Sunday snippets

I feel a bit as though I am walking on eggshells this morning.

I have a very busy day in front of me, so only a few snippets.

Over on Geocurrents, Martin Lewis is running a series on the Caucasus. I am reasonably well informed, but I have learned things that I did not know. Have you ever heard of the Snow Revolution? Thought not!

Comments on Saturday Morning Musings - the change merchants, have extended my thinking. Did you know that during the height of the Great Depression in Australia over two Australians were still employed compared to one out of work? This may seem remote from my post, but it's still relevant. I will explain why at some point.

Also relevant is this story from the Sydney Morning Herald, Misha Schubert's Life on the dole a trauma, says Lib. On Friday night we paid $70 per head for a quite indifferent meal at a very popular Sydney eatery. That's almost a third of the total weekly New Start or dole payment. 

I am somewhat into self-help and self-improvement at present. Evan, one of my regular commenters, has a rather useful self-help blog, Living Authentically.

I really draw inspiration from my fellow bloggers. In Another new life opportunity, Denis Wright reports on the second recipient of Denis Wright Scholarship for Underprivileged Girls. I quote:

The second recipient .... through UCEP (in Bangladesh). Like the first recipient, she also wants to be a nurses' aide. She is the youngest of 8 children and lives with her sister in a tin shed. Her parents are dead. She works the longest hours of all the girls presented and seems to have it the roughest....

See what I mean?

In Out and about–doc, library, pho, Yours and Owls, Neil Whitfield wrote:

Down to the doctors. Aside from rotten teeth – waiting on dealing with them – and sore heel, and of course the heart, and other signs of decay, it turns out I am fine.

That's good to know!

The reference to rotting teeth struck a chord. I neglected my teeth for a period because of things like school fees. Most recently while I have focused on writing, I simply haven't been able to afford dentistry. Now I need to find over $A5,000 to fix the damage done.

When I was a child, dentures were common. Many people found it easier and cheaper to have their teeth removed. Now in modern Australia dentures are, once again, a booming business because of the very large and growing number of people who simply cannot afford to go to the dentist.

Whooping cough is another thing that is back in modern Australia, if for different reasons.

One of the group on Friday night had whooping cough. The disease almost vanished, but has returned courtesy of the anti-vaccination movement. As it happened, I recently had a whooping cough vaccination because it was bundled with the tetanus booster.

I had been preparing dinner when I applied a cleaver to my fingers instead of the chook. We men our meant to crack hardy, but it was quite a bad wound and hurt like blazes with blood everywhere. I swore and held my hand under the tap until I got it clean enough to bind. Still, I no longer have to worry about whooping cough. I guess that's an advance.

Well, that's all for today. I must move.       

Saturday Morning Musings - the change merchants

My last post, Times of transition, attracted comments on one paragraph in particular. I have amended that paragraph to improve clarity. I want to take the amended paragraph for today's brief muse. I wrote:

It's odd, but generally those who push hardest for change are those who feel most secure in their own general life. This holds for most commentators, senior managers and policy advisers. Alternatively, those pushing for revolutionary change at the other end of the spectrum are often very insecure and wish for a new life, wish to overthrow the system. Both wish to force change on others.

There is a constant stream of stories in the Australian media that centre in some way on change and the need for change. This isn't new, of course, but the thread is ever present.

At national and state levels, we talk about competition, about productivity improvement, about raising standards. We package changes and call them, say, the education revolution. At firm level, CEOs from Qantas's Joyce to the ANZ bank's Smith announce restructuring and job cuts. In the case of the ANZ, the latest cuts follow the ''One ANZ'' program. Announced on December 5, 2008, this was designed to cut costs and restructure the bank in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Change is interesting and attracts reporting. A stable PM attracts no attention. The possibility of a change in PM does. Progressive incremental modifications up or down to head count attract no attention. Larger numbers do, especially when packaged as a project or program with a specific title. Stability is boring, change interesting.

Change is inevitable and necessary. Individuals, organisations and governments are constantly adjusting to changing circumstances.

What is new over the last forty years is the focus on change as a good thing. Change has been reified, tuned from an abstract but continuing process into discrete things that have a tangible and concrete presence. The very word "change" has acquired a new and palpable presence. 

Change always involves costs. These costs are always individual because specific individuals are affected. However, they can also affect groups including organisations and communities.

At present, for example, I know of two major NSW Government agencies that have gone into a kind of paralysis because of changes announced by the O'Farrell Government.

At personal level, individuals are worried about job security. They are also struggling to get their jobs done because the situation is so fluid and uncertain, because they can't get the resources they need to actually do their jobs.

The costs of change are up-front, the benefits come later. In a world of constant change, costs multiply while benefits can be constantly pushed into the future. Further, at a purely personal level, those who bear the costs of change often do not share in the subsequent benefits. There is a fundamental asymmetry in the process.

If you look at those who advocate the type of changes and change processes that I am talking about, you will see that they have a degree of security that in some ways isolates them from the specific change process or processes they are advocating or implementing. Individuals must bear pain in the interests of the nation or organisation, but they are generally not the same individuals as those advocating the change. There is a price to be paid, but it's not my price.

In saying this, I am not suggesting that ANZ CEO Smith as an example is not conscious that his decisions have human effects. However, I would suggest that Mr Smith is isolated from the practical, individual, effects. His pay, his standing with his Board, the achievement of the performance indicators built into his contract, all isolate him. He gains from others' loss.

To a degree, this goes with management responsibilities. If you are a manager at whatever level, you have a job to do. This may include firing people, something that I have done but never found especially pleasant.

However, I would argue that there is a balance question. We need to recognise that different interest are involved, that things are not clear cut, that there are winners and losers.

I would also argue that an imbalance has occurred, that in our obsession with reform, with achievement, with change, we have lost sight of the need for balance. I would also suggest that part of the reason for that lies in the relative security of the the change merchants, their isolation from the results of their advocacy and actions.                 

Intermission

At work today, one reader (my only reader there!) commented that I hadn't posted since Wednesday. I will be posting tomorrow. 

Times of transition

I completely missed yesterday's post, which is unusual. However, I am working full time on site again more than an hours travelling time from home. It is a while since I have done so, so I am having to adjust all my working and writing patterns. This got me thinking about times of transition.

I don't know about you, but I find that the pattern of my life is determined by routines, by habits. Some are good, some bad, but they do provide the pattern of life. Every so often something happens that forces change. Change is uncomfortable and requires adjustment, so there are lags while things shift around.

Human beings are creatures of habit. We are also territorial animals.

Look at the way we attempt to put our stamp on new areas. You move into a new office. You look at your work station. It's strange, alien. It remains so until you put your particular stamp on it. Then it becomes familiar, your territory.

We all know this, but we actually reject it when it applies to others. We push for change, for restructuring, for new things, and then wonder why we strike resistance,

It's odd, but generally those who push hardest for change are those who feel most secure in their own general life. This holds for most commentators, senior managers and policy advisers. Alternatively, those pushing for revolutionary change at the other end of the spectrum are often very insecure and wish for a new life, wish to overthrow the system. Both wish to force change on others. 

I accept that these are generalisations, but they are still useful. I will return to them in later posts.   

Three different Australian movies

Last night we watched Bran Nue Dae (and here) on ABC TV. Its a sort of a road movie set in Western Australia and especially the Kimberley. I must say that I enjoyed it. Still, I was frustrated when I went to the website to get more details. One day I will write a short piece on the stupidities committed by Australian films in their website designs.

Its a bit kitsch, but worth watching because it's quite fun. The official trailer follows. 

Another Australian film we watched over Christmas, one given to me by Santa, was Red Dog. This one is also set in Western Australia, but in the Pilbara region to the south of the first movie. This is a very different movie, even though both movies are in roughly the same time period.

I really enjoyed it. The official trailer follows.  Further brief comments follow the trailer.   

By the standards of local films, both movies were financial successes in local box office terms, with Bran Nue Dae taking $7.6 million, Red Dog over $21 million. Both are very Australian, with Red Dog striking a huge chord just based on the comments I heard from people.

The third Australian movie I saw at Christmas, again a present, was very different. This was the New England film, Lou the Movie (and here), set in the Northern Rivers. This is a very different film set in present times that was far less successful commercially. Again the trailer follows. 

I really enjoyed Lou. I also liked it because it shows part of the area that I know. There is an enormous difference between the colours and culture of New England and that in Western Australia.

Three very different movies, all Australian.

In writing this piece I tried to get some decent box office stats, buts struggled. I also found more visual material that means that I can better use film to illustrate New England life. But that's a matter for a post elsewhere.  

Sunday Essay – obesity, fads and the failure of specialisation

According to an article the Sydney Morning Herald (A big problem calls for children on scales) by Rachel Brown, school children should be put on the scales and measured every time they have a health check, because parents and doctors can no longer identify weight problems purely on sight.

According to the Wikipedia article on the epidemiology of obesity, the World Health Organisation formally recognised obesity as a global epidemic in 1997. Obesity is most pronounced in developed countries (as early as 1962, 45 per cent of adult Americans were reported to be overweight; 13 per cent obese), but is spreading. It is largely an urban problem, and has spread with urbanisation.

The concern with obesity and with weight has become an obsession that affects every aspect of life.

In public policy and political debate, we look to ban or at least control junk food. We debate controls over advertising looking to protect children. Our papers, magazines and TV screens are full of stories about weight and diet and of ads for magical cures. The Biggest Looser reality TV show gains major ratings.

These concerns affect all aspects of domestic life: conversations centre on diet and healthy life style; the daily routines of life are affected by the need to accommodate specific weight loss diets; family cooking becomes more difficult.

One striking thing about obesity if the way it has been defined as a medical problem. The Sydney Morning Herald article appeared in the health section of the paper and focused on medical responses. The WHO uses the word “epidemic” to describe the spread of obesity, a word with specific medical connotations. Doctors have become the new gurus and advisers to us as individuals and to Governments.

Frankly, I am sick of it.

No one doubts that more people are overweight. No one doubts that obesity can have adverse health affects. Yet obesity itself is not a medical condition as such, it is not a disease. There are cases where obesity does have physiological causes, where it can be classified as a medical condition because the causes properly fall in the field medicine and can be addressed though medicine. However, this is simply not true in most cases. A best, medicine may help delineate some of the causes, may help deal with some of the results.

In my professional writing, I have explored to some degree the way in which specialisation affects the way problems are defined and responded to.

In law, for example, lawyers automatically look at the legal aspects of issues. They give legal responses to problems that are not in fact legal at all. Something similar happens in medicine. The problem and suggested responses are forced into the professional’s mental frame.

To counter this, I have argued in part that we need to develop a general discipline of professional practice, one that applies across professions. I have suggested that one aspect of that should be the diagnostic, the proper identification of the problem to be addressed. This includes the proper identification of those aspects of the problem actually relevant to the professional in question.

The rise of “the professional” was one of the defining features of the last few decades of the twentieth century. We saw a proliferation of specialisation and specialists to the point that much of the work force now carries some professional claim. We also saw an explosion in of Government enforced credentialism to the point that nearly everything now requires some form of ticket; the role of experience and broad based skills has been devalued as a consequence.

In another part of my writing I have focused on the importance of multidisciplinary approaches, trying to explore just what was required to make these work. Central to this was the need to define common frames that would allow different professions to work together, to overcome that blindness created by training and professional practice.

I still regard this as important. However, I also think that it’s sad that interest in multidisciplinary working peaked in the 1990s. Then many of us thought that such working would be central to future work. The explosion in credentials and in professions has increased the need for multidisciplinary approaches, but also reduced real interest in and capacity to actually do real multidisciplinary work.

If we apply this analysis to the obesity issue, you will see that the proliferating “solutions” are dictated by the professional backgrounds of those involved, as well as the perceived need to control actions and symptoms through direct controls.

To my mind, there is remarkably little discussion that looks at obesity in a holistic way as one subset in a range of social issues. Without such discussion, fad and fancy will continue to rule.

Note to readers:

This brief Sunday Essay draws together some of the threads in Belshaw thought. I will add a few links later.

Saturday Morning Musings - tweet not lest you be twatted

Starting today's meander with a list of my posts elsewhere over the last week. There aren't a lot of them:

• New England's Air Wars. This blast from the past includes a rather nice Rigby cartoon.
• Belshaw's World - friends and the fabric of life. This Armidale Express column was the first of two that the paper tagged on its front page. The second column will appear on-line next week.
• Rower Henry Searle New England's first world champion. A Maclean, Clarence Valley champion.
• De La Salle College, Armidale - 2012 Reunion. As the title says.
• Round the history blogs 13 - diet, independence & Brideshead Revisited.

Over on on Scepticslawyer, deusexmacintosh's post Cameron’s First Law of Twitter Personified drew a comment from skepticlaw:

I must admit I’m with Lorenzo on this; tweet not lest you be twatted. Technology has a habit of conferring some ambiguous ‘benefits’ at the same time as all the good stuff, while the people using that technology haven’t changed very much, hence the problems with foot in mouth disease.

This got me thinking about sometimes ambiguous nature of Twitter and the love-hate relationship I have that that particular medium.

I don't follow a lot of people on Twitter, just sixty five. Even with that number, the volume of tweets sometimes swamps me - thirty in the last two hours. With the time I have, I don't understand just how people can read so many tweets when they follow six hundred or more people!

Still, that's not the point of today's muse.

I know when I write  - short or long - that there is always a tendency to be frank. It is at tendency I have to discipline, for I know that the things that I write are public. Yet this is one reason why Twitter is so insidious. The very form of Twitter encourages the illusion that what one writes is actually a conversation, limited but still a conversation. We think of the conversation relationship as between us and our followers in general, particular individuals in particular, yet it's not. It's a public dialogue with the world.

The biggest problem comes where people tweet for immediate effect. Grab attention now, repent at leisure. Twat follows tweet.

The tendency is always there. I know what will attract attention, whether in tweet or post. I am tempted to go for the instant grab. Yet it's also very silly.

I really do need to finish cleaning the swimming pool. It is such a nice day. I am feeling happy and don't want to write serious stuff! Facebook, blogs, Twitter - get behind me!

Threads - Armidale Express, language, marginal economics & a damaged hand

Just some threads today.

I see that my Armidale Express column has been given the honour of a front page teaser for two weeks in a row. Here is the first front page.

And here is the second. The tennis story is mine.

I know that it's a bit egotistical of me to like all this, but just at present I need some boosts. 

Turning to other things, I am not a linguist. Indeed, the complexities of that discipline and the languages it studies are quite beyond me. I mention this because a post on GeoCurrents, Speculative fiction and language, looks at Star Treks' Klingon and the relationship between that and human languages. In so doing, it provides taste of linguists and human language variety. It's an interesting piece.

From time to time, I write about economic developments and the changing nature of economics as a discipline. Here a short links piece in The Interpreter led me to this article in The Economist, Heterodox economics - Marginal revolutionaries. Part of its theme is summarised in the sub-title, "The crisis and the blogosphere have opened mainstream economics up to new attack." I found that interesting, but was more interested in the discussion of the different schools of thought.

It's time I updated my higher education page again. Today's Sydney Morning Herald carries an article by Jen Rosenberg, Uni caught out trying to poach students using private database.

I am not in a position to comment on the accuracy of the story, nor on the issues involved in the apparent use of confidential data by Sydney University to try to attract students. However, the story is indicative if the tensions and conflicts that can and indeed have arisen many times already as universities attempt to behave like market based corporations.

Following a discussion thread that began here with The best of Neil Whitfield's least read posts, Neil has posted So wise, so true. Have a look at the Jewish teacher's story in the middle of the post. I found this just so sad. Obviously I don't know all the facts, but it was depressing.

At a personal level, I struggle to handle the way that social and official sanctions combine with prejudice to enforce certain types of behaviour. See what you think.

I began this post a bit before 8am. Then my brother-in-law and his son came across to help me fix up the garden here. I was very grateful. We will all be moving from this house some time in the next few months, and there is a lot to be done to make the moves possible.

I worked out that the next place will be the sixth place that I have lived in in a bit over six years. These constant moves really suck. It's not just the disruption, but also the costs of moving that have to be added to already very high Sydney rents.    

To add to the pervading sense of gloom, a week back I managed to apply a cleaver my fingers instead of the target chook. It hurt like blazes and blood spurted everywhere. Still, I was very luck that I neither broke bones nor lost fingers. Even so, I haven't been able to swim or do certain things.

Enough complaining.I need to do some work.        

"Things were a lot looser then" - the New Zealand hippie movement

My thanks to Lynne for this one.

I was never a hippie in the true sense of the word, but like many of my generation I was strongly influenced by the hippie movement.  These four youtube videos tell part of the story of the hippie movement in New Zealand.  I think that you will enjoy them. I have inserted a few brief background comments between the clips.

I was eight when I first went to New Zealand. I returned eight years later, and then from 1970 visited New Zealand nearly every year. On those trips I stayed with family, at youth hostels and with New Zealand friends, so I was exposed to some degree to the trends presented in the documentary.

New Zealand is an interesting place. Very socially conservative, it yet had a strong social reform tradition that manifested itself in a variety of ways from the very early days of European settlement. Australians tend to forget that. Further, New Zealanders had and still have a closeness to the countryside that Australia has long lost.   

 

Australia dwarfs New Zealand in population terms. In 1970, the New Zealand population was 2,852,100, rising to 3,176,400 in 1980. In part because of that smaller population, in part because of the travelling young, the counter culture elements were more visible in New Zealand.

The Whole Earth Catalog was first published in the US in 1968 and became something of a bible. I remember one year when we arrived at the youth hostel at Kakoura (I was travelling with two mates) on the South Island, we found a group huddled around a heater drying flowers that the WEC suggested would give a high if smoked. One of the group was a long term resident at the hostel who used to run each day to the top of a nearby mountain to meditate and commune with nature. People were into that sort of thing.

Drying finished, the flowers were rolled into a joint and passed around among the group. A little later, we ran into one of the girls at the Queenstown YHA. She told us that they had apparently used the wrong flower; the high effects were totally psychological!      

The world changes. The emergence of hard drugs, the demands of family, conflicts between residents and drop-ins, the unremitting nature of the hard work involved in making an alternative life style work, all combined to bring the period to an end. Society, too, was closing up, becoming less accepting, more controlling, and yet at the same time more individualistic.  

Nostalgia runs like a thread through the videos. There is a sense of loss, but also sometimes bemusement at things done. 

The best of Neil Whitfield's least read posts

I am in a somewhat random mood this morning. I am going to limit myself today to just one thing.  In a comment on Introspection on the start of a new year, Winton Bates wrote:

Some bloggers point their readers to the most popular posts they have written, but one day I think I will make a feature of the 'most ignored' posts I have written - the ones that I think more people should have read!

This lead Neil Whitfield (Ninglun) to write My most ignored posts of 2011. For my own pleasure, I decided to review the posts Neil listed and select three that I thought were best.

Let me start with my favourite post, Being Australian 21: inclusive multiculturalism Aussie style 12 – video interlude. With this post, you must watch the videos. If you do, you will get a feel for modern Australia with its complexities and confusions. Neil and I may disagree on certain things, but both of us are concerned with what makes Australia Australia. 

My second favourite is Reflections, mostly about a chequered teaching career: Part Five + Salinger. It's not a long post.

Neil is first and foremost a teacher. I have been reading and responding to him since soon after I started blogging. We have only met once, at Lord Malcolm's funeral. I went not because I knew Lord M, but because I thought that I should to show support. I am glad that I did, although it was in some ways an odd experience. After all, why was I there?

The third post is another English post, Performance poetry has its place.

L eave it to you to enjoy Neil's work. 

Personal Reflections - what's coming over 2012

My thanks to regular reader and commenter kvd for his kind donation to the keep belshaw writing fund. I really do appreciate it. It's not just the cash, valuable though that is, but the affirmation that there is some value in what I write.

While I am not making any major new year''s resolutions nor setting firm targets, I really am out-targeted, I thought that I would share with you some of the things that I expect to write about this year across outlets and interests. Most will not come as a surprise to regular readers.

Major Writing Projects

Like most writers, I have too many projects for my own good.

My main project remains my history of New England. For a number of reasons, this effectively stalled in the personal doldrums that marked the second half of 2011. I did write some material, but my heart wasn't in it.  Apart from the lack of motivation, I faced a difficulty in that I am at the point where I need to allocate large blocks of time.

I actually had the time, but found that I couldn't maintain the concentration required. This year I expect to do better!

There are two other book projects behind the major history. One is editing for publication my biography of my grandfather, the New England politician David Drummond. The second is a history of the New England New State Movement. Both will have to wait until  I complete the major history.

Another longer term book project is the story of the Belshaws. I have a raft of material here including the work my father did on the Belshaws; this runs to the best part of 100,000 words. 

In case you haven't worked it out by now, we Belshaw's are a somewhat bookish academic, writing family.

This is a recent photo of cousin Cyril Belshaw with daughter Diana taken at Cyril's eightieth birthday party. Cyril has documented part of his life, while his brother Michael also published an autobiography.

All family stories are potentially interesting if well written. However, the story of the Belshaws is especially challenging because it spans not just time, but also space across four countries. It also deals with the history of ideas and of the varying roles of individuals.  

The next photo is a red carpet photo taken at this year's Canadian Dora awards.  Presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, these honour theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto, Canada. Diana Belshaw is on the right with partner Thomas Hauff. Both have been considerable figures in Canadian film and theatre.

There is a considerable gap between the grimy world of industrial England that I presented in Musings on photos past 5 - Leaving Lancashire and that Toronto red carpet!

For the moment, I am just posting background material, but I am conscious that time is passing and that I need to get some material while I can.   

As the year ended, I added two new book projects. You see, I cannot be trusted to stay focused!

For Christmas, eldest gave me a copy of the Lou the Movie DVD.

Set in New England's Northern Rivers, this is a simple tale, well told. The photo is one still from the movie.

Some time ago, I began a blog series called the Colours of New England. Here I tried to link art, poetry, novels, photography, film and geography to make the area that I love accessible to outsiders, to make them want to visit and to set a context for that visit.

Lou is a very area specific movie. As I watched it, I realised that Colours of New England was actually a book demanding to be written.

The second book project is more problematic. For the first time for a while, I suddenly found myself with a novel in my mind. Loosely based on events in my own life, it is the story of love lost and the confusions that result.

I said that it was more problematic. All writers mine their own life for material. I know that I do, although I try to conceal to a degree. In this case there is an issue in that those involved in the real world events may recognise the links between fiction and reality.

Sitting on the bus, I drafted a quick synopsis. I know that it's a good story. It really is. Women dominate the space that we are talking about. Everything is written from a female perspective. But we men no matter how inarticulate we may be when it comes to emotional issues also have a story to tell. I think that I might tell it.

International Economic Events and Domestic Impacts

Changing focus entirely, I know that I am going to be writing on economic developments this year. My new economics column in a national business magazine provides one focal point. However, I have two broader interests.

The first lies in my continuing need to understand just what has been happening, what might happen. A long time ago I pointed to issues associated with the Chinese and, to a lesser extent, the Indian economies. Economic activity in both countries has slowed.

I have also written about the thinning out of the Australian economy. Australia has become dependent on a very limited commodity base in a way not seen for many years. You can expect these things to continue to feature in my writing.

I have also tried to explain the linkages between international economic developments and specific domestic policies. My point has been that domestic policy at all levels cannot be seen in isolation from events elsewhere. Obviously, I am not the only person to have made this point. However, that does not detract from its importance.

Travel Writing

I enjoy travel writing. My main writing this year was the Greece series, although travel stories featured in many posts.  The Greek series suddenly stopped on 18 October 2011, leaving us stranded on Rhodes.  Five days after this post, on 23 October, events occurred that left me with no desire to continue. I do not expect to finish the series.

I do plan to do more travel writing, however. In February, I plan to enrol in a continuing education travel writers' course.

In the short musings that began with So you want to be a writer part 1, I said that there were some forms of writing that I did not want to do just to earn money. Travel writing is different: I enjoy it; I may be able to earn some money; and the tax deductibility for certain expenses is attractive. So expect more here.

Australian Politics and Public Policy

I do expect to continue my writing in this area, focusing both on systemic effectiveness and my traditional policy focus in areas like education.

There is a fair bit to say here, including the consolidation of some of my earlier material.

On Boxing Day we went to see The Iron Lady, a film based on the life of British PM Margaret Thatcher. It was a good film, if not quite what I expected.

I noticed two things about the audience at the showing we went too.

The first was the age of the audience, with the majority sixty or more. The second was that the young ones in our family group found the movie confusing because they lacked context. They knew nothing about Margaret Thatcher, nor the events that she was involved in.

You see something similar with the 1975 dismissal of the Australian Whitlam Government. Those Australians who have the events seared into their consciousness struggle when they meet younger Australians who do not know who Gough Whitlam is, let alone the details of the dismissal.

  I do attempt to provide some historical context to my political and public policy analysis. I want to do more of this this year.

Social and Cultural Change

With 247 page views,  Kate Bolick on the decline of marriage - and men (21 October 2011) has been one of my most read recent posts. This post is one of a number of posts that I have written centred on family structures, gender roles and the changing patterns of personal relationships in Australia.

I write on these matters because of my general interest in change patterns, but also because of my own interest in and sometimes personal confusions about the issues involved. Often, I sit and listen to discussions that seem to me to be shallow and stereotypical. I say nothing because there is no point.

I also get annoyed at a personal level because people assume that my age dictates my views. This actually involves the application of two very different stereotypes. One is ageism itself, the second the belief that there are sets of views that apply to particular generations.        

For my own interest, I want to consolidate some of my writing in these areas. I feel that Australian society is at something of a tip point, one in which excesses and confusions associated with past views and campaigns have led to reactions that, among other things, are actually making society more conservative.

New England Issues

My New England focus will continue. However, I will do a separate post here on the New England Australia blog.

Other Writing

With the aim of having more fun this years, I want to do two things.

The first is just spending more time reading and promoting my fellow bloggers. I do this to some extent now, but would like to do more. All we bloggers tend to be at least a little solipsistic. It goes with what we do, with the desire to write and publish our thoughts. Yet there is some interesting and sometimes very good stuff out there that we often ignore; we live in a time poor crowded world in which only the prominent gain attention.

I would also like to do more in my train reading series, consciously reading and writing in an almost random fashion to break out from current bounds.

Well, this has become a very long post and I am out of time. All for now.       

Introspection on the start of a new year

As with many of my fellow bloggers, the year's end brings a degree of introspection. I am not, in fact, sure just how introspective I want to be, for this year has been a bit of a dog's breakfast.

I continued my personal writing - 717 posts across blogs, 52 Armidale Express columns, one academic paper, the first of a new column in a national business magazine, one feature for on-line opinion. That's quite a lot of writing.

My reader response during the year was quite good. The graphic shows visitors (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) to this blog over the last six months as recorded by sitemeter. The Google figures are somewhat higher.

The numbers bounce around, but if you compare December on December, you can see some increase in traffic. Of more importance has been the continuing pleasure I get from various forms of reader feedback.

And yet, I don't seem to have made a lot of progress over the year, especially so far as my major writing projects are concerned.

I am not making any new year resolutions this year, beyond a few health related ones. Rather, I have set two very general objectives.

The first is just to have more fun. The second, to make measurable progress on my aim to be a writer.

I mean nothing special by measurable, nor am I setting targets. All I want is progress when I come to look back.

To all my blogging and reading friends, may you have a good 2012. You keep me going in ways that you may never understand. I hope that I can help you in return as the year proceeds.