Steve GannThe Legacy of Paranoia
November 8th 2006 14:23
The Legacy of Paranoia or Life as Farce in Our Land Of OZ.
Opening the Curtain
I saw a quotable quote today. "Every day I wake up and find myself on the wrong side of capitalism." I thought to myself: That’s you you know, you poor dumb bastard. Why aren’t you out there being successful. Why aren’t you out there making a fortune? Having books published, having your plays performed, having your films produced? Why I asked myself. It’s a good question. The problem Dear Brutus lies in self promotion, but that’s another story. And it’s not the reason for writing this piece.
Recently, John Howard threw a party for the one millionth AWA coming into being. Not the brightest of moves.. There is a fundamental law of politics. This most ignored, but must prudent law states that: Just because you have the power to enact a law, doesn’t make it a good law. With the present IR laws that is particularly the case. Good law is framed around minimum requirements. Keep it simple. Don’t restrict without reason. Use common sense. Ask yourself this: If collective bargaining was the right balance in the first place, then why change it?
The Prime Minister on this occasion is not reading the public pulse at all well. The way things are and the way they are going Labor in the next election will sweep in and we will have a nation of Labor governments. One mistake. One strike. One nail in the Liberal coffin. Now let’s look at another one.
Vox Populi
Remember I’m a writer, well I am also a member of the great unwashed - the unemployed. Not happily. Not contented but unemployed. Let us examine what our political masters in their wisdom, have done to help me in my hour of need.
Well first they trumpet loudly how the number of unemployed is so much lower – lower than it has been for some time. The government and DEWR have been blowing this as their strumpet of latest success. Rubbish! Or if you prefer a more emphatic Australian epithet: Bull SHIT!! Excuse me Prime Minister (tap on shoulder) it is not due to you and your small minded pack of yes-men that our rate of unemployed is low. Neither the government, nor their creature, DEWR have impacted significantly on this. Children, pay attention please: The reason for the low, low unemployment figure is simple. We are riding a resources boom. We have a rampant, very boisterous economy driven by export of our mineral resources – and honey, the prices are GOOD! Fortunately for the moment it looks like continuing, because God help us when it plateaus out. But that’s another story, let’s back to the unemployed.
A Creature of Government
DEWR at the moment is acting like the creature of government policy that it is. If someone is unemployed, the solution is simple, apply pressure until they get work. If that doesn’t work, apply more pressure. Is that simplistic? Perhaps. Is it unfair? No not really. DEWR has this orientation. They supply criteria to the Jobnetwork. The Jobnetwork applies the pressure. The do this to assist their clients. Then DEWR measures outcomes.
Now anyone who has studied even the basics of management will tell you, that is a system designed to fail. And believe me, DEWR fails big time. Why? Because they do nothing to improve the situation. They only make it worse. They add to the problem. All they do is measure outcomes and apply pressure. They're not very bright, but nor are their masters.
What we have here friends is a bad situation, made worse by bad management practices which have come from bad law. Let’s face it, how many politicians have had to deal with being unemployed. How much sympathy or understanding do they have for someone in that situation? Not very much. A little while ago, there was a little kerfuffle about getting the mature unemployed back into the work place. What happened? Nothing! A big fat lard assed ZERO. Again what was needed was imagination, initiative and planning for a long term commitment. Not in this government. Not DEWR and and so again a need was identified, but nothing was done.
Oh and please don’t talk to me about training and courses being offered at the moment. These are not practical because they are not part of a planned integrated process. If you want a person to be well trained and an asset to a potential employer, then you need a well rounded, thought out process which achieves something real and viable, not a cosmetic overlay which achieves nothing. Courses, computer driven or otherwise are simply a pimple on the pumpkin. Real problems require real solutions. And they need to be addressed in a meaningful manner.
Summa Cum Arrogant
But before we finish up on that aspect of things. Let me introduce the nexus of the problem. If you have a smaller pool of unemployed, then you are also reaching a level where some of the job candidates may be more of a challenge to match up with suitable employment. This friends (Wake up Johnny and pay attention!) is known as the Law of Diminishing Returns. Miners know all about this one. Opal miners in particular know that when a vein starts to play out, it gets harder to find pay dirt. Think of our pool of unemployed as a resource. To get the most out of their situation, a little intelligent planning would help. Maybe there are ways for people to be more of an asset. Maybe there should be better communication between potential employers and candidates. Maybe there should be a rethinking, an approach to making things work better.
If you just apply pressure and publish outcomes, then all you will get is resistance, negative emotions and a system which is unproductive and designed to fail. In reality, it should be realised that there needs to be a long term perspectives and some significant, perhaps even insightful thought and planning provided. Bad practices, bad law. Strike two and at this rate Labor should win in the Senate as well.
Finally just a quick sketch on matter pertaining to global warming. I’m sorry Prime Minister but your arguments for not signing up for the Kyoto Protocol do not wash. They sound arrogant. And they are. They sound ill-informed. And they are. They sound nonsensical and without any scientific grounding. And they are.
The Trials of Job
The evidence for global warming is here now and it is frightening. Unless something is done quickly and thoroughly to change the situation, our environment will be irreversibly damaged. Please don’t argue that it will damage our jobs and our economy. That is complete nonsense. If this goes on, our children will have to live below ground and plant crops in valleys where they will be partially shaded from the sun.
Most commentators of global warming have only touched on what is happening with green-house gasses and trapping of the sun’s energy. In fact the problem is worse than has been described. In reality, the earth is a huge system of heat energy transferred through out the globe. One aspect of this is the weather. For every increase in temperature, there will be an increase in the energy stored in the ocean and in the atmosphere. This energy doesn’t remain static. It moves. It generates storms and cyclones and tornadoes. How would you like to live in Florida in the near future. Storms will be increasing frequent. Cyclones will be stronger and more frequent. Tornadoes will grow in size and frequency. It won’t be fun.
Similar problems could happen in Australia, WILL happen in Australia unless something major is done to remedy the situation. And that folks, is Strike Three! You’re out!
What we don’t need in this land of ours, are arrogant politicians with imagined mandates. We don’t need politicians with excited imaginations who play the race card or the paranoid card at the first opportunity. We don't need them to puff up their chests and make a fuss about what they have achieved -- an imagined job well done. In reality little has been done except some bad accounting and an increase in the national debt.
We need thinking people at the helm who are willing to calm the waters and find solutions that work! In other words it is time for Australia to grow up and make better choices. This goes for voters as well as politicians.
Hello is anyone listening? Is there anyone who cares enough to do something? Remember this, one vote by iteself may not mean much. But when they add up, when they combine together, then sometimes significant changes may be made.
Of course I once saw a piece of graffiti on a corrugated iron fence which really made me smile: It doesn't matter who you vote for, it's always a politician that gets in.
But that's wrong, isn't it? We believe that democracy can mean something. We believe that our vote can make a difference. We do believe that.
Don't we?
Opening the Curtain
I saw a quotable quote today. "Every day I wake up and find myself on the wrong side of capitalism." I thought to myself: That’s you you know, you poor dumb bastard. Why aren’t you out there being successful. Why aren’t you out there making a fortune? Having books published, having your plays performed, having your films produced? Why I asked myself. It’s a good question. The problem Dear Brutus lies in self promotion, but that’s another story. And it’s not the reason for writing this piece.
Recently, John Howard threw a party for the one millionth AWA coming into being. Not the brightest of moves.. There is a fundamental law of politics. This most ignored, but must prudent law states that: Just because you have the power to enact a law, doesn’t make it a good law. With the present IR laws that is particularly the case. Good law is framed around minimum requirements. Keep it simple. Don’t restrict without reason. Use common sense. Ask yourself this: If collective bargaining was the right balance in the first place, then why change it?
The Prime Minister on this occasion is not reading the public pulse at all well. The way things are and the way they are going Labor in the next election will sweep in and we will have a nation of Labor governments. One mistake. One strike. One nail in the Liberal coffin. Now let’s look at another one.
Vox Populi
Remember I’m a writer, well I am also a member of the great unwashed - the unemployed. Not happily. Not contented but unemployed. Let us examine what our political masters in their wisdom, have done to help me in my hour of need.
Well first they trumpet loudly how the number of unemployed is so much lower – lower than it has been for some time. The government and DEWR have been blowing this as their strumpet of latest success. Rubbish! Or if you prefer a more emphatic Australian epithet: Bull SHIT!! Excuse me Prime Minister (tap on shoulder) it is not due to you and your small minded pack of yes-men that our rate of unemployed is low. Neither the government, nor their creature, DEWR have impacted significantly on this. Children, pay attention please: The reason for the low, low unemployment figure is simple. We are riding a resources boom. We have a rampant, very boisterous economy driven by export of our mineral resources – and honey, the prices are GOOD! Fortunately for the moment it looks like continuing, because God help us when it plateaus out. But that’s another story, let’s back to the unemployed.
A Creature of Government
DEWR at the moment is acting like the creature of government policy that it is. If someone is unemployed, the solution is simple, apply pressure until they get work. If that doesn’t work, apply more pressure. Is that simplistic? Perhaps. Is it unfair? No not really. DEWR has this orientation. They supply criteria to the Jobnetwork. The Jobnetwork applies the pressure. The do this to assist their clients. Then DEWR measures outcomes.
Now anyone who has studied even the basics of management will tell you, that is a system designed to fail. And believe me, DEWR fails big time. Why? Because they do nothing to improve the situation. They only make it worse. They add to the problem. All they do is measure outcomes and apply pressure. They're not very bright, but nor are their masters.
What we have here friends is a bad situation, made worse by bad management practices which have come from bad law. Let’s face it, how many politicians have had to deal with being unemployed. How much sympathy or understanding do they have for someone in that situation? Not very much. A little while ago, there was a little kerfuffle about getting the mature unemployed back into the work place. What happened? Nothing! A big fat lard assed ZERO. Again what was needed was imagination, initiative and planning for a long term commitment. Not in this government. Not DEWR and and so again a need was identified, but nothing was done.
Oh and please don’t talk to me about training and courses being offered at the moment. These are not practical because they are not part of a planned integrated process. If you want a person to be well trained and an asset to a potential employer, then you need a well rounded, thought out process which achieves something real and viable, not a cosmetic overlay which achieves nothing. Courses, computer driven or otherwise are simply a pimple on the pumpkin. Real problems require real solutions. And they need to be addressed in a meaningful manner.
Summa Cum Arrogant
But before we finish up on that aspect of things. Let me introduce the nexus of the problem. If you have a smaller pool of unemployed, then you are also reaching a level where some of the job candidates may be more of a challenge to match up with suitable employment. This friends (Wake up Johnny and pay attention!) is known as the Law of Diminishing Returns. Miners know all about this one. Opal miners in particular know that when a vein starts to play out, it gets harder to find pay dirt. Think of our pool of unemployed as a resource. To get the most out of their situation, a little intelligent planning would help. Maybe there are ways for people to be more of an asset. Maybe there should be better communication between potential employers and candidates. Maybe there should be a rethinking, an approach to making things work better.
If you just apply pressure and publish outcomes, then all you will get is resistance, negative emotions and a system which is unproductive and designed to fail. In reality, it should be realised that there needs to be a long term perspectives and some significant, perhaps even insightful thought and planning provided. Bad practices, bad law. Strike two and at this rate Labor should win in the Senate as well.
Finally just a quick sketch on matter pertaining to global warming. I’m sorry Prime Minister but your arguments for not signing up for the Kyoto Protocol do not wash. They sound arrogant. And they are. They sound ill-informed. And they are. They sound nonsensical and without any scientific grounding. And they are.
The Trials of Job
The evidence for global warming is here now and it is frightening. Unless something is done quickly and thoroughly to change the situation, our environment will be irreversibly damaged. Please don’t argue that it will damage our jobs and our economy. That is complete nonsense. If this goes on, our children will have to live below ground and plant crops in valleys where they will be partially shaded from the sun.
Most commentators of global warming have only touched on what is happening with green-house gasses and trapping of the sun’s energy. In fact the problem is worse than has been described. In reality, the earth is a huge system of heat energy transferred through out the globe. One aspect of this is the weather. For every increase in temperature, there will be an increase in the energy stored in the ocean and in the atmosphere. This energy doesn’t remain static. It moves. It generates storms and cyclones and tornadoes. How would you like to live in Florida in the near future. Storms will be increasing frequent. Cyclones will be stronger and more frequent. Tornadoes will grow in size and frequency. It won’t be fun.
Similar problems could happen in Australia, WILL happen in Australia unless something major is done to remedy the situation. And that folks, is Strike Three! You’re out!
What we don’t need in this land of ours, are arrogant politicians with imagined mandates. We don’t need politicians with excited imaginations who play the race card or the paranoid card at the first opportunity. We don't need them to puff up their chests and make a fuss about what they have achieved -- an imagined job well done. In reality little has been done except some bad accounting and an increase in the national debt.
We need thinking people at the helm who are willing to calm the waters and find solutions that work! In other words it is time for Australia to grow up and make better choices. This goes for voters as well as politicians.
Hello is anyone listening? Is there anyone who cares enough to do something? Remember this, one vote by iteself may not mean much. But when they add up, when they combine together, then sometimes significant changes may be made.
Of course I once saw a piece of graffiti on a corrugated iron fence which really made me smile: It doesn't matter who you vote for, it's always a politician that gets in.
But that's wrong, isn't it? We believe that democracy can mean something. We believe that our vote can make a difference. We do believe that.
Don't we?
| 53 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
