January 26, 2015 – One Finite Planet

One Finite Planet

Topics and Subtopics.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Australia Day Surprise: Another title for Prince Philip. Foolishness, or other motives?

January 26, 2015 February 18, 2022

The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, announced a ‘bold’ decision to award an Australian knighthood to the husband to the Queen of England, Prince Philip.

Left Vs Right & Populism: Outrage over a clash of Ideologies.

What are these competing ideologies, and why do they clash?

This page is the exploration of the what and the why of the left and the right. I expect to keep revisiting and updating this topic, as it seems too deep to fully analysis in one attempt.

In particular interest to me is the question: why are the things people champion grouped, when they can be so diverse? Why do so many people seem to choose almost all of the left policies, or all of the right policies, rather than varying mixes of each?

Justice Othering & Religion, Left vs Right

Left Vs Right & Populism: Outrage over a clash of Ideologies.

What are these competing ideologies, and why do they clash? This page is the exploration of the what and the why of the left and the right. I expect to keep revisiting and updating this topic, as it seems too deep to fully analysis in one attempt. In particular interest to me is the question: why are the things people champion grouped, when they can be so diverse? Why do so many people seem to choose almost all of the left policies, or all of the right policies, rather than varying mixes of each?

Influence Wealth and Power

Influence: There’s no free lunch and they use your data to make you pay.

It can seem all those tech companies are so dumb giving away services for free. I recently read another comment containing the "I don't want Google getting more of my data to sell" and it reminded me of the question, 'why is your data valuable?' people too rarely ask. The common myth is that Facebook and Google etc want your data so they can sell it, but even with companies that do sell your data, it still requires someone to turn data into money, and enough money to fund the "free" services of the tech companies and allow them enough spare to make profits beyond anything seen in the world previously. So how does the data turn into so much money? There is no such thing as a free lunch. Google and Facebook etc make their money from advertising, not from selling data, and unless they use can the data to persuade you to buy products at prices inflated by advertisers paying part of the sale price to Facebook/Google etc, they would lose money. Your data is used to inflate the cost of living and earn votes for politicians with an agenda that gives them a budget to spend. They (Google/Facebook etc) don't want to sell your data, but the reality, is more sinister: they use it to have to change your thinking, so more of your money will go to make them richer.

Justice & Equality

Flawed Australian voice of Indigenous People referendum: The irony of a voice campaign that failed to listen.

Commenced: September 23, 2023 Updated: November 28th, 2023

2023 Nov 28: Update with poll showing "yes, voters would support a better phrased voice proposal".

A tragic lost opportunity. Why didn't those proposing the voice make changes to remove ambiguity and eliminated enough of the negative perception to win over enough support instead of simply declaring" "No, if that is how you see it you are either racist or stupid!" Was it just that there was no willingness to listen? Australians had an opportunity in a constitutional referendum to righteously shout loudly "I am not a racist" by voting for a proposition that, at its core, could be seen as fundamentally flawed, divisive and even potentially racist, in the hope even a risk of moving in the direction of apartheid is still better than nothing. The referendum resulted in a huge setback for action on indigenous disadvantage and while it did seem unlikely to do anything to unify Australians and offer more than some possible affirmative action, the division resulted with even sometimes "yes" voters being encouraged to also be racist. This is a deeper look trying to see each side from the perspective of the other, with the reality that both sides had a point, and a vast majority of people do want equality and unity. Perhaps it little more work could bring things …

Lead, Crime and Justice

Commenced: December 21, 2015 Updated: April 21st, 2023

2023 April 21 st: Reformat for current standards and added header image and links.

A quick internet search with the keywords 'lead crime' in the search bar will reveal many articles which all propose that lead pollution in the air caused a dramatic increase in violent crime. Any victim of violent crime in affected locations has a right to feel disturbed by this, but what about perpetrators of violent crime, and should society share the guilt?

Race, Racism and Skin Colour: what do ‘race’ and racism mean?

Commenced: August 17, 2016 Updated: April 19th, 2023

2023 April 19 th: reformat and added crime and superstition and an updated synopsis.

There is no universally agreed definition of either race or racism, with no clear agreement on whether race is real or not, and there is more agreement on the reality of racism, there is less on exactly what constitutes racism. This is a look at both the concept of race, and what it means to be racist.

Crime: A litmus test for inequality?

Commenced: April 25, 2023 Updated: April 5th, 2023

2023 April 5 : Initial version

Around the world, many countries have both a battle with equality for some racial groups and minorities and also a battle with crime-rates within and by those same groups. Should we consider crime rates the real sentinels of problems and a solution require focusing on factors behind crime rates? Or is the correct response to rising crime rates or crime rates within specific groups an adoption of being "tough on crime", thus increasing rates of incarceration and even deaths in custody for oppressed minorities and racial groups? This is an exploration of not adjusting the level of penalties and instead focusing on the core issues and inequalities behind crime-rates. It is clear that it is "damaged people" in general rather than specific racial groups that correlate with elevated crime rates, so why not use crime rates to identify who is facing inequality?

Obama and Xi Jinping announcement: a huge step for climate action? Or a backward step?

Commenced: November 14, 2014

Obama is currently a ‘lame duck’ president with a hostile senate, and approval rating that suggests a likely hood the next US president may well be a republican. In Australia when the less conservative party took a position to take steps to address climate change, it became a call to arms for conseratives opposed to […]

Politics. Left & Right: Merit = Wealth?

Commenced: May 16, 2019

The labels ‘left’ and ‘right’ date back to French Revolution in 1789, but that history hardly conveys what the terms mean today. This post reviews that original concept and history, and looks further into how the concepts have evolved into todays positions of ‘left’ and ‘right’. This post starts discussion on how the concepts apply […]

The G20 outcome, a plan to make the earth a worse place?

Commenced: November 21, 2014

The recent G20 wrapped up with a commitment to target economic growth level for the G20 of 2.1% by 2018. Global population grwoth is over 1.1% so this means the worlds richest countries will be getting richer by just over 1% avove population increase per annum by 2018. Is there any suggestion that this addional […]

Foreign fighters: Is it really a surprise that ISIS/ISIL can recruit from the west?

Commenced: November 26, 2014

I have heard repeated media statements on how ISIS/ISIL managed to recruit young Sunni Muslims from around the world to join their cause. It has been stated that society must reach out to the Muslim community to stop these young men being recruited from their midst. Certainly these recruits from around the world join the […]

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Australia Day Surprise: Another title for Prince Philip. Foolishness, or other motives?

Commenced: January 26, 2015

The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, announced a ‘bold’ decision to award an Australian knighthood to the husband to the Queen of England, Prince Philip. I will provide background for the world majority with zero exposure to Australia’s relationship to the British royal family, but Australia ceased awarding knighthoods in 1986 as part of a […]

Australia: Yet another prime minister?

Commenced: September 20, 2015

On Monday September 15th, Malcolm Turnbull replaced Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the leader of the liberal party, ensuring Malcolm Turnbull would become the fifth prime minister (or head of government) of Australia within five years. This post looks at how this seemingly crazy frequency of change actually takes place, the underlying ‘crisis’ and implications […]

What should we fear: The link from fear to hatred.

Commenced: December 19, 2015

The relationship between fear and hate. There are three immediate responses to fear: Fight, Flight and Freeze. In the longer term these correspond to : ‘active hate’, avoidance or ‘passive hate’ with ‘freeze’ being an immediate response with no long term result. To hate is to either to wish to avoid the source of fear, […]

The Housing Price Trap: A global bubble?

Commenced: April 29, 2016

The Australian prime minister (Malcolm Turnbull) was interviewed on the ABC program ‘7:30’ answering questions on government policy regarding tax concessions for real estate investments. The Prime Minister spoke of the need to retain a specific tax concession because reducing the concession would reduce demand, and to reduce demand would result in lower prices. The […]

Australian Budget: Ignorance or Lies?

Commenced: May 4, 2016

Last night, the Australian Government announced a new budget. Many of the stated premises of the budget seemly clearly out of touch with the current reality. Either the government is unaware of the current reality, or the government is not being completely open with the electorate.

Brexit and Trump: Common Theme?

Commenced: June 24, 2016

I suggest there are two key points in common between the nomination of Donald Trump as the republican candidate, and the ‘Brexit’ vote in the United Kingdom: the failure of our economic system to deliver distribute of increased economic wealth a backlash against immigration Economics. The first point is that we have created a disconnect […]

Brexit: Litmus test, Labor vs Liberal

Commenced: July 1, 2016

Red or Blue? What will the litmus indicate in the Australian election just one week in the aftermath of the stunning ‘Brexit’ outcome? It could be argued that the ‘Brexit’ result will play to whichever party best manages to leverage the angle presented to them. The players and positions. Liberals Position: Strong and Steady. This […]

Syria: Why Assad did not use chemical weapons to kill Syrian citizens

Commenced: April 12, 2017

The proposal that Asad used chemical weapons in order to kill Syrians depends on the following steps, from the almost certain through steps with less and less certainty it was chemical weapons that were really to blame for deaths in the recent attack chemical weapons were in fact launched by forces supporting Assad, and not […]

Democrats: Self Sabotage?

Commenced: February 12, 2020

Just as it seems Pete Buttigieg may have won Iowa, I read that polls show many Americans believe the country is not ready for a gay president. There are even stories of a voter wishing to change their vote after learning that ‘Mayor Pete’ was gay. However, there has also been suggestions voters are also […]

Tribalism: Good, neutral or bad?

Commenced: October 3, 2017

My definition of tribalism: Part of the nature of humanity that leads us to support those from the group we identify with, over those from other groups. Most people watching an event at the Olympic games will support the contestant from their own country over those from other countries, even when they had not previously […]

The alliance: Conservative politicians and ‘secondary terrorists’

Commenced: December 19, 2015

Two groups who benefit from the exact same outcomes. Whether by design or by accident, both thrive when their actions produce the exact same outcomes. How do we stop these groups working in harmony?

Israel Folau: Religious Persecution in 2019?

Commenced: May 14, 2019

An Australian rugby player, Israel Folau, faces being disqualified from his high profile professional career over his social media posts expressing his religious beliefs. The posts in question clearly qualify as hate speech, but it is unfair to judge Folau, as many have done, without a deeper understanding. Despite the posts, closer scrutiny reveals Israel […]

Tribalism, Racism and Despair: The xenophobia cycle

Commenced: September 23, 2016

It feels like the world is in the grip of a wave of xenophobia, and we just seem so far from a solution. From extremist Muslim terrorists through to the Donald Trump presidential campaign and the British ‘Brexit’ vote, the is a worldwide rise in at least the visibility of intolerance, if not intolerance itself. […]

Secondary terrorism: the evolution of terrorism

Commenced: November 21, 2015

Terrorism has evolved to thrive in the environment we have created. Understanding that evolution is the first step in combating terrorism, the second is the change the environment we have created in which the terrorism thrives.