[Oe List ...] A request to colleagues in Australia

Thu May 7 13:39:08 EDT 2009

Thank you, Frank. Very informative.  I'll print it out and take it on over. They loved receiving the Telford's reply.
--
Judi White
25 North Lake Street
Crescent City, FL 32112
Phone: (386) 569-6956

---- frank bremner <fjbremner at hotmail.com> wrote: 

G'day Judi

Off the top of my head - personal concerns and of those I talk with:

1) The GFC (not GCF!) and its effect on Australia.

2) Are we really in good shape compared with many/most other countries? (With respect to the GFC.)

3) Australia is borrowing money (as is the US) for economic stimulation - will we be able to pay it back?

4) The River Murray system, including the Darling River from Queensland, is in trouble.  It ends in SA, so it's a local concern.

5) Climate change and ecology: changes in the Murray system, the flow-on from farming practices which have negatively affected soil quality, vegetable and fruit prices that do not flow back to the producer.  Have we been living in "The Lucky Country" (Donald Horne's book title was actually said with a big tongue in the cheek) and are about to re-adjust to ecologically reality?  

6) Recycling still half-hearted.  In SA we have surcharges on drink bottles/cans and small (not large!) milk cartons - it means tidier roadways etc - travel interstate and it's quite obvious that it works.  And at 10c per bottle/can/carton it yields a few dollars every month!  But why not a national approach?

7) "States rights" is not as big an issue here as in the  USA.  We find it easier to develop national solutions, although we do have the national equivalent to the FBI.  And lots of good national scientific and health authorities.  But will the amalgamation of local councils, into county-size entities (USA image), perhaps with a bio-regional approach, eventually see the collapse of states.  States are, like the USA states, the product of history, colonialisation and so on.  Will a new rationale come about?

8) The "theatre of politics" - the magazine About The House (free!) shows what the members of our House of Representatives actually do.  Lots of committee, enquiry and visiting work, apart from local electorate events (jokes about "the opening of an envelope", etc) and assisting people with problems.  My local national MP helped me with some matters a few years ago - just the fact that he was on the case got a supeannuation to stop dithering.  But in "the bear pit" of the House, especially in televised Question Time, the behaviour is so adversary it's embarassing, especially for student council students who are visiting.

9) "Private wealth and public squalour" - J K Gailbraith's phrase was very appropriate during the past 20 years of the growth of economic rationalisn worldwide.  Phrases like "loser" grew.  Dinner table discussions about houseprices, salaries etc grew.  Bob Hawke promised in ~1983 that we'd see an enquiry into the distribution of wealth in Australia - it never happened - did his business mates scare/pay him off?  Public transport in need of improvement - a transport minister who last ride the buses two years ago!  
10) The growth of bullying in the workplac - nothing new, but behind the cover of "weasel words" and  "politically correct" policies applied in secrecy (to "protect" the peron being bullied).  A personal experience, but I hear of it everywhere.  Almost Kafka-esque, almost Stalin-esque.

11) Bullying, including cyber-bullying, in schools.

12) TV shows and movies which are unrealistic portrayals - much more sex, violence and neat endings than life actually brings.  The usual discussion.  Extend it into "Why so many UK shows on the ABC and SBS?" and "Why so many US shows on the commercial channels (7,9,and 10)". There are good Australian-produced shows, but ... 

And some of the US fare is good - we don't tend to see the worst - I have!  And people often don't realise the quality of some of the PBS fare we do see!  More and more, Australian productions are co-productions with overseas comnpanies (US, UK, France etc) to achieve greater distribution - and get somewhere near overseas production budgets.

13) Obesity, exercise, fast food, diet, image consciousness, women's magazines and their covers - that galaxy of issues.

14) A groundswell of opinion change gave us a new PM.  Ditto, and more sustantially, there was change in the USA.  A sense of "new solutions", or rather "new approaches", and ideas of responsible leadership in the world.   Obama, and seeing the US as a less arrogant power, alongside China, Japan, India, Korea etc.  Rudd speaking Mandarin, and being OK at "punching above our weight" in the areas of sport, science, etc.  Stupid opposition that then criticises leaders for appearance on the world stage showing off our intellectual property.  Stupid short-sightedness that has only wanted immediate results and couldn't lay educational groundwork for the future - this may change.

15)  Behaviour of school kids - some of it is "Why can't they be like we were ..." ("Kids" from Bye Bye Birdie).  But there seems to be confusion re manners, etiquette, being assertive/aggressive, and so on.  The collapse of middle-class niceness and Sunday School attendance etc ("Nice peoplel go to church") and the replacement with "secular" and media sources - Neighbours, Home And Away, songs, video clips, school counselling and group work.  Psychological "political correctness" in schools - what is there between this and overtly Christian Support Workers (the latest name for school chaplains)?

16)  The NT Intervention, initiated by the Howard government in response to reports about child abuse in indigenous communities.  The Rudd government is reviewing the project - it may become something more comprehensive, less racist in some of its operation, less racist in its appeal to white racists around Australia, etc.

17) "They get lots of government money and drive around in Toyotas" - a common opinion in Pt Augusta from when I lived there Jan-Jul 1999.  We hear about petrol-sniffing and other problems.  There are good stories, but they make the news much less.  But you couldn't imagine Treaty by Yothu Yindi being top of the charts 50 years ago - some comparatively quiet things are happening.

That's a start!

Cheers

Frank

> Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 06:29:02 -0500
> From: sophiacircle at windstream.net
> To: oe at wedgeblade.net
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A request to colleagues in Australia
> 
> Thank you. I'm printing it out. and will take it to that classroom. This is a motivational technique. Maybe it will work, but direct word on what really interests Australians was the underlying question - and the SMH lead is priceless!!
> --
> Judi White
> 25 North Lake Street
> Crescent City, FL 32112
> Phone: (386) 569-6956
> 
> ---- the telfords <thetelfords at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Hi Judi,
> 
> tray feeding South east Asia - Hot topics into google as well as SMH -
> Sydney Morning Herald. This will give you lots of options under
> current news etc. Human Rights re UN. HREOC =Human rights & Equal
> Opportunities report was lauched this week by tom Calma.
> 
> Good Luck and all the best.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> elaine and john
> 
> On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 11:30 PM, Judi White <sophiacircle at windstream.net> wrote:
> > One American History Class will discuss hotest topics in what we, the Order/ICA call SEAPAC. Will you be so kind as to share through me - I will deliver - what's hot in the news today. I will be grateful to you and you will be appreciated.
> > --
> > Judi White
> > 25 North Lake Street
> > Crescent City, FL 32112
> > Phone: (386) 569-6956
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OE mailing list
> > OE at wedgeblade.net
> > http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/oe_wedgeblade.net
> >
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