Free coffee?

No. We are paying for the "free coffee" being hand out at the COP conference in Turkiye. The reported cost is $32,000 for the coffee being handed out to the delegates.

It is not even coffee we have grown ourselves. We grow around just one per cent of the coffee consumed in this country. 

Those long lines of people lining up for their free coffee would be amusing if it was not for the cost to them and to us. The conference goers are paying to be there, either out of their own pockets or out of someone else's pocket. The climate is paying too. If the conference goers had all stayed home it would have saved quite a lot of fossil fuel.

The real concern however is that it has cost the taxpayers of this country millions to co-host the conference. The cost of the coffee is just small change. What are we paying for then?

People do not know who "that person" is, the one with the supposedly powerful position at the conference. Downunder's "climate minister"? Who is he? What has he managed to achieve? No idea. Is Downunder doing a good job? No idea. What are they doing? No idea. Some sort of "renewables" push? Must be I suppose because that's what it is supposed to be about but don't they export coal and gas...?

There can be few things more ridiculous than Downunder lecturing the rest of the world on fossil fuels and climate change, renewables and solar panels or wind turbines. We export fossil fuel and import the solar panels and wind turbines made with the fossil fuel. We export uranium and yet refuse to have nuclear power. (It is "too expensive" as well as "dangerous".) 

Over there, in another country, we are being told we are reaching our renewable target. We are being told it is "more than fifty percent", that "power prices are coming down". It is not true but it sounds good and, if you avoid the awkward questions, it could even sound true I suppose. 

According to some economists, the sort who do get to sit on the boards of banks, power prices are set to double within five years if we continue with the only renewables strategy. If that really does happen then we will be in even more dire financial straits. We will not be able to manufacture anything but that will only be part of the problem. We will not be eating because we will not have the energy needed to grow the food we need in order to do the manufacturing. We will not be able to move ourselves or anything else around. Life will come to a standstill perhaps? 

It was a relief when Downunder's bid to host the COP conference here failed. That would have cost us even more. It would have been for no benefit at all. 

Taking care of the environment cannot be done by pursuing the current strategy.  It is seen as an easy solution, easy to sell and implement. That it will not work is not a concern. There will be excuses and then the Digital Duty of Care Bill will allow them to suppress any criticism of what is going on. It will all be our fault of course.

Could someone please capture "that man" and make sure he and his boss do not get on a plane back here? The rest of us might need to rethink renewables.  

 

 

The Salvation Army is leaving

"aged care".  The announcement did not surprise me. They were small players in the field anyway. There were only around one thousand five hundred residents in nursing homes and two thousand getting "in-home" care. It is these two groups who will be most affected by any changes. There are others living in "independent" accommodation in units who will need to make, or have others make, arrangements. 

The Salvation Army's excuse for leaving aged care behind has been the cost and the increasing rules, regulations and other red tape around running such facilities. Given what I know about all this it is quite extraordinary that anyone would be involved in such places and even more extraordinary that anyone would believe they can make a profit out of such places. 

There are alarming stories coming out of aged care and into the media at all times. There are places which now allegedly charge for any sort of entertainment including having your own television set in your own room. They will charge to have your mail delivered to your room, for your medication to be administered and more. 

Looking back I know we were fortunate the Senior Cat was alert and articulate. Perhaps he was also fortunate we were very regular visitors. He had other visitors too. I was all too well aware that some residents never left their rooms, that nobody visited. The level of care they received was barely adequate. There was no attempt to provide any sort of stimulation for them.  Good care is expensive. It is very expensive. You cannot provide good care and make a profit. You cannot provide good care and even cover all the costs. 

The Salvation Army had a facility here. It went by the name "Sunset Lodge" which in itself says a lot. The SA divested itself of the place years ago. It has been replaced by another organisation and given a different name. I have been in and out to visit over the years. It is perhaps marginally better now than it was under the SA. For them it seemed to be a business to be run as efficiently and at as low a cost as possible. I was also aware of subtle, and sometimes not quite so subtle, pressure placed on residents and their relatives to leave substantial gifts and even an entire estate to the SA. 

One very elderly and still very alert resident told me how she was "advised" about what was "expected".  Her response to me was, "The young staff are mostly nice but I don't really like the management dear. They all expect to receive as well as give."  It was by no means an exaggeration and no doubt happens elsewhere as well.

My mother's parents died relatively young but my father's parents lived to a great age. Too frail to care for themselves even with help they eventually lived in a small hospital that had a half a dozen beds for the aged. Although he lived more than an hour and a half away from the city by car my father went to see his parents every weekend. Had we lived in the city he likely would have gone more often. I was away on the other side of the world by then but my mother told me my father never saw it as a burden to visit. It was simply the right thing to do. All I could do was write letters for him to read to them.    

Good aged care will always be expensive. It is the price we should be willing to pay. We are living longer and often working longer. It is too easy to see the frail elderly as a financial "burden" but they too had their elderly to care for, often at even greater expense. Aged care should not be about cost or benefit to others. It should be about caring for those who cared for us when we could not care for ourselves.

 

School uniform is under

discussion elsewhere at present. Apparently someone objected to buying the right sort of socks for their child to wear. 

The article does not say what sort of socks are required or what sort of socks the child was wearing but I suspect the child was wearing something that stood out. That is not the point of a uniform.

I have no problems with the idea of a school uniform. I have never yet heard a parent or guardian complain that they are not a good idea. Most people I have discussed the idea with over the years have greeted the idea of a uniform with relief. It saves discussion, arguments and much more. There is much less in the way of competition. Going to and from school it tells you where the more senior little darlings attend school. If they start to misbehave then it is much easier to find them. Ask anyone who works in the local shopping centre or on the rail service and they  will tell you that students in uniform are more likely to behave. They know that serious misbehaviour will lead to a report to the school.

I remember an occasion some years ago when a couple of likely lads from the local high school were foolish enough to do something silly and dangerous at the local railway station. Unbeknown to them they were seen. The damage they caused was recorded. Their uniforms told the police where to look. Come Monday morning the police were at the school and the two boys found themselves in serious trouble. They were no longer heroes to their mates. Yes, uniform has uses.

There was a uniform in every school I attended. As "the head's kids" we had to wear it and wear it well. I went through the usual range of box pleated tunics and at least five different colours of blazer. There were cotton dresses and then cotton/polyester dresses in summer. The smallest school I attended had a uniform. It did not get worn all the time because of remoteness and the impossibility of obtaining one but everyone wore the same style of "school jumper" (sweater/pullover) on an excursion. We wanted people to see where we came from.

Much later I was involved with a school for children with physical disabilities. It always interested me that it was the students of that school who asked if they could have a uniform. They were, rightly, very proud of their school. They wanted a uniform to show the world where they attended school. There was no sense of shame or isolation about attending a "special" school. They wanted people to know how good their school was and they saw a uniform as a way of saying it.

Uniform does not have to be complicated or expensive. In many places it just consists of clothing the chosen colour and a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a logo. When a parent argues with that then I suspect they argue with other things as well. Are they doing their child any favours?  

The art of letter writing is not

lost - or is it? 

In one of those odd little coincidences there is a piece in the paper this morning about letter writing - just as I was about to write an actual letter to someone.

My mother was an excellent letter writing. She found the physical act of writing easy. Her handwriting was very clear and easy to read. It was probably just as well. There was a time in her life when she wrote seven letters a week to family alone. 

She would write once to her mother on Sunday evenings. It would be a "long" letter, several pages. It was what her mother expected of her, anything less would have been met with sulks and "you don't love me". It was easier to give in and keep the uneasy truce between them. 

Mum also wrote to us. Three of us were away at school and university by then. Those letters were short, usually not more than a page. They were intended to inform us about anything we needed to know. There would be snippets of other information in there. If I saw my siblings I was expected to share that information with them. 

Mum also wrote other letters at Christmas and then more letters to people like her closest friend who as also my godmother. I do not know how often some of those letters were written but I know they were written because I sometimes saw the responses come. They were of the generation for whom writing letters was the normal way of corresponding.

One of my tasks in the last week was to write two short pieces for someone at the local church. She is apparently responsible for their "people of the parish" project. She asked me if I would contribute a piece about my parents and another about someone else I knew quite well. My mother had kept in touch by letter with M,... when, in old age, M... left to be close to family. After Mum died I continued to write to her about once a month. M... liked to know what some of her then very elderly friends were doing. Unlike Mum I typed my letters. I will type the one I write to L... too. But... it will still be an actual letter with a stamp. 

I think there is a difference. Of course I could email L... but a letter is different. It is tangible. That matters. L... can keep them if she wants to do so. They will not get lost in the endless bills, reminders, demands and other not-so-important mail which appears on a screen.  If L... wants to keep them they will be there for her children and even grandchildren.

When my brother moved interstate with his family Mum continued to write each week. He tells me he has kept the letters. I hope he has. I moved too many times to keep the letters written to me. I tried but it did not happen. Mum actually threw out the boxes I brought home with me. She thought I would not need them. They might have been useful

I have no doubt at all that one reason for the close family connections in the Senior Cat's family was due to the way his paternal grandmother wrote so many letters. If they had been kept they would have been a treasure trove of information. We have a few though. They are in a clear, determined hand. I have no doubt her children wrote back. It would have been expected of them.

Email is not the same. I may need to type my letters but, if I could, I would want to write them in the same clear copperplate script of my paternal great-grandmother.    

Under the digital duty of care law

I will not be able to say this so I will say it now. Our current Federal Treasurer is totally incompetent and should not hold the position. He has absolutely no idea what he is doing. He is not listening.

Our taxation system has always been a mess but it is an even worse mess now. We have one of the most unnecessarily complex systems in the world - possibly the most complex.

We are taxed at local level. These are the "council rates". These taxes are supposed to provide us with the basic necessities like rubbish collection. 

We are taxed at state level. These taxes are supposed to provide us with services which are our state responsibilities.

We are taxed at national level. These taxes are supposed to provide us with everything else. 

There is a "GST" or "goods and services tax" and personal income tax and a tax on this and that and something else that will apply here but not there and...  

Yes, you get the picture. The "Tax Act" is the most ridiculously complex piece of legislation. The "powers that be" keep adding little bits here and there as loop holes are found or new ways to get revenue need to be found.

I am not sure how the system has not imploded but it has managed to limp along - or is that barely crawl? 

Now our incompetent Treasurer, in need of more money for policies and programmes and grandiose ideas, has asked his staff to think up some ideas for "more productivity".  He has told them they cannot touch the taxes he has put in place to cover the cost blow out of the government keeping those who are keeping the government in power happy. Of course he cannot do that. He will just tax them some more. This is not about tackling the hard issues or making the hard decisions.  It is about a man in panic mode, a man who needs to be sacked. 

A doctorate in the work of "the world's greatest treasurer" - the former Prime Minister who was responsible for some of the worst interest rates on record - is not a qualification for the job of Treasurer. 

Why is he even bothering to ask for ideas. He won't listen to what he does not want to hear. He will still be beholden to his union bosses. They still believe "the rich can pay", that we can influence the world's climate and get the rest of the world to pay for overpriced goods because our standard of living needs to go up and not down. 

The 188yr old department store

which has just "gone bust" is not just the victim of "online" shopping. It is the victim of much more than that.

As children the Christmas school holidays (summer here in Downunder) meant, among other things, a trip to "town". In other words we went into the CBD and the street with the department stores.  It is where our school uniforms and school shoes were bought. It is where Mum looked at "pattern books" and bought a dress pattern and fabric for whatever she decided I would wear to church that year and another to make my brother's shirts. (Grandpa made his suits and school trousers.) Wool would be bought from a neighbouring area on the same floor to make another round of cardigans and pullovers. 

My grandmothers bought their "corsets" which were individually fitted in the underwear section on another floor.  All along the street the footpath was crowded, so crowded you could barely move. There were window displays with Christmas themes. One store had "the Magic Cave" where children could get a "lucky dip" package after enduring being photographed with Father Christmas for "Nana". (I was not going to school when I stopped believing in Father Christmas or "Santa". My brother was not much better.)

In the store owned by the company which has now ceased trading there was a man who played the piano on the ground floor. The lifts were operated by several ex-servicemen, one of whom had only one arm. 

Books and toys were sold in large quantities. There was a "food hall" in the basement and a cafeteria at the highest level. 

My brother and I would have preferred to be reading books at the library but we endured these trips largely without complaint. We did not expect anything extra. These trips were about necessities. We knew we were fortunate to be getting hard wearing and long lasting items we needed. 

The big suburban shopping centres changed that. The first time I saw one was in another state. We were on a camping trip and we children were taken to see the very latest in shopping areas. It would be considered small now but it had about a dozen specialist shops all under one roof. I remember Mum commenting, "Having everything in one place will save a lot of time I suppose."  

But things are not in one place, not really. They are in small stores, brand name stores. They are often expensive too. You can trudge from one place to the next looking for the "right" item. It will be expensive. It will be made in Asia with what amounts to slave labour.

I am as guilty as the next person. I have bought cheap t-shirts from on line places. My preferred jeans have come from a similar on line "shop". I know it is a warehouse somewhere but they call it another name. I know the jeans I see in the shop opposite the supermarket cost about $5 to make and sell for twenty times that price. The women who work in there tell me to "wait until the sale comes up" because they also think the prices are too high.  

Of course they are high. There is rent and power to be paid and then all the expense of employing staff but they have a little more space here than they would renting a space in a "department" store. All this has been sold to us "better" and "easier" and sometimes "more personal" but I doubt it. I only happen to know the women who work in one place because of something which once happened to an elderly customer I knew. Most customers will go in and out without ever knowing the names of the staff. For them it is much the same as shopping in the supermarket.

It is all soulless. I need to get some buttons for something I have just finished knitting. It would be so good to be able to go into an old-fashioned drapery store and buy them from someone who knows the stock and what might be good to use. Instead I will need to catch two trains and look at buttons on a wall in a store which sells manchester and "home wares" and art materials as well as cheap Asian sewing materials and acrylic yarn which comes from China. When I cannot reach to the top row someone else will have to help but it will be another customer because there are minimal staff - and the staff know almost nothing. 

 

Tsunamis can do a lot

of damage. They can wreck everything in their path.

I will not be cheering for the "tsunami" in the midterm elections in America. I would have been much happier with a more balanced result, one which made both their Democrats and Republicans work more closely together. I would have liked the sort of result where those in power were given the sort of jolt which said, "People do not like what we are doing. We need to do better. We need to find out what they do not like and why they do not like it."

This will not happen of course. When their election for President comes around in two years there will likely be other changes. Their current vice-president is not likely to become their president...unless they have a very inadequate opposition candidate.

It is something which should and does concern us here. The election results were made up of a representation of the same sort of mishmash of ideas and views and demands as we have here. How they will be handled is something we can only guess at because they are vary so greatly.

Here we have a government which appears not to be taking any responsibility at all for the latest rise in interest rates. Every minister and every member questioned has tried to tell us the problem lies with external factors. The "price of oil" and "war" and "trade" are all blamed. Government expenditure never seems to be an issue.

I have no doubt there will be some cuts to government spending in the next budget round. There will then be complaints from people affected by those cuts. I also have no doubt there will be a "sweetener" from somewhere. It will be designed to make people think they are still getting something.  Yes, I know this is the way politics works here...and elsewhere. 

Our opinion polls are still suggesting there will be no tsunami here. At present "the Opposition" is seen as weak. The redhead's party is still just in front but they do not yet even have a strong presence in parliament. If they were to gain power there would be people with no experience in representing their electorates also trying to govern the country. 

That would not be a good thing. My state electorate is currently represented by a first timer. She was catapulted straight into a ministry as well. It would be more than reasonable to suggest she is struggling. There have been calls for her sacking as a minister and I would have to agree. If this happened at federal level we could see serious harm done. 

Being in power is not everything. It can make problems worse. Good government cannot occur without equally good opposition.