Whose afraid of death?

Everybody fears death ---because we have reason to fear and because we are made in the image of God ( which means we know we are guilty)  -  Some of the evidence is guilt itself ,  the excuses we make for our own behavior;  the shallow substance of anything good in us ;  The wonder of something good that is beyond us..........add more

One of Helen Garner's helpful comments of her life and experience ( featuring the man who murdered his three sons at Winchelsea on ABC Book club last night )  was her revelation that we sometimes don't know what we are rebelling against.  we neither tell ourselves or heed the few  who are honest about the nature of this fear . 

We are often  mistaken about who the enemy is: we  maybe individually our own worst enemy; and not much help to others . 
  We are even a hindrance to men and women in great need because we haven't faced our our real needs -Ourselves being mirrored back to us by face of others  --"Takes one to know one" as we say here 

We  need to confront these things -

1. Knowledge of our own great potential for evil 
2. The pathetic nature of our care for others
3. The way we carry around a burden of guilt and fear and project the nature of that burden onto others 

We have reason to fear our own  death and the true judgement of our lives .


Without , I hope,  being too smart , let me offer you my own reflections  on the way into and beyond this very dark place.

• That, however good we or our friends are or have been,  we have failed to live up to the potential we have been given . We have done wrong. we think wrong, and still do

• That ours is an unweeded garden just as any other

• We deserve nothing but our Creators rejection
•  The fear of that rejection  maybe stopping us from doing the one needful thing - the moving on from here - facing the reality of our own deep sinfulness.

So , our only hope is to cling to Him who offers the only real place of rest and renewal  from these realities .   ( Its all in the prayer book )

What good can a good pedant DO ?

 Human nature is pretty scary.  'The wolf can , not only be a pedant, but that pedant can be up there at the top of the tree ".  It is said with some truth that .... If you can't DO... you teach and if you can't teach, .. you preach , if you can't preach ( and don't know HOW to DO things to test your grasp of the big picture ) you risk becoming a pedant . I used to say that  if you can't be a good lawyer ,you may be able to continue your profession and become a professional pedant correcting and controlling word traffic at the ABC.  I'm inclined , after seeing UTOPIA , to  not generalize so wildly. Some of the real reporters in the ABC  do a great job as RN , Utopia, Kath, Blake and Mother &Son 2 name just a few shows    
Sitch and Co in  UTOPIA ABCTV have proven, quite perfectly ,that not only can you be a pedant at the ABC, but you can be a very productive and professional one - make em eat their words son!   While Sitch makes mince meat of the simple  nonsense that flows from above  there is some hope for this country ;Our leaders have adopted the dumb making idol of positivism ( find your own word )  and they don't even know it . The new religion,  while rejecting the old for ITS apparent unreasonability (A quite logical observation about Christianity )is itself , quite clearly  unreasonable .You don't wanna hear the other side of the story. Progressives want only one kind of reason to rule - the positive stuff  . How did we get to agree to performance bull like that so well portrayed in Utopia  and get led by those leaders who cultivate crap. Its a world where  negative reasoning (which often avoids culdesacs by highlighting choice and 'other possibilities" the bad new s before the good news  ) is rejected because its " you are not being positive" .  We may ,as applied practical scientists. have  lost our jobs to the meeters and greeters , one siders ,name-callers, pregressives and worry warriors,  but at least when we go home from the battle, and  know we are not alone . 
I wish it wasn't so because the wonder of the program is that it shows how hard it can be for people who want to do the job and challenge the limits of public and private benefit and the boundaries between and beyond the machine ,  the natural and the ultimately the beautiful image , 
Its a tragedy of our modern education and training system that graduates in environmental engineering never get to cut it where it counts because of the name calling and second rate science produced on the good name of conservation and environment.( some biology degrees are just not enough or  appropriate)  If you don't love physics and chemistry ( the basis of how it works ; not biology which is descriptive )you can't sell it to the "thems that do "audience -   .People who can't cope  with more than one equation at a time will be for ever meeting ( 1st edition Utopia was real) , moving on ( not making decisions or quickfizzers of ones ) and making the audience do the same.  The pedants comfort zone 

Hope the polys watching realize that they must resist the cultivation of more bird nests for these flighty birds and forest feeding animals.These people who occupy chairs but who will soon be on their own.( the image) You see faith in the new too is unreasonable as Whitehead tried to point out long time ago . Why don't you run a meredescription.blogspot.com test on all the research you are now funding Mr Hockey / Mr Robb?  That would be more prophetic than the reactive productivity commission.  Reform the system .Reform the ABC  Aim high . Employ people who study the basic science and know how things actually work.  Don't let those who think they know the names of the problem try and solve them ( the species list is more than symbolic - its a book that closes doors instead of opening them)  such name calling is quick and short and appelaing but not whats needed to run a clever country . Start believing again in the public service because  the private driver pedant is killing the cultivation of the image of what a good public outcome looks like ( bigger picture than private and somewhere beyond the flat ( concrete ) and the basic ). 
Only by training people properly in house can WE hold a proper public -private debate and restore young people to the jobs that helped make planning work and AGAIN give them a job  building one the most livable cities and places in the world

Noone wants to be challenged at night

Don't know about you but I do my best work when I have rested from a day full of "problem solving ". Not late at night, When is the ABC doing really good work . Would McClullan be happy with ABCTV in particular in their careful use of images and adjectives---- I mean talk about endangering their credibility ?

( AS an example heard the ABC weather man talking about "rain needed for lawns " last night in hottest part of the year- talk about confusion and risking a wasted response  . Perennial plants in your garden need water at the momenet  , but not Lawns. If we continue to use water wisely we will continue to live well in this very dry continent , but  if we listen to the easily wetted and easily worried ABC we will waste our savings .( leave the commercials to exploit fear please)    Wisdom means you chose when and where to water just as it Parliament's job to support SPC Ardmona or not - not some simplistic ideological trigger repeated by the uneducated at infinitum on the ABC . )
Is watching Q&A just a crossword where we fit the names into the right places? The relaxation that comes with having your prejudices reinforced - the boxes ticked?  I don't mind Q&A being a dinner time dalliance as long as we recognize its huge potential for hypocrisy,- we are not answering real dilemmas.
Tony 's " moving on" line says it all -- he is not serious,  My question for ABCTV,  who are increasingly confused about the difference between reporting and commentating on the news  is -who and when are we serious about the energy and commitment required to resolve issues we dare to comment on - Maybe we should best do what PBS do and report the facts  and switch clearly always to commentary!
Entertainment and even flagging issues is fine  but ABC,  in the info age is increasingly going around in circles in commentary .I can't even listen to RN on rural issues its so crass .  Internet intelligence thankfully is growing bu ABC is just growing in quantity not quality .
We maybe stimulated by ABCTV  , but are we satisfied ? They get their best programs from the BBC and lots of our funded stuff isn't worth watching ABC3 Beyond last night >
 Did you walk out of the TV room informed?learn something new - did Tony or Jon feind move you on just when it started to get interesting ?
My point is don't get hooked and if you do SwitchOff deliberately ( you'll notice you have used your evening better!)
People in charge of information should be watched carefully,
I used to love the ABC until i realised they were using me , getting me hooked and constantly reeling me in but with no walk out agreement to learn . Like some circus act,  they get you in but if you think about it when you, leave you maybe none the wiser. 
We seem to need a education revolution but we don;t seem to know where to find one .
Its dark out there and  the bright lights beckon.
Off to see the Hobbit - he at least dares to explore the darkness properly and on his own .  

You prove nothing with stats

Some creationists make the mistake of trying to prove things , but so do some religiuos determinists . Science does help grow a level of certainty , but it doesn't always do what we want it to - provide a direction .There is then,  maybe,  a place for both, but only if they inform each other and produce sound results .
How do you tell a faith that's reasonable? - if it seems to works reasonably well? .Life is testable even if too much talk and statistical is totally distracting ; Perhaps even driving us to drink .A faith that informs your decsionmaking builds confidence and avoids obliteration of thinking.( The causes of getting drunk)

Fanatics forget that we can't see the stars when its cloudy and we are surrounded by clouds and noise  . Whatever created this wonderfilled universe made light go on forever and our noise not . Somehow the noise is limited to our space( until the media took on the task of entertaining/controlling? us )

The biggest fire risk ever

This is the theme of many observers of the fires in NSW this week, but they are wrong ; Worse, they are misreporting the risk as stated by the Authorities wanting them to state the above when they don't want to put it that way - read the reports of these fires in six months time if you doubt my assertion TODAY

It is apparently true that a 300 km fire front "could develop" but too easy to push the facts - unlikely according that such a front would happen . Impossible if you know the hills , the moisture content , the wind changes and the weather changes and night come on changes to limit combustion  and edge and spot over requirement.
The service at least knows the limits imposed on any disaster by those complexities and certainties;The service is not in a panic . Yet they are reported ( sort of) to be !

The less you know the more you are prone to fear - helps explain why the media are in a panic at the moment (21 October 2013).
The reason they should shut up and listen to the ordered evacuation and other info from controllers ( not there own reporters) is simply that emergencies like this require orderly evacuation by those who know both site variations ,timing and the many risk factors operating hour to hour, day to day .


If it was a fire in a theatre, the media could easily have instigated irrational action if not mass manic and more deaths than necessary.
The people most at risk are also those who chose not to protect themselves ,,so how can we help them . The reality is that people who show no common sense (Fire authorities call for 30 metre clearance around houses to protect them and have always done that )have to be dragged kicking and screaming directly - generalized messages only exaggerate the danger of cry wolf  .

How to prevent people from being broken -don't ask a bookeeper; its only a book entry to them

People who have spend a lot of time on TV and the media and in Public life,( was good to see a health care person on thedrum tonight) often don't get the reality check that their stupid ignorant and arrogant advice can cause great personal disaster .

I don't expect they could or should always know or care , but a life in the life of 2 ledgers, or relying on that class,  is a dangerous thing.When you have power you need to know some of the dumb consequences your advice creates - whoever you are.  

When Peter Martin from SMH talks up economic confidence after a huge additional budget deficit announcement today he's only doing what all students of the monster are doing - trying to keep confidence up .
Economists are not God and its madness to even give em a leg up when medicine of the big picture is required-----as wannabes  seem to do when they get desperate.( as if the Federal treasury knows all for eg )
The reality is that the media talk with confidence too much as if they understand or half understand ;  Even great new programs like the drum  discourage bad news and so people with a more negative view are "out there in the cold the blogosphere " who publish more responsively, honestly.

The people who do the most work in our economy ( the reality therapists )often  don't get paid - ask any of us who live for competence in ecomia.

ABC should have a random self select feed running under all its programs - make it hilarious but not so serious and certainly not funny - but more honest and useful sustainable real ABC and with much more competence ( without even trying) . The disturbing thing for those of us who know areas to cut is that the ABC always want to always talk macroeco ( deep 2column stuff) and really that's so course as to be plain crass in a prelude to another "crisis". Bad news is not bedtime reading boys .
The "eco" journos who went on to the drum tonight either know this or don't care that they are spending 30 minutes of our time not speaking to the failures - some bad news that could lead us to better news next time .- not practiced , not understood?
For Peter Martin to call schools program a monument is plain careless and discrediting ( reducing his credibility) to fix himself in stone ( buildingsand programs but not skills )too -so what if every kid gets a university degree : how many are using them? Many in charge don't need a degree.

Mapping the wolf's habitat

Below is a little fantasy related to real world worriers and how they project their worries onto others. Some people, rather than learn and study risk , worry. If they should happen to become leaders they often insist on sharing their worries ( "we will get sued or eaten") to the great annoyance of those of us who learn to understand risk and get on with living - those who learn to know the boundaries of resilience and degradation . The only relief for our increasingly urban communities is if the worriers stand back and learn to trust those who live with risk all the time . 

A little knowledge is of course, a dangerous thing - esp when it comes to something as complex as our engagement with nature  If you are not properly engaged with nature, you can tend to listen to every bit of noise and worry, because the dynamic of weather alone is always working. Unless you study nature properly you won't know when resilience and boundary protection works or when tooth and claw and basic ecological sensitivity will be ignored by man ( as it often has been ) You will let worry replace wisdom and comfort in your approach to managing risk .
Take those who you try to map the wolf -who try to define his territory ( The Overlay). The wolf  may live in the forest at bit, but his best food source is out there on the plains.  You may think you can predict his territory but the best protection is assuming he roams the whole Shire ( put the triggers in your zones dummies-- not in some broad sweep overlay) If you're smart you don't waste much time looking where he's not likely to be , but because people get careless in the comfort ones you have to have some triggers to prevent disasters in even the safest of "Its people , not natural hazards that are the real worry ( therefore concentrate on use and development triggers ) The users and developers and explorers ALL seem to  get lazy and distracted .
see him coming zones" ( zones and use triggers can do all that  .
18 people died in a unexpected landslide at Thredbo. The area would not have been mapped IN to a landslide overlay zone because landslides don't occur there naturally.  The native soils of less than 2 metres depth are under laid by solid granite.  In Thredbo's case, it was the very poor site management of all the “local lots together " that caused the extreme risk to one of them . Every building in that area can be built completely safely and easily , as solid rock is less than 2 metres below the surface compare to here where there is often “ no solid bottom “)  . Site specific geotechnical reports would not have stopped the disaster as it was poorly planned and integrated road construction, drainage , fill placement that moved the risk level up to disastrous proportions. The deeper people and nature  working together ( integrated planning ) problem  
Once the planning school capital of the world , Victorian leaders have gone off watch in planning . They think they can map half the Shire and look for the enemy in only that hurriedly created boundary .Some animals are wise enough about ecology and life systems to know that permanent boundaries for some things do not exist . Our leaders do this at great expense ( and ongoing great expense) and still the animals .... keep jumping the fence . Forest may be a preferred night time habitat but near food is where they have to live and move .
Overlays  don't work for living things because they have legs ,wings and seeds . Yet the Bauillieu  government made special funding available recently to produce more of these blunt and inefficient planning instruments called overlays .   Most overlays  aren't worth the trouble they cause because habitat or risk now it is only one part of what must always be assessed as bigger territory . The whole is greater than the sum of reports, if you like. Fine if someone is sorting the relevant information from the noise . 
It’s worse than like looking for a needle in a haystack  because these overlays in practice create overkill and overconfidence ( for example : no one expects a fox outside the habitat  lines  when that can clearly still happen) 
In planning , Victoria has gone backwards in adopting the non integrated myopic methods of other States; methods that cause us to cry wolf so much that we don’t have anyone really on watch --in the right place at the right time 
We could learn a lot from the wolf - whether we are big or small players
 If you are a referral agency ( under planning and environment act ) all the territory is your responsibility.. You like the authority , but have you accepted the responsibility?  - we will find out if we haven't already.   Keep mapping the risk  yourself but don't risk overkill or overconfidence or confusion by careless publishing the components of the problem as if it was gospel - as if your expertise in marrying things together wasn't something you as public authorities really wanted to share.