Politics – Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey

Another post this week in the lead up to the election. Who knows, maybe this will actually become a habit.

Politics is lacking in many areas, and the most glaring is truth. Why is it so hard for these people to tell the truth? Why do we need spin doctors working the angles?

It's because they do not serve you the tax paying public.

Every election I hear a dreaded plea from all sides, the promise of “Tax Cuts” and the people just eat it up. I do not believe in tax cuts. Tax cuts mean less money for the government to do their job. I don't want to pay more tax, but I want to pay the right amount of tax. In fact, I think they should change it from tax to subscription.

Each fortnight I have an amount of money taken from my pay to be used by the government to build roads, expand, replace and maintain infrastructure, provide health care and social services, law enforcement, border protection, and dozens of other services. I consider this my subscription to live in this society. If you do not pay this subscription the services disappear or are replaced by private providers at an increased cost directly to the user.

When I am happy with how the government utilises my subscriptions I take the minimum tax return, when I am unhappy I take back as much as the system will allow me. I consider this my monetary protest against the government. Sadly, this only works for the federal government and not the state.

I have had many discussions with people regarding a range of topics to do with government services where people don't believe they are getting value for money. I agree for the most part that our governments squander the funds of the people. Over recent decades there have been bouts of outsourcing and privatisation that have almost always lead to an increase in costs on the community at large, and often with a reduction in quality of service/product. There have been bouts of downsizing and streamlining, which again has usually resulted n increased cost and poorer service.

In this state election, both sides have said they're going to cut back the public service and I wonder why? The Public Service has less people in it now than when the population was smaller than today. Labor have hired a private firm to analyse the Public Sector for ¾ billion $ in savings. Liberal have said they want the same saving but are going to work with Senior Public Sector employees to gauge where the reductions should be. I can pretty much tell you where they'll come from – Administration. Administration is the easy target in all downsizing of the Public Sector and the public will get behind it because Administration aren't Doctors, Nurses, Police, Fire, or other 'Uniforms'. Administration are the people who do their typing, answer their phones, do the filing, and generally enable the 'Uniforms' to be out of the office doing the job their paid for. There is a great deal of paperwork associated with these 'uniform' functions, and plenty more as Parliament legislates extra reporting for this that and the other.

For some reason the public don't seem to get this side of the equation. There seems to be a general opinion in the public that Public Servants are paper pushing bludgers, and I admit there are a few out there but they are the minority. Like anywhere, there are people employed who just aren't right for the job. Like I said, they are few. Should the many be penalised because of a few the rort the system? No, I don't think they should.

What is needed is a hard look at who they have and why they have them. An example of this is my recent trip to Melbourne. I ate out a lot and found that the quality of the service staff was generally of a very high quality. Competition has forced a higher standard of service. Here in South Australia we take what we can get. This attitude is true beyond hospitality and permeates every industry.

Tax cuts also mean increases in other revenue areas such as licensing, fines and stamp duty. Never trust a government that says that they'll give a tax cut and take nothing away elsewhere. It's all lies. No government will harm its revenue stream in such a way – If they give with one hand, they'll be taking with the other seven. On the radio I heard an ad by someone to do with the election that some party is promising to lower taxes for businesses to allow them to hire more staff. This made me chuckle a little as a number of companies that I've worked for would just take the extra profit and run and not worry about hiring any more staff (or at least not unless they actually needed to because of workload and not doing so would impact profits).

A large area where the truth is somewhat lacking is regarding employment figures. Today I saw some propaganda regarding job creation in South Australia. Currently Labor says that it has been responsible for the creation of 110,000 new jobs. What they don't report is ho many jobs have disappeared nor the ration of full time to part-time positions. I think these are vital pieces of information to contextualise these 110,000 jobs especially in light of the Government removing 1200 Full Time equivalent positions last financial year with at least another 200 Full Time equivalent positions to go in the next financial year. I think it's important to declare these jobs as equivalent to full time employment. It gives shape to the statistic. For example, if the 110,000 jobs were actually part time positions at half time, that would mean the equivalent of 55,000 FTE. It's a stark difference in the power of the numbers, and it is all about numbers.

To win at politics, you need to control the information, or more specifically the interpretation of the information. You need to ensure that the words you use take on the meaning you want with the public. If everyone interprets what you say differently then there is chaos and no accord can be reached. If however you control the language and make your opponents use your words, terms definitions, it puts you up a step because they have to try a take that power from you. No easy task.

When you control the language, the truth become malleable and loses any meaning beyond what you give it.

I would like to see this change, but I know that it won't until people reclaim the power they have given away, until the government is forced to listen to the people and do as they demand. People need to take back the truth and demand better of their government. They need to destroy the spin and make politics straight.

Like I'm fond of saying, I'm an optimist.

Politics: Lame Ducks sitting in a row

So, it seems that the political debate has finally warmed to room temperature. There are policies starting to appear, but very thinly formed and filled with rhetoric and catch phrases. I'm honestly having a hard time working out who not to vote for.

Each party representative this election has no major view for the future, is regressive, poorly spoken, and going by all the Election posters that have littered the greater metropolitan area – a robot. The photos of these people make me mistrust that they are even of the same species as me. The smiles are rigid and fake, their eyes glazed and mistrustful. Basically the photos convey a contempt for he voting public I didn't think I'd see in this marketing rich society. Did each of the parties decide to outsource their marketing to the lowest bidder? Or did they do their own marketing (and if they did, go hire a reputable company now, you may save your seat)?

I have seen ads on TV and I can't figure out which party they support until the rapid fire 'authorised by' at the end. Do our politicians, their parties, and the marketing guru's they should have hired, have so low an opinion of the population that they believe no effort should be made to win us over? Are South Australians so die-hard in their voting preferences that poor performance doesn't matter?

Any way it flows, it looks like this election will have an interesting result, if only for the myriad of independents flooding the market who have yet to declare their preferences. There was an article in local press earlier his week that stated that there were four seats where independents looked like they'd win out and that it could take days or weeks after the election for them to choose their preference. This appals my sense of democracy. These people should be forced to declare prior to the election which way any vote to them will flow – this is what I mean by I don't know who not to vote for. I long for transparency, and I know I shall probably never see it.

I have said before that the only way to change to political system is to enter into membership with a party and start to build power within. The only problem with this is trying to choose which party to join. None of the parties actually share my philosophies of social justice, egalitarianism, progressive transparent governance, environmentalism, corporate/social balance. These things just don't occur in a single party. I could start my own party but tat seems very much like pissing into a cyclone while standing on a flagpole, mostly because nobody would believe what I said unless it was scandalous, and scandal sells newspapers and doesn't build an independent political activist power. So I guess it means that must simply keep doing what I'm doing and try to influence people through conversation to think and act regarding our society.

Regarding voting again, this morning I heard a very funny quote from Rann which went something like this: Just because you don't like me, doesn't mean you should vote against me.

What made me laugh about this is that 'media' Mike, the politician 'adored' by the public is suddenly on the back foot after years of him telling us how likeable he is and we have finally found out that he is not.

He then went on to discuss the 'great wins' that his government has achieved. While he may have scored some wins, it's all the losses that concern me more. So many projects that have been announced then turned into something else like the tram to nowhere which is now the tram to football park but was supposed to be the tram to North Adelaide – linking the Festival Centre, Adelaide Oval, the Women's and Children's Hospital, and the Entertainment precinct of North Adelaide into the network. After a recent trip to Melbourne, I must say that I like the idea of trams running the city grid and major arterials out. It works there and runs on time. I'd love to see something similar occur to Adelaide where the Public transport system runs on time so long as it not out 10 minutes either side of he scheduled stop. I am deeply concerned about our water usage and storage and very disappointed that the promises to increase the reservoirs has become a phantom of the budget.

Another thing that has really got me about this election is all the new independents that have come from the woodwork on single policy platforms for the Upper House.

This increase in upper-house activism seems to be directly linked to the general dissatisfaction felt across the state. There are the 'law and order', 'save the RAH', 'gamers' and more. It astonishes me that there is a party that is based around computer games getting a better rating system to ensure that adults are free to choose their entertainment as well better restrict the availability of explicit material to minors. It's a cause I agree with, but seriously a party based around this? The Gamers of Croyden are doing their best to be more than a single policy group, but this issue is one that should never have gotten to this point and highlights how out of touch our governance is. The RAH party is another one that gets me. I think that most people would want a new hospital built to the best standard we can and designed for expansion – sadly this isn't what the labor party want either, they just want something shiny that doesn't go anywhere near far enough to meeting near future demand.

In the mail today I received some personally addressed propaganda from Robyn Geraghty, the current member for Torrens. She asks me if I want our community to go forwards or backwards then lists off some dot points, most of which mean nothing to me. Two points are specific to seniors – I'm a long way off of being a senior – and I don;t really think concessions are the way to go but what can she do to change the living costs of our society or improve the pension or superannuation? Nothing because she is powerless in these matters. She mentions eduction, but Super-Schools are nt my idea of bettering education, how about more resources? She mentions hoon drivers, but their plan is to take away their licenses which will just mean more unlicensed drivers and bigger strain on our courts and prison system. She mentions that Labor have put 600 more police on the streets, but has not mentioned that the government has been getting rid of support staff for these very same officers forcing them to spend more time off the street.
And to top it off, Robyn wrote a little PS – With your support I can continue to work for you.

I wonder if this little note will sway anyone? Personally, I'm not. To me, this letter highlights how out of touch Robyn and Labor is. Will she be getting my vote? No, I don't think so. So I should be glad that now I have one person on my list of 'who not to vote for.

So, until my next blog, goodnight reader.

Politics: Elections

Some mornings I look up into the sky and wonder what the point is. All around me people are hurrying to get themselves ready for the work day, I can hear the cars along the main roads near my home ferrying people to their destinations. Nearby I hear a TV broadcasting the days news and I really have to wonder what's it all about? We dedicate so much of our time to work so we can have leisure time that we are almost always to tired to enjoy.

And then, every four years we have an election where the politicians throw around catchphrases like work life balance and it gets under my skin and crawls. These politicians, so removed from the every day world that the rest of us live in, telling us that their goal is to create a better balance.

And that brings me to what people do to entertain themselves. On the news over the past few days (and repeatedly on and off when there is nothing better to say) the state government has been putting forward the idea that 'hoon' drivers should have their licenses stripped permanently if they are a repeat offender. This topic came up at dinner last night and it got me wondering: Why do they always jump ahead to the banning stage? Surely there must be steps in between for them to consider.

Regarding the 'hoon' driver: Has the government considered setting up licensed arenas/tracks whereby these people could fulfil their urge to do burnouts, race others, or just get their cars up to very high speeds for a nominal fee? The track could be equipped with first aid, fire control facilities, safety barriers, etc. Surely, if these people wee given a legal alternative, they would take it? What's that you say, there already exists such places? True but you have to use their cars and they are quite expensive. The 'hoon', I believe, wants to use their own car that they've had kitted out to their specifications.

Now there is another thing, the car kits. We have made easily available all manner of ways to improve the performance of cars over and above the factory specifications. Are these to be banned as well? Or maybe restrictions made on their sale – not available to anyone under the age of 21, subject to successful completion of Defensive and Offensive Driving Certificates?

Maybe the government needs to look at the skills we give to drivers, the basic knowledge we ask them to have to hold a license? There is a written test to get your Learners Permit, followed by a mandatory number of lessons behind the wheel to get your Probationary License. A Full License is granted upon a certain amount of time spent with your probationary license. There are also certain limitations on the vehicles that people with these licenses can drive. I believe this should be enhanced. In order to gain your full license, I believe that you should have to undertake Defensive and Offensive driving lessons and need to pass a skills test. By adding these hopefully the driver will learn more about handling a car in a variety of conditions and make the roads safer.

And that is a big point – Safer. This I all about making it safer to travel on the roads and simply banning repeat offenders from holding a license won't do. How do you stop them driving unlicensed? You can't. If you want to solve the problem you need to go back to basics and start at the beginning. But what of the hundreds of thousands of drivers who have licenses but are poorly skilled? You enforce them to do undertake these Defensive and offensive courses to improve theirs as well, then you make mandatory skills testing every five years to maintain your license.

Too far you think? Certainly not as far as banning outright for life and promoting the unlicensed use of cars.

Dangerous driving is serious issue and one that cannot be buttonholed into 'Hoon' or 'Drunk' or 'Drugged' drivers. The problem is global and needs to be treated as such.

Another entertainment topic: Drinking

Having a drink is part of our culture. Friday night after work, Saturday night on the town. These are things that are promoted as being OK by most. However drunkenness is not.
Most nights in any country/city/town that allows for the consumption of alcohol there will be people drinking to get drunk. If they keep it to themselves and avoid making a spectacle most people let it slide. It's when it becomes a spectacle that people start o take offence (usually completely ignoring any time they might have done it themselves). That's when the media circus starts and society is bombarded by tales of drink gone bad.

I personally like a bit of a drink and spent time last week tasting a variety of wines in Victoria. Did I get loud? No I did not, but I did get nicely buzzed. I did however see a great many people completely snozzled and making asses of themselves. And of course it all makes me wonder, if this such a taboo thing to do, why do we allow it to keep occurring? A large part of it I think is cultural – Australia has long talked itself up as a working class beer swilling culture able to handle copious amounts of alcohol. We also spend a great deal of money on anti-drinking advertising which does little to dissuade people.

So, do we invest more in the anti-drinking advertising? Do we continue to raise taxes on alcohol?We've been doing these things for years with little effect. Maybe we need to think of a new way of teaching people about moderation. Who knows? Certainly not me. I do enjoy my alcohol, be it wine, beer, or spirit. And I do it in moderation for the most part.

So what is the point of this blog entry? Nothing really. Maybe it is just to complain about how none of the political parties actually understand the people, their responsibility, or anything that really matters. And for those that don't vote, don't come complaining to me when the government does what you don't want because you couldn't even be bothered to take part.

So, on the election... What's there to say? I'm not sure what any of the parties are going for although I have been told that Labor launched a website today. Maybe it will contain more lies for the public to chew on like week old gristle. Maybe there will be promises of water resources and environmentalism. I doubt it will be substantial and like most things this current government has said they'll do, it will disappear like so much hot air.

The election is but a few days away and I've only heard hot air and personal attacks. I heard that the Liberals want to do 5 things immediately upon entering government:
1.Fix the RAH. A fine and noble thought, but in order to fix the RAH there are some serious works that need to be done. The RAH is our central hospital. It is a mismatch of architectural styles having been added to over decades. It is a rabbit warren and not particularly user friendly. I would rather see a new one built and the land handed over to the botanic gardens to create a wonderful public space. Although, I don't want it built over the rail yards.
2.Use Storm water retention for drinking water. Have they looked at the toxins that are in our storm water? The run-off of the city is filled with a vast array of pollutants. How about they actually build the reservoir expansions that have been promised us for years? How about they force industry to use recycled water instead of potable drinking water?
3.500 Tasers for police. This should have already been done and it is a crime that it hasn't. Wasn't this already blocked by the upper house?

There were two more, but at the moment I can't remember them. That's how memorable the liberal hyperbole is. I'm not sure if I've even seen a Labor advertisement. I think I'll look them up today and see what I can find out. Maybe there'll even be another blog this week.

I guess this means that my only reader will7 be asking me what I do want out of all this. Well, here we go, and please remember that I'm an idealist.

I want and honest government, with complete transparency.
I want every politicians earnings to be laid bare for the public to see.
I want every decision and debate published. I want politicians to use the common language and talk straight.
I want politicians to declare their individual beliefs and stand by them, and if the party overrides I want them to tell their constituents.
I want a strong opposition that doesn't spend their time arguing for the sake of arguing and blocking things because it wasn't their idea.
I want parliamentary privilege revoked and politicians held accountable for their words.
I want them to stop playing Sudoku (or any other games) in Parliament.
I want a progressive government willing to do what it takes to bring this state forward rather than waste another 4 years..
I want government that is unwilling to sacrifice public service and infrastructure for the sake of a credit rating.
I want a government that will accept the best bid not the lowest for projects.
I want a government that supports its citizens.

There's more, but I'll leave it at that. Like I said I'm an idealist. If ever such change is to occur we need, like so many other things wrong with our society, to go back to basics and start rebuilding from the ground up. The current administration and its opposition are equally poor choices to serve the people.

In politics, the elected officials serve the party first and the party sets its own agenda for what should be done.

When was the last time you as a citizen were asked your opinion regarding something in your community/electorate/state? I've never been asked. I have sent suggestions and received a form letter response, but never a personal one.

Welcome to democracy, Australian style, where your vote counts for less than the printed ballot paper.

Society – Coming to you live, 24 hour FEAR

Every channel in High Definition, all those in Standard Definition, coming in Stereo, Mono, televisual and audio, web-cast, podcast, newsprint, magazine, telepathically hooked into your nervous system comes... The News!

The bombardment of human existence by news broadcasts continues unabated today as the media continues to scour the planet for bad news. In every corner of the globe, on every continent, in every country, state, fief, and city fear is found and delivered to you. And you just take it all in. Absorb it visually, aurally, and by osmosis. You're hooked, addicted; a fear junkie and you probably don't even realise it.

Try something new, go without news for two weeks and see how you feel. Don't read the gossip magazine, avoid the daily newspaper, skip the hourly radio updates, avoid the dawn, morning, mid-morning, midday, mid-afternoon, evening, night, and late night news. I've done it and feel much better for it.

Do you really need to keep that up to date with things outside your control? Is the war in Iraq and Afghanistan really all that important to your daily life? Is the latest celebrity scandal necessary to your well-being? Does the latest anti-social allegation against a sports personality actually impact your home life?

So you need a weather report, try going to the Bureau of Meteorology website and getting the forecast without the unnecessary histrionics of the media.

Want sports news, use the internet to get your results or watch the match. Why take part in the gossip that surrounds the game, it doesn't add to the game itself.

It all comes down to your choice of tuning in, encouraging the creation of material for your consumption. Use your democratic right to not partake in this form of media and watch them change to get you back. It's a numbers game: subscribers = money. Take away the subscribers and you impact their ability to generate income.

It starts with a single viewer making the choice.

Do you want a fear driven media or do you want actual news without the added flair? Your choice. Your power. Use it.

So, why am I harping on about this? Well, it's Saturday morning, I'm a little fuzzy from the birthday I attended last night and I'm on a bus into the central markets, and there are a half a dozen people reading the newspaper, or rather the Advertiser, a rag tat passes for a broadsheet. Their faces are grim as they navigate the column inches. Is this their natural expression, I don't know. All I do know is that they are not happy people. Their eyes are sunken and hollow, the lines on their face makes them look like a bulldog, cheeks hanging loose and floating at the sides of their chins. I'm wondering if they have ever smiled, experienced any joy.

An old man matching the description above gets on the bus, an old white man with a gibbon throat and scratchy voice and starts talking to the driver. The driver is a Sikh, immaculately dressed with pants crease and pressed shirt, his turban a clean powder grey.

“Do you have one of these?” The man says holding out a bus ticket recently introduced that allows pensioners to travel free on weekends (an incentive by the state government to retain the grey vote).
“Yes sir” The driver replies, “may I see your card sir?”
“No. I just want one of these”
“I need to see the card sir, make sure.”
“No. The ticket.”
The Driver gives up and gives him the ticket and the old man moves to take his seat, grumbling under his breath something bitter.

This has got my attention. When I boarded the bus, I wished the driver a good morning and he cheerily responded. He pulled away from the curb gently. A few stops later he pulls in and informs a passenger sitting directly behind him that they have come to the stop he asked for. The passenger has a large bag which the driver helps him get off the bus. By all accounts this is a good bus driver – skilled in handling the large machine, polite and helpful. Why would anyone have an issue with him? Is it because he's a Muslim? Entirely possible.

The old man was carrying his copy of the Advertiser and is reading it as the journey progresses. Maybe he's just read another scary tale of Muslim terror, I don't know. I do know that I do not like this old man. I don't like anyone that can't spare a second to be polite. I don't like people that are bitter.

Years ago I dated this girl whose father was a news addict. He was retired and spent his days watching the news, keeping up with global events. He barely slept and spent most of his time digesting news. He was one of the most bitter human beings I have ever met – a man of the land, turned retired suburbanite, a fierce labour supporter his entire life until John Howard taught him to hate the 'free ride' the new generation has been given, a man who sacrificed for his family and swore to serve Christ but refused to attend church because that's where Satan gets you. This man had no good news in him, jut bad bitter racist information filtered through the television, radio and print media. Any opinion that ran counter to his was anti-Australian, anti-Christian. He was a terrible human being. He is not alone. I have met others.

After a small hiatus I'm back to complete my thought processes and publish this blog. It's Monday morning, for most it is the start of the working week and I'm sitting on a bus heading into the city. There are twenty people on the bus and none of them is smiling. There are only newspapers in sight but four of the 15 passengers look to working on school assignments – all but three of the passengers are high school students.

Without repeating anything previous, I'm concerned for my society, people should not be so unhappy with their existence. Their faces should not naturally be set to scowl or frown, because I am sure that nobody here is actually trying to be down. That would be silly and I just wouldn't understand it if that was the case.

I'm not in my best mood this morning but my I'm content because I know that htings could be a lot worse. When I have travelled, I have seen poverty that has ripped at my heart. When I move around South Australia I don't get the same hollow pain of our country's success over others when I see people in poverty. I wonder, what is stopping these people from being able to claim their place here. I do earnestly hope that we may be able to pull ourselves out of this and make a go at a positive future, but as I was reminded yesterday – People don't want to pay for things like health and education, they just want to earn all the money they can.

So please, remember the next time you watch or read something, you are using your democratic right to partake. If you are unhappy with what's being produced stop watching/reading and don't go back until it is what you want. This is you right and at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it is the last power you have as an individual.

A more coherent post next time I promise you.

Politics – Keep your click pure

Once more South Australia has come to Election Time. You can hear the people cheering throughout our state... Can't you? Well, actually no, you can't. Why? It's like a friend told me “Why vote, it just encourages them”.

I'm a big believer in democracy, in the right of individual determination through the collective. Still, I just can't seem to get enthusiastic about an election that offers little hope of positive change. In South Australia, we have a range of professional politicians who play to the media talking loud without saying anything.

The current administration has made many promises over the last eight years (is it really that short a time, it feels longer), very few of which have come to fruition. Soon enough they will start again.

One of the politicians that has really got under my skin the last few years is Michael Atkinson, Minister for Justice and the Attorney-General. Atkinson has spent a great deal of time trying to censor adult South Australians and restrict their access to such things as the internet, entertainment and anonymous political discourse.

There has been a push to have computer games classified in the same manner as film and literature, which Atkinson has opposed. He has pushed for a law to deny the right to anonymity when making political statements on the internet which he has promised to repeal after the election. It is just another case of our politicians not living in the current age of Information Technology and Exchange.

With the computer game ratings, it's another thing altogether. There has been a push from the gaming community to have an R18+ rating added to allow for some games that are available internationally to be made available in uncensored form in Australia. I don't understand the opposition to this, movies have had it for years and the rules on what is and is not acceptible under these ratings has changed over the decades.

The thing I find funny about the use of ratings and the availability of films with adult clasifications is that once classified it should be up to parents to control the information flow of these materials to their children. When I was younger, my father used to regularly hire R18+ movies for me to watch so long as he deemed the content appropriate. In this regard I was given a pretty wide range as his rule was “Anything but pornography”. This meant that in those formative years I saw a grand selection of films that were deemed unsuitable for my age group. Am I psychopathic, homocidal, suicidal? Do I beat on people (man, woman or child), rape, pillage, etc? The answer is no. I hold a steady job, pay my bills on time, have a credit rating, maintain a household, have a long term relationship, pay my taxes, etc. I am a contributing member of society at large that puts as few stresses on the system as possible. So, where is the damage caused by the movies I have seen and the games I have played?

I firmly believe that the politicians need to grow up a bit and start living in the real world. Each day the media broadcast horrific images of violence, report on all manner of depravity and horror that is far worse than any fiction I have ever encountered. This is not to say we don't need a ratings system at all, just that it should be fair and equal across the board. It wasn't too long ago in our history that banning books was commonplace, burning books, records etc.

Which leads me onto the Clean Feed, the government (federal this time) and their intent to censor the internet in the name of Child safety. I'm all for Child safety, but this plan will do nothing to help and won't even do what is intended. The clean feed will be easily circumvented by those that want to do it. All the clean feed will do is interfere with my right to access information of my choosing. I don't go looking for the stuff the government wants to censor, and as such I don't find it, but I will be penalised for being a citizen.

There are a number of other ways in which children can be made safe whilst using the internet, the first of which is education. Educate the user and the parents. Put the responsibility back onto the parents for maintaining some discipline. Also, there are a range of programs that can be purchased that allow some censorship controls by the user. The government can make a deal with an already established company for this or develop their own and make it available to parents. Makes a hell of a lot more sense than blanket censoring the web for all users in an ill-conceived bludgeoning manner.

Has society broken down because (insert controversial book here) was written? Did a generation listening to (insert radical band here) bring the world to anarchy? Will the world be safer by individual governments attempting to censor the internet? Will paedophilia cease or be diminished by a clean-feed?

The answer is no.

And the thing that really gets me about all of this is supported by the majority. It makes me wonder what my vote really means, if anything at all.

Has our vote become diminished by these professional politicians serving their own ends (I'm not so idealistic that I believe they serve the people although I wish they would)? Is there a way to make them more accountable to the public?

Here's a hypothetical for the figments of my imagination that read this blog:
Would you trust politicians more if all their property was held in trust by the Public Trustee (or other body) whilst they served their term, linking the growth of their personal to the prosperity of the state?

Society - Eye for Eye until we're all blind

So I've had this blog up for a month now and I'm only now publishing the 3rd entry. I'm rather disappointed in this, as I've actually been writing entries consistently throughout but just can't seem to get them into a state that I'm happy with. Each piece begins to meander from the original point and try as I might I just can't get it back on track. So I figure, what the hell I'm just full stream of conscious and see where the words fall.

As I write this I'm sitting outside my office enjoying my morning cup of coffee having just ridden the 10 kilometres to work and there are dozens of stray thoughts circling my brain. The ride is good, it gets me focused and calm so that I can complete the day with a smile on my face. Even the constant and continuous poor driving I witness on the ride doesn't diminish the therapeutic qualities of the ride. If anything, the rage of those around me makes me feel better because I already feel good and don't see the point in letting it get to me.

This morning though I have all those thoughts in my head, I'm still pretty much focused but they niggle at me. A big one is: Who gave these people a license and by what means are they allowed to keep it? It's there because this morning I was almost taken off my bike by someone not paying attention. Not an unusual occurrence, but one that aggravates me. I was in my bike lane (a novel idea that gives me one metre from the curb to cycle in) at the traffic lights. There are two options for traffic at these lights – turn left (into traffic) or right (across traffic). The bike lane has a turning line marked across the intersection for turning right which is what I planned to follow. The traffic lights also have a turn left symbol for motorists (if I press the bicycle button at the lights this turn symbol stays red to allow me to cross safely). I pressed the button, and the light remained red but the motorist turning left ignored it and almost slammed straight into me. Luckily I have enough sense not to launch immediately on a green light or I'd be paste now.

So, why would this motorist break the rules and almost run me down? Is it perhaps that they didn't see me? If they didn't that's ok, but running a red light is not. Maybe this motorist hates cyclists. I do get that. A lot of motorists hate cyclists. Sometimes with a good reason. But should they brand all cyclists as bad because of a few experiences? They shouldn't but they do. Like all prejudice it can be irrational and encompass others that are similar but not the original. For example, I do not dress in spandex when I ride and these are predominately the cyclists that people do not like on their roads. I dress like a normal person. I do not ride like the spandex clad cyclists raising their arse in the air to gain aero-dynamism. I do not weave in and out of traffic, I stay in the bicycle lane or on the yellow curb line.

The last time I vocalised this occurrence to someone in the lunch room they flat out told me that I wouldn't get any sympathy regarding this because they hate cyclists. Mind you, the person couldn't actually articulate why they hated cyclists, but it was clear there would be no changing their opinion.

It's funny, as I get to this point I'm reminded of what a friend of mine, who drives and cycles, says about motorists: Most people can't drive, they're just steering wheel attendants.

It makes me wonder, are we all as bad as the other? Judging the mass on our few experiences? And in the end, does it really matter? Probably not. We are what we are, and most of us will not even endeavour to alter our opinion, but they'll spend a great amount of time trying to alter yours.

Thanks for reading. Some real content next time, I hope.

Environment - Naivete, Hope and Politics: Green Fail

I'm a bit of an optimist, at least I am with my hopes for the future. For some reason I can't help but think that we as a species will wake up from our history and bravely charge in to the future, aware of where we have come from and willing to take risks doing something new.

This first decade of the 21st century has seen some amazing events occur. We've had the rebirth of terrorism, the collapse of our economies (again), and the environmental debate gain a great deal of the social agenda.

The terrorism argument never quite sat right with me after becoming aware of world news in the 80's. It seemed that a week didn't go by where there wasn't a terrorist group on the news making demands for one thing or another. September did raise the stakes in some regard, but terrorism wasn't new, it just had a new face.

The economic collapse that the globe has just suffered also wasn't new nor unexpected. In fact it was well overdue, and that's probably why the severity took us by surprise. The decade of milk and honey was over and we were fast looking like 1989 again and the recession we had to have, only this time nobody told us we had to have it. For some reason people are still surprised that there is a negative side to growth and profit. I don't quite get it myself, it seems pretty logical to me.

And the environment debate. I first became aware of this debate in the 80's when the hole in the ozone layer was going to promote painful cancerous deaths across Australia and eventually the world. I remember that this got people riled up to fight the impending environmental apocalypse. Society became aware of recycling and impact. In 1987 I first heard the term “Think Global, Act Local” and it resonated. I looked around to see what could be done, and my then young mind grasped it quickly and began to collect cans and bottles to take to the recycling depot and increase my pocket money. It was a good deal. The kids got together and started asking their teachers why the school doesn't do a paper drive, and so they did.

Then I went to high school. In high school, things changed. Gradually the debate and fervour for environmentalism faded. By the early 90's the debate was a relic. It came back again at the end of the decade, faded slightly before coming back to stake it's claim in the new century. It was whilst I was at university that it really came together.

The thing is, I changed many of my practices to adapt to the green way of life – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and waited for my society to get on-board. It didn't happen fast enough. Council's now supply Recycling, Green waste, and other waste. Do people use it? Some do. A lot don't. In the suburbs I've lived in, I've seen many homes not even use their recycling bin. In the Adelaide Hills I've seen a very prominent politician utilise their green waste bin for ash (which the bins clearly state not to fill it with). I've seen people pour liquid waste into their recycling. All manner of things that people should no longer do, but just don't care about. Even after two decades of discussion on the subject, countless media hours and publications, Kyoto, it still hasn't sunk in enough even though it is now one the hot political issues.

The Copenhagen conference occurred recently, filled with all the hype and media coverage you would expect from such a hot political topic. Leaders from around the globe gathered to ratify a deal that contained no real substance. Look it up, there's nothing much to it besides a great deal of posturing and 'hope for future discussion'. For some reason, I thought that was what Kyoto for.

Maybe it's my naivete, but I honestly expected more from this. In light of all that this decade has brought us, I really thought we were ready to move forward positively, free of grandstanding and posturing. I know, very naive.

Here's what I was expecting – a clear discussion of reworking global economics towards a sustainable future. What would that entail? Well for starters not a carbon trading program whereby companies can offset their dangerous environmental practices by purchasing unused carbon credits from greener companies. It's a novel first step, in line with our current economy, but lacks the punch required to actually move companies to better practices. What we now need is for the governments to forcefully shift companies through legislation toward better practice.

One such approach would be to force corporations that use large amounts of water to use recycled water instead of potable water. Currently the governments are making business adhere to water efficiency programs in an effort to reduce their water usage. This is not enough, but it ensures that business profits remain intact and largely unaffected. Unfortunately that approach is very short sighted. There have been numerous studies, reports and papers that discuss how to transition our economies now by taking a small hit it will limit the economic impact a decade or more down the track.

Yet, our politicians and too weak to actually make a stand and force change. And we the people, how can we force our politicians to do what is needed to save our future, both environmental and economic? We can write and email our elected officials, which should at least get you a form letter response. Or you can do as I'm choosing to do, and that is to start to research and to use my purchasing power to support companies that are transitioning voluntarily and avoiding those companies that are not.

Sometimes it seems that's only power we have to make change. Choose with your wallet. If enough people do this, then the economic balance starts to change and the other companies will catch on and have to play catch up to stay in business.

Who knows, maybe that is the only true democratic power that remains to average human.