DOB DOB DOB IS JUST FOR CUB SCOUTS

The more that I consult the world wide webby thing, the national papers, metropolitan papers, local rags and the villages voice the more I have come to accept that I have developed into a cranky cantankerous old fart that is ready to rebel against anything I perceive real or imagined is impinging on my personal property and personal space and personal finances.

Finance Watch, Petrol Watch, Shopping Watch, Neighborhood Watch and Whistle-blowing, Carbon Watch, Surf Watch, Community Watch and Wrist Watch. How many do we need? Is our community so dysfunctional that someone has to watch out for everything and everybody on our behalf?

Every aspect of our life is being governed and, it appears to me, by lesbian bike riding vegan social workers who, because they can’t get a good root themselves have to try and f.... up our lives. Yes I’m angry. I’ve had the council tell me I’m a Fire Hazard, my shares in Tabcorp confiscated because I didn’t have enough of them and now a Smart power meter which I know is designed to make sure I pay more for every watt I use. The council wants $5,000 Deposit to ensure I finish the house I’m living in. My backside is sore because the Government and the Banks are screwing me. The local council wants my dog to be registered, carry a plate around his neck and strapped into the car like ’Hannibal Lecter’, and if I don’t put my wheelie bin with the handle facing south and 33cm from the kerb they won’t pick it up. My trees are either too high, too low, too close to power lines or too close to my letterbox and, too leafy.

Regulators and their toady employees govern every aspect of our apparently tawdry lives. We are moving closer towards a police state and I’m not looking forward to the compulsory marching spectacular to entertain Kim Il Mayor down at our Replica Railway Station. It is time that the much vaunted Rights and Responsibilities that the Government espouses to be put back on to the individuals in society else we will end up with as watered down version of North Korea and have to bow low every time someone on a bicycle passes by.

To top it off all this expenditure by some bureaucrats we have other bureaucrats costing us money to ensure we don’t waste any money. To hell with it is the general opinion. It’s not our money.

I doubt very much if we can ever rid ourselves of under-worked and wasteful government employees. Would you like to see your job go without a fight? Maybe this is why the bureaucracy has lasted 50 millennia. Even cavemen had to pay someone a few pebbles to spit paint on the cave wall as a record of their activities.

Now they want us to DOB to whistle-blow when we see something going wrong. All I can say is keep your mouth shut. All of the whistle-blowers I have ever read about end up on the dole, despise by the government and despised by employers. Little wonder that immoral people get away with so much. The government encourages whistle-blowers (or so they say) and then sets out to destroy their reputation, their employment opportunities and their family.

Nobody likes a dobber so the crooks in our society, and I’m talking about the aristocracy not the criminal class, get away with the unethical and corrupt behaviors. We have a topsy-turvy society that will frown upon a misogynist and wife-beater but go and cheer and barrack for them on the sporting field.

We idolised Alan Bond while he stole our money, believe that Ned Kelly was one of the countries greatest citizens (even while he shot down and killed policemen) and Linton even gave succor to Captain Moonlight because he left ‘our’ Gold deliveries alone.

We don’t like gangs but we won’t do anything, as citizens, about it we don’t like drugs but we almost condone their use. Hey! Look on the bright-side one day we might wake up from this nightmare.

* Note:- Yes. Yes. Scout people. We know DOB means ‘Do Our Best’ not ‘Dirty Old Bugger’ as has been ascribed to the writer.

DISCRIMINATION DISGUISED

Am I being a bit off kilter when I believe that we are actually introducing laws that are discriminatory but yet so subtle we don't notice or don't care. In the past year or so there have been two laws, whilst on the surface we believe are good for us, but may also be state sponsored, contrary the constitution or unfair on a particular sector of our society..

Clearly we musty have a separation of Church and State, even though we have state funded religious instruction in our schools, but my point is that we recently passed a law that prohibited children from attending pre-school and child-care without evidence of being immunised against a range of potentially lethal childhood diseases.

Hallelujah, make people safeguard their children's health, I'm all for it.

However I would argue a very small point that there are some religions fanatical enough to believe that God will cure all ills and that there is never a need for medical intervention. No needles, no blood transfusions, no childbirth assistance, nothing that was not ordained by that bearded white mythical being who lives in the sky.

Is this not contrary to our laws that clearly state that there shall be no discrimination on religious grounds?

I don't agree with these parents but are we not all responsible for our own lives and have a free will given to us by that same bearded guy who lives in the sky.

Then comes the second whinge that I have and believe to be discriminatory. Although I have still to complete the paperwork I am eligible as a First Home Buyer for the Grant so generously provided from other taxpayers. When I was looking into this free money I took note that my contracts were signed prior to the changes (to come into effect after a certain December 31) being made to the Act and thus I was still eligible for the cash. I'm a greedy can't.

But the changes to the Act meant that, to satisfy the thirst of unscrupulous builders and developers whose pockets are filled with the hands of politicians, would only apply to 'New Builds' and not homes already erected.

What do we make of this and why do I call it discriminatory.

It is hard enough for young people to get a home these days, that was the purpose of the grant, but this change meant that young people, couples, even families who wanted to buy an already existing house were no longer eligible. That, my friends, is state sponsored discrimination.

Our governors talk glibbly about young people needing a hand up, having bigger families and creating stronger communities. Was it not 'the' Peter Costello who said “one for the family and one for the country”? Was it not that same Peter Costello that lauded the scheme and promoted it? Would he have axed it the way successive parliaments have done in such a clearly discriminatory fashion. Not to mention the 'buy Solar and get one free scheme' that was so popular the power generation companies paid politicians to dramatically reduce feed-in tariffs and purchase subsidies.

Hey big spender, Yes you, the elected one. Stop and think about these things after the lobbyists have told you what they want, think long and hard about what President Kennedy said 'think not of what your wallet can do for you but what you can do for your wallet.'

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT

Are we growing into a society that has changed from pointing bones to just pointing fingers?

The parents are to blame?

It was the Police and Justice system?

It all starts with our Social Security system?

Is it alienation, racism, bad jeans or just plain fucking boredom?

All of us have at some stage heard someone blame somebody else. But is it becoming endemic in our society? Is anybody accepting that they are the problem and then setting out to do something about it?

When you sit in Court the first defence is the adoption of the early onset of Alzheimer’s then move through the various social ills until the crime has been mitigated enough for innocence to be found or a reduction in possible sentence has been achieved.

Are these tactics being adopted by the general community? Have we seen so many Courtroom Drama’s on TV that we have begun to use the same tactics in our everyday life, regardless of the outcome, to protect our own backsides?

Be it called pride, ego, arrogance, self-importance or survival of the fittest if we are caught out cheating, stealing or failing to carry out our directed duties every time, and I include myself, will quickly jump to their own defence.

As ‘monkey see monkey do’ the chances that we are passing on these protective skills to our children and young people is extremely high. Children divorcing parents?

How often will I say ‘now be honest I can’t help you unless you are’ and then hear them, in some cases, come out with the most fanciful twaddle I have ever heard. One or two clients will come up with a series of events that would be better used in ‘animated cartoons’.

We know they are not always telling the truth but we should also realise that they are using the same protective skills as we adults have unwittingly taught them. Fortunately for us older and wiser workers we have managed to learn how to screen out the plausible impossible and can arrive at a situation somewhere between what the client wants and what we think they need ‘in their best interest’.

Feedback, that awful word which makes me think of physical regurgitation, between worker and client determines how best these decisions can be met. But we must be very careful to ensure that firstly, the client has the knowledge and ability to carry out the task, secondly that the end result will be a further advancement of the young person towards both personal and financial independence and finally ‘Is it legal?’

‘They don’t understand me’ is a common phrase of mine when trying to explain why very few people know what my job really is. 'That makes two of us, they don't understand me either'. That’s because the welfare sector is so caught up in models that something that doesn’t fit the mould. Then just when we begin to think we know what that model is it mutates into something else. Why? Because that’s where the gap is, how the care services see its role and what the client wants can be poles apart in interpretation.

So is the case with many of the young people who come to me for assistance, some agencies or individual workers have an idea of what they have to achieve and set out to bend and twist young people until they fit their mould. It took me two years in the job before I got the gut feeling of what my role was - do it the way the client sees best without all the contortions.

My job as a stand alone should have really been called WIP ‘The What-if Project’ for that is how I have developed this service to work with other agencies and our clients. Its not a case of what my service wants for them but what they want from my service.

The result of this has been a constant process of evolution to fit the project to the need rather than the other way around. My unique role was deliberately designed to be an enigmatic service so that the most disadvantaged of young people could meet their needs without having to fit to any particular model. My services have to become like its clients, unconditional access, flexible, twisting and turning according to the need that has to be met.

The end result should be that young people having used my service should never be able to declare when things go wrong, that ‘the devil made me do it’…………………….. Anyone for litigation?

DEMOCRACY HAS TO BE THE WORST POLITICAL SYSTEM

 EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS - Winston Churchill

The best democracy, true government by the people, is the least amount of interference in our lives. Naturally we need to have some laws to protect other people but to protect ourselves we should have nothing but education and common sense.

Every time a new law is made at any level of government some other poor bastard gets it in the neck.
Of course we need to protect ankle biters and coffin chasers that’s a given, but to protect the moron against himself I would prefer we just revert to natural selection, lets allow the gene pool to narrow itself a tad.

We are over-governed with three level of self-serving power, now that’s a gene pool we need to almost eradicate altogether. If they aren’t in a brothel paid for by taxpayers and union fees there drinking $500 Merlot in Paris and staying in a grand a night hotel rooms at our expense.

One of the great episodes in self serving was the Nuclear Pact between Russia and America banning inter-ballistic missiles with  range between 300+ Km and 4000+ Km for this very reason
"That the flight time of the nuclear attack was too short for the LEADERS to seek shelter from the impending armageddon". In other words fuck the people just save my own arse.

What makes our elected representatives immune from prosecution, that cash in super well before we can, retire on ridiculously huge pensions and be allowed to double dip taxpayers money? It can’t be because they have superb knife skills, management expertise or supernatural patriotism. They are not Gods although they would like to be thought of that way. They are men and women who piss and shit the same as everybody else excerpt their shit doesn’t stink.

To top it off we are over-governed by half-hearted bureaucrats doing a half-hearted job whose only agenda is to climb over the person in front, scramble over anyone to get to the top table and garrote the competition as fast, as efficiently and hopefully with the least amount of blood to take that seat on the right hand of God, the Prime Minister.

It’s about time we broadened the taxpayer base by narrowing the public service gene pool as well.
To be fair I’ve known of few government employees who have the interest of the community at heart or should I say ex-government employees who moved into the private sector.

I was a co-worker with a community-minded young person who decided he wanted to be a prison officer and do something positive about our prison system. I met him again three months later and he had already resigned. His story ‘that he tried to do the right thing or be relegated to anal examinations for the rest of his career.'

One last final warning about democracy – it doesn't exist. It's a figment of your imagination.

CELEBRATE THE ORDINARY

It might also be said to be the professionalisation of normal.

When I was applying for a building permit in 2013 I was advised after some considerably problems with Golden Plains Council that there was no way a mere mortal could ever succeed in getting everything approved without professional intervention and that intervention cost money. D.I.Y? Preposterous.
What am I rabbiting on about this month? You may recall in the Christmas Edition of the Linton Astonisher the story of Robert Ingersoll, the free thinker.

“Each man is responsible in making a living for himself and his kin using all his knowledge and skills”

Oh! How true that may have once been. Once upon a time there used to be ‘General Practitioners’ and not just in the medical profession. They were called general as they covered a wide area of expertise and could advise you what you needed to have, or do, or go through to achieve a certain end. Most adults did their own legwork, filled out their own forms to lodge and even did their own tax returns. It was called personal responsibility and it was a learning curve to take you into an independent future.

Somehow, someone, somewhere made the decision that as clerical workers would begin to decline with the advent of computers so new jobs had to be created to fill the void and to maintain low unemployment. In some ways this meant that it would be an advantage for specialists to emerge, high priests of pen and ink.

The nomenclature of government changed to collateral and leverage, potential university students could no longer understand their own educational applications ending up in a situation where teachers colleges are turning our educationalists without full literacy and numeracy skills.

Where will this drive to have someone else do it for you ever end?

WHERE HAS CAPITALISM GONE?

As a committed Socialist and a firm believer in balance and fairness for all I am often referred to by the disparaging description of 'red ragger'. On the contrary I am surprisingly a keen supporter not only of true democracy (representing the electors not the party) and true capitalism (the free market opportunity).

Capitalism:

I buy something from your shop which you buy from a manufacturer, who pays workers to make the product I buy. They, the employees in turn, with their wages, buy my product which I pay someone else to deliver from a factory of workers making my whatnots. That is a manufacturing economy.

I walk into a Sandwich shop which makes me a salad roll. They made up the roll from ingredients, hopefully, sourced locally, grown by small farmers producing high quality fruit and vegetables which they sell to the roll-maker. The grower then buys my product and the cycle starts again. This is an agricultural economy.

My car breaks down and I take it to a garage and engage, hopefully a skilled mechanic, to make the necessary repairs they identify. I pay the mechanic either with my product (bartering) or with the money you gave me when you bought my whatnot. This is called a service economy.

In a way all of these different activities interact with each other and an advanced economy produces everything its population needs and sells the surplus overseas.

Communism:

If you take all three examples given above and change that free choice to ownership by the state, where the government controls how much is made, when it is made, where it is sold and at what price. They determine how much workers will be paid, the hours they work, the holidays they don't get and set the rate for bribes. It's like Animal Farm everyone is equal, some are more equal than others and we will determine how equal you are.

The only good side to Communism is the governments ability to direct entire economies and populations, see also China, unlike the exciting mess of capitalism, in to producing things faster to the detriment of the quality that competition creates.

Socialism:

This is where I stand. Socialism is really Capitalism with the exception that the investors, the shareholders, the management and the future of the company are all determined by the members or employees. In a sense we already have a form of socialism with the RACV or Credit Unions, members joining together for a common cause, or Dairy Farmers who, as individuals cannot provide both supply and distribution themselves so join together as a group to market their product.

Socialism is NOT Communism. Socialism is those who create the economy should share in the economy, reward for hard work and dare I say it, nothing for the slackers and some social help for those who can neither work nor malinger.

Look at our planet peoples. We all stuck on this rock together so we should work together. The rich are getting richer through corporate tribalism and as we see, tribalism (Corporations) destroy everything in their path and entire economies for the sake of a few Boardroom Emirs.

CAPITALISM IS DEAD, LONG LIVE GREED

If you know of Stalin, Hitler, Mugabe and Murdoch get ready for the unparalleled evils of Woolworths, Coles, Apple and Google.

Far for it for a socialist to preach on behalf of capitalism but I have, and still maintain, a certain respect for the free enterprise system of times past. To me true capitalism is the right for every individual to make his or her way in the world as they see fit, to produce things, to sell things, to make profits and to employ others to do the work for them. I think I have said before that capitalism is really a system of ‘perpetual motion’ each action in turn producing another action which, in the fullness of time, brings us back to the start and the process begins again.

Each complete cycle hopefully adds just a small amount to the domestic product of the nation which should be enough to allow the population to grow and be gainfully employed, for wages and conditions to slowly improve and bring an entire nation into a state of comfort, and lay the groundwork for our future generations. Control of wages and subsequent prices while still remaining free and competitive is important to avoid unreasonable inflation which eats away at wages and conditions and begins to create poverty rather than prevent it.

I would have thought it fair that an owner should be compensated ten times more than his lowest paid worker. If a standard wage for the worker was $800.00 a month then it is reasonable that an owner be allowed to earn $8,000 in the same period. After all the owner is the one who puts up the money and takes the risk so they should be compensated accordingly.

In recent decades however we have seen owners (or at least the Executives on behalf of the owners) earn in excess of 200 times more. If the average wage was still $800 a month an Executive can now rip off

$ 160,000 before it reaches the bottom line and subsequently what the owners or shareholders will receive. This has meant owners still receive about the same as they did before except a fortune has been redirected, almost fraudulently, before the benefits flow on to the workers or even the purchasers of the product.

What we see in this new century is no longer benefiting from the sweat of your brow or the result of your intelligence but the acquisition of wealth through acquisition. Take the supermarkets. They have not benefited from good business or even fair trading. They have not sought to be faster, provide a better product, a better service or to fairly compete on the open market. They have borrowed from the Financiers and bought out their competitors or subsidized prices below cost to their competitors, they have acquired wealth by bribery and stealth and not through good business acumen.

A former Woolworths Executive decried the fact that the producer of a product no longer decided on the price it would sell for to make a fair profit, but that the supermarkets now dictate to the producer, even to the point of driving them out of business, the price which the supermarket will pay regardless of the value it will eventually sell for. This tactic of course drives out competitors who try to buy and sell in a fair trading environment.

Cashed up supermarkets then buy up huge swathes of other businesses as well, adding to their outlets for distribution and putting further unfair pressure on the rest of the engine of the economy, smaller businesses. hotels, service stations, distribution systems, credit cards, telephone companies and advertising agencies, hardware stores, liquor sales, chemists, newspaper outlets and dozens of other ‘hidden’ acquisitions which will force out their competitors. The Australian supermarket system, as with its media ownership, is the most noncompetitive in the world, little wonder shoppers now look overseas for their purchases and deny our local economy the opportunity to engage in true capitalism.