The NDIS is out of alcohol control

and I very much doubt "changes to section 10" of the Act which is responsible for it will make much difference.

The information for it came to light after one of our Senators accused the informant of "making it up". Yes, I am sure that the Senator in question will be feeling angry and embarrassed by the evidence. He is not going to want to accept that there were two hundred and ninety three claims for alcohol last year - and a total of $46,777 was apparently spent. That is serious money.

Given the general lack of oversight and the ease with which dubious claims can be made I do not believe this will be an end to the story. I have seen some of this sort of thing at first hand. 

Just last week I saw a profoundly disabled NDIS recipient in the local shopping centre. She had been brought there by two "carers". The carers were sitting there having a cup of coffee and a chat with two friends. N...was just sitting there. There was no attempt to include her and she was not given a drink - something she can manage through a straw.  Yesterday I saw her grandmother in the same place and I mentioned seeing N...  

"Yes, they were supposed to be taking her to the doctor. Apparently it takes two of them to do it and the entire morning." 

 N..'s NDIS money is used to pay for this. Her parents are deceased. Her grandfather tries to keep watch on what her money is spent on but constantly runs into problems. More than once he has queried expenses and he will query this one but, by then, it will be too late. The outing was not just about taking N... to the doctor but a couple of carers enjoying themselves. 

It is one of just many such stories of waste, of lack of accountability and more. The money is there. It is seen as endless.

Of course some of it goes where it is supposed to go. It may be that even most of goes where it is supposed to go but the system allows two carers to spend part of their morning socialising on government money intended to care for a person with a disability. It is what allows someone to charge more than twice the amount he should to mow a lawn. It allows someone to be paid to put the bins out when a neighbour has offered to do it for nothing. 

I would like someone to go as far back as records allow and find all the instances they can of alcohol being bought. These people need to be prosecuted. If the NDIS recipient has asked them to do it then they also need to be prosecuted. It is not what NDIS money is for. It is not there for alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, sex-services or holidays. It is there for the basic right to the activities of daily living and it has to be always for the benefit of the NDIS recipient. 

I suspect there would be an outcry if there was a very close investigation of how NDIS money is being used. There will be an "investigation" of course - but the rorts will continue.  

 

Our tax system needs to change

but not in the way the current Federal Treasurer would seem to believe. 

I am not an economist but it does not take an economist to know things need to change.  We cannot go spending beyond our means. Our standard of living is, quite simply, far too high. The Treasurer is doing nothing to change that. He appears to simply be intent on increasing taxes to pay for it. 

Taxes cannot be increased forever. We are already finding that "big business", the companies which actually run the economic engine of the country, are moving off-shore. It is "big business" which has the money to innovate and expand, not the "small business" companies or the "mum and dad" businesses. Of course the latter two can do some of it but they cannot pour millions of dollars in to develop a new process or build a new factory.  Tax "big business" too much and it will leave.

Employing people in this country is an expensive business. It is of course expensive in most places but here there seem to be all sorts of additional expense - like payroll tax, the superannuation guarantee, maternity and paternity leave and a "holiday leave loading". I still cannot get my head around the fact that many, many years ago I was actually paid extra to take my annual leave. Then there are all the training requirements that have nothing to do with the actual job but are concerned with "equality" and "awareness". These are another tax on business too but they are not always recognised as such.

We pay tax at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level and a "goods and services tax" on almost everything. All those things require oversight and constant vigilance to see we don't pay less than we should. The Senior Cat's estate has just paid to have a "tax return" done three and a half years after his death because the estate has not been "finalised". There has been no income into it for the last eighteen months but we paid an accountant to inform the tax office to inform the executors about what they already knew.

The government went to the election promising not to do away with what is called "negative gearing". Now the unions want to bring it in and are pressuring the government to do it. They say it will ease the housing supply but it has been tried in the past. It has not worked. Economists say it will not work. People who rent do not want it because rents will raise to cover the cost.

Somewhere there is an answer to all of this but it will require a very different mindset from the current one. Some unpopular decisions need to be made but I suspect our present Treasurer is too weak to even contemplate them.   

There is a place for special schools

for some children. The idea that this is not so is rooted in a false belief about "equality" and that, by sending a child to a school not suited to their needs, the child will somehow have an equal opportunity otherwise denied to them. This is wrong.

I know something about those apparently old-fashioned "special" schools. I have visited many of them, worked in three of them, done research in more. I had a long, happy and close association with one just by sheer chance. I still have close friends who went there. 

Those friends are fully integrated members of the community. They may now be retired but they went on to finish school if they were able. They went on to post secondary education and some went to university. The school produced two students with doctorates and more. 

It also provided physiotherapy, speech therapy, specialised assistance for learning difficulties and much more. There were Guides and Scouts and a social club for older students. They went out and about in the community and learned to volunteer their skills where they could. 

It was not a perfect school because no school can be that but it was a good school, a very good school. I do not know one ex-student who resents their time spent there. They were, and still are, proud of the school and what it achieved.

It is no longer there of course. The Education Department took it over and closed it down. All children would be "integrated" into the mainstream. They would "thrive" there because they would be treated "like everyone else". 

It has not worked. Parents now carry the burden of trying to get their children to physiotherapy, speech therapy and more. Teachers do not have the specialist training or the time to deal with the many learning issues associated with not being able to perform acts of daily living in the same way as everyone else. They do not understand the complexities involved and they do not have the almost instant access to things like wheelchair seating issues or a broken communication device. 

At the same time we are told that the child will have "friends", that able-bodied children will willingly include the child in all their activities. No, that does not happen. It may happen occasionally or when the able-bodied children are pushed into including the child but it is rare for it to happen all the time.  

This is what parents and children tell me. They tell me this even when the child is falling behind and parents are looking for outside tutoring in the hope their child can "keep up" with every other child.

Yes of course there are children with disabilities who thrive in the mainstream.  I know one child with a sight issue who is managing extremely well and has plenty of friends but it is taking constant vigilance on the part of his parents. I know of another child who has a mobility issue but is academically very able. He has gone from a big state school to a smaller fee paying school with a very different philosophy and is now doing very well. I know of a child with Down Syndrome who is very happy in a small class in the Catholic system. It can happen but it has not been easy for any of them. It has taken hours of discussion and support from others. 

For many children that will never happen or can never happen.  A severely autistic child  may be highly disruptive and others will, rightly, complain their own learning is being disrupted. A child with a profound hearing loss is not going to build vocabulary at the same rate and will often be confused in class.  

So a neighbouring state is setting up new "special" schools and being condemned for it by the very people who should be supporting them. Equal opportunities do not mean being put in the same classroom as everyone else and simply hoping that some extra assistance (if you can get it) is the answer to everything. It isn't.  

What does Julian Assange really stand for?

During his time in Belmarsh there was a lot of sympathy for Julian Assange. He was seen as the "good guy" falsely imprisoned for telling the world how dreadfully badly governments, particularly the US one, were behaving.

Over this last weekend he was involved in a "protest" march which was actually supporting a group which has committed unspeakable horrors. 

Yes, I know that what is going on in the Gaza strip is appalling. I also know it is getting plenty of the wrong sort of publicity.

Night after night there are reports on the news service about the starvation in Gaza. The Israeli government is criticised - and rightly so - for their part in this. There are pictures we are told might "distress" us.

I have yet to see hear much criticism of Hamas. We are told of course but the fiercest condemnation is directed at the IDF.  We are told they will not allow aid in, that they will not allow aid to be distributed, that they are intent on prolonging the war and more. This suits the international narrative.

Does Assange really believe this is an accurate narrative, one worth of his support? If he does then he must not be reading any of the words written by those who have immediate sources of information. Is he supporting Hamas because he really believes they are in the right, that kidnapping and murder and the destruction of Gaza are right? 

Statehood for Palestinians has to come but it has to come through the vote of the people in free and fair elections. It has to come about without Hamas playing any part in those elections because their aim is to destroy Israel.  Assange should understand that. He should also understand that standing there at the front of the crowd with some other noteworthy fools is just playing into the hands of Hamas. 

"Writers' Weeks" have changed

and not for the better it seems.

Yesterday there was a post about the removal of two Jewish comedians at a "Writers' Week" on the other side of the world. Apparently the staff at the venue said they would feel "unsafe" if their appearances went ahead.

Unsafe? Presumably they were concerned that protestors might turn up and disrupt the events if they went ahead. Surely it is the protestors who should be removed, not the performers? 

It made me think about the last Writers' Week where I live. For the first time ever I did not go to anything, nor did I bother to watch any of the "live stream" at the local library. I just did not want to hear any of the "writers" who were speaking.

Yes, I put the word in inverted commas because too many of those who were speaking were not actually writers at all. They were activists, politically correct activists who had a message they were intent on telling the rest of us. They were there to tell us not just what they were thinking but how we should be thinking. 

The past balance was not there any more. Any pretence about that has now been removed.

I used to love Writers' Week. It only came on alternate years. It really was for writers. There were some public events of course, both free and paid for and a lot of school events, but there were sessions for writers too. I was lucky enough to go to many of these. I may still be a kindergarten level writer but I did learn a lot. I heard well known writers from all over the world talking about their craft and their concerns.

There were some fiery sessions at times. "Just sit tight Cat, Patrick will rile someone" and "Max and Alec on the same panel? This will be interesting." I can still hear my mentor, the late Judith Wright, saying these things about Patrick White, Max Harris and AD Hope. There would be discussions about "the Ern Malley" affair. 

Patrick White was a Nobel Prize winner of course. He was rude to everyone I ever heard him in conversation with - and that was many people. He was as dismissive of me as he dared to be when Judith was standing next to me. I still managed to learn from what he had to say. He came and he participated. I am not sure how willing he was but he was there. 

The "Ern Malley" affair was a hoax. Look it up if you are interested. The Senior Cat knew Max Harris well and we kittens were warned about how pompous he could be. He ran a bookshop in the city - a shop selling "remainders" at reduced prices. The general view was that he deserved to be taken down a peg or two. Really though he did not do too badly out of it. If he had actually read the postcard he was sent he might not have been fooled at all.

These things were topics of discussion of course but they were not seen as radical politics of the left or right. We listened to Russians and Peruvians on how they approached the characters they wrote about. We listened to South Africans and Indians about they tried to invoke a sense of isolation in an otherwise crowded space. We listened to arguments about grammar and poetical forms. At any time some writers would be gone. They would be out visiting schools and talking to students.

All that has gone. The sessions are now held in the parklands. The "writers" have sometimes not actually written their books at all. They speak from a stage and barely mix with the readers, if at all.  They are there to promote a politically correct or controversial message or their latest "best-selling" book which is borrowed but returned unread from the library.  

Two or three years ago I asked why two very good Downunder writers had never been at the week. Had they ever been asked? The answer was, "No. That's not the sort of writing people want to read." Really? There are multiple copies of their books in the library system but they are rarely on the shelves. There are always waiting lists for any new books by those authors. I have met both of them but only briefly. They seemed to be very nice people and they both work with young writers. Perhaps they will one day be invited to sit on the stage and talk about actual writing. I can hope.

Trying to sue for something which

happened more than forty years ago? 

A man with a troubled, criminal past is now trying to sue the Education Department in this state. He claims that back in the early eighties he was sexually abused and bashed by a teacher at school. He further claims that this has caused his PTSD and substance abuse issues which have led to his twenty-eight year serious criminal career.

The teacher being accused is no longer alive to defend the claims. His accuser is looking for $1.5m in damages. He is claiming the Education Department failed in its duty of care towards him. The case is apparently continuing.  

It raises some interesting issues. There is no "statute of limitations" here - a time limit within which an issue must be raised.  The question of whether it is reasonable to wait forty years is something is one of those issues. There are other issues as well.

The most important of these is whether there can be a fair trial after forty years in a case like this. There is no DNA evidence available. There are apparently no witnesses to the events which are being claimed to have taken place. 

On the assumption the complainant is a truthful person how accurately can he remember something which took place forty years ago? 

I am said to have a good memory for most things but I do wonder how much and how accurately I would remember some events. Yes of course something like that can be "etched" into memory but what about the details?

Some time ago I heard a woman talk about her time in an orphanage. It was a place which was later investigated and condemned by some. She had nothing bad to say about the place. I discussed it with her afterwards and we agreed that many of those who condemned the place were those who were troubled when they arrived. They were children who often came from violent and difficult situations. They made trouble for others where they could. They were punished for things like fighting, disobedience, insolence and more. 

We agreed some of them would have turned the memory of those punishments into a memory of acts of abuse against them. Punishment was often physical in the time we were discussing.  Some of them would genuinely believe their "memories".  A strapping when your pants are down? Turning that into a memory of sexual abuse if you were a troubled child and then an adult with further issues would be all too easy. These complainants are not lying. They will be telling the truth as they see it. It is a major issue with such historic abuse cases. But can you blame all your life choices and criminal history on one instance of abuse after forty years? That is surely a different question. 

The person bringing the action in this case was apparently already a trouble maker in school. He admits he was in the teacher's office without permission. What was he doing there? No doubt the court will hear the answers to those and many other things.   

If you want to "protest"

then please do not go on a "march".

I have written about this before. Ignore me if you wish but I think it is worth repeating. 

The "Free Palestine" group wants to "protest" by walking across Downunder's iconic bridge. They wanted to do it this weekend and, last I heard, "negotiations" were still taking place. 

The police do not want them to do this - and rightly so. It is an issue of public safety. The bridge is there for vehicular traffic. It is there for getting people to and from work and other necessary purposes. It is there for emergency traffic. It is not there for "protestors".

Of course some people will say that this is the purpose of the "protest" and that, by marching there they will draw public attention to the issue. These people have been drawing attention to their issue for months now. It has not changed anything. It is unlikely to change anything. They are still "passionate" about their cause but their numbers are less. The view of many others is that "they are a bit of a nuisance" and "they should just give up" and "they need to get a boot in the backside" and more. It is perhaps fair to say that there are many other people who are less than sympathetic towards the continued disruption they cause.

I am not sympathetic either but it is because my view is that this is no way to protest about anything.  It may once have helped. It is likely protesting against the war in Vietnam did have some effect. That was in an era with no social media as such, just a little "talk back" radio and the "letters to the editor" in the physical paper delivered to the front garden and a little on television. Now anyone with an internet connection can protest on a world wide basis. 

The group which is demanding the "right" to walk across a bridge are apparently not aware of the much more effective means of protest available. In all likelihood most of them would quite possibly be incapable of using the most effective means available to them. They simply could not write an original letter, affix a stamp and post it to one of the people capable of making a decision which would influence a desired outcome. This would require literacy skills many of them seem to lack. This would also require a genuine knowledge and understanding of the issue they are protesting about. Of course it is much harder to do this.  

Is it time to be rid of "net zero"?

The leader of a very right wing party with representation in Downunder's Senate is making a political move which may force the Coalition to make a much stronger commitment to the issue - one way or another.

Until now the Coalition has been on line with the issue. We need to get to "net zero". They committed to it in Paris and then elsewhere. How to get there was not described in any detail. It was just a commitment that a country of twenty-seven million people was agreeing to this policy. We were going to change the world by 2050 and most of it would be done by 2030. Our commitment would mean that rising sea levels would be halted and that our "Pacific neighbours" would be safe.

All this sounded good, very good. People were excited by the idea that we could do it. Nobody mentioned the miniscule contribution we make to those harmful "greenhouse gases" or any of the problems we might have in reaching the target. The cost of doing it was mentioned but not in a way which might cause alarm.

We had a power outage last night. I managed to recover most of what I had been doing. I apologised to the person on the other side of the world and we went back to what we were doing. Then it happened again and again. It was frustrating for both of us. Eventually my colleague sent a message, "I didn't think you lived in a third world country!"

No, I don't...but it might well become that. The "net zero" approach of the present government is not working. It is not likely to work. It is not taking into account our geography or our population numbers or the way we currently house that population. What is more our efforts are not going to make any difference at all. We could do more good and do it much more cheaply by planting more vegetation, particularly trees, which could also feed, clothe and house people as well as caring for the other living things on the planet. 

Of course doing it that way would require a great deal more hard work, hard physical work at that. The present government wants to do it in a way that seems "easy". You plant solar panels and windmills. That you need to import these and the food you can no longer grow on the ground you have covered with solar panels is not relevant to the "net zero" argument...or is it?  

I have said all this before but of course nobody is listening. Who wants to listen to anything that might actually require some work? Even if I had the time, the money and the energy I do not think I have it in me to launch another massive campaign. I did that once but the way the world works and communicates has changed. 

The reason for that power outage last night? A tree had fallen across power lines.  

 

 

  

It's an earthquake

and, unless you are a seismologist, could you please refrain from telling me about them.

Earthquakes are not caused by climate change, too much rain, too much heat, not enough rain or not enough heat. They are not caused by what is grown on the land surrounding the area where the quake occurs or a great many other things. 

I "sort of" understand what happens - in the simplest possible terms pressure will build up somewhere and there will be movement of the earth's crust. The greater the pressure which has built up the more powerful the result.

I also know I live in a city built on a "fault line". There are frequent earthquakes here but they are usually so small we do not notice them.   

That is about the limit of my knowledge.

I know a lot more about the aftermath of earthquakes, more than I want to know. They can result in what we call CHE's or "complex humanitarian emergencies. These occur when those people and other living things or places or structures are impacted by the earthquake and need assistance.

Telling them that an earthquake is caused by climate change is simply going to add to the stress and alarm. It will make it more difficult to get others the help they need.

Could anyone who believes the recent earthquake was due to "climate change" please keep that belief to themselves? Thanks.  

   

The NAPLAN results are

"good", "bad", "disappointing", "cause for alarm", "show progress" or perhaps just dependent on your view of the school system.

I would say they were "manipulated" and there was "room for improvement", perhaps a lot of improvement. Yes, you might ask why I say that. 

For a start I know of one state school where three children in one class were "absent" on the day of the test. How do I know this? The teacher told me they were. "We made a decision not to include them because it would skew the result for the class". Oh. Really? It was apparently agreed by the parents. 

I wonder how often that occurs. It may not happen on a wide scale but "a child here" and "a child there" not counted in the results may have more impact than we can know about. The only reason I know about the three absentees is that one of them is known to me. He is "struggling" in school. He "hates" school. He has "hated" it from the time he started attending school three years ago. Even prior to that he did not enjoy day care or pre-school. He is happiest when he is outside getting filthy dirty while "building" things. I have never seen a better "cubby" built by an eight year old child. Unfortunately cubby building is not part of the curriculum. 

Recently I mentioned the perceived need for very simple books about the topics and issues being taught to children in the upper years of primary school. There should be no need for this apart to help the few who are genuinely less able. The person who talked to me about this was genuinely concerned by the perceived need for this. She felt children were not reading. They were not borrowing books from libraries to source information. They would watch YouTube videos but they were not ready or willing to access the same information from the written page.

I have used YouTube to access very practical information but my use of it is "selective". I do not rely on it. Given the way I learn it is no substitute for the written word. Perhaps it is for some people but the need to read is still important, very important. I am less concerned about the NAPLAN results than I am about the failure to use the written word. Most books for children are still "fact checked" and the eight year old who hates school so much may not have been able to read the words but he could read the pictures showing him how to tie pieces together for his cubby. Perhaps they should have let him do the test.

 

 

Is Gaza starving?

We are being told there is a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza and that is true. It would be a humanitarian catastrophe even if the word "food" was never mentioned. It would be a humanitarian catastrophe even if there was more than enough food there.

Gaza is a war zone and all war zones are catastrophes. 

Last night I was asked if I knew anything about the situation in Gaza. I was asked because those asking thought I might have some sort of inside information from aid workers on the ground. I have very little information.  Aid workers doing very specific, short term jobs are not spending time there right now.,

I have very little information but what information I do have suggests that the situation is not nearly as straightforward as the news media would have us believe. There is even something in it to suggest that there is evidence that claims Israel is using food as a weapon of war is much less certain than we are being led to believe. No, they are not squeaky clean by any means but this is a war zone and all war zones have issues with humanitarian assistance.

Are they really deliberately withholding food from the everyday people of Gaza? It is unlikely. They may not be distributing it in the most efficient possible way but does that mean they are withholding much needed food?

It is unlikely because the Israeli government knows that the realistic outcome to the war is that Gaza will still be there. They will need to live with the survivors as neighbours. There is no point in trying to starve them into submission. It is likely to have the opposite effect.

So why the claims of starvation and the deliberate withholding of food? That is where the few aid workers I have had limited contact with come into the picture.They tell me that Hamas still has far greater control than is generally recognised. If you go to one of the UN controlled food distribution centres then you will find Hamas is there. They may be there in the form of the officials who are overseeing the distribution of aid. They may also be there in the form of spies within the crowd, among the people seeking aid. They will be listening to what is being said. Hamas members and those who associate with them will be ensuring that it is those loyal to Hamas who get the food. It may all seem "orderly and fair" (as they want us to believe) but the reality is otherwise. If you fail to support Hamas at the UN distribution sites you are going to find it hard to reach the point where you actually get food. If you do reach that point, and some must, then you may get less if you do not support Hamas. You may even go away with that all important bag of flour but you may not be permitted to keep it. That bag will be taken from you at another point on your return journey. It is as simple and as complex as that.

Of course we want to believe that the United Nations is there as a force for good. We want to believe they are ensuring food gets to those who need it most. We want to believe it is an incorruptible organisation only intent doing good. The reality is very different.   It would probably be fair to say that, in much of Gaza, Hamas is still, at least to some extent, controlling the flow of food. It is a powerful weapon and they use it. 

There are people who will disagree with this assessment. Before you excoriate me please remember - it was Hamas who took the hostages and who have the stated aim of destroying the state of Israel.   

 

Taxing the rich....

more and more sounds like a good idea doesn't it? Let the rich "help the poor because they can afford it". It is a real "Robin Hood-ish" sort of idea. It would be easy money for the government. Nobody else will argue against the idea of "the rich" paying more in taxes. Yes, we have heard it all before.

But I wonder if it works that way? I was talking to a retired accountant this morning. He had knocked on the door looking for the person who lived here previously and somehow we had a bit of a chat. He worked as what I suppose would be called a "forensic" accountant and he seemed to know a thing or two about how the genuinely wealthy handle their money. 

"The media loves to tell us these people are not paying enough tax," he told me, "But in reality they are paying a lot of tax other people are not aware of and one of those biggies is payroll tax and another is the superannuation guarantee. Those things are part of the cost of employing people and that is a form of tax. It allows the government to tax the people we think of as ordinary workers."

Yes, that makes sense to me.

There was something else he said too, "If tax goes over and above what employers think is reasonable then they will take business elsewhere. They will take their money out of the country."

Downunder has one of the most complex tax systems in the world. We are said to be "the fourth highest taxing country in the developed world" - after Denmark, Belgium and Iceland. We also get less for our taxation dollar than those three countries. 

The reasons for all that are complex too. We have local (council or shire) tax, state tax and federal tax. We have a "GST" - goods and services tax - and then all sorts of other charges which are effectively taxes. We also live on a very large land mass but we only have a small population, most of whom live around the coastline. It makes services more difficult and expensive to deliver.

Taxing the rich more would seem to be an easy way out. Even economists will sometimes argue it is would be a good move but it is unlikely they believe that. They will say that overseas entities should pay more tax here even when they know that they will simply move their business to a lower taxing country or fail to do business with us at all.

We really need to review our tax system. There needs to be one tax system for the entire country. The Tax Act needs to be rewritten. 

I wonder why "the man from the Taxation Office" (who had official ID I have seen before) wanted the previous tenant? I have no idea where he went. He was renting but that is all I know. Does he owe the ATO money? It would have to be a large sum before someone came knocking on the door. Perhaps it is just as well I could not tell this officer anything.  

 

  

Is this "child abuse" or is it

"child safety"?

There was a case in the media recently of a young male teacher who was taken to court for "child abuse". He plead guilty to the action and was fined but not convicted because the judge ruled there was no intent to abuse.

What the young teacher had apparently done was run after a runaway child and grab him by the wrist to take him back to the classroom. The parents put in a complaint. 

I once did much the same thing at a pedestrian crossing. The child was about to dart out into the road. I just managed to grab him in time and, far from putting in any sort of complaint about me, the mother gave the child a dressing down and made him apologise for trying to do something so obviously dangerous.

Reading this though I wonder how I would have reacted if the mother had turned on me. I think and hope I would simply have ridden off and not engaged in an argument. She would not have had any idea who I was so the situation could not have escalated. 

It should not have escalated in the other situation either. There are times when there is no opportunity or possibility of reasoning with a child. I remember the issue of "corporal punishment" coming under discussion when I was doing my initial teacher training. It was still legal for the school principal or deputy to use the cane. 

A friend of the Senior Cat, another school principal, once pointed out, "If a young child is about to poke a knife into the toaster because the toast is burning you don't try an reason with them. You grab them." In other words there are times when the danger of a child harming themselves is so great that action rather than words is necessary. Yes, explain but explain afterwards because otherwise you might not be able to explain at all. 

The Senior Cat hated the idea of corporal punishment. He did it for two reasons. One was for throwing stones and the other was for gross insubordination to a teacher. In both instances it would be for a third offence. I can remember the two occasions on which he caned a child that I knew of in all the many years he was a school principal. On each occasion he came home with a headache so bad he had to go to bed. It upset him dreadfully. On both occasions the fathers turned up the following day and thanked him. I doubt they would do that now.

If the reporting is correct then I am sorry that the parents reacted the way they did. We have lost a teacher who was trying to do the right thing.   

Something wrong with the NDIS?

"The lawn mower man charges me $99," J... told me.

"And how long does it take him to do the job?" I asked. 

J... thought about it for a moment and then said, "Well, it isn't even half an hour."

"Does he do anything else?"

"Not really. I mean he puts the cuttings in the bin but that's all."

J... is on one of the NDIS packages for people with a disability. She needs help with the lawn mowing and her housework. Someone now takes her shopping although she still holds a licence. I am not sure she should be driving but her doctor has obviously had to decide between isolation and safety. I just hope she does not harm anyone else.

She phones me about her problems and the garden came up. The garden is beyond her capabilities. It has always been beyond her capabilities but she has at least tried to keep the weeds at bay and someone has come in to mow the lawn. That person was appointed by someone from the NDIS. J...is paying him at least twice what she should be, possibly even more. He may not be getting that much of course. He is probably contracted to someone else who will be getting at least half. 

If J... had found someone for herself she would not be paying that much. At the old house I was paying someone $20 for around fifteen to twenty minutes of mowing, edging and putting the cuttings into the compost bin at the rear of the yard. If I had not insisted on paying him more I would still have been paying him the $15 he had been paid for the ten years prior to that. He was going out of his way to do the work for me. Just before I left he retired and the man who took over the round went on for the last six months for the same price. I made sure both of them had plenty of cold water to take with them in summer and they would both come in for a glass or two of cordial as well if it was very hot. 

Yes, the Senior Cat and I knew we were lucky but we also knew that to pay what J...is paying would be to pay too much. Yes, her "lawn" is larger but it is not four times that size and it does not take four times as long.

This is one of the big problems with the NDIS. The recipients of packages are being overcharged. 

One of the other recipients I know is attending speech pathology. The cost of a session should be around $160 for 50mins. She gets charged $199 for just over half that. The help she gets there is still allowing her to eat reasonably normally. It is not "having fun" or "playing games". 

And then there is the boy I know who is sitting uncomfortably in a wheelchair which is too small for him. It has broken twice and been soldered together again by a neighbour so that the boy can continue going to school. NDIS is supposed to providing assistance to get a bigger chair but "the funding isn't there". Why? The family is actually getting less than what he would be well entitled to. It is only because the provision of a properly fitting wheelchair is a specialist matter that his parents have not tried to scrape all the money together themselves. As it is they are offering to pay half - only to be told that there are other reasons for the delays as well as the funding issues.

I would really, really like to be able to go through all the funding packages and remove some of the things that the "squeaky wheel" parents have managed to get and that outspoken people with disabilities have managed to get. There are too many people out there not getting the help they need and far too many others getting funding they do not need. It may be nice to have but some are getting help they do not actually need in order to live in the community without any more or less disadvantage than anyone else. Others are still not getting the help they need to live with dignity. 

"Activating" a new bank card

 should be a simple thing to do, yes?

No. The bank has sent me a new card. It has apparently sent everyone with that type of account a new card. There is some sort of technical reason for this, an "upgrade" of some sort no doubt.

I have the new card. It finally arrived in the post. I followed the instructions exactly. I read everything I was supposed to do not once but three times. This is a bank card. It is the way I get the money I need for day-to-day expenses. 

I followed those instructions very carefully. I triple checked each thing as I keyed it in.  An "apology" appeared on the screen. I need to go to the "nearest branch" to get it "activated". 

That was yesterday. It was too late to go to the bank. Today the forecast says 9'C and rain. The idea of pedalling off in that when the trike has been booked in for attention because it is complaining about the amount of work it has been doing (rideable but making a loud complaint about it) is more than I want to contemplate. 

What really infuriates me about all this is that I was required to set up "internet banking" recently. The bank has insisted. It is apparently "essential" before I can go off on a long overdue holiday in September. I have done it under protest. It was supposed to allow me to do things like "activate" the card on-line as well. Now I am wondering if it will allow me to do anything at all. 

I know this is all about "security" and "making sure your money is safe" but why do they have to make it so difficult? The closest bank is two train journeys away there and two more back. Given the weather I may end up relying on Middle Cat to provide a "taxi" service which I try to avoid.

Add to that the problems I am having in physically managing the touch screen on the new phone and I ended up in tears of frustration yesterday. It has been years since I did that. 

Why is it so hard to buy essentials and talk to people? 

Turning your back on a "Welcome

to country" is what I would expect of the four far right Senators in our national parliament. Their leader made her views known about such things many years ago. She has been in and out of politics since 1994 - first as a councillor in local government and then as a member in the Lower House of the national parliament. She then moved to the Senate and has managed to retain her seat on her "One Nation" platform. 

Her maiden speech in the Lower House made not just national but international headlines. I came across it again when I was moving. A friend of the Senior Cat had given it both of us and asked for our views. 

It was a passionate speech. It was most definitely "right wing". There were many things said in it that were heavily criticised at the time but the quiet word was that there were also many things with which the "average MITS and WITS" ("man in the street/woman in the street) agreed. 

I did not bother to reread the speech. I threw it out. I am not sure why the Senior Cat kept it. We were both disturbed by it. Perhaps that is why he kept it. 

There were no "welcome to country" ceremonies when this person first entered politics.  It really is not that long ago. Parliament just opened with the old traditions and closed with the same traditions. There was no suggestion of a "Voice" enshrined in the Constitution or many other things. A lot can change in thirty years. 

There are now four Senators of that persuasion in the Senate. It perhaps says something about an increasing concern with respect to the politics of "race". Support for the "One Nation" party may not be that high yet but it could increase. The argument that turning your back on the "welcome" is not racist but a protest against "tokenism" will go down well with some.

It should be seen as a warning to the government. Our rather peculiar voting system has given the current government a massive majority in the Lower House but they will need to rely on the Coalition or the cross bench to get legislation through the Upper House. Yes, they may get the support of the far left "Greens" but one of their members was in greater strife yesterday.  There are elected representatives on all sides who seem to have forgotten they are there to represent the people who elected them.    

The trip to China was a disaster

in the making. Our "pretty boy" Prime Minister achieved nothing at all.

The trip looked like a success on the surface. We saw the PM on the Great Wall and with the pandas returned from our local zoo. He had meetings with people who would appear to be important to our trade relations. 

Why then do I say it was a disaster in the making? It is because he kowtowed to the Chinese "aristocracy" all the way. He will say "issues" were raised but in reality they were not. There was no evidence at all of any of the tensions there should be between this country and that one. Our PM tried to "steer a middle path". 

Let's face it China is not a friend.  It may appear to be but it has no reason to be a friend. We were slapped down and punished when a former Prime Minister dared to suggest there should be an investigation into the origins of Covid19.  It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion but he was the one who was blamed for the subsequent sanctions which harmed the economy. There was never any suggestion by this PM that his Chinese friends might be being unreasonable. He dares not criticise out of fear.

It seems everyone is like that. Attempts to put any sort of restraint on the Chinese economy are not working. The Chinese economy is faltering and those in power are worried about what the increasing number of unemployed people might do. They are worried about a falling birth rate and an aging population. The war in Ukraine is a blessing for them. It is diverting attention from their moves in the east. There is every possibility that they will one day make the unexpected but expected move on Taiwan. When it happens there is every possibility that the rest of the world will do nothing. Nobody wants to upset such a powerful country.

Our relationship with China is far more beneficial to them than it is to us. If it was not that way then it would not exist as it now does. Only they can dictate the terms of trade and investment. Our  puny efforts to provide "security" in Pacific island communities are only tolerated because the Chinese know they could simply walk in and take over if they wished to do so.

China is our largest trading partner. The Chinese have made sure of that and they believe they can keep it that way. They want us to be dependent on them. With the current PM this is working and working extremely well. He is doing their bidding and trying to make it believe it is solely for our benefit. In reality it is for their benefit.  We need to be worried about this.  

   

Is being "shy" such a bad thing?

I was a "shy" child. I hid behind books. In the "adventure" stories I read I could be all the things I was not in "real life". I had no shortage of imagination and I was, I think, as happy as I could be in the circumstances in which I found myself.

I was not an "isolate". I had "friends" at school - at least the other children talked to me. I was chosen to be on teams when there was any sort of classroom work to be done. I did not expect to be on any sort of team in the playground but I was sometimes kindly told I could do things like "hold the rope" when "skippy" with the "long rope" was being played or watch to make sure that people did not go "outside the lines" when playing "hopscotch".  I did not get into trouble for "talking/whispering in class" either. 

But if there was a large event at school I did not want to be there. I did not like crowds. I still do not like crowds. I did not want to go to the houses of other children. My mother did not like any of us to go to birthday parties or other social events. This was almost certainly because she would have felt impelled to return the invitations. She might have been a teacher but she did not really like children, especially outside of school hours. There would be some other event that prevented our attendance at such things. I can remember handing over more than one "present" at school because I could not go to the birthday party of the child who had invited me. Mum said it was "polite".

I still find it difficult, very difficult, to go somewhere if I do not know anyone. Even going somewhere with someone else is difficult unless I trust them - and I do not trust people easily. 

Middle Cat and I are going on holiday in September. I know that there will be occasions on which I will feel embarrassed because she will "talk to anyone". She is not at all "shy". I will say "hello". I will sometimes have a brief conversation with someone on the train. I know it is almost certain that at the end of their journey or mine that will be the end of the interaction. It is fine with me. I have met some very interesting people that way. 

And yes, I have friends. Someone commented that I had very few "friends" on Facebook. The people I "know" there are people I have actually met or have had other interaction with and with whom I want to maintain a relationship. I actually know (and have worked with) someone who has hundreds of "friends" on Facebook. She also has what she calls "real friends" - a handful of people with whom she feels comfortable. 

All this surprises some people when they learn the way I feel. "But you wrote all those letters" and "you volunteer at..." and "when you were the guild's librarian you were always available to help".  Writing letters can be done at a distance. I know the people I volunteer with but the first year I did it was genuinely frightening".  As "librarian" I was in my comfort zone I suppose. I knew the books. I had spent hundreds of hours familiarising myself with the contents and I wanted other people to feel comfortable about their knitting. 

I make myself talk to people. I have volunteered at information stalls and worked for my friend P... at craft fairs but going into a room full of people I do not know is outside my comfort zone. If I can avoid it I will. Perhaps this means I am "shy" and "unsociable" but is it really such a bad thing? 

Now it seems that "shy" children need to have "therapy" to overcome their "shyness". Yes, there are children who have a serious degree of "social anxiety" and they may well need some help and support. I am less sure about children who are perhaps naturally "quiet". They do exist and perhaps their need to be quiet should be respected. If the report in this morning's paper is correct however then "shyness" might soon be added to the list of unacceptable differences among us.  

So you can do more in four days a week

than you can in five? You can also prevent the sexual abuse of children in day care by having a "national" register of those working with children? Oh and do not forget that anyone under sixteen is too young to use social media but the day they turn sixteen they will be old enough to vote.

I have just been looking at some of the plans of the returned Federal government and some of the demands being made of it. It leaves me wondering where some of the insanity is coming from.

Unions apparently want a "four day" week even though our productivity levels are, to put it kindly, already low. Unemployment rose at the last count and what counts as "employed" is already a low bar to have to reach.  Many years ago I remember feeling acutely embarrassed when I realised unions pulled people out of work more often here than they did in the UK. 

Union membership was high back then - because it was effectively compulsory. It is now down to around fourteen percent of the workforce. Despite that the union movement is still powerful. It runs the Labor party.  The union movement is making moves for that four day week. They claim productivity will increase under such moves. I do not know how working a smaller number of hours will mean greater output. 

I do know that many people have no idea what to do with their "free time" even now. It is not going to solve the problem of the frantic dash to get the kids to day care and school and the after-school rush to get them to the activities where they will be "safe" and "supervised".

And then yes, there is the question of "are they safe?" Apparently this is not the case. We are being told we need a "national register" to keep them safe. I have no problems with a national register if it is used for that purpose and that purpose alone. It might prevent one or two who should not be anywhere near children entering the system but it won't stop those who have not yet been caught.  

The ban on under sixteens using social media will almost certainly come into effect. What it will mean is that everyone else who uses social media will find they are also being monitored. It will not stop determined young people from finding ways around the ban outside school and, as I said elsewhere, there is the magical day they turn sixteen and there will be pressure to allow them the vote just as the UK Prime Minister wants to allow young people to do. In a country like this where attendance at the ballot box is compulsory and the majority of people unthinkingly vote for the same party all their lives that could have disastrous consequences - unless of course you are a far left socialist.

All these things do not address the real issues of education, welfare, housing, health, migration and productivity. We will look as if we are doing things but will we? I suppose Communist China will be pleased by the result - apart from the four day week.  

Suing someone for $10bn

is something that could only happen in another country. An attempt to do that here would be thrown out of court. It may still be thrown out there.

I am of course talking about President Trump's attempt to sue the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for printing an article about a birthday letter he is alleged to have written. Whether he wrote it or not is not something I can comment on. I have not seen the evidence. All I can say is that the WSJ would have reviewed the evidence and taken legal advice before they published anything of that nature. They would also have looked at the evidence of a relationship between the writer of the letter and the recipient. 

I do not know if the Epstein files exist or not. I have not seen those either. I do not know if Epstein committed suicide or if his death was "assisted" in any way. Anything is possible. Most people would, at very least, be willing to believe he was not a "nice" person. Any powerful person would not wish their name to be associated with him. 

Thinking of all that I thought of another case I am personally aware of and the impact it had on him and his family. He was falsely accused of the sexual abuse of a child. He was dismissed from his job. He kept protesting his innocence and being told to plead guilty in the hope of a lighter sentence. He refused. The matter was about to go to court when the girl who had laid the complaint withdrew it. She admitted that it had been made "for a dare" and that she and another girl had resented being failed an assignment on which they had cheated and been found out. 

Although he is in no way at fault he can no longer get a Working With Children (WWC) certificate. He cannot work as a teacher. He cannot even work as a tutor. He has a labouring job which he is not really fit to do but only because someone knew the story from the girl's family. The girl got away with no more than a reprimand and a change of school so she could "start again". Several years later she is now at university - and planning on working with children. 

There is no way this man can sue. The girl has no assets. He cannot even get his legal costs returned to him. It is just fortunate that it did not reach the press.  Some of those most in need of being paid "damages" will never get a cent. 

Sixteen is too young to vote

and allowing young people of that age to vote is wrong.

I know there will be many people who disagree with me. The UK Prime Minister is one. Keir Starmer claims "if you are old enough to work and pay taxes then you are old enough to vote" and that "you should be able to have a say in your future".

Sorry, no. You are too young, much too young. You simply do not have enough experience of the adult world. 

I was one of those idealistic teenagers who thought I could change the world. I am now "old" and I have not changed the world. I have not changed the world even though some people might believe I did achieve something. 

In the library this last week one of the librarians said to me, "I took a book up to the other library last week, the "Famous People's Favourite Books".  He gave me a smile as he said it. I groaned.

The book has a "dedication" to me in the front - for the more than eight thousand letters I wrote to people around the world asking them to support what became "International Literacy Year". 

"Utter madness D..." I told him. He smiled again and we talked for a moment about "purpose" and "process". 

ILY took a decade out of my life. It did not change the world. It may have changed the world for some people but, if anything, the whole thing did me more harm than good. Yes, I was "the person who wrote all those letters" but I was still not considered to be "employable". If anything I was even less employable than before. The Prime Minister of the day made that very clear. He used "experience" as an excuse - but there was much more to it than that.

I thought about this as I read Starmer's comments. What would he have said in the same position as our Prime Minister. Would he have said I "lacked experience" and used it as the excuse not to employ me in the position? If he had done that would he still be able to justify giving young people with almost no experience of the adult world the vote? They are not old enough to do some "adult" things like drink alcohol and buy a lottery ticket. They cannot be sent to fight for their country. There are moves here to stop under sixteens from accessing social media. The legislation is supposed to come into force at the end of the year. The "adults" in the world want to prevent that but they still think that something magical happens on a person's sixteenth birthday and that makes them experienced enough to vote?

I had to be twenty-one before I could vote. In fact I was twenty-five before I voted for the first time because I was not in the country until then. When I finally did vote I was old enough to at least read more than the flyers left in the letter box. I actually knew my local representatives at both state and federal level. I doubt many sixteen year old voters would know their representatives. Too many of them will, like many adults, vote on the basis of the slick advertisements on television. They will not be "informed" votes. It is one of the many problems with compulsory attendance at the ballot box as is the case in this country.

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with anything Nigel Farage said or did but I do find myself in sympathy with the idea that sixteen year old students will be influenced by their teachers. Many of their teachers will perhaps be "left wing". It may well help entrench governments of that persuasion but, like anything else, politics needs balance and politicians need to be accountable to more than the electorate they represent. Research in this country suggests that many people vote for the same party all their lives. If they start to do that without any life experience at age sixteen then it may be that there will come a time when there is no real "opposition" - and most of us know "communism" does not work. 

  

Using a telephone in prison

should be a privilege, not a right. So how do some prisoners manage to torment their victims by using their phones?

This is more than mere curiosity on my part. The report in this morning's paper included the case of a man who tormented his partner while in prison and then, on release, took his very young child away murdered her and then committed suicide. 

It was an appalling incident that has left someone I very briefly met in a state of severe anxiety and depression. I am not sure what the relationship between her and the man's partner is. It is none of my business. All I can say is that you would never recover from something like that.

In "Midnight and Blue" Ian Rankin has Rebus in prison and using a hidden mobile phone belonging to another prisoner. It is of course the only way the plot can move forward. At the time of reading the book (which I thoroughly enjoyed) I wondered how easy it would be for perpetrators of domestic violence to continue tormenting their victims while behind bars. 

It seems it is all too easy. Prisoners can apparently simply give their victim a false name, put their victims on another inmate's call list or use a third party to communicate with them. Some will even use children to communicate with them. As long as they have a means of communication they can continue to harass them and put pressure on them to drop charges of abuse and violence.

When I was still at school I had a teacher I grew to know well. On leaving school I remained in contact with her. She was past retiring age but still teaching part time. She needed the money because she had left a violent and abusive relationship. There was no no-fault divorce back then. Getting a divorce was a difficult and messy process and she had never been able to do it. Her husband lived in another state and, forty years after leaving him, she was still looking over her shoulder and moving house on a regular basis. He was still harassing and threatening her whenever he found her. 

This woman had a son who was very protective of her. He did what he could but twice in the time I knew her she had to leave her home in fear. This man was "smart". I cannot say intelligent because intelligent people do not behave the way he did. He was "smart" though because he knew exactly how much he could do to harm her and get away with it. Their son once told me, "I wish Dad was inside and not able to communicate with anyone."

It would not have worked that way of course. Even before the invention of a mobile phone some men found ways to harass the partners they had abused and lashed out at.  

Of course there is also the problem that so many victims believe they are the people in the wrong. "He really does love me..." is a statement which has been uttered too many times in an absolute belief that the perpetrator really does love the victim.

There is  no chance we will see a situation where prisoners are not permitted to have any phone calls at all. Not all phone calls can be monitored either. Prisoners will still have illegal access to some mobile phones too. 

But perhaps there are things which could be done. All the possible solutions to reduce the risk I can think of would undoubtedly seem unduly harsh. The idea that anyone caught making an unauthorised phone would have their sentence automatically doubled  would not go down well. Using a child for the purposes of harassment and abuse could perhaps result in no contact with the child. Yes, hard on a child who believes they love their parent but the very fact their parent is in prison is hard. Monitored and recorded video calls so that the victim of abuse knows who is calling and a third party cannot be used might work for some. Loss of all visiting privileges would be hard and not help rehabilitation but perhaps it might prevent some of the worst abuse. And perhaps all calls should be recorded apart from those to their legal advisers?  

But those who want to leave their partners and start afresh somewhere else are going to find it much harder than before. There is too much information out there for that to be easy.  It was not easy before, It is much harder now  

We are spending too much money

as a country according to the economists. Our productivity is down and our expenses are up. Taxation has risen and wages have risen to try and cover the increased cost of living. And all that leads to inflation. 

I think anyone who thinks about these things knows that. 

My bank balance plummeted yesterday. I bought a new mobile phone. It is not something I wanted to do but the old one has died. It will no longer work. 

I liked that phone. It was an old "flip-top" phone. It was about sixteen or seventeen years old. As it was working on "4G" I tried putting a new battery into it but that did not solve the problem and "the man at the phone repair booth" eventually shrugged and said, "You need a new phone."

I sighed and went off to an actual shop. I went with Middle Cat as she knows a great deal more about these things than I do. Yes, I had done some hours of "research" online but it had left me more confused than connected. 

Part of the problem for me is the fact my fine motor skills are quite definitely not as good as those of most people. I explained this to the nice young and enthusiastic salesman in the shop. I also explained I did not want to go into debt for the next one hundred years. He gave me the sort of look which said, "Yes, I know what you want but it does not exist - yet." 

But, he really was a nice young and enthusiastic salesman. He actually smiled and actually said, "There is no need to spend thousands but you do need to spend a bit - unless you want this."

He produced a small, Barbie-pink phone. His smile told me he knew I would not want that. "We sell a few of these to younger teenagers he said. Now, what do you want your phone to be able to do?"

Middle Cat and I explained about the upcoming trip away but, apart from that, I really only need a phone for making and receiving calls. I do not want to spend my time outside my sleeping mat in looking at a screen. I hope I never want to do that. 

He listened. He was also sensitive enough to let me try the "touch" of several screens and showed me a slightly easier way to do something. "It's a trick most people don't know about."

I ordered what we thought would be best and today I might just be in possession of a new phone. It seems more like a mini-computer to me but I am told there are much more complex phones. 

To me the cost of this was high. I would have stayed with the old phone if that had been possible but I had the money in the bank. I could pay for this new "toy" outright. I did not need a loan and I will not be paying an exorbitant amount of interest. If I had needed a loan and been able to get one I would still have bought a phone because there is no "land line" here. It is, for safety reasons, desirable to be able to get help if I need it. It is, for reasons of mental health, good for me to be able to make contact with my family and friends - and to make sure that some people I know are okay. 

What it is not like is spending a lot of money on something I really did not need. I know the trip overseas in September seems like that but I have budgeted and saved for that. It has been more than twenty years since I even had a holiday and Middle Cat and I need some time away.  My BIL wants both of us to go. Brother Cat has said, "About time you went." I am trying to see that, and the phone, as something I really need.

What I won't need, even if I could afford it, is a five start hotel and Michelin rated restaurants. Even if I could I don't think that is any way to enjoy myself. It is just a pity our national and state governments seem to think differently - and that they are still pursuing the impossible dream of an economically and environmentally responsible "net zero".  

  

So AI is making us dumb?

Oh that page three report today! Apparently students are now getting "digital amnesia" because they now use things like ChatGPT and CoPilot to help them check grammar and spelling and plan their essays. They turn to such tools to research their essays and refine the ideas in them. Their parents are sent emails from the school written by AI so the teachers have time to use AI to write lesson plans...and more. 

In the supermarket recently I stood still for a moment trying to remember something I needed. I knew there were eight things I needed but had only remembered seven. The next alarming thought, just for a moment, was "I am getting too old for this. Perhaps I ought to start writing a list." Then I remembered what it was I needed and went back to believing I can and should remember these things.

I don't write lists. The physical act of writing, as opposed to using a keyboard, is too slow and laborious for me. I need to remember instead. I have not written a supermarket list in years. My supermarket shopping is organised - or I like to think it is. I always start at one end and work my way to the other. If the supermarket staff move things around I do not like it. A lot of other people do not like it either. If I start at the end away from the check out area I can usually go around without back tracking.  I like to think of it as an efficient way to shop. I remember what I need to get. It is a good memory exercise. I hope I can continue to do that.

At university I took very few lecture notes. Right around me people would be writing page upon page. I would be writing single words and the occasional phrase. It was not because I wanted to work this way but because I had to work this way.  My late statistics lecturer, a lovely and very patient man, would sometimes stop speaking and look at me to make sure I had something he knew I would need to get down. All my other lecturers just expected me to listen and remember. 

I have forgotten most of what I knew then. I do not need it any more. That is one of the things about that sort of memory use. It is possible to retain it for as long as you need the information and then forget it. But the point is that I could retain it and use it to pass exams, even pass them very well indeed. 

There is actually nothing very remarkable about this. A blind person would learn law in much the way that I did and would have the additional problem of someone else reading so much material to them.  My friend J...., a mathematician who could not hold a pencil let alone use one, could do complex calculations "in his head".  It was possible because he was a highly intelligent man who could not do such things any other way and he wanted to do those calculations. 

In a sense we are the lucky ones but now I find that I do not know phone numbers. They are programmed into the phone when once I would have remembered many of them. It surprised me recently when, quite recently, I was asked if I knew someone's phone number. I actually said it but I did it without actually being completely aware of what I was doing. Somehow I had dredged it out of my memory but, if asked five minutes later in a conversation about phone numbers, I doubt  I could have repeated it. The number is there in the phone put there by some sort of technological magic which seems determined to do me harm.

Yes, we need to be active learners if we are going to remember things accurately and when we need them. We need to actively think about what we are learning and try to actively understand and assess it. AI cannot do that for us.  

Ooh our PM is in China!

We are supposed to be cheering about this trip. It is going to bring about lots of lovely more trade opportunities. He is going to "repair" the relationship so "damaged" by the previous government. The Chinese are going to love us again. Really?

The first of our Prime Ministers to visit China was Whitlam. He was a man of the same political flavour as the present Prime Minister of course. He was Communist-Labor to the very core of his being. I met him more than once. The first time I met him was when his wife introduced me with the words, "This is Cat and be polite to her." Yes, he was that sort of man. He could be extremely rude to people he considered unimportant. 

I did not like him. The only good he ever did me was the very large sum of money his government spent on putting more books into all school libraries...and his wife Margaret was behind that move anyway. We talked about it. 

I asked her about the China visit and she was much less enthusiastic. It surprised me but I think she saw the dangers in cosying up to China more clearly than he did. Yes, we have done a lot of business with China. It could perhaps be said that places like the modern industrial Shanghai are built on the back of our mining exports but it is a lop-sided sort of affair. More than a quarter of our trade is directly connected with China and more occurs indirectly. It is our biggest trading partner and, should they decide we will no longer do business with them we will be in even worse financial straits than we are now. 

China dictates much of how we do business with the rest of the world and how we do it. This is an unpalatable fact and nobody in the current government or any previous government of that flavour appears to be willing to do anything about it. Why should they? We have a ready-made market. It may not be on the best possible trading terms but "it's the same for everyone". China is simply too powerful to ignore. 

This is the message we are now getting from our Prime Minister. He is making vague statements about the status quo on Taiwan and agreeing to trade deals in China's favour. He is offering tourist packages to wealthy Chinese as part of that. He might try negotiating the end of the lease on the port of Darwin but, whatever the outcome, it will not be in our favour. The same wealthy Chinese can still buy property here and send the dairy and meat products from the vast tracts of land back to China in increasingly one way trade. China is simply too big for us. We have no negotiating power when all they need to do is say "No, this is not how it will be done."

Under our present Prime Minister it can only get worse. He is too weak. He is not being "diplomatic". He is simply doing as they wish, He will come home saying the visit was a "success", that there have been some new opportunities. No, they are not new opportunities. They will simply be what his masters in Beijing have decided.

We desperately need to work on new markets. They will be small compared with China, very small but they could be grown over time. We need to start doing business with the rest of the world - if it is not too late.  

  

Disappearing letter boxes

seem to be becoming more and more common. 

I have been sent numerous photographs of "letter box toppers" recently. These are knitted and crocheted people, scenes, animals, gardens, boats and whales - and almost anything else you can think of - being put on the top of letter boxes in England. They are fun and, for the most part, it seems they are not vandalised. Some of them are individual efforts and others are joint of community efforts. 

We could not do that here. Letter boxes are disappearing. The first one I noticed was the one which was very conveniently just around the corner from where I previously lived. We used it a lot and so did other people. It suddenly disappeared without warning. I inquired. "Oh, there will be building going on at that location. It will go back when the building is completed." Of course it never was. We needed to travel further afield to post a letter. 

Then the letter box at the next most convenient location disappeared. It was suddenly no longer there. No warning was given. Was it used? Yes, it was. Those of us who had lost the first letter box were using it along with those who had already been using it. 

And now, in the past twelve months seven more letter boxes in the surrounding area have gone. In order to post a letter you need to go to the letter box outside the post office in the shopping centre. Even that was not there for some weeks. The excuse was it had been "vandalised".  The reality was that some young idiots had painted their "tags" on it. It could have been cleaned in situ but that was apparently not what the powers-that-be wanted to do. I suspect (and so did the regular staff) they were trying to see how much of an outcry there would be.  It is a busy post office but there are still attempts being made to close it. That would make the next available post office some distance away and neither of them are open on Saturday mornings. 

We keep being told "people don't write letters anymore" and "everyone uses email". In my kittenhood there were eleven deliveries a week. Now there are three one week and two the next. There are businesses which will no longer send "paper" mail because it is considered not to be environmentally friendly.  Perhaps it isn't but we still need a mail service.

Three weeks ago I sent something that could not be emailed to a person about twenty kilometres away. It was sent by registered post to a business address. It took seventeen days to get there. Why?

There is something very wrong with out postal service. It should not be there to make a profit. It should be there to deliver the mail. Perhaps we need to write more letters.   

Eating at the table

is apparently a thing from the past for some families. 

There is a very witty but also rather sad article about this by one of the regular columnists in today's paper. It is also something I was thinking about several days ago.

I was thinking about it because someone called in and remarked, "Oh, you kept the good table and chairs."

The "good" table and chairs happen to be those that we kept in what we called the dining room. This was the space immediately adjacent to the kitchen on one side and the "living area" on the other. We also had a kitchen table and chairs. Yes, we had the space and we used both. The kitchen table and chairs were for every day use. The dining table and chairs were for the times we had visitors or we needed to spread something out. The dining room table could be extended from seating for four to seating for six or even eight. I have not yet extended it here but I might because I also used it to set out other projects. Mum used it as a cutting table for her sewing and the Senior Cat would put her machine up there because the natural light was much better.

Now I eat at the "good" table. I do not eat watching television or a phone screen. I read books. It is something both the Senior Cat and I did at times. For years he read the paper as he ate his muesli and drank his instant coffee. He could read rapidly which was probably just as well because breakfast was always a rushed affair when he was still working and not much better when he "retired" to do other things. 

At the evening meal though we ate as a family. To do anything else would have seemed strange. If one of us was unavoidably absent Mum did not like it at all. A hot main course might be kept in the oven but that was the only thing she allowed. We were expected to be there and be on time. 

Our meals were not silent. Events of the day were discussed. We kittens knew that school matters were never ever discussed outside the house. Quite often there would be a young teacher at the table with us and we would remain silent as some teaching issue was discussed. There was never anything said about individual students but I could often guess there was much more to an issue. It was all good training for my later working life when I have signed more confidential documents than I care to think about.  

But eating together was more than that. Mum could watch over what we ate of course but lessons could be discussed and the homework we were required to do. Mum would test our spelling and our "times tables". If there was a school test coming up she would make sure we were prepared. The Senior Cat would help with a project but he would also try to steer the talk away into thinking about other things. 

I had no idea what other families talked about. I assumed every family was like ours and was amazed when I eventually found out their conversations were about sport (something never discussed in our house) and the latest popular songs (my parents would never have heard them) or some other local event. Local events were only discussed if we were involved in them.

When Mum died things did change. I kept meal times regular because of the Senior Cat's medical issues but we discussed books and politics, current affairs and philosophical questions, religion and more.  Mealtimes were something we enjoyed as a chance to talk to each other. 

I think it is one of the things I miss most. It might be why I read as I eat - and do both rather slowly. 

Losing your job

is devastating for anyone even if you have advance warning that it might happen. Even if you do not like the work you do to suddenly find yourself with no income at all is frightening.

It gets worse than that for some people. A much younger friend completed a university degree last year. It was in an area where there are employment opportunities and she was optimistic about her chances of finding work.

For the past seven months she has been "volunteering" in a work place. It has supposedly been to "get experience". She has worked as hard, if not harder, than the people actually employed there. For this she was being paid the equivalent of the unemployment benefit under a government training scheme. When I met one of her workmates, the person delegated to "train" her, she was enthusiastic about this girl's ability to do the work, fit in and take initiative when necessary. She would, I was told, "be a great addition and we'd like to have her". 

That was the feeling of everyone except the person in charge. As everyone else was leaving last week he called her into his office. He then told her she need not bother to come back on Monday. The job application she put in has not succeeded. She was to take her things with her immediately and was not to return. He did not thank her for the work she had done or for the extra hours she had put in. There is a major report coming out shortly, one which this girl has done most of the research for and much of the writing. She will not be there when it all comes out.

The person who had been responsible for her training was the one who told me what had happened. She wanted to know if there was any way to help her. "I have seen the draft report. Her name is not even acknowledged."

I wanted to know why the boss was behaving like this. She shrugged. "I don't know. He isn't interested in women so it isn't that. If I rock the boat then I don't know what he'll do next. Word has it that he has appointed the person I thought was the least suitable to the position. I'll be expected to train him up of course."

Yesterday I had another call, made outside the office on her personal phone.  The new appointee is somehow related to the boss. Yes, he has the paper qualifications for the role. He has no experience. He is apparently not even particularly enthusiastic about the work but "it's a job".  I wonder how well he will do. 

It is another example of "who you know" I suppose. I just hope someone I know will raise some questions about this.  

Banning beehives in

"residential areas" is the latest proposal from a council in the hills behind me. It has come about because some of the "city slicker" residents have complained about bees, roosters, pigeons and livestock kept by their neighbours.

Sorry, you have moved to "the country". It was your choice to move out of the urban areas into what you thought was the idyllic countryside. You expected it to be all clean and fresh and quiet. You expected it all to just be that way without any work on your part too. 

Many years ago a very close friend of the Senior Cat moved his family on to a twenty acre block in the hills. We thought it was a crazy idea at the time but they were English migrants who had fallen in love with the idea of living in a rural location. They had done their homework. They knew it was going to be very hard work. 

Even with the amount of research K... and his partner had done they still found it much harder than they had anticipated. They worked very hard at teaching full time during the day, preparing lessons at night and then spending snatched hours during the week and all of the weekend in developing the land. It was made possible only because they allowed someone else to keep bees at the far end of their property and they had no other livestock to care for.  The bee keeper was a professional apiarist. 

Their decision to move there was made at a time when they had no immediate neighbours. The services available were limited. They needed two cars to get to work and to get the children to school some distance away. 

There is still no public transport but the nearby "town" has grown to the point where there is now a medical centre, another school, a shopping precinct, a nursing home for the aged and more. It is becoming more like a suburb of the city in the plains below it. 

Therein lies the problem. People have romantic ideas about "living in the country" but they want all the amenities associated with living in the city. They really have no idea what actual country living is like. They do not have the skills they need to live there. They do not want to put the time in to caring for the property they have so gleefully bought. Many of them start with the best of intentions perhaps but they simply do not know.  

There is also a tendency to forget the lack of public transport and the time it takes to get to work if they still work in the city. Yes, there are now some buses although some of them are just express services from a larger area along the "freeway".  Many people do not want to use those. They are not as "convenient" so they use cars and complain about the traffic, the speed limits and more.

Once back at home they want to "relax". Someone else will come in and mow the lawn they have planted and prune the "natives" they have planted in their "easy care" garden.  They have no desire to care for a hive of bees - the very wonders who pollinate the plants which provide their food... and how dare a rooster crow in the morning!

I wonder if it would help if these "we want to live in the country" dwellers had to pass a stiff exam before they actually moved in. "Living in the country" is not romantic. It is smelly, dirty, noisy and very hard work.   

A "Minister for Loneliness"?

Apparently one in six of us feels "lonely" and, each year, around 900,000 people around the world die from loneliness. That is according to a WHO report. 

I suspect the figure is far higher than that. In a world which is "more connected" than ever before we actually interact less. There are people who "work from home" and live alone. They do their grocery shopping on line and pay for it on line. They pay their bills on line. If they do travel they go in a car alone or swipe a card on public transport. They may go to the gym but once there they exercise alone. If they go to the library on their way home they can use the self-serve check out and then, having forgotten to add milk to their home-delivery from the supermarket, they can pick up a carton and use the self-serve checkout without speaking to anyone.  Of course if the self-serve checkout is not available and they go through a staffed checkout they can keep watching the screen of their phone so there is no need to talk to anyone. 

Who wants to talk to people? Why on earth would we bother to talk to anyone we do not know? We all know the world is full of dangerous and evil people don't we? It isn't safe to talk to strangers is it?

We isolate ourselves by our own behaviour and then isolate everyone around us in the same way. If you talk to strangers, even just casual comments in passing, some people think you are "weird", "a bit odd", "bonkers" and more. No, you are not "crazy" but there is definitely something a little different about you. You are not supposed to behave this way. It makes other people feel uncomfortable. They are not sure how to respond. 

You're lonely? "Go and join a group," they tell you. Find a common interest group. Get involved. 

No, it is not as easy as that. The "time" issue is likely no more than an excuse because the real issues are having the courage to go along to a group. If you do get that far do other people make you welcome? Are you willing to participate, really participate? Do you actually know how to interact with other people any more? It is easier just to look at a screen isn't it?

One of my regrets is that I have no friendships outside family forged in childhood. We moved too many times for that to happen. My mother did not want other people's children in the house. She saw children all day in school.  There is nobody with whom I can share the memories of playing games of imagination outside. 

For some people that is different. I knew two women, both now deceased, who met on the first day of school and remained friends for the rest of their lives. They had over ninety years of shared memories. I wonder if that could happen now. 

It will take more than a Minister for Loneliness and some sort of government policy to combat loneliness. We need to change the way we live.