Spies like US

So in the last few weeks, it transpires that the USA is pretty much spying on anyone and everyone in the "war on terror".  This includes hacking into the mobile phones of the presidents of countries that are allied to them.  It's hard to see how listening to Angela Merkel's phone conversations and messages is going to set back a terrorist group in any way.  And the sheer volume of the data being collected, over 70 million phone records in just a 30 day period in France, belies any notion that this can be limited to known or suspected individuals.  Little wonder then at the resultant backlash from the French, German and Spanish governments.

What's more intriguing in this climate, is the absence of any noise whatsoever from our Government.  Do we not have questions?  Do we already know it's happening and are quite happy about it?  I can't believe that even the most pro-US administration could accept the Prime Minister's phone being routinely hacked.  Maybe we naively assume that it couldn't be happening here.

I think we should at least be asking.

Slow Train to Never

Over 50 years ago, on 25 May 1961, President J F Kennedy announced the goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.  On 20 July 1969, just 8 years later, that undertaking was completed.  From vision to accomplishment it was a breathtaking technical and logistical achievement.  Compare that to what passes for vision in this country.   

Today, it is being announced that we could build a high speed rail link between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.  The timeframe?  That would be 9 years before we even can start building and a mind-numbing 40 years to complete the railway.  40 years!  It would be finished in 2053.  We will take more time to just get started than it took to complete the lunar mission.  I don't know why they didn't announce it on 1st April. 

How can we take almost half a century to build a railway?  Maybe you can't get iron, coal or steel in this country.  Maybe we only have horses and carts to transport the raw materials.  Perhaps it's the first fast train in the world ever to be made so we have no examples on which to base it.  Or are we building it out of moon-rock?   Sure it would be about 400 km longer than the Beijing-Shanghai line but then they didn't start building that in 1973.  In fact, construction commenced in 2008 and it opened in 2011.  The world's longest high-speed line built in 3 years.  3 years vs our 40 years.  I understand that it would cost us more but how can it also take us more than ten times longer to build it?  I despair of what that says about this country.  

We also all know that if we say it will take 40 years, it will take longer (and probably cost twice as much).  That's the Australian way.  Actually, the real Australian way is to just talk about it.  Forever.  It's like the second Sydney airport. That was being talked about even before my arrival in this country (in 1978).  Where are we now?  Oh, we're still talking about it.  After 40 years of talking, we still don't even know where to put it. 

In this country, everything is in the too-hard basket.  To see change talked about in your lifetime actually delivered, you need to live to about 150.  I would have loved to be able to hop on a fast train to Melbourne but, sadly, I now know that I will never do so.

Going, Going but not Gone (Yet)

I see the French have just had their presidential election.  The first one.  Then they get to do it all again in a run-off election between the top two in two weeks' time.

Now I'm no big fan of the Australian preferential system but it does seem to be tailor-made for this type of election

In our system where voters have to number their preferences and then the votes for the candidates with the least votes in ascending order are redistributed until someone at the top of the count hits the 50% + 1 target, the voters would only need to vote once and you'd have the result at the end of the first day.

Voila! A new president! Tres simple!

How To Be An Expert

I heard this week that the trial had begun in Norway for the terrible shooting and bombing incidents that happened last July. 

It reminded me of how, when the news broke, there were instantly expert analysts on the air explaining how something of this complexity could only be put together by Al Qaeda.  At least the BBC interviewer, (Owen Bennett Jones, possibly), expressed his frustration with one guy and asked "How can you possibly say that?". Most of the time though, these opinions just go unchallenged. 

As we know, within 24 hours it was established that the attacks had been planned and carried out by a right-wing, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration extremist. In other words, pretty much someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum (although equally extreme).  So what happened next?  Did they call back the experts and get them to explain how they had got it so wrong?  No chance. It never happens; the story just rolls on and as the truth comes to light, everyone forgets the patently absurd statements that had been previously made.  It makes you wonder if these, no doubt, highly paid individuals are nothing more than propaganda mouthpieces.   

It also shows that to be an expert all you need do is express an opinion.  You don't have to worry about being wrong because you will never be called to account over it.

Wizards of Ozterity

I was listening the other day to the various austerity measures being proposed across Europe: university fees to be introduced in Ireland, an increase in the retirement age and proposals for new taxes in various countries.  And then it struck me - we've already had all of these in Australia.  We in the lucky country have apparently been living in austerity for years.  That's obviously what the "Aus" part of the name stands for.

No-confidence Trickster

Silvio Berlusconi resigned today.

While many people will remember him for the allegations of corruption, the philandering and the general buffoonery, I think I'll always remember the stat I heard this morning, namely, that during his long reign, he survived 50 no-confidence votes!  50!  And he only decides to resign now?  You almost wonder why.  It's obviously a remarkable level of self-confidence to offset all that no-confidence.  Or perhaps self-delusion.  The man's the very walking definition of hubris!

Glad as most people (not to mention the stock markets) are to see him go, I suspect that Europe will soon seem to be a duller place without him.

I Wouldn't Bet On It

The leading sports story this morning was the guilty verdict from the trial of the two Pakistani bowlers who had bowled no-balls to-order for betting purposes. 

There has subsequently been much talk of the example that this set and how players would now be more reluctant to risk getting involved in the so-called spot-fixing.  And great for the game this would be if it were so.  What everybody seems to have conveniently forgotten is that it wasn't the ICB's anti-corruption team that exposed this cheating; it was the News Of The World tabloid that set up the sting to expose this racket.  Ironically, that paper was axed as a result the telephone-hacking scandal.  So, just who is going to keep cricket on the straight-and-narrow?  The ICB?

Doesn't Rate At All

Here's some more dismal science.

So a ratings agency downgrades the USA and carnage ensues on the stock market - globally.  One of the main reasons the US and global financial markets are in such a mess is that a few years ago many worthless American mortgages were bundled-up and on-sold as "five star" investments to American and international investors.  The resulting carnage from that debacle was the GFC: banks folded, the retail and housing sectors collapsed and massive unemployment followed.  It's with facing all these difficulties that some "experts" have now decided that the USA isn't what it used to be.  

Now to be sure, the whole thing is more complicated than this but there are some very obvious culprits.  For example, who was it who gave the thumbs-up to these useless investments?  Oh that's right, it was a group of ratings agencies, including the one that's just downgraded the US economy and started the next crash.

Anyone else seeing a dog chasing its tail?

Oracle of The Clash

The Casbah's rocking, London's burning and what with the Olympics being in London next year, I'm wondering "Should I stay or should I go?"

Yes We Have No Bananas

If there's one thing I definitely do not understand, it's economics.  Shortly the RBA will be meeting to decide whether or not to put up interest rates.  One of the main causes for concern apparently is that the price of fruit, bananas being the most quoted example, has gone up dramatically following last year's Queensland floods.

Now I get that part.  I can understand that if 70% of a state was underwater, less fruit is grown and because demand can therefore not be met, prices go up. 

What I don't understand is how making me pay an extra $20 a week on my mortgage is going to solve that problem.  My paying an extra $20 doesn't suddenly make all the water go away and the trees come back.  There's still a shortage of fruit.   

Now perhaps, for some people, that extra mortgage payment suddenly means that they'll stop buying fruit and therefore the demand and price will drop but in my opinion there is no rationality to that argument.  Those people who want to buy fruit and can still afford it are still going to do so.  The rest of us just think about the good times when we could afford fruit.  We've already stopped adding to the demand side of the equation. 

No wonder they call it "The Dismal Science".

But the real kicker?  Other than the extra mortgage repayments?  I don't even like bananas!

Smaller Stack, Bigger Loss

There's a story in the paper today about the Fisher Stack building at Sydney University having nearly half of its books removed.  Now the name of that building brings back memories.  I would only venture into "The Stack" when the books on the recommended reading lists were unavailable.  Dark, confined and unwelcoming, it was not somewhere you chose to visit regularly.  In fact, stepping into it was quite an overwhelming experience.  There are few things in life that give you as much insight into your own mortality than gazing upon thousands and thousands of books.  Apparently there are 48 kilometres of books in there.  When you walked in, you instantly knew that in your lifetime, even if you devoted your life to it, you would only ever scratch the surface of the vast repository of knowledge sitting on those shelves. 

I remember taking notes from a history book and being impressed with its level of detail and then being taken aback when I reached the conclusion, where it stated that this Hitler fellow may turn out to be a very dangerous character who may well threaten world peace.  At the time I was exasperated that the book was almost older than what I was trying to research.  Ever since, having had time to reflect upon it, I remain impressed at what a scholarly piece of work it was and, with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight, noting the remarkable accuracy of its forecast.  While sadly, I can't recall the name of the book or the author, it is footnoted on an old essay lying somewhere in a box in my garage.  Given that this book will almost certainly be one of those cleared out, that might be the last remaining reference to it in my world.

Unedifying 1 - 0 View

Watching all those people cheering the death of Osama Bin Laden reminded me of the distaste with which I watched people cheering at the footage of planes flying into the World Trade Center.

I remember thinking how simplistic their world view must be and being struck by what a disquieting sight the mob makes.

I Hear Wedding Bets

They say everyone loves a wedding and in case you hadn't heard, there's a rather large one on in London tomorrow. 

Apparently, a lot of people also like betting on weddings.  According to a British bookie, a lot of people who know they will be made to watch the wedding are "keeping it interesting" by placing bets.  You can get the following odds from William Hill:

 2/1 The train on the dress will be less than 8 feet (good to see the UK using that metric system they taught me about at school 40 years ago)
 7/4 "Waitie Katie" will only keep him waiting 3 minutes before arriving...(and he won't be the only one saying "Phew" - when it's on TV, a quick wedding's a good one...)
 3/1 Kate to say William's names in the wrong order
 5/1 James Blunt's You're Beautiful to be played for the Wedding Dance (and if that's not scary enough, it's 8/1 on Bryan Adams, God forbid)
 8/1 William to have a beard during church service
 8/1 Prince Phillip falls asleep ( that's come in from 40/1 - he must have heard that they might be playing James Blunt or Bryan Adams at the reception)
18/1 Kate's Wedding Wedding shoes to have RED soles
19/1 Prince Harry to catch the bouquet
20/1 Kate To Have Twins
21/1 To Be Seen In A Night Club On Night/Early Hours Of Their Wedding Day
22/1 That William Splits his trousers as he bends down in the church
23/1 Carole Middleton to be snapped Chewing Gum during the service
24/1 Harry Drops The Ring During the service
30/1 William To wear Glasses In Church
33/1 Harry not to make/finish his speech due to being inebriated
38/1 Prince Harry To Forget The Ring

All that's missing is a dopey song called something like: Willie's Getting Married, At Last

Say It Again and Again and...

I heard our Treasurer this morning again talking about our "patchwork economy".  I must have now heard him use this phrase 5 times (in about 3 minutes) over the week. 

Somebody needs to explain to these guys' script writers that there's a fine line between "staying on message", as they like to call it, and sounding like a kid who's showing off the new word he's just discovered.

Trump Card

What a card that Trump fellow is!  I heard this morning that he was being talked about as a possible Republican candidate for the next US presidential election.

Apparently, he's not happy with the current approach to Libya.  If it was up to him, having decided to intervene, the Americans would just go in there and take the oil, generously leaving plenty for the Libyans to be able drive their cars.  "You know, in the old days when you have a war and you win, that nation's yours," he said.     Funnily enough, that sounds rather like colonialism, which I thought was something America at least pretended to disapprove of.

No doubt it's all just a publicity stunt but then again, he could make it a much cleaner situation in Libya by simply insisting that Colonel Gaddafi appear on a new "Presidential Apprentice" show and telling him "You're fired".  He'll probably do that after he's invited Barack Obama onto the show to tell him the same thing.

Mixed Messages

I heard this morning that the rebels in Libya are complaining that NATO aren't reacting fast enough.  These are same the people that didn't want the West to be involved. 

So what they're actually saying is: "We'd like you to not help but a lot more quickly".

Another Australian Defence Production Starring...

Anyone really.  Especially if they don't know they're in the movie. 

It's all very shoddy on both an individual and institutional level but perhaps the most remarkable thing about the whole sordid affair is that filming people having sex without their consent is not a crime in the ACT. 

No wonder Canberra's the place from which to buy all those DVDs in the discreet packaging.

And where's Harmon Rabb when you need him?

Accidentally Like A Martyr

Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian who sparked off the turmoil in North Africa after setting himself alight, never got to see the aftermath of his action.

By all accounts, it appears to have been the final act of frustration at the futility of his own personal situation, rather than a statement of any great political intent but it's no less a tragedy for that. What happened afterwards however, would surely have been inconceivable to him.

And likewise, as revolution subsequently spreads through Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, I wonder if the policewoman who slapped him has ever given it another thought, or if she's ever come to rue her action.

What price to afford someone their dignity?

They Don't Write Like That Anymore

I recently saw an obituary, in an English music magazine strangely enough, and only belatedly so, because of how long it takes for these magazines to reach our shores.

It was for Australian journalist, Murray Sayle (1-1-26 to 18-09-2010), and it prompted me to look further. In doing so, I found an obituary (among several) in one of our local papers and had to marvel at what a story his life made.

As a journalist, he covered half-a-dozen wars, located Francis Chichester on his solo yacht trip and on the same trip, went on to track down Che Guevara and be the first to report that he had left Cuba to take the revolution to South America. He also managed to interview infamous British spy, Philby, in Moscow, the only journalist to do so after Philby's defection. His career at The Times ended when he resigned on principle over the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, his viewpoint being eventually vindicated a few months before his death. After leaving The Times, he spent 30 years living and working in Japan. Somewhere in there, he also climbed Mt Everest. All in all, it sounds like he was a pretty remarkable individual.

I wonder what he made of today's journalism with so many stories revolving around celebrity and research amounting to little more than running searches on Twitter.

Complete Bankers

While checking exchange rates today, I noticed my bank has increased the price of transferring money.

Now it wasn't a large increase. In fact it was only $1.00. But it's not the size of the increase that bothers me; it's the roundness of the figure. In this world of supposedly tight margins and fractional percentages that banks keep telling us they do business in, it seems quite remarkable that one of their fees, after all those detailed calculations should go up by exactly $1.00?

It illustrates perfectly how they structure their fees: think of a number, now think of a bigger number.