Lindsay's Lobes

River Walk

2012-01-19T21:16:00.001+11:00

Crunch of gravel underfoot
Dust baked on a river’s track
Yellow tree spray on display
Shimmer in the river’s eddies

The wind brings a haunting rhyme
Resounding chords of a lost dreaming
When sky turned black, when rains came
it washed away the old bush track

Camped by the river, on the plain or in the scrub
Tribes still remember a great flood
As their mother earth rebounds.
Game is plentiful-they dance again
To the tune of the great hunt

Gone now like the first spring floods
Gone the nulla, the sling and the spear
Replaced by the gun
No longer,
No more.

A slower boat to China

2012-01-14T21:20:00.006+11:00

It is only recently become apparent Chinese credit growth has far exceeded western economies during the past 3 years of the current global financial crisis.
China initially injected about $750 billion into municipal councils to thwart the effects of an initial savage downturn in exports which literally fell off a cliff in terms of reduced volume as a conseqence of the GFC.
This stimulus was earmarked for investment spending by municipal councils who augmented these funds with massive loans to invest in infrastructure projects and real estate development to the tune of trillions of dollars in additional credit.

This meant that 60% of the economy was being underwritten by unsustainable investment spending leading to both house prices and buildings ratcheting up in a huge bubble accompanied by marked increases in inflation.

The magnitude of this spending dwarfs the stimulus measures in the west and resulted in a huge buildup in government debt- that is rather a massive increase in municipal debt added to the much more modest 20% to GDP of the central bank indebtedness to total near 100% of GDP- similar to the central government debt in the USA. Victor Shih, a professor at Northwestern University who specializes in China warns that the country has only achieved its blistering GDP growth through massive leverage on a scale nobody currently appreciates. Here's what he wrote in an op-ed in WSJ Asia in regards to figure out the true level of provincial, local debt: To obtain an independent estimate, I collected data from thousands of sources, including regulatory filings, bond-rating reports and press releases of government-bank cooperative agreements. I estimate local investment entities' borrowing between 2004 and the end of 2009 totals some $1.6 trillion. The data are far from perfect because borrowing by low-level government entities and lending by small banks are difficult to track. Nonetheless, my evidence suggests that the scale of the problem is much larger than previous government estimates. At $1.6 trillion, the size of local debt is roughly one-third of China's 2009 GDP and 70% of its foreign-exchange reserves, To read the full article click here

The measures introduced by authorities to curtail the unsustainable bubble and curb inflation gave rise to fears of a crash or hard landing which was initially evidenced by a significant slowdown in imports (halving) and house prices falling 50%. Unsurprisingly this has given rise to pockets of social unrest and corruption out of this boom and bust cycle. Oddly enough as each piece of bad news filtered through to the west (as evidenced by falling prices and reduced demand) confidence grew that authorities would take action to avoid what otherwise might be a very hard nasty landing.

Hence the big questions remains will China be able to curtail this unsustainable investment growth as authorities aim for a soft landing to revert to a sustainable rate of growth or do we need to brace ourselves for a significant slowdown which will affect exporting countries such as Australia?

Anyone who thought that China was immune from the GFC or thought that authorities had a iron clad grip on what was going on need to think again. So we are bound now to see a future slower China with exports curtailed by a struggling Europe, by weak global demand and constrained by less capacity for internally based stimulus measures. Howewver, on a brighter note, once EU countries finally commit to improved budgeting to live within their means possibly in March this year the European Central Bank is likely to loosen the money supply and provide some respite to a recession for the region. This could not come too soon as European leaders have so far shown a marked reluctance to do anthing other tham tinker around the edges as their economies inevitably slide ionto recesion. The degree to which the recession bites, of course, the greater the impact on China as Europe is its biggest customer.

However in China the response by authorities recently has been to loosen the banking ratio reserve( funds banks must keep in reserve)and reduce official interest rates which were cut for the first time in 3-years, by 50 basis points ( Eg .50% ). A much more accommodating monetary policy was made possible by inflation reducing from 6.50% to just over 4% and further easing will no doubt continue this year.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said on Wednesday that it will lower banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points for the first time in three years in order to replenish liquidity in the country's banking system as inflation eases.
The latest cut, effective on Dec. 5, drops the RRR to 21 percent for large commercial banks and 17.5 percent for mid- and small-sized banks. An estimated 396 billion yuan (62.38 billion U.S. dollars) in capital will be released into the market. Click here for the full article

Hence it will be a slower boat to China this year. But given the easing in monetary policy and with more to come I think it may still revert to a fair rate of knots- maybe in the order of a growth rate of 7.5- 8% compared to the unsustinable double digits of the past.

The reality is however that because of the buildup in debt China does not have the capacity to further stimulate the economy as it did just a few short years ago. It is not all plain sailing and the policy options remain constrained.

PS China’s economy probably grew the least in 10 quarters in the last three months of 2011 and may cool further as export demand slumps and officials prolong a campaign against property bubbles.

Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the slowest pace since the second quarter of 2009, according to the median forecast of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The data, and indicators for investment, retail sales and industrial production, are scheduled for release tomorrow in Beijing.

The fourth straight quarterly slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy adds to concerns that global expansion is faltering, with the International Monetary Fund warning of near- zero growth in Europe and a “substantial” cut to its global forecast. China’s exports rose the least in two years in December and inflation eased to a 15-month low, bolstering the case for Premier Wen Jiabao to loosen policies.

“The worst is yet to come and more easing measures will be in the pipeline in coming months,” said Zhang Zhiwei, Hong Kong-based chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., who previously worked at the IMF. “Increasing downside risks in China will hurt the outlook for other economies especially commodities exporters such as Australia and Brazil.”

Growth may “trough” at 7.5 percent in the three months through March and 7.6 percent in the second quarter, Zhang said. That may prompt the central bank to “front-load” policy easing into the first half, with one interest-rate cut in March and three reductions to banks’ reserve requirement ratios, he said. Read more by clicking here

What I believe but can’t really prove:

2011-12-28T22:08:00.000+11:00

Just for interests sake I thought I would list what I believe but can’t really prove:
1. Natural selection governs the evolutionary nature of all things to determine their existential status subject to continual and repeated creations.
2. Within this creation exists awareness which acknowledges a superior force or energy which must, by logical necessity, exceed what could be imagined as separate to self. This is the root of all religions and their beliefs.
3. The perceived order of the known universe gives rise to universal laws that mimic grand design even though at the smallest level particles defy these laws and at the outer extremities they break down. So that one can say at the most basic level life remains an ever deepening mystery.
4. All things are dependant and co exist with another and the environment and universe is a product of those entities that inhabit that space.
5. A void is only a void to the extent we are not aware of what makes up that space.
6. Freewill only exists as causality in decisions at the time as opposed to our unknown future about which we might say is more to do with our fate than our choice.
7. Ultimately all that exists can reduce to pure energy of one kind or another.
8. When we die or body dies but we pass on to another form of energy.

Your money or your life; your life or Australia?

2011-11-06T22:08:00.002+11:00

Patrick Byrnes- highway robber, convict & cedar getter
Guest blog post by Rachael Byrnes.

“They were a strange and wild set... of desperate ruffians .They are certainly the most improvident men of the world” (John Henderson, Pastoralist, 1840s).

As I read the above quote about the cedar cutters of the Nambucca region in the 1840s, I can’t help but think that it could easily be a description of me: a wild ruffian living hand to mouth!! Perhaps that’s going a little too far, but knowing that this small community was home to my great great great great grandfather, I can’t help but wonder... is there a little bit of Patrick Byrnes in me?

My name is Rachael Byrnes, my father, your usual blogger here, is Lindsay Byrnes and his great great great grandfather was a Patrick Byrnes; a highway robber, convict, cedar getter and tavern owner. Boy! Is that a tough infamous bill to live up too!? I can’t claim to be a cunning thief or frontier opportunist but as I read Norma Townsend’s book Valley of the Crooked River, I am amused by little clues that provide some insight into who I am and why.

Patrick Byrnes, a brief background
Patrick Byrnes was born in Tipperary, Ireland in 1816. He was convicted of highway robbery in 1836 and sentenced to death, a sentence then revoked in exchange for transportation to Australia. Patrick was just 20 years old when he was convicted of highway robbery. It is likely that he resorted to crime to survive as many poor and oppressed Irish of that era did.

Patrick was transported on the Captain Cook, and sailed for 187 days to reach Australian shores. After several years of convict labour he was granted a ticket of leave. There is no information about Patrick’s time as a convict but there is no doubt that it would have been a gruelling and unforgiving period of tough labour.

In 1848 Patrick married Emma Howell in Sydney before moving to the Nambucca region in northern NSW, an area rich in unexploited cedar wood. It is suggested in Norma Townsend’s book that Patrick and a friend by the name of James Cook moved to Nambucca, as part of a joint cedar getting plan. Howell’s family were also cedar cutters which may have provided extra incentive to move to this remote area.

Cedar wood was known as Red Gold as it was one of the most important Australian exports of the time. A dramatic rise in price in the 1850s made cedar getting, even in treacherous frontier areas like the Nambucca, more attractive.

Life on the Nambucca in the 1850s

Patrick, Emma and James were part of a third wave of cedar getters to the area. The early getters had left much of the cedar trees untouched and had not settled in the area. Poor access and laws preventing land selection left early cutters with no incentive to build communities along the Nambucca.

Even when Patrick, Emma and James arrived in the area, crown land was not available for sale and at best could only be held under pastoral lease. A timber licence permitted occupation of Crown land but none was held on the Nambucca until 1864. In the 1850’s economic development in the Nambucca was somewhat crippled. Sawyers lived from hand to mouth and dealers spent much of their profits outside of the valley. Most settlers, like Byrnes and Cook, eked out a precarious existence initially and struggled in the most primate conditions. There was little point, for example, in putting up but the most flimsy shelters or making any improvements without title to the land.

The history of European settlement during this period is somewhat lost in the mists of time but we can only imagine the struggles and hardships that men like Patrick would have endured deep in these wild subtropical rainforests.

“The scenes surpass all description. Men and women lying day and night on the bare grass in a state of intoxication and only recovering to renew their orgies” (Clement Hodgekinson, Pastoralist, 1840s)

Although the above quote, from a middle class pastoralist refers to a period just before Patricks arrival, growth in the area was very slow at first and so the culture would have remained much the same until the late 60s. Perhaps this is a biased and derogatory observation, yet we still muse over the wild drinking sessions that might have taken place.

Selecting and settling

In 1861 the Robertson Land Acts established in NSW allowed those with limited means to acquire land, with the stated intention of encouraging closer settlement and fairer allocation of land by allowing 'free selection before survey'.

Initially Patrick established his family at Boat Harbour, an isolated spot on Taylors Arm with its cedar untouched. In about 1864 he moved downstream and selected land near a ford on a sweeping bend of the river. He shrewdly chose his site; well watered, flat but not marshy, suitable for farming if cleared and ideally located close to established tracks and river transport. Patrick named his house and land “Congarena”. It was probably corrupted into, or was a corruption of “Congarinni”, said to be Aboriginal for “bog.” It’s strange then that his property was one of the least marshy of the area! Perhaps Patrick had a sense of humour or else the word did in fact mean something to him or the local aboriginal population.

After selecting his property, Patrick quickly established a successful store and pub called “The Shamrock Tavern” and ran a punt at the crossing. Not much is known about the pub or the small community that would have frequented it. Certainly, selection and growth in the area was slow with only seven selections in 1865, 20 in 1866 and 45 in 1867. Still this was enough to enable Patrick Byrnes to carve out a living and raise 12 children!

Personality and values – a peppery opportunist, protestant and catholic?

There are only small clues available about what Patrick Byrnes’ personality and values might have been like. We could easily “jump the gun” and suggest Patrick was an immoral man, committing crimes of terror against innocent highway travelers. However, if we consider the poverty and oppression that existed in Ireland the 1830s and how a large majority of the convicts sent to Australia were poor and illiterate, we can suggest that Patrick was simply a victim of circumstance. More than likely, he was part of a highway robbery gang that stole for survival or to access a lifestyle beyond backbreaking farm work and the common diet of potatoes and milk. Also, from the 17th through to the early 19th-century acts of robbery in Ireland were often part of a tradition of popular resistance to British colonial rule and settlement and protestant domination.

Perhaps Patrick was part of the last wave of resistance robbers, claiming loot as revenge. With a name like Patrick and the Gaelic surname Byrnes, Patrick was almost certainly born Catholic and the fierce tensions between Protestants and Catholics are well documented.

It’s interesting though that he then denied his Irish roots later in life. In Townsend’s book it’s noted that Patrick was “known as a peppery Irishman, he claimed to have been born in Rochdale Lancashire in 1820.” Perhaps it was religious tensions between his wife Emma Howell, who he married in the Church of England that led to this false claim. It’s interesting that Patrick and Emma were married protestant but some of their children baptized catholic. Were there ongoing religious tensions they could never fully resolve. Whilst Emma’s Protestantism prevailed for the marriage Patrick was buried a catholic in 1883. Perhaps religion wasn’t greatly important to them at all, happy to switch between denominations at their whims.

My bet is that Patrick lied about his origins for cultural and business advantages; to appeal to the sensibilities and judgmental middle class cedar buyers. In Townsend’s book it is noted that middle class observers thought poorly of ticket of leavers and the working class. Cedar cutters received the harshest of commentaries such as the extracts below from the Sydney Morning Herald

“The cedar grounds are the resort of the runaways and other bad characters who flock to these places where they are almost beyond the pale of the law...the scenes of infamy and vice that are to be witnessed there are ...horrible to contemplate” (Sydney Morning Herald, 1837)

Patrick may have concocted all kinds of embellishments for monetary gain or may have simply been embarrassed by his past. It’s interesting to note that most convicts granted a ticket of leave were still under legal observation and could have their ticket revoked if bad behavior was conducted. Perhaps this explains the incentive to move to such far off places as the Nambucca. Did Patrick want to be “beyond the pale of the law” ... simply to be free, to have a chance at making a better life for himself or did he find himself at home amongst the scenes of infamy. One can only guess!

There’s no doubt that Patrick was an opportunist willing to do what it took to carve out a lifestyle that was a step above wretched! Perhaps that meant lying, embellishing the truth, moving to remote places, dancing between catholic and protestant, making shrewd business decisions and being “peppery” if it got the job done.

It has been noted in Townsend’s book that Patrick Byrnes was perhaps a more ambitious and a more successful entrepreneur than his contemporaries. Emma and Patrick raised 12 children which were still considered a large family even for that era. Certainly it mustn’t have been easy both practically and financially to raise that number of children. He must have had his wits about him or else that Shamrock did bring him good fortune. Perhaps it was a little bit of both.

Patrick Byrnes lives

Without Patrick Byrnes, his highway robbery and cedar business, I myself would never have come to exist. Whilst it’s only one ancestor of many that make up my genetic code, I still wonder what pieces of Patrick Byrnes are in my genes today? Did I get my peppery tendencies from him? A keen interest in building my own business; of being self made? A desire to live in the middle of nowhere and try something new? Or did I simply inherit a few physical genes like dark hair and small features. As I write this I notice one of my recent gig posters. Rachael Byrnes with cedar wood guitar and shamrock emblem at the bottom for good luck. I can’t help but see the coincidence and wonder is the ghost of Patrick Byrnes leaving its mark?

Eltham in spring

2011-08-23T17:11:00.007+10:00

These pictures are close to where we live which is green and lush from all the rain. This year the dams are almost full and wherever you cast your eye you see a lush green velvet complemented by flowering yellow wattle. Click on each to enlarge to see much more !!

An inconvenient economic truth

2011-08-08T22:32:00.010+10:00

There is nothing new in the latest statistics coming out of the USA over the last month or so nor does Standard & Poor’s decision last Friday to strip the U.S. of its AAA credit rating for the first time alter much how US debt will be viewed. Nevertheless the move compounded fears around the globe including Australia which saw one of the worst slumps in share prices seen since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008 and severe volatility is likely to continue with further massive losses to continue.Currently a high degree of skepticism exists in relation to rating agencies generally given their abysmal performance prior to the GFC but this did not stop investors dumping stock in what could be described as severe panic selling. The move has helped cement a previous wall of worry about European debt worries and add weight to the fears another double dip recession will occur.

But strangely enough in currency markets there has been if anything a return to favour to the US dollar which caused the Aussie to be dumped. Hence money parked conveniently in equities in Austrlia has been realised in aggressive selling which has unnerved many long terms investors unable to comprehend the reason behind this sell off at depressed prices. Once again we have the spectacle of manipulation by Hedge funds and speculators which is not helpful to long term stability.

Aggregate debt levels in the USA have not fallen despite massive deleveraging by the private sector

Although householders in the USA have reduced their liabilities to disposable incomes from 130% to 112% since the GFC this still compares unfavorably to long term median averages below 70 %, as the loss in equity in falling house prices and continuing defaults leave many in distress. There remains a downward pressure on house prices which hopefully will soon stabilize as supply and demand come into equilibrium by the end of the year or maybe in the first half of the next year. There was a mild pick up in housing construction which gives some ray of hope that the worst of the oversupply in housing stocks may be nearing an end. Furthermore Corporations have reduced their debts and many have recapitalized to ensure much stronger Balance Sheets. But demand in a weak economy is still insufficient for any marked pick up in hiring sufficient to reduce the current high levels of unemployment. Hence the depressing prospect remains that many disenchanted well qualified workers are unable to secure positions. All of this adds up to a continuation of substantial deleveraging which would have resulted in a sizeable reduction to the overall debt but has been offset by huge budget deficits. So overall there is not much difference in the overall level of total debt since the global financial crisis.

Is the downgrading in debt justified and what is the effect of deleveraging in a weak economy?

I think the downgrade for government debt by Standard &Poor’s can only be justified on the basis of concern that the political will does not seem to exist to rationally determine a sensible future policy. But in reality treasuries seem unaffected and intially even ralled (a rally increases the face value of those securities which in turn reduces the interest yield) so that it is almost a non event as investors remain unconcerned. The flood of equity sales into treasuries will augment this outcome even though it does not make a lot of sense to me - but then markets are not rational in the short term but driven by sentiment rather than logic. Only in the longer term when things settle down will fair values emerge.Hence I do think the reaction globally is clearly overdone. It is of course of historic interest and concern but I for one remain ambivalent to the machinations within just one agency that prompted this call.

However I do think they have a point about the poor response to the debt crisis by politicians. In an economy that only collects about 15% in tax revenues from GDP and spends 25% to make up a deficit of 10% the opportunity to formulate a sensible compromise seems fairly straightforward.
A combination of much needed fiscal reform ultimately leading to a higher rate of tax for those who can afford it (and who incidentally history tells us are not going to suddenly stop spending) with sensible long term spending curtailment seems rather obvious.

An inconvenient economic truth

The reality is that deleveraging still has a long way to go before sustainable debt levels can eventually be secured. History tells us that emerging from a financial crisis takes much longer that the recovery from a recession. The effects of a financial crisis and that of the size last experienced can last up to a decade before normality returns in terms of unemployment and so forth. Hence any sudden measures implemented to further underpin reductions in public debt risks sending another shock wave into the economy. It is hard to see anything other than continued low or anemic growth patterns for a number of years but this is far preferable to a recession.

The so called green shoots that appeared previously will reappear but they will not signal a strong sustained growth but rather a slow sector improvement ( house construction possibly soon to recover)whose pace nevertheless will be restrained by the effects of deleveraging of debt curtailing the supply of private credit. Presently you have a double whammy of both private and public debt remaining well over long term averages and sustainable levels. Growth for the past several decades was fueled by excessive credit growth and when you go unto reverse naturally enough you lose that momentum. The devaluation of the dollar does make exports more competitive but this sector is too small to offset the much larger domestic contraction.

Policy settings & Conclusion

Policy in my view requires a measured approach to bring about gradual reductions in both the private and public sector debt coupled with moves to engender confidence combined with improved corporate governance to help quell the fears of another recession.

Another vital point that does not seem to warrant much discussion is that given the massive deleveraging that must occur we are only at best beginning this cycle and need to be mindful of the effect of adding too much too soon to the current credit contraction.

Cutting back drastically on government spending to balance the budget in the short term will almost certainly plunge the country into a severe recession. Curtailing future benefits can undermine confidence - particularly if numbers are thrown around as if they were hurriedly written down on the back of an envelope.

Nevertheless desite al of this and deleveraging in the private sector many firms are capable of producing good returns and,for the most part corporates have been involved in recapitalization as was previously mentioned. Hence we may eventually see a strong rebound in stock markets but this will not be a signal the economy is about to take off. Rather firms my still be able to offer good returns but many will reamain restrained by the debt overhang.
It’s no time for politics at this time in history yet politics and extreme ideologies currently rule the roost.

If you would like read a more comprehensive view on deleveraging after a global financial crisis from the Economist click here.

Risks for Kiribati

2011-08-07T12:00:00.004+10:00

Click here for a video on the island atols of Kiribati which we visited in the mid nineties and where we stayed at Tarawa and Abiang. The graphic footage clearly indicates the effects of climate change and risks to their water supply.

Europe’s debt crisis

2011-07-15T15:09:00.006+10:00

The amount of misinformation/ lack of attention to detail today in the press are quite staggering.

Recently as a consequence of hysteria concerning the economic state of Italy I downloaded their latest national accounts to try and find out what all the fuss is about.

The answer was quite startling- nothing has changed much at all in the last year and from my reckoning Italy is nowhere near the dire straits pointed out in the press. But of course there is another agenda underway and it has nothing to do with reality-but instead relates to making money on bets by large hedge funds for the benefit of the few.

Banning short selling and borrowing shares would help as would decisive leadership in the Euro zone.

Anyway at least I got my message published in one of the more respectable and informed on-line newspapers ( Scrambling for Europe's debt exit of July 12) which is as follows :

There is nothing new in the situation in ltaly and the latest GDP figures for the Italian economy point to moderate GDP growth, contained inflation and debt levels slightly up on a year ago. I think the Euro zone needs to be much more assertive and start publishing aggregated figures for the whole zone which I think would help quell the fear and despair.
Hedge funds trading in bonds and loans are simply increasing their bets that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis will spread. Of course, we also now have the rating agencies that gave AAA rating to the subprime junk bonds trying to make amends by downgrading sovereign debt. Previously they were far too generous. If not completely reckless they now risk overstating the case to act as a catalyst for selling/shorting, and in some case the failure to 'roll-over' investments in sovereign debt. Who are they actually working for at the moment?
European debt needs to be restructured in an orderly fashion (call it a default if you will) to demonstrate the Euro zone has ample resources to bail it out Greece and any other struggling countries.
But in the process of clearing the decks (which could be achieved in a matter of months) it's important the bond holders either take a haircut or agree to a repayment extension which is richly deserved.
The share market’s reaction is clearly overdone since countries unlike companies don't go into liquidation and aren't sold to someone else.
The contagion is only spreading because of the indecision by the Euro zone, the operation of the hedge funds and the undue influence of the rating agencies creating an overblown reaction. Investors are again being spooked by the action of the few who stand to make a killing.

Greece & the way ahead.
Everyone knows Greece is incapable of repaying its debts and any further austerity measures will only make the position much worse. To my way of thinking there is no question that stronger creditor nations in the eurozone have an obligation (if they want to remain part of the eurozone) to bail her out by underwriting / issuing new bonds. Since the current bonds are trading at about 50% discount a refinancing through a European issuance would not be too expensive and is well within their collective resources ( Staring down Europe's debt divide, July 19).
A sensibly determined aftermath would establish criteria so that the Greek government may not be able to borrow in the near future until such time as fiscal stability is established and the country is on a sustainable footing.
Contagion will only spread if the euorozone does not take responsibility for that which they created in the first place. This current indecision and wringing of hands reminds me of someone in charge of credit control saying they can't be held responsible for either collecting all the book debts or establishing a scheme of arrangement which is in the best interests of their employer.

Malawi Clip

2011-06-07T22:57:00.003+10:00

The Video below ...

The pictures in the clip is of the school children in Malawi and the opening ceremony for the new church where children were being confirmed which I attended when I was last in Malawi. You can hear their joyful singing later on in the clip. This clip was shown to supplement a talk given with another member of the Malawi Support group to our local school children preparing for their communion. At the end of the talks we handed out paper for the students to draw a picture about life in Malawi and the best 3 pictures are to receive prizes.

We were delighted with the large number of questions afterwards combined with obvious enthusiasm and courteous attention by all of the boys and girls. A few points to the talk are as follows:

Ntandire compared to here
Our school here is about the same size as the catholic school that we support in Malawi depicted in the clip- the pictures show children at school. The teachers there spend time each morning making breakfast for all the scholchdren; a mixture of maize soy and sugar to ensure nobody is hungry. As you can see in the clip they have similar classrooms but not the facilities. When the students go home it might be to a small house or village with huts made of mud brick with thatched roofs.

Early beginnings over 30 years ago

From inception the best way to help was thought to find people willing to become leaders of communities, to help in the building of churches schools and communities. Earlier on the current priest was hijacked and shot on his way back to the airport and only just survived this attack. When that happened he felt a peaceful spirit wash over telling him that everything would be okay and that feeling of fearlessness has never left him. Today 47 communities have blossomed under his stewardship.

Today these 47 communities covering 12 000 parishioners all help one another. Each has chairmen, a secretary and treasurer and many have constructed small properties which they can rent out to provide a pool of funds to help people in need. Each community takes responsibility for their people to ensure every person keeps their own medical records so that if they need to go to hospital they will have record of prior treatment. You can see their joy in the video of the church opening at Ntandire. Last year the first lady (wife of the president) visited this area and was impressed with the community spirit and all of the work being undertaken.

Malawi is the warm heart of Africa
Malawi is often known as the warm heart of Africa because the people are very warm and friendly and I did not encounter a single rude Malawian the whole time that was over there. Most Malawians live with their extended families in huts grouped together in villages. A spirit of neighborliness’ and sharing dominate their existence.

The support group has helped these communities over the past 10 years in number of different ways: to renew two churches, build accommodation for AIDS sufferers, erect classroom shelters, electrify school buildings, build a security wall, provide funds for seeds and fund the church at Ntandire. More recently we are providing sustenance for all of the schoolchildren, scholarships for education and school fees for those who canot afford them

The community at Ntandire has just finished building a kitchen in the nursery school from a gift of ceramic stoves which cuts down on the wood used by more than 50%. .The woman there started the nursery school with over 100 children who are also fed 3 times a week and take turns to teach and cook on a voluntary basis. The school fees project we fund and the funding of the children for both places are going very well and we look forward to seeing even more new leaders emerge. Soon will come the time when we see the last of the missionaries needed as these vibrant communities become self sufficient. That day is fast approaching.
Whilst in Africa I listened to many people’s stories, including that of a grandmother, whose experience was typical of many in their community in terms of church, faith and children. It wasn’t until later that I learned that her husband had died the previous year from HIV/AIDS. She was also infected and acknowledged her past sorrow, but lived a joyful existence. She had let go of her physical suffering and, by focusing on the spiritual, transcended her past sorrow for present joy. While we have great concern for her and the many others, including orphans, who carry a heavy burden through no fault of their own, their joyful spirits, unimpeded by the severe material hardships they endure, remain a true testament to their faith

Snapshot of Malawi

Malawi, situated in southeastern Africa has a population of nearly 15 million and was first a British protectorate of Nyasaland in 1891 and became independent n 1964. The current President Mutharika won a second term in 2009 and has helped the country progress with agricultural reform with assistance in fertilizers and better methods for farming. The country borders Mozambique Tanzia and Zambia and is one of least developed countries in the world heavily dependent on agriculture with about 90% of the population living in rural areas
Malawi's climate is tropical with a rainy season from November to April. The country is dominated by Lake Malawi which drains into the Zambezi river through the Shire River.
The May 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections were declared free and peaceful giving President Bingu wa Mutharika and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a mandate for a second term of office. Women won 21% of the seats, increasing their representation by 50% from the 2004 to 2009 Parliament.

Special Equipment for Malawian Cooking
The Malawian cooking methods are basic ones and you don’t need any special equipment to cook any of the dishes in the Malawi cuisine. Your everyday cooking pots and pans are enough to cook a complete Malawian meal. However, if you want a true Malawian food experience, you should know that cooking is still done the traditional way in Malawi. In the vast majority of Malawian homes, food is cooked over a wood fire using a tripod made of three supporting stones. Women (and children helpers) are responsible for everything concerning the food from market shopping to dish washing. As Nshima is eaten with the hands, everyone washes in a communal bowl before and after the meal. Many Malawians have mud stoves outside of the house, where they cook bread.
St Kizito

Friday 3rd June was the feast day for st kizito - the boy martyr who was burned to death along with 25 others for failing to renounce his faith and submit to the King of Uganda back in 1886. Today his spirit lives on in the warm heart of Africa

The endless cycle- click to enlarge

2011-05-15T22:11:00.002+10:00

Mansfield

2011-05-08T17:27:00.003+10:00

Mansfield is a pleasant 2 hour drive from Melbourne located at the foot of the Great Dividing Range and surrounded by grazing land and mountainous forests. The township and surrounding districts bursts with historical buildings as it was a gold mining service centre during the 1850’s.
We spent a day in the small picturesque town of Jamieson and to read a history of the historic buildings click here

Much to do about nothing

2011-04-11T14:48:00.005+10:00

Ever since I can remember, occasionally I have this weird imaginatitive concept of nothingness – the equivalent of nothing at all. This was not the negation of the idea of being as such but that which is apart from it.

Those thoughts remind me of our ancestral past journey when we first began to to think about ourselves separate to self. Modern man evolved this potential possibly up to 100,000 years ago although scholars hotly debate varying time lines. It is highly plausible during this crossover period as our cognitive abilities expanded physically (with the expansion of the frontal brain lobes) many of our beliefs began to took take shape. In Elkhonon Goldberg's ‘ The Executive Brain’ he states "A rich sensory memory of a deceased tribesperson would be interpreted as the tribesman's "ghost" or as evidence of the tribesman "life" after death". According to the scenario, some of the more literal religions and magical beliefs, which persisted for millennia are vestiges of early human’s inability to distinguish between one’s own memories of other people (internal representations, parts of "self") and those actual people themselves ("nonselves".Others). According to Jaynes, this self-oneself confusion was not confined to prehistoric times. It extended well into the early history populated by individuals we assume to be neurobiological "modern'.

Looking backwards in time it is difficult to imagine those first awakenings in our journey of discovery since they are hidden in oral history, dance, chants and the evocative dreamland scenes on rock walls painted up to 60,000 years ago. Even today screenings include a warning about interviews with people who have since deceased in deference to indigenous group’s beliefs. An insatiable curiosity combined with unquenchable thirst for knowledge leads to our complex ever changing belief systems which adapt subtly along with hotly contested changes as new discoveries contradict many of the rigidly held previous religious ‘beliefs’. Many today prefer the idea of concepts rather than to be wedded to a ‘belief system’.

Buddhism has been rediscovered in the west and gains popularity as an alternative to secular materialism in philosophy or fundamentalism in religion. The idea of nothingness as sacred might seem unattractive to western rationalism unaccustomed to discussing such subjects as emptiness, karma, release from suffering through Nirvana – by ceasing to will, illusions of the mind and the idea of death simply taking on a different form of rebirth. Buddhist popularity may also be due to the fact it seems to be less authoritarian and, while its rationality may be debated it does suggest a rational pathway.

However, when one examines the mystical bent of all religions and their roots encapsulated into ritual, art and so called canonized scripture it remains a matter of choice dependent in turn on a leap in faith.

In the end people adopt a religion or a belief or a particular religious or even secular philosophy because there is nothing else you can do to make sense of life - philosophically for that person.

From the mystical perspective nothingness or something -whichever is of appeal, always entails something in reality which is ineffable.

The only thing we can say for sure is it is futile and idiotic to attack anyone purely on the basis of what a person or group of people think or happens to believe (as distinct from what someone does) since it is all about something or nothing which in reality is ineffable. Much to do about nothing- but we see continued oppression and persecution of many ( including christian) based upon a fear of what such people might do.

'Chants d'Auvergne’

2011-03-07T15:37:00.012+11:00

This recording ‘Bailero’ from the ‘Chants d'Auvergne’ (‘Songs from the Auvergne"); is one from a collection of folk songs from the Auvergne region of France arranged by Joseph Cantaloupe for the soprano voice and orchestra between 1923-1930. These songs are sung in the local language, Occitan.

Cantaloupe travelled throughout France to collect folk songs, making arrangements for voice and instrumental accompaniment. Without his painstaking work these simple folk songs which were orally passed down from one generation of shepherds to the next would have been lost forever.

Cantaloupe leaves us an enduring legacy of the most exqustively beautiful simple music ever written.

The music blends beautifully with the majestic scenery of this high plateau area in southern France with expanses of green rolling hills stretching out as far as the eye can see and richly carpeted in wildflowers which echos the lyrics of skylarks.

It is worth waiting for theses few pictures in the clip to glimpse the magificient scenery and imagine the dulcet tones of a maiden to a shepherd across the river :
‘Are you having much fun’?
‘None at all, and you’?
Shepherd the meadow is in flower, come over here to tend your flock?
The grass is greener in my field.
Shepherd the river runs between us. I can’t get across!
Then I’ll come across and fetch you

Click here for the clip - this recordng is as fantastic for me as was when I first heard it many years ago sung then by rising star Jessye Norman !!

End of an era

2011-02-20T16:06:00.018+11:00

Whenever I am near a farm or in the country I experience a calm that comes over me like a gentle breeze. The sounds of country life instantly tells me to slow down and relax. It is hard to put my finger on it but I think it has something to do with the changing seasons; the hum of activity that sets its own pace and laughs at you if you foolishly try to impose your own will. From my childhood memories comes the idea there was a certain patience needed to taste the sweetness of fresh mulberries picked just as the fruit ripens. One felt secure in the daily routine of a baker bringing his freshly baked bread or a milkman filling your milk jug from milk from a farm up the road. There was a certain thrill of picking out only the edible wild mushrooms for our family breakfast.

I remain interested in farming and have watched the growth in ‘Land Care’ as farming properties join together to create interlocking corridors of preserved natural bush covenanted to nature. These large tracts of covenanted land set aside as a ‘trust for nature’ ensures the indigenous species can continue to flourish. These areas cover up to 15% or more of each property and not only preserve the environment in perpetuity but also provide superior farm yields.

Most Farmers who are involved with animals reared for the ultimate purposes of human consumption are at considerable pains to ensure their animal’s environment and relative freedom ensures enjoyment up to the time of any slaughtering. When that time arrives it needs to be carried out in a swift and humane to avoid suffering or stress on the animals concerned. There is no reason to sustain suffering of animals today. Factory farming (which , for the most part is not widespread in Australia) where animals are housed in restricted space and force fed a unnatural high growth diet tell us something very negative about society verging on moral bankruptcy. Fortunately in many countries distributors are starting to label their product as free range and turning the tide for that preference amongst consumers.

It all boils down to the point any prolonged suffering of animals is unacceptable today regardless of past tradition or culture or anything else. Either we take some responsibility for what we eat and how it is produced or we turn a blind eye to it or argue against it on the basis of animal’s existence is not of any consequence when it comes to human existence. Such as argument to my mind is morally indefensible. It also follows that those involved in any form of farming in the wild owe a responsibility not to engage in practices that result in slow agonizing death to animals.

Anyone witnessing the cruelty of commercial whaling would be horrified at the spectacle of the slow and agonising death of a harpooned whale. At least now in the Soutern Ocean ther whales have gained some respite ........'It’s official – the Japanese whaling fleet has called it quits in the Southern Ocean, at least for this season. And if they return next season, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society state they will be ready to resume their efforts to obstruct and disable illegal Japanese whaling operations. ' To read more click here

The federal government has refused to be drawn on the tenor of a meeting between the Japanese foreign minister and Australia's ambassador in Tokyo following a premature end to the whaling season.
Japan announced on Friday it was bringing home its harpoon ships a month early for safety reasons following a series of clashes with anti-whaling activists. ........read more here

A philosopher’s guide to reality.

2011-01-28T23:19:00.008+11:00

As our level of awareness increased, natural curiosity prompted us to ask questions about reality and how one can philosophically define our state of being or existence. The first formal paper on metaphysics (which is a term used to describe our state of being) was by the scholar Aristotle (322 BC-384 BC )whose output remains firmly etched into our societal framework and who completed the first known works on logic.
His writings remain fresh and thought- provoking …..The first philosophy Metaphysics) is universal and is exclusively concerned with primary substance. ... And here we will have the science to study that which is just as that which is, both in its essence and in the properties which, just as a thing that is, it has. ....That among entities there must be some cause which moves and combines things. ... There must then be a principle of such a kind that its substance is activity.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics). You can read a summary of his treatise on metaphysics by Stanford University here.

A measure of his contribution to metaphysics was his ideas remained virtually unchallenged for over a thousand years. Today they are the cornerstone for the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions to define our state of being from a religious philosophical perspective. It is not my perspective however to rigidly assert all the Abrahamic faiths are totally reliant upon the Aristotelian view, rather his broad metaphysics profoundly influenced or was a cornerstone to much of it (with varying degrees) although I acknowledge in some sects they went entirely different ways inclusive of splits in Christianity.

But Aristolean logic was hostage to the Copernican notion of a central earth about which the stars and planets revolved. It was thought then impossible for the earth to move on its axis and orbit the sun as otherwise you must feel the rush of wind in your hair just as you would when riding a horse. Many simply believed humans might fall apart if exposed to speeds exceeding that of a galloping horse. John Gribbon- Science A History -1543-2001.

All of our ground breaking major scientific discoveries are counter intuitive and most discoveries did not follow on logically to seem at first to be against common sense. Science tells us how things are but not logically how things are. However, the fact that a philosophy is underpinned by a false scientific notion does not in its itself discredit the whole of the body of that work. All revelations in science reveal is that a particular model of reality conforms to a verifiable observation from that perspective. New scientific discoveries and insights will prompt quetions about the status quo for debate and become the catalyst for changed thinking. The modern dichotomy existing between science and philosophy is only a very recent affair as previously science was called philosophy. Philosophers want to understand science as a tool to help underwrite philosophy.

It was not until the invention of the telescope and Galileo’s observations that the Aristotelean view was finally refuted in the seventeenth century. Galileo reduced Aristotle’s metaphysics in religion to attribute GOD only to the primary causes (or those not understood) with the balance known as secondary causes comprehensible as mechanical processes.

His refutation of the Aristotelean idea of a fixed central planet earth met with stiff opposition as his note to Kepler testifies:

‘I wish, my dear Kepler that we could have a good laugh together at the extraordinary stupidity of the mob. What do you think of the foremost philosophers of this University? In spite of my oft-repeated efforts and invitations, they have refused, with the obstinacy of a glutted adder, to look at the planets or Moon or my telescope. (Galileo Galilei)

The most dominant philosopher at that time was René Descartes who expanded the idea of a mechanical view of the world to include physics, biology and psychology. His famous phrase ‘I am thinking, therefore I exist’ denotes his idea of a distinct human intellect for all human perceptions unaffected and separate to the senses.

Hence his metaphysics talked about a distinction between the mind and the substance of a material world comprehensible from a mechanical perspective.
His ideas were plausible then, given the feeling of solidness to the world and the predictability of observable outcomes for mechanical systems.

He makes a valid point that the senses provide only obscure information and concludes therefore clear perceptions must only occur in the intellect.However I think you can also say that the senses don’t have to make rational sense to us individually or for us to be aware of a composite of sensory perceptions manifesting as intellect.

His ideas about the mind were referenced in more recent times to support the theory that a computer with self conscious software would be capable of emulating a human mind. This idea may have some tiny vestige of plausibility if you remain convinced about Descartes mind distinction – but I remain somewhat unconvinced even on that score. Descartes ‘concluded that the essences of all things and those calculable mathematical truths’ perceivable from enquiry were immutable and eternal causes established under the hand of GOD.

For a summary of the metaphysics of Descartes (1596- 1650) click here

Reference ; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-modal/

The next great advancement of science was from Newton (1643-1727) who took a 7-year fellowship with Trinity College in 1667 which was reliant on him swearing an oath ‘I will either set Theology as the object of my studies and take holy orders when the time prescribed by those statutes arrives, or I will resign from the college’

He was the first of the great Scientists to show the laws of science are indeed universal laws that effect everything. For Newton and many of his contemporaries God was the architect of it all. Newton even went on to say God was a "hands on” architect who might interfere from "time to time". John Gribbon- Science A History -1543-2001.

To read more on Newton’s metaphysics click here
Reference : http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-philosophy/.

18th century

At the beginning of the 18th century the famous botanist Linnaeus ( 1707-1778) who was responsible for over 7000 descriptions for species of plants and most European animals rejected the Aristotelean metaphysics which defined plants as substance with properties. Instead he proposed their being was based upon the provision of nutrition and in the propagation of their species.
Thus the interconnectivity of all living things was beginning to take root- if you will excuse my pun!

Immanuel Kant (b. April 22, 1724- 12.4.1804) was a German philosopher who greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy. Kant recognized the problem of the human mind and provided a solution as to how we can escape from the confines of our mind to a reality of an outside world physically beyond it.

Kant’s solution posited that prior known truths are insufficient to describe metaphysics but from prior knowledge (which he called a priori) the mind is capable of joining up with analysis to understand how to proceed. This may seem a rather straightforward matter for us today but it was a major move forward in thinking then to run counter to existing philosophy.

His ideas ensured a much better understanding about how the mind joins past knowledge and links to analysis to posit judgments about our interaction with the outside world.

Kant employed in his thinking what is known as the transcendental argument about the minds ability to be aware of things outside of the minds existence about which it has no prior knowledge by joining with a partial priori to give rise to analysis and subsequent comprehension. E.g. the mind itself is aware of its own experience. Kant then argued (convincingly from my viewpoint) that a philosophical investigation into the nature of the external world must be an inquiry into the features and activity of the mind that knows it.

Kant argued the mind gives objects some of their characteristics in accord with its compliant nature to bring uniformity within its structured conceptual capability.

Kant’s transcendal argument however does not mean philosophically he saw grounds for ideas such as, ‘God is a perfect being.’ as Kant maintained that the mind was a tool to formal structuring that enables the conjoining of concepts into judgments, but that the mind possesses a priori for judgments, not a priori of judgments.

This idea is confirmed in studies undertaken into cognitive neuroscience which conclude the frontal lobes of the brain assemble all of the information (including that which is conveyed from the senses) from other parts to make judgments based upon all of the assembled information to hand. Elkhonen Goldberg – The Executive Brain.

For a summary of Kant’s metaphysics click here

Reference : http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-metaphysics/

19th & 20th Century

It was in the 19th century the pace of change quickened with the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution; discoveries of Carbon Dioxide, water as an element, The Steam Engine, Electricity, Oxygen and Darwin’s theory of natural selection, to offer a scientific explanation of evolution.

But during this time science was also transformed as in 1905 Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity was published. The foundation stone was the constancy of the speed of light and that nothing exceeds the speed of light which was supported by experimental evidence.

He went on to develop the special theory of relativity to include the warping effects of gravity.

Many of the metaphysical ideas described so far are by necessity based upon our everyday experience with intelligence human interaction to define the reality of our state of being.But now Science is telling us the only absolute to relativity is the concept of space time. This idea took firmer root as accepted orthodoxy as the quantum revolution (study of sub atomic particles called protons and electrons) demonstrated beyond any doubt that light could behave as a wave or as a stream of particles. Scientists can only postulate theories about the behaviors of electrons and protons inside or outside of atoms. The bizarre notion of quantum mechanics postulate where two photons were entangled any successful measurement of either will force the other distant photon (however far away- even were it to be on the other side of the universe) into a corresponding same spin cycle as if it is still connected (even though it isn’t) rather than behave in accord with expected probabilities.

From a scientific point of view one thing remains crystal clear; we remain unable to provide a metaphysical model about reality - our state of being and their ontologies. All I think we can say is our minds give us a comprehension of reality (even if it's not reality) verifiable by independent scientific means. All that proves is comprehension is correct according to the observation but not that it is real. Of course it is real to the extent it needs to be real for us to exist but that is all above the quantum level and according to large scale physics which works very well.

One of the prominent philosophers of great influence was Friedrich Nietzsche ( 1844-1900) whose work today is subject to countless interpretations (or should I say misinterpretations) and who is better known for his quote ‘God is Dead’- symbolized the death of a even wider definition of metaphysics than is contemplated in this paper. Another is 'All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.'

As an insightful and enigmatic philosopher whose unusual style (he often wrote in aphorisms) Nietzsche was apt to ferociously attack any philosopher or religious philosophy captive to universal principles which he proffered was to reduce our state of being into one of a slave mentality to descend into nihilism.

The key to Nietzsche's philosophy from my perpective is his will to power and his metaphysical claim this is the essence of being. He posits our being comprises of instinctive interactions – the true, false, real, fictitious or unintelligible. His claim was 'that all sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

In his works entitled 'Beyond good and evil' he gives rise to the idea of ‘free spirits’ to emphasize ones self-knowledge that allows one to go beyond the bounds of morality to be free to unearth or uncover the conscious drivers or our wills.
Nietzsche hope is for philosophers to be free spirits unbounded by the shackles of dogmatism and willing and able to embrace hardships in a constant state of becoming.

Another philospher Albert Schweitzer, although heavily influence by Nietzsche, eventually went down a different track to Nietzsche; ‘Reverence for life means to be in the grasp of the infinite, inexplicable, forward-urging Will in which all Being is grounded.’ 'Reality is the Being which manifests itself in phenomena'

Schweitzer’s world view was influenced by Spinoza, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Native American religions aimed at providing a bridge for Christianity to be revitalized; to return to the ancient mystical links for a naturalistic world view. He posited eschatology entrapped Christianity to a journey of unjustified value judgments to fuel unwarranted pessimism about the intuitive human spirit. His world view was based upon our link to mysticism as a basis for reasoned understanding- not the other way around. Eschatology was central in his thinking as the catalysist s for the pessimistic renunciation of a human society which was bound and captive to the continual overtures to an approaching kingdom of God.

What Schweitzer attempted to do was to remove the metaphysical Jesus of love housed in the God/ man / creed/ dogma entrapments to be supplanted within his reverence for life based upon his life affirmation and unity for life themes. Wherever you see life – that is yourself!”

This is what has attracted me to his philosophy – complete with all the flaws which must beset any philpospher.

But Nietzsche was of great interest subsequently to a philosophical movement called existentialism: the investigation of the meaning and mode of being given endless individual existential possibilities and the relationships with all things. - A being in the world.

Noted physicist Stephen Hawking also brings his own brand of scientific gloss to the table since he thinks our minds are all wedded to a belief dependency what he calls ‘model-dependent realism,’ which allow us to make sense of our assumed reality from our sensory model input. He makes the point however our assumed reality is based upon what we believe to be both true and real to reflect observations -but not reality.

We zestfully explain events on the basis our mind models ably match reality (even if they do not); so that when the models are able to make accurate predictions we become excited to think we have discovered the truth which we have. The truth is that the mind model agrees with those observations- not if it is real or not. Stephen Hawking

Conclusion

What I have tried to do is to illustrate how science and human thinking evolved historically to bear fruit with elegant theories about our state of being.
My aim was to show how successive philosophers and scientists built up a step by step approach to metaphysics only to find in the end we are almost back to when we first started within the context of this paper. I have included references to Stanford University to ensure anyone wanting to check what I am saying or required more expert elaboration could refer to the references.

Additionally I included references to john Gribbin’s ‘Science a History’ to join scientific discoveries to hopefully show how scientific discoveries shaped philosophy. My aim was to show how this change in thinking would have felt then as such discoveries impacted their lives so that today life is barely recognizable to that which preceded us. There is no inference it’s a better or worse world view to what preceded it, but rather this post is an illustration of the journey of formal metaphysical knowledge.

Hence my subjective inclusion of just a handful of the great philosophrs and scientists will hopefully capture sufficiently the essence of some of their ideas to whet your appetite for further enquiry. It seems to me each has made a major contribution to better understanding the nature of being within the constraints of societal or religious prejudices or flawed science.

But as we began to feel secure under the certainty of Newton’s universal laws we discovered at the quantum level those laws no longer applied. It is as if in our quest to be suitably clothed in more and more knowledge we now know the clothing is only temporal and underneath as always we remain naked before GOD.

But just as clothes keep us warm to add color to our character all of the great philosophers and scientists I have subjectively mentioned add meaning to our life just as if we are having a conversation with a trusted friend. At least that is my experience and my hope is it is yours.

An excerpt from Christmas.

2011-01-25T13:32:00.002+11:00

A reflection on Christmas.- from an Aussie Alice friend who thought her poem might make you smile,- ……enjo

There’s been a drought a 152
It’s not from lack of water though
a,b,c
d and e they once flowed
so easily,
so merrily they made their way
To form a poem, a word display
A picture, story, little song
to illustrate the marching throng (of life!)

It's not from lack of ink or paper.
Just time you see
For Christmas came
Streaming down the freeway
in the latest sporty car
All shiny and bling,
even Jesus had a gold plated crib
A Ralph Lauren Bib
And Mary's got new American Ugg boots.

She was dizzy with the flashing lights
The wilting tree
The Angels plight,
At having to sit on the top branch.

St Nick didn't get a letter but an A4 pad,
How does he do it they wonder?
He doesn't, he passed the buck to me
the cad!
Zooming here, there, every shopping where
The credit cards been working out all year
for this big spender
I wish the credit card police would suspend her,
She’s found online shopping too,
It’s so easy browsing on the sofa
with a nip of Christmas Brandy to help
the net seduce her....

THATS IT, enough she cries
The Christmas mosquito has sucked us dry
We're off to camp somewhere remote
Don't worry kids
Santa’s got the note.

Camping, what was she thinking
(not been for a year or three)
She'd forgotten you have to pack
the loo rolls, beds, pillows, food,
Clothes and boots, trikes and bikes,
Balls and bats, torches, stoves, tables
Chairs, Fishing rods, Canoes and ores

And then her chirpy husband says,
‘Are you packing the kitchen sink as well?'
She feels the fire rise; she feels she might just blow,
(like a Christmas cracker)
But no, she keeps to task in hand,
Picks up the spades for digging sand
and smiles her Christmassy smile
through her pearly whites

8hours later they arrive in paradise,
Paradise is Walkerville Caravan Park,
It’s sunny, windy, windy and cold,
Put up the tent, see it’s got mold
No tent pegs or guide ropes too
'At least the parks got showers and loos'
he says sheepishly.

The cracker is ripe
and when it explodes it’s a dud,
Mrs. Claus turns on her heel,
Grabs the arm of a boy, reindeer food
And marches onto the beach
to capture Christmas Eve magic
less the candles, lights, trees and hymns

And there
in the vast embrace of natures nakedness
the magic captures them.

Queensland's flood crisis

2011-01-09T17:31:00.010+11:00

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The latest estimates are that Queensland's floods will cost in excess of 6 billion dollars directly (with much more than that in future lost export earnings) as major floods so far have decimated 24 towns and cities in what has become the largest catastrophe in the states recorded history.
An area exceeding the combined land mass of Belgium and France covering one third of the state is now under floodwaters. Houses, businesses, prime cropping lands and vital infrastructure such as roads and bridges have all been destroyed

You can view a tiny slither of the devastation of one such tiny town prone to flooding from the above video clip. Each day the position has deteriorated with continual torrential rain. The very latest town affected is in Maryborough where businesses and homes in this southeastern district prepare for further extensive flooding with some areas are already inundated.

Further severe weather warnings are predicted to lead to flash flooding in the southeastern coast, the eastern Darling Downs and Granite Belt districts.

As a postscript the flash flooding was much worse than expected. Dowling Downs again experienced severe flooding just as the clean up was about to begin. An even bigger wall of water devastated the area as residents talked about over 20 feet of water rising in just few minutes to pick up cars, houses and containers in the toorent like match boxes sewpt down the main street. Already an additional 8 people have been killed and 70 feared drowned who remain missing. Click here to see the effects of the raging waters.

The capital city of Brisbane is now preparing for the worst flood in recorded history with 33 Brisbane suburbs now on high alert as flood waters rise in the west with a wall of water bigger than Sydney Harbour. Flooding is now also expected in parts of NSW which brings back memories of my childhood in Kyogle (located on the Queensland border) during the 1954 record flood when our family home purchased as flood free (it was erected on high stilts), was submerged under the waters of the Richmond River. On that fateful day of cyclonic rain we decided to evacuate to a neighbor on higher ground but my father remained behind in a desperate bid to secure furniture and effects above the encroaching floodwaters.

My mother and I (she was clutching a hurriedly packed suitcase) dashed down the front steps in the pouring rain, up on to the road and across a steep grassy slope to the steps leading up to our neighbors house. After changing I remember joining in with our neighbors’ son fond of playing a pretend priest, as he proceeded to administer his own communion service to cheer us up. Even so I recall feeling less than reassured standing on the front verandah peering through the darkness to see what was happening.

I recall we were able to glimpse my father through the moonlit window vainly swimming around inside the house attempting to place articles above the rising floodwaters. We all breathed an audible sigh of relief as he abandoned his quest and with his usual reassuring slow rhythmic swimming style swam through a half submerged window for the safety of dry land. Hauling himself onto the bank cold and exhausted he eventually joined us on the verandah as we watched our house submerge under the flood waters. Elsewhere homes were being swept away whist others perished as their rescue boat capsized. Throughout the night men in the flimsiest of small boats heroically rescued those stranded on rooftops or left clinging to trees.

I think the aftermath was a time of suffering as I will never forget the all pervasive pungent odor, a reminder of unexpected death and destruction. As our supplies dwindled I recall how pleased we were to hear the faithful drone of a DC 3 aircraft and watch white parachutes drift with supplies into our welcoming hands. Sheets of corrugated iron dislodged from houses were folded at both ends and sealed with tar, to make canoes to deliver the milk and supplies to stranded townsfolk. I recall search parties setting out with grim faces looking for bodies. Every organization rushed to help including the Girl Guides Association who was honored with an international award for outstanding service. All of the community shared in the tragedy and no one felt alone.

It was too painful for my parents to stay so they sold the family home for a fraction of its previous value so that these financial consequences and hardship lingered on for many years afterwards.

The memories of our beloved home in its delightful setting, transformed into a sea of brown surf, remain with me as clear today as they were so long ago.

Today many more again face the same uncertain future and the pictures of those in distress remind us of the fragility of life and the inevitable cycles of flooding rains and droughts which on this scale may only be experienced once in lifetime. It just so happens these weather patterns which have existed for thousands of years repeat to effect huge areas we have built on which become once in lifetime floodplains.

The big wet

2010-12-20T22:20:00.004+11:00

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Except for a small part of Western Australia Australia this year experienced a rain deluge to eclipse all previous records. Everywhere you see a velvet green carpet instead of the usual brown paddocks.

The hopes of farmers were raised early on the expectation for the best harvest ever as a respite from a decade’s long drought. Early optimism is now threatened by simply too much rain preventing harvesting due to widespread flooding. Others unable to spray to repel the expected locusts plague attacks (once the weather finally clears ) may also have their hopes dashed. But despite these setbacks many will rejoice over the rich pastures with abundant fodder for stock or in the dry farming regions which this year promise record yields.

The really good environmental news is the floodwaters have entered and flushed out the mouth of the mighty Murray River ( Australia's largest river system )to restore the ecology of the Coorang. Previously the Coorong dependant for its biological existence on periodic washing from the sea mouth was facing slow strangulation as the mouth remained permanently blocked due to insufficient water flow as too much was taken out for irrigation during the long drought.

But if you would like to view natures ability to renew itself and to work miracles this inspirational story of Lake Eyre with amazing scenery is worth seeing by clicking on the link above. I think you will be suitably impressed with both the scenery and the story.

Finally a joyous season to everyone.

A revelation

2010-12-06T13:07:00.003+11:00

Eschatology comes from the Greek ‘logos’ describing the final or last event, but it also can mean the end of an age or time. In monotheistic religions (religions believing in one God such as Christianity Judaism and Islam) eschatological writings, amongst other things, supported a hope and desire for a kingdom free from suffering and evil. In that context the prophesies were intended as a solace to those suffering, under siege or subject to tribulation to revive drooping hearts with prophetic majesty.

At the time of Jesus a new Messiah was eagerly awaited in Israel, since the Jews, whose ‘Promised Land’ was being confiscated by the Romans, were unable to pay the punitive crippling Roman taxes being imposed, and were being imprisoned or forced to become fisherman, or executed. The Jewish people longed for a Messiah (an anointed one) to come in glory to end the Roman yoke and usher in a new just kingdom. Despite the Roman rule with their multiple Gods worship the Jews were allowed to practice their own religion. The Jewish authorities imposed additional taxes for the upkeep of the temple and priests, creating an uneasy alliance with their Roman occupiers in exchange for continued religious freedom.

It was within this seething cauldron of politics and unrest that Jesus was born and to whom their hope for a new kingdom was attributed. But very little is known about Jesus as any study will quickly conclude historically he barely exists – since there are only two fleeting references outside of the Bible in the whole of cumulative history. References by Tacitus and Pliny in the first century A.D. don’t prove that Jesus Christ existed but rather confirm the existence of Christians at that time.
Within the biblical texts we know a lot about his death and subsequent events but virtually nothing ( except for a brief reference to his excursion into the temple whilst with his parents ) of his earlier life, since what is recorded is almost exclusively confined to his short public ministry, which scholars think lasted only one to three years. All we have in any detail are the accounts recorded in the gospels which consist of parables loosely interwoven into the story of his ministry and death. It seems very likely to me the communities, while initially devastated by his death, thought he would shortly reappear to establish a new messianic kingdom. The fact the gospels were not written until maybe 60- 70 years after his death adds weight to the idea the early church saw no need to record in history what was believed would become irrelevant to be soon supplanted by the establishment of a new messianic kingdom. Further evidence is in Paul’s letters to the fledgling Christian communities in Asia Minor written only about 20-30 years after Jesus’ death which are all strongly rooted in eschatology.

As time progressed the immediacy of this eschatology softened so that by the time Revelations was recorded maybe 80-90 years after his death the language becomes descriptive and less definitive; symbolic seals, plagues, beasts, trumpets and the number 7 describe a new age clothed in mystery. Our modern day understanding can best be understood by reference to allegory, metaphor and myth. Revelations is a personal and cosmological perspective of how Christ’s death and those who suffered martyrdom solidified an everlasting gift of atonement; the metaphorical reference to the slaughtered lamb is the atoning victory of Christ. Revelations is not so much a prophesy about the future but more of an existential revelation, rich in imagery and symbolism of the continuum of the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Revelations rallies against the transitory nature of the emperor’s power whose earthly reign is both temporary and illusory compared with the primacy of Christ’s death and resurrection.

The real revelation is the mystery that the kingdom of God is already established as an existential reality, but that it lies tantalizingly outside of the realms of our earthly restraints.

Dinner dance to the tune of the “Degenerates”

2010-11-25T22:39:00.001+11:00

The Malawi Support Group held another Fundraiser last Saturday when we were entertained and danced to the wonderful music of the "The Degenerates" who donated their services for our dinner dance.
The performance of this marvelous band seems to become more polished each year. One of our past members of the Malawi Support group who died several years ago told the story to another good friend about his experience whilst serving in the merchant marine in WW2. Whilst under severe bombardment everyone was feeling frightened and miserable but during a lull the ships loudspeakers broadcast the song ‘White Christmas’. He recalled vividly the immediate calming effect on the entire company. One of the band members who was his good friend had asked me to sing that song at a previous function he attended. We repeated the song again at this function in memory of our good friend as a reminder of the universality of music as a source of warmth and hope for the darkest of times.
For more photos visit the Malawi Blog under blogs of interest.

Some Enchanted Evening

2010-11-15T22:57:00.003+11:00

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Who could fail to appreciate the deep rich baritone voice of Brian Stokes Mitchell singing the part of Emile and the immortal words of ‘ Some Enchanted Evening ‘ from that great Broadway show ‘ South Pacific ‘ from the genius of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Occasionally a singer ‘owns’ a song as it seems no one else can bring that unique powerful vocal interpretation into play; but he is even better singing ‘This nearly was mine’ from the same show but there is a block on the encoding.

Standing next to Brian is Reba McIntyre (who was for 4 years in a row Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year and is also a fabulous actress) in Concert from Carnegie Hall. Reba aptly sings the part of Nellie elswhere in the performance. All I can say if you don’t like this version you don’t like ice-cream.

I have sung the song many times but never heard a version as rich as this one. Surprisingly he does not take the top note at the end; possibly to maintain the depth and tessitura (musically the most comfortable range for a given singer) that encapsulates this song so magically within his vocals range.

Biennial Conference in Philosophy

2010-10-29T18:36:00.004+11:00

I recently attended the ‘Biennial Conference in Philosophy Religion and Culture’ held in Sydney and entitled “Creation, Nature and the Built Environment”.

Above are photos taken whilst there depicting a harbour scene around Balmain where we stayed and from the Kurnell cliff tops within the national park. The lone rock fisherman was nearly washed off soon after I took the picture.

These conferences started in the early seventies to inform the Catholic Church about the latest contemporary theology and philosophy from a variety of Catholics and non Catholic scholars. I am attempting to provide some snippets from a few of the many papers presented.

The keynote address was by three New Zealand academics namely Elizabeth Aitken-Rose, Douglas Pratt and Jennifer Dixon on “Community and Incarceration: The Architecture of Alienation and the Politics of Redemption”.
‘According to the International Centre for Prison Studies (Kings College, London) New Zealand has the fifth highest rate of incarceration per head of population in the OECD – after the USA, Chile, Poland and Czechoslovakia – and well ahead of Australia. New Zealanders pride themselves on breaking records and perhaps the most impressive is the rate at which they lock people up and throw away ongoing responsibility. A new prison in the city of Auckland looms large over the surrounding urban landscape: it is a larger, gloomier, shadier and more embarrassingly obvious human cage than anyone had anticipated. From a Correctional perspective, the locality addresses essential needs. It is close to the courts and a perfect situation for the requisite remand centre.‘

The presenters argued for a radical improvement in the design and administration of prisons to combat the world wide high degrees of recidivism. Their multi faceted approach highlighted the physiological and religious fundamentalism perpetuated in the design roots from a medieval societal view of incarceration. Those involved are working with the NZ government to instigate design improvements and were of particular interest to the press in Australia. In NZ it currently costs the state $90,000 pa per prisoner.

This year the environment was a popular theme with a large number of papers talking about eco-spirituality and drewing attention to environmental concerns.

(Fr) Gregory Jacobs’s sj paper argued ‘that there needs to be a change away from the dualistic model of a mechanical worldview when we look at creation, and returning to an organic, or holistic model. Here he believed that the Temple theology (the idea of reverence for the temple to encpulate the earth as the sacred tabernacle) of the Old Testament, and a deeper understanding of the ‘creation covenant‘are helpful starting points for analyzing the creation stories, and thereby gaining a new understanding of both our place in the environment, and our use of the resources of the earth. Karl Rahner‘s Christology adds a New Testament development of this theology into the modern, western framework.

Cullan Joyce’s religious thinking about the environment has focused on moral issues and on spirituality. His paper approached the question as something that should be of concern to the systematic theologian. As such it asked what saving the environment might have to do with the doctrine of salvation. This entailed a consideration of the connection between the doctrines of creation and salvation. In the end, it may all be a question of how we understand and communicate an adequate understanding of the eschaton. ‘

Personally I think the wisdom of Albert Schweitzer is to be recommended though inevitably there are flaws in his philosophy as there are in any philosophy. His insight contained within his ‘Reverence for life’ involved the ethic of love evidenced in the New Testament to be realized in ones natural occurring gifts.

Schweitzer’s ideas were to think positively about life (life affirmation as he calls it) to share with all living things in the world in which we live. His idea came from his concern about civilization which he thought had lost its spiritual roots because of our lack of reverence for life as in the post enlightenment world view which had become totally reliant on reason. His philosophy was not a utopian ideal or quantifiable to given values, outcomes, behaviors or morality. Rather he encouraged a way of thinking which would return to our spiritual roots whose outcome although diverse shared in the communal ancestry of all living things which he referred to as ethical mystericism. The aim was to think about the reality of our co – inhabitance with the world by accepting our life mystery which was to show reverence for it. His thinking is much more deep seated than a casual observation might first conclude.

Another enthusiastic scholar was Robert Tilley who presented a paper entitled Cosmic Liturgy and Biblical Criticism: a Question of Method: ‘For some decades now there has been what many have called a crisis in biblical criticism. A crisis concerning many of the basic assumptions informing the methods used, which we can see now were little more than the prejudices of modernity. With the rise of the 'Third Quest' the task has been not only to assimilate the early Jewish and Christian material previously neglected, but to rethink our method. A good deal of this project has involved a focus upon the concept of covenant, not merely as a social factor but as a cosmological, even metaphysical, one as well. The effects of this have been both profound and exciting, but the new approach is not without its own attendant pitfalls. By reference to the works of Margaret Barker this paper identifies what is one of the major pitfalls: this is the failure to give due attention to the way in which common concepts can be differently employed, not least by reference to the use of irony and reversal. It is a mistake that not only flattens out the depth and dimensions of history and the texts under discussion, but lends itself to what one might call 'a conspiracy theory method'. A method that effectively means the assumptions of the critic can only ever be confirmed. Thus, we run the risk of repeating the same errors of earlier biblical criticism. ‘

Tilley invites us to think about the prevailing literature at the time and the propensity for the Hebrew writers to engage in different styles as evidenced in the prevailing literature and culture apparent at that time. His invitation was to review the societal nuances from an ironical perspective in contrast to previous scholars who attribute different styles of writing to different authors. Tilley asserts changes in style are a deliberate ploy in keeping with the cultural approach of that age which leads to more liberal interpretation of scripture which is best viewed through the prism of irony. The writer(s) use of myth, poetry, allegory and above all irony add to the rich composition and often confirms an understanding of the sacred nature of life's mystery unable to be articulated in rational dialogue.

Aristotle’s Most Beautiful City
Scholar Andrew Murray is currently involved within the Australian government to bring peace and stability to this troubled Solomon Islands located close to Australia. By introducing the harmonious philosophy of Aristotle he aims in turn to bring peace and tranquility to these troubled Islands.
‘In Book VII of the Politics, Aristotle notes that ‗beauty is realized in number and magnitude, and the city which combines magnitude with good order must necessarily be the most beautiful. ‘{Politics VII, 4 (1326a33-35)} Not much else is said there about beauty itself, and so the sentence must refer to other discussions. What is Aristotle‘s understanding of beauty? How is it found in the physical features of a city as discussed in Book VII? How does it relate to the moral entity of the best possible city? The paper will in three sections discuss Aristotle‘s understanding of beauty, the beauty of the built city and the beauty of the constituted city’.

Andrew provides some very useful insights as to how the design and architect of a city create a welcoming friendly beautiful environment as opposed to the fortress mentality which only engenders mistrust as a bar to peaceful co existence with ones neighbors.

Terang

2010-10-10T18:21:00.000+11:00

Terang

2010-09-28T22:43:00.000+10:00

A hopping mouse, the house in which we were billeted and back garden. The last photo is the beautiful garden of one of the locals.

Terang

2010-09-28T22:29:00.000+10:00

Yours truly with wife in the lovelly garden created by one of the locals.

Terang

2010-09-28T22:19:00.001+10:00

Our Local church choir last weekend journeyed to the small country town of Terang which is about 3 hours drive south west of Melbourne to enjoy the tremendous hospitality of the local community. We were all billeted and treated to dinners and a sightseeing excursion of the region along the nearby Great Ocean Road which I have only partially captured in the above photos.

We provided the music for the weekend masses. As everyone enjoyed themselves it seems likely this will become an annual event.

The first photo at Timboon is the old railway station which has been converted to a store selling delicious ice-cream from local produce and whisky.

The second photo is of the Loch Ard Gorge which shows the narrow opening which fortuitously only two survivors were swept through from the Loch Ard wreck on Mutton Bird Island reefs near Port Campbell in 1878. The cabin boy Tom clung to a lifeboat which was washed into the deep gorge now called Loch Ard Gorge. Eva, like most people of that time could not swim but was able to stay afloat useing a chicken coop and spar. Tom dragged her to safety after an hour-long struggle fighting the elements. They rested in a cave at the end of the gorge where she collapsed from exhaustion having spent 5 hours in the water. Tom, after consuming half a bottle of brandy that had been washed ashore, went for help, running into a party from nearby Glenample Station. They returned in time to rescue Eva already turning blue from the cold. Eva and Tom never saw each other after they recovered at Glenample. Eva soon became homesick and returned to Ireland to later marry. Tom became a ship's captain.
The last photo is of an underpass for cattle. Dairy farms in the area have expanded and frequently a property will be both sides of the road.

Debra Byrne

2010-09-12T12:29:00.004+10:00

Occasionally a singer ‘owns’ a song as it seems no one else can bring that unique powerful vocal interpretation into play; an emotional strength aptly befitting the words. I think this is true of Debra Byrne but you can judge that for yourself by listening to her version.

Debra in my view is streets ahead of her contemporaries whose qualities and vocalizations may be superior at times but are no match to her telent evident in this recording.

Growing pains

2010-08-20T22:27:00.010+10:00

Australia’s surging population more than doubled over the past 50 years fuelled by successive waves of immigration and natural increase accelerating in more recent times. Should the growth spurt continue we may triple in size over the next 50 years; prompting political parties to debate sustainable population levels and the wisdom of continued high immigration levels. Immigration has been the catalyst for growth which has transformed our nation to formally adopt multiculturism as successive waves of immigrants have enriched our culture, whilst creating a diverse range of fledgling new enterprises. But due to poor planning Australia is also experiencing cracks in our infrastructure and a chronic housing shortage. As house prices plummet elsewhere Australia’s average price increase last year in many areas was around 33%, but one day the bubble will burst.

Appropriate Immigration appropriate to sustainable population levels is a complex issue as different conditions apply to the regions. Regional centres mostly can accommodate more people but lack essential infrastructure and skilled employment opportunities which are more evident in our big cities. Overall, Australia is one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world as our large cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne make up nearly 70% or the population all huddled along a narrow land strip on the eastern seaboard.

The two sides to the argument are as follows: those in favour of continued high immigration levels on the basis immigration creates the wealth to underpin living standards, education, productivity and provides the growth to absorb higher health spending on an ageing population; versus those against who either maintain we already exceed sustainable population levels or face that imminent risk. The weaknessess in the popular view we can easily accommodate a much bigger population because we only inhabit a tiny fraction of this vast fragile land mass is abundantly evident in our depleted landscape. Prolonged droughts, salination, severe erosion and a bio diversity depletion where species extinctions exceed levels seen anywhere else in the world all point to over-use and a lack of sustainability.

Hence If we define sustainability as a system able to achieve self perpetuation and adaptation in perpetuity then clearly we have already exceeded that point. But as is often the case the quality of any discussion is predicated on asking the right questions, since the carrying capacity to support a given population level in turn reflects a multitude of factors, not least of which are our material dependency and lifestyle choices. Once you begin debating the economics of policies designed to foster more development and housing into the more sparsely populated regional and country areas, away from the burgeoning cities to accommodate more migrants, you assume the same post-war optimistic material mind-set that presided over our current lack of sustainability. Rather I think a more thoughtful approach might be to pose the question ‘How can Australia provide a sustainable home for many more immigrants for us to share our vast land and resources. ?

Overpopulation in a fragile country like Australia is not defined by population density, but by the extent sustainable resources can meet our needs, coupled by a heavy transport reliance to move essential goods and services over vast distances. However, when we talk about people’s needs we immediately run into road blocks, since what is considered a basic human need in one country is a luxury for others living literally on our doorstep with struggling economies, which means mostly they are far worse off. Can we stand by based upon our sovereign rights and demand that all of those needs are to be met before we can widen our doors to willingly share in our resources with others who are far less well off ?.

Naturally enough people conclude their basic needs are denied in times of high unemployment and where there is a large disparity in income. It is also true that sudden dislocation to an economy can have unintended disastrous effects given investments in infrastructure take a long time to build, and any strategies to exit unsustainable development requires consideration for alternatives for those adversely effected. But at the consumer and business level there are many choices we make which are adding to the problem. House sizes have doubled on average over the past 30 years while the average level of occupants have halved. This example is typical of excessive consumerism since the larger homes all need more furniture and entertainment rooms full of elaborate equipment to use more power, water and gas, which provides enormous scope for savings should we revert to more sensible sizing.

Returning to the question 'How can Australia provide a sustainable home for many more immigrants for us to share our vast land and resources?'; it is apparent a larger population can only be sustained by significantly reducing our per capita use of resources. Business will also be helpful as competency improves in accounting for the cost of carbon to preference investments in the new cleaner alternatives, which all require a much higher investment in human capital. Those dirty industries such as coal currently crowd out land that could otherwise be used for agriculture.

Presently there are nearly 100,000 job vacancies in the rural sector.

Paradoxically it is the very idea of growth as such which prevents us from achieving it. In other words by learning from the past mistakes and assessing the present opportunities we can plan a future to include a sizeable migrant intake and also achieve a more sustainable future. But that won’t happen unless there are significant changes in lifestyle and attitude.

Here are a few snippets that may be interest.

Australia's agriculture sector needs an additional 96,000 full-time workers and 10,000 part-time workers.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald in an article headed as per above on the 17th August 2010, the Australian Farm Institute reported that if the sector continues on a business-as-usual course the shortage will worsen, driving up labour costs and limiting future growth in the sector.
Executive director Mick Keogh said agriculture was competing with mining for regional workers, and he believed there was a generally poor perception of the farming sector among school leavers.

Sustainable business practices
Already sustainable business practices is a keyword to Business, Government and in the Not-for-Profit sector as organisations realise the competitive advantage of having an integrated approach to sustainability to reduce their carbon footprint within their operations. Today Business shares those objectives with employees, clients, stakeholders and the communities in which they operate.
It has now become an integral core of the reporting for all public companies in Australia.
Business expects a tax on carbon and is acting as if it is inevitable rather than waiting for government action.

Buying back water for the environment
There is consideration being given to purchase Cubbie’s water licensees under the government’s $3.1 billion program to buy back water for the environment. Cubbie has more water than Sydney Harbour. The water was previously used for cotton crops prior to Cubbie entering into receivership but could be used for other crops that require far less water. The outcome will not be known until after the election.

Food and groceries
The local industry is aiming to achieve an enhanced system to ensure sustainability, to address environmental concerns and remove inefficiencies which will achieve lower costs. Accurate food labelling is now a permanent feature for consumers and the industry is particularly concerned about the impact of deforestation in the South East Asian region and supports the development of certified sustainable palm oil.

Recycling
Most replacements for ageing equipment today can save up to 80% in energy use and in many instances are 97 % recyclable. Domestic recycling in Australia is well below optimal levels. It's up to us the consumers of this country to ensure all of the recycling programs are working well. That means accurately sorting the items into the various coloured bins so that recyclables don’t finish up in landfills. So far the news is good with a reported steady increase in materials recovered for recycling.
But the big test is to learn to live with less.

Housing and transport.
Maintaining a house is expensive when you think about painting, roofs, bathrooms, kitchens, gutters, lawns, hot water systems, drains and so forth but If you have half the size and half the land you eliminate half the headache. We seriously need to downsize in Australia and the same is true in relation to our transport. People have tended to regard their homes as investments rather than simply as places to live and bring up a family as the case may be.

Old Caltex storage site at Balmain redeveloped

2010-08-01T22:06:00.001+10:00

Once this area was a Caltex fuel storage facility close to the city of Sydney at Balmain. The area has now been redeveloped into a picturesque park overlooking the Harbour.

All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

2010-07-15T21:39:00.002+10:00

Introduction
I remain mindful of the words of one of the great religious philosopher Thomas Aquinas who said ‘All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly'.

His quote reminds one of our limitations and need for humility. His philosophical style was to argue the for and against before concluding and avoid bold statements based purely on religious texts. Instead, he recommended any relevant scientific or specific knowledge about a subject be studied beforehand as otherwise one risked making a fool of oneself and losing credibility.

Aquinas’ philosophy coincided with the early beginnings of modern day science when all philosophy was based upon science. Interestingly enough it is only in more recent times as the volume of scientific knowledge expanded exponentially that we seek to separate the two.

My intention is to attempt to perpetuate the rather grand tradition of this sage by examining the religious philosophical implications of modern day science and to see how they challenge or reinforce our traditional views, beginning with the basics of Einstein’s special theory of relativity and concluding with the quantum mystery.

An introduction to the special theory of relativity.
Imagine you’re on a spacecraft and another spacecraft passes you speeding away at the difference in your respective speeds. But that relative increase in speed will not be true in respect to a laser launched from a nearby space station as that laser flashes past you at the speed of light. Despite accelerating the speed of your spaceship you notice you can make no impression on the speed at which the laser pulls away from you at an indicated speed of light. Puzzled you retry the experiment to soon realize the laser always disappears from view at the speed of light regardless of your spacecraft’s speed.
If you able to understand the reason for this then you can understand the special theory of relativity.

Einstein correctly concluded that since nothing can exceed the speed of light all of our motions through space will be relative to that absolute, so that any observations of the speed of light will be the same wherever you are. Hence the speed of the laser will always be observed at travelling at the speed of light.
We are all familiar with the concept of a game of table tennis noting it takes the same time for the ball to pass over the net when playing a game in a fast moving train as it does for a game played on the platform. If you carried out an experiment measuring electromagnetic waves you would get the same result.
However for an observer on the station looking into the fast moving train this is not the case since the trains speed plus the speed of the ball will equal the total speed of the ball as far he is concerned. The actual speed of the ball is the same for all observers but it is relative to motion whilst light for any observer anywhere will always only be seen as the same absolute speed of light.
Hence all of the laws of science are the same to all observers regardless of their location in space after allowing for gravitational effects.

Einstein’ discovery paved the way for this conclusion (which however will be challenged later on) and hence our observations are relative to our motion through space except for the combination of space and time termed space-time. After discovering the special theory of relativity Einstein incorporated the gravitational field effects which cause warping within his general theory of relativity.

A brief excursion into the slippery concept of time differences.
The obvious conclusion following on from the theory of special relativity is that any movement through space reduces our time in space to the point theoretically once you have reached the absolute speed of light time becomes frozen.
Time + motion through space = speed of light.
Therefore if motion is represented by the speed of light then time must equal zero
This idea of course in reality is quite farcical since any object travelling through space at that speed would develop such an unimaginative amount of mass as would be almost the equivalent of all matter already present in the entire universe.
However there is a relative difference for all of us depending on our motion through space but the miniscule differences on planet earth can effectively be ignored and we can feel comfortable with our outdated Newtonian view of time. We can have no doubt however as to the soundness of the theory since it is has been independently verified by extremely accurate atomic clocks stationed on board aircraft. Spend your entire life flying in planes and you will be younger than your comparable walker but the differences are so small that on your death bed the flyer would scarcely have the additional time to think about even saying a few ‘Hail Mary’s’.
However in the vast distances of space the effects can be calculated to show huge disparities.

Returning to our spacecraft to imagine in the future we have discovered a way to travel at close to the speed of light to find some remarkable consequences. Since our motion at close to the speed of light drastically reduces our time in space any prolonged space journey lasting a number of years will require us to wind forward our clocks hundreds of thousands of years on reentry into planet earth.
But our stay at home earthlings have long since perished as those who welcome us home are thousands of generations later than those present when we left. That is because time has not slowed for them as it has for the space travelers whilst the biological aging is no different for either group.
Spacecraft intrepid travelers slow space time is only point one ( .1) with motion at 99.9.
Whilst for the stay at home earthlings earth time is 99.8 plus with motion at point two (.2)

These are simply arbitrary numbers I have chosen to help illustrate my point.

Can we draw any religious philosophical conclusions?
Since the universe is subject to unique laws which unfolded miraculously in exact sequences to allow life to form one can posit that we are the product of a creation in an evolving mystery which I think can only leave us in state of wonderment.
For me there is abundant evidence around us everywhere to indicate that all life and nature itself is simply miraculous. By virtue of the laws of science we can also say we live in the most probable of many possible universes which leads us to reasonably suggest within those predestined routes there only exists causality for freedom of thought or actions or choice. That causality I see as an evolved creation gift which gives us the sense of freedom or free will within the determinism arising from constraints of those predetermined laws.

Although we can measure time we cannot say what it is and can only understand time by combining time with space for the absolute concept of space-time. Accepting for the moment a creator then past present or future becomes irrelevant accepting that for us we remain trapped within what seems to be to us our enclosed universe where time does seem to be indicative of an arrow usually always moving forward except for possibilities inherent in extreme warping effects of gravity.
But so far we have only barely scratched the surface to already reveal our rather tenuous grip on reality and of time.

Understanding classical physics through the application of the quantum
So far we have viewed the universe through the prism of classical physics which can confidently predict planetary movements and space travel to such a degree that we can have confidence in these evidence based outcomes. But if we attempt to understand classical physics through the applications of the quantum (the subatomic level of particles present in the universe) you expose those universal laws to some doubt. Indeed the general theory of relativity which has been demonstrated to be proven correct over time is only valid as it applies to large physical objects but only barely clings on to its integrity when you begin to contemplate the bizarre behaviors of the smallest of those fragile tiny particles known within our universe.

Einstein’s explanation for quantum mechanics ( the probabilities and uncertainties of sub atomic particles known as quantum laws ) where particles split into respective waves or particles to mimic behaviors as if they were still one, regardless of their distances apart, was to say those correlations were due to the underlying properties already inherent in both prior and after disentanglement. In other words these 'spin characteristics ' were integral to the separated particle and its wave function before and after they became separated.

Once again Einstein’s elegant theory seemed plausible enough but other physicists were doubtful. The matter was settled once and for all when Einstein and other brilliant physicists that followed him were all proven to be wrong half a century later. There is now overwhelming evidence for this so called quantum entanglement. (See Brian Greene – 'The Fabric of the Cosmos – Space, time, and the texture of reality').

Conclusion
The search for answers goes on with scientists now entertaining the idea of different dimensions and hidden properties within those minute particles that might provide solutions to the seemingly intractable mysteries. If you believe knowledge is reality (which can’t be proven or disproven) it could be we simply do not have sufficient knowledge about the particles since that knowledge is hidden within another dimension upon which we are not privy. Suffice to say that space may be not as we thought it was but possibly is made up of many more dimensions.
Should any of these extra dimensional theories turn out to be correct it will confirm that at the most fundamental level we do not experience the reality that underpins the universe.
In that sense we can return finally to a religious philosophical view and conclude that hardnosed materialistic evidence based science is now leading us to the view there is a reality beyond all human experience and understanding which may well always be the case. So that trust which is so important in our relationships with others, but so often can be misplaced, is also analogous to the universe, since human experience is not always a good barometer in understanding her rich fabric, bearing in mind - ‘ All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.’

So that all we can do is to have trust in the human spirit and for those who have a religious leaning, an ultimate trust - we need not fear our morality for in death we return home from whence we came.

Lake Eyre- Home to drought and flooding rain

2010-06-19T00:19:00.006+10:00

For the first time in excess of 30 years as if by way of a desert illusion Lake Eyre’s estimated 400 to 500 million tons of dry salt pan last year was briefly covered to a depth of 5 meters in water to realize its status as the largest ephemeral lake system in the world simply teeming with new life. For If you were to take just a cup full of soil from below the surface to add water amazingly that small single sample would yield hundreds of varieties of vegetation from the seeds and fish hatchlings from the eggs even after laying dormant for hundreds of years.

The birds were instantly aware of this rare event and swarmed in their multitudes to claim their share of nature’s temporary bounty as scientists scratched their heads to ponder how they were able to locate the water so quickly from so far away. It is estimated that such an event attracts well in excess of half a million water birds to Lake Eyre including even the common variety Seagulls who fly 650 kilometers from the coast to set up their breeding colonies.

But many became stranded in such a short lived bonanza as the last of the youngest new born pelicans left it too late to depart as their food supply rapidly dissipated with the onslaught of evaporation as soaring temperatures in summer inevitably always reach the mid fifties Centigrade or 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Their fate was sealed in the form of piles of bleached white bones to serve as a salutary reminder of nature’s grim reality. By summer all that remained were residues in the highly salty sub lakes as the desert bloomed .

Lake Eyre Basin is the lowest point of the Australian continent to stretch across the most arid area covering a land mass equivalent to the combined area of France, Spain and Portugal and home to only about 60,000 people – principally grazers’, miners and Aboriginals living in small settlements. Many hardy tourists flocked to the region last year to see what they envisaged was a once in a lifetime experience but amazingly this year we are witnessing a repeat performance. Torrential rain in the far North this year caused floodwater to travel down the dry Coopers Creek – to create one of the few remaining pristine occasional wild rivers flowing alongside desert terrain on either side whose rainfall barely manages 5 inches per year before finally filling up Lake Eyre. The birds have returned but avoided last years gatherings postions where some perished, opting instead for narrow island pockets of land within the lake itself.

I wonder if indeed we need to believe in miracles when nature itself seems so miraculous. Click here for pictures. The punt used to traverse the Coopers River was last used over 30 years ago when the dry creek bed was last filed with water.

The Australian landscape I think was essentially captured by possibly our most famous poet Dorothea Mackellar whose poem ’My Country ‘rallied against the prevailing English nostalgia at the time to relish her new found fondness for the Australian landscape. The poem has become an Australian favourite.

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

River cruise

2010-06-06T23:03:00.001+10:00

The Watershed ( highest point of the cruise) and presentation of certificates. The stadium in Nuremberg where Hitler addressed his troops and Hitler youth. Castle ruins at Heidelberg.
One of the 60 Castles along the Rhine river gorge.

River Cruise

2010-06-06T22:44:00.001+10:00

Crusing along the Danube through the Wachau valley. The magnificant baroque Cathdreal at Passau and a street scene in Regensberg.

River cruise

2010-06-06T22:35:00.002+10:00

Above is the cathedral at Cologne, the giant monument to celebrate German unification in 1870 and grape growing on the hills below at Rudeshiem.

Au revoir

2010-05-28T11:37:00.010+10:00

Our cruise which encompased almost 1900 KM of waterways was over so it was time to say au revoir to those with whom we had shared our meals and many happy exchanges. The cruise linked 3 rivers 5 countries, 4 capitals and 68 locks. By then you are familiar with all of the 115 passengers and crew whose unexpected family friendly atmosphere adds to everyone's good spirits.

Click to enlarge the picture and read the caption of new found friends.

Au revoir

2010-05-28T11:37:00.009+10:00

Betty & Bill were good company with whom we shared many a laugh. Bill as a Canadian seems to have an Australian tendency not to take himself or others too seriously so earnt the nickname Blinky Bill (Blinky Bill was the Koala character of a childrens story ) for seemingly disinterest in long winded stories. Another Australian presented Bill with a Blinky Bill Badge. I will post more pictures once I'm able to sort through our large collection.

Heidelberg & other Ports

2010-05-21T19:24:00.004+10:00

Interestingly enough on the cruise we have not made friends with the Aussie contingent but rather 2 Canadian couples and others from Florida and California with whom we share breakfasts or sumptuous dinners.

After Wurzburg and Wertheim (largest city of Franconia whose origins date back to 1000 BC) our next scheduled stop was the city of Heidelberg. We docked at Miltemberg for a full day excursion to Heidelberg via a bus trip, to visit the castle and old town. The ship then continued on to Aschaffenburg which we rejoined from Heidelberg via the Autobahn. It costs 3,000 Euro for a drivers license in Germany and drivers are usually well behaved with limits of 80Kpm for Lorries, 100 kph for our Bus and cars wiz past unrestricted on the autobahns up to 240 kph.

Heidelberg is fondly remembered for Sigmund Romberg's 'The Student Prince' but Anne's humming of the tune ' When its Summer time in Heidelberg' was at odds with pouring rain and lush green scenery. Spring is very late coming to Germany this year after an uncharacteristically long severe winter according to the locals. We completed our tour of the castle perched high above the city (312 steps for those keen on walking) which included an interesting visit to a nearby pharmacy museum. The museum provided a comprehensive display of medieval applications based upon the premise of the 4 humours; body, blood, phlegm and black and yellow bile. Depending whether or not you were in balance and having regard to the stars and seasons dictated the treatment to add or detract in such a way to restore equilibrium.

After returning to our boat the weather improved as we left the narrow Main river to enter the busy Rhine and our next port of Rudesheim whose 10.000 inhabitants receive 3,000, 000 visitors each year. We enjoyed a cable car ride up to Niederwald recreational area for a view over the sloping vineyards onto the city located on the opposite bank and land which extends on for a further 200 Km annexed to Germany following the defeat of the French. The impressive Monument erected on the site celebrating German unification in 1871 stands proudly 114 feet tall.

Cruising the Rhine in the afternoon we passed by 56 castles and the dangerously shallow and narrow section known as Lore - Ley which prompted this poem by famous German poet Heinrich Heine. Heinrich Heine

The Lore-Ley

I know not what it should imply, that I am so forlorn;
A tale from times so long gone by
From my thoughts will not be torn.
The air is cool and it darkens,
And the Rhine does calmly flow;
The peak of the mountain sparkles In the sinking sun's last glow.
The most beautiful maiden so alights,
But wondrously up there.
It blazes, her golden bow, She combs her golden hair.
She combs it with golden comb
And thereby sings a song;
A seeming wonder-tome
With a melody violent-strong.
The seaman in his tiny yacht
It grasps with wilding woe,
He looks not at the rock-reefs as he ought,
He looks only up from below.
I believe the swells do devour,
In the end, both skipper and skiff;
Smitten, in his final hour, By the Lore-Ley with her riff.
-- translated Robert Clarke, 2001

Watershed

2010-05-18T21:50:00.003+10:00

Our next 2 ports were Passau and Regensberg; cities of Celtic origins. In Passau we listened to an excellent organ recital and experienced the mighty power of over 17,000 pipes - the largest over 20 feet and the smallest the size of a thumbnail. The charm and mood of Regensburg was reflected in the sentiment depicted on a large sign -' Better to spend 3 times the amount restoring a 1,000 year old building than to build a new one the same size .'

After Regensburg our landscape changed to one of open meadows en route to Nuremberg via the newly created Main Danube Canal access which flows into the Main River and then into the busy Rhine.We reached the high point of our cruise along the canal at 134o feet (406 metres) above sea level and celebrated with a glass of champagne then presented with an 'A' class sailors certificate by the Captain. Since Budapest sailing was always against the current and assisted by numerous elevated locks but now on our downward leg the situation is reversed until our final docking at Amsterdam which is below sea level.

Excellent features of the cruise are the frequent updates and formal presentations on a variety of topics to keep one informed about forthcoming visits; varying architectural styles and more recently Germany history from the creation of the 3rd Reich to modern day unification between East and West presented by a political scientist. We toured the city of Nuremberg by bus and on foot experiencing the older city sections which were protected against invaders with a high perimeter wall and moat which proved impenetrable during the Middle Ages when ruled by wealthy merchants. The city was also the focal point for the meeting place of Dukes and Counts who swear allegiance to newly crowned Emperors. Seeking to replicate this past seat of power and because of the excellent rail network to everywhere within Germany Nuremberg became the ideological centre for the rallying point of the 3rd Reich. We visited an unfinished Coliseum and the Stadium where Hitler appeared to address the huge rallies of the military and Hitler youth. Our Tour Guide explained that in the first 2 decades after the end of WW2 the dark past was not discussed but then the full history including visits to former Concentration Camps became an integral part of the present day education system.

Our next port was the charming city of Bamberg which is afforded UNESCO listing for its historic medieval buildings which survived untouched by bombing during WW2 - unlike Nuremberg where 93% of the city was destroyed. The Bamberg people have a devotion to St Kunigunde, the wife of King Heinriach 11 and Empress of Bamberg from 1002, who they believe caused a cloud cover to prevent bombing

River Cruise continued

2010-05-14T06:50:00.004+10:00

Vienna, inhabited by 1.7 million, lived up to expectations as the cultural capital of Europe; everywhere there are the reminders of the rich history such as the Hapsburg dynasty, Franz Joseph - but none more so than in music ; Figarohaus where Mozart received a visit from Hayden and where a young Beethoven first applied for music lessons.

We visited many historical places of interest but our highlight was the evening concert performed in the same building where Strauss first performed his waltzes. The splendid concert was presented in the original style of Joseph Lanner and Strauss who led the orchestra from the first violin. The ever popular tunes played included those from the golden era of Viennese Operetta such as the "the Bat' and Gypsy Baron and was complemented by individually sung arias from Mozart.

After we sailed from Vienna we docked later at Melk for a visit to the monastery.Melk monastery was fashioned in the baroque style which was designed for high emotional appeal- which is evident in its dazzling decorative architecture. The monks have lived and worked in the Abby for over 900 years which today is also used as a school for 800 students. Today it is occupied by 30 monks and the Abby attracts 600,000 visitors each year.

Budapest

2010-05-11T01:27:00.005+10:00

Currently we are in Budapest to soon commence our river cruise to Amsterdam after flying in from Singapore. We noticed the expansion in Singapore since last there in 1983 whose population is now about the same as Victoria. The expansion has been up (high rise) since the small island land mass means it only takes you 40 minutes to drive from one end to the other. Getting around is easy with an excellent rail and bus system costing only $2 a day.The locals were friendly with mainly Chinese complemented with Malay and Indian influences to reflect traditional Asian values which tend to be more rules based than western systems. Even so a young man flashed by as we were walking under a bypass oblivious to the large $1,000 fine intended for those who failed to dismount.We enjoyed our stay to experience the best of the old and new with a river cruise and to view the incredible display at the Asian Cultural Museum.

Today we visited Budapest which is a city of 2 million and the capital of Hungary. In reality it is an amalgamation of 3 older cities with the not so blue Danube separating distinct cultural areas.The oldest city was Obuda built on the site once occupied by the Roman town of Aquinicum and boasts 123 hot springs. The Danube separates Pest - the largest of the three which is medieval in character with a fortress wall and houses the main business centre located on the eastern bank. Budda is located on the western bank built after the Mongol invasion in 1241.Our next port is Vienna

Mission possible

2010-04-26T21:21:00.003+10:00

It’s virtually impossible to adequately price risk when one is unaware of pertinent information and when rating agencies assign AAA credit ratings to securities that were in effect the equivalent of junk Bonds. The logical prudent action is to avoid investing where there is a lack of information but what we saw at the frenzied height of activity just prior to the Global Financial Crisis was the abandonment of any form of formalised risk assessment practices. Firms and investors and even government agencies consumed by greed threw caution to the wind as successive ‘Collateralized Debt Obligations’ were sliced into so many sub categories that millions of pages of text would need to be read to satisfactorily understand the underlying risk.

Many of these instruments traded such as the so called ‘Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations’ were extremely complex and offered investors a share in the issuance proceeds of credit default swaps which resemble a form of Insurance. How they worked was to distribute to eager investors the proceeds from issue whilst investors remained liable for any subsequent losses or defaults in the underlying securities. This was roughly the equivalent to an underwriter in insurance providing cover in exchange for receiving a premium within varying risk rated tranches.

There were many large players and one notable insurer engaged in this practice, with just a select few in the know whilst others remained permanently in the dark. Overall it is fair to say there was no free market where information was available to make any rational decisions or to attempt to adequately price risk. Many analogies have been attempted to explain the position, likening it to selling someone a house whilst conspiring to cause arson, or selling cars with faulty brakes whilst inviting others to underwrite insurance on their roadworthiness against having an accident.

The opportunity for conflicts of interest and or fraud under such an opaque system are all too obvious and especially prevalent when a firm chooses to simultaneously engage in proprietary trading (in house) in relation to those same securities – in the recent case with Goldman Sachs it is alleged by the SEC that Goldman deliberately either betted against those securities sold or knew of others so engaged (Hedge Funds) whilst continuing to sell large amounts to uninformed buyers. It is surprising there are not many more actions like this undertaken by the SEC by now, considering the sheer volume of short selling and the value of synthetics actively traded, which grossly exceeded the world’s gross national product. I understand there are about 50 probes still under consideration.

But understandably there has been a reluctance to use the word fraud and deception and instead make reference to oblique innocuous suggestions about inappropriate gearing and market exuberance. It is also interesting to note the SEC commissioners only narrowly voted 3 to 2 in favour of the lawsuit proceeding, with the 2 Republican commissioners voting against. Let’s hope this ushers in a new era where fraud is no longer tolerated and recognised readily for what it is. But that will be cold comfort for the many sophisticated Investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and large banks who suddenly lost more than $1.8 trillion dollars as a consequence of the worst economic crisis since WW I1.

The popular idea 'caveat emptor' applies is also deservedly losing creditability as it was not only investors who lost large sums of money but substantial sums were also contributed from taxpayers’ funds. The SEC for the past several decades has preferred ‘settled’ cases which have avoided what might otherwise be a prolonged lawsuit against the big Wall Street investment banks, that have moved on after paying penalties and managed to avoid damaging bad publicity. Hopefully those days are past and we see a re-energised regulator capable of instilling more confidence into a fully transparent system.

That system has been far too highly incentivised to become too reliant on short term trading gains. Some good people can become part of a corrupted system to the extent they fail to exercise sufficient resolve to ensure integrity is maintained and pretend ‘caveat emptor’ is perfectly okay within the market place. There is nothing new in the idea of a group of people making unethical decisions under the “psychological umbrella” of a peer pressure group, particularly when those actions are either sanctioned or given the seal of approval by a charismatic leader.

The fact is the whole system was out of kilter and a blight by any measure on good governance and corporate social responsibility. The original concepts involved issuance of securities that were imbedded with CDS’s so that the issuer profited from both the issue and their subsequent demise for two bites of the cherry. What was entertained from their very first embryonic creation might have been clever but ultimately was representative of the brainchild of those who were oblivious to any sense of corporate social responsibility.

The rules of engagement need a very thorough revision. I might add that those who defend proprietary trading are starting to look less and less credible. But central to all of this is the notion that the GFC arose because of a lack of integrity and trading designed to profit the few who were in the know about future catastrophic losses.

Probably the most important but least afforded attention for the current administration contemplating financial reform packages concerns transparency. You can’t legislate morality but you can make it obligatory for a seller to disclose all pertinent information. That sort of principle has long been embedded to determine a price for risk – otherwise it is mission impossible.

This brings me back to the heading “mission possible” and what positive aspects can we assert going forward for a post-GFC world in the provision of financial services. Future success rests on two important planks; to ensure a degree of transparency so that derivatives are traded on a recognised market and that there is obligation to provide all available information pertaining to those securities, including any commissions or interests declared by the seller in such instruments. That might sound all rather simplistic but all busts and fraudulent intent are best thwarted by an open and transparent system.

Corruption always flourishes given excessive secrecy to benefit the few and generally is accompanied by misallocations and poor economic performance. Citizen’s would like to think their savings channeled into investments would reap better returns than bank interest , but this decade has been one of the worst since WW 2.

But the future is not mission impossible, since already there are encouraging signs with the percentage of private savings increasing and consumption falling away markedly. I think there is good chance countries like the United States and other debtor countries will continue to save more, import less and export more than would otherwise be the case. If this favorable trend continues – notwithstanding the extreme misery of current record unemployment - there is no reason why the next decades could be significantly better economically and socially than the last decade. Already instead of 47% of the brightest students electing to try their hand at the business related courses we have less than 20% so that maybe we are already seeing the beginnings in a change in culture.

A turnaround in fortunes towards a more equitable society is a mission possible for the next decade.

Sound Recordings of my Father in Concert with the RAAF Glee Singers 1943

2010-04-04T17:10:00.007+10:00

Further to my Australia Day posting I have now obtained a copy of the original sound recordings of the RAAF Glee Singers who performed at a concert in Australia House, on Australia Day, in London in 1943!

The sound recordings were obtained for me kindly from the Australian War Memorial and to listen click here. Click on any of the songs listed.

As previously mentioned my father served as a bomber pilot in the Second World War and the group photos (in my previous post) of the RAAF Glee Singers was taken directly from the Australian War Museum archives. Read more here

Creative accounting

2010-03-26T16:17:00.002+11:00

It need not come as a surprise the recent revelations in creative accounting emanating from the US Bankruptcy Court about the non-disclosure in Lehman Brothers accounts of about $50 billion in obligations to repurchase securities sold in exchange for temporary funding lasting only a few days. The only real surprise was the amount of money involved and the blatant nature of the omissions.

The non-disclosure of these arrangements was made easier because of the development of creative accounting practices within the financial services industry where sales of securities to counterparties were no more than the equivalent of a short-term funding arrangement using the security sold as collateral. Simple in execution, a sale of securities (collateralized debt securities) was in consideration for cash paid by a counterparty after deducting interest, but only on the proviso of a future obligation to buy back those same securities in a few days time. In effect all you are gaining is a temporary funding and paying a high interest cost deducted from the sales proceeds. However in reality each time the repurchase agreement became due inevitably another would be executed so that the cash flow acquisition of long term dated securities was subject to inappropriate short term funding covering just a few days. The purchaser could opt to make a margin call (ask for more money) should the underlying securities fall in value or simply decide not to allow any future funding. In the case of Lehman Bros repurchase obligations amounting to $50 billion were not revealed in the accounts nor was that omission uncovered by the auditors.

Although one looks aghast at the size and extent of such practices one need not be surprised since creative accounting pressures have infiltrated other industries throughout the globe driven by the rewards available in circumventing the law or spirit of the law. When I was working as a Financial Controller, I was often in the invidious position of having to defend vigorously one’s integrity in resisting overtures to adopt creative accounting which contravened regulatory provisions or the spirit of such provisions. Simply put you have a choice as to whether or not you opt to maintain good governance and utmost integrity to be applied in a principled manner and to be reflective always in the accounts of the company to provide a true and fair view.

However for the minority who succumb or are complicit in creative accounting the catalyst is oft carefully crafted legal input designed to exploit regulatory loopholes or the spirit of the law to render advantage to the few at the expense of the majority. At the other end of the scale we are all familiar with the less sophisticated more blatant forms of corruption involving secret commissions and bribes to drive inefficiency and misallocation of resources and create the conditions for impoverished economic outcomes.

But at the heart of these issues of varying degrees of sophistication is the ripple down effects of corruption of government officialdom whose use of creative accounting and non disclosures would easily have been stopped in its track’s given the application of half decent internal controls. Invariably all of the exposed failures we read about are from within organizations where internal audit and/or control scarcely existed or was woefully lacking. Creative Instruments developed by many leading US banks allowed politicians to mask additional borrowing in Greece, Italy and most likely in many other countries by receiving an upfront payment in return for forgoing future revenue streams which were then swapped for debt liabilities. The accounting entries involved are not complicated and by all accounts elected officials were lining up eagerly to postpone the reality of the financial mess their country was in. The creative accounting employed made the position look as if they were reducing public debt when in effect they were assigning away future revenue streams in exchange for a fee which was then offset against those public debts.

Creative accounting has always been a temptation in the world but has taken on larger proportions since the real power today resides much more with the large corporations and their CEO’s who play a key pivotal role in exercising that influence.

The modern day corporation hopefully will aspire to not only build sustainable shareholder wealth but to also ensure they exercise good governance. We are fortunate in Australia to have so far largely avoided much of the excesses that applied overseas but have inevitably experienced the flow-on effects since we are an integral part of the global economy.

We have witnessed the failures of the dot-com bubble and the Enron scandal that preceded the GFC – the latter becoming perilously close to a great depression to prompt a clarion call for improved governance. But that clarion call would not have been necessary had the CEOs of those failed companies acted with integrity and ensured adequate internal controls operated across their organizations.

Our evolution has always been more dependent upon survival through co-operation – not on survival of the fittest as evolution’s most misquoted quote suggests – since the way forward so far as our evolution is concerned has always depended upon co-operative efforts, so that CEO’s are coaches and are not solely responsible for the success or otherwise of the corporation. Occasionally you will have psychotic or narcissistic leaders who temporarily prosper but inevitably others will need to step up to the plate and make a stand for integrity which is not always easy. But in the end for inequities to flourish the legal profession has to engage its resources in continually finding loopholes outside the spirit of the law just as there needs to be those who support the presentation of misleading accounts, to be prepared to compromise integrity and to avoid taking a stand against unprincipled practices for a lack of integrity to continue. We all have the power to ensure we act with integrity and for shareholders to demand it at meetings and to ensure that safeguards are apparent within organizational structures.

Governance systems need to ensure responsibility and power is more evenly spread across organizations to place more reliance on leaders as coaches and not in the foolish culture as if they are the equivalent of individual rock stars and or superstars.

Living with HIV/AIDS

2010-02-28T11:24:00.004+11:00

AIDS according to the United Nations remains the most deadly disease for sub Saharan Africa where it is estimated 22 million of the 33 million worldwide sufferers reside. Living with HIV/ AIDS not long ago was an early death sentence with ruinous consequences for the people of the region and their economies. In our earlier communications with the communities in Malawi it was evident the disease was having a devastating impact which, combined with poor harvests presented a dire outcome and a less than optimistic view for the country‘s future.

But whilst I was in Malawi last year it was already evident that vastly improved health outcomes are now a reality due to the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs provided free by the government. If the drug is taken in conjunction with a nutritional diet then the HIV/ AIDS sufferer in all likelihood in many cases will look forward to the equivalent of an almost normal life. The pall over Malawi had lifted together with improved agricultural outcomes which meant for the first time in decades a surplus maize crop was available for export.

The history as to how this all came about has been very slow but also encouraging.
The effective yet very expensive antiretroviral drugs were available to richer countries in 1996. The developing countries were to wait for many years later when finally in 1999, after a good deal of buttressing; a license was finally approved to produce an inexpensive generic version in South Africa. Subsequently four leading drug companies offered cheap drugs to the developing countries. Significant funding was provided in 2001 by the creation of the Global Fund to fight AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria. Click here to visit their website.

The United States which was the then funds largest contributor set up additionally the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief which authorized $48 billion dollars in 2008 spread over 5 years, with Ireland contributing a further $25 billion in the same year. ‘Developments in the fight against AIDS’ Editorial – Africa – St Patrick’s Missions –Ireland February 2010

Whilst in Africa I listened to many people’s stories, including that of a grandmother, whose experience was typical of many in their community in terms of church, faith and children. It wasn’t until later that I learned that her husband had died the previous year from HIV/AIDS. She was also infected and acknowledged her past sorrow, but lived a joyful existence. She had let go of her physical suffering and, by focusing on the spiritual, transcended her past sorrow for present joy. While we have great concern for her and the many others, including orphans, who carry a heavy burden through no fault of their own, their joyful spirits, unimpeded by the severe material hardships they endure, remain a true testament to their faith.
The full article I wrote about The Warm Heart of Africa is to be published in the April edition of 'Africa' by St Patrick's Missionary Society with a number of photos addtional to that which was featured earlier in the catholic newspaper Kairos, click here. should it be of interest.

Meanwhile on a global scale efforts continue: Gaborone/Geneva, 18 February 2010 –‘United Nations AIDS’ is calling for an international effort to renew commitment for countries to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Countries are urged to undertake an open and inclusive consultation process—bringing together governments, development partners, civil society organizations, networks of people living with HIV and community groups to review the progress made in reaching country targets for universal access. UNAIDS will support countries and regional bodies in convening these reviews.
The call to action was made by UNAIDS Executive Director Mr. Michel Sidibé while on an official visit to Botswana.

But the global downturn is affecting the flow of funds into the global AIDS programs which may lead to a decline in many countries.

It is crucial that the governments, churches and voluntary organizations redouble their efforts to prevent new infections and to continue to facilitate treatment and care for those already suffering the effects of the disease.
"Hopeful Developments in the fight against AIDS" -Editorial – Africa – St Patrick’s Missions –Ireland February 2010

Playing by the rules

2010-02-06T20:54:00.002+11:00

New regulations recently proposed for publically listed US financial institutions aim to prohibit proprietary trading (that is trading by the bank for the bank rather than on behalf of clients) and restrict investments by those public institutions in hedge funds. In a further recently mooted change hedge fund and private equity traders are to be subject to ordinary income tax rates, in lieu of the lower capital gains tax rate that currently applies to their free equity stakes.These long overdue proposed changes once implemented will limit banks ability to place bets on the markets and reduce some of the speculative trading which featured in the global financial crisis.

A recent poll indicated 77% of investors thought such measures were anti –business and a number of business luminaries continue to be critical of the Obama administration citing the probability for tightening of business credit as an unintended consequence. Personally I think such moves will prove to be very positive for the banking sector, and, combined with recently announced increased support for community banking will not impinge on banking services as feared.

However no effective changes have been announced in response to the more critical causes for the prior global financial collapse which was due to the unprecedented growth in leveraged non transparent derivative trading and particularly in the form of credit default swaps. It was the subsequent failure of counterparties dealing in these instruments, which precipitated the turmoil and collapse in markets and these new measures fail to address these issues excepting that public firms will now be prohibited from taking a principal position in trading firms involved. Credit default swaps continue to be traded under a system where virtually no rules exist over their issuance or in market transparency.

How do they work? –

There is a price paid by a buyer to a seller for cover for a bond or a loan where the seller is liable in the event of a defined event termed a default. Hence the buyer buys protection from a seller in consideration for a future payment if a bond or loan defaults whose events are generally defined as bankruptcy, restructuring or due to a credit rating downgrade.

However this seemingly innocuous idea for parties wishing to cover their exposure to loans or bonds is far removed from the typical Credit default swap which operates in the market today. The amount typically paid is a measure of the decrease in the market value of the referenced obligation arising from a credit event, usually without any regard to whether a holder actually suffers a loss. This has lead to the market participants to characterize credit default swaps as “covered" or "naked." A "covered" CDS refers to a transaction in which the protection buyer has an economic exposure which is more in line with sensible commercial principles. However virtually all credit default swaps provide that the parties to the swap need not own the referenced obligations.

The "naked" Credit Default Swap is where the protection buyer does not own or have economic exposure whatsoever to the underlying instrument.

Furthermore Credit default swaps can be used to mitigate the risk of defaults in a debt portfolio market value where a holder of a bond, may hedge exposure risk by buying protection in a Credit Default Swap with respect to that bond. Should the bond default, the proceeds from the Credit Default Swap will cover the resulting decrease in market value of the underlying bond. But if the bond subsequently recovers value, as is oft the case the Credit Default Swap protection buyer will have received reimbursements despite the fact he never suffered a loss.

By now it is apparent to even the most casual observers Credit Default Swaps although touted as resembling insurance policies are vastly different in a number of critical areas; E.g.

There is no requirement to actually hold any asset or suffer any loss as payments can be triggered for various events, providing an opportunity for coercion and market manipulation.
There is often no insurable interest between the parties or any incentive not to make claims. Traditional insurance seeks to work out schemes of arrangements with defaulters or to help mitigate respective party losses. There is usually an element of a self insurance loss in any financial or trade insurance which mitigates against fraud or prior inadequate disclosure of the risk.
The parties can profit in the demise of a company. It is often in the interest of the holder to hasten the firm’s demise as the holder stands to profit from such an event. Hence the opportunity for market manipulation.
Prudential requirements do not apply to the issuer of these instruments and a highly geared hedge fund can sell a large amount of credit default swaps without the need to have mandated reserves to cover any subsequent losses which may be higher than anticipated.

One might well ask how such reckless arrangements to open the door to coercion and market manipulation could ever come into existence in the public company arena in the first place.

A significant milestone on the road to the ensuing chaos occurred in 2000, when Congress passed a piece of seemingly innocuous legislation called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which made derivatives off-limits to agencies that regulate stocks, bonds and futures contracts and was subsequently signed into law in December 2000. The reality of such legislature to exempt regulatory control was to open the door to a form of derivative trading which was to inflict havoc in markets and lead to some of the worst market excesses in 60 years and subsequent failure of counterparties.

An interesting analogy would be to exempt a sport temporarily so that the rules are, there are no rules. I would suggest severe chaotic outcomes would be experienced immediately since inevitably some form of guidelines is required for any game together with the desire to appoint an umpire. Democracy is after all a system that depends upon fair and equitable distribution where players play by the rules, the alternative being corruption and acceptance of that corruption as your corrupt way of life.

Let’s hope eventually, in addition to the recent moves we also see a return to common sense regulatory measures.

Australia Day 1943

2010-01-27T17:24:00.002+11:00

Yesterday was Australia Day which has been celebrated by Australians as a holiday since 1939. The above photos feature my late father (deceased 1969) in a group portrait of eight RAAF members of a Glee Party performing at a concert at Australia House, London on Australia Day 1943. My father served as a bomber pilot in the Second World War and information below and the photos have been taken directly from the Australian War Museum archives.

Caption below the first picture : Their concert songs were received with great enthusiasm by the audience. Identified from left to right: pianist Pilot Officer (PO) Hamilton Roland Dacre Budd (pilot) from Broken Hill, NSW (died 1 August 1943 on operations over the Atlantic Ocean); Frank Sutton Walker (observer) from Wellington, NSW; Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr) Harry Clifford Thrush (chaplain) from Adelaide, South Australia; Sqn Ldr Gordon Gladstone Wood (chaplain) from Wellington, NSW who conducted the choir (died 18 June 1944 in UK); Sergeant (Sgt) Charles Keith Byrnes (pilot) from Moree, NSW; George Claud Notman (observer) from Skipton, Victoria; PO Donald Zalva Pile (pilot) from Melbourne, Victoria (died 26 October 1943 in Scotland); and PO Leslie Walter Roper (pilot) from Melbourne (died 4 September 1943 on operations over Germany).

The subsequent fatalities listed above are a salutary reminder of the high death rate attributable to RAAF command in which my father flew Wellington Bombers. Losses of about 5% per operation gave little chance of survival after a stint of 30 operations.

Earlier on the 3rd January 1943 my father made 6 records for the BBC which took 3 hours to record and included light and popular numbers - ‘I'll Walk Beside You’, ‘Old King Cole’, ‘Pass Me By’ and the beautiful anthem ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace’. The BBC were very pleased and called in some reporter to take pictures for the papers. My father’s diary mentions that Air marshal Williams made a special trip to the studios to hear the records and was very pleased.

In later life the war had influenced my father and my mother knew this and made allowances that today would seem inconceivable. If you would like to read a story about that click on the title or the link icon next to the title.

Walking in the shadows of the mystics.

2010-01-24T17:47:00.003+11:00

Introduction

Out of my childhood were mystical memories of dreamy imagined worlds whose characters cast magical spells in the shadows of the giant hypnotic eucalypts which grew in the tranquil peaceful bush land setting behind our family home. At night my bedroom glass window louvers shimmered in the pale light and rattled to the sounds of wind or rain as I listened to the incessant buzz of cicadas or the more strident cry of - “mowpoke! , mowpoke!" of the mowpoke owl before drifting off into sleep.

Although I would consider myself as a more practical and skeptical type person that mystical dreamy imaginative sense has also stayed with me to emerge in later life, prior to any feelings about religiosity, in the form of a recurring day dreaming state from which I imagined nothing whatsoever existed; after a time when the feeling became uncomfortable I would return to my everyday perception.

In Australia over several decades we have seen a minor renaissance in spirituality in contrast to declining church attendances as increased environmental awareness generates more interest in the wisdom streams of ancient societies. Many older cultures although beholden to magic and lacking scientific knowledge nevertheless were more attuned to harmonious co-existence with nature as a consequence of mystic wisdom streams.

But firstly I should define mysticism which is, according to the definition of my Oxford dictionary:

1. Chiefly the Christian church, the beliefs or mental tendencies characteristic of mystics; belief in the possibility of the union with or absorption into GOD by means of contemplation and self surrender; belief in or reliance on the possibility of spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect.

2. Religious belief characterized by self delusion or dreamy confusion of thought; belief based on the assumptions on occult qualities or mysterious agencies.

Aboriginal mysticism

In our oldest known continuous culture of the Australian aborigines’ the ancestral origins of mysticism reside in the dreamtime creation where all living things were believed to be made co-dependant and reactive to one another in one inseparable land.

So it was in the beginning the dreamtime was to dominate every facet of their rich life; in mythical creation stories, ceremonial art, music, ritualistic practice; initiation rites into adulthood; and in the repository of knowledge of the law handed down from one generation to another. Within the tribal system adolescents were isolated away from the rest of the tribe under the control of elders who provided tutelage on all matters of their law until they were sufficiently aware to make the positive transition to adulthood which carried with it the responsibility towards their tribe and the environment upon which they were dependant - Charles P Mountford – The Dawn of time.

As a child just before the time of the record –breaking floods which were to submerge our family home in raging floodwater I recall the inexplicable death of the Aborigine named Kinjika from bone pointing for tribal transgressions. Speculation was that his extreme fear caused his untimely death just five days after admission to hospital as medical authorities were unable to find any injury, poison, disease or medical condition that could be held responsible.

Eugene Stockton is a priest who has spent many years with the aboriginals and talks about their tribes gathered around the campfires at night experiencing a mystical oneness with the environment. To read the full article entitled 'Mysticism in the Australian environment: Calls to a new consciousness' click here .

Like many religions aboriginals were interested in the meaning of dreams which unlike other cultures were perceived as a mystical return to the past rather than to interpret the future.
Aboriginal people often interpret dreams as being the memory of things that happened during this Creation Period. Dreams were important because they were considered the time when one was transformed back into prior ancestral time. This linking of dreams to the Creation Period has led people to adopt the general term “The Dreamtime” in order to describe the time of creation in their religion. The term “Dreamtime” in Aboriginal mythology is not really about a person having a dream, but rather, a reference to this Creation Period.

To read more about aboriginal culture and religion click here

Ineffable mysticism and reverence for life

In modern day terms the divide between mysticism in religion and philosophy has become blurred for although the experiences of mysticism may be claimed to be ineffable (Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable), nevertheless for those traditions to take root and be successfully handed down from one generation to the next required a teacher able to coherently convey what is meant to ensure a future survival.

In the Taoist religion “The Tao” was considered with such reverence that any references made could no longer be considered the true Tao-Lao Tzu (Taoist), since such supremacy in spirit is also ineffable.

For more on the philosopher Lao Tzu click here

GOD was also ineffable in early Judaism

In early Judaism coherency in teachings was described by reference to GOD’S ways or actions in the mystical stories of the Old Testament. The Jewish approach to mysticism is complicated but generally it is agreed the mystics are to be interpreted in terms of allegory and imagination, a not dissimilar view held by scholars today in relation to the parables contained in the New Testament.

In the end any inherent complexity must become mundane for its future survival, as the old story goes of the student and his understanding of the various contemplative mysteries of the mountain whose enlightened state reveals it is a mountain.

In more recent times the definition of mysticism has also tended to be expanded to include the ecstatic experience of oneness found in Indian religions such as Hinduism or Sufism in Islam which aims at unity or absorption of the divine.

In turn the idea of a oneness has also influenced other philosophers such as Albert Schweitzer who said the “Brahmins, taught as a great secret the mysticism of the identity of the souls of all beings and all things with the Universal Soul. According to this mysticism all that is of the nature of soul belongs to the Universal Soul. Man carries the Universal Soul within him. And because the Universal Soul dwells in all Being, it finds its own self again in all Being, in the life of plants as in the life of gods. This is the meaning of the famous Tat twam asi (That thou art thyself) of the Upanishads."

Schweitzer whilst in the midst of a calm river setting in Africa gazing at a grazing hippopotamus, experienced his mystical insight into the principle of reverence for life, which proved to be ‘ manna from heaven’ for a war ravaged weary world, striking a chord that subsequently led to his Nobel peace prize in 1952.

A similar theme is evident In Tathagatagarbha Buddhism to proffer the idea of an enlightened indestructible nature for all beings, obscured by moral and mental contamination but whose enlightened essence is the Buddha Nature, present also in Tibetan Buddhist texts and traditions. Nothingness does not mean an absence of anything but rather the enlightened state from which attachments bringing moral and mental contamination are removed.

Christian mysticism

Turning to Christian mysticism we find an amazing labyrinth of different strands from the medieval Christian mystics included St. Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Teresa of Avilia and Meister Eckhart and all of the other successors.

But by far the greatest of all of the Christian mystics is the apostle St Paul whose 13 letters make up half of the New Testament, although most scholars contend that only 7 were actually written or under the direction of Paul. Paul was a scholar, sail maker and mystic whose epic journeys established Christendom throughout the Mediterranean and ensured its spread throughout the world. Paul was seen as an apostle for the gentile’s yet in typical Judaist tradition frequently uses allegory by way of Old Testament references in his letters to the recently established infant communities.

Paul remains an enigmatically unique character – virtually unknown in a historical sense other than to be remembered in Jewish disagreements amongst followers, but one who professes to be willing to understand all things and become ‘as one’ to all men to further the cause of being “in Christ” which arose from his mystical experience on the road to Damascus. I think this factor had led many to interpret his work in a more complicated manner than need be the case.

The phrase ‘In Christ” has prompted many different interpretations and Schweitzer in his work ‘The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle’ on page 380 provides his view

"For him [Paul], believers are redeemed by entering already, through the union with Christ, by means of a mystical dying and rising again with him during the continuance of the natural world-era into a supernatural state of existence, this state being that which they are to possess in the kingdom of God. Through Christ we are removed out of this world and transferred into the state of existence proper to the kingdom of God, notwithstanding the fact that it has not yet appeared. “

Much has been made of the abstract nature of Pauline theology as a bridge from the more individualistic Judaism into Christianity with the idea of justification by faith but I think the primary aim of Paul was one of universal freedom from the law under the Jewish covenant about which he disagreed with Peter. His letters are best read simply as letters, not necessarily to be held as always Paul’s specific views but more to be understood as an encouragement and call to the fledgling communities to co-exist with love and respect for one another without the need for the prior ritualistic imposition of Jewish law.

St Paul is of significant interest to secular philosophers because his ideas carry with them the idea of a universal unencumbered system of unity which presupposes through grace existential philosophical aspects to life; to hold our life existence as sacred, to ascertain and acknowledge ones gifts for the benefit of the whole community, to joyfully exist in a state of grace without fear of death, to be free and remain free from guilt, to share in all things and to place love and affection ahead of all other known things. In the process Paul acknowledges our humanity and the imperfect cradle of existence which will continue to see communities straddle the idealism that is encapsulated in their new understanding and freedom from their law only to fall prey to the usual earthly failings.

In the same way as Schweitzer was to say he knew only Jesus of Nazareth; Paul sends his letters of encouragement and hope in the expectation that the experience of freedom from the law will bring joy to existential living to transcend earthly suffering and sorrow.

From a letter written by Albert Schweitzer to his future wife Helene, dated May 1, 1904, "Sometimes it seems to me as if I had arrived beyond the clouds and the stars, and could see the world in the most wonderful clarity, and therefore have the right to be a heretic. To know only Jesus of Nazareth; to continue his work as the only religion, not to have to bear anymore what Christianity has absorbed over the years in vulgarity. Not to be afraid of hell, not to strive for the joys of heaven, not to live in false fear, and the false submission that has become an essential part of our religion--and yet to understand the one Great One, and to know that one is his disciple."

CONCLUSIONS

Mystical experiences have been crucial in providing the creative imagination which helps shape our philosophies and give us that sense of self that gives rise to our humanity.

What is strikingly apparent from many of the mystics is the similarity in ideas about oneness and interdependence for all living things. Another is the wonderful philosophies which are suggested, through grace, as being available to all regardless of belief, to be simply experienced by engagement in mind and spirit. To find your own meaning to life (as opposed to seeking a meaning for life) as I see it in the use of one’s gifts in the way that was intended for a more complete and energised happy life for oneself and community. In that respect secular philosophers’ views often unintentionally reflect religiosity just as the more skeptical views of some religious commentators can be more secular than religious.

In another sense, in a more generalized universal viewpoint my personal philosophy leads me to believe that all life is sacred. We can learn from the mystics but ultimately we all determine what philosophy and life meaning we personally adopt. If you agree with me that all life is sacred then a call to arms must always be viewed with suspicion except in extraordinary circumstances.

Our forgotten flora – magical mushrooms

2010-01-12T13:53:00.002+11:00

After rainy periods in the country as a child I remember seeing the magical sprinkling of white dots barely visible amongst the pastures beside a tranquil river which meandered behind our family home- the arrival of mushrooms! Alone in the company of early morning dews at daybreak I would fill my billycan for a tasty breakfast. There was that special feeling of responsibility in distinguishing between edible and dangerous toxic varieties.

The mushroom has captured our imagination from antiquity when the consumption of ‘magic mushrooms’ containing the chemical hallucinogen (psilocybin) engendered mystical religious type feelings. Some toxic varieties in Australia when consumed can potentially be fatal or cause permanent liver damage. However mushrooms undoubtedly are best known as an attractive nutritional addition to our diet, being high in carbohydrates and providing more protein than green vegetables. Mushrooms belong to the fungi family and although fungi’s cause the majority of plant and crop diseases we can thank the smaller types which are used effectively for the production of bread, beer, wine, cheese, vitamins and penicillin.

The biology of fungi is interesting on a number of counts in terms of composition and evolution. Fungi represent the first life form to colonise the earth, well before the emergence of land based plants. Unlike plants which have leaves representative of a vascular system and which can reproduce via flowers and seeds, fungi reproduce through spores. They vary enormously in size and rely mainly on dead and dying organisms for their food supply. Their DNA is more closely aligned to animals than to plants.

Mushrooms researchers are increasingly becoming excited over the many exciting possibilities in their applications such as treating cancer or in cleaning up toxic wastes.

You can read more about just a brief smattering of some more recent discoveries on Science Daily by clicking here or by simply reading my extracted summaries below.

Treating cancer

Dr Cornelia de Moor of The University of Nottingham and her team have investigated a drug called cordycepin, which was originally extracted from a rare kind of wild mushroom called cordyceps and is now prepared from a cultivated form. Dr de Moor said: “Our discovery will open up the possibility of investigating the range of different cancers that could be treated with cordycepin.

More discoveries of Mushrooms that glow in the dark

San Francisco State University Biology Professor Dennis Desjardin and colleagues discovered the fungi in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. The discoveries include four species new to science and three new reports of luminescence in known species. Three quarters of glowing mushrooms, including the species described in the study, belong to the Mycena genus, a group of mushrooms that feed off and decompose organic matter as a source of nutrients to sustain their growth.

"What interests us is that within Mycena, the luminescent species come from 16 different lineages, which suggests that luminescence evolved at a single point and some species later lost the ability to glow," said Desjardin, lead author of the study. He believes that some fungi glow in order to attract nocturnal animals that aid in the dispersal of the mushroom's spores which are similar to seeds and are capable of growing into new organisms.

Mushrooms may also prove effective to cleaning up toxic contaminations in land areas.
This type of mushroom carries out an indiscriminate acid attack on the mineral particles of the soil and absorbs elements in quantities relative to the mineralogical composition of the soil. "In some contaminated soils, or those with particular mineralogical characteristics, the mushrooms collected can reach such high concentrations of toxic elements that their consumption would be unadvisable," reveals the researcher

Chernobyl tragedy teaches us that Fungus Feeds on Radiation
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AEC) have found evidence that the fungi possess another talent beyond their ability to decompose matter, the capacity to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.

Detailing the research in Public Library of Science ONE, AEC's Arturo Casadevall said his interest was piqued five years ago when he read about how a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls. "I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an energy source," explained Casadevall.

Casadevall and his co-researchers then set about performing a variety of tests using several different fungi. Two types - one that was induced to make melanin (Crytococcus neoformans) and another that naturally contains it (Wangiella dermatitidis) - were exposed to levels of ionizing radiation approximately 500 times higher than background levels. Both of these melanin-containing species grew significantly faster than when exposed to standard background radiation.

"Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum - ionizing radiation - to benefit the fungi containing it," said co-researcher Ekaterina Dadachova.

Investigating further, the researchers measured the electron spin resonance signal after melanin was exposed to ionizing radiation and found that radiation interacts with melanin to alter its electron structure. This, they believe, is an essential step for capturing radiation and converting it into a different form of energy to make food. Until now, melanin's biological role in fungi - if any - had been a mystery. Interestingly, the melanin in fungi is no different chemically from the melanin in our skin, leading Casadevall to speculate that melanin could be providing energy to skin cells.

And radiation-munching fungi could be on the menu for future space missions. "Since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions or for colonizing other planets," noted Dadachova.

Click here for this reference.

BRIGHT STAR

2010-01-04T13:40:00.006+11:00

New Zealand’s Oscar winning film director, Jane Campion who directed ‘The Piano’-one I particularly liked- has returned after a few years absence with the critically acclaimed film BRIGHT STAR. This bitter sweet screen epic combines John Keats’s letters with his romantic entanglement to the 18 year old impetuous seamstress Fanny Brawne stylishly played by Abbie Cornish. Fanny first meets Keats as her neighbour but soon opens wide the romantic doorway to his heart and subsequent betrothal in flagrant disrespect to a Victorian era evident in the practical words but not actions of Fanny’s compassionate mother.

The film is a moving feast for the eyes, heart and mind set in idyllic eastern England, but laced with humour and pathos for the penniless young Keats whose agonizing life compromises are in deference to the reality he relies on the generosity of others but particularly that of his close friend Brown whose antipathy toward Fanny adds yet another dimension of unanswered questions.

BRIGHT STAR leaves you aware that the words of one of the greatest romanticised poets were only recognised for their eloquence, exquisite beauty and romanticism after his tragic early death. His words continue to be spoken today just as they were spoken out aloud in the woods for many years afterwards by a grieving but no less inspired Fanny Brawne.

Click here for NY Times review

The philosophy of money

2009-12-29T23:10:00.013+11:00

Australian Aboriginals lacked an independent currency, but like other indigenous groups traded ceremonial artifacts, grinding stones, sea shells, ochre’s, shields, axe heads, spears and even ‘water rights’ along their trade routes marked by permanent waterways. Trade was a ‘United Nations’ of affinity to the land where scarce resources in one region were exchanged for another’s as one Australian nation shared nature’s bounty. The tribes all spoke different dialects and relied on carved symbolic message on a message stick accompanied by translators to negotiate trade agreements. Their existence as the longest uninterrupted culture for 60,000 years or more bears testament to their idea that the land owns us rather than we own the land-the only real wealth upon which we all depend.

Elsewhere in the globe as an independent currency money was created philosophers debated its merits and use. The philosopher Aristotle (340 BC) asserted money was best understood as a duality; to procure necessary goods or services of which he approved and as an accumulated corruptible means to obtain one’s fortune. His extreme view proved a reliable sage as money has bedevilled humanity in whatever form was adopted be it capitalism, socialism, communism or a mixture as is evident in modern day China.

It was the era of modernism around 1500 that heralded inventive trade to follow the advancements in science. The puritan work ethic from the Reformation cast money in a more favorable light to coincide with the idea hard work was virtuous. Oliver Cromwell subsequently enacted laws to bolster the 'mercantilist' system to give preference to the British enterprise and shipping companies. Although historically we have many monetary empires dating back to the fall of the Roman Empire none rivaled the Industrial Revolution in England from 1740- 1780, - a logical melting pot given the recently discovered Newtonian mechanistic world - as suggested by John Gribbin in ‘Science a History 1543- 2001’

The industrial revolution became the catalyst for western world industrialization, but was a two edged sword in terms of benefits. Whilst inventiveness, division of labor and productivity supported vastly improved living standards capable of supporting a much bigger population it was at the expense of massive exploitation of people and land- to become the genesis of our current ecological disaster.
During the Victorian era philosopher and moral ethicist Adam Smith published in 1776 his influential classical economic work entitled ‘Wealth of Nations’ to criticize the 'mercantilist' system. Smith articulated the view that money as the invisible hand of free markets will produce a satisfactory price return for land, labor and capital because the self interest in any free market benefits the whole of society as competition keeps prices low. Smith was aware any concentration in power would distort a free market and pointed out Merchants wielded monopolistic power afforded them as a consequence of bans on foreign competition. Mercantilism was also associated with a monetary system which used exported bullion to pay for imports- mainly from Asia- which reduced money supply to exert downward pressure on prices and economic activity at the expense of impoverished workers.

Mercantilism also adversely affected the colonies which were forced to use English ships, pay duties and only trade in commodities whose prices were set by the British Empire to effectively create an underclass of colonial citizens - a significant factor that led to world war and eventual American independence. The classical economics of Smith overturned the mercantilist system and his free market ideas remained popular up until the great depression of the 1930’s.

But the period afterwards saw the inevitable boom and bust cycles continue in tandem with the growth of the larger financial institutions such as banks whose occasional lending sprees exceeded loanable funds beyond the level of maintainable voluntary savings to cause social dislocations.

During the depression years in the 1930’s, John Maynard Keynes was to present a new radically different system to offer hope we could avoid recurrences of the painful boom bust trade cycles that had come to haunt modern day societies and brought upon an unsuspecting pre boom population the horror of the great depression. His theory was we cannot rely on markets to automatically adjust to ensure full employment so long as workers remained flexible in their demands. Rather his theory saw an active role for government intervention with both fiscal (taxation and spending measures) and monetary policy (control over the level of interest rates) to ensure economic growth and stability. Banks were to be regulated but enjoy ‘Lender of last resort’ from a reserve to ensure confidence was maintained in the system.

Keynesians thought it was imperative for government action during severe economic cycles to introduce government spending, tax breaks and reductions in interest rates during recessions but to reverse the situation during highly expansionary times. In other words to increase those same levers during inflationary times.
Following the outbreak of World War II Keynes's ideas were universally adopted throughout the western world with commensurate success so that by the time we reached the mid fifties all western capitalist nations mirrored his views to share in the relatively strong, stable economic fortunes of the immediate post war era.

Keynes's influence however began to wane from the 1970s, with the emergence of renowned economist Milton Friedman who was skeptical over the ability of governments to effectively regulate the economy with fiscal policy as suggested by Keynes, explaining that such measures were prone to be both costly and ineffective. Freidman relied on tight control of money to maintain price stability. His elegant theory was easily understood and very appealing at a time of high inflation but selectively seized upon by vested interests promoting a free market economy. Concurrent to that change in economic focus was a type of philosophical materialism which had taken firmer root to assert our wellbeing or happiness is only measurable in terms of money. This became linked to fundamentalist type religions who promised future wealth as if synonymous with salvation. Simply put -‘if it doesn’t make money it doesn’t matter’! A type of economic fundamentalism persuasively joined forces with branded religion to present a rather potent cocktail of political inspiration based upon a minimalist role for regulation, suggesting markets are sufficient as the sole arbitrator except for control over the money supply.

Economic fundamentalism gained traction from the power of entrenched interests under either party to be incorporated into decades of government policy reaching its zenith in more recent times. However the recent stimulatory moves made by Obama, Gordon Brown in England and Kevin Rudd in Australia may well have been taken directly from a Keynesian handbook which is likely to rekindle resurgence in renewed interest in his economics.

Conclusion

Any measures that might help avoid the sizeable crashes of 1987, 1997 and 2007- the latter coming perilously close to emulating a great depression, will, as would be anticipated represent the best of the old and new way of thinking. But ultimately you cannot legislate effectively morality but rather I think one can ensure a system is both transparent and fair. I think it would be fair to say the free market envisaged long before by Adam Smith bears little resemblance to the one now championed as free. The championed free market today in reality is so encumbered with a concentration in monetary power and sufficiently lacking in transparency to necessarily distort the beneficial outcomes envisaged by Smith.

Freidman’s ideas about the advantages of smaller government and reliance on monetary controls have been selectively seized upon to give credence to an economic fundamentalism. What we have witnessed has been a very loose monetary policy which made the cost of money (money being currency and easily liquefied bank deposits) very cheap and acted as a catalyst for the excessive leveraging of corporations whose failure precipitated a financial collapse of grand proportions. I agree with Economist Paul Krugman who suggests we will, going forward, increasingly revert to a Keynesian style of economics in preference to one grounded purely on monetarism.

That is not to say a need arises for a larger government sector or even for more legislation. In fact I think we are in danger of over-acting and imposing such increased regulatory controls with proposed increases in new capital ratios and stricter lending requirements as to risk curtailment of any recovery by inducing a reduction in liquidity just as stimulatory measures globally must be wound back.

What are needed in my view are more descriptive type provisions in tandem with improved regulation, coupled with transparency. Large financial institutions need to have their mainstay commercial business and consumer lending areas separated
into different entities to those involved in derivatives and any proprietary trading.

Additionally markets all need to be afforded transparency so that any derivative trading – particularly in relation to Hedge Funds – can be determined for markets to be informed and not left in the dark as was past practice.

The type of philosophical materialism which led to the idea that the stock exchange represents preferred repositories of money making entities which require freedom from regulation in order for those entities to create the wealth necessary to sustain our economies was always a discredited theory. However to the extent those stocks do represent a sustainable linkage of goods or services that may indeed be true. But because of the remoteness and lack of transparency to many of the corporate inputs the actual outcomes are oft far removed from such a reality. Sucked into a vortex of a money making machine where investors in AAA rated securities (and those securities derivations )were so far removed from those who actually owned the properties,it was hard to grasp initially how such schemes were concocted in the first place. Any renegotiation after default was thwarted by intermediaries who had no interest in any renegotiation or were restrained through legalities. The lack of regulatory oversight and need for improved transparency needs no further elaboration on my part. Any system which trades purely on the expectation of another’s failure is doomed to eventual failure, since integrity never envisaged insurance was to benefit from another’s failure or that one could make a profit from insurance.

However on a more positive note all of the major companies I have studied here in Australia – and from what I understand applies globally – are making strenuous efforts to ensure their business is sustainable and reflects the latest in good governance. Most refer to the savings in carbon reductions per employee and even in relation to their stakeholders. There is realization the old ways are not appropriate and regardless of any inaction by the government, a global transformation is already in full swing. It is also refreshing to read that many of the big banks were dismissive of the overtures of their overseas counterparts when offered trade in collaterised debt securities. That rejection was based upon the unnatural dichotomy between the security holder and the layers of wrapping that preceded the security in the form of the property. Some Banks still like to know who their customers are and to personally evaluate the risk- if you’re unable to do that alarm bells need to go off.

I will close with a link to where I began with the Australian Aboriginals. Money really is only a means of exchange so that we- ideally like our indigenous peoples- share to the extent as is necessary and sustainable.

Similarly our evolution was more dependent upon survival through cooperation - not on survival of the fittest as evolution’s most misquoted quotes suggest- since the way forward so far as our evolution is concerned has always depended upon cooperative efforts.

Best wishes for 2010 – may it offer more hope than the previous decade!

Christ “Hidden Beneath the Whitewash”

2009-12-25T14:43:00.003+11:00

There is a story told in Holland, perhaps more mythical than true. It runs this way:
There was an old church. For many years, upon entering it, every-one would stop and bow in the direction of a whitewashed wall. No-body knew exactly why anybody did that, but everyone had been doing it for such a long time that nobody questioned it. It was tradition. Besides, there was something fitting about doing it. It felt right.

One day, the parish decided to renovate the church. Among other things, they began to strip the paint and whitewash off the old walls. While doing this, they discovered traces of a painting on the wall that everyone bowed to. They became very careful and peeled off the paint gently so as not to damage what was beneath it. Slowly, a very beautiful centuries-old painting of Christ emerged. Nobody alive was old enough to have actually seen it before. It had been white-washed over for at least a century. Yet everyone had been bowing to it, not knowing why, but sensing that there was good reason for the reverence.

There is a Christmas lesson in that. Western culture still bows towards the crib of Bethlehem. We may be post-Christian in our beliefs, our attitudes, our ethics, and our policies, but we still celebrate Christmas. Like the people in that church in Holland, we are not really clear any more as to why we are doing what we are doing. There is not much conscious faith left in our Christmas celebrations, just a habitual response to a tradition.

But - as the story of the painting recovered in a church in Holland can teach us - that’s not all bad. It’s better than not bowing to the wall at all. At least we still have the sense that there is something special beneath the whitewash.

If we are among the ones who still know that there is a painting of Christ behind the whitewash, our response should not be one of cynicism. The Christian choice at Christmas is not: do we celebrate or not? Of course we celebrate and we should be happy that the world is still making a big deal out of Christ’s birth, even if it isn’t so clear any more as to why.

Our task is not to stop the bowing or the celebration. Our task is to help peel off the whitewash, to help restore the painting beneath it, and to tell the story of who did the painting and why.

You criticize the bad by the practice of the better. The best way to help our culture to celebrate Christmas properly is not by criticizing how it celebrates, nor by ourselves ceasing to celebrate, but by celebrating in a better way.

Let our joy exceed that of the commercial world! Let our bow be deeper and more aware of the marvellous gift that’s behind the whitewash: the gift of the Incarnation of our God!

Reflection on the Epiphany by the Canadian Oblate priest Ron Rolheiser
Click here for his website

Christian parallels with Buddhism

2009-12-13T13:56:00.003+11:00

Both Buddha and Christ preached peaceful co–existence ; the amelioration of suffering by application of an expanded world view for compassion- to present similarities from markedly different cultures. Christ’s Jewish heritage was rooted in the Messianic expectation for the end of the world which leads to his eschatological message whilst Buddha’s concern was over indifference to suffering within a caste based societal system. There remain fundamental differences of substance between the two but personally, on a purely subjective note, I would proffer the view Christ’s sayings also have a distinctive Buddhist flavor to them. Certainly there has been a long history in contemplative Catholicism towards similarity in meditative practices, but I also think there is a tentative link to the way both respond to suffering.

The tenuous parallel link is evident in the expanded compassionate response to suffering. Christ’s ‘sermon on the mount’ was to establish a pacifist society, to end the eye for eye justification and to strive for a universal forgiveness by an active expanded role for compassion. In the Buddhist tradition the release from suffering through Nirvana – by ceasing to will, is the recognizable path to enlightenment. Christ’s account can best be understood by way of eschatology- to establish the spiritual kingdom for righteousness and expanded compassion. That love preached by Jesus was to be universal and to include all people, sufferers, oppressed, those sick, murderers, those found guilty or even your worst enemy. Buddha brought to all sentient creatures that same kindness, friendliness and sympathy but without a personal involvement of heart binded to earthly things.

However, just as the “historical Jesus ‘scarcely exists outside of the Biblical references – except for a fleeting historical reference - so the Buddha also is historically obscure or at least what is attributed to him remains a topic for debate by scholars. Both spent years of monastic contemplation- (Christ may have been a member of the Essenes) prior to a public ministry which attracted disciples and has subsequently spread throughout the world. Their first records and accounts were eventually written down by the disciples and followers. Many Buddhist traditions were orally maintained for over 400 years before any formalization took place. Buddhism may be considered a philosophy or a religion, but more so a religion in my view with Buddhist sacred scriptures and doctrines.

In China philosophical Taoism has influenced Buddhism, but religious Taoism has also been transformed by Buddhism; to include rebirth/ with systems of heavens and hells. (Ching Julia – from Kung Hans and Ching Julia. Christianity and Chinese religions. SCM Press, London 1989) Hans Kung also talks about a kind of Taoist church with priests, monks, cults, feasts, holy water, confession, penance, fasting, legends of saints and even a Taoist Pope. Importantly for both Taoist and Christian thought the innermost essence of Tao and God remains hidden from human beings. (Kung Hans and Ching Julia. Christianity and Chinese religions. SCM Press, London 1989)

Buddhism has been rediscovered in the west and gained popularity as an alternative to secular materialism in philosophy or fundamentalism in religion or for those whose spirituality sits uncomfortably with the various strands of Christianity. Such an interest might seem surprising given for the most part western rationalism which is unaccustomed to discussing such subjects as emptiness, karma, release from suffering through Nirvana – by ceasing to will, illusions of the mind and the idea of death simply taking on a different form of rebirth. But I think the reason Buddhism has gained popularity is it seems less authoritarian and, while its rationality may be debated it does suggest a rational pathway. However, when one examines the mystical bent of all religions and traditional ritual, richness in religious art and the vast body of canonized scripture held by both wisdom streams, I think we all read from the same hymn sheet; to listen to tunes set from fundamentally different cultures but who aspire to the same more positive outcomes.

Economic update

2009-12-02T00:02:00.013+11:00

Introduction and risk assessment

As economic trends signal an end to the steep cyclical downturn, future sustained recovery remains problematical amidst conflicting signs. The US economy continues to digest a never ending cocktail of mixed signals to post meager gains which suggest sustainable economic growth is still probably a year or more away.

Globally tentative improvements remain buffeted by stiff headwinds; more conservative capital consuming banks,vulnerability in asset prices,the circumspect consumer and the unwinding of unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus packages which increased government indebtedness by 50%. The continued nuclear ambitions for Iran & North Korea also cast a shadow over global outlooks.

The consensus outlook by the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia is slightly more upbeat for Australia, aided by the resilient economies of China and Asia recovering faster than expected. Australia benefits from these faster growing regional ties and a very modest level of government debt combined with a well regulated banking system. Our risks lie in the relatively high level of household debt secured on residential property; any pronounced weakness in housing prices exerts pressure on a banking system captive to overseas funding. Rising house prices have reduced home ownership affordability by 24% since April this year. Any risk of a pronounced housing price fall is low since housing stock is under supplied and demands continue to flow on from record levels of immigration. Banks reliance on overseas funding leaves the economy vulnerable to any credit squeeze imposed by overseas lenders, because,apart from forced superannuation saving and government surpluses, we remain a nation of spenders not savers. Increased saving remains a key initiative for the country to be more sustainable in the future.

Interest rates

The Reserve Bank of Australia today raised the cash interest rate 25 basis points to 3.75% to record a unprecedented 3rd straight monthly rate increase; expect another rate increase in February 2010 and a cash rates of 5% by 2010. Such increases represent an unwinding of a previous accommodating monetary policy stance in response to the GFC to one that returns to a position of neutrality. The rise in interest rates and in our exchange rate will contain the prices for traded goods and services but dampen growth in the trade-exposed sector of our economy. The Reserve Bank has also expressed some concern over rising house prices and hopes the interest rate increase will dampen consumer sentiment and propensity to continue to pay inflated prices for housing.

The current yield on the Commonwealth Government March 2019 bond is at 5.267 per cent while the yield on the April 2012 bond was at 4.430%.

Currency

Because of the continued weakness of the US dollar speculation is rife the US dollar may lose the world’s currency reserve status. Throughout the 18th and 19th century the English pound enjoyed reserve status before an elected dollar came to power, many years after the US had become the world’s largest economy.

Bearing in mind the reluctance for sudden changes, the requirement for deep markets and the need for ease of convertibility you can reliably conclude it will take several decades before any change become feasible.

In the meantime ongoing US Dollar weakness could be a catalyst for continued political and economic tension, particularly if China continues to avoid a Yuan appreciation, although I think fears here are overblown.

Lessons from the great depression and recent GFC after shocks

As the past tumultuous events of the global financial crisis continue to hover in our collective consciousness, inevitable comparisons continue amongst economic commentators and share chartists with the great depression. The great depression was preceded by the roaring twenties which tended to add a flavour of assumed speculation and bubble bursting scenarios to most of the economic commentary at the time and subsequently.

However an analysis of stock indices (earnings to stock price ratios) just prior to the massive falls of the thirties reveals stock price was not excessive except for one industry sector. That sector was the popular leveraged Investment companies whose specialty was utility stocks. As inevitably more realistic profit reports undermined inflated values of utility stocks the leveraged investments companies were forced to sell their entire share holdings to satisfy liabilities to margin lenders. That event triggered a train reaction as investors in their now defunct management investment companies were forced to sell their entire shareholdings to satisfy their margin lenders.

The operative lesson is the extreme danger of gearing. The final straw during the depression that led to the now famous double dip in stock prices was governments action taken to stem perceived greedy speculators initiated by tightening credit which caused widespread panic selling and subsequent larger scale insolvencies due to lack of liquidity.

I don’t think we are in danger of following that same fearful path today but the risk nevertheless remains, particularly whilst the US banking system (unlike Australian) is not adequately regulated and could still inflate a bubble from excess liquidity and leverage.

However Banks in Europe are 25% and in the US 20% bigger now than pre 2007 crash levels -when the cry was heard too big to fail ! This scenario provides is an ongoing challenge to regulators in relation to capital adequacey and to internal risk managers who need to be given authority to influence bank practices and policies.

Another lesson learnt in recent times was it only took the huge indebtedness of one tiny nation - Iceland to undermine the house of cards that had enveloped the globe. Investors are now more recently worried about Dubai; since it has borrowings of $US80billion to finance a 4 -year construction boom now subject to a pronounced property slump. Dubai world surprised markets when it called for a halt on paying back $US60 billion debt until next year. Dubai's debt problems will be well contained, but expect a few more surprises like this over the next year or so until we reach a point of renewed confidence.

US Banking system still inadequate in regulation.

Federal lawmakers and regulatory officials continue to grapple with what new regulations are needed to be introduced to avoid a repetition of the conditions that led to the Global Financial Crisis. Policies and proposed recommendations remain bogged down within the political process with the administration unable to obtain a bipartisan approach. The current US policy settings which ensure the benchmark interest rate remain near zero, carries the risk such an accommodating monetary policy setting, will fuel a surge in assets and the so called “carry trade” risks another bubble occurring. The unwinding of this “carry trade” would not be pretty. The Fed itself is aiming to better identify risks, drawing on its 220 PHD qualified economists to be more effective in identifying potential bubbles and improve regulatory oversight according to a recent article appearing on Bloomberg.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he doesn’t rule out using monetary policy to pop asset-price bubbles, while stressing that financial regulation is his preferred approach.

Corporate Profits

Disregarding the US fragile banking system the one bright feature is the recovery in corporate profits largely driven by cost cutting and stabilization in inventory levels previously slashed in response to faltering weak demand. However the cost has been high in widespread human misery and unemployment to leaves a continued deep scar well into the future. Given this caveat and apart from the banking sector, most of the corporate sector (with a few notable exceptions) are in relatively good shape and should continue to improve. Historically current stock price earnings ratios are only slightly in excess of long term historical averages to assume an inbuilt profit improvement inherent in 2010, which is also true for Australia and most of the western world.

Conclusion

You cannot legislate morality or a perfect a set of banking indices which alienate risk. Rather, what is needed is for regulators to be prepared through improved training - to get their hands dirty and carry out periodic due diligence's and exercise a common sense regulatory service which demands transparency.
If you can’t understand what is going on that is usually a clear signal that something is fundamentally wrong. If you’re subject to a financial services or banking license it is preposterous to think a company’s operations can rely on a complex computer generated model which generates huge profits and counterparty risk but whose risk profile remains unintelligible or a mystery to inexperienced regulators.

“Banking should be boring – it is boring. When banking becomes exciting, then it becomes very dangerous “

Quote from Mike Smith - ANZ's chief executive who operates one the largest and most profitable successful banks in the world today-'In the black' -December 2009

Gearing ratios vary according to the quality of the risk – if you’re gearing to invest in government bonds ratios of 20 or 30 to 1 won’t matter – if your investments are risky 4 to 1 may be far too much leverage. I am afraid there is no easy answer but a return to integrity and the constant need to evaluate different scenarios with industry experience.

Financial services as an industry also needs to ensure fees and charges are transparent and easy to undestand, just as regulators can incorporate such requirements into sensible regulatory oversight.

Insofar as transparency for operations are concerned free enterprise markets always needed to be transparent to be effective and equitable and nowhere is this more apparent than in the derivatives market. Since the crash we have merely increased market liquidity sufficiently by massive injections of funds to substitute existing counterparty risk with increased liquidity.

There also needs to be more regulatory measures for boards of directors of public entities to set sensible remuneration limits – particularly in relation to draw backs on share options arising in the event of subsequent failed results.

Classic Bank Run

President Barack Obama has blamed compensation tied to excessive risk-taking for fueling the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The administration has named a special master to approve compensation packages at firms that have received the biggest government bailouts.

Monsalvat

2009-11-27T12:50:00.003+11:00

On Thursday with Gary & Anna we visited Monsalvat, located close to where I live in Eltham. Monsalvat is a sprawling mixture of buildings set on 12 acres in an idyllic setting. Artist and architect Justin Jorgensen together with a dedicated group of volunteers purchased the land in 1934 with a view to establishing an artist’s colony of painters, sculptors, poets and musicians. Building materials used were rescued from old beautiful buildings being demolished in Melbourne to make way for modernization, locally produced mud bricks, rammed earth, mud stone, bush timbers and slate flooring combined with beautifully crafted stained glass windows. The artists operated a dairy and a small farm so that the community was largely self sufficient.
Many of the descendants of the original community today inhabit the adjoining cottages as sculptor’s painters and musicians. The appearance resemembles a European Castle with its adjoining chapel and surrounded by artist’s residences; once stables and storehouses.
The picture is of Gary and myself outside the castle and below are other pictures of adjoining buildings.

Monsalvat

2009-11-26T12:53:00.000+11:00

Island in the sun

2009-11-21T21:27:00.005+11:00

Oh Island in the Sun -click on picture to enlarge.

The deep blue sea was tranquil and shimmered like a precious stone sparkling under the noonday sun as our small boat headed for a deserted island not far from Abyiang in the republic of Kiribiti. The oceans in that region can be treacherous; a sudden squall or storm turns the ocean into a cauldron of white tips and high waves like our journey so far; a mixture of excitement and relief. We had left the most populated island of Tarawa to visit Abyiang; to be guests of volunteer Australia and Canadian teachers who worked for the local Catholic mission school. Previously we planned to fly to Abyiang but the plane service was cancelled due to a breakdown. We had negotiated the trip with local boatmen but it soon became apparent they were not sure of the way. Finally, after spotting a landmark, we all trekked across the coral reef, knee deep in water with our boatman carrying our provisions to finally arrive both hot and exhausted.

I remembered my wife sitting quietly in the bow; fully recovered from an earlier ordeal when she awoke as if from a sudden nightmare to a raging shivering fever in an unfamiliar thatched hut on Abyiang. The schoolchildren brought us coconuts, confident the juice from the green adolescent coconuts would immediately restore her to good health. True to their word my wife was soon up and about as if the fever was no more than a bad dream, to our mutual relief. During the course of the week we joined in with school activities, then were told of a trip organized for us to visit a nearby deserted Island.

The first glimpse of the island from our boat was one of undisturbed pristine white sand and crystal clear water with almost jungle like thick foliage intruding in a wide arc onto the foreshore.

After landing we cleared an open space within the thick foliage to make up a rough camp but were soon interrupted by the arrival of a local family. Oh dear! We soon leant the island was not only inhabited but the islanders were concerned over our lack of protocol; strangers were expected to introduce themselves to the spirit of the Island by traversing it from one end to another.

The family finally departed amicably and we were left to explore the coral reef and its wondrous underwater sites. To our surprise the family returned again but this time with a number of large brightly coloured crayfish, caught specially to be consumed for our lunch. Furthermore after learning some of us were to soon return to Australia, they performed a special ceremonial dance of farewell on the sand. A most elaborate and complicated long dance ritual; in the spirit of friendship- extended generously to strangers, to whom they were unable to converse or ever likely to see again.

The dance reminded me of the ceremonies that must have been performed to farewell canoes long ago from Polynesia and Melanesia as they set out to populate the many Islands that now make up what was once known as the Kingdom but now a Republic ( since 1979) of Kiribiti.

Their history is recorded in the many dances and songs, words to exquisite harmonies lasting for several hours, never written down but handed down orally from the one generation to another. But that rich history takes on a much more sober note as Abyiang and the other islands that make up Kiribiti are gradually sinking into the ocean to the tune of global warming and erosion.

Truth and Fiction in the Bible

2009-11-11T15:19:00.004+11:00

Robin Lane Fox - The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible

Introduction

The book is an interesting historical exposé about the Bible by a scholar whose approach to this biblical analysis is purely historical although he does value highly prior contributions from many of the leading theologians. In his introduction he shares his passion for history whilst acknowledging a non belief in GOD, to introduce to us his stated aim to critically review the veracity or otherwise of historical evidence within the bible where the bible makes reference to events taking place - to ask the question ‘is the text historically true or credible’?

Coherency

Biblical text represents a literary history of humanity; rich in inspired testimony, prophesy, story, parable, metaphor, analogy, allegory and poetic verse. Fox, as a historian contends the bible does represent a fallen history of humanity but whose truthfulness is limited to the extent the texts remain faithful within that narrow context.

The question arises as to primacy of purpose and of expectations given the texts accumulation over 700 years.

What is evident is the continual gravitation towards ‘modernity’ - that is what was modern then – to became a primacy of purpose to flow through from the nadir of the old testament to the parables of Jesus whose mystery was to the disciples as it remains today - discerned by reference to allegory. The quest for the sacred and for life meaning was what held together tentatively those unwieldy papyrus manuscripts to emerge finally into book format a thousand years later. Along the long and arduous journeys which bears witness to the richly endowed stories biblical authors borrowed from the mythical, pagan or recalibrated prior events or texts to give reasons and substance to their existence as new needs arose.

Indeed in the very first book of Genesis spanning 2 centuries from the time of King David, scholars have identified at least 4 different authors collaboratively presenting different moral, repetitive and mythical interpretative views of creation edited by the one exhibiting a priestly style. - The Liturgical Press – Collegeville Minnesota – GENISIS – Pauline A, Vivano.

Fox asserts there are the 2 conflicting contradictory creation stories – the unblemished story of creation and the other in which Adam and Eve fall from grace.

The question arises, can different interpretations and issues of style be creditable and, are contradictions no more than a matter of acceptably different views taken from a different perspective, so that both different views might reasonably be argued as capable of being right rather than to assert such differences must logically denote a falsehood.

Repetition of style

An important aspect to a scholar’s work is to painstakingly analyze different writing styles and grammatical expression to reliably link a consistent style to identify each writer, but even so the results can be problematical and changes oft remain the secrets of antiquity.

The Bible represents a kaleidoscope of genres written in the style of priestly, poetic, historic, and philosophical traditions. Hence determining the cultural context together with both genre and style is a prerequisite to unlocking the door to understanding. What is revealed is purpose, as is the case of the creation text where the 4 authors offer different perspectives of the creation stories. At first sight these different perspectives may give the appearance of contradiction as the writers attempt to introduce new themes – many of which would already be very familiar to their intended audience.

Many of the earlier books of the Old Testament depict the tribal patriarchal evolution which invokes the ideas of their transcendent GOD or GODS tied to the preceding recorded events of triumph or tragedy – slavery to freedom, or the stained blood and redemptive events that shaped nationhood in keeping with a coherent purpose. The coherency of this purpose is evident in the patriarchal tribal stories of Abraham commencing when he believed in many GODS before his conversion in belief of the one GOD- Yahweh – or at least to assert Yahweh has primacy. Solomon in his youthful wisdom presiding over a period of immense prosperity that opened up trade with the Phoenicians and brought untold wealth and prosperity to his reign- attributable to his wisdom. But in the latter chronicles of the book of KINGS he succumbs to materialism and the worship of many different GODS towards the end of his extraordinary reign. Hence the writers adapt but do not distort events that shaped them – not necessarily confined to an era or historical context, but much more to do with what actions they perceived to be faithful or unfaithful to their GOD – to breathe new life and perspective into the living texts to impart perceived wisdom for each new generation.

Walking the Bible

A remarkable measure of that ancient past journey can be gauged by reading “Walking the Bible” by Bruce Feiler.
Feiler takes you on a 10, 000 mile journey to retrace the 5 books of Moses; through the desert, 3 continents, 5 countries and 4 war zones. He crosses the Red Sea and tests the slopes of Mt Sinai, to interview Bedouin tribes people and pilgrims – to touch and feel the ancient lands and in the process spiritually experienced that same sense of awe of what must have been felt so long ago from what is the cradle for many of the world’s great religions. A measure of the faithfulness of the ancient texts is the degree to which biblical stories still define existing terrain and foliage of a living landscape whist remaining faithful to a consistent coherent purpose.

Credibility

Given the extraordinary long time periods that ensued over which the texts were compiled, matters of authorship and authenticity are legitimately challenged by Fox. He poses questions over what systems guarded against the alteration or amendments to books or material regarded as sacred. Later, in relation to the gospel writers he asserts irregularities in the narrative and falsehoods in relation to the nativity scenes. These are questions that go to the root of any historical quest for Jesus and assume greater importance when we consider maters of the heart or faith as interpreted within the gospels.

The historical Jesus

Here I believe it helpful to include a reference to the rather long somber conclusion presented by Albert Schweitzer in his ‘Quest for the Historical Jesus’ -
“The mistake was to suppose that Jesus could come to mean more to our time by entering into it as a man like ourselves. That is not possible. First because such a Jesus never existed. Secondly because, although historical knowledge can no doubt introduce a greater clearness into an existing spiritual life, it cannot call spiritual life into existence.

History can destroy the present; it can reconcile the present with the past; to a certain extent there was a danger that we should offer them a Jesus who was too small, because we had forced Him into conformity with our human standards and human psychology. To see that, one need only read the Lives of Jesus written since the 'sixties, and notice what they have made of the great imperious sayings of the Lord, how they have weakened down His imperative world-contemning demands upon individuals, that He might not come into conflict with our ethical ideals, and might tune His denial of the world to our acceptance of it.

Many of the greatest sayings are found lying in a corner like explosive shells from which the charges have been removed. No small portion of elemental religious power needed to be drawn off from His sayings to prevent them from conflicting with our system of religious world-acceptance. We have made Jesus hold another language with our time from that which He really held.

Jesus as a concrete historical personality remains a stranger to our time, but His spirit, which lies hidden in His words, is known in simplicity, and its influence is direct. Every saying contains in its own way the whole Jesus. The very strangeness and unconditionedness in which He stands before us makes it easier for individuals to find their own personal standpoint in regard to Him.

Modern Lives of Jesus are too general in their scope. They aim at influencing, by giving a complete impression of the life of Jesus, a whole community. But the historical Jesus, as He is depicted in the Gospels, influenced individuals by the individual word. They understood Him so far as it was necessary for them to understand, without forming any conception of His life as a whole, since this in its ultimate aims remained a mystery even for the disciples.”

Conclusion

The question of concern over Fox’s irregularities and biblical factual errors proffered will only be of concern to those who believe all of the Bible is inspired truth- for those of less emphatic views but needless to say acknowledge their belief in the sacred, such revelations will not be of concern- perhaps one can be fortified by the view that what was to be analyzed in the flesh so to speak would reveal its ongoing fragility.

Fox in his conclusion draws a parallel in his acknowledgment in the humanity of the Bible to become empathetic with the idea of the revelation of human truth in the frank admissions and misunderstandings of the disciples, the betrayal, in their disloyalty and in the admissions of wickedness which stains the pages of much of the earlier ancient texts.

Robin Lane Fox’s book is a thoughtful and insightful treatise into the history of religion and of belief, but his findings will be met with immediate hostility to anyone of a fundamentalist persuasion. For others his courteous disciplined scholarly approach will be welcomed but for me the continuing theme became a tad too long and highly predictable.

The Biology of belief

2009-11-03T19:47:00.003+11:00

Introduction

Looking backwards in time my mind struggles to imagine how those first awakenings of self consciousness were played out in humanity’s journey of discovery. I rather think those first early insights will remain hidden forever in our oral history, in the evolving stories of dance, in the lyrical chants of the ancients or in the wondrous dreamland scenes carved on rock walls up to 60,000 years ago. Elkhonon Goldberg in ‘The Executive Brain’ suggests religious ideas about this time may have first emerged as we struggled to separate the thoughts we have about others are separate to those we think about. He suggests such self memories about a deceased person may have been attributed to the current spirit of that deceased person as it became a taboo custom to speak of the dead.

Before that momentous crossover into self consciousness much earlier a series of seismic events transformed our living planet to create nature’s vision splendor. The timing of those massive upheavals was necessarily precise to change our planetary environment to enable life’s previous abundant first single cell life to evolve into the multi celled life complexity we see today; as our planet temporarily appearing like Jupiter – totally wrapped in thick ice –then thawed to cause water to carve out the new landscape warmed by immense erupting volcanoes. Miraculously the planetary environment reached a state of equilibrium to give birth to the first evolved multi cell creatures some 650,000 years ago which are evident today in the fossilized imprints- as if just recently left in dried mud- in the thin layers of ancient rocks in the remote areas of what is known as the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

These insights into our past are only made possible by the evolution of our self consciousness which enables us to makes sense of such things; to ponder the sequential events needed for one single cell to become the trillions estimated to make up the human body. The mechanism to enable enjoyment of our enhanced understanding is in the architecture of our frontal lobes which allow us to retrieve information stored in the older ‘limbic’ areas of the brain for dynamic processing in the frontal lobes area coupled with repositories of self awareness. Elkhonon Goldberg in ‘The Executive Brain’

Interestingly just as these frontal lobes are our most recently evolved brain area they remain by far the most vulnerable or fragile to trauma and the onslaught of dementia which exhibits those frightening losses of cognitive memory ability. It is not that memory is lost in dementia patients but rather the circuitry connections to memory are either damaged or severed, - Eklhonon Goldberg ‘The Executive Brain’.
Self consciousness is thought to be only evident in humans and maybe in other highly developed life forms albeit such views continue to be debated and constrained by a lack of any known developed animal language.

Given our newly acquired self consciousness- an insatiable curiosity combined with unquenchable thirst for knowledge it is hardly surprising we have complex ever changing belief systems.

But with the onset of a scientific age of new discoveries to contradict many of the rigidly held religious ‘beliefs’ scientists became very wary of making any references to ‘beliefs’ in scientific discourses preferring to talk about concepts which were to be only to be accepted as science after stringent evidentiary validation.

Book Review- The Biology of Belief

The title of Bruce H Lipton’s (Ph.D.) book ‘The Biology of Belief’ aroused my interest- no doubt as was the author’s intention to engender for him a wider reader’s audience.
The author’s first watershed moment is vividly described in the Prologue when he was lecturing medical students in the Caribbean

‘I had resigned my tenured position at the University of Wisconsin’s School of medicine and was teaching at an offshore medical school in the Caribbean. Because the school was so far out of the academic mainstream, I started thinking outside the rigid parameters of belief that prevail in conventional academia. Far from ivory towers, isolated on an emerald island in the deep azure Caribbean Sea, I experienced a scientific epiphany that shattered my beliefs about the nature of life.
My Life changing moment occurred while I was reviewing research on the mechanisms by which cells control their physiology and behavior. Suddenly I realized that a cell’s lifer is controlled by the physical and energetic environment and not by its genes. Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a ‘contractor’ who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a single cells ‘awareness‘of the environment, not its genes that sets into motion the mechanisms of life.

His book is an amalgam of the next 20 years of research and experience which I will attempt to engage sufficient portions so that you have some understanding of the nature of his findings.

Cells as Miniature Humans

He introduces to us to the idea that every cell in our body – and there are roughly 60 trillion of them – is a smart cell capable of fulfilling all of the known bodily functions we attribute to our mind and body as a whole. This intelligence is resident in the cell membrane and reacts to its physiology through controlling proteins able to override the genetically encoded DNA resident in the cell nucleus. That is to say that although the DNA which is resident in the cell nuclei does determine our pre programmed genetic characteristics their operation can be turned off and on by the controlling proteins within the cells membrane environment. Hence the author contends our ‘belief systems’ are instrumental in the control of our biological functioning rather than by genetic determinants. Lipton explains the trend scientifically towards genetic determinism was adopted since the discovery of genes provided the final missing link to show how Darwin’s species adaption’s or changes were all transferred genetically into each new evolved generation.

An analogy to help explain the Magical Cell membrane

Lipton uses the analogy of the test pattern appearing on old TV sets. Those of us old enough to remember will recall how a test pattern appeared on our TV sets once the day’s program’s came to closures traditionally after midnight.

‘Think of the pattern of the test screen as the pattern encoded by a given gene, say the one for brown eyes. The dials and switches, TV fine –tune the test screen by allowing you to turn it on or off and modulate a number of characteristics , including colour, hue, contrast, brightness, vertical and horizontal holds .By adjusting the dials, you can alter the appearance of the test pattern on the screen, while not actually changing the original broadcast pattern. This is the role of the regulatory proteins.

Waltzed through the ‘Magical Membrane’ and on to ‘The New physics; Planting both feet on thin Air”

Lipton waltzes his readers through chapters entitled ‘Magical Membrane’, and on to ‘The New physics: Planting both feet firmly on thin Air’; to introduce the dual wave -particle physics theory to understand how energy underpins his biological beliefs and to persuade us more research is needed into the fields of energy waves rather than what is currently disproportionately devoted to genes. The question one skeptic might immediately ask is would this approach risk ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ since it would signal a retreat away from genealogy which forms the mainstay applications of westernized based prescriptions. On a more general note however I think few would argue, not least of which, the inhabitants of developing nations, to say modern medical advances have ensured improved longevity and help enormously to maintain improved healthy sustainable lives. A visit to any impoverished nation reveals the extent to which provision of improved medical and mental health facilities with an array of prescriptive drugs has a beneficial improvement in the overall wellbeing of the population.

However I do not think the author risks ‘throwing out the baby out with the bathwater’ but I rather think the question might well be asked in reverse ‘has the westernized approach become guilty of putting too much faith in the genealogy? , or put another way ‘putting too many of its research dollars into one basket? As Lipton reminds us ever since Darwin’s species adaption’s or changes were thought to be conveniently verified via the modus operandam of genetically transferred information within the DNA of the cell nucleus into each new evolved generation, scientists have assumed this must represents the crucial frontier area to find future cures for such things as cancers and incurable disorders. Whilst it is true to say the environmental was accepted as playing a pivotal role in outcomes this was more generally attributed to the overall attitude of the mind and reactions to external stimuli rather than thought be equally present in the individual cell intelligence as suggested by Lipton.
The manufacturers and distributors of drugs found a powerful advocate in money motivation to direct disproportionate research efforts into the genealogy pool and away from other forms of research which may be far less drug dependant and be more successful without the dreaded side effects of prescription medicine.

Maybe we are at the crossroads where a more multi disciplinary approach offers the best future opportunities.
We can be optimistic that so called reliance in genetic determinism is almost dead in the water.

Positive thoughts and a conclusion

I think I am a positivist by nature but as the book moves into the realm of a personal empowerment treatise for living and loving, for me, I think his views are more intuitively driven than as a logical progression from earlier chapters. My point is a personal one and does not detract from the thrust of his inspirational message of self empowerment which will be met joyously by many less skeptical readers than me - particularly as he shares his own personal journey in tandem with his fascinating scientific treatise.
I should hasten to add I think intuition can play a pivotal role in many deliberations and does not diminish the validity of our outcomes but rather ads important new dimension to our everyday life. But what is intuitively true for some will not be so for others and for the teams that work together particularly in dynamic highly charged atmospheres, where intuition is no substitute for prior training and consultation. I was reminded of this factor when reading about the shortcomings of an ambulance emergency centre which relied too much on the intuition of its operators to determine the seriousness or otherwise of callers to allocate emergency status or otherwise to distressed cases with catastrophic results.

The author’s message is of hope and joy with an emphasis that nurturing of children is more important than their genealogy, that we can influence our outcomes by positive thoughts and what are fears already etched in sub conscious memory might be unlocked in conscious thought. They are aspects that many of us have long held to be true, but Lipton takes on an evangelical emphasis to encourage believers to no longer feel they are trapped in the rut imposed by the false belief we are constrained by a pre programmed genetic disposition.

But equally we know that the outcome does not always turn out as a positive as we might have hoped as we are confronted by children born or contacting an incurable chronic disorder who dies prematurely notwithstanding the loads of love nourished upon them so that it remains an enduring life mystery. The author does not broach such issues excepting to say that he thinks his biological way of thinking stands a better chance of finding a cure, by forging new frontiers into science.

The author’s admission that he has become a Spiritual scientist is oddly enough tucked away as an epilogue, was to me disappointing as I think he would be more effective is added to earlier discussions. His spiritual visions are lucid, concise and exciting as he asserts our life in not arbitrary as may have been inferred from Darwin and his successors but is rooted in a series of endless repeating patterns which depend upon co operation for survival. Those few cancerous cells lack housing and make up a minority who one day may no longer cause havoc as our cells membranes intelligence expands in conscious awareness sufficiently to ensure no damage can be done.

I would recommend this excellent book as fascinating reading for anyone with any interest in the cutting edge of biology – and wants to know why a spiritual scientist asserts our caring loving nature or otherwise is the spiritual energy source to have more of a profound influence on ourselves and others than we think – from the point of view of all of the combined energy evident in every cell in our body and the aggregate I am happy to call me.

Post Card to the future

2009-10-18T23:36:00.004+11:00

The thirsty camel

Most of us love water which is possibly the most valuable of all resources – to enjoy the refreshing sea, river, stream or lake. But the bulk of our fresh water resides in the polar icecaps which are now threatened by global warming. Water occupies about 70% of the earth’s surface and is 75% of our human body mass.

Australia to me is like a giant camel whose safely stored water is to be used sparingly between infrequent stops at waterholes fed by uncertain rain.

The Australian land mass was once part of a larger mass which remained submerged for nearly 4 billion years beneath the sea (click here to read more) to accccumulate vast salt deposits below the water table. Our soils are generally poor since the sea washed out most of the soils nutrients except for a thin rich top soil.

Our industrious pioneers were blissfully unaware their extensive tree felling and irrigation would raise the water table sufficiently to cause salt deposits; miles and miles of desolate, salt filled land with pools of salt water to render the once arable land unusable. It is an eerie and disconcerting feeling to gaze out the window when travelling to view this blight visited upon the landscape. Similar outcomes are prevalent in parts of the USA, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan, all effected in the same way by salination. Over grazing and tree clearing also exposed the precious top soil to more frequent dust storms and erosion.

Our economy today is less dependent on agricultural exports and more resilient to withstand the effects of drought since forging stronger economic ties to the Asia region. The strong bond to Mother England reduced about the time of the discovery of minerals and energy when England was to also join the common market and reduce trade with Australia.

Immigration has remained a stalwart for post war economic growth but many may be surprised to learn Australia is currently growing at its fastest pace ever; faster than any other country in the world. This combination of population growth, a robust financial regulatory regime combined with improved corporate social responsibility and rising exports to Asia has allowed us to avoid a recession.

Given existing growth ratios our population is forecast to double within the next 40 years in the Asian region which is expected to contain 60% of the world’s population. While the economic benefits are both apparent and challenging the more fundamental question arises over whether our finite water, land and infrastructure systems can sustain such a projected level of population.

Nobody has the definitive answers but there any number of futurists willing to stake a claim both for and against Australia being able to support such an increased population scenario. In the end their educated guesses are no better than yours or mine – but with the amount of information doubling every 18 months no one is short of information but as always there seems to be a shortage of wisdom. This post does not pretend to be wise or better informed, rather, within my limited sphere of knowledge and research I will attempt to examine the challenges as I see it to argue what might be sensibly suggested to achieve a more sustainable future.

Pre colonization

Living on a large Island which had become separated from the mainland Australian Aboriginals are thought to have enjoyed a period of 60,000 years of isolation prior to colonization,(click here to read more) to represent the oldest known period for any culture. Like many indigenous societies its oral and visual history does not reveal definitive records of changing climatic and land mass conditions although it has bben gauged they were involved in extensive burning of bush land to seek out game which permanently changed the landscape. Aborigines also engaged in some agriculture using water channels (click here to read more) for irrigation planting of a variety of wild grains which were cultivated into regular crops. They also engaged in seasonal eel framing. They erected stone cottages where they lived during the time of harvest. It is difficult to ascertain population levels at the time of colonization due to their rapid decimation from the newly contacted diseases and ensuing wars but estimates vary from a million to a low of three hundred thousand.

A feature of the Australian bush is many of the species require the intense heat from a bush fire for the seeds to burst from their pods to later germinate. Evidence points towards Bushfires being an integral part of our landscape for a very long period of time- possibly caused by periodic man made burning and lightning strikes. Many have argued the tragic bush fires in February of this year would have not been as ferocious had periodic large-scale burning off of the tinder dry forest areas been more widespread.

What we can learn from the aboriginals is the land owns us, not the other way around. It is only in partnership with nature that modern methods can be effective. It seems to me unhelpful extremism exists on both sides of the bush fence so to speak; unbridled development versus maintenance of a wilderness. I don’t think there are any definitive answers other than to aim to work in partnership with nature by setting aside connecting corridors of land to maintain bio diversity which have been demonstrated will enhance yields of existing land use.

Genetically modified agriculture is yet another subject and suffices to say science can be the friend of agriculture. But GMO based agriculture tested in the laboratory may not behave in the same manner in the environment and requires vigilance to be carefully tested in the field for a very long time to avoid unforeseen consequences.

A Farmers lament -Rain no longer follows the plough!

The early settlers reshaped the landscape with extensive tree felling and overgrazing by sheep and cattle unaware of the consequences of their actions as if Australia was to expressed as an extension of an English county. During the early periods buoyed on by a repeat of unseasonally good rainy seasons a philosophy took root from successive good harvests – the rain always follows the plough.

The repeated cycle to clear the land gained momentum to the extent more and more marginal areas were opened up for farming with disastrous results. Soon landowner’s optimism gave way to despair as they were forced to walk off the land destitute as a consequence of the inevitable drought cycle which took them by surprise.

In the more immediate post war period the same pattern was to occur. The then liberal government created solder settlements; small farming land parcels ganted to returning servicemen. Although many of these holdings through amalgamations and capital improvements continue, many were forced to walk off the land broken heartbroken. I remember vividly, the anger and frustration in my Uncles voice, as a youngster staying on his farm ,to hear him berate the government for their foolishness. He knew full well there was never a hope in hell they could become sustainable farmers from such small uneconomic land holdings.

Fortunately today these lessons have been learnt and larger scale amalgamations have occurred in most agricultural sectors to ensure farms collectively have become world’s most efficient. However, encouragement to use irrigation for water dependant crops such as rice and cotton were examples of ccontinued bad policies.

Kidman’s bid to drought proof his properties

Cattle king Sir Sidney Kidman set up a vast pastoral empire dating from the late 19th century where he sought to drought-proof his landholdings by buying up strings of interconnected properties across the continent so that stock could be moved from one area to another as the need arose.

Today only 15 of the properties remain including Anna creek, (click here for ther website), which is the largest cattle station in the world covering 3 million acres – larger than Belgium. You can read the history of Anna Creek and the present carrying capacity by clicking here . At one stage during the drought in 2008 they decided to shut down and wait for rain.

A perspective on modern day agriculture and farming in Australia

When Jarred Diamond visited Australia a few years ago he talked about what had changed from 40 years ago when he was last here. It was all about the land, he said, the new spirit within the country that acknowledges it is not here for us to do with it whatever we please. In Australia away from our dense populations on the eastern seaboard, in our dry fragile country our unsubsidized farmers- unlike our European and American counterparts- have had to adopt innovative farming techniques combined with excellent infrastructures to compete and remain at the top of the table as the world’s most efficient. This has meant Australia is currently in the enviable position of having food security and being one of the largest net food exporters. Naturally enough there will not always be general agreement between farmers as to the best way to farm alongside nature and there are both positive and negative aspects but overall there are many reasons to remain positive.

There currently exists a mixture of the large scale technologically based farming more reliant on chemicals versus those in favor of a more bio diversified approach that relies more on nature for its sustainability. But overall, despite our poor beginning most farmers today are staunch conservationists, intent on preserving the land in perpetuity for future generations. One aspect I think that has tremendous potential to continue to yield outstanding results is Land Care.

Local Land Care groups ensure farms are not only sustainable, but set aside corridors of up to 12% of the land as sanctuaries for nature. Land Care, introduced in 1989, is an exciting government funded initiative which enables groups to receive grants and technical advice to help better maintain the native landscape and set up the vital corridor sanctuaries which interlink the properties within each respective land care group. There are 4,000 community Land Care Groups currently engaged at many different levels.

I like the conclusion in Dr Chris William’s book entitled Old Land, New Landscapes “The foreground of Australia’s old frontiers reveals that people’s circumstances, personal histories and memories are diverse, mutable and dynamic, like the physical landscape itself. The future of the bush in the sheep and wheat belt, as an ecological opportunity, remains dependant therefore on embracing diversity in both the landscape and its people. Landscape foreground is complex, even chaotic, but it is human. It is, therefore, the source of the relationship with nature that we now attain, or for which we might one day strive.

Click here for Chris Williams book.

Water shortages

Since Australia is the driest continent on planet earth it is not surprising water shortages should remain the most crucial of issues to support a burgeoning population.

One of the worst areas affected is our largest river the Murray which is in desperate needs of an increase in its water flow, depleted by inappropriate irrigation. The Murray flows along the eastern side of South Australia, and part of the New South Wales and Victoria borders. Irrigation from the Murray sustains this region which produces 50% of Australia’s fresh fruit and vegetables, but at a terrible cost to the river and its eco system. Irrigation water drawn from the Murray has resulted in so little water remaining in the once mighty river its flow was insufficient to carry any fresh water into the ocean.

This environmental position for the river, if allowed to continue, would have a devastating effect on its biology, eliminating many species dependent upon brackish waters.

Fortunately there is a ground for cautious optimism today as both our Commonwealth and State Governments have put aside substantial funds directed to restoring an environmental flow of water to the Murray River, but at the time of writing programs has been slow with 40% of the projects yet to start. One solution is to buy the water rights from farmers who will either disengage or revert to less water intensive activities. So far about $3 billion has allocated for this purpose. The aim is to return 120 billion liters of water to the Murray River from farmers in exchange for funds for them to upgrades irrigation and other farming infrastructure. Some irrigation systems lose up to 40% of water to evaporation.

Today there is also an industry being built up around water and water rights which are actively traded, like other commodities; ensuring users pay a market price for those facilities to be made available. The rights are aggregated in total to the level calculated as sustainable by respective country authorities.

Although progress has been frustratingly slow the idea Rivers will be legally entitled to a certain amount of water known as an Environmental Water Reserves is a meritorious idea but as yet is not implement.

It is as vitally important for Australia as it is for the developing world which uses around 70% of all available water for irrigation

Overall we are learning from past mistakes and per capita use of water in Australia has reduced by 20% per year for the past few years.

I think farming and looking after the environment go hand in hand. Both can co-exist as an expression of long term sustainability. It's often Farmers who are the ones most interested in preserving their environment to farm in a sustainable way.

Notwithstanding some of these positive aspects of reduced agricultural water usage, the provision of fresh drinking water remains one of the largest challenges for the world today.

Rural land is overvalued

The value of rural land in Australia and indeed in many parts of the western world is vastly overpriced. This is a consequence of continued income support to farmers over successive frequent droughts that ensure the price of land remains unrealistically high, whilst overseas huge subsidies paid to farmers inflate the value of the land.

Rural land in Australia has appreciated in real terms around 5-6%, that’s 5-6 % above the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, putting undue pressure to obtain a commensurate improved return.

But I also think Australian farmers are the most efficient in the world and most are responsible environmentalists who do a magnificent job looking after the land for future generations. During dire times of drought they immediately begin de stocking to mitigate the effects and lessen stress on the land. Many are debt free 3rd generation farmers whose reserves and or alternative incomes tide then through these most difficult of times.

What I favour as an alternative to income support is government assistance in the form of interest free loans, made during such times but to be repaid during good seasons. I think most farmers would prefer a loan to income support schemes, which is nothing more than a handout.

I also think additionally it’s worth considering a substantial heritage type annual payment, in recognition of the Farmers custodian role of looking after the land and preserving the land for future generations subject to meeting certain conditions.

Conclusion

In the long term exceptional dry circumstances will not be so exceptional in years to come, but I also believe the Australians farmers will adapt and preserve the land for future generations in a sustainable way. That means much more diversity for farms, a sole farming income may need additional sources as we experience drier conditions. The dichotomy or tension between country and city, farming and non framing and or industry need not exist at all as we are all co dependent upon one to another, particularly to sustain a substantial increase in population.

In fact I think it will be true for most countries the world over. The pooling of skills and sharing between communities both country and city allows us to learn together as to how to be sustainable, in partnership with nature and to grow more in a sustainable manner. It's how we evolved and it’s how we will survive the future and even accommodate a much bigger population in Australia.

Economics in Australia compared to the US

2009-09-29T14:32:00.013+10:00

Economists invariably cop the tag of belonging to the pessimistic science since jokingly it is oft said by way of an introductory welcome to the podium …….Please welcome .......... who has successfully predicted 14 of the last two recessions.

Economic reputations suffered a further blow since most failed to predict the global financial crisis or identify sufficiently the consequences of the prior rising bubble.

There are notable exceptions but invariably their prior records are patchy enough to reasonably conclude this was the one prediction they just happened to get right at the right time. This patchiness is not surprising since bubbles don’t figure in economic or monetary theory nor are they included in the sophisticated economic models. Economics was never a science but is the art in dealing with the erratic human behaviors which can routinely make miserable fools of economic forecasters based upon rational outcomes. You spend most of your time looking in the rear vision mirror for any reflections indicative of the way forward.

I remember early student days full of debate on contemporary issues such as tariffs, subsidies, basic wage increases, international trade and regulatory issues for a banking system and so on. Today there is far more complexity and global interaction to consider, but I remember then many appalling decisions made in Australasia when life was simpler. Neverthless there are always lessons you can learn from studying past trade cycles, even to go far back to the great depression.

One aspect worth noting about the great depression is the assumed degree of speculation attributed by governments of the day and subsequent commentators. But if you undergo a thorough analysis of the prior trading conditions you find speculation was not nearly as rife as is commonly assumed. By way of example if you take the various PE ratios ( earnings to stock price ratios) for companies in the various industry sectors just before the massive fall in stock values you find a degree of normality that today would not cause undue concern. Lurking behind the bland facade however was the leveraged investment companies with their investments in overly valued utility companies which caused all of the havoc. Once values and profits fell in that one industry sector alone highly leveraged investments companies had to sell their shares to pay the margin lender. The same pattern happened with the individual investors in the Management Investments whose worthless investments meant they had to sell their remaining stock holdings in other sectors to cover their margin lending. Then the government talked simplistically about all of the greedy speculators as the only cause for an overvalued market which helped perpetuate the next downward spiral famously known (and still fearded )double dip. Most of the self perpetuating downward spirals were driven by leverage and subsequant sentiment but not substance that culminated in a collective fall of 89% with all of its accompanying misery.

After my studies and during my subsequent career I have almost always been responsible for forecasting economic indices and have endeavored as far as possible to follow economics which I have found both to be very interesting but equally frustrating.

When I first studied Keynes and Samuelson dominated our textbooks.
Keynes was one of the first philosophical economists who insisted economic theories must lead to fairer more ethical outcome for everyone. Keynes’ views were no doubt forged from his desire to avoid a repeat of the great depression where he held onto his shares and subsequently lost his fortune along with many others. Throughout his life he remained a colourful witty character devoted to the arts, nature and conservation to the extent he was miles ahead of his time. His highly developed mathematics gave way to theories suggesting the need for the creation of a strong regulatory regime to prudently effectively use both monetary (supply of money and interest rates) and fiscal policy (government spending and taxation) to help iron out inevitable economic imbalances were adopted in Australia.

In the USA Economics was to eventually turn away from Keynes to a different route with the rise in power of the economic monetarists who suggested you only need to vary the volume of money in circulation (money, bank deposits in demand and related interbank deposits with overnight liquidity)and interest rates to effectively control imbalances between supply and demand.This suited successive governments and business since it involved less regulatory resources and ensuing compliance as was proposed by Keynes and others. These ideas inevitably filtered through to Australia as the economy in the USA seemed to be traveling well.Subsequently the USA rode out the Savings and Loan fiasco and the Dotcom bubble but only at the expense of a burgeoning debt burden.

However fortuitously our economy in Austrtalia was to benefit enormously from increased taxation revenue derived from a mining boom wisely squirreled away in reserves for a rainy day,( some since released for a number of stimulatory measures) our close ties to the expanding Asian region and because we invested in a more effective regulatory regime following our largest corporate collapse in Australia - the demise of HIH.

At that time officials at APRA – The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority correctly concluded that any large bank, financial, insurance or related entity could fail and with sufficient negative sentiment bring down the entire economy with them. They set about regularity changes to improve and more closely monitor solvency ratios and risk management practices with quarterly reporting requirements for all of our major institutions which caused a considerable amount of angst within the business community. These factors, inclusive of the tyranny of distance aspect which separated us from the sharper end of the pencil where all of the sub prime action was taking place ensured our lucky escape so far to date.

Recently in the US I was disappointed to see mooted bank regulatory changes are to be confined to increasinging capital requirements rather than ensuring unregulated derivatives are separated out and excluded from cover under their banking licenses.
Even Hedge fund billionaire George Soros and Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Manager are calling for urgent limits on credit-default swaps- one of the prior subprime culprits. These instruments are unnecessary since there already exists regulated conventional insurance products able to cover risk. The current banking structure leaves those large institutions in the same vunerable position as existed prior to the crisis. I hope there is change in heart.

Longer term my prediction is for continued weakness in the USA dollar to ultimately lead to higher inflation and inevitably higher interest rates. But in the medium term as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (who co incidebtally did his PHD on the trade cycle which involved studying Keynes and the great depresion effects )correctly points out U.S. interest rates will be kept low for quite some time, because of prolonged weakness.

Meanwhile if the American economy does stabilize and begin to give grounds for some genuine hope of a rebound, which I earnestly hope it will, then I also predict there will be an abundance of born-again Keynesians to poke up their heads from under a winters burrow.

Information overload

2009-09-26T23:23:00.003+10:00

We live in an information age where knowledge grows exponentially. The effect is for an increasingly reliance and trust on a dwindling number of specialized individuals -particularly in science and technology. The potential for large scale crashes and unmitigated disaster is apparent everywhere - just as we saw in what many would regard as feeble regulatory efforts due in part to the inability to understand what was going on and the potential for disaster by a few overwhelmed investigators. The explosion of available and mandated information is reaching plague proportions as we become inundated with larger and larger data bases.In the area of business to day I have seen this explosion and specialization subdivide subjects I once studied with authoritarian texts that might have run to a few hundred pages expanded to dozens of volumes. In our everyday lives we are attempting to avoid the responsibility to trust in the integrity of one another by lengthy product disclosure statements, huge information gathering exercises for prospectuses and in the increased regulatory complexity that impose burdensome reporting on to specialists.In spite of this additional information the same glaring inequalities and injustices continue to exist. We are in danger of thinking the provision of additional information can supplant the central importance of human integrity.

What appears to be enigma in our western culture is we no longer take information from divergent disciplines to inform philosophical debate.The reasons relates to our specialized knowledge based society with its’ esoteric information for each disciplinary area which is not easily applied elsewhere. The growth of knowledge in every discipline means we will soon reach the stages where increased volume will ensure any research effort will involve an extraordinary amount of weeding to finally smell the flowers you are searching for.My conclusion is ironically we are at risk of almost returning to the pre printing press days when few people could read or write – but now because of information overload few know enough to know what to accept about different topics presented by varying experts in that field.
The contextual nature of information to a particular discipline is necessary for its integrity but nevertheless I see a danger in continued specialization to create the potential for a cultural desert within the self perpetuating isolationism of the various schisms’ within such a structured society. Indeed the search for the “facts” and total reliance on independent experts to support government decisions is increasingly becoming popular and neatly sidesteps any obligation to simplify and clarify the benefits to a country and its electorate of any intended changes. It is almost impossible not to make a reference to fairness, value and purpose when debating change if you want to argue philosophically why those changes are needed. Nevertheless such basic aspects are often lost or glossed over in a debate consumed by the veracity or otherwise of information.

In other words who has the correct facts or who is right and who is wrong. Ultimatedly voters like to be able read and understand enough to decide who they trust to make the best and fairest use of our scare resources and information and who they don’t for the reasons of ……….. . As we find leaders who can be trusted than we make real progress just as those leaders find experts who can be trusted and so on. It was always a matter of who could be trusted – or not!

There is a need for those in power to reduce the information overload so that what it made available is in a easily digestible format to support a particular policy, its value and overall purpose. If it’s too complex or difficult to be understood than its back to the drawing board until such time as it’s easily understandable.

Understandably I think whilst Science is fascinating, enhanced by books which lead the bestseller lists, there is equally the danger of a community backlash to derail its advances to a retreat into fundamentalism - unless information is presented in an easily understandable way - to include how it is to be used to enhance fairness value and purpose.

"The God Delusion “by Richard Dawkins

2009-09-14T01:38:00.016+10:00

Review of the book “The God Delusion “by Richard Dawkins

In his book “The God Delusion” Dawkins distances himself from pantheism (the idea God is in everything) and Buddhism but singles out for criticism the traditional fundamentalist interpretation of a theistic GOD representative of the Abrahamic based faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His approach is to first define the GOD hypothesis from which to argue against GOD’s existence, the religious philosophy of omnipotence outlined by Aquinas, the non relevance for a vengeful God and how morality is unconnected with religion.

I found his book lacking in philosophical challenge.

Here is my review:

The problem for me with Dawkin’s reasoning is that many of his concerns about fundamentalism in religion are equally shared by non fundamentalists who have no problem in retaining a belief in GOD. All of his philosophical rebuttals are also reliant on the philosophical materialism that undewrites all of modern science. Aquinas put the idea of God succinctly as “BEING” – unrelated to any form of materialism.

Dawkins takes issue with Aquinas on the omnipotence of GOD, but Astrophysicist Jesuit George Coyne explores the ideas of continued creation in a different way - “A theologian already poses the concept of God’s continuous creation with which to explore the implications of modern science for religious belief. GOD is working with the universe, the universe has a certain vitality of its own like a child does, and it has the ability to respond to words of endearment and encouragement. Coyne rejects the idea of the omnipotent and omniscient GOD of old – “The universe is not GOD and it cannot exist independently of GOD. Neither pantheism nor naturalism is true. But, if we confront what we know of our origins scientifically with religious faith in GOD the Creator –if, that is , we take the results of modern science seriously –it is difficult to believe that GOD is omnipotent and omniscient in the sense of many of the scholastic philosophers. For the believer, science tells us of a GOD who must be very much different from a GOD as seen by them.”

Dawkin’s has no doubt forgotten more of evolutionary biology than I can remember-what one would expect from the culmination of a life’s study and efforts in one’s chosen endeavors. It is not this scholastic record that I question since I accept and trust what he has to say about biology is true. He is also at odds with dozens of eminent evolutionary biologists that do believe in GOD- but that is not my point, rather my issue is his emphatic assertion any debate in relation to the existence of GOD must remain within the province of science and evidentiary material proof.

The problem with this assertion is apparent as modern science refuses to talk about value, purpose or consciousness- under which such a belief would be debated. Dawkins does make some references but never really strays too far from his original premise to demand scientific evidence to argue against his atheistic views.

Science only talks about the theories in relation to physical objects supported by observation and mathematics. It cannot purport to understand ultimate reality since there is no evidence to support or calculate its definitive nature or existence. Likwise we cannot say what it is any more than we say what it is not - but Dawkins insists we can say what it is not- it cannot be spiritual - it can only be physical, since it is only the physical things that we can study.

Dawkins refuses to step outside his narrow reference, yet warns sternly against ’absolutism’ which I endorse – but it seems to me his ideas that nothing is possible outside sciences’ materialistic philosophy is an absolute statement. – A denial of the possibility of anything spiritual. Dawkins insists science comes up trumps – the best fitted shoe for any philosophical logical argument despite the fact the vast majority of scientific studies and discoveries have all been counter intuitive. Even possibly the greatest - Einstein’s theory of general relativity may yet need to be modified should we ever develop a coherent theory for quantum gravity.

Even so, on many occasions, we rightly put our faith in science- until another theory can be proven. However, within Dawkin’s own field of expertise – biology - the Holy Grail of Darwinian evolution which underpinned scientific belief is under challenge. It is acknowledged our early earth temperatures, following the “big bang” at 300 degrees Celsius were a very hostile environment for any primitive life but we have now discovered bacteria ( bacteria has DNA ) continuing to exist in the heart of volcanoes, where conditions replicate those first earliest conditions. It seems plausible many uncoded molelcular forms with the potential to self replicate binded together and under natural selection evolved into the coded RNA and DNA molecules that drive the functioning and reproduction of all living cells.

I think you could liken it to a form of evolved intelligent design or creation or biological evolution- ( call it whatever you wish) arising effortlessly over many billions of years. The remarkable sequential life giving events give rise to a possibility of another form of intelligence, which is outside of material matter and energy to created it (nothingness or GOD) or that which was necessarily and preceded its existence.(nothingness or GOD)

For acclaimed physicist and mathematician Stephen Wolfram, life complexity, intrinsic to physics is not only driven by natural selection but more from the ability of non complex life forms to quickly become complex. Wolfram contends wherever one sees complexity-say in the shape of a leaf –its form is not just generated because of some particular purpose by some sophisticated process. He has indicated in his experiments biology expands into complexity from even very simple rules of growth- even in complex species evident in the fluidity of parallel cell development.

I think the creative element exists within evolution which nevertheless remains an important milestone in helping us better understand how we came to be whom we are. We have only recently evolved our “consciousness” allowing us to ask the big metaphysical questions. Modern science is not philosophy- since it remains a helpful tool to relay layers of light to guide our path, just as religiosity with metaphors, analogies and old stories from differing cultural backgrounds illuminate ones beliefs.

All of the arguments against a belief in GOD presented by Dawkins with much aplomb are self refuting. You can argue until you are black in the face and it won’t make an a iota of difference - our existence gives rise to a much stronger philosophical arguments that appeals to another’s existence and so on back to the original singularity which transcends our understanding. In every day of our adult life we make an estimated 2 billion judgments with only the very tiniest slither ever entering our consciousness. To assume such a tiny slither makes our scientific undertanding the irrefutable be all of everything seems to me to be in the exact same vein as Dawkins assertions against the fundamentalist GOD delusion. All of his assertions, once debated philosophically, expose the weak ineffectual nature of such non existential arguments.

Dawkins also makes a point of the possibility of linking violence to religion. I don’t wish to defend the indefensible – past atrocities committed in the name of religion remain atrocities, but I think religion is often the lever which would be easily substituted for another secular one to suit the purpose of its murderous perpetrators should it be convenient within a particular country or region. In other words I think the desire and will to power which consumes some in an “ecstasy of violence” does not need religion to power its explosive fuel. There have been any number of commensurate psychopaths in many countries in which religion was not a good lever but whose rule precipitated untold death and misery – some of the worst in modern history had no need for religion to underpin such pathways.

The idea of a reconciliation, and for justice to finally prevail are not pie in the sky romantic notions of a flowery religion, but viable alternatives for hope that transcends a miserable materialistic philosopy of science. That hope in goodness in turn depends upon the actions and the philosophy we adopt in this world today. Atheists, humanists, agnostics and believers equally can all do very good work, since good is not dependent upon belief although it may influence what you do and why we do it.

As Dawkins attempts to tear down the old theistic idols he reveals his passion for science and for science’s ability to make sense of much of the material world for us – one that I share with him – but I also think his atheistic passion borders on the equivalent of the religious zealot so consumed by his belief that one is unable to ascertain his own life philosopy - except for the one lonely point – He does not believe in GOD.

Food – glorious food

2009-09-01T12:32:00.003+10:00

I recently gave another more comprehensive presentation with a DVD about my visit to Malawi which was followed by a lunch prepared by the support group members with the emphasis on Malawian flavours. Those who attended gave generous donations. One member – by courtesy of Wikipedia- also presented his research findings about Malawian food just before we sampled all of the delicious dishes. His presentation is listed below for those who may be interested:

Malawian Food

Despite its natural riches, Malawi remains a very poor country. In this little country most people are subsistence farmers. This means they grow most of their own food in small gardens. If a family has extra food, they take it to market to trade for other necessities. Malawi cuisine has remained largely free of culinary influences from the outside world, until the late 19th century, with the exception of the use of cassava, Peanut, and chilli pepper plants which arrived along with the slave trade during the early 1500s. These foodstuffs have had a large influence on the local cuisine, but less on the preparation methods. Malawi cooking has remained mostly traditional. The staple food in Malawi is Nsima (which is the Malawian equivalent of Zambian Nshima and is made either from cornmeal, maize or ground, dried, cassava.) Nsima is a thick porridge that can be moulded into patties and served with either beans, meat, or vegetables collectively called Ndiwo. Other Malawian dishes are prepared with rice, cassava or potatoes. However, the keystone of any traditional Malawian meal is starch; the relish is a secondary element intended to give flavour to the food. Because the Malawi people have always been farmers, this meal is highly regarded because it gives the necessary energy to work in the field all day.

So all over Malawi, the meal is composed of two main dishes: the starch (Nsima) and the relish (Ndiwo). While the recipe for starch is mostly the same all over Malawi, the relish is very different from region to region. In the east of Malawi, it is made mostly from vegetables, as meat is expensive and most people can’t afford it. The basic ingredients in this region are rice and foutou (massed plantain and cassava) and fufu (fermented cassava). A variety of local ingredients are used while preparing other dishes like spinach stew, cooked with tomato, peppers, chillies, onions and Peanut butter. Cassava (manioc) plants are also consumed as green salad. A traditional recipe for the basic vegetable Ndiwo includes Onion, tomatoes and green vegetables, especially cassava.

The Malawi Lake, located in the eastern regions of Malawi, is a great source of various types of Fish. The main types are Chambo, Mlamba (Catfish), Usipa, and Kampango. The people that live around the lake use the fish to cook delicious relishes and other foods. A traditional Ndiwo made from fish is the Curried Chambo fish. The main ingredients for this dish are: fish fillets, lemon juice, flour, onions, curry powder, fruit chutney and carrots. Chambo (Tilapia fish) is the country’s speciality and the main lake delicacy. Another traditional food is Wali wa samaki, made from salmon, vermicelli, Onion, carrots, rice and seasonings.

In Malawian cuisine there are some exotic recipes based on insects. These dishes have different preparation methods than other dishes. Ana a Njuchi (wild bee larvae) are dried and then fried with salt and dried again. They are served as a relish or appetizer. To cook bwamnoni (large green bush crickets) you have to remove wings and horned part of legs. After that, boil them in water for five minutes, then dry in the sun. Fry with a little salt and a little fat if desired. This dish is served as an Ndiwo relish. The nsensenya (shield bugs) are washed and fried with a little salt until they are brown and also served as a relish.

Special Equipment for Malawian Cooking

The Malawian cooking methods are basic ones and you don’t need any special equipment to cook any of the dishes in the Malawi cuisine. Your everyday cooking pots and pans are enough to cook a complete Malawian meal. However, if you want a true Malawian food experience, you should know that cooking is still done the traditional way in Malawi. In the vast majority of Malawian homes, food is cooked over a wood fire using a tripod made of three supporting stones. Women (and children helpers) are responsible for everything concerning the food from market shopping to dish washing. As Nshima is eaten with the hands, everyone washes in a communal bowl before and after the meal. Many Malawians have mud stoves outside of the house, where they cook bread. Since Nshima and Ndiwo are the essential elements of the Malawian cuisine, there are some special tools used when cooking these dishes. One of these tools is mthiko, the cooking stick that is specially made for cooking Nshima and Ndiwo.

Masterchef & Musical Fun Night

I was also privileged during the following weeks to attend a fun novelty music night with the added attraction of our own community Master chefs who produced an Entree, Main course and Dessert. We all voted to determine first prize.

Profit after expenses all went towards Sanctuary Victoria to provide help for a most deserving refugee family.

The music, sing alongs (such as The Lion sleeps to night, The Pub with no Beer etc), and musical questions for added prizes all made for a convivial evening.

To give you flavour here are a few of the questions about golden oldies – see if you’re familiar with any of these songs and can answer the questions?

How old was the Naughty Lady of Shady Lane – sung by Dean Martin?

Wobbly Boot – Slim Dusty
Do you know what a wobbly boot is and what is a galoot?

Lily the Pink- The Scaffold
What did medicinal compound do for everyone?

Little Boxes – Pete Seeger
What is ticky tacky?

What are all these songs all about?

Rivers of Babylon – Steve Earle
True Blue – John Williamson
Okie From Muskogee – Merle Haggard

Matilda, Matilda – Harry Belafonte
Who was Matilda?

The rules were there were no rules except to relax and enjoy yourself and laugh. Correct and clever answers , good and and not so good guesses , those attempting to sing a few lines and impersonations received varying scores with prizes awarded according to perceived levels of agreement and enthusiasm.

What more could you ask for a good nights entertainment.

It’s a long way to Tipperary

2009-08-13T17:50:00.003+10:00

This favourite song of WW1 composed in 1910 was an instant hit in the music halls of the day and enjoyed because of its pleasing marching style rhythm which even included a few bars from “Rule Britannia” sandwiched in as a musical interlude between the 1st and 2nd verses. “Rule Britannia" of course, is of much older grand vintage but retains its popularity today to rousing cheers from audiences at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms.

‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ was extremely popular with troops in WW1 - particularly those on their way to the western front in 1914, but even today it still remains a favourite around the piano. On my mother’s side my grandfather served in both the Boer war and WW1- when no doubt it was heard in and around his encampments.

Both Ireland and England reflect my ancestral roots. On my mother’s side my grandparents arrived on our shores in 1895 as newlyweds, settling in the seaside town of Ballina - famous for its magnificent cedar timber and located in northern NSW. On my father’s side my great, great grandfather was born in Tipperary, Ireland in 1816. This information came to me some time ago via the BBC when celebrity actor -producer Jack Thomson (his adopted name) who presented the series ‘Who do you think you are’ included a segment about his own biological family. A friend contacted me to say I must be related as a distant cousin which allowed me to ascertain a good deal more about my ancestral background which I have included briefly in this posting.

My great,great Grandfather on my father’s side arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1836, transported on the “Captain Cook’ – a journey which lasted 170 days. Earlier in Ireland his conviction on the 12th March 1836 for armed robbery -which carried a mandatory death sentence was commuted by the judge seeking clemency to substitute transportation for life to NSW, Australia on the 29th March 1836. Upon arrival, on the recommendation of a Constable, he was granted a ‘ticket of leave’ and conditional pardon. He subsequently wasted no time in establishing himself in Ballina as a cedar cutter, then timber trader and owner of a tavern in 1842. In 1848 he married and eventually fathered 8 children. He died in 1882.

My great grandfather was a farmer, cedar cutter and later became a mail contractor, fathered 15 children and managed to live on to a ripe old age of 82. Most of the descendants on my father’s side were involved or married into families reliant on the timbergetting industries. Not only were the descendants all involved in the Cedar industry but their children also married into timbergetting families and most stayed generally within the one district. On my Grandmother’s side co incidentally they were also all Cedargetters and one rose to prominence with his history recorded in local historical texts. Known as the Cedar King he purchased the biggest tree ever felled, one that yielded 38,000 feet of timber. What a sacrilege, to cut down such majestic forestry giants!! Nevertheless he went on to become mayor and a prominent citizen whose poetry, epitaphs and stories of the Richmond district appeared in many publications. Within that family tree is also recorded a marriage to a scar faced convict whilst another’s on my grandmother’s side was descended from royalty, but disinherited as she married a master mariner, considered to be well below her rank in life.

It’s a long way to Tiperary

Up to mighty London came
An Irish lad one day,
All the streets were paved with gold,
So everyone was gay!
Singing songs of Piccadilly,
Strand, and Leicester Square,
'Til Paddy got excited and
He shouted to them there:

It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square!
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.

Paddy wrote a letter
To his Irish Molly O',
Saying, "Should you not receive it,
Write and let me know!
If I make mistakes in "spelling",
Molly dear", said he,
"Remember it's the pen, that's bad,
Don't lay the blame on me".

It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.

Molly wrote a neat reply
To Irish Paddy O',
Saying, "Mike Maloney wants
To marry me, and so
Leave the Strand and Piccadilly,
Or you'll be to blame,
For love has fairly drove me silly,
Hoping you're the same!"

It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.

Executive compensation

2009-07-31T18:27:00.011+10:00

On the July 28th I noticed that the U.S.House Financial Services Committee approved legislation which gives the SEC power to ban excessive incentive pay at banks and will require shareholders to vote on bonuses. This legislation ensures the SEC can bar a company’s compensation packages when it is considered likely to result in “inappropriate risks.” It remains for the House and Senate to pass the bill before the president signs it into law- perhaps as early as today.

The proposed legislature is in response to widespread community dismay and outrage over the size of salary packages including severance pay provsions to senior executives at the expense of shareholders, employees and the community. However there are two opposing views; those who think governments should not interfere with the market and others in favour of sensible provisions and limits. All republicans voted against the bill. Those opposing any regulation warn of stiffled innovation but I think any healthy growth in a democracy depends more upon a decentralized, widely dispersed innovative core and is largely unrelated to any perceived need for high levels of executive remuneration.Certainly I would argue this viewpoint room my own experience in business.

When I first left school in the country, my first position was with the State Government Lands Department in Sydney and I subsequently paid for all of my own education by studying part time for 7 years before obtaining formal qualifications and a more senior position within the private sector. It was an arduous period in my life as I was both studying of an evening and working during the day combined for many months with daily visitations to the Repatriation Hospital at Concord where my father received treatment for cancer before eventually returning to the country where he passed away. Even though at the time it felt as if I was carrying a heavy burden it did turn out to be a blessing since the combination of concurrent learning with practical experience provided me with such a solid foundation I was able to adapt much more readily to early increased responsibilities than otherwise would have been the case.I recall vividly my first executive position at only 25 years of age and the salary benefits then which seemed to be generous enough - about $ 9,000 PA in a sizeable company with overseas subsidiaries where the MD to whom I reported earned $18,000. By comparison a skilled Toolmaker in the same company could easily earn about $7,500 and the process workers (inclusive of regular guaranteed overtime) earnt between $3,500 to $5,000 PA. There was not the wide spread enormous disparity that exists today but I don’t think there was any lack of innovation or effort either or that generally anyone felt unduly thwarted by a lack of monetary incentive.
At the time I recall a lot of effort went into research and development with new processes and markets developed as the old gave way to new opportunities. Certainly it was also true Australia at the time was experiencing a post war growth fuelled by migration and the baby boom which meant that unemployment levels by todays standards were much lower.

Fast forward 20 years I found the ratios were already off the planet. I recall being employed at the time in the largest service organization (excepting Telstra)in Australia and reported to the MD whose salary package with bonuses was up to 20 times mine and almost 100 times the majority of workers. Australia,like most other western nations was fast becoming part of the global village as recruitment agencies suggested talent was costly but imperative to remain competitive. CEO’s promoted from within the company saw the huge salaries overseas and demanded parity, to compound globalised greediness. It was not uncommon to see salary packages doubling or even tripling overnight with the added provision of overly generous share schemes with no risk to the incumbent. Rather than promote innovation I saw trends in the opposite direction, towards financial engineering and the provision of dubious creative accounting reliant on leveraged increased debt and overly risky practices. Since then the trend has not improved.

Economics also has became tied to the hand that feeds it (how many truly independent econonists are there ? )with less reliance on independent research as it threw off the previous shackles of Keynesian thought presupposing the need to generate government budget surpluses to be only used only during unfavorable trade cycles and ignored the implications of reliance on continued debt creation. In fact the volatile nature of the economic cycles over the past 2 decades from booms to bust is unavoidable given the regimentation towards a free market fundamentalism to ensconce corporate greed and excess in the financial sector. This is the most extreme form of capitalism possible to naively assume markets are self-regulating; governments must never interfere with markets and a governments main purpose is assigned only to be involved in the security at home and abroad.

False accounting for productivity improvements provided the beacon of light seized upon by leading economists that all was well. Overseas divestment in manufacturing were erroneously counted as lower inputs from incoming imported componetary as if these cost reductions were actually achieved by a labour force within the host country.

It is hoped these latest moves will begin a more substantial groundswell trend of attitunal change to make executive remuneration more reasonable and revive an interst in sensible economics but I will not be holding my breath.

Already there are claims the global financial crisis is over, but that may well prove to be premature. Australia faces increased unemployment continuing for most of the next year and the enormous budget deficits now applicable in the USA and UK will involve many more decades of restraint and more responsible governance should those respective countries wish to return to a more sustainable future. The USA budget deficit is now 13% of GDP and is financed by selling more bonds – mostly acquired by central banks and governments who now represent 30% of the total government debt and the USA Governments itself which now holds more than 40%,which in turn it holds in trust for Social security and Medicare. Already debtor nations are expressing disquiet about the mounting debt and the whether the curency can reamain strong. There is no magic pudding to share the risk around.

Hard work and innovation is not injurious to health, but nor was it ever dependant on paying huge salaries to executives.

Happiness is the warm heart of Africa

2009-07-16T23:31:00.003+10:00

Advertising slogans can’t resist the 'happy' word so that jingles begin with Happiness is ………, If you want to be happy just ……., happiness is rewarding yourself with ……. be happy and don’t forget to ………. It seems happiness must be our natural state of mind as we are encouraged to tough out life’s trials and tribulations by grinning and bearing it – smile please! - after all life wasn’t meant to be easy!!

Children’s smiling faces remind us they are happy but inevitably once they realize they can't always have what they want you may have a unhappy child, or even tantrums.
Learning how to deal with our inevitable disappointments is probably one of the best life skills we can acquire.

Health also plays a pivotal role as our first pains will certanly not be our last. Chronic pain can make even the most robust unhappy.

Social researchers have concluded our happiness or otherwise is influenced heavily by by our individual and societal expectations. Continued rapid changes create a pressure cooker environment conducive to many people feeling powerless to achieve their basic needs or accomplish predetermined goals which can lead to widespread unhappiness.Adding to these frustrations are the societal expectations about continued assured growth and expected satisfaction which can be unrealistic. This is not to say goals and aspirations are unhealthy or to blame but rather our expectations need to be tempered by the realization the journey will not always turn out as we intended or hoped. How we handle these disappointments might be more important than anything else.

When I recently visited Malawi it was interesting to observe the happiness of its people in the various communities both in the city and the outlying village areas. According to those who have spent many years in the field this was not surprising since their country is known deservedly as the warm heart of Africa.Considering the country is one of the poorest in the world with an annual average per capita income of only $250 combined with a low life expectancy I think it demonstrates the nexus been material wealth and happiness is erroneous.I didn’t encounter a single rude Malawian and the outpouring of joy over simple events was extraordinary.
It seems too me this is an example of ‘being in the present ‘so that the worries of the future are transcended. Whilst there, I continually listened the stories of the locals. One such inspirational story was of a grandmother who was cement contractor delivering cement to one of the catholic schools.

Her story was typical of many about their community life, grandchildren and so forth but it wasn’t until later on I learnt her husband had died the previous year from HIV AIDS. She was also infected, yet was able to continue in her joyful (whilst acknowledging her past sorrow) life’s existence.It seems to me she has traversed the physical for the spiritual and so doing transcended past sorrow for the present joy. Whilst we may feel some anger at her plight and of the very many,including a large number of orphans, who through no fault of their own have to carry such a heavy burden, it also is true it is testament of how the spirit of some can never be broken.

Happiness is the warm heart of Africa.

Goodness knows

2009-07-05T14:04:00.006+10:00

Good is one of the most common words used in the English language. Goodness in moral philosophy is not easily defined; all you can say is goodness comes in many different ways and involves a value judgment in determining what action is good or otherwise. Even so I have found in 40 years in business a sophisticated moral compass is rarely needed since good action is usually apparent and reinforced from known facts and the underlying reasons for intended actions. On the other hand corruption and corrupt regimes rely on forceful means, coercion, or excessive secrecy to suppress debate to corrupt fair and equitable outcomes.

The question of goodness is rarely debated; since it seems remote and superfluous to the daily grind of living. But such a question goes to the root of our capitalist system which until fairly recently was considered (despite its obvious weaknesses) to be a relatively good system or at least preferred over other ideologies. The current demise to negative growth and widespread unemployment in the world’s economies is undoubtedly the worst since the great depression and suggests serious fundamental flaws in the system. Confidence has been eroded to deliver long term stability and better living standards. New rules to improve both regulation and transparency are to be commended but the system remains largely intact so that it seems loopholes in the new regulations are likely to give us repeat of past and present misery unless we make much more fundamental changes. Risk is an inherent feature of investing and failed corporations are part of an open market capitalist system but what has occurred is an accumulated increase in the power structure of corporations over the post war period which has made us much more vulnerable.

Anyone who thinks power lies in politics is going to be very sorely disappointed as the business as usual signs go up soon after a change in government. That is not to say there has not been or will be in the future very worthwhile changes but rather current disproportionate power base rests largely in large corporations and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future – unless action is taken to readdress the power imbalance. Some would say …. The tail is wagging the dog!

The power shift has moved steadily towards top management and directors in large corporations and to the equally burgeoning Institutions who now manage the huge increased superannuation’s and retirement savings generated in western and Asian economies. The trend towards short term results over the past two decades has accelerated under the influence of the large Fund Managers and an army of overpaid analysts.The Fund Mangers and many Directors either have no equity themselves in the organizations they control or alternatively by virtue of options have no personal risk. Put simply the system is geared for those in power to take on vey large risks(bet the entire capital base of the company through the use of leverage) since they are not exposed to any personal risk on the downside – ‘ hurt money'. The temptation was too great for many as we have witnessed unparalleled greed and recklessness. Many, having presided over a prior period of appalling management decisions walked away with large severance payments.

Retirement and Superannuation Institutions have also added to their fee income by lending the shares they own on behalf of Investors with the Fund (without their authority or knowledge) to Hedge Funds so that can short sell (place sell orders for those shares to create a fall in price) or use the loan shares to vote at meetings aimed at improving returns for the Hedge Funds. All of theses activities are carried out under a cloak of veiled secrecy. Shareholders as such who originally invested in these companies with their hard earned savings or through Retirement funds have neither the power or virtually no power (because of the smaller holdings compared to the large Institutions with large parcels)at all to elect Directors, agree or vote down compensation packages or effectively vote on future acquisitions or company amalgamations.

It is really a question of too much power in the hand of the few who have insufficient equity or incentive to invest in the long term future of the enterprises in which they control. What are needed are measures which will reverse this trend and restore a long term market focus for public companies.

Creation of “A and “B” Shareholders

What I propose for all public companies is the creation of “A" and “B” shares for all of their publically traded stock. The “A” shares are voting shares and would be attractive to long term shareholders whilst the “B” shares are non voting and would be targeted towards short term traders. The immediate advantage and effect of such a scheme would be to create a market for both long term shares and traders which would allow companies to communicate more effectively with those who have a long term objective. The voting "A" shares could also be subject to some time restrictions on their disposal – this might prove to be very worthwhile but could also be impractical.
But the creation of the two classes of shares would also allow the public investing in Superannuation and Retirement funds to demand Funds have portfolios available for them for their savings which are made up of “A’ shares or “B” shares – whatever is their product of choice. I would hazard a guess the overwhelming number of members would opt for the “A” shares. Directors of most corporations ( except those only interested in short term trading of shares) would be required to hold only “A” shares and I would propose that a substantial base must be maintained whilst serving in office and any shares allotted under a scheme cannot be disposed of other than over a 3 year period after cessation as a Director. It seems sensible to restrict the right of Directors to hold “B” shares. Any lending of those shares to others ought to be prohibited.

Directors Benefits and salary packaging- voting at Annual General Meetings

I propose the salary packaging of the top management and Directors should continue to be subject to shareholder approval and share options and bonuses are tied to the long term real levels of performance above inlationary expectations.

I think salary caps are a matter of regulation – but it seems sensible to me that shareholders ought to also think about sensible limits on what just one person can be paid having regard for the size of the company and industry. A good start within this contentious issue is to ensure the actual owners of the businesses - the shareholders, have their say with a view to voting on the matter given reasonable input from the company.

It seems likely with more affinity established with long term shareholders that companies will wish to ensure they have the approval of shareholders before even in engaging on major new amalgamations or new acquisitions.

Taxation

The current taxation laws that operate in some countries such as the USA discriminate against companies paying Dividends to shareholders since these dividends are taxed in the hands of the recipient shareholders at the full personal marginal rate despite the fact they may have already been taxed at the company level. This is a form of double taxation. If legislation was introduced to give a credit for the tax rate already paid at the company level to the recipient shareholder it would have the effect of encouraging investing in companies with the ability to pay sustained dividends and further enhance a long term focus.

Conclusion

In economics, large public companies play a dominant role and, in my view, the market structure in which they operate requires radical surgery. That change does not necessarily involve more regulation but rather a change in the system to ensure the focus is from the short term to the longer term. There are many more aspects, with a little imagination that can give effect to this much needed change in the way business is conducted. Shareholders, are not in my opinion unreasonable in their objective to earn a fair and equitable return on their investments. But the tide has turned to give too much power to the Retirement Funds Industry and the directors of those large companies. What I think is needed is to change the way shares are structured in the market to give power back to those who actually write out the cheques- (the owners -eg the shareholders of the businesses who purchased the shares or the investors in the Retirement plans who gave their money to the funds to buy shares ) and restore more confidence in the overall system.
Goodness knows.

Johannesburg, South Africa

2009-06-22T18:37:00.001+10:00

The above photos of the city, past and present. Immediately above is Mandela Square.

Ireland & HK

2009-06-22T18:32:00.002+10:00

The first 2 photos were taken on the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. The stone fortess dates to 3000 BC. Inside St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Hong Kong- from 62 floors up.

Ireland

2009-06-22T18:28:00.003+10:00

Beautiful Ireland and the Ring of Kerry.

England- Ireland

2009-06-22T18:20:00.001+10:00

Home

2009-06-19T12:45:00.000+10:00

The warm heart of Africa and beautful lake Malawi. You can se all of the photos on the Malawi blog by clicking here.

As I return to normal I will soon visit other blogs.

Thanks for your interest.

Home

2009-06-19T12:33:00.002+10:00

We have only just arrived home and are catching up on some rest.
I have posted the pictures taken in Malawi which you can view additional to the above images by clicking here since they all posted on the Malawi blog.

We stayed over in Hong Kong on the way back. I hope soon to visit other blogs (which was not practical when away) as I return to normal. Thank you for your comments and interest. Soon I will also include the photos taken whilst in South Africa, Ireland, Wales and HK.

Galway

2009-06-06T21:47:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone

Since my last e-mail when we were in Bath in England we have toured the south of England around picturesque Cornwall and then Wales; caught the ferry across to Ireland. The weather has been unseasonllay warm and very pleasant – up to 28 c which prompted me to enjoy a swim in the ocean at Penzance and again in Ireland whilst in the beautiful seaside village of Kilkee.

We have stayed mainly in Bed & Breakfast accommodation including 3 farms( dairy farm income only 50% for farmers compared to last year) and enjoyed the hospitality of other guests from varying backgrounds; to locals, Holland Germany Kentucky, and even a couple who lived nearby in Melbourne. The pub scene in England and Ireland is heavily conducive to a convivial atmosphere but the food is very expensive. The scenery had been spectacular, especially the Ring of Kerry with it’s mountains valleys with waterways running through a patchwork quilt of colours. We have enjoyed our Ireland tour despite my back still playing up. At present we are in Galway’s for 4 day before Dublin and then HK / home. We are off to view the Volvo yacht race, which will soon resume its Atlantic leg from Galway’s harbour. (Indeed the moon does rise over the Claddagh and the sun does go down over Galway Bay.)

More News From Abroad!

2009-05-21T14:18:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone

Anne and I successfully met up this morning at Heathrow – Anne from Singapore and myself from Lilongwe/Jo berg. We are now relaxing at the Thistle hotel. I am typing this email at a very unfriendly terminal in the lobby but hopefully I will not experience the server crashes evident in Malawi.

The celebration on Sunday at Ntandire was a great success filled with joyous music to accompany the 3 hour Mass presided over by a very sprightly 71 year old Bishop ( French Canadian ) and in the afternoon enjoyed traditional dances, a play and a comedy sketch. There were nearly 1000 people packed into the church and afterwards the numbers swelled to what I gauge to be 3000; a very attentive sea of teeming friendly faces. Afterwards I gave a radio interview with the very popular Catholic radio station, whose ratings exceed the commercial stations.

Earlier, on the way, as we lurched along the red dusty pot holed road, people were waving and greeting us (in the normal friendly way synonymous of the poorer areas of Malawi) when a rare motorist suddenly pulled out in front of us and we narrowly avoided an accident. The drivers here are shocking and rarely give any signals, but even when they do it’s likely to be incor
rect. The previous day an ambulance spilled into a group of people rushing to receive free voter sponsored T shirts killing 8. They are also fond of road blocks and we have been occasionally stopped by the army or police to check where we are coming from and our destination. The officers however are always friendly.

After numerous thank you's and an endless procession of gifts to Fr Taylor- goats, chickens -and speeches it was time to say goodbye. I asked FR Taylor to cut a section of the cloth I received and together with the hand carved crucifix for OLHC, post it off to me in mid june when I’m back. We left with such a crowd of people following the car you could barely see the road and we crawled along at 1 km an hour until we could eventually break clear when the red dust gave way to a wider section.

On the Monday we travelled to Lake Malawi which is very beautiful and I enjoyed the warm clear water with Fr Taylor, Dyson and his son Felix. A long way off were crocodiles and hippo’s.

Best wishes Lindsay

Out of Africa

2009-05-21T14:13:00.003+10:00

Hi Everyone

Wherever I travel am greeted with “Welcome Home”; an acknowledgement I am considered to have returned to my home – Africa the cradle of civilisation that. Indeed I have been made to feel most welcome.

Stopping off at Joberg I was pleased to see the sights with my guide ; Mandela square; numerous monuments to gold mining, many historic buildings, and a city views from 50 floors above . New developments attempt to modernise a once dangerous city and provide a more friendly place to visit.

I arrived at Lilongwe last Wednesday and so far have visited many of the christen communities, the local gaol, the catholic school at Mt Sirize and a government school which has 5000 students. 1 have also listened to numerous stories from the locals. The parish is made up of about 12,000 split into 5 churches : St Kizito, Gabriella , Philomenia , Mt Silize and St Andrea. Each church is further split into christen communities of which there are 47 in total. St Kizito has 13.

I have confirmed a funding project with the sister headmistress at Mt Sirize which will involve daily breakfast for 300 children , made up of a mixture of maize, soya and sugar which will enable at least one meal per day to ensure the children are not hungry and malnourished; who are then are able to concentrate on their schoolwork. I also confirmed we are able to sponsor 15 children for secondary education.

Fr Frank and Fr Patrick O' Hagan have looked after me very well. Fr Paddy looks after the orchard so we have enjoyed some wonderful fruits at breakfast. I jokingly told Fr Frank he has concrete flowing in his veins and not blood since he is constantly involved in building projects for the communities. He even also recently completed a shelter for the gaol, using labour from within and increasing their skills, At the gaol I mistook an inmates for an official. He thought it was hilarious as he was serving a 16 year sentence. The over crowing is unbelievable . There are 2,126 men in such a small space they scarcely have room to walk around. There are only 56 women, a measure of the dispropotionate amount of crime committed by men,.

Tomorrow is the big celebration at Ntandire. The new church and hall looks beautiful yet simple and welcoming. It would accommodate 1000 people at a push. Fr Taylor has also built another small building alongside from a donation he received from the wife of the Irish Ambassador which will be rented be provide income for the Ntandire community.

Wherever I go you are greeted by 50- 60 children who are fascinated to see you and people are all very genuinely pleasant and welcoming . It is indeed the warm heart of Africa .

The trip has been very good so far except for my back which has given me so curry.

Malawi fundraiser

2009-05-09T23:56:00.001+10:00

We held another Fundraiser this Saturday when we were entertained and danced to the wonderful music of the "The Degenerates" who donated their services for the sixties dinner dance.

I am setting off to South Africa then Malawi,this coming Monday, later to join my wife as we tour the south west of England and Wales,then accross to Ireland and finally to Hong Kong before returning to Austrlia.

The pictures are of the band, scenes of ethusiastic dancers and yours truly with my wife

Elizabeth Rose

2009-05-01T22:42:00.002+10:00

Our eldest daughter Vanessa has given birth to a 3rd daughter named Elizabeth Rose. Naturally enough her 2 big sisters Alice and Chloe together with her cousins Declan and Liam( pictured) were delighted to see and nurse the baby.Pictures are of Vanessa resting in the afternoon.Three year old Alice is shown leaving home; 'I am so excited', she said on the way in to hospital !

Changing fashions

2009-04-22T22:05:00.003+10:00

At some stage in life we relish the crisp feeling of a freshly ironed garment, a new shirt, a snappy suit or formal attire for that special occasion. During such occasions or be it frequently for those more fashion conscious, it is inevitable fashions sway our choice. Fashions and tastes repeat in all walks of life, whether spiritual or secular,since even those most sacred ideas will eventually be jettisoned or rebirthed to reflect changing ideas.As we add new rules we dismantle the old ones to leave the only certainty, which is change.

Take poetry for example. Those elaborate rhyming masterpieces have given way to modern free verse.The rules for free verse (if there are any) are only described in such subjective terms that only the finest distinction exists between a highly abbreviated short story and free verse poetry. Rhyming poets convert their poems to free verse to be fashionably commercial- if they want to be considered for publishing. Rhyming poetry is now mostly confined to greeting and Christmas cards. Rhyming is thought to undermine a poet’s freedom to create clarity and purpose. Will rhymed poetry ever come back into fashion? -Maybe!!

Music is another entering new cycles. Most types conform to mathematical intervals as anyone with an ear will attest. Try singing or playing a musical instrument off its designated musical key signature and what you hear is very unpleasant. But contemporary modern music is experimenting with discordant sounds to create for its listener a new experience. As you listen to it, it can grow on you and so you get used to it; although to my ear it will never replace the more traditional music. But what was once fashionable in everyday popular music has also changed enormously from the days when you sang along with the latest hit record. It has become more fashionable to choose your own genre and be entertained with its many different facets. I am yet to meet anyone who claims to like all the different styles such as classical, opera & operetta, Gilbert & Sullivan, choral, lieder, pop, musical theatre, jazz, folk, rap, hip hop,soul,baroque,classic rock, heavy metal, punk rock and country or blues. Interestingly enough classical music and opera has increasingly entered our daily lives in unexpected fashionable ways: cartoons, movies, advertisements and on TV shows. Classical themes help create an emotional mood to prompt an audience to be in a more receptive state of mind to the words and images.I think it will become even more fashionable to link music to your presentations and to choose that genre which best represents words and images.

It has become fashionable to suggest that a new model is required in economics because of the failure to predict or prevent the current economic crisis. But thinking in economics is paramount since economics is unlike Science which can perform repeated scientific experiments within a controlled laboratory to prove causation. Economics studies society in the raw whilst it is in a state of flux experiencing changing fashions and technology.It aims for the best model in the interests of the public good. It started out with Adam Smith’s idea that the invisible hand of the market provided what was needed in spontaneity and natural restoration. John Keynes’s mathematical modeling predicated a government’s need to intervene with increased spending measures (creating a budget deficit) and money supply during any downturn and for the reverse to apply during overly expansionary periods. Both measures were demonstrated to restore the economy to its optimum state of equilibrium when demand and supply are in balance.
However he would have assumed governments were net savers during those periods of relative prosperity so that the accumulated surplus was available during an impending downturn.
This theory was further endorsed by acclaimed economist Paul Samuelson whose extensive mathematical modeling further endorsed Keynesian economics. But it was in 1970’s the economist Hyman Minsky further refined Keynesian theories to support intervention in the financial markets. Minsky’s theory was surprisingly simple yet very elegant and influenced by his understanding of human nature. In a nutshell his idea was that as prosperity lengthened over the economic cycle an overly optimistic euphoria inevitably occurs as part of human nature. More and more of a cavalier approach would begin to take hold to ensure aggregated savings dissipated in favour of more risk and debt. This would lead inevitably to a financial crisis unless there is government intervention via the central bank to quell any early signs. Otherwise if unchecked any bubble developing will inevitably burst and reap havoc with accompanying credit tightening as the economy subsequently contracts with all of its ensuing misery.
His ideas necessitated the need for preemptive action to control any tell tale signs of an impending bubble or excesses through regulation to put the spark out before it does too much damage. But his ideas were soon to be out of fashion and his books failed to make the required reading list in the graduate schools. In stark contrast deregulation became the latest fashion that characterized the economic management from the 1980’s and ensured the sub prime fiasco could flourish unhindered. In just the few intervening years immediately prior to the sub prime fiasco twice as many homes were sold in the USA as what averaged the proceeding period.

Given the Minsky model; banks would never have been allowed to become so highly leveraged, to create immense non disclosed off Balance Sheet vehicles, to allow prudential lending standards to be waived and to allow Hedge Funds free reign with immunity from transparency and regulation.

I think it’s time for a fashionable change.

Growing up in Australia

2009-04-18T22:45:00.002+10:00

Recently while engaged with my grand children playing games in the back yard, it caused me to consider how much has changed from my childhood days growing up in Australia. Australia then was influenced by large scale immigration which later, not only changed our food and what we drank, but underwrote the multicultural country we are today. Most artists then needed to travel overseas to further their careers and although our first cultural icon, The Australian broadcasting commission had been established in 1932 (The ABC) it was not until 1956 that The Australian Opera was established, followed in 1959 by the National Institute of Dramatic Art and in 1961 the Australian Ballet. But most of our culture influence still came from abroad. The “Dream machines” manufactured in America gave us such icons as Roy Rogers with those captivating tales of the Great Dividing Range to dominate my childhood memories, along with British spitfires and adventures set in England. Australia in custom and culture was said to be more English than the English; perpetuated by constant pilgrimages by our Prime Minster Sir Robert Menzies to the “Mother Country’ as he reminded us. He was our longest serving Prime Minister, serving between 1939-1941 and then for an uninterrupted period from 1949-1966; retiring at aged 70. But Australia also continued on at times in blissful ignorance, with racial prejudice and abuses never far away, hidden away by a majority who enjoyed a seemingly carefree existence as distinct from our Aborigines who were only being given the vote in 1962.

My early childhood memories were very happy ones. I grew up in the picturesque small dairy farming town of Kyogle situated on the NSW side of the border with Queensland. The back fence was all that separated our house from fields of grazing cattle and the river; an endless source of entertainment and excitement for me. I was scarcely ever indoors, coming in only at the shrill cry from my mother “The Search” a call to us to come indoors to listen with bated breath to the daily radio broadcast of “The Search for the Golden Boomerang”. Radio, books, comics, making sling shots, playing in the dirt under the house, bows and arrows, climbing trees or exploring the river banks with family cats and dogs kept us actively interested so I can never recall feeling bored. In later life when I first watched the same radio script on TV, I was sorely disappointed. Actors and sets seemed surprisingly insipid and imprisoned on an impoverished tiny screen compared to the images conveyed by exciting radio broadcasts.

I loved the weekly visit to the movies.Coming home afterwards we feasted on hot chips, smothered in salt and dripping with fat, wrapped up unceremoniously in old newspapers- it was indescribable manna from heaven to me and no doubt frightfully unhealthy. When I returned home it was time to re enact the scenes, embellishing the story line to make it more exciting whilst playing in the bush outside.

Supermarket shopping didn’t exist but there was a constant stream of merchants and visitors to our house; the milkman at first light filling your jug with fresh milk and cream, a baker carrying his basket under his arm of freshly baked bread exuding its enticing aroma, the postman’s shrill whistle, ice from an ice cart for your ice chest, an insurance man collecting the premiums and an occasional salesperson selling encyclopedias and so on.

Each week the faithful ‘Dunny man” had to carefully exchange your full dunny for an empty one which was an operation that required a combination of brute strength (as they were rather heavy when full) and skill to ensure you didn’t spill any of the contents out while lifting on to the truck. The contents were respectively referred to as “Night Soil”.

My best pal conveniently lived next door; he was several years older and the wrestling champion of the local neighborhood and my experience wrestling with him turned out to be invaluable when I went off to school, when dealing with an older school bully. He launched an attack on me on the way home; and I though I was a goner but resolved to do my best. To my surprise as the small crowd gathered around to watch I managed to get a decent head lock on him and wrestled him to the ground. To my astonishment and relief it was soon over; as he heeded the chant of the crowd. “He’s got you!. He’s got you!! Give-up. Give Up!!”

Christmas time was always an exciting time and receiving a Bike for a Christmas present eclipsed all known previous joyous experiences. My parents had laid a string throughout all of the rooms of the house and back down the stairs to be attached to the bike situated on the front lawn. Christmas morning at first light they invited me to follow the string and see what was on the end of it. Needing no encouragement I tore through the house and in a state of heightened excitement to finally survey a wondrous bike. I immediately hopped on and cycled away. It didn’t matter a fig to me that it was an old bike, painted and spruced up with a false “Malvern Star” sticker on it.
It was the best thing that could have ever happened. It was only in later life when I recalled the details in my mind of bubbly paint work covering up rust and the shiny new bell on an otherwise heavy old frame. Freedom is an elusive state but I never felt as carefree as when riding that bicycle around in the country.

When Queen Elizabeth’s visited Australia no one really knew why we should all be excited.It was as if we were all swept along with this national bout of infectious enthusiasm and delight for the Queen. The cheers of the schoolchildren echoed everywhere as the Queen was greeted with unanimous delight. We travelled a long distance by train with thousands of cheering country children to catch a glimpse and listen to her speeches.

Growing up in Australia in the fifties is similar in many ways to what is described by author Bill Bryson’s account of the life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid in America when he recalls that “growing up was easy. It required no thought or effort on my part. It was going to happen anyway”.

Tenebrae

2009-04-10T21:04:00.001+10:00

We gathered to meditate on the most sacred day of the year. The focus of our ceremony was the seven sayings of Christ uttered when he was dying on the cross. Through a series of psalms, reflections and sacred music, we were led to the foot of the Cross.

later in the darkened church the lighted candles represented our world about to be plunged into darkness.

The lights were gradually extinguished throughout the ceremony until only one flame remained, symbolising Christ. When the last light disappeared a loud noise (strepitus) was made to remind us of the earthquake on that fateful day on Calvary.

G20 junket summit

2009-04-03T23:05:00.001+11:00

I didn’t expect much from what might cynically be described as a 2 day G20 junket summit so I was pleasantly surprised when I read about the overall result. Credit is due for the extra funding measures to be provided for the IMF to provide additional drawing facilities for developing nations and for agreed tighter regulatory measures over executive pay, hedge funds, credit ratings/banks and the long overdue proposed sanctions on known tax havens. The biggest obstacle remaining are those few very large and technically insolvent USA banks (from a total of over 8,000 banks) presiding over frozen credit markets which have kept interest rate spreads artificially high. But it now seems inevitable more control will be exercised over the Banks or even some nationalized, should the latest plan prove ineffective.

The Meeting of the G20 was symbolic in that:

It was more representative than previous G7 meetings dominated by the USA and excluding China. The G7 has literally become ‘dead in the water’ since it’s dominant members became heirs to a lack of good governance with reckless leveraged lending that successfully exported the toxic assets all over the globe as AA A rated securities to unsuspecting buyers; the genesis of the current crisis. Obama typified the new administrations fresh approach by stating he was there to listen.

Secondly it recognizes the reality of the global village. It might be good practice to grow your own where you can close to home, but there is no escaping our interconnectivity and the need to act in concert with one another. It is of particular importance for the ongoing developing nations which although culturally different need to work together for a more sustainable future. It is a lot easier to raise issues such as human rights and climate change and so on when you’re actively involved in a relationship than when you’re locked behind an iron curtain.

Finally it will form the groundwork for a more sustainable future since the exchange of fresh ideas from a much larger audience will become an oasis for new innovations. One that I like was fielded from Beijing’s Professor Yu Qiano, of Tsinhua University who, it was reported in the Australian Financial review of the 3rd April in an article entitled “G 20 politics thwarts innovation”, was concerned (and justifiably in my view) about an expanding USA treasury bubble (as a consequence of expanded public debt financing) leading to the dollar tumbling in value and causing havoc to Asian creditors with resultant higher inflation. His solution involves Asia ceasing to buy US Treasuries in favour of acquisitions into a special purpose vehicle whose purpose would be to fund future capital infrastructure projects within the USA supported by a guaranteed sovereign risk rating. These Funds received into the special purpose vehicle would therefore not be used as was past practice to fund over consumption but rather future investments in infrastructure. The indebtedness could be redeemed from a conversion to equity if the US government so desired at any time. It’s not an idea that is likely to pass through the current politics but that may change further down the track when inflation finally rears its head.

Defending the indefensible

2009-03-24T16:21:00.009+11:00

I don’t think the latest Geithner plan to create a private/public partnership to buy up to 1 trillion of toxic assets from the Banks represents the zombie solution as described by many leading economists.

I think whether or not you nationalize some Banks makes less difference than is contended, since in my opinion it all boils down to how they are regulated and managed- albeit very poorly in the past. The latest Geithner plan proposes an auction purchase system of the the toxic assets held by banks by investors with up to 97% in non recourse funding whose risk and funding can be as low as 3%. In other words a Hedge Fund bidding 70 cents in the dollar for $100 million of debt securities held by Citicorp would purchase the $70 million dollars of securities but only be on risk for $ 2.1million or 3% of the $70 million dollar security parcel purchased.

These established Funds would be available to investors and 401K superfunds and so on.

The arrangement as I understand can be described as follows:

1. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) guarantees 85% of the value of the loans without recourse.
2. The Treasury provides further capital for 80% of the balance(balance is 15% after 85% guarantee by the FDIC )to cover 12% from TARP Funds leaving a balance of only 3%.
3. The balance of 3% represents the capital used from Private Investors (Hedge Funds) who risk losing all their capital (assuming they are unable to hedge their investments by buying credit default swaps) and who bid at auction for parcels of the securities to establish a market.
4. Banks holding the Toxic Assets will sell them to the highest investor Bidders (Hedge Funds)which will then enable eventually a resumption of normal lending.
5. The taxpayer effectively takes on 97% of the risk by virtue of the non recourse loans.

The concerns over taxpayers costs hinges on the economic outlook over the next 3- 4 years and the extent or otherwise of recovery in house prices and the general economy. In the event of a recovery, losses may be minimal, if any, with possible gains but should the reverse occur the consequences will be disastrous to the extent the whole economy collapses. The banking system may be equally badly off with no less in future challenges, but that would also signal even more deep seated economic woes at that time.

However a more pertinent argument is about whether or not you allow the banks to fail or as the case may be to recover of their own volition. Due to the very low funds cost now available (with Fed easing) margins have improved considerably, hence, putting aside additional write downs from prior toxic assets sales and bad debts and assuming economic recovery I would estimate all the write offs could be absorbed within a four year time span. But in the meantime the credit squeeze and all of its misery would continue with the risk of further contraction which clearly politically has become an untenable option.

Hence, if you are in favour politically of a bailout, you cannot avoid risk by nationalization as it involves simply transferring risk from the private sector under government regulation to the government under government regulation.If you are not in favour of bailouts you would argue it is better to do nothing and not risk further taxpayer money, but you cannot have it both ways and assume government nationalization would somehow provide an immediate superior solution.

Furthermore Bank nationalization is both complex and costly and for it to work would entail the need for a broad guarantee of the entire USA banking system obligations which would make people even more unhappy.

I don’t particularly like Geithner's plan but its worth trying. In the meantime it is sensible to enact new legislation to allow a single government regulatory agency( like the FDIC ) to vest with sufficient power, when necessary, to safely dismantle all big financial institutions so as to minimize damage to the financial system and overall economy.