Verely I am screwed…..

At the starte of the ending of the weeke, my Goodwife hath determined that her positon in her place of employmente is not that secureth due to the actions of carrion birds of evil aspect. These demons of revile are sending forth quills tipped with venom and vitriole against my lady of Northbridge.

Alas and alack she doth not requireth me to utilise the rotrary musket cannon atttop our carriage to remove said avains spirits from the skyes..However I discovered that her superior hath been poached like a kings deer from the common by mine own lords and masters to be employed at mine workhouse.

After many pewter tankards of frenchie style grog. It hath been determined for meself that I will take up my sword of sharp whit and shield of prudent commerical real estate operations and fite the jabbowokky of ignorant tenants in the field of glass and burnished steel with a fine harbourside asthpect.

When I did point out that the funds to undertake this challenge were low, my goodwife explained to me my negativity was not required for this heroic undertaking.

And so dear readers it seems that I must obtains employment and accomodation in the fair Emerald City by the celebration of Saint Valentine.

Oh Bugger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Is grass..err just grass?

Over the weekend I had an absolutely blinding idea for a first paragraph and the next few following (or at least so I believe).

However with it came a train of thought that made it less simple than originally thought.

Without going into detail I suddenly felt that by having a primative setting I might not be able to use basic terminology to describe what the protagonst saw as it had to be attributable to him. Ironically the problem was …..grass!

Do I just describe it as ‘grass’, as that is how the protagonist would think of it even through the terminology would be different? Or do i try and be clever and alienate (possibly) the reader?

This is of course always a probem when any writer tries to write from an ‘alien’ POV. Now I have no plans to create a new language here (how lazy is that?), but I do want to try and authenticate to a degree.

Point is that this is probably 5 pages max of intro, maybe less. Is it worth the hassle or do i try and be really clever and run a parallel storyline giving some very old back story?

USA talks peace, Russia war….

So after President Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize for his ‘vision’ and not being George W Bush (allegedly the nominations for the prize closed 11 days after Pres. Obama took office). We have Russia saying that they are reconsidering the old soviet promise of no first use of nukes (which was always a crock of poo, but useful propoganda).

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/russia-well-nuke-aggressors-first/#more-18002

Now I’d say this is just a formalisation of current STAVKA protocols. The reason? The Russian Federation has not been in a positon to fight a major land war for many, many years.  The recent stoush with Georgia highlighted many shortcomings in the Russian military’s warfighting abilities. This is especially worrying considering that Russia has been fighting an active insurgency in Chechnya for nearly 10 years.

With a massive decline in Russia’s Naval and Aviation manufacturing capabilites, matched up with their now obvious operational weaknesses, one must wonder how long Putin would wait before pushing the button.

Now with the Caucasus about to erupt again, and a further possible souring of relations with the Ukraine over the Crimean peninsula this could mean that Russia might go nuclear very quickly if it felt even slightly streached. 

Also given the current leadership, who clearly don’t give a toss about other peoples lives, the chance of nuclear weapons once again being used, rises.

And a final twist to the mix. There is allegedly an increasing amount of politcal conflict in Moscow due the the growing amount of support for Isreal (considering how many russians now live there and Isreal and Russia sharing a similar disdain for Islam) against the arms traders who want to supply Israels enemies ie Iran. So support for stopping irans nuclear enrichment programe is more likly to be from domestic politics that wanting to help the USA bring a bit more stability to the Gulf region.

Writing about the End of the World

Most people who aren’t into ’serious literature’  or ‘chick lit’ like novels about TEOTWAWKI. However much of said fiction tends not to satify. For every ‘The Stand’ or ‘The Road’ there are many stories that fall by the wayside.

Sometimes it pays to be simple, but you have to be sure that you are answering or at least allaying your readers queries.

1, Is it really the end of the world or just your part of it?

Birmo’s ‘Without Warning’ is a great example of what happens when things go slighty awry for part of the world. Especially when that part is the worlds only super power. The ripple effects are quite deadly for the rest of the world. However civilisation hangs on in a recognisable form for the parts that matter (apols to the 2nd and third world). He makes no attempt to explain the event and only he and the so called ‘circle of trust’ know if it is even partly explained in his next novel “After America”.

To make an apocalyptic storyline really good is not so much the feasiblity of the event (lice from mutant space bats for example) it’s how the whole world is effected. This does not have to be fully described but the writer needs to know themselves as hints can be sprinkled like little Nestle choccy eggs through the storyline. Also there is the fun of smirking when on a panel and a fan asks questions. You have to take into consdieration that any event that has a negative outcome for the USA, Russia, Europe and parts of Asia is going to have very bad consequences for the rest of the world.

Whether this is radioactive fallout, rampaging  redneck Zombies crossing the Rio Grande heading south or an end to aid and medical supplies to Africa, things are going to get ugly quickly.  You have to remeber that a sizeable proportion of the world relies on the 1st world for food and supplies and if they don’t arrive… well things could get really really bad!

2, Weapons of Choice 

Now once the apocalypse has happened and the rule of law has, shall we say become useful firemaking equipment, one needs to defend oneself and ones nearest and dearest. Oh and your food supplies, and fuel supplies, and booze etc etc. Now weaponary and implements of destruction do not grow on trees (unless you only want to use branches as weapons). So you have to source that stuff and in the case of firearms also get the right ammo.

The irony is that the area with the highest conentration of armenents is not the ‘Stan or the USA it’s Europe. This is due to the presence of a number of standing armies, so whilst civilian arms may be lighter on the ground than in the good ol US of A. there’s tons of bang bangs from side arms to SRBM’s. Thats something to think about…

3, The world as we ‘know’ it.

The herein lies the rub, how real is our knowledge of the world and what surprises may come out of from beneath the bed once alot of the world population have ceased to be alive. Ghosts, werewolves, little green aliens from Alpha Centauri on a Galactic Kontiki Tour?  The possibilites are endless..as long as you have a reason.

This sort of twist in the tale could make life very difficult for your survivalist hero and his (or her) squeeze.

4, Who survives?

One of the mainstays of apocalyptic lit is the mismatched protagonists that cover any stereotype you could wish to wave a rainforest at. The crux of this question is based very much on the nature of the event. In the event of danger humans will congregate together, it’s only natural part of our primative instatinct for survival. To actively try to stay alone is not natural.

The intial survivors can of course be anyone, people who are left handed, red heads, those who are too lazy to get up at 2am to watch a pretty meteor shower etc etc. however how long they actualy survive or could survive is another matter. ironically the people most likely to survive are farmers not SPECFOR troops. Why? because they usually have some form of ability with firearms, they know how to grow food and often know how survive hardship. To a certain degree most people can forage or scavange but to successfully survive you have to replace the food you eat.

5, Eating

Without food (and of course drink) we die, it’s a basic tenet of biological thermodynamics and of course the Kreb cycle. Now fortunately (and of course thanks to Napoleon) we preserve alot of food in tins which can last a long time, also most packaged food can be safely consumed long after the due date (assuming its not raw of course). However as i pointed out above to survive long term you need to grow food. Now of course depending on what form the end of the world takes that may be relatively simple or it could be very hard (say in a nuclear winter or such like). now if you’re writing  a feel good story such as ‘The Road’ then long term survival of your protagonists probably won’t happen. But in other scenarrios it is possible, although how long the human race would continue is another matter.

6, Medicine

Part of that is because we have become so used to medical assistance being on tap, except of course in the areas which probably will fall quickly anyway. Now we are lucky that there are tens of thousands of copies of Gray’s Anatomy in bookshops around the world along with accompanying volumes on all facets of medicine, and of course all those hospitals have lots of useful drugs and gear (unless of course you live near Royal North Syndey). However you still have to be able to use them safely. And there’s the actual practial application of the book knowledge. And how many of us could deliver a baby? Hmm makes you wish you did at least some pre-med at Uni eh? or married that nurse rather than shagged her room mate….

7, Getting around

Then of course there’s the matter of transport. Now petrol will of course run out pretty quickly. So it comes down to  who knows how to crack off crude oil or who knows how to convert over to ethanol. I suppose you could learn to ride…although horse tastes good. The issue is that vehicles have become more and more complex so unless one of your protagonists either rebuilds old cars (like from the 70’s) you’re going to be going back to the horse and cart pretty quick, oh and for early car’s don’t forget your lead additives as we’ve all gone lead free….

Now for those with real wanderlust you could always sail away to a tropical island, or my fave ‘borrow’ a SSN or SSBN. But where is really safe?

8, The earth abides

Now life is pretty tenancious, and as  ‘the world without us’ correctly points out, our cities will quickly become overgrown and whilst some species will die off pretty much after a shortwhile (larger vermin and cockroaches) others will stay strong, yes cats may well inherit the earth. 

Now how long it will take domestic animals to go feral is not really rocket science as we know it happens pretty quickly but at lease in many areas stock will survive. and salties will once again roam through Cairns!

9, Humanity’s legacy

One problem is that we humans have been a bit messy in our rise. There’s lots of nuke plants (some not too well built) and lots of chemical and Oil refineries just waiting to go up in smoke as soon as we stop looking after them. So don’t bother with alot of texas y’all.

So if the zombies don’t get you the wild fires or pollutants might…

10, Conclusion

Whilst you don’t have to put every detail in, you do need to plan and know whats going on even if it never makes the story. I hope this little post has been of some use to both potential apoclypse writers and their critics.

Should we be celebrating the PRC’s 60th Birthday?

The 1st October is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Peoples Republic of China. There will be much pomp and circumstance involved and we’ll have lots of propoganda pushed forward about how wonderful the PRC is and all it’s achievements.

And let’s be honest there have been many achievement s and Australia relies heavily on the PRC continuing to improve so that we can continue to make loads of money from selling it resources.

But what is interesting is how the CCP although they have junked huge swathes of their revolutionary fervor still need to keep the PRC’s citizens under the jackboot. no real criticism is allowed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8278014.stm

The regimes attitude to any form of dissent is often brutal as we can see from recent events in Tibet and Xinjiang, and of course the massive show of force against Taiwan. it is estimated over 600 IRBM’s are aimed at a country that bears no military threat to the Chung Kuo but has the temerity to say it doesn’t really want to be formally part of it.

The PRC see itself as a victim and the CCP is pushing the nationalist barrow as fast as it can (oblivious it seems to what happens when you merge ‘nationalist’ and ’socialist’ together). It’s ability to utilise cyberwarfare against it’s competitors or detractors is pretty frightening as is it’s often quantum  PR mistakes like the recent furore over an Uigher civil rights activist and the Melbourne Film festivals invitation for her to attend. 

If it is not bad enough that the PRC restricts the rights of its citizens it actively supports other regimes that do the same Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, etc etc and will not allow the UN to actively defend the rights of those affected by their governments sociopathic desires.

60 years ago China was extremely poor, and since then it has improved the lot of its average citizen by leaps and bounds. However at the same time those with contacts in the CCP have become very, very rich and rule of law is almost non-existant as long as the CCP controls the courts. Yes  there are occassionally corruption show trials but the rot is deep.

Then there is the ecological damage. Again there are two faces. China is a leading player in renewable energy. however the damage that has been done and the arable land lost to either pollution or re-development is staggering. So much so that the PRC must now import food. the there is the heavy metal water and air pollutants. Not to mention the stuff we don’t know about in the PLA’s secret arms testing areas in the remote vastness of china’s western provinces.

There will be those who will argue that considering how the western democracies have behaved over the years, means we cannot comment about how the PRC is run and what it does. There will be apologists who will always believe the worst about their own country and forgive the transgressions of others because of their alleged political leanings. What these people miss is that in the 21st century for any country to deny its people the right to freedom of speech and association is clearly WRONG. Oh and before any smart alec wants to say about lack of freedom of expression here. Writing a petition Australia does not get you hard labour or restrictions on who you talk to or where you can go.

So Happy Birthday PRC, but it’s time for the CCP to loosen it’s talons in the back of the chinese people, especially those not of Han ethnicity.

Why can’t Labour Parties get a grip on the homeless?

Whilst watching Four Corners the other night I could help but be amazed at the continual failure of the State ALP government in dealing with it’s homeless crisis.

Of course it’s only because the the federal ALP and the PM have no time for the current state premier Nathan Rees that the problem is being highlighted on ABC.

However part of the problem also lies with Kevin Rudd below is his positon shortly after taking power full of righteousness and sorrow for the situation.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shame-on-us-rudd-pleads-for-homeless/2008/01/27/1201368945676.html

The reality of course is always different as we found out nearly a year and a half later..

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25743829-5013871,00.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/07/2618537.htm

What is made worse is that due to a lack of budget control in the school imrpovement program money was then re-allocated from the homelessness programme to cover the cost overun. This of course was done on the sly.

Sarah Ferguson the ABC reporter on the Four Coners show,  produced a very good piece and I bet that the show may have shocked a few people. However why should we be surprised?

In the UK state housing was effectively privatised after Maggie Thatcher tried to sell off all the council houses she could. However the conditionmof most ‘council housing’ stock was poor before Maggie got into power, thanks to many years of under investment by both Labour and the Tories. The state began to rely more on more on private landlords to fill the gap and basdically never tried to seriously begin any sort of rebuilding programme.

This situation did not improve after 1997 when Labour once again took power and promised big changes…

Here in the Lucky Country the State ALP groups have been running most of the states for over 10 years now, and in reality not one has made any meaningful dent in the issue. Much like they have screwed up our indigenous communities. As John Birmingham loves to tell me, State Labour tends to be more right wing than its federal sister but this does not explain the failiure accross the board  of the ALP to get a real grasp on the problem.

The irony is that we do have plenty of space and the state government has plenty of land to build subsidised housing on without creating slums or clones of The Block. Some states (such as Queensland and Western Australia) have seen big boom times up until a year or so ago. But we’ve seen no major building programmes.

Our general housing stocks are very low, on the whole this has been caused by three major factors.

1, Immigrants coming into the market cashed up and able to buy

2, Very slow development approvals by state and local governments

3, Lack of skilled work force to actually build houses dues to many workers seeking gold in them there hills.

However our lords and masters are also very lenient with regards to those land bank horders who would rather their property stays vacant until they can sell it at a massive profit. This struck home when I was in Pyrmont the other week. Numerous boarded up buildings that could easily be redeveloped.

So in the end we are relying on local motels and hotels and your genuine slum landlords to house those at the bottom of the heap. Back when I was doing residential work, I inspected a property that my agency was attempting to rent out. in fact we had a lady very keen to move in via Homeswest. It was a fibro cottage with lino floors (heavily scabbed showing the floor below), cracks in soem walls. powers point and light switches were not secure, and the fibro boundary fence was pretty wrecked. I instructed the property manager to take it off the market, and advised the branch manager to contact the owner as in my opion it was not fit for habitation. the owner of course couldn’t understand the problem.

How can we trust private landlords (who at that level are notorious for not maintaining their properties) to house the most venerable in our society? especially when they charge extra for it? Marcela and I couldn’t believe that the State was paying $950 a week to a grotty motel to house a family of 5. We charge less for our investment property which is top spec and in the centre of town.

In the end it is easy to be cynical and say that the homeless don’t vote and don’t contribute to society, so that is why they are so low down the priority list of the government. However by getting them housed and even into low paid jobs you are saving alot of money and taking tax off them! You are also saving money for the future as if you have kids brought up like that you can get they will cost society more in future no matter how good their parents are.

Is it insider trading if the Guvmnt does it?

Well it was fun watching Senator Conroy stick his garlic smeered stilletoe into the back of Telstra last night. And out gushed the blood or I should say share price, which dived when the market realised that Telstra was becoming less of a cash cow.

Not that the policy in itself is wrong as lets face it Telstra got away with blue murder for just under 20 years. Although it is interesting it happened after Sol left with all his dirty money.

More importantl;y though is the question of why did the government dispose of over $2 billion of shares last month? It is innocent in the extreme to assume that the Ruddbot’s little helpers were not aware that this policy was going to be put into place this month, the release of which was bound to negatively effect Telstra’s share price.

Besides that particularly dirty piece of political arrangement, it is not unreasonable to assume that the mockers are being put on Telstra so that the cost of the Boy Kevins national broadband project will cost slightly less (by using telstra’s existing infrastructure). The full plan for which and clearer costings of, are still no nearer to being published.

But having spent so much already on his stimulus packages Kev’s got to find some savings somewhere. however unless something pretty nasty happens he’ll win the election next year and that’ll mean us having to suffer him making his insincere and basically embrassing pronouncements for a good while yet.

Chaz Day in Sydney: After action report

Got into the city on the harbour on the red eye wednesday morning. Was very tired. But had to run around to our lawyers in north sydney and then Marcela had to get her hair done ‘n stuff as she was fitting in some business meetings whilst in town.  After her last meeting headed to the Forbes for a few beers. I was reminising on how I first drank there back in ‘98 and how i thought the carpet was the same. Hit the sack relatively early as was knackered.

Chaz Day dawned bright and clear, and after checking my emails with it looked like it was going to be just Therbs, myself and Marcela. Then I got a call from the Squire intially to  have a drink as he was in Sin City for a couple of days.

Met up at the Lord Roberts and the Squire managed to pursuade his mate Andrew to come down and have dinner with us lot at the Gaucho Grill.

So across the road we walked. Marcela pursuaded Therbs adn the Squire to try Quilmese beer (an argentine brew) then we hit the house Malbec, which by al accounts was pretty good.

Andrew turned up and it was game on to order a meat lovers smorgsbord.

Bedes managed to annoy one of our neighbouring tables by his level of profanity, which was humourous as the nearest table were clearly amused by our antics. But there you go, no accounting for taste!

The evening moved along and Andrew proved himself to be a worthy addition to the group.

As the meald rew to an end Marcela (who i believe was a bit squiffy by this stage) tried to get the lads to drink Matte the Argentine herbal tea. Bedes compared it to drinking out of an ash tray…

After the meal finished it was over the road for a couple of quick bevies. Watched Andrew fail stupendously in trying to interest a group of eastern suburbs girls then it was home time.

I can heartly recommend the Gaucho grill although having soenone from Argyland on your table is very useful.

For those who care the apartment settled quicklyon thursday and now all Marcela and I have to do is wait for our agent to find us a tenant. The apartment is great and I’d love to live there. The building is good and the suburb is great. And woth the fish markets less than 10 mins walk away what more could you ask for?

Got back a few hours ago to an overcast perth. hmmm

Chaz Day in Sydney…Reaminated

Well children,

The stars are finally sliding into place and so Chaz Day will be celebrated in Sydney this year.

As Marcela will be along for the trip, partners are allowed but not de rigeur.

So El Gaucho Grill, 73 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst at 6:30 for a 7pm start

http://www.gauchogrill.com.au/

I’ll book a table in the name of Chaz. Please let me know numbers asap

I know it’s short notice but…..

Oh and it’s BYO on that night.

Bias at Aunty?

I never really took much notice at the Libs claims that the ABC was biased against them but after watching the 7:30 report last it did become clear to me that there is definetely an element of bias against those who the Federal ALP don’t seem to have much time for.

The coverage against Della Bosca was hard hitting , and as the Ruddbots lack of support for the current ALP gov is well known it would seem that there might be some influence there.

But one article does not make a pattern..

The coverage of the Victorian water minister who managed to lose himself whilst trekking alone in the Alps was much softer, his bio made him sound like the the 2nd coming and  his stupidity at the risks he took (considering his position) were handled very softly. Of course I have little time for this idiot as he is complicit in the disaster that is the current state of the Murray/Darling river system.

Then finaly there was an interview with Julia Gillard. Now my admiration for Julia is well know and I see her as our first female PM (& maybe president?). However her interview  was pathetic. i don’t know where they dragged the interviewer from but his attempt to be ‘hard hitting’ in his line of questioning was laughable.

If what is meant to be our best current affairs programme is so flimsy, i just can’t undertsand why the Ruddbot is so uneasy in being interviewed by them or infact any serious political commentator (besides Koshe)

My postion in this sort of thing is simple. A national broadcaster is there to keep the government of the time honest and the opposition on their toes. if it can’t do that thenmaybe we do have a problem, although seeing how the Beeb has been ruined you have to wonder if it’s worth it.