The Romance of Explosives

I have been pulling book boxes out of storage to go through and check them. Talk about a walk down nostalgia lane, for they include the remaining bit of my old family library.

The introduction to John Read's Explosives (Pelican) reads:

Tells of Explosives, their Magical Creation, their Fierce Energy, their Sudden Disruption, their History and Romance, and their Uses in Peace and War

The Romance of Explosives? It seems a different world, and indeed it was.

I grew up in a world where the events of the Second World War were still quite close. The family book shelves included not just John Read's Explosives, but also a series of self-defence guides designed for use should the Germans or Japanese reach English or Australian shores.

Want to know how to construct a Molotov Cocktail, how to mount a patrol behind enemy lines, how to blow up a train? It was all there. As children, we built cracker guns powerful enough to blow a ball bearing through a garage door; experimented with blowing things up; played with petrol or other flammable spirits; built large forts out of the family wood supply.

Guns were ever present. Not hand guns; they were illegal, the stuff of American crime novels or westerns, but practical rifles for use in hunting or vermin control - 202s, 303s, 310s, shot guns. Down at my aunt and uncle's farm, the fire arms were loosely stacked in the back room along with boxes of ammunition, hats, a stock-whip, household tools and roll your own tobacco.

The assumption was that young people knew how to shoot. I didn't in fact; guns were around, but I was a townie.

I remember how mortified I was when I went to my first and only cadet camp.

This had a very Second World War, even First World War flavour: we lumped around 303s, sten guns, bren guns; we were given bayonets and told to charge and stick straw models; given blanks and after a safety demonstration (at short range, metal fragments from blanks can inflict serious wounds) told to charge across a field yelling and firing; yell, damn you! said the instructor.

Early in the camp, we were taken out for target practice. I was handed a 303, a live magazine, and pointed at the range. I had in fact no idea what to do. Finally, one of the Cadet CUOs realised that this odd fish did not know how to load or fire the gun, so I was given some instruction. Covered in shame, I went back to the range.

I found I wasn't a bad shot. Later, I did some competitive rifle shooting at the local range, not far out of town, again using 303s. Range practice was very popular. On quiet, hot, weekend days in summer, the sound of range firing would drift across the town, clearly audible from our house.

Odd memories.        

The Games, overseas students, Murray-Darling protests

Congratulations to India on the final success of the Commonwealth Games after the initial problems. The photo of the closing ceremony is from the Sydney Morning Herald. I really wish that I had been been able to go.

One of youngest friend's, a fire eater, juggler from the University of NSW Circus Society, was flown to India to participate. Much excitement.

The chickens, and some very ugly chickens too, are now coming home to roost in Australia's international higher education sector with the announcement by Monash University that a down turn in international student numbers means that it has to cut $45 million from its budget with consequent job losses.

The initial view was that the effect of the Government's policy changes would be limited to the vocational sector, effectively quarantining the universities. As I said at the time, I had my doubts. The Howard Government policies that linked migration and higher education may have caused the problem, but the Rudd Government responses were domestically focused, inconsistent, somewhat insensitive and very bureaucratic. But then, higher education policy has really been like this for many years.

The difficulty for the universities is that they face something like a perfect storm: Australia's reputation was damaged by the Indian students imbroglio; the Government's changes to visa requirements affected both existing and potential new students; competition increased from other countries such as the US where financial cut backs meant increased targeting of international students; while the rise in the value of the Australian dollar sharply increased the costs of studying here.

While I was in Greece, Thomas asked me for a comment on the latest strategic alliances announced by the University of New England. I will do this, because UNE is actually a fascinating if somewhat depressing microcosm of the way in which sometimes conflicting tides and the resulting chop in the water affects institutions, leading to a struggle to stay afloat and somewhat stable.

I have spoken before about the attempts to introduce a new national curriculum in Australia. Now in F for fail: 'overcrowded, incoherent' national curriculum panned, the Sydney Morning Herald's education editor Anna Patty reports on the fall-out. It appears that the whole draft curricula will need major surgery.

  In my last post, The Games, Murray Darling issues, Ken Mathews retires, I commented briefly on the proposals to cut water allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin. There I said in part: 

This is an interesting case study from a public policy perspective because of the way it highlights problems in decision processes where there are direct and specific costs born by defined groups in return for more generalised benefits. I have argued before that present decision processes in Australia do not handle this type of conflict especially well.

The photo from The Australian shows farmers burning copies of the report. The sheer size of the public backlash within the Murray-Darling Basin has come as an apparent surprise, with angry numbers at public consultation meetings totally swamping facilities. For once, environmental groups that usually dictate the debate have been forced onto the back-foot, struggling to get any media oxygen.

I don't know why people should be surprised. It's not just the specific cuts, but the fact that the proposed cuts come on top of an anger about country neglect and disadvantage that has been growing for a long while. I guess that I have been reporting on this now for several years.

This is another case where PM Gillard must have blessed the existence of the country independents, with the decision to appoint a Parliamentary committee chaired by Tony Windsor as member for New England to investigate the matter. Mr Windsor's electorate is badly affected by the proposed cuts, but he also has a level headed approach that includes acceptance that cuts in irrigation entitlements need to be considered. Gee he's a devil for punishment though, for this is a very hard issue.

Finally, and this is really a note to myself, one of the changes to Parliamentary procedures introduced as a consequence of the deal with the country independents was greater provision for Parliamentary debate and private members bills. My impression is that this has begun to have significant impacts, but I wasn't able follow up while I was in Greece. I must do so.  

The Games, Murray Darling issues, Ken Mathews retires

Congratulations to India on winning the 4x400 metres women's relay and to the Hockeyroos on holding out against New Zealand in that tense and exciting match. I have really been enjoying these last stages of the Games and especially sports that we don't often get to see or see rarely. Twenty four countries or territories have now won at least one medal.

The consultation process on the proposed changes to water allocation rights in the Murray-Darling Basin are attracting large and protesting crowds. I have yet to read the report properly. Paul Barratt who has has taken a positive view in his tweets.

In the period leading up to the release of the discussion draft, farmers argued with some justice that the mandated terms of reference prevented proper discussion of economic and social impacts and that, consequently, the results must be unbalanced. If media reports are to be believed, I cannot comment properly without having read the report, the draft's conclusions on things such as projected job losses appear to be its soft under-belly.

This is an interesting case study from a public policy perspective because of the way it highlights problems in decision processes where there are direct and specific costs born by defined groups in return for more generalised benefits. I have argued before that present decision processes in Australia do not handle this type of conflict especially well.

Staying with water, another tweet from Paul drew my attention to the retirement speech given by Ken Mathews, the head of the National Water Commission. In that speech, Ken reflects upon aspects of his experience as a public servant. Here he says in part:  

I have been fortunate enough to lead and manage as CEO, organisations as large as 3000
and as intimate as 50. As I have moved through them, I have had the opportunity to
experience the full spectrum of public administration work: intelligence and research, policy
development, administration, regulation, program management, people management,
organisational leadership, intergovernmental negotiations, assessment, audit and
evaluation, and even a modest public advocacy role in the work the National Water
Commission does to press the case for water reform.

9. But rich though that diet was, partly because of my background as a boy from the bush I
never lost my personal interest in policy issues as they impact on rural, regional and remote
Australia and rural, regional and remote Australians. Some of you know I grew up on a farm.
I still know a Jersey cow from a Guernsey. I can still ride a horse and could probably milk a
cow if paid enough... I attended a regional high school. I learnt to debate in a rural youth
club. I have seen country towns rise and fall, commodity cycles turn and turn again, and
droughts come and go. When I married Margaret (wait for this – we were high school
sweethearts!) – I inherited a lifetime of free advice from her extended family about what
needs to be done by the Government for regional Australia. And with the benefit of that
advice stiffening my back after many a long weekend, I have been despatched back to
Canberra with renewed insight and resolve.

10. So having worked on issues in agriculture, mining, environment, natural resources
management, water, regional services, and regional infrastructure, regional Australia has
been something of a unifying theme for my career. In fact as I stand here tonight and the
drought is breaking, commodity prices and the terms of trade are at historic highs, both
major parties are committed to dealing with our shameful indigenous disadvantage (usually
regional and remote indigenous disadvantage), and we have a new government brimming
with commitment to regional Australians, it’s clear that I can with a clear conscience pack up
and retire. “Job done. I can go now...”

11. I wish that were really so. A serious message I wanted to leave with you today is that
regional Australia is a much bigger policy and delivery challenge for the Australian Public
Service than most public servants so far realise. We joke that Sydney differs from
Melbourne. But compared to metropolitan Australia, our regions have so much more
variation and usually, so much less resilience. When a job is lost, or an industry folds in a
regional community the options are much more limited than in the cities ‐ and the human
and community consequences greater.

12. The challenge for public administrators is therefore more than simply to introduce one
parallel ‘regional’ policy to complement our traditional metropolitan‐oriented policies.
Many of our policies and programs will have to be comprehensively regionalised and
localised ‐ to multiple regions and localities. How well equipped is the APS to understand
multiple regional perspectives when we have grown up with a much more homogeneous
metropolitan world view? How will the public service gain an accurate understanding of the
needs, aspirations and opportunities of the many different regions of Australia? In my view
it would be weak to rely only on parliamentarians and ministers to tell us what we should
know. They may have their ears to the ground, but we will need our own channels too, into,
and out of, Australia’s regions. We don’t have them today.

Sound familiar? Ken and I share many common experiences and were in fact Assistant Secretaries together in the same Division. One of the things about the Commonwealth Public Service of the past is that it was far less homogenised, drawing people from wider backgrounds and from many different geographic areas.

I find it interesting if a little sad that a fair bit of current discussion on the need for new types of approaches including recognition of the need to recognise regional differences comes from people like Ken, Paul or myself who have had a fair bit of senior experience, but who also came from country Australia. Ken is far more the farm boy, Paul and I are both sons of academics, but we all share common experiences. Now towards the end of our respective careers, we seem to be trying to redress the balance.

While I was away, regular commenter Kangaroo Valley David drew my attention to  this story by Michael Pascoe, How to steal a mutual. Noric Dilanchian also drew may attention to:

• Gleeson criticises NSW Government
• If I were Premier of NSW in 2011
• Apparatchiks gatecrash the true believers' party

All these stories link to things that I have written about.

Thanks, chaps. I will follow up with posts.

Postcard from Dubai

We arrived in Dubai almost by accident, so accidentally that youngest did not know that we were stopping there, did not even know where Dubai was!

We had decided to fly Emirates to Greece. Dubai is the main Emirates hub, and they offered us free food and accommodation to overnight there. None of us had been to Dubai before, so we decided to accept the offer.

I had never been to Dubai before, and had wanted to see the place for some time. My first memories of Dubai and of the other Gulf states came as a child from reading the Economist and from popular books. Then the various emirates were very small and often in conflict with each other.

This was a British Empire sphere of influence, although the primary Imperial concern was not territory as such, but the protection of the sea route to India including suppression of piracy. To this end, the Empire became effective protector and umpire. The area became known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman in reference to the 1853 treaty between the British and a number of the rulers which established British oversight.  

As part of the process of dismantling Empire, the British Government announced in 1968 that it intended to end in December 1971 the treaty relationships with the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms which had been, together with Bahrain and Qatar, under British protection.

This created an unstable situation for the micro to small states now with known oil reserves but with insufficient resources to defend themselves. The nine attempted to form a union of Arab emirates, but by mid-1971 they were still unable to agree on terms of union, even though the British treaty relationship was to expire in December. Dubai and Abu Dahbi decided to form a Federation. In December 1971 they were joined by four other emirates to form the United Arab Emirates; the seventh Trucial State joined a little later.  

I said that these were micro states. In 1968, the year the British announced their decision to withdraw, the total population of the area that would become the UAE was just 180,226.

The discovery of oil first in in Abu Dahbi in 1958 and then later in Dubai transformed the economic and demographic position. The total population of the Emirate of Dubai grew from just 58,971 in 1968 to 1.8 million in 2009. The population of the UAE as a whole grew from 180,266 in 1968 to an estimated 8.19 million today. This huge population increase came largely from guest workers drawn especially from the Indian sub-continent. Today, Emirati citizens make up around 17% of the Dubai population.

Dubai's limited oil reserves led to a deliberate program to diversify the economy away from oil towards services. One result was a property boom that in turn meant that the city and emirate were hit hard by the global financial crisis. Indeed, while we were there, Dubai One (the English language TV channel) was carrying stories about the latest re-financing proposals for Dubai World, the property conglomerate that was hit hard by the downturn.

Coming into Dubai my predominant impression was hazy browns and yellows and then of heat. My second impression was one of construction: there were building sites everywhere, many of them in suspended animation. My third impression was of a remarkably polyglot society.

We were staying in the Emirates wing of the Millenium Hotel near the airport. While Australian are used to diverse ethnic communities, the people thronging the lounge were remarkably varied. It took me a little while to work out that the mix reflected not just Dubai, but all the countries that that Emirates flew to using Dubai as hub. Women in full burqas mixed with western women wearing a variety of clothes; Africans in full white robes mixed with people from a variety of countries from the sub-continent. The one group not fully represented to Australian eyes were the Chinese.

Emirates has an interesting business model, for the costs of putting passengers up are then offset by hubbing savings and ancillary spending by visitors. It is clearly important to the Dubai economy: there is an entire infrastructure dedicated to helping visitors spend!

More broadly, the entire Dubai economic model could not happen in Australia because it breaches fundamental Australian assumptions about economic efficiency and the role of the state. I will talk more about this in a later post. For the moment, I simply note that Australian policy approaches would have left Dubai relegated, as has happened to so many parts of Australia, to economic irrelevancy.

Leaving our hotel in the late afternoon, the women decided to take a shuttle to visit one of the main shopping centres (photo).

This proved to be a mistake, for it was a mall much like any other. The people were a little different, and so to a degree were the goods, a mixture of the mundane with the up-market. It was interesting watching, but a mall is still a mall.

What we should have done given our limited time was to take an organised bus tour. They were being sold in the lobby and would at least have given us a better feel for the place, including the new developments. I had wanted to see these because of all the stories about Dubai's official extravagance, the desire to create a modern centre in what is, after all, a desert land.

After Sydney and its water restrictions, it was interesting to observe the use of water to create lawns and other greenery.

Getting back to the hotel, I wandered off looking for a beer and found Biggles. As I sipped my drink, I thought of the incongruity of a bar in modern Dubai named after such a quintessentially English school boy hero! Mind you, the restaurant next door was called Cactus Joe's, thus getting both sides of the Atlantic.

Watching the economic news that night, it appears that commercial lending is again expanding in the UAE, so the economy is recovering.    

Belshaw's Best 9: Patrick Desmond Fitzgerald Murray 1900-1967

This post, Patrick Desmond Fitzgerald Murray 1900-1967, is the summary story of a man.

The Murrays themselves were an example of an imperial family that spanned countries. Yarralumla in Canberra carries the name of a Murray property from the early days of the family in Australia. Later, the Murrays would span colonial service, the military and academia in England, Australia, New Guinea and England. Patrick grew up in this world.

 It is also the story of the early days of a university at a time when I was a student. Again, this was a different world, the last days before mass university education.

Blog performance September 2010

The attached graphic shows visits (yellow) plus page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the twelve months to end September. September showed a small increase, although numbers were down at the end of the month because of slower posting while I was overseas. 

The top ten page views in September were:

• Sunday Essay - the importance of quiet time in a crowded world 278 page views
• Sunday Snippets - NZ earthquakes, Tomorrow when the War began, wild weather 265 page views
• Report of the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board, year ended 30 June 1940 163 page views
• Full Gillard ministry list 109 page views
• The Importance of Family History 102 page views
• Australia's new Gillard ministry 87 page views
• Generation One, Andrew Forrest and Aboriginal jobs... 67 page views
• Left vs right 41 page views
• Agreement between the Australian Labor Party and the Independent Members 39 page views
• The importance of cultural activities 36 page views.

Back but jet lagged

Back from Greece last night, still jet lagged and with a bad cold. I have a lot of things to do today, but thought that I might indulge myself first with a simple catch-up.

We left Athens in the afternoon for Dubai, then left Dubai for Sydney in the middle of the night Dubai time, arriving in Sydney about 11pm Sydney time. I have travelled a fair bit over the years, and have learned various ways of managing the jet lag problem. One key is to progressively switch to destination time. In this case, that meant treating the flight as a late night then day time flight. However, here I hit some problems.

To begin with, Emirates served just two meals, one called breakfast, the second lunch. From my body's viewpoint, the first was indeed breakfast, but the second had to be classified as dinner because of the long gap between the two. A snack was served in the middle, but I found this indigestible.

A more important problem lay in the plane lighting. As day dawned, the plane was kept in darkness. This made it easier for people to see the back seat screens and no doubt helped the cabin crew; these long flights must be exhausting; keeping people asleep or watching screens does make management easier. That said, it made it bloody hard to adjust my body clock to a night, day, night sequence.

Worse, when I went to put on the reading light to allow me to do some reading and writing, I found that it shone on the person beside me. This really made it quite impossible to do what I wanted to do. I sat there bored and fumed quietly.

As I looked round the plane, I thought that there were going to be some very badly jet-lagged travellers. West-east flights are always worse than east-west flights. I had to fight to stay awake in the darkness. Those who spent the time sleeping with breaks for entertainment and food were going to find themselves wide awake in the middle of the night Sydney time, essentially wiping themselves out for the next day and, indeed, probably the day beyond. I may be tired today, but I am at least functional!

There have been a number of stories while I was away on some of the perennial topics that interest me.

I was struck in Greece by just how cheap many things were. Cigarettes 3 euro 90, many alcohol products up to 60% less than the Australian equivalent, even foodstuffs including meat. Food and especially meat prices came as surprise, for Australia used to be a low food cost country. No more, I fear.

I mention this because of the current stories about the impact of irrigation cuts in the Murray-Darling basin, along with the concerns expressed that, for the first time, this country is going to become a net importer of food outside certain broad acre products.

There are a range of issues involved in these topics. For example, sky-rocketing sheep meat prices are linked partly to the decline in the wool industry and a consequent decline in sheep numbers, along with growing export demand. In the case of pork, cheap bacon imports have reduced local production. We pay less for bacon, but more for other other cuts. We want more water for environmental reasons and for urban supply, but then have to rely more on overseas foodstuffs, effectively importing water.

I am too tired to flesh all this out in detail, and it might also get too boring. I would simply note that I think that the issue of food prices and food security is likely to become quite important over the next decade. Globally, rising living standards together with changing expectations means that demand for at least certain foodstuffs is pushing hard against supply. As we become more dependant on imports, the simple combination of shifts in global prices with exchange rate shifts makes us more vulnerable.

The potential impact is greatest on lower income Australians.

Recently I did some very rough modelling, trying to compare the present and past living standards of a person on a low income. To provide an income base, I took the old age pension. To provide a consistent basket of goods, I took past consumption patterns, assuming that the household smoked a packet of cigarettes a day, that they drank the equivalent of a bottle of beer several times a week, that they generally ate cheaper cuts, with the occasional more expensive meal.

Whichever way I cut the numbers, I found the household was worse off.

It rained while I was away, it has been raining today, there are again floods in South-Eastern Queensland. In Water, water everywhere …, John Quiggin complains about the maintenance of mandatory water restrictions on gardening when there is plenty of water. I quote:              

It makes sense to require water-efficient sprinklers, taps and so on – investment in such measures now will pay off in a drought. But, when water is plentiful, there should be no restrictions on when and how it is used. That way, restrictions will have more bite when they are actually needed.

I agree, and indeed complained strongly about the way that water restrictions were implemented in Sydney. I couldn't use the water to garden properly, yet others could fill their swimming pools. I guess that I am going to continue to complain about current rigid rules based approaches!

The Commonwealth Games began while I was in Greece. To answer a question posed by Legal Eagle in Is anyone watching the Commonwealth Games?, I was really looking forward to doing just that.  Sadly, India's initial problems in mounting the games were so widely reported that they clearly damaged the event itself.

Beyond international media coverage, the on-line Australian press provided my only access to Games reporting. I found the triumphalism of this reporting quite repulsive. Get real, chaps. I note that the UK as a whole has as many medals as us!

Hopefully, now that I am back, I will see some reporting. I have always enjoyed the Commonwealth Games because I see sports and countries not normally featured.

Well, I need to move on. Over the next week or so, you can expect reporting on some of the key features of the Greek trip.     

Note from Athens

It's raining slightly. I am waiting for the others before we go to visit the Acropolis. A lot to write about when I get home. I am also looking forward to catching up on all my blog reading. I am not looking forward to all the business catching up that I will also need to do.

My last two trips to India and China were much shorter, a week each. Both had a considerable influence on my thinking. Same for this trip, although the influence this time is more historical. I have barely seen TV, ditto newspapers, so current events have largely passed me by.

The economic reporting I have seen is pretty negative. We don't get quite the same feel in Australia. I have been trying to think through some of the implications. It's interesting getting different viewpoints simply because of the way it forces changes in my own thinking.

Well, we are ready to go. 

Greece's turbulent past

After a long period away from big cities, Athen's traffic is overwhelming; congestion, noise, a degree of pollution.

Flying out of Rhodes yesterday afternoon, the coast of Turkey was clearly visible, just an hour's ferry ride away. It, the Turkish coast, is even closer to some of the other Greek Islands.

In Santorini, Greek fighter jets were doing practice runs, a reminder of a not so distant past when Greek and Turkey fought several wars.

One thing you notice in Greece as compared to Australia is simply the juxtaposition of so many different peoples separated by language and culture. This area has had a turbulent and often very violent past. I feel that I can understand that past better now simply because I have a better feel for the geography. 

Belshaw's Best 8: A Very Sporting Day - interesting but also odd

My best is not always my best writing. Sometimes it stands out in my mind for other reasons. A Very Sporting Day - interesting but also odd is one of those posts.

This post records my reactions back in 2007 on going to see my old school play Rugby. This is a photo of a more recent match this year against Sydney Grammar.

I am not naturally a gregarious person. More precisely, I have learned to be in the right circumstances and mood.

I know that I should go up to people who I know and say hello. I know that they would be friendly. Yet sometimes it's hard to do so. 

Lindos Beach

The beach stretches round in a small semi-circle, then there is a small headline and the main Lindos town beach.

From on high, each beach is marked by rows of sun umbrellas beneath which perch sun lounges. The tourists cluster round their lounges; some are stretched out sun-baking; others have towels draped over their heads, exposing the rest of their bodies.

Just to the left of me is the official control desk: a sun-shade, a water container, a book of tickets. There are two controllers. From time to time, one collects his tickets and goes out on patrol in case someone is occupying a sun lounge without paying. The first controller leaves, then a mobile rings. The second controller springs to his feet. Perhaps there is a breach, a tourist has not paid.

We are picnicking in the shade, attracting strange glances. In the cafe behind us, the sound system seems stuck on a Caribean version of the Sound of Music. Repitition six of Get Me to the Church on Time has just started. Initially attractive, the beat version has now become unbearable.

It must be the end of the official day. The remaining beach controller has just picked up his water, his tickets and strolled away. We leave too. 

Note from Rhodes

The sense of history in Rhodes is almost over-powering. Age after age overlaps. Very difficult to write about properly. Very difficult, too, to find computer access for any length of time!