A Humourless Australia ?

People from many nations have laughed at the comedy series " Fawlty  Towers ".  In one memorable spisode, Basil is receiving the first German tourists to visit his hotel after the second world war and he admonishes staff to " not mention the war ".

Of course Basil comits numnerous blunders which culminate in him goose stepping through the dining room, holding a finger under his nose to signify Adolph Hitler's toothbrush moustache.Sadly, we will never see that again because it has been deemed too " racist " and that episode has now been withdrawn from the series.

Even our own ABC is taking the censor's knife to shows that once were prime entertainment on our television screens.  The jokes standup comedians used to depict national steriotypes are now deemed offensive.   We can no longer refer to Scots as " stingy " or the Irish as " thick " and it remains to be decided what happens to the many comic situations that apply to our Australian character.

This has been creeping into the entertainment scene for a very long time.  The artist Joliffe used to regulary draw farmer Sandy Blight and his Aboriginal helper getting into all sorts of predicaments on the farm.  That was a favourite with many Indigenous people, but it was proclaimed " racist " and quickly disappeared from the newsagents shelves.

Someone wrote a witty little ditty called " My Boomerang won't come back " and that has not been heard on air for years.  It was claimed to be offensive because it made fun of Aboriginal people and is often referred to as the sort of " rubbish " that poisons relations between the white race and Indigenous people.  It seems to suggest that Aboriginal people lack a sense of humour.

What seems to be creeping in is a reluctance to show life as it really was in the twentieth century.  In America many familiers employed coloured women as cooks and nannies but now that role is considered offensive and is being removed from series that held vast viewing audiences. The censor's cutting knife is getting ever sharper and the racist view is getting deeper.

Whatever happened to our sense of humour  ?  We always made jokes at the expense of our politicians and today that seems to be the only sort of humour that holds up well.  The political cartoon in the daily newspaper is something that still seems to attract most Australians and often is the reason for buying the paper.

We seem to be in danger of losing the character that made Australians known across the world.  It was our ribald sense of humour in almost any circumstances that distinuished us as a separate race.  In comparison, we saw others who lacked in humour.  Our humour was infectous and often the reason strangers settled so well in this country.

Perhaps a very good reason to stop and think before we consign traditional Australian humour to the dust bin.  If we change our sense of humour we change Australia - and not for the better !

Creating an Icon !

George  Floyd was accused of tendering a counterfeit twenty dollar bill to buy a packet of cigarettes.  His death when placed under arrest by police was captured by cameras and stirred passions around the world.  Millions of people now know his name and his face is fast becoming as recogniseable  as the rulers of world countries.

Fate has singled out George Floyd to become a symbol that may change the world.  That picture of him laying in the gutter with a white policeman kneeling on his neck for over eight long minutes has come to recognise the injustice common to coloured people in most of the world.  His anguished cry of " I can't breathe "  was studiously ignored and when the knee pressure to his neck was finallty removed he had last conscience and when he reached hospital he was pronounced dead.

That film footage travelled around the world and brought millions into the streets as far apart as Sydney, London, Paris and widely across the United States.   What was remarkable was that people thought it mattered more than their personal safety from the Coronavirus which is still cutting a swathe by person to person infections.  In America, angry mobs resorted to burning public buildings and looting stores and many days later the unrest is showing no signs of disappating.

This is an issue that may prevent Donald Trump from securing a second term as president.  Trump declared himself the " law and order president " and called out the military to guard the white house. Coupled with his hesitation in ordering the necessary isolation when the Coronvirus roared out of China, the rersulting deaths in the USA may make supporters have a change of heart.  This pandemic has added to the unemployment queues and badly damaged the American economy.  The voters are looking for someone to blame for the damage.

It is highly likely that George Floyd's death has created a new icon to head the " Black lives matter " movement.  Years earlier a sniper's bullet that killed legendary black preacher Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968 cemented his family as a spokesperson for black America.  Lacking an official " royalty " it seems that Americans anoint one of their own to that elevated position and this certainly helped John Kennedy win the country's highest office.  It remains to be seen if one of the Floyd family has the gravitas to step up and take the leadership that this unfortunate death is offering.

It seems quite clear that policing in America has become a military force more conducive to an army of occupation than a means of safeguarding the public.  The public are becoming afraid of their police and it will take a change of culture to alter that, and Trump is fast heading in the other direction.

The world reaction to George Floyd's death is a clear warning sign.  The fact that vast crowds took to the streets at risk of their own lives from this virus infection illustrates the depth of feeling.  The only question is whetheer the change that is coming is brought about by legislation or if inaction leads to a form of government that changes the nation forever.

The mood of the people has signalled the need for change !

A Fallen Hero !

Edward Colston was a revered citizen of the English city of Bristol.  He was a noted thilanthropist and when he died in 1721 the citizens gratefully contributed to a fund to erect a statue in his honour.  His name is enshrined in much of the Bristol architecture including a private school, the city's concert hall, a towering office block and an assortment of suburban street names.  The name plate at the base of that statue declares he was " a virtuous son of this city "

It says something of his changed status that this week a howling mob placed a rope around that statue and pulled if off its plinth.  They dragged it through the streets to the waterfront and dumped it in the harbour.  It was the way Colston amassed his fortune that brought a change of heart 125 years after his death.

Edward Colston was a slave trader and during his lifetime from 1636 to 1721 collecting slaves and selling them on the open market was a licensed English industry.   Ship owners crewed their ships with cut throat crews and sent them to the coast of Africa.  An armed party trekked inland until they encountered a native village.  They surrounded it and their firearms prevailed against the crude weapons used by the villagers.  They carefully examined their captives and rejected the old and infirm and children too young to survive the sea voyage.  The men and women destined for the slave blocks were shackled, marched back to the coast and forced into the hold of their ship.

It was a cruel enslavement. The captives were chained together in appalling conditions with limited food and water, often for weeks that ran to months as the ship travelled to the cotton growing states of America or the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean.  Their human waste was uncollected and a slave ship could be detected by the odour it emitted when it passed other traffic on the high seas.  Usually many slaves died during the journey and the bodies were thrown overboard to be eaten by the following sharks.

At their destination they were put in holding pens to fatten them to get the best price when they were individually auctioned.  Colston made a point of having his " brand " stamped into the chest of his captives with a red hot branding iron, the way rachers branded their cattle.      The letters " RAC " stood for "Royal African Company " and this signified that he operated with an individual English license to collect slaves.  The slaves travelling in his ships were branded for life.

We are now seeing a growing world wide trend where the relatives of former slaves now live in the countries that contributed to their misery.   That statue to Colston is seen as an affront and together with the anti slavery zealots of today they are not prepared to let those statues stand without complaint.  In the United States, statues relating to the Confederacy which sought to perpetuate slavery during the American civil war are being torn down.

All this is finding voice in the "Black lives matter " movement.  In much of the world, having a skin that is not white condems that person to inferior status in jobs and housing and their relationship with the police.  A black persons death is not treated as seriously nor investigated with the same zeal than if a white person had been involved.

It is becoming clear that those we depicted as national heros of yesteryear are being called upon to account for their actions in the light of the conditions that prevail today.

Learning to Cope !

New Zealand has become the first country in the world to abandon the restrictions imposed to contain the Coronvirus with the exception of its closed borders.  People from overseas arriving in the country will still be required to go into isolation for ten days to stop the virus being reintroduced by an infected arrival.

What it means for ordinary New Zealand citizens is the end of  containment measures such as keeping a one point five metre distance from one another. Shops and businesses are expeced to reopen immediately and the former carefree life of eating out and having a beer in a pub will be reinstated. 

New Zealand is a very small country by world standards and it reacted quickly when this pandemic roared out of China.  Unfortunately the rest of the world was not so prudent.  This virus is still to reach its peak in parts of South America, Indonesia and other asian hot spots.  The United States was slow to take counter measures and now its death rate is one of the world's highest.

Thankfully, the infection rate here in Australia is fast coming under control.  The positive outcomes from testing continues to drop and we have started to conditionally ease restrictions. The lockdown certainly damaged our economy and curious Australian eyes will be focussed across the the Tasman to see how quickly New Zealand business recovers and how the employment figures react.

Now that recovery is in sight it may be a good time to look to the future.  The last serious pandemic was the Spanish Flu in 1918, but we did have MERS and SARS that caused a moderate death rate and we would do well to remember that Ebola is still bubbling away in parts of Africa.  In an ever more crowded world, the scientists tell us that future pandemics are inevitable.

The research needed to determine how this Coronavirus made the crossover from the animal world is being hampered by politics. It originated in China, but the Chinese government is creating obstacles to any serious investigation and the blame game is being enthusiastically applied to cover the inadaquecies of their ruler's response.  Because of this, the origin of this pandemic will probably remain a mysterty.

The next time we may not be so lucky.  The majority of infected people recovered from this virus but if Ebola ever manages to get a foothold in a crowded community it would be catastrophic.  It could easily kill half the worlds population.  As we recover from this pandemic, it is vitally important that we put in place the measures needed to contain the next one !

A " Drought " Tax !

The New South Wales government is toying with the idea of linking water charges with the state of Warragamba dam.  When the water level is satisfactorily heigh standard water rates would apply, but when the level falls a corresponding " drought tax " cuts in and the price increases.

This would replace the present flat tax of $2.11 per kiloletre with what would be termed a " average weather " price of  $2.30 per KL. When the dams fall below sixty percent the price of water would hike to a " drought price " of $3.32 per KL. That would stay in place until the dam level recovered to seventy percent.

The thinking seems to be that if the price increases the householder will take care to use less water and this would replace the existing rationing that kicks in when we face a water drought.  It is interesting that this proposal surfaced at the same time as a plan to double the volume of drinking water produced by a new desalination plant was shelved indefinitely.

In a submission, the the NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman  warned large families and renters would pay twenty to thirty-six percent more in a drought.   This plan would hit those less able to pay the hardest.

What this proposal obscures is the fact that the city of Sydney has but a single source of its water, and that is Warragamba dam.   That was where we drew our water when the city was half its present size, and as the city continues to grow it is forced to service an ever larger customer base.  This is being supplemented by stealing water from cities like Wollongong and Nowra which are suffering their own water shortages.

We were suffering an agonising drought in 2019 and that coincided with an abyssmal fire season early in 2020.  An enormous volume of water was used fighting those fires and we had the good luck that the fires were followed by copious rain.  Warragamba's level is presently holding near the eighty percent mark.

If the scientists are correct, Australia is entering a climate change linked to global warming which will see less rain and higher summer temperatures.  We have unlimited water in the surrounding sea and the only way we can guarantee sufficient for the city is by using desalination to turn salty sea water into the stuff we can drink.  We simply can not tax our way into an adequate water supply.

It takes time to construct a desalination plant and that should be high on our plans to insulate the Sydney water supply from drought. There is no doubt this city will continue to grow and in the future a higher percent of its water needs will have to come from desalination.  This drought tax idea is simply putting off the inevitable.  Desalination is the only option to ensure the taps do not run dry  !

Hidden Dangers !

Why does it take four years to put in place the obvious solution to a tragedy that killed one baby and seriously injured another ?  In June 2016 the gas lines in the operating theatre at Bankstown Lidcombe hospital incorrectly delivered nitrous oxide when the signage indicated it was connected to oxygen.

This caused the death of one new born and permanent brain trauma to another.  As a result, that child will never walk or talk.  This incident caused an immediate investigation and it was discovered that the gas line installation was carried out by a person with no formal qualification for that job.  He lied when he claimed that the necessary testing had been carried out on completion of the installation.

Ominously, it was discovered that medical gas line installation was not an occupation that required any form of lcensing and it has taken four years for that anomoly to be corrected.   The legislation is now in place to ensure that medical gas is carried out by people qualified to do the job properly.

The aftermath of that tragedy should have been sufficient reason for immediate change.  Safe Work NSW launched criminal proceedings against the man who did the installation. Banksrown Lidcombe hospital and the company who supplied the industrial gases to industry.  The gas supplier was cleared by the court,  Bankstown Lidcombe hospital entereed into an enforceable  undertaking to change its management of medical gas installation, and the man who incorrectly installed the gas was fined $100,000 in the Downing Centre District court.

What this tragedy proved was that the safety aspect of job training and licensing in place to regulate industry does have anomolys.  These can exist for years without incident, until the fates decree that someone dies as a result and the media spectrum is focussed on the shortfall.

We live in an age of innovation.   We are constantly confronted with entirely new industries delivering services that can be extensions of previous technology and those extensions deliver new forms of danger.  In those trades, people gravitate to new jobs and such extensions do not necessarilly require formal training, or the training requirement is far from adequate.

That this medical gas tragedy should have happened should be a wake up call for a long, hard look at what other industrial aspects have slipped through the safety net.

Domestic Violence Responsibility Widens !

During the Coronavirus lockdown it was a hallmark of government policy that where possible business should continue to function with employees working from home. The age of the computer made this feasible in many industries, but now a finding in the New South Wales Supreme Court has raised the responsibility for family violence while employees are working from home as a direct charge on the employer.

This case arose where a woman and her de facto partner lived together with the woman's teenage son and a recent baby.   They both worked for the same employer but competed for clients and it appears that the de facto partner was suffering paranoid delusions and believed his partner was trying to steal his clients and intended to ruin him.   He attacked her with a hammer, causing her death.

An application for worker's compensation was made on behalf of the children but this was denied by the nominal insurer. The Worker's Compensation Commission then found in the children's favour but this was appealed.  In March this year the commission decided to pay the children $450,000.

The judgement says an employer might not always be responsible for domestic violence between couples who work from home but in this case there was a " palpable  and direct connection between the de facto's delusions and the harm suffered by her ".

Women's Safety NSW commented that many women had been forced to work from home with their abusers since the pandemic, without ever being asked if it was safe.   This decision would bring the issue of family violence onto business radars.  It might result in time off to attend court or put them in contact with support services.

For the business community this opens new ground.  That age old argument that what hapens behind closed doors is a private matter has just emerged as a business responsibility.  There was the expectation that when this coronavirus eventually recedes it might leave behind it in the business world a new era where the office became redundant and a greater number of employees worked permanently from home.

It also raises the spectre of very intrusive questions being asked in employment interviews.  Would an employer be justified in rejecting an employment applicant if evidence surfaced that the police had been called to that persons home in response to a domestic violence complaint ?

Unfortunately, many people have very volatile relationships, not all of which constitute domestic violence.  A loud argument can result in neighbours calling the police.  This is a court decision which will have far reaching consequences  !