Browsing with Bromo

Quite possibly insane.

I wish I'd known more

My father passed away over the weekend after being diagnosed with cancer 6 months ago, a disease that spread rapidly and had affected many of his major organs by December 09

I'm publishing this, not to be morbid, but so that if you go through something similar to me, you are informed.  We had a wonderful nurse in the PA hospital who let us know about the different stages that dad was going through as his body shut down.  I've found some good links that offer more information, I just wish I'd read them before dad passed away.  Sadly we just knew he was really sick, but did not realise how close to death he was.

• Amitahba Hospice, Signs of Dying
• About.com: The Dying Process
• What to Expect
• Care for the dying.

I'm also going to depart from my usual state of being a Christian fangirl, and say that many Buddhist hospices have excellent information.  If my memory serves me correctly from when a family friend passed away, Buddhists have a focus on palliative care and supporting families with terminally ill loved ones as they believe that the process of going from this world to the next is important.  As such, it is not good to have an untimely death or put a person at risk of suicide.  The first link in particular is quite good, and after seeing my father die, I do share the idea that the dying  process is the process of gradually going from this life to the next.

Hospitals - Not bad but could do much better

I’ve heard it said in political circles that women my age and older care fairly passionately about the health system, as we are finally exposed to it, having not normally needed to access hospitals much during our late teens and twenties.  How true this is.  And I am saying this, not because I have children, which is more common, but because my family has had something of an annus horibus with respect to health.  I’ve torn my calf muscle, my grandfather is finally too frail to look after himself and another close family member was diagnosed with a terminal illness.  I have to say overall that despite the bad press and the horror stories from both the press and my personal circle, we seem to have a good system here in Queensland, but there is much need for improvement.  When you’re dealing with sick people and their families, you really can not do enough for their comfort and information.

My first big gripe is actually our private health care system.  Private hospital costs are fairly well covered by private health care and Medicare still covers much of it.  But private health insurers really are selling us short by not covering doctors fees at all or the fee to be admitted to Emergency in a private hospital.  I was several hundreds of dollars out of pocket last year when I had surgery – my doctor charging almost twice the Medicare fee and only 75% of anaesthetic costs ever covered between Medicare and private health.  My terminally ill relative also decided to take a chance on going private with treatment for a bit this year after getting a wee bit fed up with the public hospital, and is still paying off the charges – pretty rich for someone who is on 75% of their income.

Coordination of treatment seems to go by the wayside when someone is being treated by a team rather than just one doctor as has been the case with both my relatives, and this was also the experience of a close friend of mine who had a parent pass away from cancer this year.  I have spent hours and hours frustrated and on the verge of tears trying to find out what was happening with my relative’s treatments and then trying to co-ordinate with more than one hospital is enough to make me want to take up Voodoo and curse the lot of them.  However I have discovered just recently that once someone gets into palliative care for their pain, that the communication between practitioners does get a little better.

And on a more practical note, hospital parking is a b!tch.  The last thing you want to do when you are visiting a sick or dying relative, or having someone visit you is to be hit for $12-$15 parking!  I can wear it as I work and I think my relatives are worth it, but I can imagine most people who have to be treated in the public hospital system may find it a stretch if they are visiting frequently.  And the thing is when someone is sick, they do need frequent visits.  Hospital is a miserable place, and I imagine it’s quite lonely sitting there by yourself in pain with little other than the telly to take your mind off it – if you want to pay the $10/day to watch.  I’ve been hit up twice today as I needed to go home for lunch and to sort out some other stuff I’ve got going on, whilst I am still on holidays.  The other thing that drove me nuts this week when taking my relative in to be admitted to the PA, is that once you drop someone off in Emergency, there is no where within an easy distance to park, meaning it’s at least 20 minutes before you can get to your seriously ill family member or friend.  That being said, whilst my family member was pretty sick and was admitted straight away, there did seem to be a lot of people in the waiting room who did not look particularly sick or injured (except the woman who was having her hand strapped up by the guy at the registration desk as he took down her details).  I realise the health system has to address people who turn up to hospital with ailments that could be addressed by GPs (upping the amount reimbursed by Medicare would be a good start), but having inconvenient parking and 2 hour time restrictions on parking in the area is not a good way to do it.  Also I find it a little disconcerting having to go through the pscyh ward to get to the main hospital from the car park.  I know that I’m safe, but I also know that that’s the ward that gives most of my friend in health care the most grief.  It creeps me out and borders on inappropriate planning.

And finally, a few points on strategy.  I can not believe how few (read: none) hospitals are going into new areas in Brisbane and other expanding areas in Queensland.  No wonder there is such pressure on housing and accommodation in older areas that are still well serviced – living in the outer suburbs you really wouldn’t want to risk something like cardiac arrest as you wouldn’t get into a hospital on time.  And secondly there really needs to be more done to address chronic illnesses before they set in.  And not just colour coding tuckshop food for children – seriously funding cooking classes, quitting smoking services, alcohol rehab, etc.

Update

Dear friends, who are still reading,

just to let you know that at the moment I am going through a wee bit stressful situation.  A close family member is quite sick (possibly terminally but I hope not), my grandfather is in hospital, I'm learning a new job and organising Christmas.  So, sadly, I won't be updating the blog too often.  But I will probably have some time to do some ranting after Chrismas and definitely in the new year.

Regards

AJ

No state education for my hypothetical children!

I’ve just re-read an article about a child in a local school who was assaulted by another student.  Apparently the mother was phoned and told the child was involved in an incident which would be explained when her son was picked up.  Apparently the child’s father was at home but the school never called the home number.  When the child was taken to a doctor by their parents, they were told that the child was lucky to escape brain damage as the resulting concussion was so bad. 

Now the school is a state school, so short of lodging a complaint with the department, which will probably result in nothing, and raising the assault as a police matter, there really is little the parents can do.  And this has crystallised for me, why, should I be lucky enough to have them, I really don’t want to send my children to a state school.  You see if a private school does the wrong thing, they can be sued.  If a state school does the wrong thing, parents really don’t have much recourse.  And reassuringly, the courts do hold up the rights of parents when schools could improve their performance.  For example, The Southport School was sued by the parents of a boy who suffered severe brain damage whilst on school premises and was swept into a drain by flood waters.  He has been awarded one of the state’s biggest pay outs.  And that is reassuring, despite the fact that no amount of money that can bring back a child or their lost potential.

It all feeds into the fact that governments do need to be more accountable and possibly even liable for their decisions.  But I’ll leave that for another rant.

Open Letter to the Queensland Transport Minister

A poxy little flat,

Kevin Rudd’s Electorate

Qld

10 December 2009

The Minister for Transport

An office that is nicer than mine

Ipswich (a city that is not nicer than mine)

Dear Rachel Nolan,

Transport Minister, I am a firm believer in the decentralisation of government, I believe in it whole heartedly. I see absolutely no reason why hoards of public servants should clog up the central BUSINESS districts in capital cities, taking up office space, car parking and precious breathing space.  After all, thanks to the grossly inadequate transport system you’ve let your ministry preside over, we can hardly expect them to catch busses and trains like the rest of us.  

But I’m by no means an extremist.  When I talk about decentralisation I mean considering if new jobs can be based in regions and moving offices to places like South Brisbane, Spring Hill, Fortitude Valley or Milton.  Convenient, central but no-CBD locations.  What would be extreme, is say moving people to Pine Rivers, Logan or Ipswich.  Now I know you’re from Ipswich.  And I know it’s an area going ahead and I can understand you want to give local businesses a boost. It is your electorate after all. But I guess only ever travelling to and from Brisbane in private transport, possibly even with a very convenient diver so you can come and go as you please, so you won’t have noticed that it’s actually a rather difficult place to get to.  There is one train line and one main road.  You may have also noticed that the road is in rather poor repair and you might want to chat to your mate the Minister for Main Roads about that.  No wait, the Premier has made your depts join together.  So you’re responsible for that too.

All of this brings me to my point, which is your absurd idea of basing the HQ of the new Queensland Rail Government owned corporation out at your home town of Ipswich.  Why on earth did you decide to base it out there Rachel?  I realise that I personally may not end up out there, but I may.  And I’m not so happy about it.  For a start, when I decide to jump ship back to the private sector, how can I interview for jobs without chucking sickies all the time?

Also, I’ve had family members work out there, and besides having to regularly deal with the less socially proficient, a distinct lack of low-fat food and an hour commute, they’ve also had to face the train journey.  I’m sure our Operational staff know how awful the company is in the Ipswich station and on the train back to civilisation Brisbane, but do you know?  I’m not sure how many of the current employees really want to put up with that.

And as if facing the social problems is not punishment enough, Rachel, the fact of the matter is not all of your GOC employees live in a location handy to Ipswich.  Some for example live on the Sunshine or Gold Coasts.  And whilst that’s a long commute to Brisbane, it’s half a working day to get from there to Ipswich and back.  Are you serious, you want to ask your valued employees to give up their work life balance to give a few businesses in your electorate a bit of a boost?

And the worst part about this Rachel, is that we don’t get a say.  I have just found this out this week.  Government owned corporations are not owned by the people of Queensland like our government departments.  In the legislation to create GoC’s the owners, are actually you, the premier and the treasurer.  We get no say what so ever!  So if you want to make employees go to whoop whoop, there’s nothing in place to stop that. And I noticed that little clause about the ‘owners’ not being liable for anything.

But despite the fact that you can dictate what you like to GoC’s, please, for the love of all that’s good, don’t move us out to Ipswich.

Regards,

AJ

For the Investors out there

I'd just like to repost a press release from a friend:

INVESTORS BEWARE BRIAN CLIMO AND MERIVALE HOLDINGS LLC

Superior Care Group warns investors of the dishonest business practices of Brian Climo and his company, Merivale Holdings LLC, of 18 Shannonbrook Ave Ormeau and 51 Fallenstone Drive, Spring, Texas, and advises against entering into any financial transactions with either party. Mr Climo also works with an associate, Tony Edge.

Mr Climo promotes throughout Australia and New Zealand his service of procuring investment properties in Texas, USA. He does this by introducing investors to the business and investment climate in Texas and offering to select undervalued properties for purchase and subsequent renting out by the investor. Mr Climo charges the investor a fee of $US12,000 for each property purchased by the investor, offering substantial discounts if multiple properties are purchased. As part of his brokering service he offers to connect the investor to various suppliers of connected services to assist the investor in managing their investments: bank lender, Texas-based real estate agent, a letting agent, home insurer, title insurer, tax attorney and property maintenance contractor. Mr Climo is not a licensed real estate agent.

Mr Climo promotes the investments as yielding 12% but after taking into account taxes, insurance, maintenance costs and letting fees the investment yields 5%.

The investor is able to either buy properties on Mr Climo's recommendation sight-unseen, or the investor may travel to Houston where Mr Climo offers to take the investor on a tour of the city and show the investment properties to the investor on a no-obligation basis. If the investor chooses to travel to Houston they will be required to pay a $US5,000 security to ensure their bona fides in undertaking the trip. Mr Climo offers that if the investor chooses not to buy any investments the $US5,000 is fully refundable.

In the case of Superior Care Group, this security was paid to Mr Climo and a company officer traveled to Houston. No properties were purchased, however Mr Climo and Merivale Holdings LLC refused to refund the security on the basis of setting this amount off against other additional services supplied in Houston, without detailing any of the alleged services.

Mr Climo's promotion is fraudulent and his business dealing are dishonest. Investors are warned to avoid Brian Climo, Tony Edge and Merivale Holdings LLC.

http://www.superiorcare.com.au/media-releases.html

Movember is Upon us....

Hi,

I have decided to support Movember this year by signing up as an official Mo Sista.  

During Movember (once known as November), men put down their razors for 30 days and grow a moustache with the aim of raising funds and awareness for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. The role of a Mo Sista is to support the Mo Bros in their life – brothers, boyfriends, Dads, uncles, cousins, husbands – and help them to raise funds.

What many people don’t appreciate is that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime - many of whom don’t seek help. Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved this year and I am hoping you will support me as I try and raise funds.

To support me and the Mos in my life, you can either:

•    Click this link http://au.movember.com/mospace/278646/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account
•    Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 278646 and mailing it to: Movember Foundation, PO Box 292, Prahran, VIC, 3181.

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Movember is now in its sixth year and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCFA) and beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Check out further details at: http://au.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

To find out more information on Movember, check out http://au.movember.com.

Thank you in advance for supporting my on my Movember journey as a Mo Sista.

Angela James

I say this in jest, but I have a point!

For those of you who know R, you will know that he is a very responsible man.  He is the sort of guy who does not want to settle down until his career and his prospects are in a very secure position.  And whilst in my more hormonal moments I wonder if this is an excuse not to settle down, realistically it is one of the reasons why I have a lot of respect for him.  The thing is though R is a small business owner, providing a couple of essential services.  The downer at the moment is that many of these services receive government funding and in return there are government restrictions on how the businesses can be run.  This includes the prices that can be charged for the services that he provides.  So as prices keep inflating, the business can not charge more and this fact alone has put quite a few less efficient competitors out of business.  Hence whilst business is fine at the moment, the prospects seem to be quite poor.  I am open to the fact that R may be ‘impression managing’ me, the media does support what he tells me.  The most annoying thing is that the government is well aware that they need to either increase funding or change the amount that businesses in the industry charge, but they are bounding white papers and green papers and goodness knows what other colour papers between different departments in an attempt to look like they are doing something, whilst doing nothing at all!

Has anyone else noticed this?  The government is actually doing very little at the moment, but seems to have paper after paper to discuss.  At some points words are not enought, and carefully considered options must be put into action.  Heck I'm pretty sure some of the original papers Rudd put in for consideration at the beggining of his term (ie aircraft noise over the South side of Brisbane) must be out of date now after 2 years of 'being considered.'

So whilst I am always reluctant to blame the government instead supporting personal responsibility, logically, I  have no choice in this instance.  Our government keeps extending it’s reach more and more to the point that they keep stuffing up the business activities and personal prospects of individuals.  I can not be the only one!

So I shall have to write to my local member about this.  Perhaps it should go something like this,

Dear Mr Rudd,

It was lovely to see that you were able to marry off your daughter, but you are ruining the prospects of many other young hopefuls like myself who are dating small business owners….

From the CIS this week

Aboriginal men need jobs, not more programs

A new Australian Medical Association (AMA) report says a lack of purpose in Aboriginal men’s lives has had a profound impact on their health and well-being—not to mention the lives of their women and children. This finding is far from surprising. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to work out that sitting around doing nothing leads to despondency and despair.
The statistics paint a bleak picture. Aboriginal men are twice as likely to be hospitalised for mental health and three times more likely to commit suicide than other Australian males.
Somewhat predictably, AMA wants more money for programs that address violent behaviour and self harm. But such programs are only band-aid solutions and do not go to the heart of the issue.
The unspoken word behind AMA’s ‘sense of purpose’ is employment.
In 80% of all Indigenous homicides, neither the victim nor the perpetrator was employed, and alcohol was involved in nearly half of these cases.
A recent study found that 70% of residents in remote communities in East Arnhem Land use cannabis, with almost 90% of users claiming to be addicted and smoking more than six cones a day. Senior Arnhem Land elder Bakamumu Marika says the high rate of cannabis use is because people are bored stiff: ‘They've got no work to do, no training, no jobs.’
Although it may be easy to identify the causes and consequences of Aboriginal men’s problems, solving them is more complicated. Many men are too dependent on alcohol and drugs to be employable, whilst separatist schooling has left many lacking the basic literacy and numeracy needed for employment.
Before we throw up our hands in despair, it is worth reflecting on Noel Pearson’s words of hope in the latest Quarterly Essay titled ‘Radical Hope’: ‘The truth is that I am prone to bouts of doubt and sadness ... But I have hope. Our hope is dependent upon education. Our hope depends on how serious we become about the education of our people.’
Sara Hudson is a Policy Analyst with the Indigenous Affairs Research Program at The Centre for Independent Studies.

Through the glass ceiling back to the glass floor 

More on the creepy hand of socialism

Classic example if I wore a t-shirt with the following image, or even the image on his arm band, I would probably get thrown out of most places and potentially prosecuted depending on my location:

In fact I had my doubts that I could find a Tshirt with Stalin on it, but low and behold they are freely available on several websites.  Which is more than I can say for anything at all under Stalin's rule (the freely availible bit not the website bit).

I will also make an aside here, that I will use the terms Communist and Socialist interchangeably.  This is not because I do not distinguish between people who label themselves Communists and people who like to think they are not as extreme and call themselves Socialists.  It is because I’ve actually flipped through some of Marx’s works and find that he uses the terms interchangeably.  

After first thinking about this I stopped at Dymocks in Sydney as I had a long weekend by myself in a hotel room when on crutches and picked up a couple of books on the Soviet era, including Gulag by Anne Applebaum.  (I blogged a bit about it on the 17 Sept as well).  My friend also recommended this book after I had mentioned that I wanted to read up some more and didn’t want to end up with a piece of left-wing rubbish that actually supported the Soviets.

I have made my way through the introduction of the book and I am already astounded.  Stalin killed more people just in the Ukraine than Hitler did Jews!  And Stalin also killed Jews in the Gulag after he had run out of other groups to persecute.  Worse than this, only insane people dispute the Holocaust, but until the 1980’s scholars disputed what went on in the Gulag as fabrications by those who had a political agenda to pursue.  This is an outrageous point of view, especially as they would have to then take the side of the Soviet government who had more of a political point to make!  The time that these concentration camps existed and their severity are amazing, there has never been and I doubt that there ever will be anything like it again.  

The world has moved on, sadly, not just from the cold war, but also from World War II if the poor attendance at the Polish 70^th Anniversary is anything to go by.  It is sad because it was the last time that we really had to stand up and fight for freedom and self-determination.  Most of Europe came so close to being ruled by dictators.  As we move away from these events Western Society seems to favour more authoritarian approaches to government.  This does not just scare me, but many others who believe in free society with good civil liberties.  

One thing that I did in High School, that I would like to see become compulsory, is setting of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s works as texts.  The final unit that I did in English was to look at foreign literature and I chose A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  It was a pretty powerful novel, describing what seemed like the most dreadful day in prison as a ‘good day’ for Denisovich.

Furthermore, I keep thinking, “what on earth are we doing having such close ties with China?”  Sure they are a good trade partner, but they really do treat their people appallingly.  They can’t vote, they have no control over where they live or even how many children they have (forced abortions still happen in China as per the following 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).  On top of this China still has work camps, and people are interred, not for being criminals, but for people potentially undesirable.  Most of us who have been through a CBD any time in the last few years would know about this as there are often stalls with people trying to raise awareness about the cruel and inhumane treatment of people in these camps.  On top of this anyone who watched the news during the lead up to the Olympics, would have realized, as I did that there seem to be many pro-Chinese nationalist agitators in Australia.  I hope that they are mostly students who will not stay here long term as the last thing that we want in a country who has accepted refugees from a Communist state is to have people who support the state over here.  Despite the appearance of free trade, China is bad news and we should not turn a blind eye to how they treat their people, their intent to expand their territory into sovereign nations such as Nepaal and Taiwan or that they are trying to propagate socialist ideas in free and democratic countries.  And as far as cheap labor and massive populations that are a good market for our trade interests, why on earth are we not looking to the world’s biggest democracy, the increasingly developed India?

Needless to say I am sure that I will write again soon before I finish Gulag but even at the beginning there are so many questions we need to ask ourselves about how we view Soviet Russia and their successors such as China.

Another interesting article on India

Executive Highlights No 934

China's potential enemy is US' good friend

John Lee

China's potential enemy is US' good friend says John Lee in the New Straits Times on 3 November 2009

THE choice of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as US President Barack Obama's first state visitor later this month is enormously significant.

India was former US president George W. Bush's big strategic play in the twilight of his presidency. New Delhi is now confirmed as one of Obama's strategic priorities early in his administration.

But the courtship of India has much broader consequences. If India's unpredictable political parties remain committed to continuing reforms, and the bilateral partnership between Washington and New Delhi continues to deepen, a rising India (along with a still-dominant America) could be the "swing factor" in this so-called "Asian Century".

For hard-core liberals, it makes sense for the world's most powerful democracy to offer a strategic hand to the world's most populous democracy.

But India is not only democratic. For realists, the enemy of my potential enemy (that is, China) is my friend.

New Delhi has been warily balancing and competing against Beijing from the moment of India's creation in 1947.
Even now, a low-level conflict is simmering in the disputed Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

China's nuclear weapons stationed on the neighbouring Tibetan Plateau are frighteningly real for India.

New Delhi, as well as the rest of Asia, is carefully watching Beijing's naval build-up as it far exceeds what is needed to prevent Taiwanese secession, the official reason given in Beijing's defence white paper. Although Pakistan is on India's immediate radar, China is the clear strategic competitor.

Notably, India has capabilities built on the back of a population that will be larger than China's in several decades, and with a much better age demographic, borne on an economy that has been booming since 1991.

India has the second-largest military in the world after China; it has a world-class navy, including a fully-operational aircraft carrier with plans for several more to be indigenously designed and built; and it is a nuclear-armed power.

A strategic partnership with India solidifies a formidable structural and strategic constraint against Chinese ambitions and actions in Asia.

Importantly, the US-India partnership is getting good "buy-in" from key states in Asia who do not feel nervous or threatened by India's rise.

For example, New Delhi already conducts extensive naval exercises with Jakarta, and increasingly with Tokyo, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Traditionally known for diplomatic aloofness, India is now a full Asean dialogue partner.

New Delhi is planning to create more than 500 new positions in its External Affairs Ministry over the next 10 years.

From my favourite think tank...

‘You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.’

  —Abraham Lincoln

Taking India seriously

Washington as well as Asian capitals such as Tokyo, Jakarta, Singapore, and Hanoi have been busily courting New Delhi with impressive results. But the weakest link in New Delhi’s growing network with centres of influence in the region is with Canberra. If Australia wants to remain an active, relevant and influential ‘middle power’ in Asia, then spending the next half decade improving our bilateral relationship with countries such as India is much more important and a better use of finite time, resources and energy than the nice-sounding but premature idea of an Asian Pacific Community (APC).
India’s economy has been growing at about 7-8% each year since reforms began in 1991. But in important respects, India’s economic prospects appear more favourable. Unlike China whose population is ageing, more than half of India’s current population is under the age of 25 years. If reforms continue, India will reap a massive ‘demographic dividend’ well past the middle of this century. Already, India has a vibrant and thriving middle class of 300 million people compared to around 50 million–100 million in China. This means it has a critical mass of people generating economic resources needed to entrench New Delhi’s status as not just a South Asian colossus but a major centre of power within the entire Asian continent.
But it is not just about economic opportunities. A rising India provides a helpful counter-balance to a rising China. This explains the immense diplomatic efforts undertaken to build better relations with India as well as American and regional strategic interest in courting New Delhi. For example, the Indian Navy already conducts extensive exercises with Washington and Jakarta, and increasingly with Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Hanoi. Some of these joint exercises include anti-submarine manoeuvres, with a clear eye on China’s growing submarine fleet.
Even though Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will visit Manmohan Singh in New Delhi this month, India is still treated as a sizable but strategic afterthought by the current government. Before rushing to build new security multilateral institutions, Canberra needs to do the hard graft of building strong bilateral relationships with centres of power such as New Delhi as the rest of the region is doing. Doing so is the best approach, not just for managing China’s rise but for ensuring that Australia remains relevant, active and influential in Asia well into the future rather than on its sidelines.

Dr John Lee is a foreign policy Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney and a Visiting Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. His report The Importance of India: restoring sight to Australia’s strategic blind spot was released this week.

Australia’s forgotten savers

Whenever the Reserve Bank lifts interest rates, all newspaper editors seem to ask their reporters for the same story: ‘Find me a young family struggling with higher mortgage repayments.’ And they always do: After Tuesday’s 25 basis points rate rise, the business section of The Age introduced its readers to a couple, both 29, who were now planning to cut back on Christmas presents for their nine-month-old son. Their Christmas celebrations were also called off, and if there were more rate rises in the future, ‘we don't know how we will cope,’ one of them complained.
Heart-wrenching stuff? Or maybe just a bit cringe worthy? After all, did anyone really believe that the RBA would keep interest rates at historic lows forever?
Australian newspapers seem to have a big heart for heavily indebted homeowners. Nothing wrong with that. But occasionally they should show an equal amount of compassion for tenants and savers.
Take house prices. Strangely, price increases in any other market are called inflation, but when house prices go up then the market is said to be ‘healthy’ or ‘robust’ or ‘doing well.’ But house price increases are only shifting wealth from owners to non-owners. Rising houses prices never create wealth. In fact, they make tenants wishing to buy property worse off.
With interest rate rises it is the same bias. You will always find someone complaining about higher repayments. But in the past, did you ever hear a saver complaining about falling interest rates? Probably not because savers don’t matter much in our property-obsessed society.
The underlying bias against savers and tenants in favour of homeowners and mortgage-takers translates straight into policy. Taxation is the best example: If you own your home, you enjoy the returns on your capital (i.e. the imputed rent) tax-free. If you are a saver, however, you have to pay income tax on the interest. You even pay tax on that part of the interest which keeps your capital stable in real terms, i.e. the inflation component. Homeowners, on the other hand, can eventually realise most of the capital gains on their property tax free.
Australia’s addiction to the property market needs to stop if we care about housing affordability. And if we care about the level of private debt, then we need to make saving a much more attractive option for young Australians.
And to these pitiful couples that Australian newspapers always find after RBA rate rises, we should finally tell the truth: If you can only afford the repayments on your mortgage at emergency rates, you should have never bought a house in the first place.
Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich is a Research Fellow with the Economics Program at The Centre for Independent Studies.
 

Wrong on house prices, ask him how

University of Western Sydney academic Steve Keen made a name for himself with forecasts of economic doom, predicting a 40% decline in Australian house prices. Keen put his money where his mouth is, selling his unit in Surry Hills in October last year for $526,000. In November last year, Macquarie Bank’s Rory Robertson raised the stakes, proposing the following wager:

'On the maybe 1% chance that he is right, and capital-city home prices do indeed fall by 40% within the next five years—starting from Q2 2008, and as measured by the ABS—I will walk from Canberra to the
to the top of Mt Kosciusko.
If Dr Keen turns out to be less than half right, as I expect, and home prices drop by (much) less than 20%, he will take that long walk. Moreover, the loser must wear a tee-shirt saying: ‘I was hopelessly wrong
on home prices! Ask me how.' 
Following this week’s release of ABS data showing capital city house prices up 6.2% for the year-ended in September, Keen conceded defeat and will be putting on his hiking boots and tee-shirt.
What does Keen say when we ask him how? ‘I didn’t know the government was going to be stupid enough to bring in the first home buyer’s boost.’ The increased first homeowner’s grant has certainly inflated house prices, transferring wealth from taxpayers to incumbent property owners, but it would be a gross exaggeration to say this prevented a decline in house prices of 40%.
So where did Keen go wrong? For a start, he neglected the supply-side of the housing market and the growing shortage of dwelling units that is putting upward pressure on prices. More seriously, Keen made the mistake of assuming that he knew something that everyone else didn’t. The efficient market hypothesis tells us that this is unlikely and we cannot reliably predict future movement in asset prices. Keen inadvertently demonstrated the veracity of the idea that asset prices are informationally efficient. Rory Robertson made the more reasonable assumption that house prices reflect fundamentals and was vindicated.
According to RP Data-Rismark, the median Sydney unit price rose 8.3% in the year-ended September. With a little help from Treasurer Swan, Keen’s bet against the market has so far cost him nearly $44,000 in forgone capital gains on his former unit.
Dr Stephen Kirchner is a Research Fellow with the Economics Program at The Centre for Independent Studies.

Food Waste

Recently, I've noticed quite a few items in the press talking about how much food waste we create here in Australia.  For example I have recently encountered the following:

• Food waste facts
• Sydney's food waste
• Cutting food waste
• Food waste tops $5billion
• Qld Food waste

When I first heard this I thought that journalism had reached a new low in looking for things to demonise when writing.  Also I thought that they miss the point that we are pretty lucky here in Australia to have enough food and to be fussy about which food we end up eating.  The last thing we want is to be like a developing country where people have to eat every last little thing as they can hardly afford to live, let alone put food on the table.

The other reason that I was subconsciously objecting came ot me when I read an article about lunchbox food safety.  The article repeats that tried and true mantra, "if in doubt throw it out."  The fact of the matter is that eating food just because it's there and it's wasteful to toss it out it is just silly.  Sure think about cutting down on what you buy or order (I am not advocating being careless with food resources) but there's no good reason to feel bad about throwing out old food.  I'm particularly fussy about this as I have an irritable system.  Something most people could eat safely will give me stomach pains, gas and be most unpleasant on the way out.

So, I am annoyed at pushing this food wastage agenda, it overrides more important messages like food hygene AND when it's advocates start saying things like, 'obviously food is too cheap if we are wasting so much of it,' I worry.  As we are very fortuante to live in a country where we can afford so much and should appreciate it rather than complain - the alternative is not very desirable at all.

Too Posh to Push

One of the girls at work is due soon and she's been a bit upset that because the pregnancy was unexpected, she could not up her health insurance to cover having a ceasarean.  I've just read this and thought that she might actually be lucky...

A series of recent studies indicates that caesareans are far from risk-free.

In one study, published in the November 2007 British Medical Journal, Latin American researchers looked at nearly 100,000 births from 120 Latin American hospitals. About one third were by caesarean, and about half of these were elective. Compared to those who underwent vaginal deliveries, women who underwent caesarean had twice the risk of dying and of developing severe complications like hysterectomy, blood transfusions, or the need for admission to intensive care. In babies, a caesarean increased the risk of death or the need for neonatal intensive care.

The study has been criticised for not properly accounting for the kinds of problems that lead to caesareans in the first place. Babies undergoing caesarean are more likely to have complications because, as a group, they are sicker than those born vaginally. But as noted in an accompanying editorial by an Australian academic and midwife, the study supports the notion that a caesarean is justified only when benefits outweigh harms.

In December 2007 the British Medical Journal published another study that found babies delivered vaginally had significantly lower rates of breathing difficulties compared to those delivered by elective caesarean section. This was because those delivered by caesarean missed out on the hormonal and physiological changes that occur during labour, necessary for infant lungs to develop.
Now, while caesareans may prevent incontinence and prolapse, they cause other complications – pain and weakness for at least six weeks following the operation, and permanent abdominal scaring.
A woman who has a C-section may need to have subsequent births the same way, because of the risk in vaginal delivery of rupture of the uterus (which now has a scar across it).

The most pro-active approach a woman can take for the health of both her body and her baby is to be informed. Speak to your doctor and obstetrician about your options, and access scientific medical research to assist in your decision.

Getting some guidance

On Sunday R and I attended a travel Europe expo at the Brisbane Convention Centre.  It wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t say it was brilliant.  Rather a lot of Travel Agents talking about how cheap it is to travel at the moment to Europe – seemingly forgetting that it’s winter over there!

But I did get my hot little hands on quite a few good fliers.  I thought having a look at where tour groups go could be a good start to see how much I can fit in during my time there.

R has also been looking at tours of Russia, which I hadn't planned on traveling to, but who knows now?

My plans also seem a bit more definite at present.  I have just agreed to accept a position that is much better paid and my car loan was paid off this month.  So travel for next year seems much more definite.

Some thoughts on drinking too much...

The new proposed laws include glass bans and a 3am shut down time (rather than just lock out).  It’s not going to work either.

I often wonder why people drink so much and what on earth it is that has contributed to the problem.  It’s occurred to me that there has been a shift from people mostly socializing without alcohol to people mostly socializing with alcohol.  

Initially I’m tempted to put it down to something like the cheapness of alcohol or it’s availability.  But just because something is widely available or cheap does not mean that people will consume something, especially something like alcohol that has a lot of negative health impacts.  There is also relatively little advertising of alcohol products outside clubs and pubs – a few late night TV advertisements aside.

Alcohol, and excessive consumption of alcohol seems to be such an inherent part of our culture, that changing the cost, accessibility or advertising is unlikely to have much of an impact.  And we are at point where families are passing on an attitude that excessive drinking is desirable, fun and a good way to socialize.  So what is it then than has caused the change?

When I think about the older women in my family (the men for various reasons are best left out or I can’t comment upon), they hardly drink at all.  And they would never consider it right to be drunk at all – regardless of gender or situation.  So how did older generations socialize?  For a start churches were more of a focal point.  Whilst the majority of people are now agnostic or apathetic towards religion, the church, in the past, provided a focal point for social activity for people of all ages and interests.  Even now churches do not just have Sunday meetings and children’s groups, but often provide a variety of events and activities for people to mingle.  At least the ones that still have anyone under the age of 60 left in them.  One of the other things that I know my paternal grandparents liked was dancing.  And in the past dancing wasn’t just gyrating to extremely loud disjointed noise, it was quite an orderly refined affair.  A few years back I gave modern jive a bit of a go, and it was quite a lot of fun.  The classes were also full of tradie type guys, which surprised me, and it was a good way to spend a sober Friday night.  Unfortunately jive classes and a salsa spot at South Bank aside, there really isn’t much opportunity go dancing these days, especially if you don’t have a partner and aren’t signing up for 10 weeks of lessons.  In fact looking at newer suburbs, heaven knows where you would even go to participate in a community activity as they seem to be row upon row of brick boxes built up to the boundaries with little in the way of shops, churches, meeting halls, sports fields or pubs.  They are just devoid of community.

Now I could elaborate on the types of social activities people have engaged in during ages past, but I’m sure there is no need.  The point is that people now don’t seem to have too many interests and if they do they’re usually to facilitate drinking.  Even the few sporty people I know tend to go to the gym rather than joining in a sports team.  It seems that people now are so boring that they have to drink in order to have something to do. And of course you can spend your weekend drinking and hung over if you don’t have to attend anything or help anyone out.

The other thing that I have thought of recently is that people tend not to live with their family anymore.  There is a rise in single person households, and I’m sure it’s not just elderly people who have had a partner pass away.  But even share housing qualifies as people living as individuals rather than a family.  It’s like this.  When you live at home with your parents and siblings your life is more open to scrutiny.  It’s harder to be drunk, hung over, high, promiscuous or even just selfish and lazy (I qualify for the last two btw), when you have people around you.  Especially if those people think they have a say in what you do.  And as annoying as it is to have your parents telling you what to do, they do have some wisdom and experience.  The obvious exception is if your parents are often drunk, hung over or high.  Sadly there are many parents who are responsible for having children who are addicted to drugs or start drinking too early.  But I digress!  My mother always told me that I should not move out of home until I got married, and that’s how it usually worked in the past.  Especially for women who were paid much less than men.  And it was much easier to be kept in check and behave if you still lived under your parents roof.

And as if that weren’t enough, the excessive consumption of alcohol is quite normalized in most social circles.  In fact it is considered quite freakish if you don’t drink until you’re senseless.  I can’t really condemn drinking, I do it myself from time to time.  However I don’t take kindly to people egging me on, if others don’t want to drink, I tend to moderate myself so that they don’t feel left out and certainly don’t become violent, abusive or aggressive when drunk (I just fall asleep).  The problem is that until drunken behavior is frowned upon, discouraged and not tolerated very well by most of us, there really is nothing that we can do.

Moving On

I’m due to start on the 23^rd of this month, as I’ve been able to negotiate a speedy exit.  It’s all still a bit uncertain as I am yet to sign off on a piece of paper, but I hardly think I would have several discussions including naming my salary down to the last cent, if nothing was to come of it!

And now to figure out what I can and can not say in a highly unionized work place….

Yet another good one...

The things that happen in India...

Dear Sir,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you, but I'm leaving the job. The offer was too lucrative and attractive for me to turn down. I had to abscond because I wanted to avoid a scene with the HR and you. I am sorry but I had no choice.

The project is working fine. There are only 108 issues pending, out of which only 38% issues are High Priority. Hence I am sure there is no need to worry about. The next Phase of major enhancements I have been working upon, have been completed halfway. I am sure the new person who would replace me would not understand what all I had done so far. Hence, for his and your convenience, I have taken care to remove all the work that I had been doing this far for nearly 3 months now. I am sure you will appreciate my insight and "big heart".

I am of course retaining the Originals that I had retrieved for the purpose of Passport verification with me, considering it as a parting gift from you. Of course, I will not pay the bond amount that I owe the company (since I Am breaking the bond). But I will consider this as a parting gift from our Dear company. I moving out of town since the new company is situated in another City.

Also, I have changed my contact number. So you will not be able to get in touch with me, to congratulate me. But I know your blessings are always with me. Last but not the least. I also have the Rs 12000 entrusted to me by our company's cultural events group, for the upcoming movie event. I am sure you would have wanted me to keep it with myself as an added bonus from our company. I respect you very much, hence your wish is my command.

Don't worry sir. I am 2 years experienced now, learning so much from your company. So I will surely use this knowledge to write better programs for the new company. Someday I'm sure we will meet sometime in the future. If you wish, I will surely be glad to give my employee reference for you to apply for a job in the new company which I am joining.

Your faithful employee,
S. W. Engineer

At the bottom of the page were the letters "PS". Hands still trembling, the Boss read:

PS: Dearest Boss, none of the above is true. I'm am still busy working at client side. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my "Request to reconsider my Salary Appraisal" attached with this mail. Please approve it and call when it is safe for me to come to our Office to discuss this.

My respect and Best Regards to you!

Note from AJ: In India the resignation period is 2-3 months rather than the 2-4 weeks we have here in Australia.  Abandoning employment is quite common whe moving to a new job.