More in sorrow than anger: Nostradamus and the Three (plus 1) wise monkeys

NOSTRADAMUS

I have been excessively preoccupied with my “grand project” for some months and it is extremely irritating and frustrating. Whenever I look at the pages of Tasmanian Times, which is quite frequent, because it is outside of the mainstream, I perceive a very deep anger among many regular writers and bloggers. The editor advises that balance is appeasement, while fairness is truth and I suppose there is something to commend that view. There is very little doubt that many people who write for or comment on various articles could be described as the disenfranchised and when sufficient disenfranchised people get together, anything can happen. Watch out at the plus grande piss-up in December!

Late last week, I came to the conclusion that I did not like myself very much at all. By my standards it had been a bugger of a week but I had told the editor on several occasions that I want to write articles which made Tasmanians look in the mirror and realize who and what they are and become better. This will be a rather truncated article by my standards for reasons that I care not to disclose but let me start off by telling a little tale. A workmate of mine had the so-called wise monkeys on his desk – good quality, rendered in brass and kept immaculately clean. Everyone of certain generations is familiar with them and I tend to exclude the so-called late Generation X; Gen Y and Gen Z because most of them are functionally illiterate and would not know much about the monkeys: “hear no evil, see no evil; speak no evil” because if that was taken literally society would be quite different. My friend’s little set had a fourth monkey and it was not an add-on: it came with the other three. Monkey number four had his head between his legs so that it’s face could not be seen and the legend beneath it read: “do no evil.” It was the first and last time I ever saw a set of four.

The content of TT is delightfully diverse but the negativity and anger at times made me want to write constructively and provide at least a counterbalance to a lot of what is being said and done in these difficult times. I suppose in many respects it’s an indulgence because only bad news makes news for most of the days of the year and if a newspaper, for instance, decided to print only news that was positive and uplifting, it would not sell even if there was a page 3 girl, (big juggs), half-naked and good racing tips. How much has happened of late that could be described as good news and worthy of publication? Very little I suggest and I have come to the rather sad conclusion that Australian society doesn’t really exist as a discrete entity and it would take a war to bring us together or some of the wilder prophecies on Internet sites such as a comet or asteroid colliding with the Earth. Watch the skies in 2012-2014, I’m told.

In the mists of time, namely my youth, I was a great consumer of science fiction, an interest ridiculed by many. Yet a friend of mine at a Queensland University actually lectures on the subject. I’ve not heard his lectures but I’m sure they would be informative and entertaining. In some respects the Titans of science fiction writing very often dwelt on the subject of traveling to far stars and the problems encountered by colonists as they got further from the Earth and out of contact with home. In those days, there was more science in science fiction and today you’re more likely to find dragons flying spaceships or dinosaurs with weapons, to say nothing of the truly absurd rise of fantasy, involving witchcraft, spells and magic or even magick. I have my own theory about the decline of scientific science fiction: I believe that we have come to distrust technology because so much of it can be used for killing. In books dating from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and part of the 1970s, most science fiction with what I refer to as boilerplate material, with a heavy emphasis on the technology and very little on characterization. Today’s characters are richer and deeper in some respects but the storylines don’t hold much in the way of technological interest or intrigue.

There is no doubt that the last 50 years have seen enormous changes in just about every area of endeavor that you care to examine. Advances in medicine have been quite remarkable and although there is not a general cure for cancer; multiple sclerosis and the common cold, some treatments have served to prolong life for many lethal conditions. Others like the horrific motor neuron disease defy the best efforts of scientific research, and for that I applaud the efforts of Nick McKim, with his proposed legislation about dying with dignity and deplore the specious “reasoning” that threatens to undermnine him. But there are worse things about what passes for life for far too many in a prosperous country. There should be shelter and the basic necessities for all but our original people live in third world conditionsand even in the cities, food and shelter are in short supply. Without preempting my own arguments to come, at least some of the problem lies at the heart of economic theory and especially that particular line which holds that if you are poor, then it’s your own fault and if you have no work, then by definition you must be lazy. I will go no further than saying I reject this for the nonsense that it is and condemn those who made it akin to holy writ.

Sometimes when I sit down with friends for a meal, I reflect on those in our society who for one reason or another are not getting proper nourishment by means of regular meals. Junk food, or should I say fast food is still a significant part of the diet for many Australians and even here in Tasmania, it is a sad fact of life that the charities are overstretched and many people are waiting for a roof over their head. I donate regularly to the Hobart city mission and feel genuinely guilty when I cannot afford to donate to others, because every day brings material in the post asking for donations for various charities at home and abroad. When I am ready, I will land my thesis on TT in digestible dollops.

When I was young, if any of the kids in my family refused to eat part of their dinner, my father would tell us how lucky we were and exhort us to “think of the millions starving in Africa.” One of my younger brothers replied after one particular recitation of that mantra: “If they want it, let them come and get it,” a response that did him no good at all. I noted with interest the sleep-in outside the Hotel Grand Chancellor and what a praiseworthy effort that was but to what end? The official reason was but cynic that I am, I could not help but think that it was a little free publicity for some politiciansin the form of photo opportunities during the time when it had hit the fan for the popular MLC for Pembroke, Alllison Ritchie. I was frankly astonished as well as appalled at the swiftness with which she threw herself on the sword but Sue Neales, as usual, had the answers (Mercury, June 27). I can’t claim to know Ms Ritchie that well but I do know that she worked tirelessly for the people of Pembroke. There was probably no doubt that she had to go but what sort of Mickey Mouse system are we running in this state when we have no system for checking and making public the names and numbers of staff members and office assistance of our Mps; to whom are they are related and where they fit it the mates network? And let there be no doubt, this is a pernicious Tasmanian condition and stretches through the Parliament, public service and those who are on the public payroll but we never hear about in terms of numbers, salaries, lurks and perks. It it not just an ALP phenomenon.

Far more erudite writers than me have commented in the pages of Tasmanian Times about the dramatic effects of the downsizing of the Tasmanian Parliament to a 25-member Lower House and mea culpa, I have commented on it several times. A friend said to me that he felt that Ms. Ritchie’s political hara-kiri was yet another nail in the coffin of the Bartlett government. I could not but agree and soon we will face a by-election. This will be a very interesting event because it provides an early indication of how Tasmanians feel about the current government and perhaps a pointer to how they might vote next year. Saturday’s Mercury (June 27) told us that Vanessa Goodwin will stand for the Liberal Party. Dr Kevin Bonham, a respected TT veteran has already commented on the folly of this move.

The fact remains that the ALP dare not run “dead” in the by-election and if Dr. Goodwin has the brains, she will stay with Franklin but such action by both parties leaves the field wide open to the Greens, if they have a good candidate and it would make for an interesting time. I have been told I should charge for political advice but I think for Vanessa Goodwin to stand would be a knuckleheaded move, orchestrated by either opportunism or those who see her as a threatto their current positions. She would be a shoe-in next year in Franklin and it ill behooves the Liberal Party who regularly scream about the independence of the upper house and keeping political parties out of the process to allow such talent to waste. (I am no great fan of the upper house member Paul Harries because for many years he was known to be a member of the Liberal party and like a lot of people in the Legislative Council now calls himself an independent but assuming he still flies under the flag of his party he has done a very good job with the yet to be completed inquiry). The ALP members in the upper house caucus quite regularly with those in the House of Assembly but they’ve never made any secret of politicizing the Legislative Council. Quite apart from that, the talent pool is so shallow that they have to draw on the other chamber for ministers.

As the Legislative Council is allegedly a house of independents, what can a vote in a small electorate on the Eastern shore of the Derwent tell us about what will happen in an election for the House where government resides, at least in theory? Personally, I’m rather sorry to see Ms. Ritchie depart under such circumstances but the reasons were understandable: she broke the 11th Commandment and was found out. I’m quite sure in my own mind that readers of TT know that there was more to it than meets the eye and that a faction within a faction was determined to bury the former member of Pembroke before her profile got much higher. Added to that, is Sue Neales’ riveting account of events, which concluded that had she not been economical with the truth to the Premier, she might have survived. Aye, there’s the rub as some would say.

Naturally enough, Ms. Ritchie made claims that sections of the ALP were out to get her and I’m inclined to believe that version. There is blood on the hands of certain people and I wonder what they have on their desks in the way of monkeys. One of the worst aspects of Tasmanian politics is its incestuous nature and the amazing family relationships between members state and federal. The longer this farce of a 25 member House continues, the worse things will get. Mr. Leonard Colquhoun of Invermay, of whom I know little except that The Australian will publish his newsletters and not mine pretty much hit the nail on the head recently when he talked about the resemblance between Tasmanian politics and the nomenklatura of the old Soviet Union. My own view is that it is slightly more sophisticated and resembles the class within present day Russia known as the siloviki, which exercises control through government, the Armed Forces and business and certain members have a propensity for political murders of critics. I don’t think for one moment that the Tasmanian siloviki would go so far as to murder political critics but I get the impression with the passing of each day that Parliament and elections are fast becoming a puppet show with smoke and mirrors for the media and electorate and those who engineered the reduction in the size of the House of Assembly have facilitated the selection of candidates who are removed from the electorate and therefore, once elected don’t give a damn because they don’t have to, such is their grip on power.

We the people of Tasmania, in acceding to reducing the size of Parliament have also been complicit in making a noose for our own necks. It would be nice to think that the tragic departure of Allison Ritchie would mean a full inquiry into ministerial staffing and related matters – that her going would once more produce an outcry for a permanent Commission of Inquiry into corruption and related matters in this state. I am sick and tired of hearing people from across the political spectrum and various backgrounds saying that there is no corruption in Tasmania. Only those with vested interests run the line that we don’t need a commission or even an inquiry: those that believe that drivel are like the four monkeys mentioned earlier. However, let me put this to you, especially those of you who write for or to the Tasmanian Times: “absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.” My greatest fear is that there are far too many who are too thick to comprehend the difference, let alone act upon it.