tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post902523049310595850..comments2023-11-01T03:32:14.895+11:00Comments on Nic Stuart: LEADING THE GOOD LIFENick Stuart, Nicholas Stuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07664320617342513026noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post-37246351256663749252010-12-06T20:20:39.056+11:002010-12-06T20:20:39.056+11:00We'll try again then -
Well, Nic –
It is good ...We'll try again then -<br />Well, Nic –<br />It is good to see a writer who has covered the bases.<br />There’s precious little that I can disagree with but here’s my comment following your sequence –<br />I reckon there’s little to inspire from either side of politics ‘cos it’s been carefully organized that way – a bipartisan agreement to keep their carefully choreographed public dance dumbed down slow enough to reduce mis-steps and goof-ups to the customary two or three a week.<br />I doubt if they could handle a faster tempo.<br />As for the election result – I’m half convinced the votes weren’t counted.<br /><br />And if we accept that votes were counted after some fashion the result as you describe it definitely hints that some took refuge with the minor parties or simply ignored the ballot.<br /><br />But you ask how the trend might be turned around?<br />Someone I knew once suggested rounding up every professed politician in Australia and dropping ‘em off in Antarctica with one anorak and a tin of jam each (no can opener).<br />These days he concedes that such would not be environmentally correct – but that we still need to get rid of the entrenched, increasingly hereditary snafflers of ‘public office’ and preferably short of bloody revolution, finding a new way of appointing their replacements.<br />I think we’ve all given up looking for any political faction that could efficiently manage society let alone a chook raffle.<br />The age old question – distribution of wealth?<br />How can wealth ever be distributed honestly and equitably when opportunity is subsumed to bastardry?<br />What most Australians fail to realize is that other than the luck of the draw the pathways to advancement in this country are becoming increasingly constrained and subsumed to greed. <br />This country began as a continent sized concentration camp, established concentration camps for the original people and is now building more for refugees.<br /><br />Integral with this huge concentration camp an organization that came to be known as the Rum Corps was established – one of the more nefarious forms of tontine –<br />http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-2/63-essay/517.html - whose excesses still seem to impinge upon our situation and what passes for our reasoning.<br /><br />The big question is why should Westpac’s Gail Kelly display any less a vulpine attitude than her peers and predecessors when there are no barriers to that sort of conduct?<br /><br />Her bathing in money – probably. Doesn’t Scrooge McDuck do that in good old #4 money bin?<br /><br />As for the rest of us – greed, fear and despair combined with lack of opportunity keeps most mere heads down beachcombers along that ‘corrosive littoral zone of habit’ while the more imaginative come to realize the ‘glass ceiling’ is there for everyone except the select few.<br /><br />As for ‘eudaimonia’, or eudaemonia – a spot of ‘daemonia ejecimus’ is likely to be the only way that could be achieved.<br />It looks like the prophet Matthew agrees with my mate mentioned above – kick ‘em all out and start afresh.Calligulahttp://calligulashorse.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post-80662074413530062482010-12-05T18:31:34.789+11:002010-12-05T18:31:34.789+11:00Well, Nic –
It is good to see a writer who has cov...Well, Nic –<br />It is good to see a writer who has covered the bases.<br />There’s precious little that I can disagree with but here’s my comment following your sequence –<br />I reckon there’s little to inspire from either side of politics ‘cos it’s been carefully organized that way – a bipartisan agreement to keep their carefully choreographed public dance dumbed down slow enough to reduce mis-steps and goof-ups to the customary two or three a week.<br />I doubt if they could handle a faster tempo.<br />As for the election result – I’m half convinced the votes weren’t counted.<br /><br />And if we accept that votes were counted after some fashion the result as you describe it definitely hints that some took refuge with the minor parties or simply ignored the ballot.<br /><br />But you ask how the trend might be turned around?<br />Someone I knew once suggested rounding up every professed politician in Australia and dropping ‘em off in Antarctica with one anorak and a tin of jam each (no can opener).<br />These days he concedes that such would not be environmentally correct – but that we still need to get rid of the entrenched, increasingly hereditary snafflers of ‘public office’ and preferably short of bloody revolution, finding a new way of appointing their replacements.<br />I think we’ve all given up looking for any political faction that could efficiently manage society let alone a chook raffle.<br />The age old question – distribution of wealth?<br />How can wealth ever be distributed honestly and equitably when opportunity is subsumed to bastardry?<br />What most Australians fail to realize is that other than the luck of the draw the pathways to advancement in this country are becoming increasingly constrained and subsumed to greed. <br />This country began as a continent sized concentration camp, established concentration camps for the original people and is now building more for refugees.<br /><br />Integral with this huge concentration camp an organization that came to be known as the Rum Corps was established – one of the more nefarious forms of tontine –<br />http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-2/63-essay/517.html - whose excesses still seem to impinge upon our situation and what passes for our reasoning.<br /><br />The big question is why should Westpac’s Gail Kelly display any less a vulpine attitude than her peers and predecessors when there are no barriers to that sort of conduct?<br /><br />Her bathing in money – probably. Doesn’t Scrooge McDuck do that in good old #4 money bin?<br /><br />As for the rest of us – greed, fear and despair combined with lack of opportunity keeps most mere heads down beachcombers along that ‘corrosive littoral zone of habit’ while the more imaginative come to realize the ‘glass ceiling’ is there for everyone except the select few.<br /><br />As for ‘eudaimonia’, or eudaemonia – a spot of ‘daemonia ejecimus’ is likely to be the only way that could be achieved.<br />It looks like the prophet Matthew agrees with my mate mentioned above – kick ‘em all out and start afresh.Calligulahttp://calligulashorse.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post-2333348283671389572010-12-05T18:13:14.692+11:002010-12-05T18:13:14.692+11:00Well, Nic –
It is good to see a writer who has cov...Well, Nic –<br />It is good to see a writer who has covered the bases.<br />There’s precious little that I can disagree with but here’s my comment following your sequence –<br />I reckon there’s little to inspire from either side of politics ‘cos it’s been carefully organized that way – a bipartisan agreement to keep their carefully choreographed public dance dumbed down slow enough to reduce mis-steps and goof-ups to the customary two or three a week.<br />I doubt if they could handle a faster tempo.<br />As for the election result – I’m half convinced the votes weren’t counted.<br /><br />And if we accept that votes were counted after some fashion the result as you describe it definitely hints that some took refuge with the minor parties or simply ignored the ballot.<br /><br />But you ask how the trend might be turned around?<br />Someone I knew once suggested rounding up every professed politician in Australia and dropping ‘em off in Antarctica with one anorak and a tin of jam each (no can opener).<br />These days he concedes that such would not be environmentally correct – but that we still need to get rid of the entrenched, increasingly hereditary snafflers of ‘public office’ and preferably short of bloody revolution, finding a new way of appointing their replacements.<br />I think we’ve all given up looking for any political faction that could efficiently manage society let alone a chook raffle.<br />The age old question – distribution of wealth?<br />How can wealth ever be distributed honestly and equitably when opportunity is subsumed to bastardry?<br />What most Australians fail to realize is that other than the luck of the draw the pathways to advancement in this country are becoming increasingly constrained and subsumed to greed. <br />This country began as a continent sized concentration camp, established concentration camps for the original people and is now building more for refugees.<br /><br />Integral with this huge concentration camp an organization that came to be known as the Rum Corps was established – one of the more nefarious forms of tontine –<br />http://www.griffithreview.com/edition-2/63-essay/517.html - whose excesses still seem to impinge upon our situation and what passes for our reasoning.<br /><br />The big question is why should Westpac’s Gail Kelly display any less a vulpine attitude than her peers and predecessors when there are no barriers to that sort of conduct?<br /><br />Her bathing in money – probably. Doesn’t Scrooge McDuck do that in good old #4 money bin?<br /><br />As for the rest of us – greed, fear and despair combined with lack of opportunity keeps most mere heads down beachcombers along that ‘corrosive littoral zone of habit’ while the more imaginative come to realize the ‘glass ceiling’ is there for everyone except the select few.<br /><br />As for ‘eudaimonia’, or eudaemonia – a spot of ‘daemonia ejecimus’ is likely to be the only way that could be achieved.<br />It looks like the prophet Matthew agrees with my mate mentioned above – kick ‘em all out and start afresh.Calligulahttp://calligulashorse.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post-26005637905375029092010-11-26T12:45:07.480+11:002010-11-26T12:45:07.480+11:00This comment was sent to me in an e-mail (writes N...This comment was sent to me in an e-mail (writes Nic). I'm taking the liberty of posting it here. <br /><br />I wish to endorse Nicholas Stuart's views ably expressed in his article in Saturday's CT ('PM would do well to focus on redistribution').<br /> <br />It isn't enough for Australia or any other country to achieve a high degree of productive efficiency and thus increase her GNP; it's essential that the GNP is shared equitably between all divides whether poor or rich. It is most unfair that just 10% of Aussies receive 90% of the economic cake whilst the proletariat who constitute 90% of the population, like Lazarus, have to fight for the crumbs that fall under the table.<br /> <br />We of the workingclass do not mind Australian banks profiting: what we are against is blatant profiteering or exploitation. In the process, the rich are getting richer whilst the poor get poorer. This is the unacceptable face of capitalism.<br /> <br />It's unfair that while the wealthy pay themselves big bonuses and megadividends, the elderly, the unwashed and the voiceless get micro allowances or minipensions. Financially, Australia is far from being bankrupt but she has got the Law of Opportunity Costs all upside down, for example, donating to the Indonesian Government heaps of Dollars to build prisons but not giving East Timor, the poorest ministate in Asia, any fair deal on the oil in the Sea of Timor. This is tantamount to moral and spiritual bankruptcy -- something worse than financial bankruptcy.<br /> <br /> <br />Further, although Australia was founded on Christian principles, the PM goes around declaring, "Thank God, I'm an Atheist!" Besides, Australia is a bad example of a global citizen for desperate asylumseekers are thrown into Detention Centres which are modelled on the Concentration Camps the Brits first built in South Africa to incarcerate the Boer men, women and children in South Africa at the start of the 20th century. A totally unethical act! <br /> <br />There is no denying the fact that it's high time the PM focuses on both the redistribution of wealth in Australia and get her overseas priorities right. Fortunately, she has a fine Foreign Minister in Kevin Rudd who possesses a social conscience + knows Mandarin, one of the most important languages in today's world.<br /> <br /> <br />Julia, Happy Christmas but as you empty Santa's sock, resolve to pull up your socks in 2011. <br /> <br />Martinho de SouzaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5928164776127538974.post-2702761902991038432010-11-23T00:34:07.072+11:002010-11-23T00:34:07.072+11:00Perhaps we should follow the example of Bhutan and...Perhaps we should follow the example of Bhutan and measure <br />Gross National Happiness (GNH)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com