Heelers are Smart

It's been pretty warm lately, and our newly acquired Heeler has developed a very efficient way of keeping cool.

She simply retires to a hidey-hole she has created behind some leafy shubbery, and stays there until it cools down.

She's completely invisible.

Some Fact Checking

We don't have fact checking websites in this country - yet.

More's the pity.

In the interests of publishing accurate information about the actions of the LNP government, I've found this list (prepared by Ray Marx) which reveals the true extent of the cuts across the state and the full range of agencies.

Of particular concern to me is No 17 ( In home Support services for severely disabled people cut  – early July), No 22 (Qld Health - Rural and Remote Health Office in QH “axed”), and No 41 (Funding for high care disabled - On C. Newman’s facebook page –22/07/2012).

There's also Nos 46 & 47 -  Planned Family support program for families of people with disabilities to be cut (email from ASU member Toowoomba - 25.7.12 and NDIS - Campbell Newman refuses to sign up for National disability insurance scheme - 24.7.12)

You'll need a fair slice of time to read it.

Remember the statement from Newman before the election?

"Public servants have nothing to fear from an LNP government"

He probably hopes you don't.....

He made some promises about people with disabilities. I haven't seen any of them yet. What I have seen is a massive withdrawal of services, none of which were heralded before the election.

Another Korean

iPhone photo - hence poor resolution.

I hired a Kia Cerato in Adelaide last week.

This was not the first time I’ve driven a Kia. When the kids were at home, we needed a people carrier for a while, so I bought a new Kia Carnival in 2000. If you have more than three kids, SUVs or people carriers are necessary if you want to travel as a family.

We owned this thing for five years, and it was only after I’d traded it that I began to hear what a lemon it was supposed to be.

This was not our experience. We must have been lucky enough to buy one of the 60% that were OK.

Our Carnival was well-used, carted the sprogs and their friends around without fuss and bother, and made some epic journeys to Far North Queensland loaded to the gunwales.

It only ever let us down once, failing to start because an earth lead had become dislodged.

Anyway, the “Carnivore”, as our kids christened it, was a reliable, roomy and comfortable jigger, and I have a strong respect for the marque based on that experience.

When the hire car turned out to be a Kia Cerato hatchback, I wasn’t dismayed.

After driving it for a week in and around the capital of the Deep South (Adelaide – not Melbourne*), I maintain that respect.

The Cerato was easy to drive, relatively quiet, and comfortable. It seemed to be put together with care, and the quality of the fit-out (base model) was impressive.

It had easy-to-operate Bluetooth, cruise control, and state-of-the-art audio. It was easy to get in and out of, and easy to see out of. (Not best English, I know – but you get my drift).

These things are mechanically very similar to the Hyundai i30, but with better styling and slightly more pizzazz. Kia was bought out by Hyundai years ago. The corporation is so big, that they can afford to develop motors, transmissions and running gear in-house, and buy the best body designers.

The Korean auto industry has made amazing progress in terms of quality and refinement since they came to the local market. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese learn as fast.

* I know Melbourne is South of Adelaide, but it doesn’t fit my definition of “deep”.

Universal Design Actually Works

In my perambulations around Adelaide I did my share of bus travel.

On one of these journeys I noticed a woman in a wheelchair on my bus, and wondered idly how she managed to get on board.

Looking more closely, I noticed an area in the bus designated for wheelchairs.

When we pulled up at her stop, the bus "kneeled" and a ramp emerged from the pavement side of the vehicle.

She was then able, with no fuss and bother, to wheel herself straight on the the footpath. This took no longer, and attracted no more attention than for an ambulant passenger.

Thinking about it, the only additional features required (apart from the extra space needed to park the chair on board) was the configuration of the pneumatic suspension to allow the kneeling feature, and the installation of the sliding ramp.

This sliding feature requires very little space, and I doubt that the engineering and maintenance of the ramp is anything fancy or expensive.

There's a bit of signage required, and the driver has an extra mirror used to ensure he can safely (and remotely) supervise the process. Most of the time, the space and the door is used in the normal way by able-bodied passengers.

This is no big deal, of course, except for the person in the wheelchair who would otherwise not be able to access public transport.

I'm not sure if this is unique to Adelaide, but I've not seen it in Brisbane or Melbourne, the only other places where I've used metro buses recently.

The bottom line is - if every metro bus in the country were similarly equipped, the quality of the lives of many people in wheelchairs would be improved.

It's way past time it became compulsory.

Summer in Adelaide

It's bloody hot here (downtown Adelaide).

40 degrees forecast today, and already over 20 in early morning. Still, they're forecasting a cooler day tomorrow, which is fortunate, as I'm helping number two son shift house.

The heat here reminds me of Mt Isa. There's no humidity to speak of, which makes it a little less uncomfortable.

It still hits you like a wall when you step out of the plane.

The birds know when it's hot - they disappear. I don't know where they go, but I guess it's somewhere shady, so they don't start falling out of the trees.

It does happen - birds falling out of trees in extreme heat.

There's a lot of stone in Adelaide (in the built environment) and nowhere as much soft semi-tropical greenery as I'm used to back home.

This amplifies the heat. It fairly bounces off the walls and pavements.

There's always Glenelg.

You can usually catch a breeze there.

The fish and chips is OK too.

Barnaby is Right*

Australia was one of the first countries in the world to introduce universal suffrage.

It's not often I find myself agreeing with Barnaby Joyce, but on non-compulsory voting, his comments are worthwhile.

There seems to be a tendency within the Queensland LNP to pick up all the craziest notions from across the Pacific, and air them here.

The non-compulsory voting meme, of course comes from the same school of conservative thought as Mitt Romney's famous 47% remark.

It goes something like this - People who elect governments we disagree with, must (because we disagree with them) be unfit to vote. Many of them wouldn't vote unless there is a penalty attached if they don't, so let's remove the penalty.

This meme is front and centre on many right wing blogs at the moment, and has quite a head of steam. It gets pushed to the extreme with the notion (strongly argued) that having everyone voting will eventually mean the end of civilisation as we know it. In other words, most people simply don't know what's good for them.

Strangely, this idea is pushed on many so-called Libertarian blogs.

It's a kind of fascist elitism which is probably not going to get much of a run in this country, but it certainly has a hold with some in the USA.

*Excuse the pun.

Staring at the Abyss

Will they or won’t they?

The Yanks, that is, go over the dreaded fiscal cliff.

On one level, I couldn’t give a rat’s, but on another, the one in which my wallet dwells, I’m more than a little bothered.

Like most self-funded retirees, most of my assets are in shares. If the stock market takes a dive (as we’re told by those who pretend to know that it will) if it happens, my wallet will be one casualty.

Generally, US politics represents the theatre of the absurd. It’s only slightly more entertaining than an undergrad’s production of “Waiting for Godot”. I never could hack Beckett, but was forced whilst at Uni to sit through such a show.

I didn’t enjoy it, but it seemed to make the difference between a credit and a distinction at the time.

There is no such incentive to observe US politics, except perhaps for some kind of morbid fascination. It is after all, a bit like watching endless reruns of Big Brother, but without any mystery about the outcome. US politics is entirely and dully predictable.

There are always goodies and baddies, compromise and collaboration are unknown, and the fundamentalists, of all brands, exert an influence out of kilter with their numbers. The goddamns have God on their side, after all, and that makes all the difference.

It’s worth considering how it got to be this way – their position on the edge of the cliff, that is.

I wonder did it have anything to do with the idea of cutting taxes during wartime. And we’re talking about two simultaneous wars. That was an absolutely suicidal policy. Could it be that the US is now reaping the whirlwind?

American corporations pay less tax than any other country in the G20 except Japan. They rank 19 out of 20. They will at some point have to face the absurdity of their being the exception to all the rules. Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.  

Meanwhile, they spend more than the rest of the world combined on war and the materials of war. They have hit the wall. Exceptionalism has gone to the edge, and is now peering into the abyss
(You never put a full stop after "abyss").

That’s OK, if it was a problem just for the Yanks.

It’s not.

There is a solution.

Given that only slightly more than half the population can be bothered to vote at Congressional and Presidential elections, why can’t self-funded retires in Australia (and other countries affected) be given a vote in the US elections?

Didn’t the Yanks fight a war about being given a say in matters affecting their hip pockets at some stage in their history?

Seems only fair.