As If The Darkness

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
Ambrose Bierce

The Language of Bureaucracy
The language of bureaucracy often serves to perpetuate
basically ineffective organizations. The survival of administrative
agencies seems, on occasion, to depend more
on publicanxiety about the problems they are dealing with
than on their performance.
"Language shapes what administrators and the public
take for granted, whose expectations they accept as
legitimate and whose they ignore, how they define
their functions, and what meanings they read into the
outcomes of their policies."
Because of conflicting goals or ambiguous language, evaluations
of controversial organizations often reveal nothing
about those organizations' effectiveness. Vague
objectives-"national security," "decent housingf'-can
produce evaluations that exaggerate both utility of services
and results. The more concrete the terms that are used to
describe their objectives, the greater the conflict and
more ineffective they are likely to appear.
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc21b.pdf

We couldn't be sure, there in the swirling darkness and the winds, the creak of the old windmill at the back of the house, the cackle of the chooks as they settle in for the night, a long time coming. This climate change stuff has gone too far, he announced to the bartender, looking up from his newspaper, from another crisis driven doom laden assumption riddled piece. The bartender looked at him askance. Well they have to do something, he said. How did this man come to believe, his brain flashed, how did this man come to believe something as so concrete about something so debated. He couldn't be on the wrong side of the moral divide, he couldn't sin when the fate of the planet was at stake.

The swirling winds, those swirling trees, their feverish battering outside, as he rose outside above the house and went drifting and arking on the wild drafts of cold air, suddenly able to see across the suburb, to see his own house far below. This earnest magic, these earnest capacities, were gifted to him. That transculscent, clairvoyant suburb, that place that was frozen so far away, cloyed up in the thickness of another place, the intensity of the Australian landscape, the age, the millions of years, thrown out before them.

Sydney was swept up in the feverish wonderments of World Youth Day, and he was away in the country with the radio playing quietly at the local community centre, with little to do but a plan afoot to get more chooks. Do you want to rent? What do you want to do with your house, when you finish, they ask. The acres just next to him sold in a council auction for $28,000. Next will eco-cottages get to Tambar? The bloke he was speaking to, as he swilled his lemon squashes ever more frantically, owned six and a half thousand acres over the back of the hill. Started with two, he said.

And we spoke of Sydney as a place no sane person would live, and looked in amazement at the front page shots, an eight column spread of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims lining the lost mile, the little known dock area next to Darling Harbour, to the Bridge and the Opera House in the background, and the still perfections of the harbour, the apartment windows shining in the afternoon light, the whole of everything here. The vibrancy of youth, they kept saying, the wave after wave of excited pilgims, singing, and perhaps his own feelings, an ancient edifice in need of repair, could not have withstood the fervent enthusiams of the young.

The wind has swept across these places, the first coat of paint has gone up on the shack, the fire has swirled ashes and smoke into his clothes, the full moon has risen over the desert pines, a mangy fox has slunk from view. Red belled flowers form drifts in the dry grass, the cockatoos squawk in their morning rituals. Nothing could be nicer than sitting here in the sun, on your own place, he thought. And all the turmoil, all the darkness, all the wasted life, all the unhappiness he had inflicted on himself, all of the years he had wasted being tortured, it came down to nothing nicer than soaking up the sun.

When he was ready to pass he would know, and make his way high up into the Ganges, amongst the streams where the legend began. And give himself, like the sadhus around him, to the fierce spirits of the mountains. The flames burning amongst the art deco buildings of the Hindu worshippers. Again he cried, couldn't we have been more? Couldn't we have reached higher, lived longer, laughed louder, made contributions more significant. Couldn't we have spread our unique talents in a better way, lived a more vivid life? Here, high in the gushing streams, where everything would end and the sporadic, last communications would be of little interest to a world utterly transformed.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/17/pope.australia/?iref=hpmostpop

(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI recalled the natural beauty he observed during his 20-hour flight to Sydney, saying he felt "a profound sense of awe," and denounced "insatiable consumption" as a threat to the world's environment.


Pope Benedict XVI is joined by young people in a flotilla of vessels at Sydney Harbour on Thursday.

1 of 3 more photos » more photos » The pope made his first major appearance on his Australia tour Thursday before an estimated crowd of 150,000 people at World Youth Day.

The event is believed to be the world's largest Christian gathering and dubbed "the Catholic Woodstock."

He delivered his homily in several languages to people representing 70 countries, lamenting "erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption."

"Some of you come from island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels, others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought. God's wondrous creation is sometimes experienced as almost hostile to its stewards, even something dangerous. How can what is 'good' appear so threatening?"



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2307320.htm

Opposition treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says the Government's emissions trading scheme has put the future of Australia's liquid natural gas (LNG) industry under threat.

Woodside, Australia's biggest gas supplier, and the Petroleum Exploration Lobby Group have warned that around $60 billion of gas projects, including two in Western Australia, are in doubt if the scheme goes ahead.

Speaking to reporter Sabra Lane on ABC Radio's AM program, Mr Turnbull said the scheme could penalise the gas industry, which has already made moves to reduce emissions and operate more cleanly.

"Mr Rudd is rushing his emissions trading scheme," he said.

"In his haste he is jeopardising jobs and the livelihoods, prosperity of millions of Australians."

Mr Turnbull says the scheme may disadvantage the LNG industry against others who have not yet reduced their emissions, and support for the gas industry is a vital part of responding to climate change.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/17/2307047.htm

The Federal Opposition says it will not be bullied into supporting the Government's emissions trading scheme.

The Government says the Opposition has a chance to prove it is economically responsible by backing the scheme in the Senate.

But the Coalition's reaction to yesterday's Green Paper was lukewarm at best, and the Government will most likely need to enlist the assistance of minor parties and independents in the Senate.

The Opposition warns the emissions trading scheme will eventually lead to an extra petrol tax, and it says Labor's discussion paper lacks economic detail.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Nick Minchin, says the Government is being arrogant if it thinks it can rush the legislation through Parliament.