One for the 29th

If you haven't marked the Leap Day in any way then you c ould at least do the Codebreaker Puzzle for 29th February 2008...the last one for this decade! (here)

What IS going on?

Could you go and fill up the car SWMBO said to me last evening.

"No!" I replied, "if you don't get petrol on Tuesday then it's too late, and you have to pay for it yourself!"

Petrol went up from 121 cents/litre to 142 cents from Tuesday to Wednesday last.

If the price of milk went up 15-20% on Wednesdays and then down again on Saturday, only to go back up again on Wednesday of the following week...then a better explanation than "The fluctuation of the Singapore Milk Index" would be being demanded.
As I have blogged elsewhere (see here, here and here...and then again here!!!!)

I am happy to accept the general argument,(if it is true...and I am not fully convinced) though why can't all this be averaged and flattened out so that we do not have a fluctutation of 20c a litre in the course of 24 hours ($10 a tank for me).

I also want to ask how the Singapore Index knows when public holidays are coming up in Australia!!!

What to do?

What to do when a public institution like a church goes awry? It's proving pretty tricky in the newest South Australian Diocese (only 40 years old); the Diocese of the Murray. It's difficult to get any facts straight; the church habitually goes into 'secrecy mode' when it gets into trouble. With a lot of 'core business' being confidential, it doesn't take much to pull that rabbit out of the hat when ever you try to get things straight. There is of course no reason why anyone should tell me anything.I just happen to be in a neighbouring parish in the next Diocese over.
There is a troubled group of lay people called "The Voice of the Laity" (website here) but it is clear from their website that they are almost as confused as anyone else.
This indeed is part of their complaint, they have had curious 'half-baked meetings' and a series of 'ill-kept promises' if only a fraction of their complaints are to be believed.
The Bishop is presnetly on sick leave, and one imagines it will be hard for him to come back so widespread is the ill-feeling. What do you do with a Bishop who can't go back to his Diocese?
Amidst allegations of bullying and financial peculiarities (if not impropriety) it is difficult to know just what is happening.
There is talk of the metropolitan see (Adelaide) absorbing its little sister, though it is difficult to see certain strident Murray clergy allowing that to happen without a fight. It is difficult to see how a seriously disheartened Adelaide Diocese after 5 years of its own woes, can actually be promoted as in a position to do it.
But all is secret and confidential, so it is difficult to know if all or any of this is true.

Skyping away

This morning at 6.20 a.m. our computer made a curious ring and I fiddled around with the microphone to speak to L in Basel, Switzerland.

I had sort of known about Skype, and the great thing about it is that Skype to Skype is free and done over the internet. You can also ring ordinary phones for a (cheaper) cost....so maybe we should be checking it out.

What an amazing, shrinking world

Resilience

I told one lot of people I was interviewing last night that I had already been told to $@*& Off! once today already.

To be fair the chap was off his tree. G. Declares himself to be a brilliant mathematician (as he has done on a number of previous occasions) and then carries on about some circumstance where he is worried about someone else having an accident. "Four people died that way last year!"

When I at least tried to invite him to make some statistical analysis of that (seemed like a reasonable thing to ask a 'brilliant mathematician' to do), and also reflect on the fact that he was trying to seriously impede someone else's freedom (something he is not to keen on for himself)...well it was then that he stormed off and said the choice words.

It sort of shakes you, particularly that there are some people who you just can't (and won't ever) reach.

Contrast that with another visitor I had last week, a woman who camped for two nights on our property.  And who was also not well-balanced. Someone referred to her as a 'tramp', and I suppose in the 20s and 30s that is how she would have been pigeonholed. 

She did not particularly need me or anyone else to converse with as she was capable of having very animated conversation with herself.

My role in this situation? Just to try and be normal, I sort of think of myself as fixing a peg in order that a person who is floating may be able to grab on if even for a little while. Sometimes it is hard work, and it was with this woman. But there was a certain good humour about it.

She said things like...I like to sleep on church ground because the wicked men can't get me here. They attack a single woman.  

There was a sense of awful pain in her past.

 Then she didn't think it was better to sleep in the church, rather than outside. That wouldn't be right...She was happy to stay as long as you don't call the doctors or the police...I assured her there was no need to do this. Though there was a temptation to think that maybe this would be the short-circuit to dealing with this situation

Any way there many things...and I was happy to try and present a safe haven for just a couple of days.

She was not dissimilar in the degree of disorientation to G and there was an edge that indicated that things could go pear-shaped. As it turned out she came and went, left a note thanking me for letting her use the church (which is normally open). 

She made choices about where she would live, and they were not what most 'doctors and police' would think should be done (hence her reluctance to deal with them I suspect), but really her life worked quite well.

I was drawn to thinking that it was sort of like the aboriginal people who chose to camp outside rather than live in some Housing Trust accommodation. Her life worked well, though not what authority figures (doctors, police and clergy) might suggest.

There are lots of people like this around.

What is it Watt? Watt, what is it?

Goons fans will recognise the quotation in the title, which has nothing to do with this post about 'democracy'. But I was reminded of a previous post I made about the use of language...in particular the word 'democracy' (see here)...that post was about the dangers of translation as a discipline.
My question is about the use of politically loaded panaceas to cover the multitude of sins
What sort of 'democracy', for example is being promoted by the electoral process in Pakistan? The struggle for 'democracy' in Kosovo, as it asserts its independence this week; what is that about?
The trouble with the word is that it is bandied about...but ill-defined
America in high flight leading up to democratic election, would seem to be the plumb line by which democracy is gauged and yet:

• Never yet has there been a woman president or a black president.
• Women are grossly under-represented at almost every level of government
• Health care in the world's most influential democracy would seem to be almost totally dependent on how wealthy you are, and whether or not you have a job.
• The US seems to have little regard for any small country that stands in the way of its self-interest, and little or no compunction about invading the territroy of other independent nations
• By and large the elected agents of the government in the federal and state legislatures of the US are the rich and powerful elites

We have little discussion anywhere in the world about what constitutes a democracy. And so we can assert that anything American is whilst anything Russian or Chinese is clearly not!

But we surely need to have some discussion about rights to education, healthcare and housing. Access to government, and the ability to genuinely influence policy. In this regard the most 'democratic' nations on earth are not neecessarily without spot.

Out to lunch

Alexander Downer spotted out to lunch instead of at Question Time said that was more productive than listening to to the droning of Julia Gillard.

Well excuse me! I have all sorts of things I have to go to & hear people drivel on (they no doubt think the same of me) and I go because that is what I get paid to do.

But aaaah! the hubris of the fallen. The disdain with which the former Foreign Minister treats the Parliament that has done OK by him.

I note again that his by-election (if and when it happen) will cost the taxpayer nearly half a million dollars.

What arrogance!

So whose country is it any way?

I find myself bemused after last week's debacle of aborigines being moved out of the west parklands....(it's all gone quiet, I don't think the Council got away with this pre-race, pre-Festival 'tidying up'  as easily as it imagined it might) by the thought that being in the middle of the Great Disruption that  when the Great Noise begins (Brmmm! Brmmm!) at the end of the week.....any way back to the bemusement .....there could/should  be a recognition of the traditional owners. It won't happen of course. Too much money involved!

The cost of freedom

We will no doubt be embroiled soon in the resignation/byelection scandal. As is predicted, and seems an inevitability, senior Liberals will resign in the next few months; ill-suited to sit on the backbench they will no doubt employ their talents elsewhere!

But at what cost?

The first ever election for the Commonwealth of  Australia in 1901 cost £56 331. The Australian Electoral Commission's figures going up to 2005 show that the 2004 election cost in excess of $117 million.

Of great interest are  the various  by-election costs which show that since 2000 a by election cost in excess of $400,000! (see the interesting document here)

At least 4 senior Coalition MPs are being flagged as disappearing before the end of their term, maybe in the next few months (Downer, Andrew, McGauran and of course Costello). This "I didn't win so I'm taking my ball and going home" mentality will obviously be costly to the taxpayer.

I suggest that some reimbursement, perhaps from the more than generous superannuation payouts, could be expected.

They will all of course go on to very highly paid jobs, probably better paid than the Parliament, so I don't have much sympathy.

The eremitical

I went down to Port Elliot by myself yesterday, bein annoyed that I couldn't go down on Thursday night.

It was so beautiful, I thought our little house could be called The Hermitage, though I don't think the other family members are quite as keen on becoming Hermits as Tilly, the dog, and I might be.

I had three swims on three different beaches, Boomer (pictured) Bassham's and of course this morning at Horseshoe Bay.

I was pretty cross about having to come back!

It's a bit like dying and having to go back to earth to fix up your mistakes!!

The sticking place

I am finding it hard to discuss the recent developments in indigenous relations. So many conversations have the sense of people pursing their lips and obviously disagreeing with what is being said.
The righting of wrongs seems like such a good thing to do that it is difficult when people think otherwise. I don't understand why so many white people feel aggrieved by aboriginal people, when you tease it out they have often had little or no encounter with them. But how often conversations seem to drift from righting the wrong to curiously blame-laden comments like..."I just hope they will do the right thing now!" Often implying that they are not likely to do so.
This is the underbelly of the racism that pervades our society, it is deep, unacknowledged and unknowing.
We will come quickly to the point where we will need courage to front the criticism and the prejudice. I think Rudd has the ticker to do this. I pray it be so.
I was drawn to that conversation between Mr and Mrs MacBeth, when he is weakening and needs to be pushed to continue to the bitter end

MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail!But screw your courage
to the sticking-place,And we'll not fail.
Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII

It is not a perfect match, but it will do for today. And so inevitably I googled my way into another couple of good quotes

Fear is the basis for everything terrible.

Fear is what causes all the horror in the world. No man achieves anything through fear. Fear isn't constructive. The only thing that can save people is to say I'm not afraid anymore. The minute they say they are not afraid they cannot commit a wrong act. There will be no such thing as a wrong act.
John Cassavetes

From a certain point on, there is no more turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
Franz Kafka

Good on us

Whilst some comment has been made on the various inadequacies of yesterday's events

• Mr Tuckey's facetious comments that it would not change a damn thing and his laughable rationalisations for not participating (here). He says he is 'horrified' that the Federal Parliament should be turned into a dance parlour. This from a man called "Iron Bar" because of his notorious (and deliberate) stance when it comes to subtlety!
• There is much angst about what Nelson should and should not have said
• There is a clear understanding that as wonderful as this event was, it is largely symbolical and we must move on to action
• I note that having received an apology from the Rudd staffers who should have known better than to betray the spirit of the day by turning their back on the leader of the Opposition, that Nelson is now whining because Rudd has not apologised to him for the behaviour of others. This is rich coming from the leader of a party who have for a decade said that they don't need to apologise for what other people have done. Alack, methinks we are back to game playing the political game

I'm glad nevertheless that there seems to be genuine energy and commitment to move on with vigour, innovation and dedication rather than nitpick.

We will be at our best today if......

The above quotation from Brendan Nelson is true and I thought he spoke eloquently and imaginatively, even if some of the things he said were inappropriate. Maybe true, but inappropriate for today.

Too much justification of the former government's policies. Policies which are hailed by some and decried by others both black and white (eg. the 'NT intervention'). 

As usual, many aboriginal people were entirely gracious even in the face of inadequacy. One older man interviewed on the lawns highlighted some issues that he thought were inappropriate, but nevertheless said (of Nelson) "At least he got out of the boat...he could have stayed in..but he got out!"

Yes, I think this is true. 

Apology, saying sorry, is an inadequate science. We will never get it right. And I think we have to accept that.

Having struggled with an exercise on behalf of the Church to try and offer an opportunity for us to repent of some  of the abuse stuff we have been involved in, but we were denied the opportunity to do this; I am well aware that we struggle to get this important stuff right. And don't usually manage it.

Let's resist the temptation to dissect. To move on is now our responsibility.

Winner and Loser

I feel faintly, but not very, sorry for our former Prime Minister, John Howard. When the apology is played out tomorrow it looks like he won't be there. He will be roundly (and rightly) condemned if that is so.

Were he to resile, he would also be criticised for leaving it so long.

It rather exemplifies what the nature of saying "sorry" is all about.

You cannot do it genuinely without confronting yourself. I would maintain that men in particular are not very good at this sort of confrontation.

Howard has often expemplified this sort of intransigence. We could say he is a product of his cultural heritage, but that is no excuse. He was also our Prime Minister and we should expect something better than he offered.

History will assess this better than we will now, but I think we will look back in 10 or 20 years time and realsie that John Howard did this country no service by his bloody-mindedness. And he shoudl ahve done better!

Time to Go!

An interesting talk today from Stephen Pickard, the Assistant Bishop who was talking about "Dynamic Catholicism in a Broken World."  

Those of you who are not Anglicans need to know that there are many Anglicans who call ourselves Catholics. It is a way of spirituality, and framework that is forming us all the time.

the good Bishop grappled a lot with the present struggles of the Anglican Church over issues such as the ordination of gay people, and for some (still) the issues of the ordination of women as Bishops.

It doesn't seem like much of an issue here in Adelaide, but elsewhere the Church is ripping itself to pieces.

Going back to the root of "catholic" , it is a word which means universal or comprehensive. And although we often use it to mean Roman Catholic (which is a contradiction when you think about it)... many Anglicans use it to speak of an openness to difference and change. Indeed our Group meeting this day is called Affirming Catholicism.  

I think of it as strong support for this universality.

The good Bishop agonised a bit with the principle of holding difference in tension and sticking with it and being reluctant to leave , but didn't quite get to a deep enough discussion of how do you decide when it is time to go.

There was much parallel drawn with marriage.  But while we readily accept today that people should not stay in destructive relationships, we were being more reluctant to let people get out of church.

It is tricky. And I don't know the answer. But how do you honour people's decision to betray something you hold dear!

I was struck by one insight. That Judas sits within each of us. I think that bears some thought. 

Miscellany

Don't know that Super Tuesday proved much other than the fact that it's not over yet!

This morning the Advertiser leads with a story about aboriginal people in the West Parklands having their stuff confiscated. It's a tricky issue. One dimension of it is that, it seems to me, the Adelaide City Council often likes to sweep these issues under the carpet.

I noticed for example when I used to bus to work in the CBD that at Big Race times, or Festivals aboriginal people were often moved on so that (I suppose) visitors didn't have to confront a social problem that we find intractable.

Went to see Miss Saigon last night. Hellishly expensive tickets (which I didn't buy) for a very indifferent show. Had two wonderances about why this might be so

1. Although it'd had rave reviews; are we so starved of top-end theatre that we willcall anything "good" even when it is not
2. The production lacked energy, the music is ponderous at the best of times but I thought with the exception of the eponymous Miss Saigon, the principals were poor. The Engineer...around whom much of the show revolves was almost unintelligible and his definition of the role curious to say the least.
3. We had the scary thought at half-time that because the last burst of theatre we had was in London have we been spoiled. Are we now witnessing the treue gap between Australian and international theatre? Will nothing ever seem quiet good enough again.

Absolutely Super

Well, the only thing better/worse than 10 months of Australian electoral campaigning is 10 months of US campaigning. We look with interest at what today might mean for the pruning of the field.
Some commentary on the Clinton/Obama rivalry has been very perceptive. I note particularly:

• the US, despite its liberal nature. has the lowest real participation of women in elected Government of any Western democracy. There are less women in the State and Federal legislatures than anywhere else in the world claiming to be democratic
• it is a pity that the Obama/Clinton divide has polarised the debate so that Clinton is about women and Obama about blacks.
• This has the unfortunate side effectthat it seems that the women's issue is about white women, and the black issue about black men
• I think this observation is fairly true, and the net effect is to disempower black women. This bears some thinking about

We look forward with interest!!

Constitutional recognition

A great difficulty with the whole issue about apologising to the stolen generation is the minimalist approach. That is, we will do as little as we possibly can to avoid having to accept any unforeseen consequences.
I think strategically this is a mistake and a policy that will fail.
Whilst the fear of blank cheques and unforeseen consequences is rife in our community. Let us not attempt the impossible and think that there are no costs and no consequences.
Indeed the best startegy, it seems to me, is not to do as little as possible but rather to do what needs to be done.
One aboriginal group at least (here) suggests that another issue to be picked up concerning indigenous peoples is constitutional recognition.
It has been settled some years ago (Wik and Mabo) that Australia was not "no man's land" or 'terra nullius' to use the legal term (see here for example...but it is worth Googling terra nullius(here) to get a very good range of discussions about this important idea).
And this, it seems to me is what the Constitution should recognise. There were already people here when the British decided this should be their country, and the consequences of that need to be lived with.
I had converse with someone today about the palce of Maori people in New Zealand society, she was expressing surprsie at the amount of power and influence they have.
My response to that is that the place of Maori people was recognised by the colonists by the Treat of Waitangi. While that is no perfect document or understanding, and NZ indigenous society is far from problem free at least they were not just totally ignored, or treated as if they never existed.
The anniversary of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi is tomorrow, February 6th

Watershed

There is no doubt that an apology will be made, to whom remains to be seen, by whom and with whom (to use a liturgical formula) is also up in the air.

A lot of people still don't get this, that this is not a personal apology at all. It is a nation apologising for not holding itself properly to account, and presuming to treat people as though their lives and their opinions, their wishes and their values were of little or no worth.

So though there were people to blame, and some more than others...that is not the point; but rather that we allowed it to happen.

Given the fact that it is Government and not the Crown that is going to apologise it is probably important that both political parties are seen to be acting in concert. I am a bit disappointed that the Liberal Party has not opened themselves to this more wholeheartedly (here) If ever there was a case for bi-partisanship it is now. It is not unreasonable, I suggest, for Nelson to know the wording...the government should perhaps be deliberately inviting input ...but if they are too backward in coming forward it will be pretty poor.