Archive for category Letters
Locked out
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age on March 16th, 2010
If Myki is my key to Melbourne, then I need a locksmith urgently.
Up the poll
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age on March 11th, 2010
Once again there are no winners in the perpetual blame-shifting merry-go-round of Melbourne public transport. If either the government or Metro’s executives are genuinely surprised at the system’s continued failure, then things are even grimmer than we thought.
But that’s not the only worry, if truth really matters. Mr Brumby’s blaming of the operator of the day for the inherent failures of the chronically neglected state-owned hardware, is nothing if not entirely predictable. But with such systemic obfuscation, the last thing we need is the kind of media hyperbole which claims that 69% of Age readers “believed Connex had run the train system better.” (The Age, 11/3) As it is, the value of these unvalidated tabloid-style “polls” is doubtful, and certainly not this paper’s finest contribution to public discourse. But a negative answer to the question “is Metro running a better rail system than Connex?” (Poll, 9/3) does not yield the above conclusion.
Whether a failure of basic logic, or just plain sloppy, please spare us such “insight”. Just two certainties remain: The travelling public are being played for mugs again, and truth is the casualty.
Stay on the ground, Tony
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age on March 4th, 2010
What with trucks on the highway and quad bikes in the desert, Mr Abbott’s campaign strategy should not include skydiving or bungee jumping.
Praying Liberally
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age on December 3rd, 2009
A “broad church”, led by an Abbott and a Bishop, cloistered from reality, preaching to the choir, praying for a miracle.
Separating fact from fiction
Posted by eN0ch in Faith, Letters, Politics and society, The Age on November 23rd, 2009
Most of those who invoke the doctrine of the “separation of church and state” in political discourse these days evidence little grasp of it’s actual meaning. It’s become a kind of popular Dawkinsian rallying cry for the “new” atheism. Peter Pelzer (Letters, 20/11) is but the latest of many, with his call for greater financial “separation”. The common idea seems to be that religious faith has no rightful place in public life or policy.
In fact the historic principle of church-state separation has little directly to do either with any person’s belief system or with the modern phenomenon of tax exemptions or deductibility. Rather, it’s about whether a particular religious institution is an organ of the state. Unlike Britain, Australia is not and has never been a country where the state is constitutionally enmeshed with any religious body, to the great relief of Christians and secularists alike.
The Australian taxation system makes special provision for religious bodies, not because of anything they believe, but in recognition of their contribution to the well-being of society generally and the marginalised in particular. The emphasis is on their non-profit charitable status. Anyone objecting to that might try envisioning a health or welfare system without them.
Reinventing Copenhagen
Global climate change treaty looking doubtful? Well not to worry. The seas will eventually reclaim all the world’s industrial sites, and then it won’t matter. But Copenhagen needn’t go down as another week of happy snaps and silly clothes. I propose an alternate agenda:
- sport: some swimming lessons wouldn’t go astray. And how about a water polo world cup?
- trade: a global exchange in rubber life rafts, fishing rods and mosquito repellant.
- construction: relocate UN headquarters to Quito, Ecuador (altitude 2850 m)
- military: strengthen naval defences. 3 or 4 life rafts per continent should do it.
Or failing agreement:
- a new age of discovery: if NASA get their skates on maybe we can find another planet somewhere and start again. (Yeah I know – we’ll wreck that one too, but at least it buys us some time … )
To wit, to who?
Posted by eN0ch in Faith, Letters, Politics and society, The Age on November 5th, 2009
I’m trying to decide whether to be more grateful to Greg Craven (Opinion, 4/11) for injecting some balancing wit into current public debate on the merits of theism, or to his respondents (Letters, 5/11) for demonstrating that we Christians are not the only folks who take ourselves too seriously at times. In this AD (After Dawkins) era, when it’s become standard literary fare to laugh off all religious believers as simpletons with “an imaginary friend”, it’s a little bemusing to have non-believers taking offence at the occasional bit of Aussie repartee coming the other way.
Time to lighten up, guys … or we might start praying for you.
More or less
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age on October 28th, 2009
I’m rather confused about numbers just now. The PM apparently wants fewer asylum seekers and more people whilst his critics want more asylum seekers and fewer people. Is it just me and my arithmetic incapacity, or … ?
Glass houses
Posted by eN0ch in Letters, Politics and society, The Age, World on October 25th, 2009
The Rudd government is under heavy fire from it’s own constituency on many fronts, most prominently asylum seekers and climate change. Ultimately the two are united by the question of lifestyle. How thinly can a finite pool of resources be spread before the general populace considers itself deprived and cries foul? And as day follows night, any such discontent will surely find its fullest voice on election day.
And there’s the rub, not just for the government but for all Australians. It’s easy to label the PM as “Howard lite” and charge Government and Opposition alike with gross moral relativism, driven by electoral self-interest. “Vote buying!” cry some. “In bed with the coal industry!” say others.
But at least some of the righteous protesters might well live in glass condominiums. Compassionate largesse and serious community action to slow climate change must eventually cost us all in lifestyle, reducing all our options at home, at work, and in leisure.
Our politicians may be vote-driven. But with 3-year terms and a very comfortable electorate, who’d be surprised?
Choose your weapons
Posted by eN0ch in Faith, Letters, Politics and society, The Age on September 28th, 2009
Apparently Rob Hulls stands guilty of protecting unenlightened disrespect, hatred and religious prejudice in this state. But then again, the undercurrents of this debate reflect a far-from-helpful use of language.
A discussion in which only the most negative, emotion-charged vocabulary is permitted has little chance of being conducted with reason or equanimity, and thus still less chance of an “enlightened” outcome. Our gracious legislators, it seems, are permitting religious organisations to continue to practice “discrimination”. So – it’s intrinsically bad but we’re letting you do it anyway?
One person’s “discrimination” is another’s common sense. Every day job candidates are screened according to their capacity to support the company’s values or mission. Someone with radically socialist views on wealth distribution is unlikely to be made Telstra CEO, should they apply. Would that be “discrimination” or just sensible? An outstanding cricket coach is unlikely to coach an AFL side. A radical pacifist would be passed over for military field command. No one cries “prejudice!”
Rethink the vocabulary, and an intelligent debate may be possible.