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Blog 11 Travelling with a different purpose

Blog 11 Travelling with a different purpose

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Blog 11. Travelling with a different purpose. What travel ads and stories miss: the way people live, the political and economic vibes of a country.  I tried to see the real Greece, Croatia, Bosnia, Chile and Cuba   Why don’t I want glamour, scenery and cultural events? Like millions of other Europeans I was tossed about on the winds of mid-twentieth century history. It made me keenly interested to find out how my scattered-round-the-world family lived and see how well my father’s…

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Blog 10: Was Social Media a Mistake? Facebook Needs Damage Control

Blog 10: Was Social Media a Mistake? Facebook Needs Damage Control

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Rohingya Survivors of Genocide promulgated by Facebook pushed out of Myanmar facing bleak future I can say that ….I am worried over Facebook What started as a force for good is now becoming a highway to hell. Of the three kinds of communications dominating our lives: the internet, mobile phones and social media, I am addressing only social media, in particular Facebook. I am adding my voice to the mounting fear of Facebook’s power over our communications and culture and…

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9. The Big Proposed Priority Development Area at Toondah Shores in Cleveland Needs a Cost-Benefit Analysis

9. The Big Proposed Priority Development Area at Toondah Shores in Cleveland Needs a Cost-Benefit Analysis

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Dear Redland City Reporter EditorsI was very excited to read QYAC CEO Cameron Costello’s explanation of  the formal position the  Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee people took on the Toondah Harbour development in your recent newsletter. I was not aware of it before this. It helped me in coming to terms with my own position on Toondah: a large highly impactful potentially beneficial development that will bring many economic and social benefits and seemingly many environmental harms.  This development has great potential for benefits…

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Blog 8 Selfcongratulatory! I can pick Big Ideas!

Blog 8 Selfcongratulatory! I can pick Big Ideas!

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Picture of Black Hole Revealed Today 11 April 2019 I was thrilled to see the first picture of a black hole on the internet, on TV news reports and in newspapers proving Einstein’s prediction and filling in a huge physical gap in space physics and cosmology. The theory had told us black holes might exist but we couldn’t see them so we weren’t certain. And with our recent push to evidence-based ideas, and policies and practices, scepticism was justified. Up…

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7. Population Growth is Humanity’s Greatest Achievement

7. Population Growth is Humanity’s Greatest Achievement

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Who are we? What is Population Growth? Of all ideas about who we are and why we’re here, I like best the idea that we are worthy creatures because we have consciously grown the benefits of our culture and civilisation and economy to cover our whole huge human population on earth, to include everyone in our good fortune and give everyone a healthy and happy life even as we grow into an enormous historically unimaginable population size. In the past…

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6. It’s Corruption! The Federal Government is Missing in Action on Superannuation for Millions of Australians

6. It’s Corruption! The Federal Government is Missing in Action on Superannuation for Millions of Australians

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It’s Corruption! The Federal Government is Missing in Action on Superannuation for Millions of Australians Soft corruption it may be, but it’s still corruption.More than unethical governance, more than a sin of omission, more than mere neglect or delay or incompetence, soft corruption is knowing full well that bad behavior exists, that people are suffering heavy losses, and not fixing it, not regulating to change it because of interest group pressure. For years both sides of politics are to blame….

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5. “See” an Invisible Black Hole in Space: Marvel at its Magic

5. “See” an Invisible Black Hole in Space: Marvel at its Magic

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“See” an Invisible Black Hole in Space: Marvel at its Magic Is Space Science Evidence-Based? We now talk a lot about evidence based facts and knowledge. Space science is intriguing because it is scientific but mostly not evidence-based. Most parts seem unknowable, they are either scientific theories and speculation or the region of philosophy and belief rather than science. And what little we do know is called “rocket science” which is mostly incomprehensible to mere lay people like me even…

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3. Remembering where we’ve come from: 40 years of corruption in Queensland

3. Remembering where we’ve come from: 40 years of corruption in Queensland

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Post 3 Remembering where we’ve come from: 40 Years of Corruption in Queensland  It has been said, and not entirely in jest, that Sydney is the most corrupt city in the western world, except of course for Newark, New Jersey and Brisbane Queensland.                                                                       Evan Whitton, 1986 Discovering Meaning and Ambition in Work In 1973 I landed in Canberra starting what became my dream career in Gough Whitlam’s public service. I saw politics and government produce magic there. It was the…

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2. Welcoming 25 Million Australia: Immigrants Have Made Us

2. Welcoming 25 Million Australia: Immigrants Have Made Us

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  Post 2   Welcoming 25 Milliion Australia: Immigrants Have Made Us   What’s for me to celebrate? The huge invisible hand of history moved millions around Europe after WW2, me and my family amongst them. Eastwards and westwards to and from France, Germany, Hungary and the Balkans and downwards from the Baltic nations and Poland. They moved from workers camps to return to their homelands or to refugee camps to emigrate. Some were simply repatriating, all wanted a new life. The…

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1. Becoming Better Angels

1. Becoming Better Angels

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Long Live Australians! Did you know that Australian men have the third highest life expectancy in the world at 80.5 years and women have the sixth highest at 84.6 years? Did you know that Australia has an ageing population because of decreased fertility rates and increased life expectancy? The median age, the age at which half the population is older and half younger, has increased from 34 years in 1995 to 37 years at 2015. In Cleveland we are particularly…

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