s </a>“uncertainty principle” and introduced me to the world of quantum mechanics. This caused a brain explosion. I fell down a rabbit hole and met Schrodinger’s Cat, which is not alive </span><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;">or</span><span lang="en-AU"> dead, but is alive </span><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;">and</span><span lang="en-AU"> dead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Coming from daily newspapers where everything was reduced to a “good yarn”, this confrontation with in-depth logic proved to be quite game changing. I had never had to face such due diligence on everything that I wrote. But after a few years I found this scrutiny reassuring. Delving into the detail of complex technical issues and then trying to find new ways of expressing these concepts in the everyday, emotional language of journalism can be quite an intriguing challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s not unlike trying to learn a second language late in life. The hardest part is letting go of assumptions you have grown up with. For example, in English objects are inanimate, whereas in Italian, like French and German, you have to think of them as male or female – boy or girl, masculine or feminine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">It was while studying Italian on a train, travelling from central Victoria into Melbourne that I stumbled across the power of the retractable pencil. I read an Italian phrase that I wanted to remember. Reaching into my coat for my pen I realised that I only had one of those stupid retractable pencils that I had picked up by mistake. After breaking the lead once, I pushed out another tiny bit of lead and tried again, writing ever so gently and carefully: </span><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;">ci penso di quando in quando</span><span lang="en-AU"> (I think of it from time to time).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Suddenly I was engulfed in an orgasm of awareness. Everything stopped. While the train continued through the wheat fields at about 160 kmh, I was floating in a sea of stillness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So this is how they do it. This is how those with a technical mind can create clarity and wonder from what seems to an egotist like me to be a chaotic confusion of tedious facts and figures. This is the power of the retractable pencil – the kinetics of writing. What you write with can have a subtle or profound impact on what you write.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You can’t write thundering columns, angry notes, graffiti or placards with a retractable pencil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When it comes to jotting down notes at an interview a ballpoint pen is perfect. Keyboards have taken over our written communications – emails, blogs, articles, books. Even thumbs for SMS, chats or tweets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, when it comes to dealing with the big issues, the really tough questions, you need a retractable pencil. Intractable dilemmas require retractable pencils.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaMlKMcfWrr-at98tIKEwQc3B7pTWiGwUCglnOwumuwxESgvF-qq20cZTtmpb-w00FZVSf6BuOMquKoDvx8JUFF0X2TN0rBcjIqpVzA0p5Yk4mF9El0P9saotAv4dQTsx5HFfS1PuIi2Li/s1600/notepad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaMlKMcfWrr-at98tIKEwQc3B7pTWiGwUCglnOwumuwxESgvF-qq20cZTtmpb-w00FZVSf6BuOMquKoDvx8JUFF0X2TN0rBcjIqpVzA0p5Yk4mF9El0P9saotAv4dQTsx5HFfS1PuIi2Li/s320/notepad.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span lang="en-AU" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">When the numbers <i>really</i> count: After famously reporting "Houston we have had a problem" Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell reached for his retractable pencil and starting jotting down these sums that would help get his ship safely home from the Moon. </span><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #990000;"><span lang="en-AU" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">When the going gets <i>really</i> tough, those who don't have retractable pencils call those who do.</span></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU" style="clear: left; color: maroon; float: left; font-size: 36pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">W </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="en-AU">hen the going gets </span><span lang="en-AU" style="font-style: italic;">really</span><span lang="en-AU"> tough, those who don’t have them call those who do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When your house is on fire you call the fire department. But if a nuclear reactor is on fire we call the engineers. When oil comes spewing out from deep below the ocean, we call the engineers. If you’re lost in the woods you can call emergency rescue. But if you’re lost in space between Earth and the Moon, you call engineers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bringing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13" target="_blank">Apollo 13</a> astronauts home safely required a team consisting of hundreds of engineers stretching the limits of technology with algorithms, knowledge, lateral thinking and retractable pencils. In many respects this was as great an achievement, if not greater, than the first Moon landing. Controlling the Macondo oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico was an engineering feat on the same scale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To hear and read commentators urging our political leaders to step in and takeover the operation shows just how out of touch we egotists have become. It exposes a fundamental flaw in our democratic system – we have a system built on popularity that elevates the loudmouths and shuns the thinkers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It alienates those deep, introverted thinkers we rely on to solve the big problems. The nice, polite retractable-pencil people whose names you can never quite remember.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We egotists are the communicators, we are the butterflies in the garden. Thinkers tend to live a cloistered existence – geologists talk to geologists, neuroscientists to neuroscientists, engineers to engineers. We ferret them out and expose their work to a wider world. We cross pollinate ideas. This crucial cross fertilization opens the way to new amazing developments that benefit us all. Such as MRI technology used by clinicians for medical diagnostics or geoscientists looking deep into the earth, or the wide-spread, eclectic use of isotope analysis technology.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Necessity may well be the mother of invention, but serendipity is the father.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well the fact is, essentially we journalists, we egotists, are failing to fulfil our role in the garden.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a result we find that at a time when technological advances are opening up new and increasingly complex horizons of knowledge, the gap between scientific knowledge and public perception is widening. We journalists are failing to raise the level of technical understanding in the community and this is seriously hampering our ability to take full advantage of technical advances and is leading to serious public policy mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We have governments that find it difficult to draft quality, long-term policy decisions in some of our most important areas. For example, trying to site a nuclear waste storage facility anywhere in a democracy will raise a barrage of outrage, fear and misinformation. Not to mention policy paralysis in areas such as genetic engineering, medical research, energy and environmental management.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a species, we are heading down the road of populism. Rather than enlightening and educating the population, journalists, and as a result politicians, are being drafted into harvesting ignorance and prejudices by promoting what is popular. Experts are brushed aside in favour of opinion polls and focus groups when it comes to determining solutions to some of the most complex problems we have ever faced.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The result is photo-opportunities involving grinning world leaders signing up to future commitments that have no chance of being fulfilled. Commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals, Kyoto and Copenhagen greenhouse gas emission targets, and nuclear non-proliferation treaties.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We egotists are just as important as our scientists and engineers. We are the artists, the musicians, the poets, the chefs, the filmmakers, the politicians, the movie stars. But we need to be aware of what we can do and what we can’t do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We need more engineers. But we also need James Joyce, Jane Austen and <a href="http://www.margaritaville.com/jimmybuffett_about.html" target="_blank">Jimmy Buffett</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Egotists make life worth living, engineers make it possible. It's about as hard to love a building designed by an engineer as it is scary to drive over a bridge built by an artist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The time has come for us egotists to go back to doing what we do best. We have to pick up the “Bat Phone” and call the superheros. The people who are in the best position to do this are the journalists – real journalists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We are the ones who have to change the public discourse. We have to present more facts and less opinion. We certainly have to resist the urge to seek popular opinions to complex issues. Please don’t ask any more pop singers for their views on climate change or world politics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The role of the journalist is to narrow the gulf between what is known selectively and what is known collectively.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We have to drag more superheros into the limelight to help raise our overall awareness of what we face on the road ahead and what our realistic options are. We need facts that we can climb up on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My advice to any journalist who feels they may actually have the answer to any of our big problems is try it out on someone who uses a retractable pencil – find your Gordon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><span lang="en-AU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We all know what needs to be done. We all know the mission. We all know where our “Moon” is. We now need to get behind those with the knowledge to develop the algorithms that will get us there.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="newbodytext"><br />
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</div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-11813613226749966402011-11-25T20:16:00.000-08:002011-11-25T20:16:07.418-08:00Letter to ABC's Mark Scott<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Mr Mark Scott AO</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Managing Director</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ABC</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dear Mark,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Please do not be too discouraged by the failure of the ABC’s first bold “data journalism project” looking at the coal seam gas industry – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-by-the-numbers/">Coal Seam Gas: By The Numbers</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think the ABC should be applauded for attempting this ambitious project. As the issues facing the human race become more complex we desperately need reputable news organisations like the ABC to guide us through the technical complexities and the noise of vested interests so that we, as a democratic society, can make informed decisions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The intent of your data journalism project is just what we need. Its failure was due to <a href="http://www.pesa.com.au/publications/pesa_news/dec_06/pesanews_8505.html">problems plaguing journalism</a> across the developed world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m sure that Wendy Carlisle and her team are all excellent journalists. With your help and guidance I’m confident they will be able to learn from their mistakes and have another go and this topic.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But first, Mark, they will have to realise who they are. They are journalists, and all journalists – including you and I – <a href="http://www.lmcdonnell.com/index_files/Page480.htm">are egotists</a>. We are very good at talking to and about other egotists and this all makes very entertaining media and is the bread and butter of journalism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Commercial media are forced to dance this dance. If a newspaper like The Age wants to talk about coal seam gas, it will seek a celebrity like <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-cold-hard-fracks-20110730-1i5ly.html">Olivia Newton-John.</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But Mark, the ABC is free from many of the commercial realities faced by other media. You can make a difference to this paradigm and you tried with this data journalism project.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, in order to succeed in such a technically complex area, your egotists are going to have to speak to experts. It’s not good enough just to read the data put out by experts like Geoscience Australia, bureaucrats and energy companies. Egotists like us journalists do not understand the complexity – the algorithms – behind this data, as Wendy and her team, I’m sure, now realise.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a daily newspaper egotist who wandered off into the energy industry about 20 years ago I can assure you, Wendy, and all the journalists at the ABC, that the experts aren’t so bad. In fact they are truly amazing and always more than willing to help. With issues like coal seam methane I strongly suggest you find an <a href="http://www.lmcdonnell.com/index_files/Page480.htm">engineer</a> to help you through the numbers. I always do this now and I wished I’d started 40 years ago.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’m not involved with the coal seam gas business, but I am aware of the magnitude of what our Australian engineers are attempting here. They will be the first in the world to produce LNG from unconventional gas. This is a huge technical challenge, but if they succeed they will have achieved far more in the world’s efforts to combat climate change than any Canberra polices aimed at our domestic energy consumption.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a very important topic, Mark, and as a huge fan of the ABC I am looking forward to Wendy’s efforts to do it right. This will be a great milestone of modern journalism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yours sincerely </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Leonard McDonnell</span></div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-64990897581296620372011-07-15T21:17:00.000-07:002011-07-15T21:17:36.661-07:00PM is right. We are being fed crap on climate change<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The most effective way for me to reduce my domestic greenhouse gas emissions would be to kick my family out of the house and live alone. Then I could walk up and down the street waving my greatly reduced energy bills and proclaiming what a wonderful greenie I am.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It would be a fraud, of course, just like most of Australia’s attempts to tackle climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Australia is shirking its responsibility in this global challenge because our policies are dominated be ignorant egotists who have deluded themselves into believing they are greenies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We are not leading the world on climate change – far from it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Ignorant, loud-mouthed, egotistical ‘greenies’ and deluded journalists and politicians are keeping this country splashing around in the kiddies paddling pool instead of assisting with the big issues in the deep end. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The climate change policies of both major parties are stuck in our domestic electorate. Climate change is a global problem. Australia is a minor energy consumer in this world, but we are a major energy producer and this is where our efforts should focus.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We are a major energy producer in the fastest growing region of the globe – Asia Pacific. There are hundreds of millions of people living in poverty across the Asia Pacific region.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I recently visited communities that have infant mortality rates that make even our worst Aboriginal communities seem like Shangri La. The reason is even remote Aboriginal communities have access to medical care when their children get really sick. In many communities in our region of the world there is no medical care, there is no Flying Doctor, no ambulance, no ‘intervention’. So parents regularly bury children, who die of routine illnesses like pneumonia, diarrhoea, or malaria.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But, the good news is things are improving. Countries are working hard to raise their living standards to levels we take for granted. The bad news is achieving this requires capital and energy – lots of it. As a result Asia’s energy demand is growing at roughly the equivalent of a new ‘Australia’ joining the region every 18 months.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Naturally these countries are going for the most affordable energy and that is coal. Australia, being the world’s largest coal exporter, is therefore doing OK out of all this humanitarian endeavour. It helped us dodge the GFC.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When I hear the Australian Government pledge to reducing our domestic greenhouse emissions by five per cent, I say ‘so what.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We are going to increase the amount of renewable energy in our power generation to 20 per cent – big deal. We might as well pour money into Morris Dancing – at least it would create more jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> believed that climate change was serious, if we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> believed that it required urgent action, we would stop wasting money on mirrors and propellers and instead concentrate on trying to improve coal-fired power generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If we could develop a one percent improvement in the world’s future coal-fired power generation this would dwarf anything Australia did in our puny domestic market. Yet the Gillard Government’s latest climate-change policy had nothing in this area.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And when a company in Victoria, HRL, embarked on an ambitious project to build a pilot-plant to attempt to prove technology with the potential to reduce emissions from coal-fired power by 30 per cent, so-called “environmentalists” turned on them like rabid dogs. Where were our politicians or journalists who could have put this outrageous attack into perspective?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If this project has been killed, then it is not beyond credibility to say that those responsible have dealt a severe blow to the world’s efforts to combat climate change. They clearly believe that their own egotistical agenda is more important than truly tackling climate change. They have no awareness of the real challenge and are quite content to just ‘kick their family out of the house’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Climate change exposes a fundamental flaw in our democratic system – policies are formed by egotists. However, tackling climate change requires technically sophisticated collaborators – engineers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">They are essentially excluded from the debate.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is a multi-faceted, complex, technical problem -- we won’t get the answers from focus groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-23518171284225173492011-05-17T16:51:00.000-07:002011-05-17T16:51:27.549-07:00Greenhouse Myths and politicians<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Twenty years from now we Australians will be getting 0.3 percent of our energy from solar power. Says who?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Says the Government. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But they don’t say it out loud because the Greens might hear. Instead they talk about our bright green, renewable energy future and all the jobs that will be created as we “switch over” to “clean” energy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Such energy myths have destroyed the world’s ability to make any credible attempt to deal with climate change. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We Australians have pledged to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by five percent of 2000 levels by 2020. Both major parties agree on this goal – yet it will not be met. Australia has no chance of reducing its GHG emissions at all in the next nine years.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If the Government seriously pursued this goal, we the people, would turf them out of office.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The only way we will meet this commitment is by buying credits from overseas. We will find a way to buy licences to continue business as usual.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Again, this is another fact you will not hear the Government – or the Opposition – saying out loud.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Gillard Government has announced (ever so quietly) that we will be getting 13 percent of our electricity from wind and solar in 20 years – one percent of this will be solar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But haven’t we got bi-partisan agreement on sourcing 20 percent of our electricity from renewables in just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nine</i> years time? Yes we have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is just more myth and spin. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As the current Government, like those before it, make clear – if you ask quietly – wind and solar, geothermal, wave energy, these are all extras on the renewable energy set and will be for the foreseeable future. The stars are wood and hydro dams – but, again, don’t say that out loud or the Greens might hear and there will be hell to pay.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Government’s carbon tax is, sadly, dead. It has drowned in this sea of myth and spin. The only question for Julia Gillard is how to get back to what Kevin Rudd has led us to believe was her original position without getting the blame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she cans the tax the Greens will throw a tantrum and her fragile Government will collapse.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, if she lets the Greens have a big input into drafting the legislation it will become political poison for the other independents who will vote it down in the House. She will get away Scot free and will be able to claim the high moral ground going into the next election. Brilliant politics!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But, once again, a sad day for the future of the planet and our attempts to tackle climate change.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So let’s kill a few more persistent myths in the hope we can apply CPR to this “CPRS” and get the tax over the line.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Myth: Corporations are the “Big Polluters” and the tax will make them pay.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fact: We are the big polluters – we the “working families”. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Corporations have been working hard to become more energy efficient since the oil shocks of the ‘70s. That’s when there was a step change energy costs and so reducing their energy consumption has meant big bucks for big business.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The carbon tax is not designed to make big corporations pay – it’s designed to make us pay more for our energy in the hope we will use less. Any corporate costs will be passed on to us, the consumers, one way or another – just like the GST.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Making us more energy efficient will achieve a great deal more than our solar pipe dreams. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For example, if we can improve the efficiency of our car fleet by just one percent, that would be equivalent in terms of GHG reductions to our entire national solar power generation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Running our cars with the right air pressure in our tyres would improve the fleet by about 3 percent. Improving our driving habits – that is less speeding and accelerating – can deliver improvements anywhere up to 33 percent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Myth: The carbon tax will lead to a revolution in renewable energy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fact: The Government says that all renewable energy will account for only 8 per cent of Australia’s energy consumption in 20 years time. The other 92 percent will still be fossil fuels.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The tax will, however, tilt the scales back in favour of the planet so that over the next 100 years or so, we will improve the impact of our growing energy use a little sooner than might otherwise be the case.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We journalists, politicians, economists and academics will never produce the solutions to our energy challenges – these will have to come from our engineers and scientists.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The best we can do is work towards creating the political and fiscal environment that will support and assist our engineers and scientists. For starters we can certainly encourage more of our youth into the maths-science stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We desperately need more engineers – as opposed to more models and rock stars.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now is the time to start getting real about this climate challenge.</span></div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-86375835979108010582010-11-27T20:20:00.000-08:002010-11-27T20:20:07.373-08:00The Pope Blesses Rubber Dingers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Pope's recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/europe/23pope.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">comments</a> regarding the use of condoms must have prompted an almighty Alleluia! from all those who own shares in condom-making companies (<i>I hope someone checked for any pre-announcement plunges on such stocks from the Vatican Bank</i>).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At last the Catholic Church is moving into the 18th Century. This is just another step towards ridding ourselves of all the stupid edicts in this world centered around sex and obsession.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US" style="clear: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">T</span></span><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">here are about six billion of us on earth right now. We’re all individuals with varying views, attributes, hopes, wants, needs, expectations, flaws and talents.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yes, we come in two varieties, those with a penis and those with a womb -- tackle in or tackle out.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just to be absolutely clear, those with the gear hanging in space are male, and those with the gear tucked away are female.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Women can do things that men can't – give birth, breast feed, collect shoes, have multiple orgasms.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Men can do things that women can't – piss up a wall, write their name in the snow.</span></span></div><h1 style="color: black; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Throughout history there has been continuing debate about how men are better at this and women are better at that. You know the stuff – men are more physical, men can read maps, men are stronger, men can run faster blah, blah, blah. But in reality we are all individuals with varying abilities and talents.</span></span></span></h1><h1 style="color: black; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Remember, I’m a man, yet Florence Griffith Joyner would have no trouble whatsoever in thrashing me over a hundred metres, even if I had an eighty-metre headstart.</span></span></span></h1><h1 style="color: black; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The majority of this “better than” bullshit has traditionally come from men, because let’s face it guys, it’s really just pissing up a wall.</span></span></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Should women be allowed to be priests. This, and pretty much any gender-based argument, is phallic bullshit.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Unless the job description specifically includes tasks that require the use of genitals, or a womb, there is no place for gender arguments in the 21st Century. Therefore, unless the priesthood involves some secret rituals, like pissing up walls or inseminating altar boys, there is no reason to even discuss whether or not women should be allowed in.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I use this priesthood issue, but it is not an exception. It empitomises the millions of fallacies that handicap humanity. Just look at how much time, energy and emotional angst goes into this question even today. And for that matter all the similar bullshit questions of the past – should women, be allow to vote, get equal pay, should slavery be banned, is apartheid OK, should blacks get the same rights as whites, is the earth flat or round, should we allow same-sex marriage. We could fill libraries with the reams of these, at-the-time all-important fallacies, not to mention the physical and emotional energy, the suffering and pain, that has been wasted on them. There is one vital ingredient common to all such debates, and that’s ignorance.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For example, let’s examine this ridiculous “why priests must have a dick” argument. Like so many fallacies wasting our time today, it relies on a misunderstanding of scripture. It’s an argument perpetuated by people who assume that old books are closer to the truth than today’s writings. The older the book, the more important its messages, so ancient scripture must therefore be venerated.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whereas I say if the printing press had pre-dated Christ, we would have a very different sense of Christianity today. We would have a much greater understanding of how people thought and how they communicated at the time. We would have a plethora of books espousing all kinds of pluralist views. We would have critical reviews of the books of the day, including the Old and the New Testament.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We would understand what Jesus really meant when he said, “This is my body”.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-AU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“</span></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is my body</span></span><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">” is bullshit. <a href="http://lmcdonnell.com/index_files/Page420.htm#Defining Bullshit 3">Beautiful bullshit</a>, certainly, just like </span></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ich bin ein Berliner.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We know Kennedy was not a Berliner because of mass media. Therefore we understand what he really meant.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Could you imagine if the Bible was published today. Would it outsell Harry Potter? I doubt it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Although the Bible has many authors over many years, imagine – as many Bible “experts” still do – if it was written by one person. How would it stand up to peer review? How would the author go, for example, facing media questions?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“So Mr God, are you expecting us to believe that Mary was a virgin? And if so, what exactly did she and Joseph do on their wedding night?”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“If she gave birth to your son, doesn’t that mean you must have committed adultery, that is, broken one of your own commandments as referred to earlier in the book? What exactly do you mean when you say you did not have sex with that woman – Mary?”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“What terrible sin did Joseph commit to deserve a wife who doesn’t put out?”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“If the marriage was not consummated doesn’t that mean it’s annulled?”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“If you are in all living creatures, doesn’t that make you personally responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world?”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Bible is littered with contradictions from cover to cover – and remember the Old Testament is fundamentally the Koran and the Tora.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But they are only contradictions if you take the text literally. The fact is the Bible was never written to be taken literally – it’s beautiful bullshit from cover to cover.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Scholars today understand a great deal about these documents and the people who wrote and edited them. But this information is unfortunately more ignored than understood by those with a vested interest in forming their own interpretations of scriptures.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s these ignorant views that form the basis for most conflict and debate about things religious. That’s <a href="http://lmcdonnell.com/index_files/Page630.htm#The Cuckoo's Egg 4">the Cuckoo's Egg</a>.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0pt;"><span lang="en-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Churches are often far more preoccupied with their own preservation than their purpose.</span></span></div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-55484151270233356772010-06-01T18:39:00.001-07:002010-06-01T18:44:36.542-07:00Why is Australia still waiting for a fast, reliable train?<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It’s a sad fact that if you live long enough you will eventually get cancer. And that, I’m afraid, is what has happened to Australia’s railway systems. We have entered the 21</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">st</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Century with a 19</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Century rail system.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Everything about our railways from our rolling stock to the way we treat our passengers is Dickensian. The system has cancer and it’s dying.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Meanwhile rail travel in the rest of the world is enjoying a renaissance, with fast trains competing with airlines for inter-city passengers. They can be faster, they are much more energy efficient and they reduce greenhouse gas emissions. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I’m sitting on a Victorian regional inter-city train listening to the all too familiar barking rage of the conductor blasting a passenger for being late and not having time to buy a ticket at the station. The conductor can sell tickets on the train, but he doesn’t like doing it. Like Basil Fawlty, he is angry because the passengers won’t get their lives organised to suit his agenda.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The “customer service” woman at head-office is totally on side. “Oh I know, we really wish they wouldn’t talk to customers like that. There is absolutely no reason they can’t sell tickets on the train – they have the facilities. It’s just some of them are lazy – it tends to be the ones who live in the city.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">She leaves the impression that this problem is as old as time and there’s not much she can do about it, because it is and she can’t. It’s an infection that has spread into the bones of our rail system. It dates back to the 1800s, the heyday of rail travel when there wasn’t much else. Rail travel was a privilege – but not anymore.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> The same sanctimonious conductor who was blasting the passenger for his poor punctuality is now on the PA delivering the ritual, </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style=" line-height: 115%; font-size:10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">canard </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">apology on behalf of the railway. Today it’s because, even though we have arrived at our destination only 10 minutes late, it will probably be at least another 10 minutes before we will be able to get off the train. You see someone has parked another train in our spot.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It’s the same the next day – different conductor, same apology, same excuse. The fact that most of the 14 platforms are empty at our brand-new metropolitan station doesn’t seem relevant. To allow us off on “another” platform would require a change in “procedure”, some lateral thinking, a morsel of concern.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Day three, same outcome only this time the excuse has changed – it’s that old reliable “signal fault”. You see the fault, the problem, the reason and, therefore, all the responsibility for this terrible recurring situation lies with “the signal”. If only those damned signals would get their act together.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">For every awful conductor, ticket seller, ticket inspector on the railways there is one who is polite, courteous, helpful and extremely efficient. Sadly they are swimming against a tide of institutionalised incompetence and inconsistency and a culture of apathy.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">To all those Australians who like to brag about how we “punch above our weight” on the world stage, I say take at look at our railways.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">My thoughts drift back to a particularly pleasing risotto I had with a fine glass of woody Chardonnay in an exquisite restaurant in France almost 10 years ago – and bear in mind I’m a risotto purist. In this restaurant the waiting service was impeccable, the table decorations were pleasant, the wine list, although a tad limited, nevertheless included only quality. But what really made this meal special was the view. You see, the restaurant was on Eurostar, travelling through the green fields of France at around 300kmh on its way from Paris to London.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Eurostar today can cover the journey carbon-neutral in a little over two hours, even though for safety reasons it has to slow right down to the speed of the fastest trains in Australia as it travels under the waves of the English Channel.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In Australia we consider 160kmh wow-speed for a train. But in the real world 160kmh was considered fast for steam trains </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record_for_railed_vehicles#Long_distance"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">100 years ago</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Today world-class trains are getting close to the 600kmh mark.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">China, which remember is still a developing country, is rolling out fast train lines like spaghetti. It already has the longest fast-train network in the world.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">You can now go 968km from Wuhan to Guangzhou in three hours. That’s around the same distance as Melbourne to Sydney, a journey that takes our ambitiously named XPT (Express Passenger Train) over 11 hours.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Shanghai’s 30.5km airport link – that’s around the distance of Melbourne to Tullamarine or Manly to Mascot – takes seven minutes and 20 seconds, with a top speed of 431kmh.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Oh we have tried to join the 20</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Century.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Back in the ‘80s some of Australia’s leading companies – BHP, Elders IXL, Kumagai Gumi, and TNT – got together on a bold plan to build a </span><a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bp/1997-98/98bp16.htm#INTRO"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">fast-train network</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. When all the sums were done, the investors considered it a goer provided they could get some tax concessions from the Government.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">When this was put to the Government, the answer was “computer says no”.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In 2008 a world-class fast train service was proposed for Melbourne’s metropolitan area, running from Geelong right around to Frankston. But once again the answer from government was “computer says no.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Victoria now has a new Transport Minister, </span><a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ministers.html?task=view&id=21"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Martin Pakula</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. After his swearing in January he said: "The public of Victoria expect a public transport minister who’s going to get in, roll his sleeves up, and work as hard as I plan to work, to do everything I can to improve the system as much as possible."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Those in their salad days might take this as a message of hope. But experienced punters will recognise it as the traditional call of the new minister. It’s not so much a statement as a noise they make just before leaning back in their chair and putting their feet up on the desk.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The cure for our rail cancer is simple, brutal, but costless to the community.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">All we need to do is bundle up our railways – infrastructure, rails, rolling stock and real estate – and give it to Richard Branson. Just imagine what Virgin Rail would look like in 10 years time. For starters it would have staff who would, to quote from V/Line’s Customer Commandments, “provide friendly personal service and the information I need to make my journey enjoyable”.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">So that would mean the end of the historic Barking Conductor Corps. They’d just have to retire and go home to kick their dogs and watch TV.</span></p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-50666434605384686412010-04-09T16:44:00.000-07:002010-04-10T07:48:46.879-07:00Valē Peadar (Peter) Joseph McDonnell, 1930-2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDhpWNXcXHMKcTJIPGtx_PSSkHaNsS-8SaBXvJ3ZMI5DlwHNk-OW2ON_lUPj1kIMsAhzVQHufJchkrxTuF4sSy0EWYxF19pQXhID80-pC919nCx3SF59wMNiWYaD9S5QPNdkLCcbqf_Kv_/s1600/grandkids.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDhpWNXcXHMKcTJIPGtx_PSSkHaNsS-8SaBXvJ3ZMI5DlwHNk-OW2ON_lUPj1kIMsAhzVQHufJchkrxTuF4sSy0EWYxF19pQXhID80-pC919nCx3SF59wMNiWYaD9S5QPNdkLCcbqf_Kv_/s400/grandkids.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458519967107999538" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj635WjeAOxsONRHoiFn3s3GxmGUGas7z_XpUdgzpXwiWXdM0s0OB0pIHBjFKMmbsIkwjCRl3E7cSzqP72SMXGSF4GhHn6mI-9Xub7Bu7OLojf6ahmjfHEmdC9eO68uIuoRAdlialdXuUsq/s1600/Dad.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 281px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj635WjeAOxsONRHoiFn3s3GxmGUGas7z_XpUdgzpXwiWXdM0s0OB0pIHBjFKMmbsIkwjCRl3E7cSzqP72SMXGSF4GhHn6mI-9Xub7Bu7OLojf6ahmjfHEmdC9eO68uIuoRAdlialdXuUsq/s400/Dad.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458289261145910338" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">Eulogy delivered by his eldest child, Stephen, at St Jude’s, Langwarrin, Australia, April 9, 2010</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Some of us are dreamers, we have a fantastic, creative imagination and can believe anything is possible. Dad was an engineer, they’re the ones who turn dreams into reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">He didn’t have an artistic bone in his body. He dealt in algorithms,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">disciplined planning, correct procedures. But at the age of 22 he fell in love with Nadia Cooperman, a dreamer straight from cloud nine.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">They were married in London in December 1954 and the magic-carpet ride began.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad provided the stability that gave mum the freedom to indulge her imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Peadar (Peter to most) Joseph McDonnell was born in Leenane, Ireland, in October 1930, the 5</span><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:8.5pt;">th </span><span style=" font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">of Captain Peadar and Tilly McDonnell’s eight children. The family later moved and settled in nearby Galway, where Dad served out much of his youth and schooling. He continued on to Galway University where he studied Civil Engineering.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">He was also mad about sports – Gaelic football, hurling, rugby and rowing; He was selected for the Schoolboy fifteen to represent Connaught against Leinster in the Rugby Interprovincial one year. He also represented Galway Uni in the All Ireland Rowing Championships.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Like his mother and father before him, Dad was a devoted Catholic and in his diary at this time, every entry starts with ‘I went to Mass’.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">After graduating he worked in England for the British construction company Wimpy and Co. and the Crown Agents office, seconded from the British Government.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">However, adventure and travel was in Dad’s veins. Before long he and his young wife headed off to a life of adventure in Nigeria where the first of his 10 children was born – that would be me. When my sister Katie confronted Dad one day on why he went to Nigeria of all places rather than the more genteel Kenya with its established community of expatriates, he replied: “I fronted up at the civil service office for overseas postings and said you can send me anywhere.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">When an engineer constructs an all-weather road to an otherwise remote community they change the fortunes of the people in that community forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">With his slide rule and theodolite, and of course his cinecamera, Dad built many roads and bridges connecting communities in Nigeria. These were primitive times, remote from the modern world. There was no ready-mix concrete to call on, nor a phone book of tradesmen to lend a hand. Concrete for piles and struts was mixed and moulded on site using teams of local labourers with improvised facilities. It's a task<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">that required exceptional innovation and ingenuity. As did the task of raising a young family in a primitive, tropical country, rife with exotic diseases and increasing political turmoil.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Two more children later, Mum and Dad finally left Nigeria just before the British colonial rulers did the same. Another short two-child retreat in England and Ireland our now, family of five children with one on the way, set our sights down under.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad must have wondered what he was thinking when he brought his young family to the wilds of the Pearcedale bush surrounded by wildlife and sword grass. There were many failures and triumphs in those early years, like the orchard he planted where the family home now stands, or the failure to catch a wallaby he had by the tail – an event watched repeatedly with much mirth on many a family movie night, or the failure to burn the sword grass, or even the failure to keep our horses fenced<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">in, none of which deterred Dad. But then there was the triumph of building a limestone house and successfully raising a family of 10 kids. A family I knew Dad was very proud of.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Many would agree that mum ruled the roost but Dad always had<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">the final word.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad continued his career providing utilities for the community. First it was water with the State Rivers and Water Supply and then it was homes for those who needed them most with the Victorian Housing Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">As I mentioned, Dad was deeply religious and caring and gave much to the community and asked for nothing in return – unless you happened to be eating some chocolate around him.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">He was always a very active member of his parish. When St Marys Primary School needed some new classrooms Dad did the drawings and supervised the building work. When Hastings Parish needed a church, Hall for Pearcedale Dad once again did the drawings and plans and helped in the building work. You can always tell Dad's churches, they're the ones that look like they were designed by an engineer.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad was one of the founding members of the St Vincent De Paul Society here at St Judes attending regular meetings to help out the needy and the poor of the Parish.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">There is no question that Dad touched the lives of so many people in Africa, England, Ireland and Australia through his work. And there is no doubt that most of them would not be aware of who he is or what he has done. He never talked about his work or himself. We had to do quite a bit of research so we could tell you what he actually did at work all these years.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">He was not one of those married to his career – he was married to Mum and his family. At home with his kids, that's where Dad really lived.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">He was a very quiet, gentle and caring man, but never-the-less there was a side to Dad that would surprise many. For example, his adventurous, fearless spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">It must have come as a great shock to Mum when he took on the gruelling Murray River Marathon with some of his sons. Ironic that by the same river I was playing Nigerian rhythms on Congo drums at the Down to Earth Festival. Or the time he agreed to accompany Rory on a flight in a light plane to Queensland and back. Rory had just got his pilot's licence and was keen to give it a try. Or the time he went hunting razorbacks on the banks of the Lachlan River. Not with guns – with dogs and knives.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad was never a horseman, but his daredevil spirit compelled him to occasionally saunter out to one of the children on a horse declaring it was his turn. On one such occasion, at the age of 55 the spirited horse took off and dumped our poor Dad, leaving him with a punctured lung, six broken ribs and a broken collarbone. He never got on a horse again.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">His strength and belief in standing up for what was right came out in unusual ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Like the time Mum opened an antique shop in Frankston when Joanne, her youngest, started school. With no allocated parking space and surrounded by two-hour parking zones, Mum had a constant barrage of parking fines which she would occasionally appease with a cheque. Fed up, she went to the police station and demanded all outstanding fines which she would pay, and did. When, in the next few weeks another summons came for some fines they had missed, Dad said “Enough”. He would go to jail rather than pay another cent. Off he went with his book under his arm to the Dandenong lock up. Mum was in the shop that day. She rang home to see what was needed. Jackie answered: “We need milk and bread – and Dad’s in jail”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Around 1975 when I was working in the city, dad suggested we both do a public speaking course the Knights of the Southern Cross were running, to help me overcome my fear of public speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad introduced us to current affairs and British comedy. News and AM in the morning on the way to school, PM in the evening then This Day Tonight, Monday Conference, Point of View with Bob Santamaria and the comedies, At Last the 1948 Show, The Frost Report, Monty Python and others.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Another surprising side of Dad was his eclectic taste in literature – He was never without a book but also read his Catechism, The Catholic Advocate, The Nation Review, National Times, and how can we forget, Harry Potter. In recent years, no book was safe. When visiting his children, he would take any book he happened to find handy. Often frustrating when he disappeared with the book you had nearly finished.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad’s legacies to his children and grandchildren are many. Like his father before him, he always had a camera and we have home movies going back to the early days in Africa. He was always a playful tease, delighting those around him with the ‘whiskers kiss’, 'Gee Up a Guppolin', his constant urge to tickle, and tease, particularly the dreaded ‘horse-bite knee tickle’.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Many of you that knew Dad realised that his mind was deteriorating over the past few years and deteriorating rather exponentially. Even though he knew us all and his cherished grandchildren, 32 in all, this period has been punctuated by some rather comic and bizarre behaviour, too numerous to mention here. But when family members would continually lose their keys only to find them clutched firmly in dads right hand after a frantic search we really started to worry.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Dad never had a bad word for anyone. He had a genuine love for everybody he met and he had the ability to make everyone feel special and welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">Barrister John Styring captured this perfectly in a tribute he sent to Sally. He wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">"I have the fondest memory of Peter sitting in a comfortable chair in your log cabin just across from the open fire, cradling a baby, and smiling at me with a look of utter contentment. There was great noise and movement in the cabin, but for Peter, it was just him, the baby, and by his smile, me."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:"CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">His Grandson Oscar – also grandson of his best friend in Galway, Mossy Power – said it all when asked by his father “Do you want to be a doctor like me when you grow up”, he answered: "When I grow up I want to be just like Grandpa."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family: "CalistoMT","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:CalistoMT;font-size:14.0pt;">We all miss you so terribly, Dad.</span></p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-30115458446734053032009-10-06T22:26:00.000-07:002009-10-06T22:35:03.017-07:00We can measure our way to 'la dolce vita'<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">From the 27<sup>th</sup> to the 30<sup>th</sup> of this month (October) global experts will gather in Busan, Korea, for the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_40033426_40033828_1_1_1_1_1,00.html">OECD World Forum</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Although this event has much greater potential for influencing the future of the world than the Copenhagen Conference on climate change, it has been all but ignored by the world’s media. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Every key player and informed commentator knows that at best Copenhagen will result in a lot of politicians making well-meaning promises they can’t keep – just like Kyoto.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Busan, on the other hand, is about getting results.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s about the “Global Project on ‘Measuring the Progress of Societies’- hosted by the OECD and run in collaboration with other international and regional partners - it seeks to become the world wide reference point for those who wish to measure, and assess the progress of their societies”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">It’s a cause that has been embraced by French President <a href="http://www.elysee.fr/webtv/discours-sur-la-mesure-de-la-performance-conomique-et-du-progres-social-a-la-sorbonne-video-3-1314.html">Nicolas Sarkozy</a> to his credit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">But his initiative has largely been treated with ridicule by the media. Knowing the media as I do, this is not surprising. What is been attempted at Busan is way outside the popular media’s <a href="http://www.pria.com.au/resources/asset_id/286/cid/360/parent/0/t/resources/title/without-spin-doctors-society-would-be-in-the-dark">vocabulary</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Our journalists are far-more at home with the finger-pointing, accusations, arguments and emotional rhetoric generated by climate change. This sells papers. Results-driven constructive initiatives like the OECD’s Global Project, or the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, just don’t have anything to offer the media. They lack the strong <a href="http://www.pesa.com.au/publications/pesa_news/dec_06/pesanews_8505.html">emotions</a> the media needs to attract customers like you and me.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Tracking effective measurements is one of the most powerful means of bringing about change. I once asked an engineer how he had achieved such remarkable results in improving the energy efficiency and reducing the greenhouse emissions from his industrial plant. He said it was just a result of measuring and tracking theses parameters of our business. “Once we established benchmarks and then tracked our progress as part of our everyday business, the plant operators starting finding all sorts of ways to reduce energy waste,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">This is what the OECD, as well as credible organisations around the world, have been doing for years. But they will never achieve their full potential until they are adopted by the mainstream media.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">We do it for anything to do with money, such as share markets, GDP, consumer sentiment, but if it does not relate directly to money we ignore it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">The media goes into a frenzy whenever interest rates move. Here in Australia, particularly since the last election, we saw all sorts of claims and accusations about which party, Liberal Coalition, or Labor, were best at keeping interest rates low.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But do interest rates really present a credible measure of a government’s worth? The merits of debating levels of interest rates under Liberal or Labor leadership is so spurious given the impact of international factors on Australia’s economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">And anyway, Governments are not just elected to steer the economy – we are a society not just an economy. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">According to pioneering sociologist Emile Durkheim, it’s another issue floating around in the public debate lately that is a much more accurate measure of the health of a society than money – it’s <a href="http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Summaries/suicide.html">suicide</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Durkheim believed that the only true way to gain empirical evidence of our society’s health and wellbeing was by counting how many of us decide to check-out early.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">So how do our historic Liberal and Labor Governments go on suicide rates?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">According to the <a href="http://www.who.int/topics/suicide/en/">World Health Organisation</a>, it’s the Liberals who hold the record for suicide rates in Australia. But not just any Liberal Government, it’s the Liberal Party’s icon, Sir Robert Menzies. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He managed to increase the suicide rate by an astounding 37.6 percent to almost 15 per 100,000 people – an all-time record – in a decade and a half of Government.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Most remarkably he managed to increase women’s suicide rate into unprecedented double figures by the mid-‘60s.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Between 1950 and 1965 our female suicide rate went from 4.7 per 100,000 to 10.8, climaxing with an astonishing 42.6 percent increase in the first five years of the swinging ‘60s.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What could have happened to create such a dramatic spike? Looking at the statistics from a high altitude you could not miss the fact that this was a period of tremendous social change in the role of women. This was the epicentre of women’s liberation as they burned their bras and came out of the kitchen and into the workforce.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Does this mean that many of our mums and daughters chose to put their heads in the oven rather than leave the confines of the kitchen? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">A quick look through Wikipedia reveals that in January 1961 The Pill went on sale in Australia, April 1964 saw <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;">Melbourne woman Judy Hanrahan appointed as the first female teller in the Bank of NSW since the War. In the same month </span></span><span style="color:black;">Menzies refused to ratify the International Labor Organisation convention on equal pay for women.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"; font-family:";color:black;">As our suicide rates neared their peak, Donald Horne published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">T</i></span></span><i><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">he Lucky Country</span></i><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">. But then, coincidentally after Sydney’s Philip St Theatre staged its famous comedy revue, <i>A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down, </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic">the tide turned</span>. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Menzies handed the reins over to Harold Holt and female suicide rates began to decline. However, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>it wasn’t until 2003, with John Howard as PM, that they returned to their 1950 rate of 4.7.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">There is no question that according to Durkheim’s measure, the Age of Aquarius, peace and free love was not a happy time. As our society lifted her skirts and let down her hair, and the beautiful people indulged in drugs and sex and rock and roll, women in the English-speaking world were killing themselves in record numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But it has to be said that the UK and US rate for women never came close to our double figures.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Our rate for men, on the other hand, lives in double figures.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">The title for achieving the highest suicide rate for men goes to Labor icon Bob Hawke. In 1990 it hit an unprecedented 20.7 per 100,000. This was just as the country was heading into Treasurer Keating’s “recession we had to have”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Durkheim’s mission over a century ago was to find uncompromised data to measure and study social trends, because our intuition is often very misleading.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">For example, we like to think of ourselves as “the greatest little country on earth” – land of beautiful beaches, sunshine and “she’ll be right mate”. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So then how come, according to the OECD, our suicide rate is nearly twice that of those “whinging”,” whining” Poms?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Sociology has come a long way since Durkheim’s day. We now have a wide range of sophisticated measures such as Cantril-ladder-type questionnaires to test how we’re doing as a society. But, as I said earlier, for some reason we choose to ignore them unless they are linked to money.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">Experts agree that suicide rates and the epidemic of depression that has been sweeping the post-war industrial world seems to be linked to breakdowns in social cohesion. In short, it has to do with the “ME” generation. Anything we can do to turn our “ME” upside down to make a “WE” society will improve our outlook and reduce our suicides. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">In the past communities grew around a cathedral, synagogue, temple or a mosque. Today we worship the bourse. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Our daily news outlets report on the Dow Jones Index, the FTSE, the Nasdaq, the Hang Seng, the Nikkei, the All Ordinaries, the S&P, CPI, GDP, the dollar etc, etc, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">As Robert Kennedy said in 1968 – ironically, as American women were killing themselves in record numbers – we measure “everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile”. Three months later he was shot dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";">So the 3<sup>rd</sup> OECD World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy” (October 27-30) will feature its Global Project on "Measuring the Progress of Societies". Although it has been embraced by <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">President Sarkozy who</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;"> is developing a measurement template “for every interested country or group of countries” for now it looks like the world media’s attention is elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"; font-family:";color:black;">However, the success or failure of these initiatives – and therefore our success or failure in achieving our goals including tackling climate change – will depend on the media.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"; font-family:";color:black;">So come-on editors and producers, step away for the sheep and start making real progress.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"; font-family:";color:black;">Here is a sample of some of the human-factor measures you can choose from. They are all tried and tested.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;color:black;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><a href="http://www.gallup.com/consulting/worldpoll/24046/About.aspx?CSTS=wwwsitemap&to=SERVIC-Gallup-World-Poll">The Gallup World View</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;color:black;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><a href="http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_nat/nat_fp.php">World Happiness Database</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;color:black;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><a href="http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_40033426_40033828_1_1_1_1_1,00.html">OECD Measuring the Progress of Societies</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;color:black;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><a href="http://www.communityindicators.net.au/measuring_wellbeing">Community Indicators Victoria</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;color:black;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"font-family:";"><a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS/0,,contentMDK:21725423~pagePK:64133150~piPK:64133175~theSitePK:239419,00.html">World Bank Development Indicators</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="Arial","sans-serif"; font-family:";color:black;">This is only a few and each of these have links to many more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span style="line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt;">If we are serious about winning the "War on Terror", if we are serious about building a better world for our children and grandchildren, then we will measure the things that matter most and we will report the results along with the weather, the stock market trends and the value of the dollar in our newspapers and on the evening news.</span>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-41493662561283363012009-08-22T06:48:00.000-07:002009-08-22T06:57:27.329-07:00A Peony’s Progress<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The year I was born a fellow traveller, or S</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">putnik</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> to use the Russian word, also began this journey. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I was whisked off to Africa in my first few months on Earth, while Sputnik was launched into orbit.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">As I sprouted I began to wonder what I would be when I grew up.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Would I be like my father, or would I be Daniel Boone.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Once I thought I would win Wimbledon, when I got around to it. But that didn’t happen.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I tried being a navvy, but I fell into a pile of newspapers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So I thought I was a journalist. While this seemed okay, it just wasn’t quite there.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">But finally my bud burst and Sputnik delivered the truth.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">When he headed towards the stars, he kindled a flame of insecurity over in America.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">As a result the United States formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA, in order to regain the lead in the rocket race. ARPA created the technology that later led to the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Internet</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">, so that John Brockman could launch a </span><a href="http://www.edge.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">website</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> on its Edge to introduce me to Katinka Matson who had a mirror in which I could see my true self at last – I’m a </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/oqp63g"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">peony</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">. </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-71771911512619506812009-07-21T20:04:00.000-07:002009-07-21T20:08:34.232-07:00Journalists Are Being Taken For Fools Over Energy<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Something is missing from the Rudd Government’s energy policies – energy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We have a lot of theories, plans, committees, voluminous reports, good intentions and ambitious targets, but we don’t have a credible plan for supplying the energy we will need in coming years to maintain our economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The fault here lies not just with the Government, but with us in the media.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We in the media have to take responsibility for the fact that, when it comes to energy, the public’s perception has become totally detached from reality. Our politicians, in order to remain popular, have been forced to present two faces – one for mainstream journalists and the public and the other for the energy industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">When speaking to the former they present beads and trinkets – or more accurately, propellers and mirrors. Yet when speaking to the energy industry they are at pains to demonstrate that they haven’t lost the ball.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Take for example the mixed messaging coming out Canberra on renewable energy. The public’s perception of renewable energy is essentially wind, solar and biofuels – energy that is widely believed to be clean, green, available and the way of the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, this is not the reality. To quote the Government’s own energy experts at <a href="http://www.abare.gov.au/">ABARE</a>:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Australian production of renewable energy is dominated by bagasse (sugar cane waste), wood and wood waste, and hydroelectricity, which combined accounted for 86 per cent of renewable energy production in 2006-07. Wind, solar and biofuels (which include landfill and sewage gas) accounted for the remainder of Australia’s renewable energy production.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Few people outside the energy industry will hear government spokespeople explaining that we get most of our renewable energy from damming rivers and burning forests.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Whenever politicians – Labour, Coalition, or Greens – talk about renewable energy, they love to highlight solar. That’s the one we all love. That’s the one we really want to be the answer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">“</b></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">We should use the sun's power to stop blackouts, instead of causing them,” thundered The Age’s editorial during last summer’s heatwave (<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/heat-is-on-backward-government-energy-policies/2009/02/01/1233423047816.html">2 February 2009</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But sadly today’s solar technology suffers from fundamental flaws in terms of cost, scale and reliability. The only solar energy running in urban areas anywhere in the world is there because it’s subsidised – governments are paying for it because the people want it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Rudd Government’s energy experts again: “Most solar energy is used for residential water heating and this represents less than 1 per cent of final energy consumption in the residential sector.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We are facing a major crisis in providing for our future energy needs, while our politicians engage in feckless arguments about targets and schemes. Kevin Rudd is driving energy policy merrily towards a tree like Mr Magoo. The Greens are angry because he’s not going fast enough while the media commentators just bark at the tyres.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We really need journalists to shine a light on what’s really happening. But in order for that to happen we journalists must first stop being advocates. When it comes to complex technical issues like energy we don’t have the answers – we are the communicators. Our readers, viewers, listeners rely on us to break down the complex technical information and translate it into simple concepts that they can understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Right now the debate is dominated by the beliefs and opinions of politicians, academics, economists, scientists, financial market analysts, industry leaders, and journalists. Each brings important input into the deliberations. However, they are all essentially theorists. We are hearing very little from the pragmatists – the engineers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It’s the absence of engineers from the debate that has resulted in our energy policies failing to take the curve on the way towards tackling climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Scientists have done an excellent job in identifying where we have to get to. But our political leaders have designed a path forward without adequate input from the engineers. Yet it’s our engineers who will have to do the heavy lifting in getting us there.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Our current energy policies are based on wishes, and dreams, assumptions and beliefs. But the fact is, no matter how strong your mandate, no matter how large your majority, no matter how well-meaning your intentions, you can’t legislate to change the laws of thermodynamics.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Governments has introduced legislation increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) and it has bipartisan support. However, the Greens don’t think it goes far enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So let’s do the maths.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The legislation says we will get 20 per cent of our electricity from renewable energy by 2020. The Government’s forecast says we will need 1258 petajoules (PJ) of electricity per year by 2020, bearing in mind that one petajoule is the energy equivalent of 29 million litres of petrol.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At 20 percent, that means we will require 251.6 PJ of renewable power generation in about 10 years time. We currently deliver about 92 PJ – 63 PJ of which is hydro-electricity. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Hydro’s growth is limited, in fact it has been decreasing, which is not surprising given the state of our water supplies in the hydro areas.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But let’s put it down for the projected 68 PJ the Government says we will get by 2020. That leaves 183.6 PJ to come. There are new technologies on the horizon, wave, geothermal and hot-rocks, but they are, to quote Minister Penny Wong, “yet to be developed”.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the Government’s forecasts wind will increase by 1 PJ to 16 PJ in 2020, biomass (that’s wood) will almost double to 15 PJ and biogas (gas from tips and landfills) will rise to 7 PJ. So that leaves 145.6 PJ of renewable energy we will have to find to meet our MRET target.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">What about solar?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We have all, no doubt, heard about Australia’s ambitious plan to lead the world into a solar future. We have the much-heralded plan to build the world’s largest and most efficient photovoltaic power plant in Victoria. If we succeed, this one plant will provide more than twice the amount of solar electricity we get from all the solar panels and plants currently installed across the nation. That will reduce our 145.6 PJ target by 1 PJ. So if we throw in our current solar industry we can call it an even 144 PJ we will still require.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the May Budget, the Rudd Government announced its ambitious $1.6 billion Solar Flagship Program. “The Solar Flagship Program is expected to comprise up to four solar power stations operating within the energy market, with a total capacity of 1000MW.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">If they succeed, and remember they need private investment to take the total to over $4 billion, they will add an amazing 6.6 PJ.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So on the Government’s own figures and forecasts we are currently 138 PJ short on meeting its MRET target. This shortfall would require 138 more of the “world’s biggest” solar photovoltaic plants, and at current costs that would be more than $55 billion. Or perhaps we could find somewhere to put an extra 2484 square kilometres of wind-turbines.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Major energy infrastructure projects can typically take 10 years from concept to completion so we need to be starting this right now to deliver the energy in 2020. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Never forget that this 138 PJ shortfall is just to meet our MRET target. We are not talking about finding an alternative to fossil fuels here. These numbers assume that we meet all our energy efficiency targets and that fossil fuels can increase their annual output by 225 PJ.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These foolish targets lead to absurd consequences like Australia and America exporting wood to Europe (<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124691728110402383.html">WSJ, July 8</a>) to burn in coal-fired power plants in order to meet the EU’s absurd 20 percent renewable quota.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So as our politicians are out there bragging about their targets, where are all the journalists asking them to explain where the energy is going to come from? Are they, for example, planning on burning down more forests? Or perhaps they want to revisit the Gordon-Franklin hydro scheme now that we have Bass Link tying Tasmania’s electricity to the mainland.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Far from grilling the Government on these basic fundamentals, we have many intelligent, rational journalists, academics and politicians seriously suggesting that we should extend this shortfall by replacing coal-fired generation with renewable energy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Just for the record, that would make the missing 138 PJ grow to 988 PJ.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">To give you some idea of the complexities of the energy industry, let’s look at the aluminium industry. Our wind turbines and the towers they sit on are made from aluminium. If we wanted to power only our aluminium smelters from wind it would require more than 2000 square kilometres of wind turbines. That’s the equivalent of a wind-farm one kilometre wide stretching from Melbourne out way beyond Brisbane.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">To attempt this, of course, would create a significant increase in demand for aluminium, which in turn would require more power and therefore more wind turbines etc, etc, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This is why we really need to draw more engineers into this debate. They are the ones trained to deal with these practicalities. Engineers tend to be more doers than talkers, which probably explains why so few of them go into politics.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, 2009 is the 90<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of the Australian Institute of Engineers and maybe we can make this the year we started to change all that.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">If we are going to make any serious progress in the global challenge of meeting the world’s energy needs while tackling climate change we are going to have to hear more from our engineers. And we in the media are going to have to resist the urge to advocate and go back to asking the fundamental questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-26344068226745752902009-06-12T20:01:00.000-07:002009-06-12T20:12:12.138-07:00The Solar Energy Mirage<p class="MsoNormal">I have a torch at home that doesn’t need batteries yet never runs out of electricity. It is made from durable plastics and inside has a copper coil with a loose magnet that slides back and forward through the coil when you shake the torch. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It transforms the chemical energy stored in my muscles (and fat) into electrical energy that allows me to see in the dark. How amazing is that?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But this wonderful, perpetual, renewable energy source is not the answer to all my energy problems. It has not led me to unplug my house from the power grid, tear up my electricity bills and throw my car keys over the fence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The solar energy industry is in the same position as my torch. It’s also an amazing, wonderful source of energy when it is used in the right situations, such as locations far from conventional electricity infrastructure, like in the outback, or powering the remote-control systems on gas platforms out in the South China Sea. But it is not the answer to the world’s energy problems and it won’t be in my lifetime and probably the lifetime of anyone reading this article.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Solar’s problem is the economics don’t add up. For example, we all dream of having cars that run on solar power. Yet if I produced such a car today, I would find it hard to sell. It would be ideal as a summer beach patrol vehicle, but it would never cut it as the family sedan. We need our cars day and night, rain, hail or shine and very few people can afford the capital expense of a second car just to use on sunny days.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">These are the same problems with solar power generators – they are expensive and unreliable. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">That’s why almost all the solar energy in our urban areas is there because it’s on the dole – whether that's in Australia, Germany or California. It’s paid for by taxpayers’ money, because our politicians are forced to pander to the misconceptions of the community. The community wants solar energy to be the answer to all our energy needs, so our politicians are very keen to give it to them. That’s why there is so much fuss about Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>axing of the solar rebate.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile the real energy problems are mounting up – and they are formidable problems.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are three fundamental principles that govern the energy industry – how much, how much and timing. How much energy can you deliver? How much will it cost? When can you deliver it? Scale, cost and timing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">These crucial principles are ignored by many who speak out on energy issues and as a result the general public has naive, impossible expectations based on a grossly distorted picture of the energy market.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Timing is important to understand because the energy industry runs on very different time-lines to the political election cycles that have such an influence on our policy decisions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Our whole way of life, our quality of life, is determined by our access to energy. Wow betide the Government if our daily energy supply is curtailed in anyway, or if the cost of that energy goes up dramatically. We saw an example of this with the spike in petrol costs last year and the power outages in the Victorian heatwave.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But the energy we rely on today – to keep our milk and chops cold, to run our lights, air conditioners and tellies, and to get to and from work and pick up the kids – is the result of major capital investments in energy infrastructure five, 10, 20, even 30 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If our energy system fails, chances are that's not down to the current Energy Minister, Martin Fergurson, it's more likely to be thanks to his predecessor or his predecessor's predecessors.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the same way our children and even our grandchildren will be relying on the energy investments we make today, under the current Rudd Government. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The problem is that in the current economic climate investment capital is very hard to come by. On top of all this, according to the Government's ABARE forecasts, our future generations are going to rely on a lot more energy than we are currently using, just as we today are using a lot more than our parents' did.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Which brings me to the scale of the problem.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Twenty years ago Australians consumed about 4000 petajoules (4000PJ) of energy per annum. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Bearing in mind that one PJ is the energy equivalent of about 29 million litres of petrol. Today we demand about 6000PJ. According to Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (<a href="http://www.abare.gov.au/">ABARE</a>), if we become far more fuel efficient and implement our fuel conservation measures, we will require a bit more than 8000PJ in 20 years time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So how much does solar contribute? Of the 6000PJ we consume today, solar energy contributes about 3PJ. I’ll write that again in case you think it’s a misprint. Solar contributes about 3PJ. This is almost entirely made up of the energy produced by all the solar hot-water heaters across the nation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">According to ABARE’s forecasts that figure is going to grow rapidly over the next 20 years to 4PJ. Meanwhile our annual demand will increase by 2000PJ over the same time. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The fact is the greatest responsibility for meeting our energy needs while at the same time cutting our greenhouse gas emissions falls heavily on the shoulders of the scientists, engineers, technicians and operators in the fossil fuel industry, who provide about 95 per cent of our energy. Without them we haven’t got a chance.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Slandering these dedicated individuals as “big polluters” or part of the “Carbon Mafia”, and comparing their organisations to tobacco companies just makes the task of recruiting the crucial next generation of young minds to this mammoth task so much harder.</p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-25901497925908985012009-01-10T16:53:00.000-08:002009-01-10T16:58:49.219-08:00Climate Change versus Poverty Alleviation<p class="MsoNormal">The world is playing tug-of-war with itself at the moment. At one end of the rope is the climate change industry, at the other end is world poverty. The arena is the world’s media and the winner is the cause that can attract the most media attention.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">So far the climate change industry is winning hands down. It has proven to be spectacularly successful at playing the media game.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s so successful in fact it has even seduced some of the world’s leading anti-poverty campaigners, such as Oxfam, World Vision and Unicef, to come over and pull for its side.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><a href="http://www.worldvision.com.au/learn/policyandreports/environment.asp#climatechange">Policy Position on Climate Change</a>,</i> World Vision Australia declares that it is prepared to refuse funds for the world’s poor in the interests of supporting its climate change policy. It states that it “will decline offers of funds, goods-in-kind, or services-in-kind from companies” that it believes do not support its position on climate change.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Frankly I find this deeply disturbing. It is an alarming sign of today’s omnipotent media.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">As the UN IPCC makes clear, climate change is a very real problem. But it's not the only real problem. That fact that it is so pervasive in today’s news is a credit to its spin doctors.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">There is no question that our daily news industry is of vital importance to a healthy democracy, but it is not the font of knowledge that some believe it to be. News organizations are in the business of selling stories. As Evelyn Waugh put it in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_(novel)">Scoop<span style="font-style: normal">,</span></a></i> it's only news until it's read – "after that it's dead”. So good spinners know that the same message has to be constantly renewed – "more urgent", "more dire" – in order to make it into the papers.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The most important news doesn’t always make it into the daily media – the best stories do.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Tomorrow there will be a catastrophic international incident that will kill more than 20,000 children. The reason they will die is because the doctors and the ambulances will be too late in getting to them. But that's not news, because it also happened yesterday, and again today – in fact it happens every day, including Christmas and holidays.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Not one of these children will be killed by climate change. Their biggest cause of death is pneumonia, followed by other easily treatable conditions including diarrhea, malaria and malnutrition.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Ending world poverty is urgent – tackling climate change is important, but not urgent. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The good news is that progress is being made. According to <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">UN Millennium Development Goal</a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">2007 Report</i>, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in the world fell from nearly a third to less than one fifth between 1990 and 2004. As a result the Millennium Goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 is likely to be met.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Unfortunately this progress is almost entirely due to the rapid economic expansion in Asia, most obviously China. China is eradicating its poverty and raising living standards the same way we did in the West, by burning fossil fuels. As a result its CO2 emissions are projected to be greater than those of Europe and the US combined in the next quarter of a century. China is big enough and powerful enough to politely tell Western climate change lobbyists to get stuffed. Yes, it recognizes that reducing emissions is important, but it has made it clear that economic growth comes first.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Low-cost, high-yield energy brought us the industrial revolution. This did not just give us what we have today in our modern world, it formed who we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">As neuroscientist Professor Susan Greenfield points out in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/ID-Quest-Identity-21st-Century/dp/0340936002">The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century</a></i>, it changed us from "a cog in the machine of a feudal society" into the free-thinking individuals we are today. It made each of us "Someone". When manual labor became more mechanized, we got more leisure time to just think. At the same time the new manufacturing age was "desperate to draw on diverse types of individual talents". This, of course, sparked the need for education and innovation and before you know it, here we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Well now it's time for the <st1:place st="on">Third World</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">But this won’t happen without the low-cost, high-yield fossil fuel energy we rely on. Yet some in the climate change industry say developing countries should instead be encouraged to adopt high-cost, low-yield renewable energy. Make no mistake about it, to push this line is to pull the rope away from poverty alleviation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The industrial revolution unlocked our brain power. Education of the masses delivered brilliant scientists, doctors and engineers who rapidly improved our technology and standard of living. But most of our human brain power is still locked away in the Third World struggling just to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Climate change is a global issue and a personal one. It's not a national issue – it can't be solved by politicians or corporations. It's up to us. We the consumers are the big polluters.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The only effective way to unite the world behind this cause is to adopt a long-term global per-capita target.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Then we work hard to get ourselves down to that target, but more importantly, we work hard to get everyone in the developing world up to that target.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">One of the most significant factors driving global emissions growth is population growth. History has proven that as living standards increase birth rates decline.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The major global issues plaguing the world today – climate change, terrorism and poverty – are all linked.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Who knows, the person capable of providing a vital clue to our search for low-cost, high-yield sustainable energy technology could be toiling away today in some field in Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Our challenge is to get her through school and into a university urgently.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-90289624179636400452008-10-04T05:18:00.000-07:002008-10-04T05:49:45.544-07:00The Picture That Changed the World<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjae5J5HIv-rypjOp77CEzZOH1gnCNWc5WvJKcTVp0vjFHkdc6UHrBzy7eS6GpuCSf0clFVU-ToSCqaHh62I0sRaTg510xLr_SGm8MUTY31gvKuxgaWmWBy8KEdD12i7TUTVbCZfNSrwbj7/s1600-h/20040920apadams_450.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253275354535137234" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjae5J5HIv-rypjOp77CEzZOH1gnCNWc5WvJKcTVp0vjFHkdc6UHrBzy7eS6GpuCSf0clFVU-ToSCqaHh62I0sRaTg510xLr_SGm8MUTY31gvKuxgaWmWBy8KEdD12i7TUTVbCZfNSrwbj7/s320/20040920apadams_450.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Below is a short story I wrote based on this graphic picture of the execution of Vietnamese soldier <a href="http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0410/faas.html">Nguyen Van Lam</a> during the Vietnamese Tet Offensive in 1968. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photo was taken by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Adams_(photographer)">Eddie Adams</a> of The Associated Press. This powerful image shocked the world and played a key role in turning American public opinion against the continuing US involvement in the war. So Nguyen Van Lam was thrust into the pages of history. His death contributed to the defeat of America in Vietnam, a defeat that cast a dark cloud over US foreign policy for the rest of the 20th Century. It always intrigued me why we never knew who this person was until only recently. And even today very little is known about him. We do know he has a wife who mourns him to this day. To her he remains MIA as she has never managed to find his body. His death marked a violent start to the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Earth Monkey. It was a year that changed the world. It was marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and Soviet tanks rolling into Czechoslovakia crushing the freedom movement born in the Prague Spring. Time Magazine says 1968 was <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,966422,00.html">Like a knife blade, the year severed past from future</a>. To Newsweek Magazine it was <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/69637/page/1">The Year That Changed Everything.</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Leonard McDonnell<br /></strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><strong><span style="color:#ff6666;">Tet 1968: A Love Story</span><br /></strong></span><br />Nguyen Van Lam knows things. His name means knowledge, understanding, and his friends call him Bay Lop -- the seventh child, born in the seventh month. He doesn't believe in fortune tellers and he's not deeply superstitious, unlike his wife Mai<br />He just gets a feel for things.<br />He knew this was not going to be a good year. So far all the signs were proving him right. The first person through his door for the New Year was a policeman. He burst in gun-barrel first, after smashing the door in, three hours after midnight. He held Mai against the wall while his fellow soldiers ransacked the house. But Lam wasn’t there.<br />It was the third raid in as many weeks. Lam isn’t home much these days. He knows events are coming to a head and he has to lay low.<br />Sitting alone in a darkened room listening to the distant crack, crack, crack of fireworks, he felt a deep sense of dread. The firecrackers that used to so lift his spirit in the New Years of his youth, this year had a more sinister sound.<br />He reached for the red parcel, illuminated by a dusty shard of sunlight streaking down from a gap in the shutters. It was the New Year present Mai gave him the last time he saw her. He’ll never forget the image of her wiping tears off her cheek with the back of her hand as she passed him the present. It was only hours after the raiders had left their home. He made a brief visit to wish her a happy New Year, even though he knew there was little to be happy about.<br />Mai was standing amid the ruins of the kitchen. She was determined to do everything she could this year to ward off bad luck. She cooked for weeks and brought food to the temples. She adorned her kitchen altar with everything she could think of – sweetened fruits, watermelon seeds, papaya, sugar-apples, mango and coconuts. She even cooked nián gao pudding to sweeten the kitchen gods and fa gao Prosperity Cake. Now the food lay scattered across the floor. She couldn’t clean-up, because to clean during New Year celebrations would bring bad luck.<br />She had worked so hard for months to ward off what she felt was an impending doom.<br />Her brother and her best friend had both been killed by the invaders – the invaders that were hunting for Lam. She knew this was the Year of the Earth Monkey and the leader of the invaders was an Earth Monkey, this was a very bad omen. The fortune teller at the temple told her that her man would be a great warrior who would send the invaders away and bring peace to the city. But “great warrior” was how they described her brother, and he was dead. Mai didn’t want a great warrior, she just wanted her husband home.<br />As he slowly tore open the red paper parcel, Lam remembered that today was the second day of the New Year, the day they would traditionally visit Mai's family. The basket of food she had prepared for the occasion was one of the few items to survive the raid. He recalled it sitting on the kitchen sink with a bunch of flowers as he left Mai crying. He wanted to reassure her that everything would be OK, but he knew it wouldn’t, so he just kissed her on the cheek and left saying nothing.<br />He laughed when he saw what was in the parcel. It was his favourite plaid shirt. Mai bought it for him six months earlier at a street market. It reminded her of the shirt worn by a bronco rider she had seen in a magazine picture from the Calgary Rodeo. “It’s a cowboy shirt,” she said as she held it up in front of him to check the size. “The Earth Monkey comes from Texas, he’s a cowboy. Texas is where the cowboys come from.”<br />Mai believed that aligning Lam’s destiny to the future of the Earth Monkey – the leader of the world, the leader of the invaders – would help bring good luck in the year of the Earth Monkey.<br />Lam took off his dirty, green uniform and pulled on the cowboy shirt. The feel of the flannel, freshly washed and ironed, immediately brought him back to that sunny morning when he and Mai, got up early and went to the market.<br />As he did up the last button the door burst open and soldiers pushed him to the ground. They punched him repeatedly in the face as the crackers continued in the distance. His arms were tied behind his back and then two of the soldiers frog-marched him out into the bright sunlight and down the Saigon street.<br />Press cameras were flashing in his face as he recognised the enraged Police Chief stepping forward. The two soldiers left him and Lam felt deep fear, not so much for himself but for Mai. As the cameras stared, hungry for action, he knew he would never see her again.<br />The barrel of the Police Chief’s pistol was cool against his temple and he winced as he felt the loud crack against the back of his hand. “No!” said Mai feigning fury and threatening to hit him again with the bamboo spoon. “You know it’s bad luck to eat from the altar Lam.”<br />“Lollies don’t make luck Mai. We make our own luck.”<br />“It won’t kill you to wait until after Tet. You’re not a child. You could show some respect to your ancestors – for my sake, Lam, even if you don’t believe.”<br />As Mai stood there pleading with him, Lam was struck by how beautiful she was. Her hair was up in a ragged bun, pierced with a chop stick. This was just how she looked the first time they encountered each other. She was making rice-paper rolls at a back table in her family’s restaurant. As he walked past he took one and she gave him the same disapproving frown she was giving him now. But it wasn’t totally disapproving – it contained a whisper of affection. It was that whisper that drew him back to her restaurant with his friends many times. He would position himself so that he could glance up and see her working at the same table, while his friends joked, gossiped and rummaged through the events of the day.<br />It wasn’t long before they worked out what was going on. “Bay Lop’s in love,” they taunted whenever they realised his attention was not on their conversation. “Or maybe it’s the food she’s making that he’s lusting after.”<br />Lam knew that lust didn’t have anything to do with the spell he was under. He was consumed by desire – an overwhelming desire just to hold one of those delicate hands.<br />He will never forget the first time it happened. As a soldier he had often found himself in situations that tested his courage, but none compared to the courage he needed to muster in order to reach out and take Mai’s hand.<br />The occasion was their third date. As usual, her mother accompanied them everywhere they went. However, this time her need for a new mortar and pestle overcame her need to keep the youngsters apart.<br />She went into a rambling kitchen shop, leaving Mai and Lam waiting alone out in the street.<br />Lam still wasn’t convinced that Mai liked him. He didn’t know whether or not she was only coming out with him at the urging of her mother, who seemed very keen on him as a potential husband for her daughter.<br />Mai rarely spoke on their previous outing. All the talking was done by her mother.<br />But nevertheless he summoned up the nerve to seize the moment and reach out for her hand. He was terrified that she might pull away, leaving him devastated.<br />He closed his fingers around hers, scraping his fingernails on part of the rope binding his wrists, as blood gushed from his head on to the Saigon street, and the world stared through the camera lenses. </div>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1971583772164068444.post-45544752520610885062008-07-30T21:41:00.000-07:002008-07-30T21:44:32.255-07:00A Clash of Two MinistersThe Federal Government’s <a href="http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/greenpaper/index.html">green paper</a> on emission trading highlights the dichotomies that plague many of our public policy decisions. It’s the differences between facts and beliefs, between those who promise and those who have to deliver, perceptions and reality, leadership and politics, what we would like to achieve and what we can achieve.<br />Australia faces two major challenges that are certainly not complementary. One is how are we going to attract the massive long-term investments we will need, particularly in the energy industry, to maintain our economy in face of rapidly growing international competition? The other is how are we going to reduce our carbon footprint?<br />The green paper shows that, for the time being at least, the Rudd Government wants to remain in “Opposition” mode and keep these issues away from each other.<br />While Energy Minister Martin Ferguson's report, <a href="http://www.abare.gov.au/publications_html/energy/energy_08/energyAUS08.pdf">Energy in Australia 2008</a>, outlines the energy challenge and pays little attention to the emissions challenge, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong’s paper deals with the emissions by dancing around the energy challenge.<br />The language of the green paper reeks of the tired old assumptions that we will have to jettison if we are going to make any attempt to seriously tackle global climate change.<br />Number one is this concept that society is divided between big (bad) corporations on the one hand and the community, the battlers, working families on the other.<br />The green paper encourages the deluded view that significant emissions cuts can be achieved without major costs to the community. It’s a dream where our way of life will be saved by propellers and mirrors and petrol we can practically grow in our gardens. Emissions trading will force the “big polluters” – the carbon mafia, the bastards in the boardrooms – to switch over to the alternative, clean energy sources that up until now they have been conspiring to suppress.<br />In reality is there is no conspiracy. As Fergusons’s report makes clear, there are no quick-fix clean energy alternatives to switch to.<br />Furthermore we do not live in a divided society. We are all in this together.<br />You see, maintaining our standard of living requires major long-term investments. Business leaders make their investment decisions in the interests of their shareholders. To a rapidly increasing extent, those shareholders are "working families". Workers' super funds account for almost a quarter of the wealth on the Australian stock market. But these funds are not restricted to Australia. We have about $450 billion in funds under management invested here and around the world.<br />When business leaders make their investment decisions, it is helpful to remember they are investing to maximise our retirement income. Major corporations invest for long-term sustainable returns, rather than trying to make a quick buck.<br />This green paper seems to miss this point entirely. It is a document built around election-cycle timelines rather than investment outlooks. It has short-term provisions to assist some companies that have already made investments in energy and manufacturing, but it has very little to encourage the new, long-term capital investments we are going to rely on for our future economic growth.<br />The energy we are using today is provided as a result of major capital investments five, 10, even 20 years ago.<br />According to Ferguson's report we are going to need almost 40 per cent more energy than we currently use by 2030, despite dramatic improvements in efficiency, and fossil fuels are projected to account “for around 94 per cent of primary energy consumption in 2029-30".<br />Meeting this demand is going to require billions of dollars in investments in fossil fuels starting from now. There is no recognition of this in the green paper.<br />The green paper makes several references to the need for investments in "clean energy". But it does not say what this clean energy is. It comes close on page 72 where it says: "Carbon capture and storage, solar and geothermal technologies have been identified as strategic priorities for Australia." But none of these even rate a mention in Ferguson’s forecast to 2030.<br />The fact is that right now "alternative" energies are about as prepared to take over the role of fossil fuels as alternative medicines are to take over the emergency rooms in our major hospitals.<br />You see, when it comes to understanding the energy industry you really only need to know two things – how much, and how much? How much can you reliably provide, and how much will it cost?<br />With so-called clean energy alternatives the answer to the former is inevitably "very little" and the answer to the latter is "heaps".<br />For example, the fastest growing alternative source of power generation is wind. Yet, providing the energy needs of our aluminum industry alone would require a one kilometer-wide windfarm stretching from Melbourne to Brisbane.<br />It’s all about scale and cost. Minister Ferguson's report says our electricity demand will increase by more than 60 percent by 2030. Wind, it says, will be providing just 1.3 per cent of electricity 20 years from now. Coal, on the other hand will have to provide 70 per cent. In the absence of carbon capture and storage in that timeframe this is going to dramatically increase our carbon dioxide emissions from energy.<br />It will be interesting to see Ferguson and Wong united when the Government finally releases its projections for emissions. Projections have to be based on facts, whereas targets can be whatever you want them to be. That fact is the politicians setting the targets won’t be around to answer for the fact they will not be achieved.<br />So the question for us is, should business leaders be investing our super funds to get the best return, or should they forgo our profits and invest in Australia for the good of the nation? Those in favor of investing for the best returns say aye, those against nay – I think the ayes have it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lmcdonnell.com/"><em>Leonard McDonnell</em></a><em> is a freelance journalist and speech writer. His clients include major oil companies. </em>Leonard McDonnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04009032323586651078noreply@blogger.com0