Mesothelioma Ruling !

From the early days of settlement in this country one of the most usual building materials was an asbestos cement sheet produced by buildings material manufacturer James Hardie.  It was not unusual for asbestos in one of its many forms to be represented in most sections of the typical Australian house.

It usually formed the thick slab floor of bathrooms and laundries.  It was a very common roofing material - and as a wall cladding for both the exterior and interior walls of a home whole suburbs were defined as " fibro " in the lexicon of the day.

Unfortunately, asbestos had a hidden danger.  When cut or sawed the tiny fibres accumulated in the human lungs and often took over twenty years to make their presence felt.  That deadly disease was called Mesothelioma and it delivered a lingering and painful death to its victims. Asbestos was phased out of building materials in the 1980's and from December 2003 it became illegal to be used to manufacture, use or reuse in this country.   All building materials now sold are completely asbestos free.

James Hardie moved its Australian headquarters overseas but was forced to provide a fund to compensate victims and even today new cases of Mesothelioma are continuing to appear.  As sheets of old fibro age the tiny fibres break free and float in the air.  Renovating any home built before the 1980's is almost certain to involve asbestos removal.   By law, this removal must be carried out by specialist teams with the protective devices to avoid contact with those deadly fibres.

This week the NSW Dust Diseases Tribunal delivered a ruling that will hearten victims of Mesothelioma.  It ordered the James Hardie compensation fund to pay about $152,000 to an 84 year old man to allow him to live his remaining life in a serviced apartment overlooking Cronulla beach.
The fund had claimed that it was only responsible to pay for the cheaper option, which was to force that man into a nursing home.

It is expected that this ruling will serve as a precedent and the judge hearing the case agreed that the quality of life in a serviced apartment would be " far superior ".  Unfortunately, it seems that new cases of Mesothelioma will continue to appear almost indefinitely into the future.   There is still an incredible amount of asbestos material in old housing stock and as this ages those fibres will be freed by a mix of storm activity and the fierce Australian sun eroding the grip of the cement in the sheeting.

The biggest problem now seems to be recognition of just where this asbestos lays in wait to claim new victims.  It is often hidden away behind many coats of paint and even drilling a hole to install a new doorbell can free fibres that can be inhaled.

We will not be free of asbestos in Australia until the last home containing the product is demolished and that is unlikely to happen before this century comes to an end.

Death On A Mountain !

Media pictures of a great line of people waiting to reach the summit of Mount Everest was a shock to most of the world.  The fact that they were passing the unrecovered bodies of humans who simply ran out  of oxygen and died on the mountain was a testament to the madness that is now encompassing this experience.

Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and China is this worlds highest mountain and it remained unconquered until 1953 when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay gained the summit in a historic climb.  It was known in climbing circles as " the mountain of death " for the number of earlier climbers who failed to reach the summit and died, either from the intense cold or lack of oxygen in what became known as the " death zone ".  Many famous climbers perished on that mountain in attempts to be the first to reach the summit.

Mount Everest quickly became " an industry " as aspiring celebrities hired Sherpas and bought expensive equipment for the climb.  They followed the route used by Hillary and Norgay and now ladders and other helpful equipment help mitigate the fall dangers.  The main unpredictable is the weather.   At that height, conditions can change very quickly and climbers need to heed their Sherpa guides and know when to retreat.

It seems that Everest is now on many people " bucket list ".   Something to be achieved before they die.  An unusually fine weather break has seen the danger of too many climbers forming a continuous queue to get to the summit and it seems inevitable that sooner or later this will lead to a mass tragedy.  There simply is not enough room for all those people to reach the summit in an orderly manner and safely make their way back down to the base camps.

One seasoned climber comments that the problem is " cut price operators " who are providing limited services to the climbers who have tried a number of time and failed - and have run out of money.  In many cases these climbers lack the physical fitness needed for the climb and if they run out of oxygen and get really sleepy they simply lie down and die.  A guide responsible for too many people will be unable to deliver the type of safety needed on such a high mountain.

Unfortunately, this overuse of the worlds highest mountain is delivering the same major problem that is happening on the rest of the planet - pollution.   The numbers passing through the various base camps is ever growing and what they leave behind ranges from used food containers , empty oxygen cylinders  to the human waste that stains these pristine slopes.  Now it seems that dead human bodies are another uncommon sight.

The number of climbers needs to be reduced as a matter of urgency and it is proposed that foreign climbers be first required to successfully climb another of the mountains famous peaks as a test of their physical fitness.  It might also be useful to require that guides have both the proper equipment and a limit of the numbers of climbers under their control to eliminate this queue of people passing each way on such a perilous trail.

Climbing Everest is a test of courage and endurance.   The mountain delivers the same hazards as Hillary and Norgay encountered back in 1953.

A Vote for Disunity !

Like most of the rest of the world, voting in European Union elections is optional  and in the past few citizens actually bothered to go to the polls and cast a vote.   This recent election was very different.  Just under fifty-one percent of the citizens of Europe voted and that was a huge increase on the forty-three percent who participated just five years ago - and the highest turnout in twenty years.

This election came at a critical time for the residents of Europe.  Individual governments in countries which are EU members have lurched to the right in many recent elections and this has created a new interest in the overall government that will rule from Brussels.  This time around the mood was different and the vote did not favour the traditional parties that have long held sway over EU decisions.

Many pundits fear that while the vote is a clear affirmation of the  European project, the result delivers fracture and fails to present a clear mandate for the parliament to follow.   Because the EU is a massive block ranging over a vast territory the issues in people's minds varied widely.  In some parts of the EU immigration control was at the forefront while in others concern was centred on the dangers posed by a hotter planet.   It is very clear that the Brexit issue and the problems of negotiating a deal with the British was on voters minds when they placed their votes.

The British EU vote favoured Nigel Farage's Brexit party and swung heavily away from both the Conservatives and Labor.  The United Kingdom is awaiting the emergence of a new prime minister and this vote will make it much harder to get the EU to agree to modify the terms of exit from the EU which the British people have continuously rejected.   It is now more likely that the final outcome will be an acrimonious no-deal breach.

Britain has had an awkward stance as a EU member country.  The fact that it was not part of the Schengen agreement which allowed travel across borders without the need for passports or visas and kept its own currency instead of converting to the Euro did away with one of the greatest benefits of being a EU member.

It is clear that the " ever closer " integration within the EU will eventually create a new country where the existing nations become its states and it will probably have unified arms forces to provide protection.   The problem for Britain is the recent experience of being head of a vast empire has reinforced the unique concept of its place in the world and created a reluctance to share power within the EU.  This EU rejection is mostly a form of nostalgia for something that no longer exists.

The one thing that is made clear by this election is that final Brexit will not be made any easier to negotiate now that the European masses have cast their votes.

The Abortion Debate !

This move to ban abortion in  Alabama in  almost all cases except to save the life of the mother is not a Catholic church inspired option to reinstate church opposition to abortion.  The legislation is put forward by a cabal of white Republican men of mixed religion.  It seems to strike a blow against the rise of women who seek equal pay and equal opportunity which for centuries has been the domain of the world of men.

The one thing that has stymied women in the past has been control of their bodies when it comes to maternity.  In todays world many women put off having babies until they have established their career - or remain childless by design.  It can be argued that the innovation of the " pill " type of birth control in its many forms has eliminated unplanned pregnancies and with them the need for abortions, but human nature ensures that many pregnancies are unplanned.

This is shaping up to split the conventional Republican/Democrat divide across the American heartland.  Perhaps half a dozen Republican majority states may restrict abortion and a Republican president has obviously decided to rebalance the High court to the right by his choice of candidates while he remains in office.

America's population is about an equal split of men and women and next year they go to the polls to either give Donald Trump another term, or select a new president.  The fact that the anti abortion state action should alarm women that legislation in Alabama and some other states is intended to force the issue back to the High court where their right to abortion may cease if " Roe v Wade " is reversed. There is a very real danger that abortion may become illegal across the entire country - with little warning.

Public opinion polls clearly show support for the status quo.  Getting an abortion is a personal decision and abortion clinics provide a safe and efficient service across the nation.  Now it depends if this becomes the election issue when the people go to the polls next year.

Pope Francis has wisely refrained from demanding that American Catholics support abortion suppression.  He has merely firmly confirmed the opposition of his church to abortion, even when the foetus is afflicted with pathological disorders.

It is interesting that in one of the countries which used to engage its laws in strict conformity with Roman Catholic liturgy the split between church and state ever widens.   Ireland recently held a referendum on same sex marriage - which is opposed by the church - and that is now legal.

Now another of the church's dogmatic rules is under fire. It teaches that marriage between a man and a woman is a bond until their deaths but Ireland already has divorce on its law books and that is about to become easier.   A referendum has approved by 82% a move to end the stipulation that people seeking divorce must separate for four years before that divorce can be granted.

It seems strange that church dogma is being reversed in countries where the church held overwhelming power, and making a comeback in the country that promised its citizens the apex of personal freedom.   Such is the shackle of politics  !

Implementing a Law Change !

Activists are on the streets trying to stop the release from prison of a notorious paedophile with a long history of sex crimes against children.  In 1996  Michael Guider faced sixty sex charges and was put away for a long time, and in 2002 another extension was added for the manslaughter of a child.

That was the disappearance of nine year old Bondi schoolgirl  Samantha Knight in 1986.  Samantha  simply vanished during the walk from her school to home and this sparked a long police investigation.  Her picture was widely distributed but the search ran cold and it was years later that Michael Guider was arrested and confessed that he had abducted Samantha - and that she had died in his hands.  He claimed this was an accident and he was sufficiently convincing for the police to reduce the charge to manslaughter.

Guider has consistently refused to divulge where and how he disposed of her body.  This refusal has  been the cause of parole being refused, but now the end of his sentence is coming due and soon he will walk out the gates of his prison as a free man, and many fear he will return to his paedophile activities.

Activists are calling for a law change to make release conditional on the information of body disposal being divulged. Samantha Knights mother and her now adult school friends would be heartened to give her a headstone to mark her final resting place and this is impossible because the man who abducted her maintains his silence.

This will probably be resisted by those who contend that a prisoner must only legally serve the time handed down by a judge but surely there is another form of punishment for consistent sex offences against young children that should be at a judges disposal.   That is the application of the surgeons knife to perform castration.

In some rare instances judges have been known to order chemical castration, but this can be reversed.  That surgeons knife is final and it would seem a very fair tradeoff for eventual freedom with the sure knowledge that the released would not reoffend.  In fact, agreeing to the surgeons knife should be the only option for consistent sex offenders with a long string of convictions to their name.

This refusal to divulge the disposal of a body does not only relate to sex crimes.  It is quite common in murder cases and it would seem a very reasonable sentencing option for the incarceration to be indefinite until the body disposal information is revealed and the body discovered.

The law seems squeamish in putting castration on the law books, but it may even be welcomed by offenders who find their bodies sending controlling urges that they are unable to control.   The law needs to change to embrace twenty-first century options rather than to simply stick to the rules that prevailed in earlier times.

Paying the Price !

Here we are, on the cusp of winter and we are enjoying the type of hot weather that usually ceased many weeks earlier.  If this is the result of global warming there are many people who would consider it a very good thing.  Unfortunately, it is not as good as it seems.

Along with those blue skies comes a persistent drought that has dried up the countryside and looks likely to impose water restrictions on Sydney.   Warragamba dam is hovering just above the half way mark and the costly desalination plant is running again to supplement our water supply.   We had hoped that rain associated with a cyclone might have been drought breaking, but it fell short and our farming sector continues to face tough times.

We are actually importing Canadian wheat because the eastern states wheat crop failed during this past year.  Our scientists tell us that global warming is changing the ocean currents that determine rain patterns and combined with an el Nino effect Australia will be a drier continent in the future.  It is worth noting that Warragamba supplied our drinking water when Sydney was a far smaller city. If our population continues to grow at the present rate it begs the question of where will it draw its water needs in the future  ?

It seems strange that we are considering opening a new coal mine at a time when coal use is blamed as one of the main reasons we are having a hotter world.  Coal was the fuel that enabled the industrial revolution to take the world from farming to factories and along with oil and the motor car it is pumping out the huge amounts of carbon dioxide that is poisoning the planet.

Our enthusiasm for that new mine in Queensland is conditioned by the jobs it will create, but this is fast becoming the age of robotics and artificial intelligence and both of those will feature heavily in how this mine operates and there is a huge risk that its exports will harm both the Great Barrier reef and the artesian water table.  When we excavate deep into the earth we are interfering with the flow of water that has sustained a dry continent for millions of years.

There is another aspect of a hotter Australia that seems to have escaped notice.  This week a case of dengue fever was confirmed in the Queensland city of Rockhampton.  The victim had no history of overseas travel or having visited the far north of the state and this is the first known outbreak in thirty years.  It is a reasonable assumption that the cause was a bite from a mosquito.

This has resulted in a " full outbreak " response by the Queensland health authorities as Rockhampton is known to harbour pockets of the Aedes  Aegypti mosquito which is a carrier of dengue fever and a lot of other tropical diseases - including Malaria.

Along with those warm summer day extensions we find so pleasant will come a new host of dangers and not the least of these will be Crocodiles.  The warmer inhabitat is causing them to creep ever south down our eastern and western coast and they will pose a danger to our tourist trade.

It seems some degree of global warming is unstoppable, but we will pay a price as with warmer weather comes the tyranny of diseases and pests we previously thought safely restricted to our far tropical north.

When " Image " is Everything !

There is little doubt that the people who play poker machines are usually those who can least afford the money they lose in this gambling venture.  It is a form of " escapism " with the promise of a huge jackpot to lure them into another roll of the symbols on the screen.  The odds of winning that illusive pot of gold are about a million to one.

We are well aware of the illusions created by the poker machine makers.  Patrons are attracted by the bells and whistles and the machines are programmed to signal exciting jubilation when even a minor win delivers less money than it cost to make that individual play.  The siting is important and most poker machines are concentrated in suburbs with the lowest socio/economic population.

Two retail power groups control an overwhelming portion of the grocery trade in this country.  It is hard to find even a small country town that does not have competing Woolworths and Coles supermarkets.  Both promise to offer the lowest prices and Woolworths uses the slogan " The Fresh Food  People " to enhance its image.  Woolworths also owns the biggest number of poker machines in this country.

This poker machine empire is sited in pubs and clubs and is operated by a Woolworths offshoot registered as the ALH group. They have more than twelve thousand poker machines scattered across 323 pubs and clubs in Australian states.   Woolworths is under pressure from its shareholders to divest itself from gambling because it does not sit well with its squeaky clean image.

That poker machine offshoot was named in an enquiry for collecting data on big spending gamblers and offering free drinks to get them to continue to gamble.   One of Woolworths most influential shareholders, Perpetual Investments is urging the grocery retailer to withdraw from gambling because that was incompatible with its forty-four billion trading image.

One of the problems Woolworths faces is a peculiarity of Queensland's liquor licensing law.  In that state it is necessary to own pubs to be able to also trade by way of licenses for its bottle shops.  Woolworths also owns the stand alone Dan Murphy's and BWS bottle shops.

This call for Woolworths to withdraw from poker machines is welcomed by the Alliance for Gambling Reform. The fact that it is being instigated by a major Woolworths shareholder illustrates the damage it is doing to Woolworths image.  It is time for Woolworths to bite the bullet - and get out.

If Woolworths accepts that advice it is certain that there will be plenty of eager investors waiting in line to field an offer for the ALH groups assets.  Poker machines in pubs and clubs delivers healthy profits, even if it does immense damage to the healthy image of the owner of these machines.  It seems that Woolworths faces an image problem.   Its squeaky clean presentation as a responsible food retailer is being defaced with the poker machine tar brush !