Just one bite and you know the Wolf is real

About 20 years ago Anthony Jay and I discussed the consequences of  putting a mirror up to politicians and top public servants - letting the world see what really goes on . While it was woosy and weak even then, the wolf seemed far away. Now the wolf is at the door,  and we don't quite know just why . Conflict has become cocontenation. Tension no longer keeps us taught, but  teaches our kids to keep sliding instead  
 As Jay and Lyn  have shown with their  latest show, the consequences of exposure are even more scary than we thought. Both groups still want more power , but noone,  it seems has the same wisdom . The quieter sources of solid advice have gone silent while the urgent loud voices drive Prime Ministers mad. Bernard would rather not be there now , and neither would I .
Neither of us, it seems , could have anticipated just  how woosy and onesided  it would all become .
Without leadership from below,  both parties would be stuck in the a suck it and see sort of  mess that they are in now. Neither of us could do much about egos out of control in politics,but we both know that we used to able to advise those in power. Influence them . Now "good advice"  is falsely seen to be something you only get, if you pay people for it . "Paying people peanuts " talk was to easy when everybody turns out to be in the same family of hairy beasts. The lesson should have been that we need each other - not that we were better than each other .

The great danger for the people is not that our leaders think they know ( that's always an ongoing risk ) but that the public service thinks they know too .( copyright EA6Feb2012)

Permanent Incident Controllers -a mistake

As stated many years ago on blogs like this, the ham fisted reactionary establishment of Departments to deal with emergencies can be a mistake; an expensive diversion from the much lower cost options of Departments of prevention and sound practice; groups who know the stresses BEFORE they kill,  so those people can better manage them when they arrive . IC should be drawn from the ranks of planners and practitioners as required  - not creating their own empires .
 Relatively rare and dispersed risk like bush fire and flood and environmental " hazard" mean the big noise these bashers make (before the moment and place  that something needs dealing with)  is counterproductive .
Unfortunately for Victorians the rightful high place for planning has been subsumed by reactive politics . Paradoxically considering the Libs so called love of less government , The Department of CW has grown under their leadership .Just proves that not all reactionaries come from the left .
Few NOW stop to think when an algal bloom STOPS everything  - well why didn't the Departmnet responsible reduce the risk in the first place .Answer is:  because the government have closed down the department that prevents in favour of the department that names and shames; The Department that suggests emergencies - DSE ; Such Departments are just as likely to name some other departmental or contracted service to " fix the problem "--- all a bit late of course .  The Libs have lost sight of foresight  and created Wolf radio.You heard it first on blogger .

If fear itself is the the only fear

Admitting we don't really know much and aren't very together can be liberating.  We don't spend so much time crying wolf for others when we are humble about pits we might fall into today. Better than that ; we can feel a lot better overall and make a better day for ourselves by finding a way to accept ourselves and not worry about others.  
Thanks Truthaholics
"We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger." ~ Tad Williams (1957- ) Author

One of my class of 10YO's  walked past me as I tried to open  my car the wrong way the other day ( using the key instead of the button) The alarm went off and I swore ( The child  tells me ) I do it all the time and the world knows I haven't learned from my mistakes
I didn't want to admit even that I may have done it ( I can't remember ) I probably did , but how hard is it to admit you have been wrong ( not that swearing is that big an issue , except some people watch you like a hawk for faults and YOU feel that  )
Never easy to confess,  but its good for the soul - everyone's  soul if it encourages us to be honest ( first line)
My relationship with that student improved no end from that moment I confessed . The problem  went away somehow and it was wonderful . So good to be amongst the poor. 

The only real sin is doing nothing

The Queens scriptwriter ,Commonwealth leaders  and our Prime Minister are agreed this week. The thing we must do is move with the times. Move indeed we must or else..... we are dead.  The wolf issue is not about whether to move , but when and where. The Wolf  is cunning and more cunning than us .( there is the truth)

The comfortable crap session that have marked CHOGM so far explains, not only why the wolf has arrived , but why he's likely to keep taking bodies.
Instead of talking to the critical issues of rampant capital markets and woosy weak willed views of governance issues the leader carefully about PC jargon  about safe distant topics or grand schemes to solve the world 's problems with nice words and grand legislative imposts by a group that clearly has never been responsible .eg The UN in Uganda .
If we don't hear an angry word from inside the conference,  The ABC ,the reporters and the conference will have failed . Nice but of nuisance value . The greatest evil is done in the name of the best intention
Take the bomb which will explode all around them by a media only interested in ratings
Population will reach 7 billion on the 31st  The cynics will give in to popular predjudice ? Will any of the reporters Get a real sustainability expert to talk on sustainability country/country

The  real sin is doing something when its not going to work and no attempt is made to make sure it will .
Our children deserve better than their hopes for a better world to be gobbled up by real wolves

Food for wolves is plentiful

Food for wolves remains plentiful while we all act like sheep. The sheep believe they will have  a tax,  but not have a tax . We will have pain , but we will not have pain .  Someone will get hurt by the new tax,  but it won't be you . Somewhere out there is a fear monger and its not me,  because I guarantee to protect everyone who produces clean fuel from food as we transfer to turbocharged tecnology which we will incentivise as investors on your behalf .
Sometimes I wish we wouldn't all act like sheep when  we should really be able  to tell a wolf in our own midst We are not sheep are we,  and we can all pick the dirty polluters for ourselves ?

We do need to manage greed but do we have the gutsy thinking and acting?

Crying carbon tax ?
With the rich in our world happily thinking they can exploit someone else's food bowl for fuel  ( ethanol) remember what really works hidden inside the cooperating ecosystems inside us and around us (so much more efficient in energy use than we ever will be) But it works  by cooperating, not just competing .

If you don't yet believe in evil ask yourself how many people really care and how many would just find excuses to do what they feel like? To tax others or blame them  Without tough intervention policies , the woosy incentive policies of the modern West will just keep making the rich richer and more easily able to ignore those who have no choice . Cooperation can work.  Competition is costly and can be a killer and a poor benefactor,  but will we just conveniently  acquire more goods and call the problem someone else's? Not here

The enemy within

The hardest thing to do is often  to recognise that there is a problem really close to home . Amongst those people and those ideas you have learnt to trust.; your own reasoning ; your own mind . The collective mind  the collective myth .
 Always good though to go there to your own mind and also get the safety of much advice.  Proverbs 11:14 Our PM is reluctant to go there , but go there the country must .