it's good news week

It's the end a very full week, leaving me tired and empty and, distressingly, too sober to devote the energy I kind of feel I want this post to have. Suffice to say that we've had a week of intensive interface with the aged care industry that's left us with very little confidence that we can find the sort of care sought and, as a result, we have the elderly relative back amongst us, initially grateful but now back to his standard operating procedure - demanding, rude and difficult. Most of it we can swallow and put up with as it's purely age-related and arises directly from physical infirmity. However much of it is either bastardry or excessive self-absorption so the tolerance is being tested. Not easy for anyone really, but it takes it out of you.

I was going to have an extended rant about the most recent round of bastardry - as the word readily comes to mind - of our duly elected political overlords. But as increasingly occurs, that line of thought just gets me down. No! Must not give in! Must bear witness, but we'll do it in dot point form (because PowerPoint will take too long!):

• removal of employee representative from ABC Board: well it's certainly incompatible with contemporary corporate governance practice (except in Germany) because best current practice is to stack boards with the old boys' club (private sector) or ideological bedfellows (Howard government boards). This decision just smacks of more disassembly of governance provisions to minimise democracy and maximise the power of the Howard pack of lying thieving bastards;
• WorkHarderYouFu**ckersYouHaveNoChoices: really deep down I hope this comes back to bite that lying little fu**cker and his criminal cronies. This idea of dobbing a staff member in to the boss and getting them sacked has the potential to derail decades of progress in workplace relations and it has nothing to do with ethnic minorities, people with disabilities or aboriginal people or others. Clever workplaces with sensible bosses figure out that you implement practices to get stuff out in the open to discuss and that getting rid of people who don't fit the mould is the last resort. Howard's approach is all about mindless competition between staff to purely to drive down costs.
• In today's AFR, John Roskam of the Institute pf Public Affairs decries government spending on R&D and, bugger me dead, approvingly quotes a paper by the Business Council of Australia. Who've have guessed it. Like a Phillip Adams or a Kevin Donnelly column, you read the byline and then bypass the article because you know exactly what you're going to get. It's a weak article that quotes GDP rates in other OECD countries and draws all the wrong (but predetermined) solutions because there's no ceteris paribus, and in the real world ceteris is very rarely paribus. I actually don't have as much of a problem as you might think with governments getting involved in funding R&D because of the risk of picking the wrong winners. But the "government should just get out of the way" line predictably being run will condemn us to more reliance on minerals, mass tourism and domestic construction which I don't see as a good idea in the longer term.
• The Cyclone Larry aftermath has thrown up lots of unedifying TV coverage of angry people whingeing because the government didn't press cash into their hands within 24 hours. If you want an insight into the decline of western civilisation, this is where I'd be looking. Several decades of economic good times and the ceaseless expansion of credit combine to produce the "I want it all and I want it now" generation. However, let me be fair: some of the fault lies with wishy-washy 60s parents (like me) who never learnt to say no and some blame can be attributed to the pernicious effect of the creeping involvement of government in all facets of our lives, not to mention bastardisation of education system by communists seeking to undermine the Judeo-Christian work ethic. Now, am I making a little joke or am I serious? In a discussion over a beer after work today, someone spoke about relatives who'd lived in the region all their lives, when natural disasters (or phenomena as they used to be known) didn't immediately result in fund-raising appeals, massive relief efforts or similar and people relied on their own or very local resources to get back on their feet. And didn't grumble. A B Facey was quoted with approval.

Finally, I've had a song in my head for the last few days which, building on the comment immediately above, indicates I'm getting old and conservative. Arrrgh. Gram Parsons was far more Hank Williams than he was Roger McGuinn and the song is a wonderful paean in an age when being married was the goal (Beach Boys, Wouldn't it be nice: "And we could be married/ and then we'd be happy/ ahh, wouldn't it be nice"). And a bit of self-discipline ("I've got chores to keep me busy") would go a long way in Innisfail right now.

Well, that was the sort of post I had in mind and I've done it. And still, regrettably, quite sober. Bottling day tomorrow.