Hi there,

Some sad news that my old Dad, Geoff, passed away early this morning.

Writing this blog was one of the great joys of his life, especially in his later years as his health and mobility became more of a challenge.

But he loved the discipline of researching and writing his blog, ready to get up at 5 am each day and hit that ‘publish’ button.

And he just loved the blog map, so proud that he had followers from so many countries and would happily monitor the spread of his ‘international followers’ with great pride.

As his daughter, I also loved his blog but for different reasons. As his health deteriorated over the past few years, I could quietly log on to his blog and check that he had posted and the time. As that was an indicator of his well being. Anything between 5 and 530 am was fine but later than that meant that he was  unwell. So I could could keep a watching eye on him without being being the pushy, old nurse ( that I am)

For those of you who have been reading this blog, you will know that he was a very thoughtful man who valued fairness, reason, social equity and commonsense. He loved challenging the status quo, looking for better options, different ways to solve a problem.

He had an endless curiosity and energy to look for explanations and answers.

I would like to thank you all for supporting Dads blog.

Vale Geoff  25th December 1933 - 5th July 2021.

Signed

His daughter, Deb

A Gang War Rages !

 We have a crime war raging in central Sydney.  This war is a test of strength between two crime families and on Thursday night the head of one of those families was brutally murdered after consuming a meal at a prominent Japanese restaurant.

Bilal Hasmze died in a hail of bullets as he crossed Bridge Street, just five minutes from Circular Quay. He is is part of an ongoing fued with the Alameddimes family and Hamze is a relative of the nororious  " Brothers for Life " founder  Bassam Hamze.  Police have issued warnings that similar attacks on several  others in the Hamnze network now seem inevitable.

All this seems a reversion to the  Americasn gangland wars of Prohibition, back in earlier times.  Fortunes were being made running illegal alcohol to the mass market and this quickly fell to the task of organized  Crime. " Speakeasies " cropped up in most neighbourhoods and these fought an ongoing war with the Police.

Over the years that followed, gangster gangs  acquired automatic weapons and hijacking the inwards supplies of others became common.  Alcohol was coming ashore on beaches, coast to coast as the world's alcohol industry responded to an export market.

The American Treasury became alarmed at this untaxesd profit flowing into gangster hands and repealed prohibition.  Vast sections of the country elected to stay " dry " and remains that way today.  Gun violence remains an untended problem because the right to own a gun is protected in the Constitution.

Guns became harder to legally acquire in Australia after the Port Arthur massacre.  There is more profit to be made running guns now that strident control measures are in place. The gun numbers in Australia are again steadily growing.

It will be interestintg to see how the police respond to this challenge.  As long as the two gangs continuie to wipe each other out they are conent to let gangsters take care of gangster business.  It only becomes a police matter when the public get involved.

Unfortunately, life just doesn't work that way.  Both police and public casualties are inevitable in this gang war unti law and order institutes control.

Legislative Inertia !

 Seven years ago, ICAC asked the New South Wales parliament to enact legislation to protect whistleblowers who voluntarilly provide evidence to one of its enquiries.  This week it was learned that no less than twenty-seven drafts had been compiled, and as yet none had be taken to a vote.

The parliament was currently working on a twenty-eight draft and if this got the nod it would probably go to a vote sometime next year.

There is a vast difference between how a voluntary witness is treated compared  to those summonsed before the enquiry and compelled to give evidence.  Under existing law, those compelled to give evidence  against corruption  are protected against any criminal or civil liability, including defamation, breach of confidentiallity  and any disciplinary action by their employer.

This same protection is not extended to any voluntary witness giving evidence to such an enquiey and this was having a chilling effect on whistleblowers.

It sends a message that they had better be prepared to lose their jobs or be sued because the government will not protect them.  Even if they tip off authorities to major corruption.  It is poor treatment of public spirited citizens who shine the light of discovery in dark places and suffer financial injury as a result.

As usuaL, it is the politicians looking to their own survival.  Both sides of politics have their dirty little secrets and exposure hurts them at the polls,. They do not wish to open the evidence door too widely and that is why each of these drafts have been rejected - and sent back for more work.

It is in public interest that citizens be encouraged to watch over public finances.  Suspicion is constantly aroused where vast sums of money are involved and the business of government can be very tempting and often easily covered.  There is innunendo of graft surfacing on a regular basis and the legislation in force at present simply keeps witnesses silent.

The watchdog first recommended that the ICAC evidence act be ammended early in 2014.  This was supported by an upper house enquiry in 2017 so it is quite evident that the matter is not going to be allowed to rest.

This sort of delay is giving parliament a bad name.  It is public money beintg used to fund projects and its distribution needs to be squeaky clean.  If there is further delay in passing this twenty-eight draft many will suspect deliberate corruption is highly placed.

A Wicked World !!

There once was a time when the laws of most countries were in tandem with the laws of whichever Church was foremost in attracting the support of the population.  Great congregations dutifully went to church every Sunday and the government ruled by obeying the laws of the church.

That is still common in some parts of the world, but a vast schism has opened up between church liturgy and the will of the people We are fast reaching the stage where. the laws in force run directly opposite the teachings of the church.  The church voices its opposition but party politics is dependent on votes and the decisions made mirror the opinion  of the masses.

To a high degree, the divisive point between Church and state revolved around the sexual act. The  churches insist that marriage is a union for life and refuse to offer the sacrament to those who divorce.

We have now reached the stage where divorce has been taken out of the hands of the church and is the jurisdiction of a Federal court.  Each parliament will decide who gets a divorce - and for what reason.  Marriage as a ceremony practised by an ordained minister is now more commonly administered by a civil celebrant.

Abortion was long held to be a civil crime, but today is legal in many parts of the world. Homosexuality has long been forbidden, but referendum's in many countries has seen it attain legal status and same sex marriage is now widely practised openly.

Sex before marriage was once seen as a cardinal sin, but the majority of the world's population cohabit today without the benefit of a church blessing.  Sex is a tradeable commoddity in the world marketplace and is publicly extolled in the movie industry.

Attendance at church has fallen away over many centuries but still attracts followers at Christmas and Easter.  It would be impossible for the great churches of the world to change their message and accept the fundamentals of how the population chooses to live their lives.

What we are seeing is the emergence of various sects which offer forgiveness for the wickedness of humankind.  The great religions are in retreat because of the emergence of sexual relations moving out of control and guided by the masses.

It is evident that the churches have lost the power to deliver shock and their threat to impose vengeance in the afterlife no longer terrifies sinners.  

Limits on Car Density !

At the mid point of the twentieth century, the warranty on cars was twelve months, or tweve thousand miles, whichever came sooner.  As we edge our way into the twenty-first century that has widened appreciably.  A five year warranty is now fairly common, and one Korean maker extends that to seven years with unlimited distance covered.

That is even more extended on electric cars.  One Japanese manufacturer is now offering a ten year warranty with ten year service at a fixed price, but there is a distance limitation of 200,000 kilometres travelled.

The standard of engineering has made great strides in recent years.,  All the major manufacrturers now produce a high standard, four cylinder car that sells somewhere about the $20,000 price range.,  Provided it is properly serviced, the owner can expect to travel 300,000 kilometres before that engine shows signs of wear.

High quality and low price have simply inundated the market with cars to the point that we are approaching gridlock.  Billions are being spent to improve the daily commute but the scarcity of parking, both at home and wherever we work is putting a limit on cars as a means of personal transport.

New housing estates tend to shoe horn homes onto ever smaller blocks of land and what used to be called " the backyard " has disappeared.,  This modern home has off street parking for two cars, but the children stay at home longer because of the elevated home prices and their cars need to find a parking place on the streets.

Any district with high employment numbers has become a parking conundrum.  Many require the driver to take a bus trip from where they can legally park to their place of work and this adds to both inconvenience and expense.

We are fast reaching the stage where a long weekend means a tangled mortorway getting to our destination and a similar experience on the trip home.  Even weekend motoring is becoming similar to the mid week commute.

The call to use public transport and leave the car at home falls on deaf ears.,  In the majority of cases, the driver is alone in the vehicle and that is unlikely to change when the car is powered by electricirty and not petrol.  We cling stubbornly to the car as our personal means of transport..

Eventually, the electric car must be cheaper than the internal combustion model because of the limited engineering needed.   We are fast reaching the stage where sharing will be the only viable option to limit cars to the capacity of the road system.

We will probably need a legally sanctioned personal parking space before we can register a car.

Supersonic Airliners !

 The Boeing 707 was the first of the big jets that brought seat prices crashing down, and then we were told the next big thing would be supersonic speed.  The world airplane makers went into a frenzy doing costings and creating design, but then the Americans walked away from the concept.

Boeing decided it was possible, but that it would never turn a profit.  The British and the French decided to combine their efforts - and that brought us Concorde.  A remarkable plane that could cross the Atlantic Ocean in 3.5 hours, flying at 2124 kph - and carrying just 128 passengers.

No other airlines but the British and French national carriers bought this aircraft and in all its years it never turned a profit.  It was military technology and it flew successfully until a scrap of junk on the runway pierced its fuel tank and killed all aboard.

Now the plane makers are in a new frenzy with plans to build a new airliner capable of supersonic speed.  To bring an economic return it will need to use military technology that makes this possible.  It will need to be bigger than Concode and carry many more passengers and it will encounter both noise problems and damage into the ozone layer.

It is likely that it will be speed restricted over inhabited land, and it will need to compete with bigger, slower competitors who pack in more seats and offer substantially lower prices.   The Concorde era attracted passengers prepared to pay extra for the experience of flying faster than sound, but that attracted international personalities rather than the tourist trade.

If this aircraft eventuates it will be reserved for a small fraction of the travelling public.It is likely to be taken up by a small number of specialist airlines and the main attraction of air travel will be seat prices. It will also be a target for terrorist activity because of the pubicity it attracts.

The introduction of a supersonic airliner comes at a bad time for planet Earth.  We are desperately trying to decrease global warming and aircraft flying around the fringe of the planet leave vapour trails that are clearly visible from the ground.  It is highly likely that some countries may refuse landing rights to aircraft that accentuate that problem.

We have just experiuenced a pandemic that spread economic chaos across ther world and it was air travel that introduced the pathogen to world audiences.  What is possible in our ever developing world of technology is not always what is desireable and we thought that supersonic speed was out of the picture when Concorde withdrew.

Faster air travel will put a cost premium on the travel industry.  We need to decide if that is what we want before newer, faster aircraft decide the iassue for us !

An Unkind Decision !

It seemed that the coinvention regarding Australian citizenship was perfectly clear.  Children born on Australian soil automatically gained the legal right to call Australia home, but for the past three years two sisters who meet that condition haver been detained on Christmas Island awaiting deportation to Sri Lanka. 

The problem is that their parents came here as " boat people "  and as such lacked the right to settle.  They were held in detention while an appeal was heard and during that time lived in the Queensland town of Biloela.  During that time their two daughters -Tharnicca and Kopika were born and the entuire family was moved to Christmas Island in the Indian Oceran.

At the time of their arrival, boat people were coming ashore in droves and the government stopped the flow by promising that none would be allowed to settle here. New arrivals were settled in  the government transit camps while negotiations proceeded to move them to other countries.

They were good citizens during their time in Biloela and its citizens would welcome their return, but the Australian government fears that if it reneges on its promise and allows them to settle it will provoke a new wave of boat people arrivals.

When Tharnicca became desperately ill the family was moved back to Australia so she could get specialist treatment.  The parliament is still trying to negotiate their removal to New Zealand or the United States.  We have the ridiculous situation of a family of four living in a vast offshore detention camp at a coast of $ 6.7 million so far.  Their plight has been taken up by government politicians and the myth has been shattered that adequate medical attention can be given at a camp 2000 metres from Perth's Childrens hospital.

All this is obviously  an embarrassment to Australia.  It seems the government may go to the next Federal election with this Muruggappan family in offshore limbo and when Tharnicca fully recovers they may be returned to Christmas island.

The government is splitting straws.  The two Australian born daughters are clearly  entitled to Australian citizenship, and their parents are not.   The government is defending its decision on principle and clearly the public opinion in Australia is solidly behind allowing the family to settle here.

It would be an act of grace and favour to allow them to return to Biloea in Queensland where they      would be warmly welcomed.   Most people think they have earned the right to be permanwently settled in Australia as a result of their Christmas island adventure.