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Charlie Tells it Like It Is

2012-01-25T07:22:00.005+10:00

Charlie Teo’s obviously been reading this blog.

He's not one to suffer fools gladly, and usually speaks his mind with honesty and clarity.

His Australia Day speech echoes a persistent theme I’ve been posting about for some time.

Yet we still have both political parties completely unable to come to any agreement about asylum seekers. If it didn’t involve the lives of vulnerable people it would be funny.

As politicians, of course, they have recognised that for a significant minority in this country hate and loathing are powerful tools, so they use that understanding to wedge each other.

If two sides in any political dispute are applying the wedge – nothing moves, and nothing ever will.

A bi-partisan approach? Pigs might fly.......

The Real Alan Jones

2012-01-20T06:20:00.002+10:00

Nothing left to say, really, except perhaps "true colours".

Perhaps he's watched too much Grahame Kennedy, although at least gra-gra was funny.

(Warning - Mute the sound if you're at work or not using headphones).

Busting Rupert’s Firewall

2012-01-18T06:22:00.002+10:00

You can’t help feeling sorry for Rupert.

His hard-wired tendency to accumulate dollars is being threatened by Google, or at least he believes it is.

I don’t buy newspapers. Apart from the fact that very little of what is printed these days is remotely digestible, you have to part with hard-earned over the counter, and the bloody things are full of naff advertisements.

To my way of thinking, anything containing advertisements should be free. This principle holds for free-to-air television after all.

For a while, I was mug enough to buy a couple of subscriptions to The Oz and The Age to read them on my iPad. I must have been dreaming.

It ain’t necessary, dear reader, because you can access everything in The Oz for free on-line. I’ll explain the simple steps –

Get on to the Australian Home Page.
Find the story you want. They’re all there. Most have the firewall symbol near the top, indicating they are behind the firewall.
Highlight the first few words or the first sentence of the story, and paste them into your search engine. I use Google. I haven’t tried other search engines, but it may work for them.
Hit the search button. The story will appear in its entirety.

It works every time.

I'll experiment with other firewall protected newspapers and let you know how I get on.

Subversion rules!

Thanks Heaps

2012-01-15T12:42:00.016+10:00

Blot is on holidays, so posting on his twaddle is impossible.

Timmeh, however is not – possibly he worries that any absence would be undetectable, and he might be replaced by a robot.

His fears are well-founded. Given the monotonous and predictable contents of his postings, modifying a software programme of the kind used by Telstra (for example) and using an App such as Dragon would do the trick.

The quality would also improve.

So in Blot’s absence I comment quite regularly on Timmeh’s place.

It reminds me a bit of the morning routine with our senile terrier. She’s a lovely old thing, and sleeps in the laundry in a plastic kennel thingie. At the advanced age of 84 (in dog years) she’s become very set in her ways, and dislikes being chased outside unless the sun is warm, and there’s no wind.

When a sou-easter is blowing, these conditions are frequently absent, so turfing her out is usually accompanied by a great deal of snarling and growling. It's only noise. She's almost toothless.

Prodding Timmeh's posts has a similar result, in a manner of speaking. He has an almost canine attachment to his territory, and defends it fiercely. Lately, he has resorted to deleting all my posts and linking them to some website or other. It reminds me a bit of a Blue Heeler I once owned. Even the metros amongst you would know how male Heelers mark their territory.

Now this could be amusing, except that it’s always the same website. He's obviously got an issue with perseveration.

So for your edification, dear reader, I’m posting screen shots of a few of the deleted comments here. You can check them out and discern what is so threatening to Timmeh’s (apparently) delicate ego. Let me know what you see as the problem, and I’ll try to be good.

I promise.

A couple of other interesting things have happened. Hits on my blog have gone up about 25% since he’s been deleting my posts. My on-line book sales (linked to my blog) have also picked up momentum. Read BOAB's review here.

I’m actually making money now – printing and production costs are covered by sales to date.

Maybe Timmeh’s worth a commission. What do you reckon?

Perhaps it would encourage him to take a holiday - only trying to help.................

More ABC bashing. Maybe they lost his resume?


This is a recurring theme - Peacock envy perhaps?

Some people can't abide my tag. Not my problem.

You know the drill - click to embiggen.

It's Chronic

2012-01-13T15:32:00.008+10:00

The current media enquiry has drawn plenty of comment.

Some believe that it is an attempt to muzzle News Limited. I doubt it, as the relationship between government and media is not so simple that it can be described in terms of Right and Left. Bias is always in the eye of the beholder.

Anyone who believes that media bias can be eliminated by regulation has been living under a rock for a long time. Ownership is a problem – that’s what needs to be sorted.

Back in the seventies when I was looking for units to finish an Arts degree, a degree which I completed purely for the hell of it after picking up the Education qualifications needed for my specialisations, I did a couple of Journalism subjects. That experience was sufficient to disabuse me of any notion that truth and accuracy has anything to do with modern Journalism.

We were taught at U of Q that it was the “story” that mattered, although an emphasis on accuracy gained through thorough and careful research was promoted. These days, the media cycle has accelerated to the point where there is simply not enough time for this.

As far as I’m concerned, bias is less of an issue than quality. A clear example of this is the sloppy work revealed by the case against Bolt last year. Read Justice Blomberg’s ruling to gain an insight into the very poor quality of the “journalism” exposed in that case.

These excuses for journalists operate at a range of levels, including provincial newspapers.

The local rag, the Toowoomba Chronicle, is a fine example.

A few years ago, the Chronicle published a front page story about a school Principal of my acquaintance who had to manage an incident when one of his students was accidentally killed in the street in front of the school. This little boy’s dad (driving his work truck) was dropping him off, and the child was run over trying to retrieve his school bag which was on the back of the truck.

The child was killed instantly, but the principal (a colleague of mine) was one of the first on the scene and attempted resuscitation until emergency services arrived.

He had first to deal with the attempted resuscitation, then the inconsolable father, and then manage the critical incident. He did a magnificent job. One of the smart things he did was to phone neighbouring schools and request than any non-teaching staff available be sent to his school to help. As a principal in a nearby school, I was non-teaching, so the deputy, myself and the Guidance Officer all travelled the two kilometres to his school.

We were quickly and efficiently organised, and I found myself looking after a group of year seven kids, one of whom was the older sister of the child killed. This child was removed to a staff room and the teacher I replaced was given the task of looking after this girl and the little boy’s older brother there, until out-of-town family could be organised to help.

It was an extraordinarily difficult day, and this principal’s performance was amazing. At various times, he had to manage police, emergency personnel, grieving parents and staff, and traumatised children, all in the full glare of local and state media who were on to the story from the get-go. Actions of some of the media I personally observed on that day could only be characterised as ghoulish.

This principal continued to provide strong and caring leadership during the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, organised the school community’s participation in the funeral, and assisted in the inquiries that followed.

Slowly, the school community got back to normal. But for this principal, nothing was ever the same again. About six months after the incident he was diagnosed with PTSD. He had cared for everyone except himself.

He went on sick leave, and after many unsuccessful attempts to get back on the rails was forced into involuntary retirement due to his health. He went through his own private hell during the aftermath. I understand some of it, as I tried briefly and unsuccessfully to help.

He was in his forties, married with four kids, so his payout wasn’t sufficient to live on. His lawyers took out a civil action against the father’s compulsory third party insurance in an attempt to provide an income for him and his family. The resources of the bereaved family were not targeted in any way – the insurance company was sued.

The local rag published a front page story under the headline “Ex-principal sues dad who ran over own son”.

This was published with an unflattering picture of the principal. He appeared obviously distressed and unkempt. I’m not sure when or where it was shot, but it has all the hallmarks of a picture taken in ambush.

The fact that the insurance company was being sued, not the father, was hidden in the guts of the story. The whole piece was designed to shock, and therefore to sell, a fine example of gutter journalism.

I wrote both to the reporter who wrote the piece and the editor, but my letter was ignored. In my letters I pointed out that both family and principal had been traumatised by the incident, and the crude publicity would clearly exacerbate their distress. Much later wrote to the press council, but they maintained that no laws had been broken, so it was OK.

Meanwhile this rubbish continues.

The current beat-up is about an alleged snub by the mayor of a local man who lost his wife and son in the 2011 January flood. The formula is the same – pick a target, create public outrage, and sell lots of papers.

The paper is a disgrace. No wonder it’s known locally as the Chronic.

And the Press Council? It’s totally useless.

I Don’t Wish to Know That

2012-01-11T10:48:00.007+10:00

One of the things I found diverting during my brief and unspectacular military career was the use of a number of unique and whimsical catch phrases.

The phrase in question was often applied in a context where someone, generally a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed recruit, had responded inappropriately to a suggestion question or comment, from an NCO.

The response was invariably “I don’t wish to know that”.

This same response could well be used in connection with a report in today’s Fox News about aspirin.

Many people (myself included) with a family history of cardiovascular disease are prescribed a daily low-dose aspirin as a precaution.

The study emanating from St. George's, University of London, found that long term use of aspirin can lead to ulcers and bleeding. On the other hand it averted cardiovascular events in one in 120 people over six years.

OK – so aspirin needs to be used with care. I’m not entirely sure that this is actually news, or that it is entirely new information to the GPs prescribing aspirin.

So why is it reported breathlessly by Fox news? It’s not news, not consequential in the sense that the risks are well understood, and not likely to cause mass fatalities.

So – as someone who will continue to take my daily low-dose aspirin with full knowledge of the low level of risks involved – all I can say is I Don’t Wish to Know That.

In any case, whilst neither are great, an ulcer is always preferable to a heart attack.

Minimalist Motoring

2012-01-07T13:03:00.002+10:00

Have you ever watched the ubiquitous seniors' electric trolleys scooting around the burbs, and wondered about transport solutions for an increasingly congested urban environment?

The vast majority of Australians live in exactly these situations, yet we persist in buying machines to get us from home to supermarket, friends’ place, sporting venue or restaurant that weigh tonnes, use extravagant amounts of rapidly diminishing resources and take up precious road space.

We are conditioned to believe that unless our daily transport tool can travel at 200 km/hr, has a range of 750 kms, and is capable of shifting the contents of the shed out the back in one hit, it’s not worth having.

I’ll concede that maybe once or twice a year, we may need to undertake the Great Australian Road Trip, but why would you buy any piece of kit based on a need that is the exception rather than the rule?

Hire a 4WD when you need it – in the long run it’s a helluva lot cheaper.

It’s a bit like purchasing an industrial grade refrigerator when your needs are domestic only. Madness – yet when it comes to motor cars, we generally take leave of our senses.

Before you scoff – consider this.

In rapidly developing India, the industrial giant Tata has come up with a solution to India’s everyday transport problems called the Nano.

It will get four people from one side of Kolkatā or Mumbai to another quickly, relatively quietly, and out of the weather for very little fuel. It may not meet our local vehicle safety requirements, but it’s a bloody sight safer than your average pushbike, motor bike or 20 year old clunker.

So if it works in India, why not here?

Based on up-to-date currency conversions, a Tata Nano would retail here for $2820 AUD. That’s less than you’d pay for a battery powered senior’s scooter.

And they’re air-conditioned. Apparently it gets hot in India.

Watch the tester driving along talking to the camera which is outside the vehicle (at about 1.02).

That’s confidence.

Minor Mystery

2012-01-02T13:39:00.007+10:00

I'm trying to solve a small mystery in relation to my dad's war service.

Someone out there might be able to help.

In the process of building a time line of events during WW2 involving my father and his units, I came across this document. It's very hard to read, but a number of things are obvious.

It's a stat dec. You'll need to click on the image to read it, and then it's still a bit unclear.

It was sworn at No 3 Personnel Depot RAAF Sandgate on 13th July 1943.

Given that dad disembarked for PNG in July 1943, and returned on 1st December 1944, and that it substantiates an entitlement for War Service Leave, a couple of issues emerge.

How can you compete a stat dec for an event that hasn't yet occurred (returning to Australia)? He obviously completed it prior to embarkation.

Were they all organised to do this? Was there so little faith in military records at the time that it was considered necessary?

Were they able to forecast the period of deployment? Given the situation back then, I wouldn't have thought so.

Any advice is appreciated.

The Bone Man of Kokoda

2011-12-29T12:03:00.006+10:00

I’ve just finished reading The Bone Man of Kokoda by Charles Happell.

This is one of many books I received for Christmas. It’s time to start my own lending library, even if it’s only to help with storage. One of these days our home will spontaneously explode with the pressure of books stored in a variety of places.

Anyhow, it’s one of those stories that simply shouted to be told.

It’s about a WW2 Japanese soldier named Kokichi Nishimura. This bloke was one of very few survivors of a unit called the 144^th Regiment, part of the renowned Nankai Shitai (South Seas Detachment) which was deployed to New Guinea in January 1942.

He was one of very few who survived that brutal campaign which ultimately saw the Japanese defeated as their supply lines were destroyed by the allies. He fought on the Kokoda Track, and was one of the few Japanese survivors of their retreat after forcing the Australians to a point on the track within sight of Port Moresby.

He was repatriated to a field hospital at Giruwa near Buna, after being seriously wounded and suffering from Malaria.

Eventually, after many lucky escapes, including surviving his ship being torpedoed and sunk by an American sub, he returned to Japan in 1945. He was badly injured during the sinking, and was hospitalised again, for months.

He was an old-fashioned warrior, adhering rigidly to values of comradeship and honour, and felt out of place in post war Japan, despite establishing a highly successful manufacturing company, getting married, and raising a family. Ominously, he made a condition of his (arranged) marriage that eventually he would return to Papua New Guinea to find and retrieve the remains of as many members of his old unit as possible.

Nishimura lost his much-loved youngest son in 1966 in an accident, and the author believes that this shock was the catalyst for the extraordinary decisions he made later in life.

In 1979, Nishimura announced to his family that he was going back to New Guinea to keep the promise he’d made to himself and that was a condition of marriage. Despite his wife accepting the condition prior to their marriage, she never anticipated he meant it, and was devastated. This marked the end of the relationship with her and the rest of his children – save for one daughter who stuck with him.

This is where the story gets really bizarre. Nishimura set himself up in Popondetta, New Guinea, building a house and setting up a series of unauthorised memorials over time. He spent years in New Guinea, collecting bones, identifying them, and repatriating them to Japan. At one point he went back to Japan, bought a fishing boat, and sailed it to New Guinea to provide a reliable form of transport along the Eastern coast. The fact that he had never before sailed a boat of any description didn't stop him. He simply took a two-week navigation course, got his master’s ticket, and set sail south.

He was known to return to Japan from time to time, put skulls and bones he’d found in a box, and drive all over Japan, calling on the relatives and descendants of those whose remains he carried to deliver then personally.

He wasn’t always received gracefully.

What makes this story remarkable to me is the resemblance I saw between Nishimura’s determination and that of the team that brought the last Aussies home after the war in Vietnam.

Remarkably, Nishimura started his quest at the age when most are beginning retirement (well over 60). He was a total non-conformist, something very unusual in Japanese culture. At times, he managed to get the governments of both PNG and Japan offside. His unconventional methods caused his old regimental association to disown him, and he completely ignored customs regulations both in Japan and PNG.

The book is comprehensively researched, the prose is clear and eminently readable, and the story amazing.

It’s a great read.

The publisher is Macmillan.

Happy & Holy Christmas

2011-12-24T14:33:00.007+10:00

Season's greetings to you, dear reader, and the other two and a half thousand from Oz, the USA, the UK, India and the USSR who have visited so far this month.

Relative Worth?

2011-12-24T09:58:00.003+10:00

Peter Fitzsimons comes in for a bit of stick from Timmeh, amongst others.

How refreshing, then, to encounter, in the same bookstore display, an example of one of his bestsellers together with wee Johhny's tome.

The prices are interesting.

Lazarus Rising - $9.95

Batavia - $69.95

About right, I reckon.

More Adventures in the Blogosphere

2011-12-22T15:19:00.020+10:00

One version of blogspeak

I’ve had a good time this year posting comments on the sites of the more risible of those who make a living out of peddling opinion.

Opinion is not all they peddle. Prurience, prejudice and pretentiousness are also evident.

It seems that the possession of an over-inflated ego or at least a very delicate one - is also a prerequisite, .

On some of these sites, I’m frequently banned, or have my posts deleted. This is always a good sign. It indicates that I'm on the money.

Others who post on these sites abuse (see above), denigrate and threaten, but they are posted so long as they toe the party line. An example is Curious (above). No substance in the post - only a cheap shot, but that's OK by the mods.

I avoid name-calling and abuse, so there must be other reasons for the censorship.

Sometimes they sneak through...

One possibility is that the site owner feels threatened by the post. This may be because the original opinion posted is obviously biased or pays little attention to the facts. The deleted post below is a good example. Blair was either in too much of a hurry or two lazy to read the complete article he linked to. He therefore wasn't too keen to find that his hero told porkies, so my post was deleted - credibility y'know....poor petal.

Both Pilmer & Timmeh have a poor regard for the truth

The other likelihood is that the blogger has an argument that he can’t sustain. This doesn't happen quite so often, because you don't get arguments on these sites - only ill-considered opinions.

Given that it isn’t a good look for a “professional” to have errors and bias identified by an amateur, naturally the corrective post doesn’t make it. It persists of course, as a screen shot, and can always be posted.

The second deleted post below was a reply to someone having a go at my moniker. I wasn't allowed to defend myself. This is petty stuff - you'd expect someone who earns his living through blogging to be a little more secure. I would have thought that would have made for some interesting banter, but on this blog, there's a politically correct line that mustn't be crossed.

This is offensive?

If opinion can be bought or sold – and this is of course what you’re seeing here – real dialogue is crushed. We’re left with the kind of pseudo discussion which passes for political dialogue across the pacific. Comparing US style political discussion with what used to be accepted here is similar to comparing a doughnut to a decent curry. It's easy to see that Blair and others of his vintage belong to a generation that never saw war and have been indulged and cossetted. They take themselves with a seriousness that is bizarre.

The blogosphere is a great leveller. It is also a platform for discussion and discourse. It’s a shame that the “professionals” have forgotten this.

They’d enjoy themselves more if they remembered that in this country free speech is valued and indulging in a little banter (virtual or real) is an Australian pastime.

Click on the page views to upsize them.

E Books Vs “Real” Books

2011-12-22T09:31:00.002+10:00

We’re told that eBooks are going to render the “real” version obsolete before too much longer. Amazon is already selling slightly more eBooks than paperbacks. The same, however, is not true in Australia.

I wonder about that. Could it be more about “horses for courses”? Perhaps whether a reader opts for a material book or an eBook depends on the content. In any event, there is no appreciable drop-off in regular book sales in this country.

Maybe we’ll see the printed book and the eBook comfortably selling side by side for some time yet – at least for as long as I still have enough eyesight left to be able to read.

The genuine article has plenty to recommend it.

The physical presence of the book is often a conversation starter. I’d like a dollar for every time I’ve been on a plane or some other form of mass transport when what I’m reading (or what someone else is reading) becomes exactly that.

Perhaps I’m weird, but the smell, the weight, the cover art and the physical presence of the book matter to me. One of my preferred activities (less so at this time of the year) is browsing in bookstores.

These days, of course, bookstores are a threatened species. Having said that, both Mary Ryan and the ABC locally seem to be doing well.

As I read somewhere the other day, instant coffee didn’t mark the end of brewed coffee.

I think the same will happen with books and e-books.

Whatever, I’ve decided to investigate having my offering sold in e-book mode, mainly to sell in the USA and UK. By the time I’ve shipped copies overseas it doesn’t pay – either the reader or the vendor.

Maybe I should have it translated into Russian. According to my blog stats I have a strong following there. That’s a bit weird.

Typos are Dangerous

2011-12-18T10:43:00.001+10:00

This is an ATSB animation showing an incident that occurred at Tullamarine on the night of 20 March 2009. It was developed by downloading the data off the FDR. There's no sound.

The aircraft, an Airbus A340-541, registered A6-ERG and operating as Emirates EK407, with 18 crew and 257 passengers suffered a tailstrike and cleaned up a locator beacon when it ran out of runway.

The reason? Erroneous take-off performance parameters were entered into a laptop by the crew. Apparently someone typed "2" instead of "3".

Some typo!

The crew and passengers need buy no more lottery tickets. They've used up all their luck.

This shot (taken off the end of the runway) shows a locater beacon taken out by the aircraft.

This one shows marks left by the main wheels in the dirt also off the end of the runway.

That was close.

Hardtop Hassles

2011-12-16T17:31:00.011+10:00

Paint it silver or leave it black?

Now that what felt like an interminable wait for the MX5’s hardtop is over, I decided I’d better get organised to actually fit the thing.

I’d taken a photo to see how it looked. It looked OK.

I’d even stuck it on top of the car, clipped the two front brackets in place, and drove it around the block.

This disabused me of any notion of actually using it before all clips and brackets were installed. It made the most amazing rubbery creaking noises, and threatened to detach itself and fall off onto the road. The results would not have been pretty.

Now we’re told by the aficionados that any genuine Mazda hardtop will fit any series of MX5. This is true, but there are a range of clips and brackets and you have to match the clips on the hardtop with the latches on the car.

Frankenstein bolts aren't rocket science

Brackets and clips changed with three models of MX5 and I presume three models of hardtops. The mathematicians out there will probably contradict me, but I think that amounts to nine possible combinations. Given that I had no idea of the vintage of the hardtop (although I did of the car) this matching up exercise was not necessarily straightforward.

Lots of bits

I did lots of browsing on MX5 websites (there are plenty) and after a careful inspection of both car and hardtop came up with pics of what was needed. These I emailed to the three or four suppliers and got info about price and availability. In the end the best deal was local (Brisbane) so I drove and collected the parts. In the process I discovered that the hardtop is about five years older than the car.

I checked the packaging carefully to make sure I had an LHS bracket and a RHS bracket. Turns out I should have taken the brackets out of the packaging. When I got home I unpacked two RHS brackets. Even weirder, they were different breeds of brackets.

The Frankenstein bolts were the right ones. I guess there’s not much to change in a Frankenstein bolt.

I decided to go ahead and fit it. I reckoned that only one securing device missing out of six would probably not be a major problem. I phoned the supplier who promised an LHS bracket to swap for the RHS one when I was next in Brisbane.

It got a bit messy

The most difficult part of the exercise was cutting an opening into the plastic panel behind the front seat to access the thread for the fixing bolts.

I didn’t have a Dremel, so I went to a hardware store where I was sold a twenty dollar drill attachment which took Dremel bits. It worked OK cutting the panel. The aperture has rough edges but that doesn’t matter as it is hidden by the bracket once mounted.

Dremel attachment

I discovered that a fair bit of mucking about is necessary to adjust each of the brackets to get a tight seal. First time on is not the two minute job it’s supposed to be.

RHS bracket installed

Anyway, it all bolted together, and is watertight after spraying with a Karcher (which didn’t go “twang” when I packed it away).

There seems to be less wind noise with it mounted which means that you can hear the motor – a much more pleasant sound.

Front bracket and clip

The greatest advantage is security. I can leave the thing parked now without worrying that some lowlife will quickly and quietly slit the soft top to get at whatever is in the car. Rear vision is also improved.

Rear clips over Frankenstein bolts

It doesn’t leak, but then the convertible top was also watertight. This has always been one of the Mazda’s main advantages over classical British roadsters.

Ballad of the GFC

2011-12-16T05:23:00.004+10:00

Hat tip to Plane Talking.

A Certain Symmetry

2011-12-13T10:01:00.001+10:00

My big cleanup is revealing a lot of interesting forgotten stuff.

These two photos for instance – ignore the quality.

The top one was taken in Port Moresby at a RAAF base in 1944. My dad is front row, second from left.

The lower shot was taken during rookies at Singleton in 1969. I’m the only one without a hat – always hated wearing hats.

There’s a certain symmetry about this.

The separation was 25 years. My sons have missed out. There is no photo for 1994 (which would have been 25 years on).

I’m not at all disappointed about that.

Looking Back

2011-12-13T08:03:00.010+10:00

I was having a cleanup the other day and came across an opinion piece I wrote for the local rag, the Toowoomba Chronicle, back in October 1997.

At that time I was the principal of one of the two special schools in town.

It's interesting to look back. The numbers of children in special schools are beginning to rise again, and the corporate emphasis has moved to issues such as NAPLAN.

Some things haven't changed. Excellent work is still being done in these schools. This work - where it brings kids from dependency to Independence saves the community a fortune. It's not recognised because it's not sexy - not edgy.

Many of the issues discussed in this piece will hopefully be addressed by the mooted National Disability Insurance Scheme. Both parties support it, but it remains to be seen whether or not the pollies are simply blowing bi-partsan hot air.

The funds to allow this transition from institutional schools to community schools originated in the Whitlam era.

That is something else lost in the mists of time.

The article is much longer than what I normally post here (1400 words), but stick with it.

It has a happy ending.

I can vividly recall a conversation I had in the mid eighties that helped me clarify my understanding of the word “education”.

In 1986 I was given the task of establishing and opening a new school for children with severe disabilities in a large regional centre in North Queensland.

Almost all the children who were to attend this school were living in a nursing home run by a private charity, and had always attended school-in a building on the premises of their residential.

It was my job to persuade the board of directors of this agency that the children should all attend the new school. On this particular occasion I was trying to convince an eminent (and scholarly) director of the merits of this proposition.

The fact that he always took every opportunity to criticise my grammar whenever I spoke with him wasn’t helpful, nor did it do much for my confidence as a young principal in his first large school. The new school was some five kilometres distant from the nursing home where the children lived and was in the process of construction. After issues of safety, transport, supervision and accommodation had been planned to this director’s satisfaction, he was still unable to give his sanction to schooling away from the institution.

The reason he gave was that these children were “unreceptive to education”. It took me some time to realise that we didn’t share a common understanding of the term.

To this person, the product of a generation schooled in the 1940s and 50s, education meant academic learning as applied to grammar, trigonometry, history, geography, algebra, and the classics.

Given our very different backgrounds, it was no surprise that we disagreed. In our own ways we were both correct. The difference was in the respective values we placed on what is learned, on curriculum.

As a teacher of children with disabilities, I had an understanding gleaned from working hands-on with these children. I had seen them develop over time the hard-won ability to move, communicate, speak, socialise and organise themselves to perform the routine tasks of daily living.

Education is about all these things.

Society is inclined to put a value on curriculum that devalues the importance of the more fundamental and functional skills.

I wonder which of the following is more likely to produce an individual capable of living a productively independent life – the skill of calculating the area of a complex geometrical shape, or the ability to safely prepare a nutritious snack.

For most children these skills of independence are learned before they go to school or at home while they are of school age. For some children with disabilities, this is not always possible, and they have to develop these skills at school.

Although providing sufficient resources to help children with severe and multiple disabilities towards independence is expensive in the short term, it does pay off in handsome savings over the lifetime of the individual. Remember, it costs around seventy thousand dollars per year to provide care for an individual who lacks independence.

The trouble is nobody bothers to measure this. In any case, often the true economic costs are not borne entirely by the community. Much is hidden, unmeasured, and borne by the parents and carers of these individuals.

The preoccupation of economic planners with measurement of corporate inputs and outputs simply fails to recognise the contribution of parents, carers and volunteers.

Because this vital contribution isn’t measured as a financial input, in the world of the corporate managerialist, it doesn’t exist.

Try telling the people providing this care that these hours of toil are a figment of their imaginations. The economic analysis is both half baked and half hearted. It doesn’t take into account the whole picture and the heart has no place in it.

We need only to look back to the early 1960s to get some idea of the progress that has been made in the area of education for children with disabilities.

At that time many of these children were not considered worthy of a place in the public system. Private charities (for example the various Crippled Children's Associations and the Queensland Spastic Welfare League - as it was called then) provided what were generally called "training centres", as well as some schools.

These training centres provided programs for children who fell below a predetermined ability level based on intelligence quotients. Remember the reference to this practice in the deep south of the United States as portrayed in the movie "Forest Gump"? Back then things weren't much different in Queensland.

As the State accepted more and more of its responsibility towards the education of children with disabilities the style and structure of provision changed.

A quiet revolution ensued, which began to see children with severe and multiple disabilities attending state schools, typically Special Schools earlier called "Opportunity Schools",

Responsibility for the schools set up by the volunteer organisations moved to the state. Progressively more of the children with less severe disabilities moved into "regular" schools.

This process was for the most part engineered by teachers at school level. I remember it well, beause I was one of them. Support services were slowly and gradually developed to keep pace with this movement. So much that has been successful has been taken for granted.

To develop an understanding of the massive changes that have occurred quietly over time it helps to look at some figures.

In Queensland in 1989, 6624 students with disabilities were receiving programmes of education in special schools and 207 in units. By 1997, that figure had risen to the point where there are more than four times as many of these children in inclusive settings (units, classes attached and regular schools generally) than in special schools.

In 1975, there were 21 special education units operating in Queensland. As this is written, the number is 136.

In a large organisation like Education Queensland, it is important to maintain elements of the activity of the organisation that can solve unique problems in unique ways.

Special schools do this well as they are structurally more pliable institutions than large primary or secondary schools.

To be relevant into the next century they will need to become even more responsive and flexible in the delivery of services, and work with school communities in other sectors to create programs around groups of children for varying lengths of time.

Special schools in the 1990s are becoming way stations, not destinations, and children will be able to move in and out of their programs as they become more socially, physically and intellectually independent. Many children are at the same time enrolled in both mainstream and special schools, when their learning needs and characteristics demand it.

I am very proud to be part of a state system that is open to all. I am dismayed by the use of the word "exclusive" applied to schools. I am also dismayed by the recent tendency to blame the public education system for the unemployment statistics. Allocating blame is entirely non-productive. It is also very easy – and very lazy. It is much more difficult to do something about the problem.

It is easy to identify the people who are doing something daily about improving the life chances for our young people with disabilities. They include the teacher who is training a boy with autism to comply with instructions, so that he can live safely in the community, They include the physiotherapist who is teaching a child to drive a powered wheel chair so that he can get around by himself.

They include the teacher aide who is helping a teenager who can't speak or move to attend lessons in a secondary school. They also include the parent who comes to school as a routine to help her son overcome the massive social anxiety that his autism triggers.

These people, both teachers and parents, but especially parents, require a kind of stubborn valour, as well as all the skill, knowledge, patience and endurance that they can muster. They also need, from the wider community, recognition that their endeavour is enormously productive.

Incidentally, the result of the conversation referred to at the beginning of this article was from my viewpoint, as the founding principal of the new school, very positive.

All the children from the nursing home were attending the new school by the end of the following year (1987). No longer were their lives confined to the grounds of the nursing home and the school on the premises. Like other children, going to school meant travelling some distance.

One of them was a six year old girl who at that time had been given six months to live. As I write this over ten years later, she is thriving and still at school.

When hysteria is HIP

2011-12-11T18:37:00.003+10:00

On this blog you’ll find a site called “The Failed Estate”.

It’s listed because it’s well-written, frequently updated, and often caustic in its criticisms of mainstream media.

The author concentrates his criticism on style and bias. He doesn’t often deal with substance.

This post is an attempt to do that – deal with substance, I mean.

The topic is the much maligned home insulation programme (acronym used is HIP).

We all know the history of this “abortive” programme. That’s the word most often used, after all, together with “botched”, or “disaster”.

For an initiative to be described in these terms, it must have at least failed in its purpose, killed many people and/or destroyed the lives of many.

Let’s look at purpose. It was designed both to save energy and stimulate the economy. How much energy it has actually saved will probably never be measured accurately, but let’s try.

By the time the programme was suspended, 1.1 million homes had been insulated. The best estimate of energy savings indicates bills of $200 per annum less for the average household.1

That amounts to roughly $220000000 (count the zeros). OK – the scheme has saved 220 million in energy costs. That doesn’t sound like a “disaster”, but perhaps I don’t understand the journalistic meaning of the word. Obviously, there’s some version of poetic licence operating here.

Did it stimulate the economy? It probably did provide jobs and encourage business growth in the home insulation industry, up until the point when the political decision was made to can it. Perhaps the government of the time should have toughed it out? If they had, the consequences of termination wouldn’t have been so severe. One rational interpretation of the history of this programme was that those shock jocks and opinionistas who screamed the loudest bear a responsibility for the result.

OK – there was a cost caused by the hot potato effect.

That brings us to the fires. Note the segue – hot potato – fire – never mind…….

National data has been kept for years identifying the reasons for fire service callouts. Prior to the implementation of HIP, fires in roof insulation were averaging 2.4 callouts per 100000 dwellings per year across Australia.2 Given the hue and cry when fires occurred, you would expect a sharp rise in the incidents of these fires post and during HIP.

You’d be wrong.

The rate of callouts initially rose to 2.5 per 100000 dwellings per annum. That’s a rise of 0.1 per 100000. I’ll leave it to those of you across statistics to determine how significant that is. But then something really strange happened. The rate of fires started to decline.

In the six months to the end of January 2011, the rate has decreased to 1.63 per 100000 dwellings extrapolated to twelve months.

Now that’s really interesting. Could it be that the publicity about the fires has alerted folk who’ve had insulation in for a while to have it checked? Perish the thought – it doesn’t fit the MSM narrative.

The most tragic element of this issue is the deaths of the insulation workers – four in all – three in Queensland.

These deaths were tragic and unnecessary, but I can recall the language used by Tony Abbott (amongst others) at the time. Abbott claimed that Garrett could be charged with industrial homicide.

Titans Insulation, a Queensland company was fined $100,000 in August 2011 for unsafe practices after a 22 year old employee was electrocuted at Millaa Millaa. He was killed by shoddy workplace health and safety practices, not by Peter Garrett.

So where does that leave us?

BIP has lowered energy consumption in 1.1 million homes.

It has saved $22 million in energy costs.

It has resulted in the rate of fires caused by faulty insulation to drop from 2.4 callouts per annum per 100000 dwellings to 1.63 callouts.

Maybe the only government incompetence demonstrated in regard to HIP was its early termination. And that really doesn’t fit the narrative at all…….

First Dog

2011-12-11T08:14:00.002+10:00

Perhaps I have a warped sense of humour, but I find this funny.
It's reposted from the Crikey website.

True Colours

2011-12-10T06:01:00.007+10:00

So now the Brits have taken their bat and ball and gone home.

David Cameron’s hissy fit has demonstrated very clearly the core values of the Tories in the UK, and their allegiance to the financial smart arses in the City.

Suddenly the drivers of both the European crisis and its precursor and origin, the GFC are laid bare.

Through Cameron’s reaction, unbridled greed, deregulation and the political power exerted by the big end of town are blatantly obvious. Scratch a Tory, even lightly, and you’ll find an eye for the main chance.

The following comment by a certain John Bruce on the Politics and Policy website puts it well (I’ve bolded a couple of paragraphs. Do yourself a favour and read them twice) -

The EU has the power to legislate in its own interest. We have excluded ourselves from its number in order to 'protect' our banking sector which, bailouts included, has not advanced the cause of civilisation, decency, success or sustainability in the UK since the Big Bang.

Indeed, its greed has so infected the financial life of the UK that it has cost us 40% of the manufacturing Industry which once earnt the country its living. A bank's profit is another's loss. It is an industry which actually 'makes' nothing and facilitates very little - and nothing in absence of extortionate cost.

Not only has its 'fast big buck culture' avoided all investment in manufacturing for export for the last 30 years of decline, but it has done so simply to line its own pockets with never a thought to the reality that it profited at the expense of those it put out of work; those not directly involved in the Financial Services Industry. So save in the bloated City the Country is now in a perilously week condition. Yet none of this was necessary.

It is and has always been perfectly possible to manufacture in the West in successful competition with the Tiger Economies. The Germans have grown and now they own our industrial 'crown jewels'. Toyota, Honda and a host of other firms manufacture in the UK for global export from the UK. Pilkingtons is a huge UK success.

So why have we lost manufacturing for export and the basis of a successful economy? It is easy to blame the Unions of the day - yet today we do have successful manufacturing, so something else has been at work.

In a nutshell 'banking' (and hedge and private equity funds to handle the casino cash) has bred an investment industry which would no more look at any 'front end loaded, long term, slow return investment' than fly to the Moon.

Gone were the 170 years of 3% on investment being an acceptable return on which the industrial revolution was built. What we have come to be all about is 5 years quick in and out with swag of cash - and tough on what's left. So the only successful people in manufacturing have been careful companies with strong enough balance sheets to fully automate when needed to become, or remain competitive.

The terrible thing is that the banking and financial sector 'wealth' has been not creative in any sense, save in impoverishing the pension funds and ordinary investors to whom sub prime and an ever growing pile of 'junk' has been peddled for decades.

Indeed, there is not one ' fund' open to the ordinary citizen that has actually delivered a profit, fees met, tax paid and inflation adjusted, for decades. Indeed, the FSI is an industry whose existence is almost entirely parasitical. And it has near killed its host UKPlc.

The reductio ad absurdum of the position Cameron has now engineered is that, having bet the farm on the City, when, in fact, the regulation comes from Brussels. We have no control. And whatever control we did not have is even less now! - The EU will not now legislate to favour the UK's interests in advance of its own. The enlarged role of the ECB and the acute need for growth in the EU will leach away City activity and with it the only worthwhile products, tax and 1.3 m jobs. Even if the position were that Cameron had got what it was naive to ask for, the realty is that banking is already on the move in shifting its axis East.

The real problem however is this. 55% of our exports that do earn 'Adam Smith' National wealth earnings from abroad, in the continued absence of a sufficiency of which we will default, are to the EU. That market is already under attack from the USA and Far East. By isolating ourselves to protect what is perceived by the other 26 as really rather more than over selfish national interest we have lost purchase in this market place.

The 26, being highly interdependent in the task of recovering out of a collective Sovereign Debt Problem, will act collectively to trade where they can obtain best advantage. That means not simply a lot more production in export replacement, to our disadvantage, but much more trade with China who - given the access - will help financially. Something we can't do.

If you’re a self-funded retiree like me, read the second bolded section.

Occupy Wall Street? - those well meaning bods are far too soft on the Masters of the Universe - Tarring and feathering is more fitting for the amoral smart arses and maybe a month or two cutting cane at Innisfail in the middle of the wet season, or better still, six months in an Infantry section wandering through old minefields in say, Cambodia.

Fleet Vehicles

2011-12-07T17:15:00.005+10:00

Fleet vehicle front tyre

Fleet vehicles are different.

They are driven without reference to tyre pressures, coolant levels and disc pad condition.

They don’t require washing, vacuuming or cleaning of any kind.

They come fully equipped with empty chip packets, coffee spills on the centre console, and dried nasal effluvia on the dash and steering wheel.

When collected from the fleet garage, they always have just enough fuel to get out into the street, but not quite enough to make the service station one block away.

The spare tyres usually have 5psi or less, and the wheel brace and/or jack is always missing.

The fuel card is often expired, is the wrong one for the vehicle, or has been absent mindedly left in the previous driver’s wallet or purse.

Any diesel fleet vehicle that isn’t an SUV has been misfueled at least once.

If it hasn’t it will be.

The front tyres (most are front driven these days) are almost always bald or showing beads or canvass – the rears almost always pristine. The spare (if it isn’t one of those 80kmh wheelbarrow wheels) will also be pristine.

Centre consoles often contain HRT tabs, used tissues or well waxed ear swabs.

The rego sticker is usually peeling off, or attached with sticky tape after a windscreen replacement. Every fleet car windscreen has at least one major chip, usually directly in your eye line.

Any CD left in the player is always head banging rock or C & W.

Still, they cost a lot less to run than your own car, and driving them beats walking.

Been driving fleet cars for 5 years since I "retired". It's getting to me......

One of many virtues

2011-12-02T11:39:00.005+10:00

The right truck

My bride tells me that patience is not my most noteworthy virtue.

She should know, as we’ve been married for thirty four years.

I reckon that’s changed with advancing years. My evidence for this statement resides in recent experience with an e-bay purchase.

I bought this item (a hardtop for our MX5) on 25^th August. I was probably a bit lucky to snaffle it, as they’re as rare as hens’ teeth and fiendishly expensive when new ($3000+).

I got this one for a third of that, so I was feeling pretty chuffed.

Problem was getting it from Melbourne to Toowoomba.

I was warned by the wise (members of local MX5 clubs) that these things don’t travel well. Simply loading it into a truck as is would be seriously tempting the courier Gods.

OK I thought – no problem – I’ll drive down to Melbourne, clip it on, and drive it home. This would combine a nice drive in the country with shipping the goods north. I’m always looking for excuses to drive this thing all day.

Unfortunately, the seller broke the bad news that it was lacking the vital parts (“Frankenstein” bolts and striker plates) that would attach it to my car. There are about 20 different combinations of hardtops and MX5s, despite the fact that only three models exist (NA, NB and NC), and the only way to be sure was to view the car and the hardtop together.

I wasn’t going to risk buying parts sight unseen, driving to Melbourne, and then finding that it wouldn’t fit because I didn’t have the right combination of parts.

Plan B was to get a crate made in Melbourne, ask my obliging vendor to pack the hardtop inside, and freight it north.

I found a crew in Melbourne, who knocked up crates, and gave them the dimensions. They fabricated a crate for $137 which was reasonable. I didn’t realise how reasonable until I saw the crate for the first time today.

It's sturdy

There seemed to be an interminable delay in getting it picked up from the vendors place in Melbourne – about ten days actually. I kept hearing that they “don’t have the right truck”. The couriers work alone, so if they’re shifting anything substantial they need a truck with a hoist.

Did I say “substantial”?

This crate would be proof against nuclear attack, and probably weighed four times as much as the hardtop.

Anyhow, it arrived today, after a further 24 hour delay getting it from the depot in Toowoomba to our place because (wait for it) they “didn’t have the right truck”.

It's nearly as big as the car

The hardtop fits. I know that because I’ve already tried it on, carefully avoiding the temptation to take it for a run with only the front clips engaged.

I figure that after waiting four months, another week or two sourcing the attachment parts won’t be a problem. It’s in good nick – although I might get it sprayed to match the MX5. It’s black – too hot in this climate.

Waiting for the attachments and the paint job is no hassle.

I’m patient now. Even my bride says so.

Update

Black or silver?

It looks OK fitted.

NDIS - What's That?

2011-11-30T13:00:00.001+10:00

Years ago I read an article by a couple of disability workers in the USA. From memory, Katz and Katz – a husband and wife team.

Unfortunately, with the passage of time and five house moves intervening, I’ve lost the original journal.

I remember the content well.

Put simply, it points that the greatest predictor of quality of life is autonomy. Autonomy has become the preferred term describing that combination of freedom and independence that enables any individual to control their environment and activity.

Katz and Katz maintained that there is a direct negative correlation between quality of life and dependency. If you have to depend on someone else (a carer for example) to allow you to live an active life, by definition your quality of life is poor.

If I want to (for example) go to the shops and need to wait for someone else to take me, I am dependent on that other person. My quality of life depends on that other person’s generosity and availability.

Given that 5% of the Australian population is classified as having a disability, this problem of dependency affects over 1 million. With the rapidly aging demographic in this country, this proportion will only increase.

It is a significant issue, and effects more people, day to day, than other hot button issues such as the Carbon Tax, boat people and the perils of minority government.

There is a political dimension to this, relating to the push for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, which generally has bipartisan support, but when was the last time you saw it on the front pages of any newspaper or first item on the evening TV news?

It’s just not sexy. It doesn’t have heroes and villains, and there’s no oppositional behaviour around it, so the media largely leaves it alone.

There is an item today about the sad and shameful situation in our national treatment of people with a disability in comparison to other OECD countries, but I’ll bet you pounds to peanuts that it won’t become the topic of conversation on blogs or talk back radio.

An extract from the news report -

The report said 45 per cent of people in Australia with disabilities lived in or near poverty and Australia had been ranked 27th out of 27 OECD countries for relative poverty risk. Australia ranked 21st out of OECD countries for the provision of job opportunities for the disabled, with just 31 per cent of people with disabilities in employment.

It says a lot about our national political dialogue, and most of what it says is pretty disgusting.

By the way, I think I know why Price Waterhouse actually bothered with the study. One of the people driving it is a quadriplegic.

Says it all really.

What was all that about?

2011-11-27T12:00:00.016+10:00

6879 came this way last year

53900 overstayers (currently) came this way

The news that refugees will begin to be released into the community hopefully marks the end of a deplorable episode in recent Australian history.

The phenomenon of both major parties toadying to the basest xenophobic instincts in our national psyche has been wrecked by the legal system.

The wierdness in this comes from the fact that our refugee intake makes up less than 2% of total immigration. Why the fuss about 2%?

It would be great if the shock jocks got just as excited about the 5% of 20 million Australians (born here) with disabilities and their carers living as third class citizens as they do about the 6700 from the boats. Why isn't a National Disabilities Insurance scheme, (which would make a real difference to one million people) as important as the issue of a relative trickle of unauthorised arrivals? When was the last time you heard Ray Hadley or Alan Jones foaming at the mouth about people with disabilities?

We’re back where we were before Tampa and the Pacific Solution.

From here on in, people arriving unlawfully by boat will be treated in the same way as those coming by plane and unlawfully overstaying.

The irony in all this is that it took Australian law, rather than Australian politics to restore sanity on this issue.

It has to be the best argument for the separation of powers I’ve seen in a long time. In effect, it represents the High Court saying to the Australian government “Wake up to yourselves”, or as my Millennial daughter is fond of saying “Get real!”

Howard’s draconian and retroactive Border Protection Bill 2001 has finally been relegated to that chapter of our national history where other totalitarian legislation such as (for example) the May 1965 amendments to the Defence Act can be found.

If you believe the rabid Right we’ll now see riot and revolution on our streets, boat people driving around in brand new Commodores, and burqa wearing and Sharia law compulsory.

Maybe if none of these catastrophes actually eventuate, we’ll see an end to the hysteria.

But then again, maybe not. The only thing that sells more newspapers than fear and xenophobia is steamy sex stories.

Putting in the Slipper

2011-11-25T09:39:00.004+10:00

Peter Slipper is the most recent in a list of Queensland pollies who has demonstrated an eye for the main chance.

He follows in the time-honoured tradition of such notables as Vince Gair, Mal Colston and Pat Field to name a few.

The outrage of his Coalition colleagues is a bit lame (and hypocritical) when this history is considered. Such indignation obviously has a great deal to do with whether or not the coup has been engineered by someone on your side and who ultimately benefits, rather than the morality or otherwise of the activity.

Put simply, the belief seems to be that if we did it, it’s OK, but if the other side carried it off it’s mean and nasty.

It could be argued that this situation would not have eventuated if Abbott hadn’t refused to pair the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Refusing the pair as an act of petty political spite put the ALP one vote down. It's come back to bite him on the bum.

Having said that, the fact that Peter Slipper is involved, comes as no surprise, based on what I know of him.

I first met him in 1894 as the newly-elected National Party member for Longman. There have been some boundary changes and renaming of electorates since then, but Slipper has been a constant in this part of the world.

At that time I was principal of a special school to the North of Brisbane which was on the border of four electorates, two state and two federal. Consequently, I saw a great deal of Slipper (and the other pollies, two Labor, and two National Party) at school functions such as fetes and award nights.

One of these pollies, a state Labor member and an ex-wrestler named Joe Kruger, actually made an official complaint against me to the then Regional Director because I didn’t acknowledge him from the podium at a school function.

Silly bugger phoned me the morning before and told me he couldn’t make it because he had a prior commitment. He then turned up late and didn’t let me know he was there, so I didn’t mention him. He actually mistook me for my predecessor as principal who was a Liberal supporter with political ambitions of his own.

I was young and innocent back then.

Slipper was visibly uneasy in the presence of kids with disabilities, but worked hard at making a name for himself as a supporter of the school. My bride, who has a knack with accurate assessments of character, intimated that she found him “flakey”. You’d have to ask her exactly what that means.

He’s actually High Church Anglican, which goes some of the way towards explaining his friendship with Rudd, who is of similar persuasion.

One thing that this situation reinforces is that federal pollies from south of the border completely misunderstand the way Queensland works. Abbott’s attempts to have the Queensland LNP machine go easy on Slipper obviously cut no ice at all.

Queenslanders have a knack of listening to advice from Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra (take your pick) and then doing exactly the opposite.

People from the south are called BFCs, BFSs or BFMs* here.

The collective term is “Mexicans”.

*Bastards from…….

Sad and Shocking

2011-11-19T10:35:00.000+10:00

The news this morning that the fire in the Quakers Hill nursing home was deliberately lit is both sad and shocking.

It’s alleged that an individual who worked there as a nurse has set the building alight in two places in the early hours of yesterday morning. He has been charged and is in police custody.

If he is indeed the culprit – and he is innocent until proved guilty, we have the ghastly phenomenon of a person employed to care for helpless vulnerable people responsible for burning them to death in their beds. It doesn’t bear thinking about…..

This tragedy reminded me of time spent in similar institutions for vulnerable people.

For eighteen years as a special school principal in various places across the state, I had the responsibility of ensuring safety for the children in these schools, who were also generally speaking, helpless and vulnerable. It was a responsibility I took very seriously, and I remember feeling a sense of relief when, upon retirement, I handed the keys of my last school to my successor. These days I still work in schools, but am not burdened with that overall responsibility. It feels great to be on the campus of a school without that consideration.

During those eighteen years, only once did a fire start during school. This was at my last school in Toowoomba, and fortunately it happened on a Pupil-Free Day when only staff and visitors were present.

One of these visitors was a parent, a mum, whom I was interviewing as she enrolled her daughter at the beginning of the school year.

During this interview (at about 10.30am), a face appeared at the door of my office. It belonged to a new teacher who had started only the day before. She looked a bit tense, and I straightaway interrupted to interview and excused myself to see what she was on about.

This teacher blurted out “There’s a fire in my classroom!”

I told my Registrar (who had also appeared at the door of my office with a fearsome look directed at the teacher who had broken the cardinal rule of interrupting the Principal when interviewing a parent) to sound the fire alarm.

The half dozen buildings on the campus were quickly evacuated, and when it was clear everyone was safe, and the firies had been notified, with the Janitor I carefully approached the classroom in question with extinguisher in hand. I was later given a severe talking to by the firies by the way, for doing this.

There was no obvious fire, but a strong electrical burning smell was everywhere, and there were wisps of black smoke coming from the ceiling.

The firies arrived, and quickly discovered that a transformer had lunched itself in the ceiling. The electrics in this building were always dodgy.

Subsequently, the whole building was rewired to avoid a reoccurrence, and things got back to normal.

Fire drills were always an issue in a school were a large proportion of the enrolment lacked the capacity to get themselves out of harm’s way, so we had to come up with novel solutions to develop a drill that would work.

Every able-bodied person available (Janitor, office staff, Cleaners, Guidance Officer, Therapists etc) had designated classrooms to which they headed ASAP to assist in evacuating kids in wheelchairs and walking frames. Essentially these were the classes were the kids were unable physically to get out by themselves.

We got it down to 1 minute 30 seconds as I remember.

I’m glad we never had to do it in the dark as was the case in Sydney. My heart goes out to both victims and rescuers.

Sleight of Hand

2011-11-18T17:22:00.011+10:00

I'd like a dollar for every time Bolt (for example) breathlessly tells us that it "hasn't been warming for a decade".

He does this so often that you're left wondering whether he really doesn't understand the difference between a trend and an anomaly, or whether he reasons (like Goebbels) that if you tell a lie often enough, people will begin to regard it as the truth.

This graphic from Sceptical Science nails it pretty well.

To see how it works, you'll need to click on the graphic and then watch it marching across your screen.

"Going down the up excalator" is apt.

Who do we like?

2011-11-16T20:05:00.004+10:00

Given the current visit of the POTUS down under, and the non-stop commentary about our relationship with China, I thought it might be interesting to discover what Australians think about our relationship with the USA and China.

Right on cue, Essential polling did some work on this just the other day.

It shows that Aussies polled rank the relationship with the USA and China in the same ball park.

If you are unfortunate or misguided enough to read one of the more ratbag right wing blogs (and there are a few) you might get an entirely different impression.

IPad Again

2011-11-13T13:27:00.004+10:00

This mural is part of what makes Cunnamulla different.

It's also my first successful attempt at blogging with the iPad.

I've discovered that it's a simple exercise to blog text - other media (photos and videos) is a challenge.
I have an attachment that it supposed to allow me to download photos from my camera to the iPad, but can't get it to work.

It looks as if I'll have to read the destructions....

Alternatively, I could take photos on my iPhone and with the benefit of iCloud, they will stream to the iPad. It works, because all the photos I took with the phone in Cunnamulla have mysteriously appeared on the iPad.

Neat.

I don't know anything about the mural, by the way.

Cunnamulla’s a bit different

2011-11-11T09:36:00.007+10:00

The Cunnamulla Fella - enhanced by Luminance

I love this place – or to put it less ambiguously, I love visiting this place.

I’m not sure I could live there. Weeks on end of 40+ might be a little hard to take.

Last Tuesday I went for a walk before having breakfast at the excellent Boulders Café, and took a few shots with my iPhone.

I scarcely bother using any other camera these days. There is an iPhone App called Luminance, so I had a play with that.

Puddles

There had been a storm through last evening.

Another Luminance effect


Commodes are hot in Cunnamulla


The light is intense.

This memorial has an interesting (and somewhat bizarre) history. Back at the beginning of WW2, the original memorial was adorned with three WW1 cannons. With the onset of the War in the Pacific and the government's plans to institute a Brisbane Line, the citizens of Cunnamulla removed the cannons and buried them in the sandhills that surround the town so that they wouldn't fall into enemy hands in the event of an invasion.

Unfortunately, the location of the burial site was lost in the euphoria of the Victory in the Pacific. Some say those who buried the cannon did so after a long session at the RSL.

The original cannon were then replaced with what you see here - it could only happen in Cunnamulla.

I drove the 200km across to Charleville in mid afternoon. It was bloody hot - 40 degrees at Wyandra.

It ain't half hot mum.

Bloody Motels

2011-11-05T13:31:00.003+10:00

Don't take a shower in this establishment

By the time the year is over, I’ll have spent about 60nights in motels through my itinerant work.

As a result, I’ve built up a pretty fair list of irritantsthat go with this nomadic lifestyle.

Sometimes I wonder who designs motel rooms - and whether thepeople who do ever stay overnight in one of their creations.

In the first place, generally people who stay in motels haveluggage. Why is it then, that many motel rooms don’t have anywhere to putsuitcases (or in my case folding clothes hangers)? Often, the floor is the onlyspace available.

Why are important bits of kit like mini-refrigerators andmicrowaves often hidden in cupboards? Why is it that one establishment I’mforced to inhabit has the clothes hanging space taken up with a fridge largeenough for a family of six?

Why is there little or no bench space for a laptop, a box of files, or breakfast?

Why do some air-conditioners make as much noise as an F-105on a strafing run? Why does the wall vibrate when the guest next door turns hisshower on?

Speaking of showers – why don’t hot and cold taps conform toany standard pattern? I don’t as a rule wear my specs in the shower, so havelearned the habit of checking the shower out first with glasses on to make sureI don’t end up with serious scalding. There are some places I stay where theshower feeds directly from an artesian bore, and comes out at very hightemperature that needs to be cooled by the cold tap before you can safelyshower in it.

On the subject of changing eyesight – why do those dinkylittle packs of toiletries all look the same and have labels such as shampoo,conditioner and body wash printed in 8 point font or smaller?

Why am I always given a room next to a squad of people working for Santos or somesuch who get noisily on the booze until the wee hours and then start their diesels up and idle them for ten minutes at 5am? I too drive a diesel, but it has no desperate need for lengthy 5am warmups.

These days I travel with chargers for iPad and iPhone, aswell as the Bluetooth attachment for the car. Rare indeed are the rooms thathave sufficient power points to charge all at once.

Then there’s the Wi-Fi. Most motels advertise it, but itusually works only ten metres from the transmitter. It almost never works afterall guests are in. I’ve noticed a phenomenon whereby I’ll be writing reports onmy work website, only to have the Wi-Fi metaphorically shrug its shoulders and boot me off afteradditional guests log on.

Most of next week I’ll be in motels. Maybe I should buy aswag and set up under the stars. It’s warm enough these days and I’d save adollar or two.

Mind you – the grey nomads are an occupational hazard forcampers out where I travel. I’d probably end up getting an ear-bashing from some Vietnam Vet from 2RAR in aJayco Discovery towed by a Falcon ute…..

Macdonald Mispeaks

2011-11-05T10:00:00.001+10:00

Macdonald's been on the turps again.

It will be interesting to see if I get a response.

I won't be holding my breath.

The Weird Book Trade

2011-11-03T07:04:00.001+10:00

Writing was fun, but marketing is equally enjoyable. My bookis selling steadily (1/4 of the 1000 copies print run so far).

This is better than break even point, so from here it’s allprofit – not that I wrote it to make a quid.

It’s sold on consignment, although a few outlets are happyto buy say ten copies outright and give me the cheque straight up. One problemis shipping costs. Books are heavy. I’m currently looking at a quote fromToll-Ipec to get copies to centres like Adelaide and Sydney. I’ve sold plentyon-line.

The deal that works best is for me to send a consignment andto phone back in a month to see how they’re going. I’ve had to set up aninvoicing system and a data base, tasks I hadn’t considered in my planning.

It’s necessary to maintain a momentum. People have to knowthe book’s out there. One way of doing this is radio gigs, and I’m doing onetomorrow on Radio National. This will make three so far (Local ABC and Radio101.5FM Adelaide). There was discernible surge in sales after the last one.

Today I have a speaking gig here in Toowoomba. I’m never toosure what people want to hear. I’d be happy to say “Buy the bloody thing andread it”, but I doubt that would go down well. Apparently there are about 150rolling up today, so it could be interesting. I’ll take a boxful and hope forsome sales. Talk about singing for your supper….

I was surprised at the variability in the way the bookstoresdo business. The ABC shop requires that you go through their Sydney headoffice. Dymocks are happy to buy books if you walk in off the street and theylike what they see, and Mary Ryan’s (a Queensland crew) have been great, evensetting up a dedicated display in their local shop.

They also shout me free coffee, so I go there a bit.

The book trade is ina sorry state at the moment with bookstores closing all over the place. Gen Ysand Millennials as a rule don’t buy books. They get most of their entertainmenton-line and via hand held devices.

Maybe I should look at getting Jellybeans on an e-book. It’sa fairly straightforward process.

Deja Vu

2011-10-30T13:14:00.000+10:00

C-130E

So the Leprechaun’s spat the dummy and grounded Qantas.

This reminds me of the Australian pilot’s strike which beganin August 1989.

This earlier dispute was about the Pilots and their wages. AFAP pilots decidedto fly only between 9am and 5pm which effectively grounded the fleets of the airlines involved. Those affected were Ansett Australia East-West Airlines, Ipec and Australian Airlines.

Bob Hawke (PM at the time) brought in the RAAF, and they flew some routes tokeep the traffic flowing. At the time, I was principal of a special school inTownsville, and was booked to fly to Brisbane for a conference.

On the day of the flight, I arrived at the airport with half a dozen otherTownsville principals, after we were told the RAAF was doing the honours.Sitting on the tarmac like a beached whale was a RAAF C-130E.

It occurred to me at the time that I may have flown on this aircraft before,during training on the way to Shoalwater Bay and back, but then I rememberedthat in 1969, the aircraft were C-130As.

Nevertheless, I remembered enough about travelling on a Herc to preparemyself for a noisy and uncomfortable trip. I also remembered that it was not agood idea to choose a seat above the empennage for the undercarriage, as thingsgot a bit cosy in that part of the fuselage where it narrowed to make space forthe wheels. In this area it was necessary to interlock your knees with theperson opposite because of the limited space.

I therefore gave up my place in the queue to move back just far enough toavoid this positioning, thoroughly confusing my colleagues, some of whom didlikewise, and some who did not.

When we got to Brisbane members of the second group gave me an ear bashingbecause I didn’t warn them about the peculiarities of the C-130.

As to the current histrionics, the best understanding of what is really goingon comes from Senator Nick Xenophon’s speech to the senate (under parliamentary privilege)on 23^rd August 2011.

Some extracts –

Qantas has systematically built up thelow-cost carrier at the expense of the parent company. I have been providedwith a significant number of examples where costs which should have been billedback to Jetstar have in fact been paid for by Qantas. These are practices thatI believe Qantas and Jetstar management need to explain. For example, whenJetstar took over the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route, replacing Qantas flights,a deal was struck that required Qantas to provide Jetstar with $6 million ayear in revenue. Why? Why would one part of the business give up a profitableroute like that and then be asked to pay for the privilege? Then there areother subsidies when it comes to freight. On every sector Jetstar operates anA330, Qantas pays $6,200 to $6,400 for freight space regardless of actualuplift. When you do the calculations, this turns out to be a small fortune.Based on 82 departures a week, that is nearly half-a-million dollars a week or$25½ million a year.

And -

My question for Qantas management issimple: are these arrangements replicated right around Australia and why isQantas paying Jetstar's bills? Why does Qantas lease five check-in counters atSydney Terminal 2, only to let Jetstar use one for free? It has been reportedto me that there are other areas where Jetstar's costs magically becomeQantas's costs. For example, Jetstar does not have a treasury department andhas only one person in government affairs. I am told Qantas's legal departmentalso does free work for Jetstar.

(Hansard 23rd August 5259 19.37)

Given what Xenophon has revealed, there should be a judicial enquiry into the actions of Qantas management in flensing Qantas to stabilise Jetstar.

Greed is the Creed

2011-10-29T10:11:00.001+10:00

The science of the study of Anthropogenic Global Warming is oftencharacterised as a religion by the vested interests that stand to lose ifcorporate behaviour is forced to change through recent legislation.

This characterisation of AGW as a cult is a worldwide phenomenon, but it has its epicentre acrossthe Pacific, and is frequent fodder for the shock jocks.

The Yanks have a tendency to drop religion front and centre into any discussion about freedom and democracy. A road trip across the US is particularly revealing of the numberand variety of religious organisations that infest the land of the free. Everysecond radio station is of the God-bothering kind. There is a strongly held belief that the path to heaven is via the cash register.

The most refined version of this thought, the most pervasive religion of all, andthe one that presents the greatest danger to world peace, is also centred inthe USA. That religion is Market Fundamentalism. It could also be described as Neo-Materialismor Corporate Greed and transcends borders, both national and international.

Its basic tenent is that the market should be left completely unfettered. According to this creed, this will allow for wealth creation and prosperity for all.

We saw where that got us a few years ago.

I would argue that the world government conspiracy, touted asa threat by those who despise the United Nations, is already with us, throughthe spread of transnational corporations that respect neither internationalboundaries, nor basic human rights.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters aren’t politically sophisticatedor consistent with their demands, but a large part of what they’re unhappyabout stems from the growing disparity between rich and poor worldwide, butparticularly in the USA.

Maybe they have a point.

Consider, for a moment, the following –

The recession has hit middle-incomeand poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest andpoorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans— those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly$12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, accordingto newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
Household income declined across allgroups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans.Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade'sworth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.
Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2percent, an 11-year high.

The clearest communication about this issue is best achievedgraphically. Go to this series of graphics over at Business Insider tounderstand the dimensions of this problem.

The “Find America”visual is pretty shocking to those of us conditioned by stories told at Grandad’sknee about the rewards for hard work and innovation available across the Pacific. The sad factof the matter, is that using the Gini Coefficient, a well-recognised statisticalmeasure of inequality, the USA is ranked at 96, indicating a greater rich-poorgap than stellar performers such as Turkmenistan, Mali and Uzbekistan, to namea few. Australia is ranked 24th by the way.

Strangest of all, two one-party states with “Communist”governments (Vietnam and China) are way ahead (62 and 83 respectively) and havemuch less of a poverty gap than the home of the free.

Tell me it isn’t so….

WITY?

2011-10-28T14:03:00.001+10:00

It usually means "what's it to ya". Only Blot knows what he meant.

Out Tambo Way

2011-10-28T13:41:00.002+10:00

This trip I was out Tambo way, at the extremenorthern end of my area.

Looking at the map, you’d wonder why it is part of Romadistrict, but apparently the locals like it that way. It’s closer to Longreachthan Roma.

Years ago, I was based at Mt Isa and came into this countryfrom the North, rather than the South. I always feel at home in this part ofthe world, no matter which direction I enter it from. It’s more open than thecountry to the South, and strange as it sounds, it smells different.

Near Morven

You could blindfold me and take me out here, and if it’searly morning or late afternoon, I’d tell you where I was within 100kms of the location.

Big sky country

As the sun comes up and the land warms, the soil and vegetationrelease very characteristic smells that locate you immediately. In the evening, the land breeze gets up, and you get a different, but intense combination of perfumes.

Emus off to call home

It’s easy on the eye as well, although at the moment they’rehaving a hard time with fires. The best wet for decades has meant strong growthwhich has browned off. Dry storms, during which lightning starts fires, havedone the rest.

Augathella ahead

There are a few emus about. I came across a couple in Morvenintent on making a phone call. I have no idea who they were calling. You just neverknow with emus.

I stayed in a local motel at Tambo, and wandered across theroad for a meal. Their steaks were great, but the salad was a bit sad.

The school is a construction site with the last of the BERwork underway. Out here, it takes a lot longer to get the builders organised.When it’s done, any kids out here who are in wheelchairs will be able access schoolwithout hassles. That’s a first for this part of the world.

By the time I’d arrived home, I’d travelled about 2000 kms,and was suffering a mild case of white line fever.

Sunset at Tambo

When I was young, I could drive these distances withoutneeding a day or two to recover. Not any more.

Putting it in Perspective

2011-10-23T13:15:00.002+10:00

Couldn't find a pic of a digger

Given the continuing North Atlantic (US and Europe) financial crisis, this website puts one way of spending money in perspective.

Iraq has cost over the US $800 billion so far. It will be interesting to see what the final bill will be by the time they leave at the end of the year.

The war is "won" apparently, but Iraqis are still dying at the rate of over 200 per month. This is no longer reported in the MSM. It's not news.

It would be a fascinating exercise to post the same figures for Australia, and to break it down state by state and city by city.

By 2007, Iraq had already cost us more than $3 billion.

That was four years ago, and we've had Afghanistan since then.

Blot's Bloopers (contd)

2011-10-23T11:09:00.003+10:00

This person thinks he's a journalist?

The men who crashed the world

2011-10-22T18:05:00.000+10:00

This four-part production by CBC (Canada) is available (amongst other places) from Al Jazeera English live.

It should be required viewing for self-funded retirees, or anyone who has funds invested in shares or real estate.

It reveals how, during the GFC, the behaviour of many senior financial executives on Wall Street and in The City (London) would have been more appropriate in a casino.

It also explains how billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money was used to get these same financial executives off the hook.

The biggest welfare cheque in history ($US700 billion) was written to Wall Street.

It is timely in the light of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

When you consider the collateral damage caused by this meltdown it makes you wonder why the reaction has been so muted.

It also shows that whilst we live in a democracy, must of what effects us daily in the financial world is the result of the amoral behaviour of individuals whom we don’t elect, who live on the other side of the world, and don’t give a stuff about anything except the almighty dollar.

We have world government – but it has nothing to do with the United Nations. The international financial sector runs the show.

They're doing a very poor job of it.....

Go here to watch the first episode -

The men who crashed the world - Meltdown - Al Jazeera English

We're Getting Somewhere

2011-10-21T14:14:00.000+10:00

This is probably the most significant development in the lives of Australians with disabilities and their carers since I started working in the field in 1971, so you'll have to excuse me if I have a little celebratory post.

From the NDIS website -

JOIN US:

Dear Cedric,

Yesterday we had some fantastic news. State and Territory governments agreed to deliver the foundational work for the National Disability Insurance Scheme by mid 2013 - a year earlier than the Productivity Commission recommended.

It is all your hard work and support that has made this happen. Your voices have been heard and all your campaigning has made a difference. Take a moment to reflect on how far we have all come together.

Our politicians are listening. But we still need to get out in the community and make sure everyone understands why we need an NDIS.

Will you spread the word from November 27 - December 3?

The Federal Government said at yesterday's inaugural COAG Select Council meeting that it "wants to see improvements to disability care and support as quickly as possible".

The State and Territory Disability Ministers and Treasurers all agreed on a timetable for delivering the foundation reforms necessary for the introduction of an NDIS. These reforms include common assessment tools to determine eligibility and strategies to boost the disability workforce.

The Select Council also considered the draft principles to be agreed on by COAG. These principles will guide the work of the Select Council in pursuing reform of disability services.

And earlier this week the advisory body established by the government to provide advice to the Select Council also met for the first time.

So it is clear that all your hard work is making a difference. But we cannot give up - we need to keep the pressure on.

There are three easy things you can do to help during Spread the Word Week - which one will you choose?

Tell your friends, neighbours, work colleagues and family members. The campaign is continuing and we are showing everyone that Every Australian does indeed Count.

John Della Bosca
and the Every Australian Counts team www.everyaustraliancounts.com.au

P.S. Can you watch our latest campaign update video and share it with your friends? Building support for the NDIS is the most important thing you can do right now.

More Gaelic Music

2011-10-20T16:33:00.002+10:00

The English name for this song is "women of Ireland".

The singer is the inimitable Kate Bush.

It's beautiful music, as much as anything else because of the lyrical tone of the Irish language.

It was composed by the late Sean O'Riada and played by The Chieftains in the film 'Barry Lyndon." The lyrics are a poem by Peadar O Doirnin (?1704-1769).

I have no idea what the words mean exactly, nor do I care. The way they sound and blend with the music is what matters.

When we visited South-West Ireland it was during the Gaeltacht (a Gaelic festival), and sitting in the pubs listening to the music of the language, without having the foggiest idea of what people were talking about was enormous fun.
In case someone out there is fluent, I'll post the words below. Let me know what they mean - it was all to much for Google translate.

Ta bean in Eirinn a phronnfadh sead damh is mo shaith le n-ol
Is ta bean in Eireann is ba bhinne leithe mo rafla ceoil
No seinm thead; ata bean in Eirinn is niorbh fhearr lei beo
Mise ag leimnigh no leagtha I gcre is mo tharr faoi fhod
Ta bean in Eirinna bheadh age ad liom mur bhfaighfinn ach pog
O bhean ar aonach, nach ait an sceala, is mo dhaimh fein leo;
Ta bean ab fhearr liom no cath is cead dhiobh nach bhfagham go deo
Is ta cailin speiriuil sg fear gan Bhearla, dubhghranna croin.
Ta bean a dearfadh da siulann leithe go bhfaighinn an t-or,
Is ta bean ‘na leine is is fearr a mein no na tainte bo
Le bean a bhuairfeadh Baile an Mhaoir is clar Thir Eoghain,
Is ni fhaicim leigheas ar mo ghalar fein ach scaird a dh’ol.

Update -

I found this translation It makes more sense and sounds better in the original Gaelic.

Bolt Dishonours Queen

2011-10-20T07:31:00.002+10:00

The mad mutterer from Melbourne falls over his fingers again.

Only this time he has landed Her Majesty the Queen in it.

Cursty?

According to the Urban Dictionary it has a very disreputable meaning .

He's used it in reference to the Queen and the Prime Minister.

Disgraceful!

Carrikfergus

2011-10-18T14:17:00.001+10:00

This is a beautiful song performed by the Clancy brothers and Tommy Makim in 1984.
The comedy monologue at the end is worth listening to.

My bride and I saw them at about that time in Brisbane, and we remember the show fondly, although they didn't perform this one at the concert we attended. To my way of thinking, Celtic music has a quality and depth not found in any other musical culture. Perhaps I'm biased.

You may recall the saying -

"The Irish as a nation
Are really all quite mad
Their wars are all so happy,
And their songs are all so sad"

Tis true, but it may have to do with the fact that for a long time they fought everybody else's wars.

Endless Fun

2011-10-18T08:44:00.002+10:00

If you take a look at this screen shot, you'll notice that it looks familiar.

This is because it's a grab from this blog, posted on CANdo a little while ago.

I was mucking about with an astroturf* site and I decided to see how closely it was monitored. This particular site is modelled on the Tea Party sites in the USA, and is sponsored by Senator Cory Bernadi.

I just took a couple of posts from here and moved them across. The fact that the political message, if there is one, is at 180 degrees to what Bernardi is seeking to sell is apparently neither here nor there. Fascinating.

He (or his minders) obviously don't look at CANdo all that often.

It's been up there for a while now.

I'm taking bets on how long it will stay.

Odds - One more day - 5 to 1

One more week - 10 to 1

One more month - 20 to 1.

*Google it.

Update -

Three days on, and it's still there.....

Update 2 -

It took them six days. Pretty slack.

Carbon Tax Effects Already

2011-10-14T10:10:00.001+10:00

Look what the carbon tax has done to Tony

Last night we had major storms and local flooding in Toowoomba.

There's absolutely no doubt, of course, that this is a result of the recent passing of the invidious Carbon Tax in federal parliament....

Open Statement on Asylum Seekers

2011-10-09T07:56:00.002+10:00

Remember?

In the absence of real leadership on the asylum seekers issue, it takes some non-politicians to say what our elected leaders should have been saying since 2001.

An extract -

As the Vietnam War came to a chaotic end, Australia faced the prospect of a huge influx of refugees from the conflict. Fears for the well-being of asylum seekers, as well as concerns about whether Australia could successfully deal with such an influx, were well founded. A balance was struck however, and a humane and effective bi-partisan solution was put in place. Both Government and Opposition rose above party affiliation to act in the face of initially negative opinion polls.

Australia’s elected leaders created a system that worked with regional partners, ensured basic human rights protections and created an efficient and effective system which, over 20 years, dealt with the needs of more than 2.5 million Indochinese refugees. The system initiated by the Fraser Government ultimately resulted in some 250,000 Vietnamese refugees and immigrants being taken in. Many of these people were fleeing a war in which Australia was a combatant. We had a moral responsibility to assist them, and we did.

Somehow, our national values have been shouted down by politicians since Howard, using xenophobia as a weapon, and we have forgotten this.

It's time someone knocked Abbott's and Gillard's heads together.

Things Have Changed

2011-10-07T07:28:00.000+10:00

6.25am takeoff

I’ve just come back from four days in Adelaide, promoting mybook and visiting family.

Whilst there, I took the advice of a mate from 7RAR andvisited the unit which is now based at Edinburgh on a site which was onceoccupied by the RAAF.

I’m glad I did – it was a fascinating visit.

A fair bit has changed since 1969. The first thing you notice is thelevel of security. In order to get into the base you need to phone at least 24hours ahead, and the reason for your visit. Once there, you’re taken into asecurity building, your photo taken, and a special pass made up with your picon it, which you wear for the duration.

No doubt this is a rational consequence of recent events.

When I arrived, I left my rental car(bright red Hyundai i30) outside the gate because I wasn’t sure where to park.I was met with a fairly alarmed-looking civvie in security uniform who usheredme and the car to a parking area to the left of the security building.

His alarmed expression was a consequence of the fact that anobviously rented vehicle was parked close to the boom gates – apparently ascenario that was in the training manual.

7RAR has changed a bit. There are women – not many, but they’reabout. The NCO showing me around was of the opinion that the recent changes won’tincrease their numbers.

I reckon he’s right – most women of my acquaintance havemore sense than to opt for infantry.

There are computers everywhere, both functional andrecreational. The base is mostly new, physically vast, and with the exceptionof the diggers accommodation, very impressive. There’s been a bit ofcontroversy in the local rag about the dongas the single diggers inhabit.Frankly, they’re a bloody sight better than what I remember from forty yearsago. All accommodation is air-conditioned.

7RAR is mechanised, and I was shown an APC which looked veryfamiliar. They’re an upgraded version of the M113 we used in SVN. Apparentlythey didn’t use them in Afghanistan, opting for the safer Bushmaster.The weapons are different. A platoon now has fourguns (FN Minimi built by Thales in Australia under licence). They still look abit like an M60.

The mortars have gone high-tech. They use a kind ofpalm pilot, although I’m not sure exactly what the function is. Strangely, theyresemble palm pilots used by teachers to record data for kids withdisabilities.I was impressed by the people I met. They allreflect great pride in their unit – well deserved from what I saw. They’restruggling to set up a unit museum. There’s not a lot of time for this in abusy unit. 7RAR has forty years more history than it did when I was a member.Back then it was only five years old.

I was unable to hook up with any ex 7RAR blokes I knew,although I talked to a few on the phone. They all live in the boondocks. One ex5 Platoon bloke is in Port Lincoln – an eight hour drive.

The book promo went well – a breakfast radiointerview should help. In Adelaide it’s on sale in Dymocks in the city and Glenelg.

Good Vietnamese tucker in Adelaide.

Blot in the Meida

2011-10-02T11:55:00.002+10:00

Ole bumblefingers Blot is at it again......Meida?

Apparently they make Windstoppers.

That'd be right......

They'd have to be very effective to limit the wind that emanates from that quarter.

Click on the screen shot. I think I'll have to introduce a new post label. What do you think it should be called? Blot's Bloopers has a ring to it....

"Your freedom is in their hands.." Glad it's not in Bolt's fingers.

Give us this day...

2011-10-02T11:29:00.001+10:00

It's a pity you can't smell this.

Baking bread (like slow cooking) is excellent aroma therapy. Even if you don't believe in the benefits of pleasant smells (and I don't) walking into a home where bread is baking is always a treat for the senses.

Anyway, I've taken to baking one of these daily. Apart from the baking aroma, it also tastes good, and the people around our place who snack find the fresh loaf attractive.

They must, because it's usually gone by mid afternoon. Because I'm away from home working every second week during term time, it's a fortnightly phenomenon.

The recipe (which turns out crusty loaves with the characteristics of french baguettes) is very simple - twice as much strong baker's flour as warm water, a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoon of yeast. Nothing else - KISS principle. You need to turn the oven up to its maximum and put a container of water inside.

I have a bread maker, but use it only for kneading and proofing. Once those processes are through, the mixture goes into a fan forced oven for thirty minutes.

What's good for the geese….

2011-10-01T15:42:00.001+10:00

I rarely buy the Fin, but this headline caught my eye – Noslowdown for CEO pay amid market turmoil.

You can read it here, but it highlights a phenomenon thathas become an accepted part of our national business landscape. I’m talking about thecomplete disassociation between performance and remuneration in the world ofcorporate managerialism.

As the Fin points out, many of these characters have overseenthe bottom fall out of the share price on their watch, but there seems to be atotal disconnect between this and the massive money they pull. It's telling that in this country only one third of the top 50 companies are prepared to disclose CEO remuneration to shareholders.

Remind me again how important it is that no ceiling is puton corporate remuneration. The party line goes something like this –

These CEOs must be paid at the top of the scale in order toattract people who improve the company’s bottom line.

You can assume, therefore, that applying the most basic oflogic, if the firm is bleeding red, the CEO’s remuneration should also dip.Sorry – doesn’t happen, most of the time.

In 1970, average executive pay at the nation's top companieswas 28 times average worker income. By 2005, executive pay had jumped to 158times that of the average worker.

These are US figures, but not much is different here.

Back in the nineties I was on the board of a high profilecharity. My fellow board members were a mixture of medicos, wealthy businessmen(no women) and individuals of influence in the city. There was one (token)person with a disability. We were all pro bono.

This was an eye-opening experience – they were well meaningpeople, but the culture of the board made me, for one, feel very uncomfortable.It was a culture of entitlement and privileged arrogance. No doubt this culturemigrated from the boardrooms of the companies of origin of these people, but itwas selfish, banal and cynical. They often spoke about their CEOs, and it cameacross that CEOs and board members were somehow a race apart, separated by somemagical properties from everyone else in the organisation. It had to do withpower and privilege, that most unholy of combinations.

Understanding this has helped me to understand why theobscenity of CEO remuneration is maintained, and why it resists with suchdetermination any effort to rein it in.

We hear plenty about performance pay for teachers. I’d beprepared to give it a try, just as soon as it becomes accepted practice for CEOs.

Anita Heiss's statement

2011-09-30T07:10:00.001+10:00

This is a bit lazy, but it's a reposting of a response from Anita Heiss, one of the people Bolt has labelled "white Aborigines".
There are two reasons for posting it.
One is to counter the "poor martyred me" meme from Bolt and his sheeple. The other is to demonstrate how sloppy his assertions about this person really are. The same inaccuracies were evident in his representations of the other plaintiffs.
Her blog is a cheerful read, so I've added it to my blogroll.
It's interesting to analyse the bigotry behind Bolt's writing. I've come across this thinking before when I worked in North-West Queensland in the nineties with a group of Murris who formed a community based reference group as part of the now defunct NATSIEP programme.
Because these women as a rule dressed well and wore makeup, there were those in Mt Isa who would describe them as "jumped up", whatever that meant. Apparently they had a view of how an Aboriginal woman should present herself, and anyone not adhering to that cliche was fair game.
It was pathetic, and most of them ignored it, but I know it did cause some distress.

When I left the position in 1996, the NATSIEP committee presented me with a picture. Regretably, I didn't ask them anything about its origin (who painted it - what it meant etc). It remains a happy reminder of those times and these courageous women, who worked so hard to advance their people.
Only a bigot would hold them up to ridicule. Bolt makes a living out of doing just that.

Bromberg's Judgement

2011-09-29T19:13:00.001+10:00

Bromberg's judgement on Bolt is worth a read.

So many have commented without doing so.

My take is that he could have made no other judgement on the basis of the legislation.

The Ghost in the Machine

2011-09-27T09:17:00.003+10:00

The rat has been removed, but its ghost remains.

Not long after the successful rodent extraction, the ABSwarning light started to glow intermittently. The car was due for a service, soin it went.

Verdict – faulty ABS sensor. Fair enough – but which sensor?The answer was passenger side front – the same place where the rat was found.

Eerie.

OK – maybe just a coincidence.

The problem is, the light continues to glow intermittently,despite a new sensor and sender.

Now I’m looking for an exorcist. Anyone out there know oneclose to Toowoomba?

The Dangi - Part 2

2011-09-26T08:02:00.002+10:00

Where it is.

A few posts ago, I threatened more stories about the Dangi.
The first time I visited, I asked the bloke with me (who had been there before) why there was a pile of car keys on the turn-off from the Mt Isa – Dajarra road. Turned out that when the local Murris went into Mt Isa to buy cars (usually rego-expired Holdens or Falcons) they’d rip out the key-start barrel and leave the wires dangling so keys weren’t necessary.
That way, the car was available for immediate and shared use by anyone on the place. The cars usually lasted about a year. When they died, they were tipped upside down and used for parts.
I was part of a team back in the 90s negotiating the siting of a new school at the Dangi. It was highly political as the Murris (who outnumbered the non-Murris by about 4 to 1) wanted it built on their settlement about 2 kms out of town, whilst the non-Murris wanted it sited next door to the pub. John Laws and Tony McGrady had been involved and were waiting on the sidelines for the whole deal to go belly-up and become an election issue. The Regional Director wanted a solution which didn’t end up in the media.
We would get the locals together for meetings which would usually degenerate into total and complete disagreement about everything. From memory, there were three unsuccessful meetings. On one occasion, we stayed at the pub overnight. It was February, and stinking hot, so after a few (or maybe more than a few) cold ones at the bar, we set our swags up outside, rather than in the tin shed that passed back then for accommodation.

The Dangi pub today

I remember slowly waking next morning to a strange and powerful stink. Opening my eyes, I saw, about a foot from my face, the snout of a young camel which was checking out the visitor. Camel breath first up after a night on the turps is not recommended. There were three of them hobbled near the pub.
Eventually the school was built halfway between the two preferred options, so we pleased nobody. The principal was provided with a troop carrier which was used to bus the non-Murris in each day (all 4 of them) whilst the Murri kids were happy to walk. They were more likely to go to school if left to their own devices. As far as I know the school still operates. Back then lots of kids moved across the border between Urandangi and Alpurrurulam and keeping track of them was an issue.
Prior to this school there was one operating in the 1930s, but the Principal committed suicide and the school was closed.
That’s a whole other story.

Ry Cooder ▬ No Banker Left Behind

2011-09-25T19:49:00.000+10:00

Ry Cooder's take on the GFC.

Woody Guthrie reincarnated....

(From "Pull up some dust and sit down").

Hands on What?

2011-09-25T07:07:00.001+10:00

I wonder why it wasn't posted. (Click to enlarge).

Obviously Blot has no sense of humour.
This is professional journalism?

Update -

Fixed now! Glad I could be of assistance.

Propaganda Push

2011-09-23T09:29:00.001+10:00

The pox is spreading - mining in the Southwest

Yesterday’s local paper weighed a ton. The poor oldnewsagent who lobs them into our front yard daily must be suffering a bad caseof RSI.

They’re heavy because of the weight of propaganda theycarry.

It must be costing a great deal of money to produce theglossy overkill that’s flooding our newspapers. Big mining is obviously takinga PR pounding given the rise of the Lock the Gate and other movements in thispart of the world.

Glossy poster

I’m not personally affiliated with any pro or anti miningmovements, but I travel and work extensively in the areas affected, and I’veseen so far, nothing but distress and damage caused by this exploitation.

Nor have I met anyone whose son or daughter has beenemployed in the industry. Those employed don’t come from around here. They’remostly what the locals call blowflies, who fly in and out and have no stake,emotional or financial, in the communities in which the exploration andextraction is happening.

As my father used to say - "In front of the Almighty Dollar every knee shall bend". The combination of quick profits to the miners and royalties to cash-strapped state governments is irresistible. The locals are forgotten in the stampede.

It’s going to take a lot more than an expensive publicitycampaign to get these people onside.

They're bringing out the violins

The violin player on the cover is somehow appropriate.

Smoke - No Mirrors

2011-09-19T09:57:00.002+10:00

Forming up - James St Information Centre

The Darling Downs Chapter of the MX5 club disappeared into smoke yesterday.
We were heading off to Queen Mary Falls in one of the most pervasive smokehazes I've seen since living in Toowoomba.

Hume St Southbound

Heading out, the amount of activity surrounding the Carnivalof Flowers was evident, but the spectacle was diminished somewhat by the haze.

Through the smoke darkly

The effect on the New England was ethereal.

Tucker time

We paused for Morning tea at Yangan.

Breeze proof shelter

The shelter shed was obviously a modified off-the-shelf garage,cunningly designed to maximise any heat build-up whilst at the same timescreening out any cooling breezes.

Summer has arrived without any reference toSpring, or even a “Gidday” as it whizzed past.

Green grass - brown sky

The scenery became hazily bucolic as we punched South,following the track of the old railway line, the last remnants of which closedin the 1960s.

MX5 road

Once we’d left the New England, the roads became more MX5friendly, with great sweeping bends.

Upward and into the haze

The mountains loomed ahead through the haze, and soon wewere climbing. The country, where you could see it, looked great, but there’splenty of fuel and fires are obviously going to be an issue.

Mazdas on the edge

Our next stop rejoiced in the name of Dagg’s Falls. Harryknows how it got its name – you’ll have to ask him.

Dagg's Falls

These are the falls.

MX5 drivers

These are some of the people looking at thefalls. MX5 drivers smile a lot.

Deep in the forest something stirred

We plunged into the mountain (but stayed on the road whilstdoing this plunging).

Lean green hungry country

After lunch at Queen Mary’s Falls, we went for a stroll, andcame across some interesting scrub, with the stream flowing through it, and thefalls themselves.

Queen Mary Falls

Despite the summery day, it was spring, and the flowers wereout.

Bush blossoms

Further along the track was a day lily.

It waited for us

It had obviously decided to pick that time and place toappear, just for us.

The Dangi

2011-09-17T15:25:00.000+10:00

Urandangi features in the Fart of the Nation this weekend, which is slightly coincidental, as not so long ago I was at a reunion of those of us who worked in Education Queensland's Regional Office in Mt Isa during the mid nineties, and the topic of the Dangi came up frequently.

Urandangi reminds me of the scattered car keys at the turnoff, the smell of camel in the morning, and a sign on the bar of the pub which said - "Stay on your side of the bar and I'll feed you Dangi grog - move to my side of the bar and I'll feed you to the Dangi dog".

It looks like the sign has been taken down. That's a pity.

The school gets a mention. I was there at its birth.

I'm far too sober now to tell Dangi tales - but one day......

In the meantime, the Fart of the Nation barely does it justice.

Oh Dear

2011-09-17T07:19:00.003+10:00

Ratings aren't improving for me old mate.....

Technology in the Bush

2011-09-17T07:15:00.002+10:00

One of the problems associated with driving in the outbackis the availability of fuel. I have an obsession about always filling the tankprior to setting out on any journey of more than 50kms, as you can’t alwaysassume fuel will be available where it was last time.

If bowsers break down, it can take up to a week in someplaces to get them fixed. Fuel trucks also break down. Sometimes the deliveryschedules get disrupted because of flooded roads, a situation which was a majorissue early this year.

This situation has been alleviated somewhat by improvementsin vehicle range (the Hyundai Santa Fe diesel will travel over 1000km on westernroads on a full tank), but you get careless at your peril.

Something that is not going to help at Quilpie, at least isthe closure of the Ausfuel depot in town. Strictly speaking, it’s not closing –they’re turning it into a robotised self-serve operation.

This is not a good idea. The technology is unreliable in theheat and dust, and Quilpie is usually my stepping off (and refuelling point)for Thargomindah. Quilpie-Thargo-Cunnamulla is about 500km, and I can’t buyfuel in Thargo on the fleetcard.

No Choosy Meat Picking

2011-09-17T06:57:00.001+10:00

I came across this sign in a Chinese takeaway in Toowong.....

An Explanation

2011-09-16T11:37:00.002+10:00

It took a while, but I figured it out in the end.

Last week I was driving a Nissan X-Trail diesel along the Warrego on my way west to work.They’re a neat little machine, and quite enjoyable to drive. The usual fleetequipment for these trips is Hyundai Santa Fe.

This particular vehicle, however was not behaving as perspecification. When cruise control was engaged, it would immediately downshiftto fifth gear, so the motor would move from 2000rpm to 2300rpm, resulting inmore noise, and I assume, higher fuel consumption.

It was easily fixed by moving the auto selector across tomanual mode, selecting top (sixth) gear without disengaging the cruise, but itwas a nuisance and bothered me, because I don’t like unexplained phenomena whenI’m driving.

When I refuelled in Roma, I noticed both front tyres lookeda bit underinflated. This step (of looking closely at the vehicle beforedriving it) was something that was drummed into us at the last driver training sessionI did. I've been driving since 1964, but still attend these Q-Fleet sessions when they're offered, as they're usually good value.

I should have remembered what I was taught.

Both front tyres were about 10 psi lower than they shouldhave been.

When they were pumped up to the recommended pressures, thecruse control reverted to normal behaviour.

It seems unlikely, but in the absence of any otherexplanation, I’d have to accept that the slight drag caused by these lowpressures were the source of the problem.

Comedy Trumps Reality

2011-09-10T09:27:00.005+10:00

This send-up of the politics around asylum seekers is brilliant.

Apart from the fact that it's funny, it actually offers a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to solve the "problem" that in the cold light of day makes more sense than the wedging crap that both sides of politics have indulged in since wee Johnny used the refugees on the Tampa to help him retain power in 2001.

My ancestors arrived here in 1862 aboard the Erin-go-Bragh.
That was one of the boats referred to in the clip when Bryan Dawe is talking about the Irish poor.

We've gone backwards since then in our attitude towards refugees.

The video won't play on this page - you'll have to click on the link. Do yourself a favour and watch it.

Mining the Truth

2011-09-09T10:53:00.005+10:00

Driving back from Thargomindah via St George and Roma this week, I couldn’t help being reminded of the mining activity exploding in this part of the world.

Whether you notice the clapboard signs on most byroads or the state of the road which is slowly being destroyed by the oversize loads of mining infrastructure being moved from the coast, the marks are everywhere.

You can’t help but be reminded by some salient facts – one of them being that if you don’t book accommodation at least a month ahead, you’ll be squeezed out by the exploration companies and their block bookings.

Listening to a radio report of a study released by the Australia Institute piqued my curiosity, so I Googled it when I arrived home after a 2500km round trip.

It makes very interesting reading.

There are a range of assumptions held about the resources boom. Let’s have a look at the reality.

Assumption 1 - Many mines are owned by Australians and return profits to their Australian owners. Not so. In 2009 -10 mining profits amounted to $54 billion, of which 83% or $42 billion went overseas.

Assumption 2 – Mining is a strong employer of Australians. It depends what you mean by “strong”. In May 2011, 217,100 people were employed in the mining industry from a workforce of over 11 million. That makes mining one of the smallest employment sectors in the country, behind (for example) the Arts and Recreation Services sector.

Assumption 3 – Mining companies contribute large amounts of money to the wealth of the nation through taxes. Wrong. The average rate of corporate tax paid by the mining industry in 2008 – 2009 was 13.9%, well below the theoretical 30% tax rate, and a bloody site less than yours truly pays. One of the reasons for this is the generous tax deductions available to the mining industry. I’m not sure if the diesel fuel subsidy payable to miners is factored in to this calculation.

Assumption 4 – Mining provides positive spinoffs to other local industries. Not really. Mining drives up the exchange rate, and the costs of skilled labour for other sectors. It drives up the prices of raw materials used in construction as well as the services associated with the construction industry. Talk to those involved in trying to get the thousands of kilometres of flood damaged roads in Queensland repaired about the cost and availability of equipment and manpower hire in the middle of the mining boom. The supreme irony in this is that these same roads have been buggered by the miners using them in a flood damaged state.

Another fascinating aspect of this report is what it reveals about public perceptions of the mining industry. Take a look at the graph on page 8 of this report. It clearly shows that the community has swallowed a number of myths about the mining industry. Obviously, the propaganda (a great deal of which we are seeing on billboards up and down the Warrego) paid for by the big miners is working.

Quoting from the report –

“To sum up, Australians believe that the mining sector:

Employs nine times more workers than it actually does

Accounts for three times as much economic activity as it actually does

Is 30 per cent more Australian-owned than it actually is.”

There is also this neat summary of winners and losers –

“So who benefits and who loses?

Mining workers have of course experienced the direct effect of the mining boom as have some of the firms and their workers that have experienced the ripple effects of the mining boom.

Ordinary wage and salary earners have seen no boom in the rate of growth in their real wages.

Pensioners receive indexed pensions and, by definition, indexed payments do not increase in real terms so there is no extra benefit for pensioners. (The exception was the $30 a week increase in the 2009-10 budget as part of the government‘s response to the global financial crisis.)

Homeowners are forced to pay higher interest rates across the board as the Reserve Bank seeks to control overheating which is actually concentrated largely in the resource-intensive regions of Australia.

Superannuants with the median balance of those approaching retirement would be better off by around $2 a week, or 0.6 per cent of the age pension, as a result of the mining boom.

Workers in others sectors of the economy that are trade exposed, such as those working in manufacturing, tourism and education, are experiencing reductions in employment and less job security.

Foreign owners of resource stocks have seen their profits rise enormously and the capital value of their Australian investments increase as the exchange rate has risen.”

Identify which of these groups you belong to and figure out how much good the mining boom is doing you. It's not doing much for me, my family and my community. Roll on a Resource Super Profits Tax.

Sold out.....

2011-09-03T17:46:00.003+10:00

Jellybeans on the signing tablecloth

Sometimes you should just trust your judgement.

Yesterday before the launch the manager at Mary Ryan's in town told me she needed to stock only one box (60 copies) of Jellybeans in the Jungle. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be enough, and that was before the WIN interview, the ABC interview, and the piece in the local rag.

By 1pm they were sold out, and when I wandered back at 3pm to pick up the Jellybeaned patterned tablecloth, (pic) she asked me how soon I could deliver more copies.

There were jellybeans on the tablecloth and bowls of jellybeans on the signing table.

I don’t know what became of them (those in the bowls that is).

The tablecloth will be returned to the school library I borrowed it from on Monday. I’d better give them a complementary copy. They were very helpful. I spied the jellybeans whilst attending a meeting with teaching colleagues, and they seemed to fit in visually with the theme. I’ve had a lot of trouble explaining that the book is not a kid’s story.

After reading the title and learning that it was written by a teacher, most jump to that conclusion.

It was great to have two mates from 5 Platoon at the signing, as well as the principal (over eighty and still going strong) who got me back on the rails as a teacher after RTA. Ian Macfarlane was generous. It’s pity there aren’t a few more in parliament as straight and genuine as he is.

The cheque for over a grand at the end of the day was also OK……

Sanity at Last

2011-09-01T18:38:00.003+10:00

At long last, a decision has been made about asylum seekers that restores my faith in my country.

The High Court has redeemed us, and thrown a giant spanner in the works of offshore processing.

Political posturing aside, (and there is plenty of this from both sides) this decision is probably the most significant change in the view of the High Court on this issue since the Tampa incident. Put simply, it throws the nonsense of off shoring our refugees right out the window. The various tin pot administrations who are happy to take the metaphorical forty pieces of silver provided will be the only people worse off.

The interesting issue now, is whether the government has enough courage to begin processing all boat arrivals on the mainland, and to return to the structures that worked quietly and effectively pre-Tampa.

Zoning areas for immigration would be another move that would assist, as would the introduction of an Australia card which refugees and everyone else would be obliged to carry. The fact that the carrying of an ID card has ever been a political issue in this country is beyond bizarre.

But that would require ethics and courage, neither of which is evident in either of the two major parties these days.

Celebratory Gunfire

2011-08-28T20:10:00.002+10:00

Anti-aircraft or celebratory?

Given recent events in Libya, no doubt you’ve watched endless and often-repeated footage of individuals firing all manner of weapons in the air in celebration.

This usually happens in the Middle East, but it is not confined to that part of the world, and has been observed in South America, the Philippines and the Balkans.

There are reports of it happening in the USA.

Apparently, Kentucky is the home of celebratory gunfire in the USA. It’s in the Onion, so must be true.

I’ve often wondered what happens to all those rounds fired skywards. I had the experience of accidentally firing a 7.62 round through a double-skinned tent once, so understand very well that damage can be done both on the way up as well as the way down. I was lucky, as the leak created was on the other side of the tent from where I slept.

But that’s another story entirely.

Apparently there are many recorded fatalities, and in some places, a great deal of damage has been done to roofing and eaves. Given the frequent spectacle of ute-mounted ZU-23 heavy machine guns (“technicals”) blazing away in celebration recently in Libya, it’s understandable that NATO aircraft generally fly higher than their effective range. The 23mm explosive projectile would make a sieve out of an aircraft.

Perhaps they’ve not heard of blanks?

Thinking about it, blanks in a real conflict would be about as useful as a chocolate teapot. I remember that we had blank firing attachments on our SLRs in training in Australia, but they never saw the light of day in SVN for obvious reasons.

Celebratory gunfire in SVN would have been called “unauthorised discharge” and would have earned nasty regimental penalties.

Johnny Jump-ups

2011-08-25T13:07:00.000+10:00

My bride calls these things “Johnny Jump-ups”.

Their botanical name is Viola Tricolor, and according to Wikipedia, they’re also known as Heartsease. They’re a common European wild flower, growing as an annual or short-lived perennial. They’ve been introduced into North America, where they’ve spread widely.

I’m glad they’ve decided to live at our place. Spring is on the way, and the garden is slowly coming to life.

Truckies

2011-08-23T08:02:00.004+10:00

James St Toowoomba

Truckies have been in the news recently with the quaintly-named “Convoy of no Confidence” attracting media.

Here in Toowoomba (where it passed through about 8am on Saturday morning) it was scarcely noticed.

The normal gridlock that is James St looked like it always did at 8am – a bloody mess. It’s an area ideally avoided at the best of times, but occasionally it is simply plain dangerous.

James St is (in theory) four lanes in both directions, but it is narrow, and lined by very large trees. In Toowoomba, there are riots and disorder if trees are removed, so they’re left in place, and pruned so that they look like bonsai gone mad, and the larger trucks have to hug the centre lane to avoid them.

This compounds the gridlock, as sections of James St (which goes right through the centre of the city) are pretty steep.

Routinely, trucks catch fire or break down in James St, and you need a cut lunch to get from one side of town to the other if you use it. There was a major emergency a few years ago when a fuel tanker came to grief – police, firies, the whole deal. If one of these things did go up in the middle of the CBD, the scenario of ignited fuel running down the steep street doesn’t bear thinking about.

I am very familiar with truckies as I share the Warrego Highway with them, and each year the “sharing” involves 20000km of driving.

On the whole, the driving standard of your average Truckie has improved in the last couple of decades, mainly as a result of the cowboys being squeezed out of the industry because of escalating costs. The exceptions are the drivers of the cattle crates. They are always in a helluva hurry, their vehicles often look like they’re not maintained and they trail a mist of cattle piss which harbours Q Fever. It doesn’t do much for the amenity of James St. The pong remains long after the trucks have gone.

What is ironic about trucks on the Warrego, is the fact that it is paralleled much of the way to Roma by a perfectly good rail line. This rail line is almost always free of traffic, except for coal trucks from Felton. Nobody makes a quick quid out of rail in this country, so the trucks use the Warrego which is rapidly being wrecked by the grain trucks, the cattle crates and the mining infrastructure being carted west on the backs of the trucks.

The miners don’t give a stuff about the road, even to the extent where they casually wreck public infrastructure in the process.

Decades of corrupt policies have allowed this nonsense to persist, so it is now embedded in national infrastructure. The subsidies paid to road transport are amazing, and whilst they continue, nothing will change. (See p55 in the linked report).

Given the billions paid in subsidies to this industry, the slogan “Truckies carry this country” should read “This country carries truckies”.

Christians in Iraq

2011-08-21T10:31:00.001+10:00

Iraqi Christians carry coffins during a funeral service at a church in Baghdad last year.

We’ve heard plenty about the triumph of democracy in Iraq.

It’s interesting to compare the lot of Christians in Iraq before the invasion of the Coalition of the Willing.

This quote from an article by Archbishop Cranmer sums it up fairy neatly.

Saddam was too preoccupied with persecuting the Kurds and Shi’as to bother much with the Christians, some of whom, like Tariq Aziz, rose to the highest offices of state under his regime. By the time of the 1991 Gulf War, they numbered about one million. By the time of 2003 invasion of Iraq, they had fallen to about 800,000. Now there are about 500,000 remaining. And they live each day as if it were their last, having seen their churches bombed, their congregations sprayed with bullets, and their priests brutally beheaded and dismembered. Christian boys are being crucified and girls are being raped.

I can’t vouch for his account, but the numbers, at least, are accurate.

The Catholic Leader has also been reporting on the conditions for Iraqi Catholics.

It’s interesting that we hear so little about this in the MSM.

I guess it doesn’t fit the narrative.

Long Tan

2011-08-19T20:13:00.007+10:00

I've been struggling to post something relevant to Long Tan. Working 500km from home (Charleville and Cunnamulla) has delayed this somewhat. Blogging on the go works in theory, but you need to get all your ducks in a row.

The duck called reliable wireless networking has been missing.

Surely everything that could have been written about Long Tan has been written. Nothing new can add to the stark simplicity that a company of diggers overcame impossible numerical odds and held out against a determined and well-organized enemy until relieved.

This year, the media story has been the awards. Somewhere embedded in this narrative is a metaphor for the war. The shameful reality that it took 45 years for these diggers to be recognized says it all. Our national understanding of this conflict improves with time, but it still has a way to go.

I should know. No soldier's service should be used to abuse or denigrate, but if you have the temerity to identify as a veteran opposing the political orthodoxy, that is precisely what happens.

The first time I saw Long Tan was at the beginning of our second operation in April 1970, when we brewed up after getting off the trucks and before setting out on a night insertion into the AO.

I remember thinking at the time of Frank Topp who was killed in the first ten minutes of the battle. He was attending Downlands college in 1961 when I arrived as a homesick 13 year old over 1000 kms from home. Frank hailed from Helidon in the Lockyer Valley. Home for me was North Eton near Mackay in Central Queensland. In those days this boarding school was a pretty tough environment, and Frank behaved a bit like a big brother. For reasons I've never really understood, he was good to me back then. Perhaps he sensed that we were both from the wrong side of the tracks, different from the sons of landed gentry who comprised a fair whack of the enrollment.

He enlisted not long after leaving school, and ended up in RAEME. After a few years of service he transferred to Infantry, and arrived in Vietnam as a Reo in July 1966. He was posted to 6RAR a fortnight before Long Tan.

The last time I was at Long Tan was March 2006. It's a haunting place - full of the ghosts of brave young men.

Lest we forget.

One Picture....

2011-08-14T12:11:00.006+10:00

Is worth a thousand words....

(Courtesy Pure Poison).

Why?

2011-08-13T13:02:00.007+10:00

Probably the last thing you’d expect on a sunny Saturday morning in leafy Toowoomba…….

I was driving along by Lake Annand in the MX5, when suddenly – Bang!

Half a brick landed on the bonnet about 40cms ahead of the bottom of the windscreen. By the time I’d stopped and figured out what happened, the perpetrators had scarpered.

There were perpetrators - the bloke sitting on his front veranda heard the bang, came out to discover its origin, and told me about the kids who lob things at cars and hide under a pedestrian bridge across the lake.

We (he and I) went looking, but they were long gone – probably just as well. The result of that same half brick being jammed somewhere obvious would not have been pretty.

I reported it to the police (this will help with the insurance claim). They didn’t seem to be at all surprised. Apparently it’s pretty common.

It could have been worse. I could have been driving with the top down – could have worn the brick in my face. It could have landed 50cms further back and gone through the windscreen, or 60cms further back and landed on the soft top. MX5 convertable tops are pretty sturdy, but I don’t think they’re brick proof.

As to why? Possibly someone’s been watching coverage of the British riots and was inspired. The cost of a new bonnet (aluminium on the MX5) is about the same as a one-way fare to Blighty. Aluminium is beyond most local panel-beaters.

I’d cheerfully deport them to the UK, reversing what happened two hundred years ago.

Boulders in Cunnamulla

2011-08-13T06:26:00.005+10:00

Boulders

I don’t usually review restaurants, but here goes –

I was working in Cunnamulla this week and found myself and co-worker looking for somewhere to have breakfast.

We drove around the town centre (doesn’t take long) and saw a large building on a corner, with the sign “Boulders”.

The building has been carefully renovated, and looks as if it could have been a cinema – I may be wrong. It certainly has an imposing front leaving plenty of space for sign writing. The work is thoughtful and thorough, not your usual slapdash effort. It must have taken a lot of time and plenty of ladders.

Inside was a very large airy space, decorated with some interesting and historic photos of life in that part of the world. The décor was a little less in your face than the usual out this way, and obviously chosen by somebody with a talent for this kind of thing.

Good Tucker ("Big Breakfast")

A youngish couple run the show, and their friendly and cheerful demeanour adds to the experience. The coffee was great and there was a good range of eats, including cakes, for a different time of the day.

There is a sign at the counter advises you that you may have to wait a while (for food) but we didn’t. Even if there was a wait, it would have been enjoyable, as the large picture windows give a wide view of downtown Cunnamulla. There was plenty of activity to observe on this (Tuesday) morning – that of Cunnamulla waking up. It happens slowly

Cunnamulla waking up

There are a couple of restored church pews at the front, and that was were we sat, as the sun came in through the window and warmed us up nicely (5 degrees in Cunnamulla that morning). The food was well prepared and presented, and prices were very reasonable.

Apparently Chai is available - I didn't ask for it. My eldest daughter's measure of a good cafe is one that serves Chai, so she'd give it the seal of approval.

Hopefully there will be enough Grey Nomad traffic to help it prosper. It deserves to.

Automotive Authenticity

2011-08-03T17:35:00.006+10:00

In the Old Dart you can buy a "new" MGB off the showroom floor.

The question is, of course, why would you?

I’ve driven MGBs, and they’re characterized by heavy steering, leaks, and dodgy mechanical reliability.

The Mazda MX5 offers everything the MGB did, but it’s watertight and reliable.

This may be the solution. These things come with MX5 engines and trannies. The whole body shell is beefed up, and they’re trimmed with state of the art materials.

The question remains, however – why would you buy one?

You can get a new MX5 for less than half the ask in the UK.

If you really want an MG, just buy an MX5 and some octagon badges, and substitute them for the Mazda logos. A good panel beater would do this for a couple of hundred dollars.

The MG Rover trademark is owned by the Chinese these days, so authenticity is relative in 2011.