Was a new government really needed or were we just in want of novelty?

Recently I listened as a fellow talked about how governments, good or bad and even if they are of the former variety, reach the end of a cycle.

Is that the case or is the idea of novelty is so entrenched in modern communities that people reach out, and vote for, a new government just as they search for a fresh novelty?
The success of our modern consumerist world hinges on our raging desire for novelty, a concept that underpins the new models of widgets each year paradigm, although the changes may only be cosmetic.
Our drive for novelty is helped along by our insatiable need for new, whether that be a new widget or, as the case in Victoria just recently, a new government.
This conversation is not about our displaced government being good or bad, or whether that which replaced is better or worse, rather it is about entropy, the fact that everything we know and understand is subject to depreciation and, ultimately, death.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics explains entropy, but here is not the time or place to discuss it, rather simply consider the decay of all around you, including yourself, and in accepting the reality of entropy, live with it rather than attempt to forestall it.
Governments that have reached the end of their “cycle”, assuming they are still operating relatively successfully, have simply not refreshed their image sufficiently to underpin their novelty.
It is a sad state of affairs when the future wellbeing of our communities hinges on our distorted, and often perverse, need for novelty, something fresh and so something new, not necessarily better, rather just fresh and new.
Also, it is worth noting that the word “new” is considered to be the most powerful word in advertising lexicon, followed closely today after decades of mass produced foods by the term “fresh”.
New and fresh appear to be antidotes to entropy, a concept most might not think about too much, but which are instinctively reassuring to people who are presently wrestling with the possibility of their demise brought about by human induced changes to our climate.

As it will be for all of us, a winning streak ends

Future Christmases for many extended family members will not be seasons of joy.

A niece’s husband, whom I did not know too well, died just two days before the annual celebration after failing to recover from a heart attack.
The father of two, only in his mid-forties, had collapsed while making deliveries and by the time he had been found, attempts, made to resuscitate him and then taken to hospital, his brain had suffered lasting damage.
His family knew he had wanted to donate his organs and so after it was determined that his brain was irreparably damaged and recipients were organized, his life support equipment was turned off.
Brian lived in another part of Victoria and so I had little to do with him and strangely knew more about his kids as my wife kept me abreast of their movements through Facebook.
And so although he was somewhat of a stranger to me, his final scene was unexpected and sudden, he was family and his death was a shock.
I can’t imagine how traumatic it will be for immediate family next Christmas, the Christmas after and I can only guess at how difficult it will be in following festive seasons.
There is a strange finality about death that seems to escape our understanding and every time we encounter such a moment involving family or friend, promises of living a better life erupt, but in the maelstrom that is life, rarely, interestingly, are those promises ever kept.
Life, no matter our approach, is a vibrant affair and that, alone, outside whatever affiliations we might have or superstitions or addictions we have, warrants care and respect for it is a fragile thing and our time here is limited.
Poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen (above) discussed the vibrancy and fragility of our lives in his poem, “A Thousand Kisses Deep” when he wrote:


The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win for a while, and then it’s done –
Your little winning streak.
And summoned how to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it’s real,
A thousand kisses deep.

From a muted sunsent to the outbreak of good sense

The muted sunset of 2010 gathers in the west and then we turn to look east in the hope of seeing a spectacular sunrise marking the beginning of an equally breath-taking 2011.

Hope will be insufficient if 2011 is to be something better than the year about to end, as more than that along with good intentions is needed.
The latter, it has been said, pave the road to hell and so if the year ahead is to be pivotal for humanity we will need to abandon our expansive way of living; the seeming dislike we have of the other; our misplaced distrust in science; our love for addictions that are blatantly fallacious, along with disturbing superstitions many abide by that contribute nought to humanity’s wellbeing; and the perverse belief that force will resolve any disputation.
We simply cannot allow 2011 to be a year of more of the same – the time for chat, research, reports, talk-fests and the seemingly never-ending referral of matters to committees is gone.
The year ahead needs to be one of commitment; we need to commit to limiting our greenhouse gas pollution; we need to commit to a more restrained way of living with our governments leading the way to help us to build self-reliant communities; we need to commit to learning about, understanding and introducing a steady-state economy in which we abandon the growth ideology and embrace a paradigm that is about quality as opposed to quantity; we need to commit to thoughtful reasoning about humanity’s place in the universe accepting that we are here by chance and that in itself being such a beautifully wondrous thing that we should celebrate life and stop the perplexing passion we have for slaughtering each other.
Other things I’d like to see here in 2011 – an understanding and embrace of true equality; a serious move toward republicanism; the erosion of misogynistic religions, in fact the complete shift away from religions allowing for a genuinely secular state; and the outbreak of good sense to see alcohol, our most socially damaging legitimately available drug, take the same route as smoking.

Bill has never flinched and retreat is not in his vocabulary

Bill Hickford, the fellow I knew, never flinched.

And that trait was on show again just the other night when he confronted a knife wielding burglar in his Shepparton home.
Bill led the GV Centre Committee through difficult times when I was involved, maybe 20 years ago, and although circumstances made his role both challenging, and often controversial, he never flinched.
That admirable way of living is what our community needs more of and although the positive aspects clearly outweigh whatever might be considered negative, Bill, sadly, felt the sharp edge of the downside early Friday morning.
Bill had an acute sense of right and wrong, although such an instinct was unimportant when unusual noises led him to investigate, followed by his confrontation with an armed intruder and a subsequent struggle in which Bill was stabbed 13 times.
No instinct was needed; Bill would have simply known it was wrong to have an unknown fellow, armed with a knife, roaming about his darkened house.
Was the break-in planned or was Bill’s house simply chosen by chance?
Nothing points to the former and so it would seem the latter prevails, however the intruder had not accounted for the fact that inside was Bill, a fellow who does not have “retreat” in his vocabulary.
The passion for right a wrong is a personal power that Bill will need to enlist as he draws on reserves to repair the damage wrought as wrestled with that intruder to his Kialla Lakes (above) home.
For long I have wondered why bad things happen to good people and this seems to the epitome of such a dynamic, but I’m still mystified.
Law and order protagonists will use this to again beat their drum, but the issue is broader and deeper than a simple argument for more police.
Rather it is a symptom of an ill-society, one that is rich in inequality, promotes ideals unattainable for most, makes violence attractive and appear as an avenue to success and suggests that gratification is there to be taken.
Bill is one of the good people, who now struggles after encountering one of those bad things.

Christmas offends, but I just love it

Christmas offends my sensibilities – but I just love it.
Christmas was born with the birth of a myth that invokes Christianity and became a marketer’s dream when the idea of gift-giving captured the modern mind.
Christmas, in its present form, worsens difficulties the world faces with the exhaustion of resources and encourages a way of life that is the antithesis of a sustainable world.
Christmas and climate change, or global warming if you prefer, seem unrelated, but are inextricably linked with industry working overtime and ploughing through resources to churn out what it is we want, rather than need, for this festive season.
Christmas does, however, have a positive dimension in that it encourages altruism throughout December, a generousity that is largely in retreat for the rest of the year.
Christmas is for many, wrongly and yet understandably, a real or imagined deadline for tasks ranging from the completion of projects to decision time about relationships or other personal moments of consequence.
Christmas gives oxygen to a lie that may seem innocuous and fun, but in a subtle manner illustrates to those at the heart of the deception, our children, that they should treat those in authority with some suspicion, bringing on an uneasiness that has the potential to surreptitiously trouble them throughout their lives.
Christmas, despite its Christian underpinnings and its consumerist overtones brings about brief moments that point to the richness of humanity and in so doing unearths the warmth, connectedness and collaboration that will be essential if humanity is to find the capacity to dispense with its differences and stand as one, rather than many, in confronting emerging difficulties.
Christmas for me will be particularly enjoyable as it will be the first I have spent with my one and three-year-old grandsons, something about which I often feel distress for long have I believed that we should all live where we live, meaning families should not be in disparate parts of the country, or even worse, overseas.
Christmas brings its dilemmas, but for me it is a particularly special time and I trust it is exactly that for you – season’s greetings!

Addicted to pointless beliefs, we fritter away the understanding of our true worth.

Our innate human need to believe, in something, is distracting humanity from understanding its true worth.

We fritter away our intellectual capacities on hollow beliefs and yet largely ignore scientifically demonstrable contrary values that underpin the scaffolding of life.
The former are, almost without exception, rooted in emotion while the latter emerge from a rational, reasonable and thoughtful approach to life.
Reason, ration and thought, despite what we say, demand that we take responsibility to sustain life in all its fragility as against indulging in pointless and frivolous beliefs that when exposed to close scientific examination desert us to make no contribution to the enrichment and wellbeing of life on earth.
Scientist and author, Marcelo Gleiser (above right), helps us understand that through the happy collision of various inanimate substances, chemicals and circumstances, life evolved on earth about 3.5 billion years ago and its resultant asymmetry produced, ultimately, our universe’s most intelligent life form, you and I.
Late in the 17th century humanity experienced the Age of Reason and then, in the following century, came the Age of Enlightenment that was really more about values than ideas and ignited a questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals, and a strong belief in rationality and science.
Humanity glimpsed freedom, but never did it escape from the shadow of superstition and it was only recently that those at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas heard that Western modernity is threatened by a population expansion of the religious, an accelerating decline of liberal secularism and the rise of religious conservatism.
Gleiser argues for a new morality aimed at preserving life, noting that the most amazing fact about existence is that we are aware of it. “The most sobering is that, as with our ancestors, we remain alone as we contemplate creation.
He encourages us to come together as a species to fight for life and in closing, “Imperfect Creation”, Gleiser wrote: “We have a chance to change the course of things and salvage the world we grew up loving.
“Even if some have doubts as to how severe the upcoming storm will be, there will be a storm”, he wrote.

Murray-Darling boss resigns - understandably

Many would be celebrating this week’s resignation of Murray-Darling Basin Authority boss, Mike Taylor (right).

His resignation ambushed many, including the Federal Government whose Water Act he and his authority had attempted to interpret with the intent of salvaging the integrity of the Murray-Darling Basin.
A guide to plan for the basin released earlier this year was greeted with hostility and argument that Mr Taylor and his authority had ignored social and financial implications for all those who lived in and depended upon the basin’s water.
Mr Taylor and others from the authority canvassed many basin communities over recent months to explain the intricacies of the guide, but instead of thoughtful deliberation those many meetings were received with mostly unreasoned, emotional anger.
Mr Taylor repeatedly told the thousands at the public meetings that he and the authority had done nothing more, or less, than interpret, and apply the Federal Government inspired Water Act.
In launching the guide, Mr Taylor stepped into the cauldron that was ablaze with raw nerves set alight by a ten-year drought and here was he, simply the messenger, telling the communities that they would be living and working in a future with even tighter water supplies.
Like the scientists trying to help the world understand the difficulties we face because of human induced climate change, Mr Taylor found himself in what had become a political struggle about something that was clearly understood in terms of facts, figures and undeniable realities.
Being a fellow grounded in latter, Mr Taylor was uncomfortable with the former and although I suspect he understood the plan to the guide to be correct, he was not prepared to sacrifice himself for the greater good, which he could sense was slipping away.
I’m saddened by this week’s development and do not stand with those who rejoice as I feel emotion insulated from reality has stolen the initiative and the long-term sustainability of the basin has been sacrificed on the altar of populism and a sense of what feels right today with little regard for tomorrow.
I fear his resignation will delay proceedings, allowing doubters to call for further reviews and consultations that will again delay of process that is already cumbersome and wordy and needed, beyond anything else, a speedy conclusion.

Banks profit as fools and their money are parted

Banks are implicated in the adage that a fool and his money are soon parted.

A cursory look at the present success of Australia’s banks suggests this country is populated by fools as those same banks sell nothing and yet they profit by exploiting a paradigm we endorse.
The banking industry is a human construct pre-dating the invention of money with initial deposits being grain, livestock and various goods.
Temples, being safe, was where gold and early coins were first stored and so the priests and monks were the first to empower traders by lending that resource.
Today’s banking benchmarks might seem sophisticated compared to that ancient trading, but stripped of its finery little has changed – there was, is and has always been a lender and borrower, with those providing the advance mostly enjoying the profit.
Evolution is more than just dinosaurs and apes, rather, it is a social dynamic happening right now to impact on both you and I and if watched closely can trace measurable inter-generational changes.
The banking business is not free of such changes and although its fundamentals are intact, its behavior has evolved, and along with societal addiction to economics, to the status of virus.
Most everything in the developed world is judged good or bad through the prism if economics and although they have evolved to dominate modern life, that is not an indication of their worthiness.
Evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University, Professor David Sloan Wilson (above), has said evolution is not about niceness, rather helping us understand the good, the bad and the inconvenient.
Your place on the ledger probably determines your opinion of Australia’s banking system, which is now entangled, wrongly, in the world’s commercial milieu from which it should stand apart.
This is not a lament for socialism or its ilk, instead a plea for the breakout of good sense – banks are little more than a reservoir for public money and so human ingenuity should be applied not to making profits for a few, but the enrichment of all.
Banks pitch their public persona to suggest the earlier mentioned adage doesn’t apply, but record profits argue its truth.

Considering the power of language

Language used inappropriately, and inaccurately, can completely derail projects and ideas.

However, even if language is used correctly and as intended but interpreted incorrectly, similar damage can be done.

The danger of words and their misinterpretation was discussed by a speaker at a Melbourne conference about walking some four years ago.

He was expanding on the idea of making communities walkable arguing that the first and most significant hurdle to be overcome was that of language and so that perception and interpretation of what was actually meant.

An understanding of what is a walkable community is not is not what is sought here, rather we need to have a sense of what we are saying and what it really means.
Superstition and our cultural upbringing can distort a word’s intended meaning to such an extent that friendships wither, business relationships dissolve, the world’s religions debate right and wrong and countries go to war – all over a misplaced, or misinterpreted, word.
A word is a word and its meaning, or meanings, expands of shrinks as we knowingly, or unknowingly, add religious or cultural implications, or technological emphases.
Interestingly it was Lewis Carroll (above right) writing in Alice in Wonderland – Through the looking glass who explored the meaning of words when one of the characters said: "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
That was in the 19th Century, but just recently somewhat aggravated discussions were happening in Malaysia over the use of the word “Allah”.
As that conversation collapses into violence we should remember what American poet, Mary Angelou said – “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning”.
Thinking about what Humpty Dumpty said, the views of Mary Angelou and what is happening in Malaysia, we need to respect a word’s independence, the fact the no one actually owns it and, in fact, it is only us who give it meaning.
My advice, use the appropriate language and avoid embellishing it with cultural implications.

Those moments when patriotism is really just nationalism of another colour

Distressing international attitudes sometimes find expression in the behaviour of some Goulburn Valley people.

Such insular views are described, mostly, as patriotism, but they are really just nationalism of another colour and contribute nothing, or little, to the wellbeing of a community.

Just recently an emerging star of American conservatism, Marco Rubio (right), won a Senate seat for Republicans in the American midterm elections and said the US as "simply the greatest nation in all of human history".

A sweeping statement that cannot be proved or disproved because of its subjectivity, but at its core is the cancerous-like germ of nationalism, a fanatical belief that your way of living is supreme and so evident that others should, must, embrace it.

There seems to be an assumed sense of rightness about the embedded values and in some discussion about what is presently happening in the Murray Darling Basin a similar insularity emerges.
Many arguments are supposedly for the greater good, but when disassembled they really are about the preservation of a local scenario and in their small way evoke similar nationalism.
What is envisaged for our basin demands that people consider life beyond the farm gate, beyond their business boundaries and beyond the extent of their immediate communities.
Success for the basin plan has no room for Marco Rubio-like sentiments, rather it is an international resource, troubled by international human behaviour and we are simply the caretakers.
History illustrates that man’s attempts at controlling, or managing, nature to his advantage lead, almost with fail, to decided difficulties, especially when water is involved.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that we do nothing, rather we should explore the idea of a steady state economy, one in which human prosperity is not linked to growth and profit.
The Goulburn Valley, and by implication Shepparton, is linked to national difficulties as it sits at the foot of the rich Murray-Darling Basin and because of bountiful water has become Australia’s food bowl.
Instead of searching for monetary growth, we should attend to enriching the human experience and not be so concerned about Gross National Product, rather ensure we contribute to Australia’s Gross National Happiness.

Climate change complexities better understood following Prof Karoly lecture

More than 60 people now have a clearer understanding of the complexities of climate change after listening to a lecture in Shepparton on Tuesday night.

The University of Melbourne’s Professor David Karoly (right) explained a little about the science of climatology to those in the lecture theatre at the Graham St School of Medical Health.
Prof Karoly, from the university’s School of Earth Sciences, discussed different perspectives on climate change, talked about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), explored regional changes to the weather and discussed international agreements and the stabilization of climate change.
He emphasized the fact that some 97 per cent of the world’s climate scientists agreed with IPCC findings that among many other things suggest that it is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.
The prospects for Australia and in particular the east coast, south east corner (that includes Victoria) and the south-western corner of Western Australia under climate change scenarios are not good, but Prof Karoly was, however, enthusiastic about Australia’s potential to use sustainable energy.
He was positive about solar energy in the Goulburn Valley, a position that no doubt would have pleased the co-convenors of Solar Valley Goes Solar, Yvonne Forrest and Geoff Lodge, who were both at the lecture.
Although Prof Karoly’s predictions about changes to our climate were dire, he was enthusiastic about our potential to create jobs and a life built around sustainable energy, something, he said, in which Australia abounds.
Prof Karoly explained the differences in weather and climate noting that weather was largely localized, coming and going quickly, while climate was global and changes occurred over a long time scale.
Using graphs to illustrate his point, Prof Karoly illustrated the impact humans were having on global weather explaining that the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, and which have already significantly altered earth’s weather, will remain there for another 1000 years.
“Twenty first century anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will contribute to warming and sea level rise for more than a millennium, due to the long timescales required for removal of this gas”, Prof Karoly told those at the lecture.
Lecture organizers were with Prof Karoly’s presentation and community response.

We consider Victoria's future from amid the wreckage of the recent federal election

Looking about from among the wreckage of a recent federal election, we must now decide who we want to best administer Victoria.

Times are somewhat unpredictable, but what has been predictable is the public response to those difficulties.

Most people, understandably, want the good times handed down by cheap and easily-accessible fossil fuels to continue uninterrupted and any disruption to that paradigm is greeted by the embrace of whomever, or whatever, promises the continuation of business as usual.

Subsequently we see a rise of those who pine for the good old days and so vote for those who promise a return to that way of life, ignoring the human and ecological cost, and opposed to those who trumpet a government that puts long-term concerns ahead of short-term satisfactions.
A fellow who understands long and short-term implications – in geological terms long is millions of years, short is hundreds – will speak tonight at Shepparton School of Medical Health in Graham Street.
Professor David Karoly (above right) from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Earth Sciences will give a free lecture about climate change from 7:30pm.
A Professor of Meteorology and a Federation Fellow with the Australian Research Council Federation, Prof Karoly was involved with the preparation of the Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
He will discuss the world’s weather in general and focus, in particular, on what is happening in Victoria. Issues of why our weather is changing and how, subsequently, we should behave will also be discussed.
Tonight’s lecture is a coup for Shepparton as Prof Karoly is recognised as one of the world most powerful thinkers about the reasons for and the implications of climate change.
Recently, I listened as science historian, American Naomi Oreskes, talked about her new book, Merchants of Doubt, which explains how the same people, a few scientists addicted to growth ideologies, proffered theories that raised doubt in such things as smoking, acid rain, the ozone hole and climate change.
Prof Karoly introduced Professor Oreskes and his naturally pleasant nature pervaded about 300 at Melbourne’s State Library to transform an evening with a rather brutal message into a satisfying encounter.

Racing around Shepparton in the hope of understanding what it is like to live with a disability

Finding your way around Shepparton and attending to your daily needs is generally pretty simple, unless confronted with complications of having a disability.

Come Wednesday, November 24, about 25 Shepparton people will experience those complications when they adopt a disability in the city’s first “Realistic Race”.

Shepparton MP, Ms Jeanette Powell (right), will be among those who will race around the city searching for clues to enable them to follow the race to its next stage, using a pattern similar to that of television’s The Amazing Race.

“Race” may well be in the title, but with their adopted disabilities, the local personalities will be a little lost as they struggle rather than race around the familiar streets of Shepparton with both physical and intellectual disabilities.

Some will be confined to wheel chairs, verbal skills will be absent for a few, others will have few cognitive understandings, hearing might be a challenge for some and all will have to wrestle with the perception of those they engage with during the Realistic Race.
Shepparton Access Chief Executive Officer, Wendy Shanks, said her organization had organized the race with the support of City of Greater Shepparton with the hope of breaking down barriers between Goulburn Valley people with a disability and the wider population.
The November 24 race will start at one o’clock and end three hours later after the five teams of five have explored, and learned something about, Shepparton experiencing it as a person with a disability.
But it was more than that as they also learned something about the alienation a disabled person encounters go about their daily business.
Having been on the periphery of a disability, I understand the alienation, the loneliness and one’s inability to participate in the normal machinations of your community and the sense that you don’t really belong.
The sense of belonging is among the most important of human needs and while the November race might make us aware of many dilemmas facing Shepparton’s disabled, importantly it might also enhance their sense of belonging.
Disabled people need many things, but importantly what they need is your understanding, friendship and a sense that they belong.

Professor Karoly will bring his knowledge of climate change to Shepparton

The intimate and intricate challenges of climate change will be explained in Shepparton on Tuesday, November 23.

Melbourne University’s Professor David Karoly (below left) will talk about the implications of climate change and, in particular, its impact on Victoria.

Prof Karoly, a lead author in the third and fourth assessment reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is currently with the School of Earth Sciences at the university.

All of his research, he says, has confirmed that the main cause of global warming over the last 50 years is due to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

His address on Tuesday will be at the university’s School of Medical Health auditorium in Graham St, Shepparton, starting at 7:30pm. Admission will be free.
Prof Karoly will provide an update on the extensive scientific basis for observed climate changes over the last 100 years and the reasons why most of the observed increase in global temperatures is due to increasing greenhouse gases from human activity.
His address is entitled “Climate change: an update on the science”.
He will also describe the likely climate changes over the next 100 years and what we need to do if we want to slow the rate of global warming.
Prof Karoly will discuss coming global changes and how they will affect Victoria.
Those with any questions about the November 23 lecture should direct them to Robert McLean at 5822 1766 or via email at robed@sheppnews.com.au.

Listening in Echuca and sipping latte in Melbourne

On Monday last week, I listened in Echuca as farmers complained of city based latte-sipping people giving them advice; on Tuesday, the following day, I was doing just that, sipping a latte in Melbourne (below right).

And what follows will undoubtedly be interpreted by some as just that, advice. However, rather than advice this is simply an observation.

I was just one of more than about 1200 at Monday’s Murray Darling Basin Authority’s community consultation to discuss its guide to its plan for the basin.
I was not alone at Echuca’s Frontera Basketball Centre, obviously, but that sense settled on me when it quickly became obvious that my sentiments were decidedly different from most others at the meeting.
Many who took the floor during question/comment time often said “All in the room would agree” with this or that lumping me in with the great ruck of thought at the meeting.
Immediately I considered a personal protest declaring my independence, but sensing a lynching – mine – would soon follow, I swallowed my objection and so, through my acquiescence, joined those protesting.
However, most farmers I know love what they do and wouldn’t swap their way of life what I witnessed on Tuesday – latte-sipping people in business attire taking a break in sunny Collins St from the rigours of their world.
That being true, there seems to be an inexplicable anger directed at city people by those from the country, who assume, wrongly, that their city cousins enjoy the good life at the expense of country folk and in doing that, have the audacity to tell them how to manage their farm.
Such a view is unwarranted and although it might bring those who hold them some momentary comfort, it is poorly thought through as farmers without consumers is about as effective as a ship without the sea.
The Collins St latte-sipper and the true country farmer, as opposed to the Collins St farmer, are obviously different in every sense, from their way of life to their skills, but they mysteriously need each other and have an unfathomably equality that allows for, and ensures, the flourishing of society.
That would be something, I’m sure, each would think, in quiet moments, about the other.

Oil scarcity will make high speed train viable

The tyranny of oil scarcity will force the viability of a high speed rail (below) network along Australia’s east coast.

And that moment, despite the views of many skeptics, will be upon us sooner than imagined.
Ideas to improve on and expand existing rail networks have come too late and rather than spending billions of dollars on the nation’s oil-hungry infrastructure, investments should have been in rail, not what are now dead-end roads.
The money sunk into our roads has spawned an intricate web of implicated industries all of which depend upon the survival and enhancement of this infrastructure.
Had we adopted a different emphasis, we would now have a wholly different range and type of sustainable industries wrapped around an equally sustainable rail network – we wouldn’t have any fewer jobs, rather different jobs.
Recently it was reported that Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, had been told that a fast rail link between Sydney and Melbourne was not viable as it couldn’t compete with air travel in terms of speed and so wouldn’t attract enough travellers.
However, report criteria seems to overlook the world’s quickly vanishing oil supplies that will make air and road travel prohibitively expensive and by default enhance the mass movement of people and freight by rail, even though it might be slower.
Projected costs of $110 million a kilometre for the high speed train network will be cheap when considered retrospectively from among the ruins of a nation that failed to take timely action as the world’s oil supplies began to run dry.
Our attention should, however, be on more than one train running along Australia’s east coast and be expanded to take in the country’s entire rail network.
The Goulburn Valley’s railway lines should be rebuilt or refurbished and our links to and from Melbourne, for both freight and passengers, should be fast, frequent and stylish to make it our preferred mode of travel.
Short of an innovative and as yet unknown technology filling the industrial and lifestyle chasm that oil scarcity will reveal, an improved and enhanced rail network will enable us to maintain business as usual, for a while at least.

$20 billion to maintain our overseas aggression - Why?

Armed with all the destructive technology available, or more correctly what we can afford to buy from the state supported military-industrial complex; our politicians roam the world looking for a fight.

Look hard enough and, of course, you will find one and we claim that the subsequent violence is honourable, moral and in the greater good, whatever the cost, be it in the obscene amount of money it costs or the death and momentous disruption caused to the lives of others.
Our overseas troop commitments, primarily in Afghanistan are, according to recent figures, costing us, that is you and I, people who are raising kids, attending church, working, enjoying a beer and sunny days in the park, nearly $2 billion a year to maintain our rage.
Australians have been in Afghanistan for more than a decade and simple arithmetic puts the cost, at present value, at $20 billion, an amount that makes any major public and civilian project here seem like small change.
Applying different values our alternative energy systems could be stunning, our train network brilliant, our education life-changing, health services spectacular and poverty eradicated.
The thought of the disarray we have wrought upon another culture through force in the name of the greater good sees me reach for the anti-depression medication.
A decade of confrontation in those distant countries sees the maintenance of a mentality solidified after a life soaked in violence that is embedded in our psyche during teenage years spent watching aggressive movies, television shows, computer games and then, later, surviving in today’s competitive commercial milieu.
Ask those you next meet about Australian values and you will probably hear about such things as “fair dinkum”, “mateship”, “honesty”, ‘’friendship” and “giving people a fair go”.
All honourable and worthwhile attributes, but after a decade of plunder, and death in another country’s culture they are somewhat transparent leaving us entrenched in a disagreement that has mutated into something we no longer understand.
Supporters of the conflict, trapped by politics, pride and militant personalities, want us to stay the distance – I ask how far? At what cost? And, critically, why?

David Suzuki takes centre stage, vicariously

David Suzuki is responsible for this column, well, not directly, rather vicariously.

Several other already written pieces, in my view equally important, but not having the same urgency, were pushed aside after reading the scientist and environmentalist’s newest book, “The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision for a Sustainable Future”(below right).
Dr Suzuki (right) took less than 100 pages to articulate the difficulties we (humanity) face, how those difficulties evolved and then provided an understanding of the biological equations on which humanity depends and must observe if it is to endure.
Earth’s thin biosphere and the richness of its buried sunlight (fossil fuels) has enabled us to prosper in every sense, allowing our numbers to grow exponentially and now, according to Dr Suzuki in a word picture he painted, we are just one minute away from exhausting everything that makes the world habitable for humans.
He illustrated our nearness to the precipice through encouraging readers to imagine a test tube of food with just one bacterium when the clock starts and then just 59 minutes later, because the bacterium grows and divides and experiences exponential growth, the test tube is all but filled.

The test tube in its finite size and food supply represents earth and its other resources, the bacterium represents humans (us) and as there is no other test tube, and so space, Dr Suzuki illustrates that we face an uncertain future.

Humanity faces a dilemma that most can’t or won’t comprehend and the urgency Dr Suzuki illustrates collapses for the want and strong a decisive leadership, a leadership that will introduce restrictions to and imposts on our freewheeling lifestyle that is eroding, quickly, our place here on earth.

Humans are, unquestionably, the smartest beings in the universe, but that intelligence brings with it a burden; a burden that could see the human race extinguished.

The need for those strong, decisive and positive leaders is, after reading Dr Suzuki’s newest work, pressingly urgent, but equally urgent is the need for followers – people who understand and accept the articulated dilemmas and want to work with those leaders to ensure the world we bequest to those who follow continues to be habitable.

Island's collapse and book launch dynamic similarities were unsettling

Similarities between the 17th century collapse of the Easter Island population and the social dynamics at the recent launch of a book acknowledging Shepparton’s 150th birthday have crowded my thinking.

Listening as the former Member for Murray, Mr Bruce Lloyd, launched the coffee table-like book – Water: The Vital Element, 150 Years of Shepparton’s Growth – I couldn’t avoid thinking about the demise of the small Pacific Ocean island’s population.
That, you could argue, may be a long bow to draw and although I might agree, the similarities were unsettling.
The people of Easter Island (above right) lived comparatively happily, but for reasons not fully understood they were addicted to building huge monuments to assuage their superstitions and used most all the island’s trees to enable their transport.
Here in Shepparton our superstitions might be different, but allegiance to them is as damaging as those at Easter Island for instead of our community blooming into beautiful fulfilment it limps ahead paying homage to values that trouble our planet.
Those at the book launch celebrated many things, and people, as they should, but in doing so helped perpetuate the many myths that negate the long-term unfolding welfare of Sheppartonians.
The idea that growth is good prevails and the subsequent contagion, although it has always been a human instinct, accelerated wildly with the impetus of the industrial revolution and so has been a part of Shepparton’s 150 years.
Growth has served the district well, but then in the 1970s scientists began to truly understand what impact humans were having on earth and so while our addictions were enriching they also had a dark side.
That dark side was only surreptitiously evident at the book launch in that our inherent drive for growth that is the energy of Shepparton’s history is also the essence of the paradigm now holding the world hostage.
Our insistence on the growth and success equation is now such that it is almost superstition and myth, but those beliefs bring difficulties similar to those of the Easter Islanders and to use the words of recent visitor to Shepparton and former Greenpeace CEO, Paul Gilding, threaten “the survival of human civilization”.

A challenging conversation that needs a truly visionary outcome

Those who attend today’s (Tuesday, October 12, 2010) consultation to consider proposals for the conservation and management of water in the Murray-Darling Basin face a significant challenge.

It seems they will need to look at the proposals in the here and now and then, importantly, consider them, in what is near a magical and seemingly impossible trick, through the prism of 1000 years hence.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s “Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan”, the basin is a critical part of Australia’s economy and the nation’s food security. The basin, it says, contributes 39 per cent of national agricultural production and provides water for three million Australians.

Today’s conversation is about a finite resource and infinite aspirations.

What is advocated and how Australians respond to the proposals is obviously important to the here and now, but it is the “1000 years’ time” question that is truly and deeply important.

Most of us can comprehend what has happened (the past), but it is a rare soul who can project his or her thoughts to encompass the unfolding of events (the future) and so most live in a short-term world where 25 year view is considered visionary.
The Murray-Darling Basin has been, in one way or another, implicated in the Australian landscape for millennia and in just 200 years we have raped, exhausted and plundered its resource to sate our thirsts and grow rich and fat on the abundant food it allowed us to grow.
What has been proposed has been described as a “slap in the face for primary producers” by one commentator and as “un-Australian” by another.
Critically, and importantly, we need to rise above such views as they are founded on populism ignited by concerns for the here and now, but in what seems an odd contradiction we need to apply ourselves and act appropriately in this moment to ensure the basin continues to serve the nation’s water needs for 1000 years.
It is somewhat generous to imagine the authority was looking that far ahead, but at least it appears to go well beyond the here and now, something that deserves our applause.

Fire warnings hit a psychological road block

Living in Shepparton was no disadvantage to knowing what was happening in the Victorian districts devastated in February’s Black Saturday bushfires.

Some caught up in that maelstrom declared they had not been warned of the impending disaster. Shepparton was remote from the firestorm, but most in would have known, I’m sure, that some of their fellow Victorians decided difficulties.
Recently the Victorian psychologist and author, Danielle Clode, talked about her new book, “A Future in Flames” (right), and in answer to a question about why people had not heard the advice in the lead up to the fires or warnings about the collision of ideal fire weather events, she argued most were mentally and emotionally unable to assimilate those alerts.
Life had evolved as imagined, but they had never visualized it being interrupted by fire and so smoke was, until they actually saw threatening flame, nothing more than a controlled burn-off.
The psychological road block we witnessed in February is again evident as we plummet toward decided difficulties brought on by significant human induced changes to our climate and an oil scarcity that will upend our lives.
Look around and most everything in sight is there because of oil and that bountiful supply of energy has shaped our way of living, and, more importantly, our mindset.
We have been mentally crippled, myself included, by earth’s generousity and it is a rare soul who can see how they and their fellows will live in a low-energy future.
Scientists around the world constantly alert us to our excesses, but with fossil fuels and resources so implicated in our lifestyles, few of us are able to imagine an escape or even see a need for one
Beyond that, comforted by doubters who excavate irrelevant detail attributed to an equally irrelevant fields of science, most of us who are unable to make sense of complex climate science, continue with business as usual and so worsen emerging and existing difficulties.
Warnings about the bushfires were many and frequent, but strangely not heard by those who most needed to hear them; the warnings about global heating and oil scarcity have been loud and frequent, but I doubt we are listening.

Adversity may help us avoid true difficulty

Personal adversity, a friend recently suggested, is the only thing that will convince most people of such things as climate change, oil scarcity or food security.

That idea was echoed on Friday night by one of the speakers at the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Goulburn Valley Environment Group (GVEG).

Nearly 200 people gathered at Shepparton’s Eastbank centre to acknowledge that moment in group’s life and listened as Paul Gilding (right) warned of serious looming adversity.

Gilding - a former chief executive officer of Greenpeace, both in Australia and overseas, a consultant who discussed and worked on environmental issues with some of the world’s largest companies, an advisor to many government and private organizations and one who has always encouraged social justice - suggested the adversity, pointed to by my friend, might only be five years away.

Gilding reflected earlier congratulations to the group but then added: “This is no longer just an environmental issue, rather the survival of human civilization”.

Friday night’s message from Gilding was not all glum as he was excited about human capacity to deal with a crisis and our willingness to act quickly when our “backs are to the wall”.

He pointed to the adversity of World War Two as a demonstration of our ability to deal with such a difficulty when just four days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the American car industry switched from the civilian market to building war machines.

Friday night’s conversation appeared in stark contrast to another held only four days earlier in an adjoining Eastbank room when Governor of the Reserve Bank, Mr Glenn Stephens, predicted a “fairly robust upswing in the domestic economy”.

Rather than a robust economic upswing, Gilding said we will soon see the end of growth bringing on an era when things will get “ugly”.

Among those riveted to Gilding’s comments was the founding president of the environment group, Mrs Barbara Leavesley, who had travelled back from Airey’s Inlet for Friday’s anniversary.

Other speakers were the former GVEG president and co-convenor of Solar Valley Goes Solar, Geoff Lodge, and director of the Victorian Office of Environmental Sustainability, Gordana Marin.

'Reality Bites' gives us the truth about non-fiction

A note to your partner or a business email are mostly non-fiction writing as is "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (below right) by English historian Edward Gibbon.

The former are little more than daily doings while that latter is the exquisite sustained art of a non-fiction author.
While fiction writing demands a special type of imagination, the author of a work of non-fiction also needs a generous amount of those thought processes, combined with an instinctive adherence to facts.
Interestingly, the nonfiction author has, in terms of their writing, an allegiance to fact and it was that very need to lead to the birth of Australia's only specific literary nonfiction festival, Reality Bites.
Working at the time with the then Noosa Council, Bernice Child, discovered Queensland's Sunshine Coast to be poorly served in terms of writing and books.
Conscious of that fact she instigated the festival three years ago and although Council still supports it, the event is now organized independently by the Sunshine Hinterland Writers' Centre, a group of volunteers, including the program director, Annette Hughes, who moved to Cooroy on the coast's hinterland to care for aging parents.
Annette, previously a literary agent in the publishing industry, now devotes much of her free time to organizing, planning and articulating the festival's vision.
The 2011 festival will be the fourth and rather than being over two weekends, it will be scaled back to just one with particular focus on workshops enabling local, developing writers the opportunity to learn from established authors.
The one-weekend festival will be an opportune time for fresh volunteers to learn about the workings of the event before embarking on the longer, more complex two-weekend biennial event.
Cooroy has a new "green" library, opened earlier this year, and early plans for next year's festival call for a tent to be pitched on its grass covered roof as a venue for much of the program.
Details of the 2011 festival have not yet been finalised, but just as soon as they are, Annette says they will be posted on the Reality Bites blog.

Submit to our primal selves and we will create harmony

Walking recently next to an Asian woman talking on her mobile phone I didn’t understand a word, but then she laughed and I understood immediately.

Laughter escapes the rigidities of language – it’s a communication everyone understands, irregardless of race or background.
In fact most human emotions can be understood, or at least sensed, by everyone.
The impact of laughter is obvious, happiness is a little more subtle, but often obvious, joy is similar; fear if not seen is still palpable; sadness may not be blatant, but tears make it so and although contentment is difficult to describe, it becomes evident when you look at a way of life.
Confusion brought on by language confirms the adage that we should take little notice of what people say, but keenly watch what they do - actions speak louder than words.
Much of the difficulty in our world, be it personal or somewhat more sweeping, can be traced to a failure to recognize and acknowledge an emotional state or even something more subtle, body-language.
Upon entering a room of strangers, you seem to know immediately, without anyone uttering word, which of those people you like or dislike suggesting that something about our survival, even beyond body language, is connected to our primal being.
Beyond the façade that all humans wear to help us understand race, status and a host of other surface values is a human being living with all the emotions, difficulties and delights each of us experience on the big wheel that is life.
Many of the world’s cultures have gravitated to Shepparton and to live in harmony we need to think about, respect and honour those inexhaustible and “raceless” human qualities of laughter, delight, happiness, courage, fear sadness, discipline, skill, morality and a sense of belonging..
The next time you encounter someone who appears different than yourself, then look beyond what you can see and connect with the essence of the person, the human who lives inside and in a fundamental sense feels all the same emotions as you.
Like the lady on her mobile phone, your new friend laughs just like you, I can guarantee that.

Weekend-long discussions about the stewardship of our earth

Nearly 20 people spent the weekend in Tatura considering stewardship of the earth.

But, there was more to the two-day of discussions than that.The weekend-long session had been organized by Tatura Transitions – a small group of like-minded enthusiasts’ conscious of the difficulties humanity faces as climate change and oil scarcity really begin to impact on our lives.

Recognising and acknowledging those changes are seen by many as apocalyptic, the group is eager to see the people of Tatura, and others in the Goulburn Valley, embrace the idea of transition as it would enable them to change their ways of living and so exist comfortably and profitably in a low-energy future.
Transition is not about casting away all that is good about life and living a subsistence lifestyle, rather it is about living in a sustainable way, the builds community making our towns and cities more sociable; escaping from the present industrial way of life that has an emphasis on growth, profit and confrontation that disregards the wellbeing of people with a preference for machines; improving our food security; sharing with our fellows and broadly helping people understand the role nature plays in underpinning their lives.
The emerging difficulties brought down upon the world by the activities of our booming population are complex in the extreme and as knowing how to respond to them is equally complex; the Tatura group asked two transition trainers to share their understanding of how the shift can be made.
Jane Phillips and Jacinta Walsh, both from Castlemaine, and each with some 18 months experience of helping similar groups in three states, first helped the group understand the realities of climate change and peak oil and then spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday explaining and consolidating the transition idea and within that the rich benefits to community.
Dentist, Ross Musolino, is the “face” of Tatura Transition, but his commitment to the idea of seeing his town living successfully in a low-energy future has seen others quickly identify with his views and enthusiasm and so after two days of intense training, the group was bubbling with excitement.
The transition concept works in communities all around the world and sometime soon it will be unleashed in Tatura.

Personal lifestyle suggests denial of looming difficulties

Human induced changes to our climate, oil depletion, famines arising from both issues, and waste, along with the increasing difficulties of a booming population illustrate the certain difficulties ahead.

However, like so many others in the developed world, my lifestyle suggests denial.
Many are either in denial or ignorant and some simply don’t care as they live for the moment, which I can’t criticise except to say that we must understand that while present activities might be pleasant, they can create difficulties for those who follow.
Having listened to many world authorities on climate science, oil scarcity, famine, various professors, and read many books written by them and their peers, any questions or doubts I had about the coming difficulties have been erased.
However, understanding what was being said and written, I continue to live as if in denial, but it’s not that as like many others I’m caught-up, or psychologically trapped, in a way of life that has evolved over the past 200 years and has been built around easily accessible fossil energy.This is a pleasant, rewarding and satisfying life, but those of us in the developed world are living in a style the world cannot support and our burgeoning numbers suggest we need to be thinking carefully about our fertility.
Being conscious of and sympathetic to emerging dilemmas is not enough to help our world as it limps toward catastrophe, but like many in the developed world my addiction to the bounty of the fossil fuel-rich world is going to be difficult to break.
Shepparton climate change campaigner, John Pettigrew, has said many are conscious of global warming, but most are unsure of what to do and that confusion breeds inaction.
But, there is more – most of us unable to absorb the complexity of what is needed and so can’t understand where to even begin making the necessary lifestyle changes.
We need to be empowered – our leaders can do that or we can do that and a start can be made by listening to and watching the work of the Tatura Transition Town – more details about Tatura TT from Ross Musolino at sandalino@iinet.net.au.