Nanny gets angry

You know, its easy to just dismiss suggestions that Australia is a Nanny state, but if the description continues to fit so well then it gets harder to ignore it.

I read this morning that the Police are angry at the amount of accidents on the road:



Right ... lets get angry at the kiddies ... that'll help.

Perhaps the coppers should start tasering people who have accidents?


sigh

nanny makes a bad nurse

occasionally I'm stunned at the machinery of bureaucracy, despite me being experienced with it. I read this article today about a British IRAQ war veteran who died after getting a set of lungs in a transplant operation which came from a heavy smoker and had cancer.

To make matters worse it seems that the hospital which put the cancerous lungs into him then wouldn't give him another set because the hospital procedures preclude providing service to people who were smokers ... presumably they got this from the tissue types.

According to that article:

The hospital defended using smokers' lungs for transplants, saying that all organs were screened rigorously.

in which case it is then willfully providing sub standard stuff or they are grossly incompetent.

Surely it would not be hard to find a medical professional, especially in the area of respiratory specialty, who could identify that the organs were effected by nicotine, I mean its not hard to identify if you've ever seen such tissue.



Given this bungle which seems to come from a Terry Gilliams Brazil-esqe script how do we interpret Malcom Turnbulls recent words...

"Are we for the socialist state, with its subordination of the individual to universal officialdom of government?" intoned Turnbull, speaking through Robert Menzies' oracular words. "Or are we for the ancient British faith that governments are the servants of the people?"

Malcomb Turnbull

neither side of it of it looks good to me ...

pushing people around for water

people who read my blog may have noticed I'm quite strongly interested in water, how its sourced and how its used. There has been a dam proposal for some time around the north of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Politicians have been keen to push the dam adgenda for some time, with a number of reliable study showing it to be uneconomical, environmentally unsustainable and requiring the displacement of many people.

Today our Premier has announced:

"I don't expect that people who live in the Mary Valley are going to be pleased with this decision but it is important to understand that over the next two decades, south-east Queensland is likely to grow to more than four million people," she said.

"We simply have to provide them with water and this is the best possible and most cost-effective source of that water."

So with the major dam of South East Queensland (Wivenhoe dam, which was really meant to be a flood mitigation project) not supplying enough water in anything except the wettest of seasons ...



its clear that we need to change something.

The Government is getting twitchy about how voters are reacting in the dry times, how then are we to manage the extra population and avoid nasty water restrictions as we had in 2003 through to 2007? Gosh .. the answer must be we'll need more ...

First, some silly questions:

1. why are we not planning to be more efficient with our water?
2. why are we going to have 4 million people here?
3. do you as a Queenslander want to be living in LA or NY style crowding? (just wait for the increases in road rage)
   
4. did you know that by using a rainwater tank for household water uses such as laundry and flushing your dunny we would cut our dependence on treated tap water by over half?
5. did you know we spend nearly 4 times more on waste water disposal than water provision?
   

Well anyway, most people on the capital city of Brisbane just want it to keep coming from the tap (they are paying for it after all ...). Since the dam is "away over there", not in any area where there are too many voters, perhaps it doesn't enter into the minds of many ... but how would you feel if you were forced out of your home for others to have more water to waste?

To quote from the leader of the opposition:

"Are we for the socialist state, with its subordination of the individual to universal officialdom of government?" intoned Turnbull, speaking through Robert Menzies' oracular words. "Or are we for the ancient British faith that governments are the servants of the people?"

Malcomb Turnbull

But I wonder what they would really do if they were in power?


Back to the costs for a moment, have you ever noticed that we have water rates (charges), water restrictions (on what we can use it on) but no one gets any rewards for being efficient?

Hmm ... sounds real close to socialism or communism ... you go to work and everything else is provided for you by the state.

I mean think about it in money terms ... would you (say) give you kids a visa card and just pick up the bill on how much they spend? Put "use restrictions" on them like you can only water the garden on odd or even days if they go over $1000 a month? Surely this is not the way to learn how to be economic?

How come no one in government seems to notice that we can do more with less?

To me it seems that water has become some sort of national welfare thing ... you get taxed, you then expect there to be unlimited water, but you're not allowed to manage it yourself.

Remember it was only in the last major drought that public opinion forced local governments to allow water tanks again ...

Some further reading on this can be found on another blog of mine here, or if you are really interested in the topic you could take a glance at my masters thesis here.

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PostScriptum

There seems to be gathering momentum on this decision being a bad one, as this ABC report suggests.

measuring bullshit

And on the topic of "the machine" gone spakko is this article:

CLAIMS that cattle and sheep are responsible for 10.9 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions have been called into question after scientists discovered considerable variation in the amount of methane produced by individual animals.

right ... but we're not talking about cars here, we're talking about our food. Seriously government bodies can live without food but isn't the health of people who make up the system more important? The system seems not to think so.

Perhaps if we just ate 20% less meat (might be good for us) we could make a bigger per captia reduction?

An earlier study by University of Melbourne researchers found methane emissions varied from 146g an animal a day in a Victorian feedlot to 166g an animal a day in Queensland.

well, if you look at the feedlot issues in the USA (corn fed beef) I think there is more at issue here than managing numbers. Health issues of what our food does to us seems to be left out of the picture here, and meeting 'target numbers' is paramount.

sheesh

does the machine make a good parent?

for the greater majority of human history parents and extended family have been raising children, more recently laws intended to prevent children being abused by parents has created the basic environment for the machine to grow into the Nanny state that it is becoming. I'm surely not the only one to express this problem as I regularly hear it from those around me and read things on the net to similar sentiment. Reading this article in the Australian

A 13-year-old boy has been charged after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the leg with a stolen firearm.

The article sounds really bad with stolen firearms, sounds like some kind of US gangland stuff, I'm sure htat to someone who has grown up and only lives in the city this may be hard to comprehend but examining the article a little further a picture emerges of just some naughty boys who probably just needed their asses kicked by their dad ... should they have had a responsible father figure.

Police say four teenage boys broke into a property at Coolagolite, near Cobargo, on the New South Wales south coast, some time between Friday and Sunday.

They allegedly took four firearms and ammunition from a gun safe and fired them while at the property. The 11-year-old was wounded while the boys were shooting yesterday. He was taken to Bega Hospital and later flown to Canberra, where he is in a stable condition after further treatment to the entry and exit wounds in his leg.

So essentially 4 kids (probably bored) broke into somes house (probably not locked) and pinched some guns to most likely shoot at road signs and peoples water tanks. Definitely this is wrong behavior and without a doubt needs to be dealt with ... but remember these are kids, so why is the "machine" of the law dealing with them as if they are adults...

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with reckless wounding, aggravated breaking, entering and stealing, and possessing and using a firearm. A 17-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy have each been charged with aggravated breaking, entering and stealing, and possessing and using a firearm.

All three have been granted bail to appear at Bega Childrens Court on October 27.

Seriously, do they even understand the words? Why is there no mention of parental responsiblity here? Surely the parents are responsible? Well perhaps not ... the machine is taking away our rights as parents making control or disciplin of children a vexed issue. I don't have any answers for this (certainly not in this blog) but I'll leave you with a question: are we moving in the right direction? I think not, because one thing is sure about Governments, noone thinks of them as efficient or compassionate. Both things which kids need. Now if you don't have kids of your own this still effects you if you're a taxpayer. Why? well ... from another article ...

WESTERN Australia's juvenile justice system is in crisis and desperately needs more resources to reduce the number of children being detained, according to the head of the state's children's court.

So, as soon as we shift the burden of and responsibility for child rearing away from the parents we must put it in the hands of Government. Have you ever dealt with anyone who was a "ward of the state" ... Tough question, but we need to start thinking about and talking about this in a meaningful way in our society or we'll be heading for another Brave New World. Remember ... with rights also comes responsibility, we seem to be ditching on one and wondering why the other is being eroded.

Something to ponder

our new Vietnam - lets avoid this one hmm?

I was reading this morning about our governments attempts to cover up injuries to our serving troops in Afghanistan. I fully understand the military need for secrecy to protect sensitive operations under way, but there is also something more important at stake here. That is the future welfare of the men and women who are serving now.

When nine members of the Special Operations Task Group were hit by heavy rocket and machinegun fire in an attack on the Taliban in September last year, Defence had no intention of releasing any details about the battle after the casualties were brought in.

In a briefing two months later, special operations commander Major General Tim McOwan complained that news of the battle "was leaked and found its way into the Australian media".

Because of the leak, Defence was forced to confirm the incident, in which Trooper Mark Donaldson became the first Australian to win a Victoria Cross in 40 years. McOwan said the Taliban exploited the news on local radio stations the same day.

"In essence," he said, "an information release by us afforded them a propaganda opportunity."

Reading the above segment of that article carefully confirms this, but it raises another question. Would Mark Donaldson have ever got recognition for his bravery?

In the years to come the men and women who are involved in the covert operations will have to take their place silently in Australia and pretend nothing had happened.

We know this has had profound consequences on the young people who came back from Vietnam, so why in such a short time are we setting up to repeat the same problems?

It is a political issue if you agree or disagree with our Governments decision to to be involved in Afganistan, but irrespective of that we owe recognition and respect to the people who went into harms way.

We need to send a clear message to our military leaders that while objectives and battles are important so too is the support and understanding of the Australians who are humans not only soldiers. This is something our Armed Forces needs to pull its head out of its ass about and start acting on.

Less propaganda more reality back home please

desperate and pointless

you know, I really will have to condemn the Australian to being a rag ... just how did this make it into the newspaper? Not to mention why did police bother with it in the first place.

No jail for dope-dealing monk


I mean when you read the details, facts such as:

• the Guy is 63 years old
• He was caught selling $10 worth of the drug
• A police search of the premises uncovered further stashes of 63.7g and 19.5g of cannabis, as well as "other paraphernalia such as plastic bags"
• he has medical issues which cause him to seek pain relief
  

Say what ... he had how much?

Yep, a total of zero point zero nine kilograms (0.09Kg), talk about a major bust. Wow and plastic bags too (I bet they were zip seal too ;-)

I wonder how many officers were involved in that?

Perhaps I've been in Europe too long. I know the law is the law, but come on guys, haven't you got anything better to do than hassle some old monk for a tiny bit of dope? (evidently not)

Nanny knows best

A friend of mine from England once pointed out to me that Australia is not really welfare state, we're more a "Nanny state", with our Nanny taking control over what ever it can, and administering us like ignorant children. It would be more reassuring if our Government departments were perhaps apparently wiser and more consistent in the way it administers things. Even previous Governors in our colonial past have struggled with the administration of Australia. So as Easter approaches, all sorts of European goodies appear in the shops which are not found at home, I'm reminded of a situation from a few years ago, which sort of illustrates my point.

Here in "Sunny Suomi" (Suomi being the Finnish name for Finland) is an excellent chocolate company called Fazer (they Finns say it more like "Fatser"). Among their delicious selection is a lovely almond and hazelnut nougat egg called the Mignon egg.

These are sold only at Easter, so they are a special treat.

The nougat is rather like a more solid version of a well known spread at home called "Nutella".

Not only do they taste beautiful, but Fazer take the presentation to another level by pouring this delicious chocolate into a real egg shell, just like the traditional boile eggs we had as kids for easter only better as they're chocolate!

Because the chocolate is encased in a natural egg shell, you can then get the kids to decorate them with water colours, just the same way that you did when you were a kid yourself.

I thought they were so lovely I just had to send some to my family and friends in Australia.

But wait, at Easter instead of my family getting these eggs, they got a "seizure notice" from Customs ... apparently Nany says "no"! You see, Nanny says that these cute looking food items are in fact terrible vectors for the transmission of feared disease of bird flu to the fair and beautiful shores of Australia. Hard to see how the virus could have survived the cleaning process, but Nanny knows best.

As you'll see, because Nanny knows best she's carefully prepared a document about this, to lay clear to the regulations on importing food items here. This clearly outlines what you can and can't do with the import of items which are designated as "End use: Human consumption".

However the officer who works for Nanny seems to have thought that these chocolate eggs were not actually for human consumption, but were in fact to be designated "End use: All uses other than as animal foods, fertilisers or for growing purposes" (what a shame to waste the chocolate nougat). This meant that the food items must of course abide by different rules, they being those in this document here which covers decorations and non food items.

These rules I am told forbid the import of these cute Easter eggs. Before you go further, just scroll back up and look at that egg again, now lets have a look at the rules with the actual product in mind.

My gift came under the Non-Commercial rules, and I'll point out here that I've highlighted some parts in bold, and put my personal comments in italics within brackets [notes].

1. An Import Permit is not required.[note how this assumes that my friends and family are in fact importing a gift sent to them by me without their knowledge]
2. A Quarantine Entry is required for all consignments except those that are imported as non-commercial consignments by mail or those that are imported as personal consignments with passenger's accompanied baggage.[note: luckily its not required, but again my (and your) family are already supposed to importers of your surprise gifts]
3. Professionally prepared undecorated and decorated blown eggs or egg shell ornaments/paintings may be imported without treatment, if a manufacturer’s declaration or similar documentary evidence states these products have been mechanically and chemically cleaned of all organic material. Egg shell ornaments may be painted or lacquered.[Note 1: while it is true that the shell of these easter eggs is a blown eggs, it is not actually a decoration and it remains silly to consider these items as other than "intended for consumption". Note 2: my chocolate easter eggs were supported with a document provided by Fazer chocolate company. But that did not satisfy Nanny, she's not easilly fooled by inferior EU food quality standards]
4. All egg ornaments and paintings are subject to inspection on arrival. Blown eggs that appear not to have been professionally prepared, or where any cleaning process is unknown, cannot be imported unless treated bywashing the outside and inside of the shell with 2% sodium hypochlorite for a minimum of 10 minutes (T9372), 1% Virkon or 1% Virucidal X (T9431) or gamma irradiation at 50 kGray (T9652) [note 1: these are not egg ornaments, but food items. Note 2: the officer suggested that if my easter eggs were treated this way he was prepared to release them, but then of course, they would no longer be fit for human consumption as intended ... but wait ... why are we applying this regulation to Food items? Nanny knows best ...]

Despite assurances from the Fazer company with written certification that that these egg shells have been washed and sanitized fit for human consumption (Note we're dealing with a chocolate company and a food item? So why are we still arguing this interpretation of regulations? Nanny knows best...)

Nanny knows best, she rigorously stands guard protecting my beloved family and environment from nasty exotic diseases, you won't get anything past her (unless you're a major shipping line pumping your bilge into the harbor introducing God knows what, or a commercial importer bringing in containers of furniture containing South East Asia Asian Geckos, or a pet shop bringing in exotic pet fish that your clients are able discharge into river systems... the list goes on).

While I admire and respect my Nanny for this laudable goal, perhaps someone should point out to Nanny that there are several million migratory birds (such as the Arctic Tern) which move between Asia (the central location for the dissemination of this disease btw) every year, and don't bother to declare themselves at Customs. Perhaps they may serve as better vectors for the introduction of this disease than some chocolate eggs from Finland.

I find it extraordinarily frustrating to observe the application of rules by a bureaucracy which is making strange decisions about these tiny details, while we still bring in exotic fish, continue to plant exotic species of plants beside world heritage national parks (resulting in their infiltration into the area) and numerous other apparent double standards.

Anyway, probably the staff at Customs enjoyed 'safely disposing' of these tasty chocolate eggs (even if my friends didn't get the chance). Well, perhaps I'll send some fly swatters to help my family with the insects this summer instead.