Steve GannHappy Birthday to the Rudd Government - A Report Card.
November 25th 2008 10:25
Andrew: My Lord?
Lord Wintergreen: One of the writers has escaped.
Andrew: You can’t shoot him, my Lord.
Lord Wintergreen: Why ever not?
Andrew: We don’t have a game licence for him.
From A Hazardous Existence by John Hall.
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?
Thomas Macauley
Great government is small government, enlightened by a leadership
that realises that less is more unless something absolutely has to be done.
John Hall
------
Politicians should never believe their own press releases. They are surrounded by appeasers and flatterers. The challenge is to breast the wave of change - to find better paths - new directions and do it quickly. Most politicians fail because they cannot learn. They find it hard to open their minds to new ways of thinking. They find it hard to admit that they might have been wrong. The most obvious example must be Nixon, but more subtle examples exist.
Successful politicians are works in progress. They question what they do not understand. They listen before they speak. They are able to innovate and find the way to new directions - are willing to cast off old certainties - to ride the chaos to new horizons. The parliamentary animal is a shambling ugly beast, at worst a rabid, salivating monster stampeding in pursuit of the Golden Promise of Re-election. So with Tom Macauley let us devise a corrective lense to examine where we are now and how we have arrived there in the 12 months past.
------
Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear. Thomas Macauley
------
If I had the choice between being a reformed rake or a fallen puritan - I would have to think.
Frankly I think I would prefer a fallen rake. John Hall
There is one area where there has been a mistep, which frankly needed greater care in the choice of words. The Bill Henson art controversy did not reflect well on Kevin Rudd or the government. Morality should be a private thing taken in small doses. The law is there for our protection, particularly the protection of children. But in this case there was evidence of a meanness of spirit - an inability to separate private belief and from public taste. Custodial care is a good concept - but only in the case of those who are abused or preyed upon.
It is a good thing for our Prime Minister to have strong views on the protection of children. It is irresponsible however to make statements that reflect on others, in a manner which is prejudicial and ill considered. Such statements verge on a misuse of power. There is no doubt that the statement meant well, but as Thomas More once said: Oh, Sweet Jesus! These plain, simple men! There should be due consideration of how such pronouncements will effect others.
The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.
Thomas Macauley
------
I liked him. For a politician, he was middling honest - he even paid for his own drinks. John Hall
------
Before we go further, we must address the matter of the Great Pretender. Malcom Turnbull, that man of promises, goes meddling in the engine room far too often. And he can't stay out of the kitchen. His contribution thus far has been as a fuss budget. His pose in leadership has been to go round chasing rumours and expanding on gossip. An impropriety on the part of the Prime Minister? How tragic - how droll. Why Malcom how gross! But this is hardly gristle of substance - nor is it justification for hysterical attacks on Civil Servants. Cry havoc and panic at every opportunity - is poor theatre at best.
Malcolm get a life! Grow up! Be a visionary. Be a statesman! When you open your mouth, let your words be considered for their consequence. In other words, stop being part of the problem and contribute in ways which are meaningful. So far there has been nothing but noise. And your colleagues following you around cackling like mischievous children. Petty minded, elves on steroids - aggravating, sound and fury signifying - NOTHING! They are a joke. In the past, they did nothing to address the dangerous troubles besetting us and now they go around pointing their fingers and making rude noises. What an embarrassment! In America we would label them morally corrupt and lump them with the Republicans. And there is a label to conjure with.
Now before the Prime Minister and his Merry Men get complacent, their contribution is not to be lauded or applauded. They have not addressed the seriousness of certain problems. Let us look at Global Warming. In this we are all students. It is a problem which will effect us all. In this classroom we cannot afford a passing grade. In this school we must excel!
The Head Master has delivered his report. All students chew their pens in concentration. The planet is in trouble. What to do? What to do? We are in danger of consigning the Earth to a pathway of destruction. So what has been done in this past year? What can we point to in the way of great progress and significant reform? Not mach really. Yes there was the signing of Kyoto amidst much back-slapping and bonhomie. But what else? What significant steps have been taken to help heal our mother Earth? In truth, nothing, nada, zip, bugger all in big lumps. We have been playing in the margins. We have been saying it is a sad thing, crying into our beer and then - what? Our leaders dither and do nothing - or very little. The limit of their vision and their expectation of change can be measured in the scale of their actions. So look at them closely.
What have they done? What are they doing? They follow the same bruised path as their predecessors. They look to limited solutions promising little more than a cometic touch in a dangerous situation. The ship is headed towards the iceberg. It is simple to see. We are polluting our air. We are poisoning our world. The evidence is clear. Chicken Little is screaming his box off and no one is listening. Or at leat they listen and do nothing - which is worse. Still no effective action is being taken. All anyone is doing at this point is watching the iceberg in growing panic.
Reform, that we may preserve.
Thomas Macauley
------
Change may be painful. But being unable to change
May be down right terminal. John Hall
What is needed is change - radical change - not just in direction but in degree. We can not sit on our fannies and wait for someone to come up with a solution. We cannot wait for a hero on horseback. We must save ourselves by taking major steps now! We must act - grasp the nettle danger and put into effect choices which can slow the progress towards the extinction of life. The more we do now to radically change the direction of this destructive juggernaut we call civilisation, the greater the chance there is of reversing the trend.
So how do we change the picture? How do we change the ending? That is the question. To be or not to be. But how do we do it? How do we find our way out of the morass and make real progress? The first step is to realise that we all must act. The Green Revolution is not the province just of the Greenies or the the political left, it is the responsibility of all men of both sexes. Those who do not accept this and follow it to its logical conclusion, must have their power to act removed. The Earth must have priority. It must be healed and given the chance to recover from the abuses and degradation she has had to suffer.
But how, you may ask, can we do this? What steps must we take? I have written about this elsewhere, but let me repeat some of my prescriptive steps towards a saner, healthier environment. First and foremost, King Coal MUST abdicate. The concept of clean coal is an oxymoron. Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide is a dangerous myth. Think for just a moment. If you could store Cardon Dioxide, what would you do with it? How would you store it? What would you do with the waste in storage? CO2 is not inert when stored under pressure. The concept is idiotic. The engineering is suspect, still not establsihed as feasible. If it were undertaken, it will have poisonous by-products, even if carried out with any degree of affectiveness. And that is a completely different question. In other words, it is doubtful if it can be made to work and if it could be done, there are more problems that come with huge volumes of waste stored under pressure. Another way of polluting. It makes no sense!
This is not to say that coal fired power stations should all be shut down and decommissioned tomorrow. We should work towards this, but in a planned aggressive way. We can combat the effects of burning coal now. We can plant more trees everywhere. We can make an industry of harvesting carbon dioxide. Change the face of cities and countryside. Grow trees. Replace tar and concrete with greenery. Plant trees and shrubs on buildings. Cover them with greenery - walls roofs and the parking areas. Make every square centimetre that we can, capable of drinking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. Get architects to start designing structures which either house greenery or are integral with it. Then assist third world countries to establish forest growth industries rather than clearing forests for palm oil production and other silly excesses. There must be a realisation that natural growth of forests is the responsibility of all men. These are the life boats for the future of our children. They must be cherished, grown and protected.
A single breaker may recede; but the tide is evidently coming in.
Thomas Macauley
------
The question we must always ask ourselves is:
Would we rather be right, or would we rather learn what is right?
John Hall
There is a thirst for power generation. This should be recognised and addressed in a multi-disciplined and effective manner. Some steps should be radical, planned and effective. Other steps can be more gradual and transitional. On the radical front, all resources should be applied to so-called renewable energy. The most effective way to implement this is to encourage the growth of development and infrastructure. The present government has not been effective in this. They should offer more, both in financial incentives and tax concessions. They should structure an attractive financial landscape so that innovative technology is welcomed and given the scope to grow. Solar of all different kinds, geo-thermal, wind and tidal engines -- bring them all - try them all. Build them all. Encouraged their growth.
All domestic and commercial buildings should be incentivated to have solar panels and wind turbines installed. The electrical power grid should be made more innovative and service orientated to encourage these options. And yes, Virginia, eventually coal should be taxed to help grow the renewable side of the equation and not subsidised, as at present. I know. I know it has great revenue earning capacity. But what value is wealth earned from destroying our environment. What help is money if it is too hot to breath? It doesn't make sense. Captain we are about to hit the ice berg! I know but I am busy re-arranging the deck chairs. The penguins are dying. It's OK we are in a strong financial position. The lions in Africa have no game. But we have apologised to the Aborigines. The Murray basin is becoming a desert. Yes but we are doing all we can to improve the situation. The barrier reef is bleached and dying. Yes but we are reducing our carbon footprint. Soon we will have it reduced by 20 per cent.
Now isn't that a comfort.
Post scriptum:
------Thomas Macauley 1800 - 1859 Poet, historian and politician - made significant contributions to copyright laws.
"If any person had told the Parliament which met in terror and perplexity after the crash of 1720 that in 1830 the wealth of England would surpass all their wildest dreams, that the annual revenue would equal the principal of that debt which they considered an intolerable burden, that for one man of £10,000 then living there would be five men of £50,000, that London would be twice as large and twice as populous, and that nevertheless the rate of mortality would have diminished to one half of what it then was, that the post-office would bring more into the exchequer than the excise and customs had brought in together under Charles II, that stage coaches would run from London to York in 24 hours, that men would be in the habit of sailing without wind, and would be beginning to ride without horses, our ancestors would have given as much credit to the prediction as they gave to Gulliver's Travels."
If Thomas were alive today, there would be many further wonders for him to contemplate. But I can't help feeling that after five minutes, his brow would wrinkle in perplexisty. The shrewdness of his character would bring him to the conclusion that we are being too cautious in our actions, too limited in our vision and too circuspect in our thinking. He would have recognised our need is to embrace the necessity - of doing what we need to do. Macauley believed in the future, but he believed in action more!
Anthems to Live by.
L’aventure. L’aventure.
Audace! Audace! Toujour audace. Attack! Attack! Always attack.
Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!
Life is a ruin for the faint hearted.
Better a foolish victory than a wise defeat.
Give me Liberty or Give me Death ( But Liberty is preferable!)
Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.
Carpe diem. Seize the day!
Never give up the ship.
No sir, I have not yet begun to fight.
The devil and poor leadership - both are our enemies!
| 75 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
