Always seek quality ahead of quantity in 2012

An earlier conversation urging a preference for quality ahead of quantity probably aroused puzzlement among some.

The drive for quality in modern businesses is overt and almost without fail rewarded monetarily or in a way that enhances the self-esteem of an individual or a group of people.
Business today sees quality and the subsequent recognition and reward for its achievement largely through the prism of customer satisfaction.
That satisfaction, according to the hierarchy of most businesses, certainly the successful ones, is unquestionably about increased sales; about the growth of the company and so more throughput.
Contemporary economics lives within a language code that is confusing to the un-initiated, even to many who speak the language, but stripped of its bewildering fineries, the more throughput a company has, the better the end result, assuming its governance is in order.
In this instance, quality is simply about ensuring the maintenance of an ever increasing throughput, which in a world without restraints is honourable and so worthy of our applause.
However, our world is in reality quite different from the seemingly infinite world in which our ideas of growth and business were conceived.
Beyond the remote original thinker, whose sanity was questioned as was their allegiance to God or the gods, the piecing together, since the Industrial Revolution, of the mercantile world happened largely in ignorance that nature was calling the shots and not, as it was then believed, and still is by many, some mythical supernatural being.
Quality in its modern meaning is about whether your new washing machine lasts two or twenty years or whether or not your car will perform as intended for its expected ten years.
Quality time also means spending an uninterrupted hours with your kids, rather than being divided between them and some portable electronic device or simply being distracted by thoughts that you should really have your shoulder to the wheel and not “wasting” time with your family.
The idea of quality has been so distorted that its real meaning has been disenfranchised and the essence of it being hijacked by our modern industrial world to ensure riches and comfort for a few and servitude for everyone else.
Quality, in its deepest sense and if we are to unravel its mysteries, demands a whole societal re-focus that puts the wellbeing and contentment of people clearly ahead of the manufacture and consumption of “stuff”.
Work is clearly essential to our wellbeing, but it needs to be work about survival and not work building and making stuff that simply depletes the world’s resources and has little to do with, if anything, enriching personal psychological value.
Quality is something that takes time, it is personal and its achievement is hugely satisfying.

A likeable bloke in a difficult scenario

I like Barack Obama.

Barack Obama

He appears, and I say “appears” as I have never meet him and so depend upon media images to form my view, to be a genuinely pleasant bloke with life-affirming values.
However, and as with everything there always seems to be a “however”, he is ensnared in an unsettling political structure deemed democracy, but is really something quite different.
Should the fellow, described as “the most powerful man in the world”, be allowed to implement, unfettered, his ideas then America would unquestionably be a better place.
Sadly, because of the political intrigue in which he is enmeshed and the irrational fanatical-like beliefs and the neo-liberal forces he confronts, his political survival is at best, tenuous.
Whatever he may or may not be, the US president is heavily influenced, some say “controlled”, by the military/industrial complex that revolves around short-termism that give precedence to corporate profit ahead of the broader welfare of the people.
Australia has long supped at the US dinner table, or more correctly scrounged the scraps, and always been in bed with them, but now the electric blanket has been cranked up another notch.
A US military base will soon be a feature of the northern Australian landscape further implicating Australia in America’s hegemonic plans, something about which we should be remarkably cautious considering their successes, read failures, in the past century.
Americans generally, but not specifically, have an arrogance about their way of life and are so sensitive about it, that they undertake in other countries a style of social engineering that many see as simply a military invasion.
They are legendary for claiming their actions as self-defence and within that, helping build democracy.
Comforted by such self-congratulatory thoughts, they killed thousands in Vietnam, mostly children, women and peasant farmers, and despite some of the heaviest bombing the world has ever seen, the Americans, and of course us, were chased out of the country by a rag-tag army – democracy, of a type, had won the day.
Conscious that America has been involved in historical events, historical means “to this day”, that if perpetrated by others, they would be considered war crimes, we need to be cautious about aligning ourselves with such a questionable friend.
America should look to its own troubles before turning its attentions to the world’s dilemmas.
Considering the hierarchy of those matters on which a nation’s wellbeing is measured, America has much social engineering to do at home to help the legions of their own who are falling through the cracks in its societal structures.
American life may look glamorous, but reality is different with millions struggling to maintain even the rudiments of life.
Obama is a nice bloke, but rather than accommodating America’s imperialistic ambitions, we should suggest he invest his time, money and effort at home.

Considering the past, building the future

Seemingly unproductive discussions about the latest Murray Darling Basin plan cause reflection upon Malcolm Turnbull’s first speech to the Australian parliament eleven years ago.

Richard Heinberg has written about the end
of growth, to which the modern world
 is addicted.

The then newly elected member for the New South Wales seat of Wentworth said: “I am proud to be a part of a government which has led the way in better management of our water resources”.
Honourable thoughts and intent, but after a more than a decade of talk, we are still talking and while that outcome is not personally Turnbull’s responsibility, it is about the tolerance, fairness, justice and frustrating procrastination attributable to democracy.
Being in the shadows of the recent failure of climate talks at Durban, what Turnbull said in that maiden speech seemed prescient; “We must assume on the basis of current science that our world is getting warmer and our country, at least, drier”.
The Sydney based politician, however, is obviously an agent of economic growth, a fact clearly illustrated by his private successful business interests, when, among other things, he said in 2004: “Nothing increase choice or widens the horizons of families more than a strong economy”.

Richard Heinberg's latest
book, The End of Growth.

That was more than a decade ago and economic growth is still today the mandate of governments around the world and is simply the extension of a paradigm that prompts quantitative decisions; decisions that determines success or failure in our contemporary business world.
However, the idea that growth will reveal a future rich in happiness and material goods is dead.
One who is unafraid to talk about the end of growth, having in fact written a book with that title, is American author, journalist and educator, Richard Heinberg.
Writing in his latest newsletter, Heinberg said, after explaining the economic contractions the world faces because of energy depletion: “There is light at the end of the tunnel. If we focus on improving quality of life rather than boosting quantity of consumption, we could be happier even as our economy downsizes to fit nature’s limits”.
Standing at the eve of a New Year, the least we could do is seriously consider how we equate the exhaustion of the world’s resources with the idea of ever expanding growth, and in doing that it would quickly become obvious that the tumour-like growth driven optimism of most is sadly misplaced.
The downsizing Heinberg points to is inevitable, but the decision to favour quality ahead of quantity is a choice.
Modern business parlance is about quality, but that push for excellence is primarily about ensuring the achievement of goals aligned with quantity, or in simple terms, growth.
Future happiness and contentment hinges on us having the integrity to ensure that in everything we do in 2012, quality should precede quantity.

Enlightened humanism is about peace and good will

Careering toward Christmas we encounter, almost every day, adages urging us to behave for the betterment of others or in some other uplifting sense for the good of all.

One adage argues that we seek “peace on earth and good will toward men”.
Such intent is honourable and might have some cumulative impact if said often enough, but it is fleeting and unlikely to have any lasting impact.


Enlightened humanism will
bring peace and good
will, and enhance democracy.

That wish has theistic roots, but in its secular sense does not apply to any “ism” and so being free of any ideological constraints, it is a plea we should take up with enthusiasm.
Sadly, such enthusiasm has been lacking, although some argue we are in the midst of a “long-peace”, a claim supported by unquestionable statistics.
Civilization, the idea that life has an intrinsic value and that existence is enhanced when we bond with and support each other as opposed to exploitation, is edging forward to become deeper, broader and stronger.
The de-civilizing events of life are becoming rarer, although the 24-hour news cycle that encircles the globe would have us believe otherwise.
Not many decades ago a quarrel in some remote place that cost 100 lives went unnoticed, but today it is in our newspapers and frequently leads television news, not to mention references on many internet websites.
Although the barrage of deathly news sometimes seems overwhelming, in an historical and statistical sense it is measurably significantly less than what humans once endured.
The peace that you and I now take for granted, was once absent from the daily lives of all and the idea of “peace and good will” was an urgent need that challenged the norm in which most anyone, anytime, could be assaulted, robbed, murdered, declared a witch or had their personality assassinated by the application and implications of some perverse superstition.
Christmas is the high point of a superstition we can live without, but within it are the seeds of “peace on earth and good will toward men”, but whether or not we have the skill to divorce myth from reality is, considering humanity’s history, a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
However, we should not be disheartened for happily saddled with enlightened humanism there are many who value peace and the profit it brings to all people ahead of the pointless costs of conflict.
The arrival of circumstances and conditions about which we know little, such as burgeoning populations, energy scarcity, a dysfunctional economy and changes to our climate, will test adherence to principles allowing continuation of the present “long-peace” or, the collapse of morals prompting an incomprehensible collision of humans.
In the name of “peace on earth and good will toward men”, I long for the former.

Malcolm Turnbull's appeal goes beyond politics

Malcolm Turnbull is of the wrong political stripe, but I would vote for him.

That, however, is unlikely for I live in Shepparton and he represents the central Sydney-based seat of Wentworth, and for now, as he has indicated his intent to retire.

Malcolm Turnbull

The 56-year-old former investment banker, and journalist, is a considered and articulate man who values reason more than emotion and has that mysterious panache that frequently attaches itself to leaders.
Turnbull became the leader of the national Liberal Party late in 2008 and just over a year later was defeated by Tony Abbott, who continues in that role – although unaware of the accompanying political intrigue, that change in Liberal leadership makes me wonder about what value the Liberals put on reason and intelligence?
A recent free public lecture given by Mr Turnbull at the University of Melbourne attracted about 250 people, many, no doubt, who would have been students of politics, social dynamics and, of course, those interested in the broader machinations of society.
The present Shadow Minister for Communications spoke for about 40 minutes and although the hour-long session was meant to end at 7:30pm, Mr Turnbull was still answering questions at nearly eight o’clock.
The recently retired head of the university’s Centre for Advanced Journalism, Michael Gwenda, closed the conversation and in thanking Mr Turnbull asked for a show of thanks, igniting applause louder than heard at most similar events.
It was Mr Turnbull’s belief in the seriousness of human induced climate change that led to the end of his Liberal Party leadership, despite the fact that many of fellow party members vouched their support.
Listening to Mr Turnbull speak affirmed, in reverse, the Socrates observation that "the unexamined life is not worth living" for he allows nothing by until he has considered and examined the detail.
Interestingly, I do not stand alone in my admiration of Mr Turnbull for beyond most of those who heard the recent lecture - “Politics, Journalism and the 24/7 News Cycle” – there was a visiting professor who had played a senior role in American public life and spoke a few weeks earlier said: “American politics needs someone like Malcolm Turnbull”.
Australians have had their chance to luxuriate in Mr Turnbull’s intelligence, but generally abused that opportunity and rather than have him lead the Liberal Party, and then, hopefully, the country, they have opted for a regression into what he calls “the game” of politics, rather than the examination of and substance of what it is that makes democracy work and the subsequent implications of benefits for all.
Democracy demands many things, among them good journalism, but beyond that it also critically needs thoughtful and visionary fellows such as Malcolm Turnbull.

"Thud" in my driveway; a thud that echoes around the world

A heavy monthly thud in my driveway is a reminder of the continuing dilemma of consumerism.

Thud! - "the (melbourne)
 magazine" is in my driveway.

The heavy thud alerts me that the Melbourne Age has arrived complete with its wonderful, but strangely contradictory, publication, “the (melbourne) magazine”.
The full colour, glossy magazine of nearly 100 pages obviously targets a market that is beyond my budget and although I thoroughly enjoy The Age, it unsettles me that my subscription to the paper allows the inclusion of a product clearly directed at the “big end of town”.
Confusingly, I really like the magazine in probably what is a reflection of an inability to truly understand, and personally deal with the differences between “want” and “need” – a dilemma that is ingrained and considered generally, an impasse that has seen world’s nations scurry to South Africa’s Durban for 12 days of climate talks.
I’m unaware of the magazine’s profitability, or otherwise, but its advertising content of frequent full-page or double-page spreads, suggest that those with something to sell see it as a worthwhile vehicle to promote their goods.

Fairfax chief executive
 and managing director,
 Greg Hywood.

The magazine features some worthwhile journalistic stories and alerts readers of many fascinating events happening in and around Victoria’s capital, but in an era in which blatant consumerism is directly linked to climate change, those one hundred or so glossy pages are inherently offensive.
Therein lies the quandary as while the magazine itself is wonderful, the products marketed within it appear wonderful and its intent appears, in a modern historical sense, without question, but it endorses and encourages a way of life our world can no longer support.
Publishers of the magazine, Fairfax Media Publications is, according to its chief executive and managing director, Greg Hywood, investing heavily in digital publication so in time the rather heavy consumptive material costs of the magazine may vanish.
However, what will not by implication go away will be society’s demand for goods that are poorly positioned to help us find out way to a society in which we live in a “five-minute world”; that meaning that most of our daily needs, from work to shopping and leisure and from various services to schooling are all within a five minute five minute bike ride or walk.
Public transport is integral to the five-minute world, but the idea of train, buses and trams seems somewhat remote from the idea behind the magazine, except for their novelty value.
The reality that is climate change floats in like a feather, with the changes to the ambience of our world being almost imperceptible, but if we live with the enthusiasm encouraged by “the (melbourne) magazine” the certain changes will arrive with a thud, a thud that will echo around the world.

The contradictions and clashes between beliefs and reality

Beliefs and reality are often estranged.
Most believe the world is a violent place, and of course they are correct, but if considered historically, they are simply perpetuating a myth.

Dr Rodney Tolley

Traders invariably believe that customers need parking close to their stores as the resultant success of their businesses is linked, inextricably to the convenience of arrival by car.
That is quite wrong as surveys throughout the world, including some by traders themselves, have illustrated that customers seek a host of things, among them safety and the ability to easily access the store on foot, but have parking near the bottom of their hierarchy of needs.
Those two matters, it should be noted, are just two of many discrepancies between beliefs and reality.
Steven Pinker explored the changing realities about violence in his latest book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes”.
Pinker acknowledged that our world is a violent place with our sensitivities sharpened by the 24-hour news service that presently encircles the globe alerting us to every violent act, no matter how small, big or obscure.


Steven Pinker

However, comparatively few people today have to live looking behind, Pinker pointed out, in the fear that they will be murdered, assaulted, tortured, raped or abducted.
The belief is that people face all those dilemmas, but the reality is that we are in the midst of a peaceful epoch and violence in its absolute sense is something of a rarity.
Car parking is another troublesome myth, different obviously, but equally ill-founded.
Speaking recently in Melbourne the chair of the global movement, Walk 21, Dr Rodney Tolley, said traders unquestionable believed car parking was what had the biggest influence on their businesses, when quite clearly it was other things, among them their easy accessibility by pedestrians.
Dr Tolley was talking to a relatively benign audience of mostly planners and those interested in urban design and argued that most business owners didn’t truly understand what it was that customers really wanted.
He said that the walkability of towns and cities, and within that easy access to shops, was now “core business” and needed to be treated seriously by all in the community.
Dr Tolley was not simple theorizing as he was able to produce hard numbers illustrating how businesses had sharply improved once pedestrian access to them and the walkability of the general area had been enhanced.
Life, it seems, is not exactly what we believe; we live in haze of myths, of ill-informed fantasies and are surrounded by judgements that are demonstrably inaccurate and yet in the name of emotional comfort, arrogance, ignorance and pride we to persevere with beliefs that have humanity teetering on the edge of the chasm.

Epiphany-like experience seemed somewhat prophetic

Suddenly, I was saddened that this is all going to slip away.

Melbourne's Swanston St in
 the midst of its redevelopment.

The epiphany-like experience engulfed me as I crossed Swanston St walking toward the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
It was not a longing for any specific thing, rather the perceived erosion of the cacophonous life and the overwhelming and embracing sense of community that existed as thousands went about their disparate affairs in a wonderful public, shared space.
The Melbourne experience was little more than what I frequently feel in Shepparton - a microcosm of bubbling life in which individual intents are different, but from which intuition discerns co-operation and collaboration.
Melbourne’s spacious inner-city streets, which some claim were the outcome of a misinterpretation of street plan dimensions, a refreshing error, have always had a welcoming and wonderful human-scale about them.
Central Melbourne is emerging from an epoch in which the motor car had almost uninhibited dominion of the streets with the pedestrian pushed to the fringes.
That, however, is changing and Swanston Street is being redeveloped to make it essentially car free and people will again prevail, although Melbourne’s wonderful trams will still course up and down the street.

Roy Neel

As I write the sounds of what could be a dying dinosaur reach my Ashenden St home from the Springcar Nationals at the city’s showgrounds as people engage in an activity, which I can understand, but within a few decades be something people will equate with the final deathly moans of the petroleum era.
The epiphany-like Swanston St experience and the Springnats appear at first glance to be unrelated, but they are not for the purpose of my visit to Melbourne was to hear the Adjunct Professor of Political Science from a Tennessee University and Al Gore chief of staff and former U.S. assistant secretary of state, Roy Neel, talk at the University of Melbourne about a just and sustainable post carbon economy.
Prof Neel gave optimistic and pessimistic views of how the world will unfold between now and 2050 and in either scenario pedestrians will still be in Swanston St, trams will be doubtful and nor will I, anyone else for that matter, be assaulted by the noise of events such as the Springnats.
The unanswered question, of course, will be: “What will the mood of the people be like?” after decades of living in an energy-depleted world with a desolate landscape troubled by massive weather events or living and surviving in a world that is understandable, but substantially changed from what exists.
That sounds, rather apocalyptic, but Neel’s pessimistic scenario was just that and although his optimistic scenario was somewhat better, it demanded understanding that civilization’s survival rested with co-operation and the embrace of the “other”.

Shepparton's 'shed dwellers' showing the way

Shepparton’s “shed dwellers” are at the leading edge of how life will be in coming decades.

Shepparton's shed dwellers
 are another critical piece
 in the jigsaw in the picture
of life in the future.

Our shed dwellers, a metaphor for those who chose to live where they work, is more common than we might think.
Those who have chosen this approach have done so for a variety of reasons, from economic to convenience and from an interest in reducing their carbon footprint to just good sense.
Man’s voracious appetite for energy is eroding our finite fossil fuel resources so much that anything we can do to reduce the distance between where we live and our work will be critical.
Most of our shed dwellers leave home in the morning walk a few steps and start work.
Such beautiful convenience in our emerging energy starved world makes absolute sense, but is objected to by many who, despite repeated warnings about collapsing energy networks, are addicted to a way of life that only exists because of fossil fuels.
Beyond that, many say they simply don’t want to be so close to their work; they want a physical divide, they want their work and their homes to be in different geographical places.
The news about that, sad or otherwise depending on you stance, can just as easily be in your mind and so as expansive, or as distant you want it to be.
Drive around Shepparton and within minutes the opportunities for a “live where you work” life becomes apparent and just awaits the arrival of some creative and entrepreneurial person to exploit the opening.
For centuries humans have created living spaces in what at first glance seemed like most inopportune places, but which eventually evolved to become hugely comfortable, community building, personally satisfying and, importantly, a wise economic decision that greatly reduced energy consumption.
Home-based enterprises were once commonplace, but a few things changed that – humans learned how to access and exploit fossil fuels, bringing on the Industrial Revolution that saw the gestation of corporations, that profited from labour, which enjoyed the products made possible by those fossil fuels, leading to the motor car, that produced suburbia built around a detached home on a large block, often many kilometres from where the home owner worked.
These sumptuous neighbourhoods lacked intimacy and so the true sense of community that are mostly connected to intensively settled and developed places in which, in times gone, your neighbour could have been a blacksmith on one side and the other, a fellow who repaired and built, by hand, furniture.
Times, obviously, have changed, but the shed dweller next door might be an engineer, or a computer specialist, but whatever they might be, the intimacy of the living and working locally is a resource upon which our future will hinge.

We need thinking that will break ranks

Human imagination is faltering.

Albert Einstein became
famous for his curiousity.

Such an observation will undoubtedly draw criticism from many quarters, but in nearly every case that censure would come from those who are among the few, the measured minority, who enjoy the benefits of man’s imaginative innovations.
Many of the billions that tread the earth live each day on what most Australians consider small change and some live in countries of which they know not and nor do they have any idea what exists beyond a day’s walk.
Humankind has travelled on the back of imagination for millennia and sometimes that has been good and at other times, not so good. 
The 20^th century was alive with imaginative developments and that 100 years of innovative momentum has continued into the 21^st century with something new appearing on the human landscape nearly every other day.
What we have seen, though, has been somewhat linear, an almost expected, development of what already existed.
What we haven’t seen, a further example of the paucity of imagination, are ideas that have truly broken ranks; ideas that have sent humanity hurtling off on a refreshingly new journey.
Technologically the advances have been many, especially in the world of electronics, and while they have made much about life easier and more convenient, whether or not they have made life better is an open question and so any answer is subjective.
Danger lurks everywhere for even commonly used and understood terms such as “better” are subject to corruption and misunderstanding as one fellow’s better paradise is another’s hell.
Let’s agree that better is qualitative covering contentment and happiness rather than the quantitative measure of the accumulative life upon which success in the modern life is computed.
Abiding by that agreement we face our first challenge in stepping beyond contemporary understandings of success and launch ourselves into a whole new paradigm in which a better life is about kindness, sharing and collaboration; a way of living that, despite the protestations of our pedagogical politicians and corporations, is the antithesis of what exists.
Having freed ourselves from the straight jacket of existing thinking, we need to unleash our imaginations to consider iconoclastic utopias as opposed to their blueprint counterparts that are intimately, and generally, restrictive in every sense – they are totalitarianism by another name.
The stereotypical understanding is that most utopias are the foundation of tyranny or despotism, but we should note that none of the anger, violence and distrust the soak these ideologies are evident, in any way, in the qualities of genuine utopian thinking.
Nor will you find evidence of the manners that prevail in a civilized society in any form of government that has tyrannical traits and subsequently is devoid of kindliness, honesty and equality.

Barack Obama - likeable man, seriously distracted

I like Barack Obama.
He appears, and, to be a genuinely pleasant bloke with life-affirming values. I say “appears” as I have never met him and so depend on others to form my view.
That said, he is ensnared in an unsettling political structure deemed democracy, but which is really something quite different.
Should the fellow, described as “the most powerful man in the world”, be allowed to implement, unfettered, his ideas then America would unquestionably be a better place.
Sadly, the political intrigue in which he is entangled is worsened by irrational fanatical-like beliefs and divisive neo-liberal forces he confronts, his political survival is, at best, tenuous.
Whatever he may or may not be, the US president is heavily influenced, some say “controlled”, by the military/industrial complex that revolves around short-termism and gives precedence to corporate profit ahead of the broader welfare of people.
Australia has long supped at the US dinner table, or more correctly scrounged the scraps, and has sleeping with them, but now the electric blanket has been cranked up another notch.

US President, Barack Obama

A US military base will soon be a feature of the northern Australian landscape further implicating Australia in America’s hegemonic plans, something about which we should be remarkably cautious considering its successes, read failures, in the past century.
Americans generally, but not specifically, are arrogant about their lifestyle and resultantly so sensitive about them, that they undertake in other countries a style of social engineering that many see as simply a military invasion.
They are legendary for claiming their actions as self-defence and within that, helping build democracy.
Comforted by such self-congratulatory thoughts, they killed thousands in Vietnam, mostly children, women and peasant farmers, and despite some of the heaviest bombing the world has ever seen, the Americans, and us by implication, were chased out of the country by a rag-tag army – democracy, of a type, had won the day.
America has frequently steeped beyond its borders to “defend” itself and if other had acted similarly they would be guilty of war crimes and subsequently, we need to be cautious about aligning ourselves with such a questionable “friend”.
America should look to its own troubles before turning its attentions to the world’s dilemmas.
Considering the hierarchy of those matters on which a nation’s wellbeing is measured, America has much social engineering to do at home to help the legions of their own who are falling through the cracks in its societal structures.
American life may appear glamorous, but reality is different with millions struggling to maintain even the rudiments of life.
Obama is a nice bloke, but rather than accommodating America’s imperialistic ambitions, we should kindly suggest he invest his time, money and efforts at home.

The 'Responsible men' talk, but miss the point

The “Responsible men” gathered in Shepparton last week to consider national and global food security.
FoodbowlUnlimited and The Global Foundation combined to auspice what they deemed “a significant public conference” to benefit people ranging from your neighbour to others throughout the world.
Speakers featured Australia’s Federal Minister for Agriculture, Mr Joe Ludwig, who kept his talents well-disguised, and Visy Industries executive chairman of, Mr Anthony Pratt, who gave the keynote address.
Most conference attendees held significant influence in our communities and because of that were positioned to make decisions about the unfolding of our world, here and overseas.
Corporate and private agendas were obvious on Tuesday and it is unlikely any participants left with a sense that the security they sought was to be found in something quite different from what was advocated.
The business as usual paradigm is broken and the security discussed on Tuesday is not to be found in repeating what has obviously not worked, rather it demands society’s re-shaping to permit the dispersal of wealth, opportunity and within that, social access and equity; in fact a steady-state economy.

Federal Minister for
 Agriculture, Mr Joe
 Ludwig.

A film recently shown in Tatura, watched by 13 people, clarified the catastrophe of industrialising our food system, while Tuesday’s talks, in essence about the maintenance of that broken structure, attracted about 170 people, including a Federal Government Minister.
The urgent need for growth that sustains our corporate world has resulted in many sins, but corporate propaganda portrays those iniquities as societal benefits, but in reality they about enriching a few while marginalizing many.
Contrary to that, a steady-state economy is grounded in equity and access seeking sustainability, quality and wealth distribution in everything it does as opposed to the ultimately destructive and unsustainable binge on quantity that began in the industrial revolution and reached its zenith in the 20th century, but has begun to unravel in the past decade.
Tuesday’s conference had the honourable intention of searching for a way to ensure a reliable and ongoing food supply, but seemed to overlook, or purposely ignore, ideas that could solve the challenge.
The solution is in the creative destruction of what exists leading to a whole new way of doing business that is not solely about profit and growth.
The emphasis must be on doing things on a human scale avoiding the present distorted measure of success that clearly is quantitative as opposed to qualitative.

Neoliberalism puts profits ahead of people

A world order that profits on inequalities crafted to answer neoliberal desires is sliding into disarray.

Naom Chomsky

That paradigm, which enriches a few and financially, psychologically and physically cripples many, is bringing a disorder that most of Australia’s comfortable can’t understand.
Many in the Goulburn Valley stand among the comfortable and while just a few see the inevitable, many feel a shiver of uncertainty as “they” appear equally undecided about what to do next.
Neoliberalism is a notion that has surreptitiously swept up most political isms leaving nearly all vulnerable to an ideology that flourishes in a greenhouse-like magical aura that corporate financed public relations machinations have convinced us is right and proper.
The ideology is about smaller taxes for the wealthy, fewer limitations and restrictions on doing business, the dismantling of public education and social welfare programs and, of course, the removal of anything that might interfere with the working of the free market.
Writing in the preface for Naom Chomsky’s “Profit Over People”, Robert W.McChesney said: “At their most eloquent, proponents of neoliberalism sound as if they are doing poor people, the environment, and everybody else a tremendous service as they enact policies on behalf of the wealthy few”.
Neoliberalism is one of those places where democracy goes to die as its adherents are happiest when the citizenry is largely depoliticized and pre-occupied with various frivolities leaving it advocates unhindered as they continue to exploit the world for their private gain – in essence privatizing the profits and socializing the costs.
The arrival of neoliberalism has been so silent, and subsequently unannounced, that few have had the opportunity to attempt to understand the risk it brings to the broader well-being of our society.
Rarely can we point a finger at any one thing and argue that we are watching neoliberalism at work for it has permeated society to such an extent that its manoeuvres appear normal.
Its stratagems are not in the broader interest of society and so the responsibility falls upon each of us to step back from life’s distractions at least long enough to consider what is and isn’t in our best interests.
Having reached a workable conclusion, our task doesn’t end there for it is at that point we need to engage with democracy and have make our presence felt at the ballot box.
That, however, is not end of our involvement, rather it is really just the beginning of democracy and the casting of your vote should be little more than a prelude to involving ourselves in helping piece together ideas that will make our community more socially equal, and a collaborative and happier place that enriches communities, rather than individuals – that is the ideal, but the neoliberal doctrine delivers something quite different.

Tatura screening explores the disconnect in our food

The disconnect between the generous array of food in supermarkets and how it is produced was explored in a movie screened in Tatura on Wednesday night.

The movie - Food Inc.

“Food Inc”, filmed in 2008, showed the audience of 13 how the deception about our food arrives on our tables began with misleading advertising.
The image that our food came from traditional farms where chooks roamed free and cows grazed contentedly in open paddocks was shown to be a lie with the source of most foods being from industrialized farms in which the reverse was the norm.
Food Inc concentrated on the American market, but as one who watched the movie said; “It’s all scalable”.
“All those distressing American scenes are happening here, but to a lesser degree,” he said.
More detail about the movie, shown free by Transition Town Tatura, can be found here.

A coincidently understanding of the 'Royal road to chaos'

Coincidence is sometimes a little unsettling.

Sam Harris

The movement to “Occupy Melbourne” had reached something of a crescendo as I neared the midway point of the book “Lying” by Sam Harris.
The book had been closed for the last time when the media erupted with the news that Victoria’s former Chief Commissioner of Police, Simon Overland, had been treated less than honestly.
Although not described so honestly and blatantly, he had been lied about and to.
The OccupyMelbourne people were protesting about corporate greed, a hunger for profits assembled legally and within the bounds of democracy, but which are frequently the proceeds of mischievous honesty and questionable egalitarianism.
However, as with many things it is not that simple, for close examination will quickly and easily show, that many protesting are simply using the medium as a vehicle to express a private grievance. They are, in fact, also lying.
Harris claims he had no specific memories of his values about lying before he took a course at Stanford University “The Ethical Analyst” which was built around the single question “Is it wrong to lie?”
He said that course “profoundly changed my life” and his book subsequently had a significant impact on my thinking.
Harris discussed the difficulties we all experience in maintaining our fidelity to a life of non-lying and the first personal identifiable encounter came after the recent John Furphy Memorial Lecture.
Traditional politeness elicits a degree of “harmless” lying as when talking with others about such orations; diplomacy displaces honesty.
Professor Geoffrey Blainey is a fellow who I respect and was looking forward to an uplifting and inspiring address and there were some high points, but broadly I was disappointed as he had used his rich historical knowledge to inculcate doubts about the science that legitimizes climate change.
Adhering to the new personal measure, not lying, it was at the after-lecture refreshments my first test emerged when others who had been at the lecture asked my opinion.
Explaining personal conflicts with Prof Blainey’s views, I was surprised, and delighted, to find that many others felt the same confirming that sometimes the sense of the crowd is to be of more value than that of authority – I use the term ‘crowd’ with some disquiet as it was really only about six people.
Lies, from white to black and every colour in between, seem to be the superstructure upon which life is built right from the supposed democratically elected most powerful man in the world to the appropriateness of you wife’s latest outfit.
Harris has described lying as the “royal road to chaos”, an observation certainly confirmed by the first of those lies with the second being subjective, for all parties.

Feeding the doubt and worsening the dilemma

Life at either end of any spectrum is mostly untenable.

Life at either end of 
most any specrrum can
 be untenable.

Contentment, serenity, ease, happiness and reward are all to be found mostly near the heart of that span, with the discomfit worsening as one reaches the realms of the malcontent.
Although that underlines and reinforces populism, it doesn’t necessarily mean the other, who might be simply a protestor or a mischief maker, is mistaken in their beliefs.
They are, in the minds of some, iconoclasts; therefore being people who challenge traditional beliefs, values and customs and in disturbing populism they are frequently forced to the extremes of the spectrum.
Having listened to many debates about climate change, it is one of those conversations that almost immediately dumps people at the extremes of the spectrum – to participate you are forced to those extremes declaring yourself a believer or a skeptic for no-one, it seems, can logically, and comfortably, walk the middle ground.
That became clear recently when listening to ProfessorGeoffrey Blainey talk in Shepparton about climate change, its impact nationally and on the Goulburn Valley in particular.
The professor had a wonderful historical argument, that being as it should for he is a noted Australian historian, but that view, as sound as it was, overlooked modern science that illustrates, conclusively, the existence of significant changes to the earth’s climate.
It was interesting to sit in the Harder Auditorium at Shepparton’s TAFE College and hear the John Furphy Foundation Memorial Lecture and almost feel the near 160 strong audience warming to the thought that we need to apply more than simple raw science to the climate change conversation.
For too long it seemed people had been forced to the extremes of the debate and driven into that untenable position of either being for or against climate change.
In his friendly and knowledgeable way, Prof Blainey allowed people to stroll, intellectually and metaphorically at least, in the comforting middle ground, some distance from those untenable extremes.
Personally, the professor’s views were somewhat discomforting as he cast some doubt on the modern reasons for climate change and encouraged those in the audience to give even more weight to historical arguments.
Being a thinker of particular clout in our national community, his views that brought doubt to the modern understanding of climate change would be seized upon by skeptics and used to further leverage their argument that the climate debate it a fraud – it is not, and to interpret the eminent man’s views that way would do him disservice, or maybe it wouldn’t?
Skeptics thrive on such doubt and the subsequent confusion they sow further delays the action this human induced dilemma demands.

Furphy 'specialist' to speak at 2012 John Furphy Memorial Lecture

A fellow who is not a Furphy, but is considered a Furphy specialist will speak at next year’s annual John Furphy Memorial Lecture.

Professor Geoffrey Blainey
spoke at Wednesday night's
John Furphy Memorial
Lecture in Shepparton.

An Emeritus Professor of English at La Trobe University, John Barnes, will deliver the eighth annual oration on September 13, exactly 100 years, to the day, that noted author Joseph Furphy died.
The great, great grandson of John Furphy, Adam Furphy announced details of the 2012 lecture after Professor Geoffrey Blainey had spoken at Wednesday night’s memorial lecture.
Adam, along with being the Managing Director of J. Furphy and Sons in Shepparton, is the chairman of the regional advisory board for the Shepparton campus of La Trobe University.
The Harder Auditorium at Shepparton’s TAFE College seats 160 people and was nearly full for Wednesday night’s lecture.
Prof Blainey, who obviously has a deep and broad understanding of Australian history, encouraged people to consider that history fully before blandly accepting many of the present arguments about climate change.
He pointed to changes in the world’s climate that had resulted in significant alterations to Australia’s coastline, including the creation of Bass Strait and the appearance of Tasmania as an island, which were all events that Aborigines of the day had learned to live with.

A discussion initiated, a discussion continued, but never finished

A discussion that began in August in the columns of this paper continued recently in the office of the City of Greater Shepparton’s mayor, Cr Geoff Dobson.

The mayor of the City of Greater
 Shepparton council,
 Cr Geoff Dobson.

The mayor, an amiable fellow near the end of his second term in that role, which, he says, will be his last, seemed remote from the political intrigue often associated with such roles.
Discussion canvassed many ideas, chiefly; however, those examined many times, and particularly in August, in this column.
The mayor appreciated considered views and both he and I wondered why those with an interest in the future wellbeing of our city did not take the time to make an appointment to talk with the mayor, whoever he or she might be.
People with a view about how the city can, or should, behave and respond to its community responsibilities should, it was discussed, formally talk with the council, rather than simply expand on their views among friends.
Without individual and thoughtful input from ratepayers, as opposed the emotional recklessness of groups, the council, in Shepparton’s case just seven people, is forced to operate in an incestuous vacuum, or at least a process driven by personal ideas or simple anecdotal opinions of others.
The connection between community wellbeing and so its accessibility of food turned talk to community gardens; public transit and its ever increasing need was discussed; talk shifted, at one point, to the need of increased residential density in the city, that being shop-top residences as an example; and, the mayor having another appointment, our cordial conversation ended.
The mayor encouraged me to consider initiating a group that was not (these are my words) argumentative, confrontational or critical, rather simply people who thoughtfully considered the city’s future and wellbeing, and then a few times a year presented its findings to the council.
Leaving the meeting, it soon became obvious that the “elephant in the room” had been overlooked.
Not even discussed and so inadvertently ignored had been the question of energy, a question so large, which, if answered successfully, holds the key to the future of Greater Shepparton.
Energy, in all its facets, is the essence of the Goulburn Valley, without which Greater Shepparton would be substantially different for what we know and enjoy today, even with an abundance of water.
Some groups, conscious of its importance, have taken steps to address impending energy crises with ideas that have been enthusiastically embraced.
That enthusiasm, in this case solar energy, illustrates that the community is often intellectually and physically ahead of local, State and Federal Governments.
That trio, however, is frequently hedged in by democracy, which is a lovely idea in principle, but works best for those with the loudest or most persistent voice.

Tackling, safely, the most complex of difficult things - driving

Driving a car is among the most complex of things a human can do.

The activity is portrayed as simple, but it takes our skills to their limit; stretching our motor and spatial skills, planning ability, timing, pushing our senses of hearing, smell, sight and touch, interrogating our feeling for things mechanical, and to further the complexity of the task, a driver needs an understanding of the weather and how it affects the car’s dynamics.
Most are familiar with driving to the extent that it becomes almost instinctual, a sort of reptilian old brain activity that lumps, wrongly, that incredibly complex task in with breathing and other unconscious tasks of simply staying alive.
For some, driving is like breathing, but for others their breathing often becomes somewhat laboured and irregular, an irregularity that can result in serious accidents or death.
Although driving is complex and difficult, there is one task that is strikingly simple, easy and requires little forethought or planning and if adhered to can make driving safer for all road users.
Next to sitting behind the wheel, using the car’s turning indicators is nothing more than a flick of the finger - one flick, at the appropriate time and all other nearby road users are aware of your intentions.
It does, however, put the driver under some pressure, for although it is the simplest of tasks, it requires forethought, planning, the most minor of physical effort and, critically, consideration for others.
As a cyclist there are just a couple of things I want from fellow road users, beyond not killing me - early and consistent use of turning indicators and, critically, eye contact.
Many drivers are courteous and that is appreciated, but some assume ownership of the road and within that they frequently take privileges, rights that often see them exceed existing road rules.
Those drivers see the road rules as mandatory for everyone else, but simply guidelines for them only to be followed when it’s convenient.
Some cyclists behave in similar ways and so they, along with other road users, also need to be aware that behaviour based on the reptilian brain, instinct and raw survival is not appropriate for rule-based road sharing.
Motor cars, according to columnist with Great Britain’s Guardian, GeorgeMonbiot, are isolationist and individualistic, two things that are diametrically opposed to common and safe road use.
Pedestrians rarely have collisions and that can be explained in many ways, but the principle reason is the courtesy we extend to our fellows.
Also, motor cars, because of what they are, effectively a metal cocoon, isolate us from our larger environment and psychologically insulate people from the almost certain tragedies that haunt motorists.