20th June 2010. Think its time the paper, packaging and kindred industries had a fizzer put through them. Chronic users of natural resources, primarily water, power and timber – there appears to be little attempt in this country at regulation, self or otherwise. The double and triple packaging of items carried home in the ubiquitous plastic bag leads to a massive recycling burden. It seems that this is an industry that needs to be made accountable for some of the massive ecological problems facing us.
‘Don’t blow it – good planets are hard to find’
11th June 2010. I have searched for it in Newsagents while standing behind queues of pensioners filling out Lotto, in online gambling sites, at racecourses, in clubs and pubs with poker machines. Seems to be expunged from the language in these venues, “Lose”
“The next best thing to gambling and winning is gambling and losing”
10th June 2010. In years gone by, the sounds of a Sydney morning were roosters crowing in hundreds of backyards. Seems like now you wake up to a Boeing 747 over the top at 6 am, unsilenced vehicles and motorbikes, jet skiis, barking dogs, building excavation,pavement blowers or last nights party,but sadly.. no roosters allowed.
‘Silence and reserve will give anyone a reputation for wisdom’
4th June 2010. Recent reports of being unable to smile whilst getting a drivers licence in NSW are related to the fact that these photographs are to be used by facial recognition software and placed in a database to be shared with other government agencies including police, and will eventually be used in surveillance cameras. This gross invasion of individual privacy and freedoms has apparently been introduced with little or no public debate. What sort of warped society are we allowing governments to create.
‘It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you’
3rd June 2010. And whilst we are talking about road safety. Recently as a passenger in a fit of boredom I counted the signs associated with the control of about a 40 kilometer section of a Sydney ring road. Including all the clearway and do not park signs on about every telegraph pole – there were over 2000 signs and their respective poles, screws and supports. Now between looking at the signs, checking watches to avoid multiple school zones, keeping an eye out for speed radar in case of inadvertent overspeed, and being distracted by multiple advertising banners – massive case of sensory overload, the driver is expected to maintain control of the vehicle .
‘Advertising is about making whole lies out of half truths’
