Fwd: more quiet volunteers

My wife and I decided that Boxing Day was a good opportunity for a picnic at Christmas Tree Well. Unfortunately, the picnic area was crowded. Who were all these hundred or more people?

They were Police, SES, Ambulance, Salvation Army. Probably others. They had spent all of Christmas Day searching the bush for a lost person. Found that person (safe and well) and, on Boxing Day, could finally go home.

An amazing effort by an amazing group of people. I was not involved, but, thank you.

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28dec19: This was also published on the Letters page of the daily paper. Unchanged! Except that the heading became, Search team heroics.

Fwd: Two great disasters

The Prime Minister dropped back in to Australia, to see how we're doing. He took the opportunity for a remote view of bushfires (PM won't flinch, The West, 24 Dec).

His aerial tour allowed him to see "the two great disasters that our country is facing," he said. I guess that he was referring to the bushfires and Canberra.

   

Fwd: fire the changes

Anne Martis (The West, Letters 21 Dec) seems to be suggesting that we should regularly burn off bush, as indigenous people have for 60,000 years. There's a serious modern problem with that approach.

Stone-age Australians would burn bush for several reasons, including sanitation. The fire would go through the "camp site" area and clear it of rubbish. The tribe would then move on to a new site.

Now we build houses in "pleasant bushland surroundings". When the bush burns, we expect efforts to be made to protect our houses. After the fires we want to move back into the same houses.

Worse than that, we cannot have controlled burns because there are houses scattered throughout the bush. We want our country lifestyle, we also want protection from the country itself. Moving to a fresh campsite is no longer acceptable. Stone-age methods no longer work.

Fwd: the Thunberg environment

I really dislike Greta Thunberg. As Paul Murray says (The West, 14 Dec), "she's worth ridiculing when she says and does things which are ridiculous." She says, for example, "I want you to take real action."

Murray and I are mature, intelligent adults. We know what is right, we know what is possible.

Then we look at traffic crawling up the freeway, spewing fumes into the air that we breathe. We look at essential industries, clearing natural forest and pouring pollution into the water that we drink. We look at the horizon-to-horizon housing where once there was fertile and productive land.

What can we do? What will we sacrifice in order to save the world? Who is going to give up comfort and convenience in the vague hope that it will make the world a slightly better place to live? Thunberg has no answers, only demands.

Murray and I are mature, intelligent adults. A child is asking questions -- making legitimate demands -- that we cannot answer. That makes us feel very uncomfortable.

And that is why I really dislike Greta Thunberg.

    

expensive health cover

Here's one reason for expensive health cover:

A "health comparison website" -- iSelect -- announces that "Australians could be dudding themselves hundreds of dollars..." (The West 17 Dec)  Are we being ripped off... yet again?

Well, no.

The website is "worried" that we could have paid $500 for extra cover and claimed only $100. Missing out on a possible $400. So "get claiming", they say.

Any mention of *needing* the money? Any mention of *gaining benefit* from the extra services? Noooo... What is important is, to get back as much money as possible.

For the main health cover, would this website also recommend breaking a leg -- just to get more money back?

Insurance is a "just in case" bet against the insurance company. There is no entitlement to get money back -- unless the health service was necessary. If you don't need the extra services, you do not need to get the money.

Let's see. 13.6million people with extras cover, each claiming an extra -- unneeded -- $400. That's $5,440 million in "health cover" payments. Five and a half billion in extra payments because a website suggests that getting an unneeded insurance payout is an entitlement.

What could health insurers do with an extra five and a half billion dollars? Reduce the premiums for the average punter, perhaps? Well, probably not. Lower premiums are as unlikely as only claiming what we actually need.

We are being encouraged to claim every possible cent. Whether we need it, whether we deserve it, or not.

No wonder health cover is so expensive.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"[The] truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is." ... Winston C hurchill

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

childcare lottery

Well, the experts tell us that "one in five (early childhood) services is not meeting quality standards," (Sunday Times 15 Dec). Goodness, that's terrible. "Australia's recent dismal literacy and numeracy results were a 'national call to action.'"

"Education is the worst-performing of all categories in child care," the experts add. Goodness. Are they really talking about *early childhood* care? What do these experts want, more pre-school calculus?

Early childhood is about learning, not about education. Learning to talk, learning to listen. Learning to interact with children and adults. Learning to play and run and sit and sleep. Learning to be ready for the next stage, of formal education.

But what really set me off on this rant is, "many childcare centres are just 'babysitting' children." Yes, that is exactly what many parents want, babysitting for their children. The parents are desperate for money or they are not interested in raising their own children. For many reasons, parents want regular babysitters.

Whatever their reasons, parents prefer good quality babysitters. They want childcare centres which will look after their children. Feed them, play with them, get them to rest, cuddle them when needed. Education? Not at an early childhood age, thanks very much.

If you can find a child care centre which offers "in loco parentis"services -- child care, forget the "education" -- then congratulations! You have won the childcare lottery.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not in the branch, but in its own wings." … unknown
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gender prejudice

A new -- female -- boss in an Australian spy agency (The West, 14 Dec).

At last, gendered issues can be better addressed, says an ANU researcher. What?!

Only a woman can effectively address sexual slavery? Only a woman *will* address women's security needs? Let's look at -- or next to -- Jeffery Epstein:

Epstein was found guilty of various sex charges. Who is alleged to be his chief procurer of underage girls? A woman.

It's not wise to judge a person by their gender. In terms of equality, it's nice that a woman can become chief of spies. Let's hold off the accolades until we see how she actually performs.

In America a manager gains automatic respect with the position. In Australia a new manager needs to earn respect through their actions. Let's not lose that honest judgement just because the new boss is a woman.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not in the branch, but in its own wings." … unknown
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troubled youth

After three years' of discussion, Belmont will finally have Perth's first centre to help Islamic youth who may be at risk of extremism. That may be a narrow view of the centre's role, there will also be a "focus on ... social issues, national security, religious tolerance, culture and multiculturalism" (The West, 14 Dec). Plus "youth clubs, education workshops, mentoring and positive motivation programs."

That's great.

Though it does raise the question: why do Islamic youth need a special centre to keep them from extremism? How do Irish youth avoid extremism? English youth? Italians, Greeks, Germans...? What is it about *Islamic* youth?

Yes, yes, it's a rhetorical question. I have two more questions:

q1. Why do I accept that yes, Islamic youth are liable to extremism? Answer: because I see Islam as a religion which is struggling to drag itself out of the mediaeval approach of, convert or kill. And the extremists are willing to kill anyone.

The Irish, in contrast, focus their killing on the English. So their clubs in Australia need only supply food, drink and company.

q2. Why does the article begin with the emphasis on extremism? Answer: because that makes for a more marketable story.

===

Perhaps the new centre is intended to be a PCYC for a local -- largely Islamic -- population. If so, use journalistic skills to tease this out and present it in the article. Add the anti-extremism as a possibly positive extra benefit.

Perhaps the real aim is to counter extremism and the rest is just sugar on the pill. If so, say so. And reassure cynics like me that real efforts are being made to fit an ancient religion into a modern multi-cultural society.

It's a PR thing. Positive actions must be taken. They must also be *seen* to be taken. Act against extremism. And be *seen* to be acting against a -- perceived -- problem.

===

Better yet... forget the "Islamic" label. Build the building. Have it run by the established PCYC structure. Add whatever Islamic touches are useful. But have the centre fit within the Australian society in which the Islamic youth are now living.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not in the branch, but in its own wings." … unknown
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new tourism option

Exclusive Backpackers. Sounds good. A great place to stay while in Perth.

Also providing government sponsored accommodation for homeless people. Just what a backpacking tourist needs, cheap accommodation shared with drunks, druggies and derelicts. The down-and-outs who have run out of other options.

What next?

"Come to Perth. Extra cheap. Sleep on the streets. And if you survive, the government will put you up for free, mixing with the best of the city's vagrants."

That's sure to bring in the tourists.

===

On a more positive note:

Government-sponsored accommodation in a cheap backpackers hostel -- it's a good idea. With social workers to minimise problems and counsellors to help the down-and-out to get up.

Just don't mix it with tourists. Backpackers may be willing to accept rough conditions. They are less likely to enjoy unexpected encounters it with the rough end of our society.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not in the branch, but in its own wings." … unknown
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big bureaucracy, no action

Main Roads are a big bureaucracy. They have a big state to manage. They have standards, processes and a central coordination function.

Which all means: nothing gets done.

In Geraldton, the council requested a pedestrian crossing. Well, maybe they forgot to ask... they just painted their own zebra crossing pattern. "Urban art" on the road. Hmmm.

Main Roads said, Remove it. Said it three times. The "crossing" is still there.

"Main Roads has commenced and will continue to liaise with the city to arrive at an agreed approach that continues to create a safe environment for the sharing of the one-way section of Marine Terrace for pedestrians and motorists," says the Main Roads rep.

Meanwhile, Geraldton council has actually *done* something. Faster than the time it takes to faff around "liaising". Apparently what the council has done -- is effective.

Main Roads exercises its big bureaucracy prerogatives to demand removal, to commence liaison, to do nothing practical.

Geraldton council has acted. Successfully. Despite bureaucratic time-wasting. Well done.

It's a small thing. It works. Just do it.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"The trick to happiness isn't in clinging to each momentary pleasure but in ensuring one's life will produce many future moments to anticipate." ... adapted from Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

synergy and their stupid systems

Have you ever tried to deal with Synergy? They send the bills for electricity use. They don't actually supply the electricity they just charge for it.

So we own a rental property in Katanning. The tenant leaves. We -- as owners -- are now responsible for paying the synergy bills. With so many rental properties in the state, this must happen every day. Probably many times each day. The process will be simple, eh. Wrong.

Go to the synergy website -- as directed in a letter from synergy -- and there is no "change account owner" option. The closest is, "Create a new account" followed by "Moving in"... What rubbish. It's a rental property, I rent it to tenants. I do *not* want to move in.

What the heck, there's nothing better, I try it. First thing it asks is, Do you already have an account with us? Well yes, I do. So why don't these idiots use that same account? You know, one account -- simple to manage -- many properties. Nope. One property, one account -- and I still need to identify my existing -- non-rental -- unrelated -- account. Idiocy.

Pick a tariff option, the simplest of three. It includes a $66 charge for meter reprogramming! What? There is a meter, it worked for the tenant, why should I pay $66 to reprogram it?

So I start the online chat.

Choose "moving in" I'm told. Okay, so I do. Choose an option, I'm told. So I choose -- again -- the simple option.

Why is there a $66 charge for the meter? I ask. There is no meter charge, I'm told. Yes there is, I reply. I don't know why, I'm told.

Well that was a waste of time, a waste of 30 minutes. Except that the online person does give me a phone number. It's very hard to find a phone number on the website.

I phone 131353.

After several tries -- selecting a series of options which do not really cover my situation -- I find a combination which gives me a real human being...

We work our way through the ridiculous steps of the synergy system. Am I the only owner who has ever wanted to have a rental management agent get synergy bills? It would seem so. Certainly, the synergy system does not cater for my simple requirement.

Finally, we appear to have set up bills to be sent to the management agents.

Who is the contact person? I'm asked. I read and spell the name off the bottom of the latest email. I've never met her, she is one of several people -- changing over time -- that I deal with.

Next stupid question: What is her date of birth? How would I know? It's a business relationship with an office full of rental managers. I don't send birthday cards to any of them.

Just send the blasted letters, I say.

We finally seem to get somewhere. The phone fool says, All done, have we satisfied all your requirements for today? Give it time, I reply, I'll see what happens next.

Well, "next" is two minutes later. An email arrives from synergy saying -- as far as it makes sense -- that I have just wasted 20 minutes on the phone. (Yes, plus the 30 minutes on the website. Where at least I could tell that I was getting nowhere.)

So I phone again. Get -- of course -- a different phone fool.

Another ten minutes and I have the promise that yes, bills to the rental property will actually go to the rental management agents. Well, that failed the first time. Who knows what will happen this time. And yes, I'm told, bills for our home address will continue to go where they went before.

I fully expect that synergy's next step will be to cut off electricity to our home address.

Have we satisfied all your requirements for today? Again, the rote repetition of a scripted question. I won't know, I say again, until I see what actually happens next.

Have a lovely day, chirps the phone fool. Grunt, I reply. As tactfully as I can.

Here are some questions that synergy may like to ask themselves:

q1: Other than me, are there any people who own properties, who rent them out, who need to cover the electricity bills when the properties are vacant? (My guess: thousands.)

q2: Are any of these people wanting to have bills sent to the people who do the everyday management of these properties? (My guess: thousands.)

q3: Why do the synergy systems make no allowance for these owner non-occupiers? (My guess: because synergy doesn't care about their customers.)

My suggestion to synergy: Ask those questions. Consider your customers. Write a billing system which works for your *customers*.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"Experience is the comb life gives you once  you're bald" … per Ginger Meggs

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

the blind Shepherd

Tory Shepherd writes (The West 4 Dec) that Donald Trump gains popularity with his strange and erratic tweets. His followers love him because they feel, "he's one of them." You know, noisy, unthinking -- not one of the established political elite.

Then, "The researchers suggest Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is learning some of these tricks as well."

What, still learning? How stupid are these researchers? How blind is the reporter who unthinkingly accepts that our PM is still learning these tricks?

Morrison became a self-proclaimed "ScoMo" just before he became PM. ScoMo, the man with a nickname of the people. From obscurity he leapt out as a self-named man of the people -- then leapt immediately into the job as PM, the political leader of the people.

Do the researchers, does Shepherd, really believe that this is coincidence? How blind are they?

No, ScoMo came out as a man of the people just in time to get the top job. This is no sudden learning-from-Trump. This is a carefully calculated attack on our perceptions.

It may have been inspired by Trump but he is not just "learning some of these tricks". It began -- and continues -- as a full-blown PR exercise.

And good luck to him. If we fall for it, then we deserve the leader that we have. And if we don't like it... well... I don't see any alternative leaders that are any more honest. Not here. And not in America.

The choice is poor. But we are still a democracy. At least our leaders are not rounding us up for ethnic cleansing.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"Experience is the comb life gives you once  you're bald" … per Ginger Meggs

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

dumbed down journalism

The West Dec 4: Bethany Hiatt writes about the lowering standards of our education system. At least, I think that's what she's writing about. "One in four 15-year-olds is unable to complete basic reading tasks..."

In her article Hiatt refers to globally poor results. Globally? So, how does *Australia* rate? She offers a WA high school as an example of an improving school. Is the article really about a global situation or WA schools?

But wait, "students in Australian ... schools..." Is this an Australia-wide study? A state study? A global -- world-wide -- study? No idea.

An article reporting student learning problems and it is not clear which students have been measured. The article is a mish-mash of inarticulate nonsense. Definitely, "could do better". And here are some suggestions:

1. Write coherently. Write to be understood.

2. Do not hack the article just to fit the space. Do not hack the article just to fit the second headline, "Dumbed Down Under".

3. Employ sub-editors. Is that the right name? Employ people whose job is to read every article -- before publication -- to ensure that each article makes sense.

There's a related, second article on the same page, headlined "Sumthing wrong with our pupils". Ha ha.

Did you know that the editor of this paper won an award for the most catchy headline in WA? Not much competition, of course.

The standard of news reporting is already poor. It doesn't help when a potentially serious problem is headlined with a weak joke. Here's another suggestion:

4. Cover a serious issue with a sensible article. Don't spoil the impact with a joke headline.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"Experience is the comb life gives you once  you're bald" … per Ginger Meggs

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

same old political prejudice

For several weeks we've been hearing and reading that Pauline Hanson was doing deals on the federal government's "Ensuring Integrity Bill". (Since when have politicians been hiring marketing experts to provide catchy and misleading names for their bills?)

We were told that Hanson would vote for the bill in exchange for whatever it was that she wanted. Then she voted against the bill.

In The West, Lanai Scarr gets all excited about this. But she promised! sobs Scarr pathetically. Let's see what else Scarr writes:

"Christian Porter gave a final draft... together with an assurance that paperwork issues would not lead to deregistration... they were 'all good' and needed no further consultations."

So Porter gave his word. Was "his word" incorporated into an amended bill? No mention of that. It's just the word of a politician -- an assurance, not even a promise -- that it was "all good".

What fool would take the weasel word of a politician as gospel? Lanai Scarr? Or is she simply grinding an old political axe.

Thank goodness Hanson has more sense.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"Experience is the comb life gives you once  you're bald" … per Ginger Meggs

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)