EMERGING LEADER

EMERGING LEADER - JAMES FORBES

Winner - Lifestyle Entrepreneur Award - SGLBA Business Awards 2010
Nominee - ACON Honour Awards 2010

Biography

Born and raised in Sydney, James’ work has evolved into a passion for variety. From the arts and the environment to writing for websites, television and feature films to supporting people living with HIV/AIDS, James has transformed from a young man with a fixed view of the world into an advocate for profound personal change. This transformation has fuelled fundraising projects, theatre productions and even organisational cultures. Today, James is committed to bridging the gaps in society by encouraging individual growth that reconnects people with themselves, each other and ultimately, the natural world.


Imagine if, as Bobby Kennedy said we had a world where we measured that which was actually worthwhile:

“We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear out highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the Redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads. It includes the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children.
And if the GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. The GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

I wrote a piece, listed above, suggesting that for the first time since 1968 (with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter) we have a President in the White House that grasps this notion.

Yet, since coming to office President Obama has faced some of the most challenging crises a new President has ever had to face. Regardless of one’s position on Obama, he still presents as a man of action and someone who is passionate about change.

So why can’t he make the sweeping changes needed, and in a way, is he truly responsible?

In my daily work I face the paradox of working for a large environmental organisation that has a profound goal to save our natural environment and individuals within it caught in political plays with each other. But despite this goal and the fact that they have been working at it for 4 decades, why are they not succeeding and we are bearing witness to increasing rates of extinction and loss to global biodiversity?

I believe it is our individual selves that are at issue. I observe everywhere around me the way humans divide themselves whether by office politics, sports teams, suburbs, states, political parties, family feuds, ideologies, religions, brands, the list just goes on.

I imagine a world where we stop projecting our negative selves on to others and start accepting and taking responsibility for the problems we face as a collective solution; and that much of that solution rests in changing ourselves from the inside out.

We too often seek external solutions by attacking problems aggressively from without. I imagine a world where we start uncovering what Petrea King from the Quest for Life Centre calls our “First Nature” where we connect with our hearts and from there bring about change that is compassionate into every part of our lives. As Jonathan Fisher from Wake Up Sydney! states: “a revolution in kindness”.

It might seem trite to say but stop for one minute and imagine how different it would be if we came from that position? Not just you or me but everyone? Why would we need weapons for defence? Imagine, for a moment, diverting the defence budget to helping society address dysfunction? What would $26billion achieve to address the environmental factors that lead to violent murder or pedophilia and so much more besides?

Every day in my job, in the characters I develop on the page and in my personal relationships I continually ask what do I bring to a situation and how can I improve this to improve the situation? Thomas Berry describes it in his eponymous piece as “the great work.”

To integrate this into our daily lives will bring a revolution in reality. This revolution which is based in love and compassion rather than anger is the only way we can truly transform the world. This is what I imagine the world needs to be. And I believe with fortitude it can come to pass.

President Obama cannot change the world by himself. It is folly to lay such an expectation at the feet of any leader. A leader must have vision and then work hard to bring others along to execute that vision. I believe that this is what leadership is about.


Vision for the Future

Stage 1 – Address Human Dysfunction

Bill Plotkin in his seminal work, “Nature and the Human Soul” declares that western society is in the grip of “patho-adolescent epidemic”. While we get bombarded with political messages that seek to address symptoms of societal dysfunction from the most heinous of crimes including murder and paedophilia to alcohol fuelled teenage aggression that leads to injury or death, nothing goes anyway to actually understanding the drivers behind these behaviours.

Consumed with a desire to react to community outrage, they seek to impose tougher penalties, all the while these behaviours keep occurring and the criminal justice system fails to adequately prevent this happening.

Meanwhile at a less extreme level, the vast bulk of the community exist in states of “quiet desperation” battling various addictions including substances such as alcohol and other drugs; to process addictions including sex, exercise, work, shopping and eating. The quest to have more of whatever it is, underpins so much of our poor health; especially our mental health.

Abandonment or enmeshment as a child, death, divorce, abuse of any kind, other traumatic events all contribute to this need to fill some kind of hole in our lives. We know something is missing so as Eckahrt Tolle tells us: “We keep wanting and that wanting is replaced by the satisfaction of having but this is soon replaced by more wanting.”

It is an endless cycle and our whole way of life; our civilization is built on this precept. Consequently, this drive for more material wealth is supplied by our natural world. As we want more, we suck the planet dry. It is all interlinked. And the only way to stop it is for us as individuals to stop and see it clearly; beyond denial, anger, bargaining we collectively must find a space of acceptance and resolutely stand to change the way we live.

Stage 2 – Actively Alter our Approach

Home – seek to create a home that embodies a sustainable lifestyle from the materials that go into the building, the energy sources to power devices from heating and cooling to cooking and cleaning. Engage in a daily practise with the whole family of locally sourced food & water, yoga & meditation and respect for the Earth that provides these things.

Education – there are many extraordinary education initiatives around Australia supported by the philanthropic grant sector. I imagine a world where children are educated in the value of the natural world; that at the appropriate stage in their development (around 13-15) they undergo a Vision Quest to commune with Nature and bring to the surface their very own Vision of how they must contribute to the world. Too often, parents of adolescent children despair at how they struggle to connect with their children as they transition through puberty. The simple fact is that they are experiencing their first most profound need to be in Nature and for most in the Western World they are far from it.

Community – contrary to an era of globalisation where oranges from the USA can arrive in Australia and sell through Woolworths for less than an orange grown in the Riverlands of South Australia, support for the continued development of local grown produce helps to build a clear understanding about where food is grown and sourced from. In Victoria the Farmer’s Market’s Association has grown enormously as markets across the State of Victoria coordinate and provide produce to local communities at reasonable prices. Not only do people in towns from Bendigo to Shepparton, Wodonga to Echuca enjoy the experience of purchasing locally grown produce, the sense of community that this shared experience creates cannot be measured for its value. The development of Permaculture to encourage further food production locally in both rural and urban centres also will skill people to produce their own food. The very act of connection with the earth and the seasons feeds our sense of worth and purpose and diminishes mental health conditions like depression.

Economy – as the saying goes, “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.” Without a healthy environment, there is nothing else. Everything must flow from this. To create a world of abundance, renewal must be allowed. To over consume and prevent renewal, we are committing ourselves to eventual ecological collapse. This is not a doomsday prophecy; it is a simple equation of finite resources matched against a burgeoning human population. The model of infinite economic growth cannot be sustained.

Politics – the argument about a whether Australia should be a Republic or a Constitutional Monarchy is, in a sense, moot. A dramatic transformation of the political system is needed if we are to effectively address the changes we must embrace together. The current party political model that situates issues in often old debates between a “left” and a “right” are part of what was described in the French Revolution as the “Ancien Regime”. The political system needs to have at its core the welfare of the land and its resources first and foremost. Remove the State Governments and develop Super Councils that are created around Natural Landscape Phenomena such as Rivers or Plains. Within these Councils would sit elected individuals who would also sit in the federal Parliament to ensure that decisions placed the health of our water, soil and air – the very things we need to survive – as priority. Honouring Indigenous Australians and incorporating into a new Constitution and Bill of Rights a clear Oath that respects Indigenous Australians.

Energy – sustainable energy is available now. Communities around Australia are already engaging and making this happen. From Photovoltaic Solar to Geo-thermal, wind to wave energy, we can go off coal for base load power now.

Environment – the latest Global Biodiversity Report suggested that (sic) “if the rate of species extinction hits crucial ''tipping points'', not yet identified by the UN, there is a high risk natural systems that help grow crops and keep water clean could be irreversibly damaged. ''This makes the impacts of global change on biodiversity hard to predict, difficult to control once they have begun, and slow, expensive or impossible to reverse once they have occurred,'' Further tying in to the notion of how we see our economy, once extinctions of more and more species escalate, this will start to place pressure on our ability to provide fertile soils or even render certain crops extinct. Public policy needs to reflect the importance of environmental indicators coming first and from those healthy communities can be built.

Stage 3 – Living Together on Mother Earth

Finally, this brings us to a wider change and one that is more difficult. As I alluded to before we, as humans, naturally want to divide ourselves along various lines that distinguish how we are different. The success or otherwise of a change in the way we live comes from the acceptance of one simple idea: we are all the same. We are one species and what is positive about us is that we all respond well to love, to kindness. This is what we have in common.

If we are to truly avoid an ecological catastrophe brought on by many factors not least of all a burgeoning population encroaching on many other species habitats; and the extraction of deeply buried carbon, which is essentially dead matter, only to bring it to the surface and expel its carbon back into the atmosphere millions of years after it was buried, we must recognise clearly that which we have in common.

Diversity in cultures is a wonderful shared experience, but respect for each other based on a shared desire to experience the world as a place of joy and abundance, is paramount.

Stage 4 - A Project: Make Me a Producer.com – More to come!!!
www.makemeaproducer.com (MMAP) has a bold vision: to be at the forefront of investment in theatre production in Australia.

It will do this by acting as a broker between individual philanthropists seeking out specific projects in the arts, specifically theatre, where they will not only contribute financially but take an active role as Executive Producer.

As Executive Producer they can support Producers in a variety of ways depending on their interest and background. This would include sitting in on castings, production design briefing, proposed marketing and publicity strategy briefing, and attending rehearsals.

Key to the success of this is that producers must agree to be clear about exactly what an Executive Producer’s involvement can be to avoid crossing lines relating to the artistic vision of the Director.

The details of the Executive Producer’s agreement would be part of any proposal and would vary from production to production. The benefits will flow in many ways into improving how we live and provide values that, like Bobby Kennedy identified long ago will be difficult to measure, but will be very worthwhile.

I will leave you with these words from Sir Laurence Olivier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXAiLy786A
Go forth with love.

The Age of Oil 1850 - 2050

this is a piece I wrote back in 2008, but bears listing again.

dated 26 feb 2008

Morning campers,

Now, you've heard me pass on information regarding the notion of peak oil. I am inserting a link below of an excerpt from a book called "Beyond Oil: The Threat to Fuel & Food in the Coming Decades" written in 1985 postulating the future of our civilization without oil.

It is interesting because it can be presented to those sceptics who see the current peak oil polemic as nothing but apocalyptic hysteria; written, as it is, not as a media story trying to leverage attention but as a hypothesis attempting to seriously examine the very real risks inherent in oil as a finite resource. It is absolutely in question, but for those who even vaguely ponder the future it has some simple ideas to consider in the paradigm of several millennia of human history.

I ask you to consider this in the light of continuing global economic uncertainty. ages, as we well know, define the history of modern man in his/her ascent from a nomadic (arguably more suited and natural state) to a settled, subsistence existence. in the last 100 years our economy has evolved into a monolithic beast feeding an ever hungrier, and expanding, population. in the last 30 years we have had ample opportunity to commence the transition to renewable energy sources and have steadfastly refused because of short sighted economic imperatives. The consequences of these choices are going to impact the next generation in many ways, not to mention the additional battle of reducing the amount of carbon we belch into the atmosphere, disrupting the climate patterns and further adding injury to the very earth we require for survival.

I ask you this: if your house and its surrounding environment provided you with all you needed to survive would you do the following: continue breeding if it meant that a member of your family had to go without and die of starvation? pollute your water source or contaminate your soil from which you would re-hydrate and feed yourself? pump exhaust from a vehicle into your house and overload the atmosphere with carbon monoxide?

The answers are obvious, but beyond this we continue to participate in a lifestyle that resolutely does all these things in the pursuit of a standard of living that demands more from the earth by way of resources than can be replenished.

There are solutions but in order to have them we will have to change the way we live. Are you prepared for this? If it were to happen suddenly, how would you cope? Adaptability is the answer to survival. Your readiness and willingness to accept the change when it comes will set you apart from those who believe it is simply not true and can never happen; the shock of dramatic change will make it very difficult for these people to transition to the new world.

While this may not be the cheeriest thought on a Monday, I am not concerned by whether you agree or disagree, I simply contend that you should consider it, especially if you have children, and make your own investigation, come to your own conclusion and make your own plans. Or not.

james


here are some other links to check out

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVNyJFBCxc


REVIEWS ON AMAZON FOR THE BOOK ARE:

"If we don't take seriously books like 'Beyond Oil', we shall some day have a hard time explaining to our children what went wrong." - Richard D. Lamm, governor of Colorado 1975-1986

"We need books like 'Beyond Oil', which lay out in a solid and unemotional way the information needed to begin planning a permanent and truly regenerative future." - the late Robert Rodale, founder of Rodale Press and godfather of organic farming

The belief that the United States can increase its per-capita material standard of living and its population ad infinitum is a myth that arose from more than a century of economic success. Though U.S. material wealth has increased tremendously, it was created by the extensive depletion or degradation of nonrenewable and ecological resources, a process which is accelerating.
_Beyond Oil_ asserts that the link between resources, energy use and economic activity is far stronger and quite different than most experts believe, and that dependence of vanishing resources implies that either the population or per-capita material standard of living must stabilize, or both.
The most thorough blueprint available for our energy future, _Beyond Oil_ is the result of one of the most ambitious computerized assessments of future U.S. energy supplies ever conducted. This study incorporates thousands of geological, social and economic statistics to project probable energy, economic and agricultural outcomes well into the next century. Many divergent opinions from opposing experts give the reader a wide overview of energy supplies and a basis from which to evaluate _Beyond Oil_'s remarkable findings.

The Trouble with being Tory

For the conservatives in Australian politics and their voters, it must be one hell of a confusing time. Who do they believe?

Malcolm Turnbull? Definitely not. Do not let a man of principle (and large ego) stand up for anything. In fact, its better to have no policy than one that sounds like the government's; because we all know the point of opposition is to oppose anything that the government puts up. I'm looking forward to the Government opposing the ACT's new push to recognise Same-sex marriage. Oh, and he's a republican!

The Queen? Torn between two lovers and feeling like a fool? Yes, the Coalition is powering down a road that puts them squarely at odds with the QE2. How bitter sweet would it be for the Liberals to have to choose between a POLICY on climate change or a REPUBLIC. What a dilemma? What would a Liberal voter vote for? Maybe they should move to Saudi Arabia where they get the best of both worlds - a country that churns up fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow AND an autocratic monarchy!! What more could you ask for!

Penny Wong? Now, here is not only a test of a conservative's ability to emu-late an ostrich, but as I have observed, they pass witty comments in online forums like "Penny - I am not - Wong" on an ETS. Wow! Did they think that all up on their own? So, not only do they become masters of genuflection but clearly the White Australia Policy is still in force in their brains and an attack on the climate change minister is a thinly veiled racial slur! BRAVO!!! This helps allay some of their confusion, but not which decade they are living in.

The Hadley Centre? The UK's foremost climate change research centre. Tony Abbott, in an interview on Lateline with Tony Jones on 19 Nov 09, said this: "No, I don't claim to have immersed myself deeply in all of these documents. I'm a politician. I have to rely on briefings - I have to rely on what I pick up through the secondary sources." With one of the most significant issues of our generation, possibly ever to impact the planet, the now Leader of the Opposition chooses to rely on secondary sources to form his view about climate change. And you would stake your future on this?

The ABC? Well, this one's easy. All ABC journalists are left wing conspirators! Like Mark Colvin, for example, whose great uncle Stanley Bruce wore spats. Hurrah! Yes, let's accuse the ABC of bias when they say anything that we don't agree with. Because unlike cliimate science, its difficult to cherry pick a journalist's work when it seeks to unearth a simple truth.

Nick Minchin? This is easy and helps avoid any confusion over climate change. To avoid any cognitive dissonance, just recite these statements each night at prayer time

1. "For 10 years the left internationally have been very successful in exploiting peoples' innate fears about global warming and climate change to achieve their political ends." (But we don't. The Children overboard affair was not about that at all.)

2. "If the question is, do people believe or not believe that human beings are causing, are the main cause of the planet warming, then I'd say a majority don't accept that position." Like God.

3. "People won't listen to politicians necessarily; we don't have the credibility I guess." Oh no, scratch number 3….it leads to confusion.

Barnaby Joyce? The confusion here seems to be with understanding what the meaning of the word "no" is. "And you can go to Copenhagen, you can go to Disneyland, you can go wherever you like but the position of the National Party on this will be quite clear, to understand the word no."

Kevin Rudd? Also definitely not. Kevin is the Prime Minister of the Government and a member of the Australian Labor Party, which means he is the enemy, regardless of what he says. In fact everything he says is suspect and must be treated as left wing conspiracy. It was very confusing for conservatives to see politicans working together on a policy and negotiating the policy so as to be more representative for all Australians. Much better to oppose it, because that's what we simply must do. That Kevin is a nasty little man with beady little eyes and pigeon toes, and clearly on those grounds he can't be trusted with the future of his own footsteps let alone the future of the planet.

Where does that leave a conservative in these trying times?

MARGARET THATCHER!

Yes! From the doyenne of tory spiritual fulfillment comes this from the Baroness in 1990!

"The IPCC tells us that, on present trends, the earth will warm up faster than at any time since the last ice age. Weather patterns could change so that what is now wet would become dry, and what is now dry would become wet. Rising seas could threaten the livelihood of that substantial part of the world's population which lives on or near coasts. The character and behaviour of plants would change, some for the better, some for worse. Some species of animals and plants would migrate to different zones or disappear for ever. Forests would die or move. And deserts would advance as green fields retreated. "

So I can see how a conservative voter is just plan flummoxed right now, but they must be very happy with Tony Abbott, because they now have a leader who stakes all his beliefs on a simple concept; faith. His faith in God is what sets him apart and makes him a true moral barometer for our age. He helps us avoid the confusion that comes when overwhelming evidence is lined up against the bible so we can sleep easily at night knowing that all those left wing scientists just don't get it! The earth is 6000 years old and God will hold us in his hands! Why would he send climate change to ruin us all?

I know! All those sinners!

The bloody homosexuals caused climate change. Them and their dirty stinking sexual depravity! That's why god has sent climate change! We're all gonna die because of poofters!

TONY ABBOTT? "Ladies & gentleman, I would like to make an announcement. The Liberal - National Party Coalition has formulated its policy on climate change. We believe, and the evidence from the bible shows this to be the absolute truth, that homosexuals are the real cause of climate change. Therefore, at the next election, we the Liberal - National Party pledge to eradicate all homosexuals. We will do this by underatking something I have always been opposed to: Stem Cell research. This will enable us to identify all homosexuals alive and those that get conceived in the womb. This leads me to another personal crisis , but one that I know will save the planet: allowing women with gay babies to abort. But in the face of being able to get rid of the obvious scourge of our planet, I must make these exceptions and change my mind about what I had held firm on previously. It's a tough job politics and its tougher when you have to make the tough choices. But we believe this is the right choice and working families will be better off because of it. Thank you."

REPORTER: "Mr Abbott, does this mean that you now believe that climate change is man made?"

TONY ABBOTT: "Look, let's get this quite clear: gay man made, ok?"

Now I can sleep easy. I have someone to blame.

Is RFK's Spirit with Obama?

This week President Obama gave a speech at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in Washington. The following morning it was being spread around the Net and I caught it on Facebook. Watching it moved me to tears. Never before had I been witness to a world leader of such stature stake such a claim on supporting change for the LGBT community.

Then I picked up the Sydney Morning Herald and on the front page a short item “Gay backlash for Obama.” The item carried a story about how his claims of support had no timeline for change and therefore he couldn’t be trusted. I thought, “Did these people witness the same speech?” Did they not see him announce that the Anti-Hate Bill had been signed into law and that it would be named after Matthew Shepard, the young man murdered in a gay hate crime in Wyoming in 1998?

That there, also, in the audience was Matthew’s mother and father, whose extraordinary battle to see hate fuelled violence against other humans be stopped. The Herald, rather than report on the quantum leap for LGBT people, picked up on the negative responses to Obama’s commitment and ran only with that. Precisely at the time that the Seymour Centre was running a special 10th anniversary reading of the Laramie Project. No mention anywhere.

What is more dispiriting is that some individuals in our community saw this as a time to launch a tirade at Obama. I understand the need to challenge him. Hell, even Obama said, “You need to keep up the pressure on your leaders, and that includes me”. What I don’t get is how they don’t see the courage Obama is demonstrating in being so bold.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton made what could have been the ultimate political faux pas of the Democratic Nomination process when she made a link between her decision to stay in the race with, not only her husband’s late securing of the democratic nomination in 1992, but in what has been described as macabre, Clinton’s reference to the tragic assassination of Robert F Kennedy on 5 June 1968, the inference being that Obama risked the same fate.

And while RFK’s own son dismissed the remark as innocent and did not take offense, symbolically Clinton slipped, some say irretrievably, and many regard it as the coup de grace of her campaign for the White House.

So has the spirit of RFK finally arrived with a Barack Obama?

I would argue it has and we need to embrace his vision. He has done something no US President has done before him, and that makes him a true herald for change. His administration is the harbinger of THINGS TO COME. We are ungracious if we as a community can believe he will make it happen in one term even, but he is chipping away at some very powerful resistance and THIS MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED.

In June 1968, Robert “Bobby” Francis Kennedy was the juggernaut democratic candidate who entered into the race late – in March – but by June, his campaign was rolling towards the White House. When Kennedy announced his campaign, Nixon –standing for the Republican Party was said to have remarked, “Something bad is going to come of this.”

Kennedy had undergone a personal transformation since the death of his brother in November 1963. Overwhelmed with grief, he continued as Attorney-General under Lyndon Johnson but resigned 9 months later. Johnson and Kennedy’s relationship was strained with Johnson despising Kennedy’s background and writing him off as a spoilt kid with nothing original to contribute. He stood for the US Senate for the state of New York and was elected in November ’64.

What came to define his short campaign for President was his belief in another kind of world. The Vietnam War was now deeply unpopular and Kennedy, while initially supporting the War, gained credence by saying he was wrong and would bring the war to an end.

His now famous speech at the University of Kansas on 18 March, 1968 illustrates just what kind of leader Kennedy might have been, and of itself might provide sad clues as to the reason behind his untimely death:


“We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear out highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the Redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads. It includes the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children.

And if the GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. The GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

The year after Kennedy died the Stonewall Riots took place ushering in a new battleground for social justice. It would appear that perhaps along with Kennedy’s assassination went the last hope America had of becoming something other than it has. The relentless drive for economic growth (Regeanomics) and the collapse of small communities in the quest for some capitalist nirvana has built an endless suburban desert of strip malls, giving birth to an epidemic of addictions and mental health issues.

Nixon was elected and with it came the energy crisis coinciding with America’s peak in oil production in 1970 and the corruption that would ultimately see him resign to avoid impeachment over the Watergate scandal in 1974.

Like Obama today, Kennedy represented a profound shift from earlier leadership, including his older brother who, in all likelihood, would’ve disagreed with parts of his younger brother’s vision for a better world. Kennedy was a huge supporter of the Civil Rights movement and its slain leader, Martin Luther King, who was gunned down outside a hotel in Memphis, Tennesee two months previously on April 4, 1968. Kennedy jumped up and said:


“Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.”


With Obama having beaten McCain for the Presidency, his tenure will be as much about how successfully he defines how Americans see themselves and their future role in Global politics as it is about Christian fundamentalism, race, same sex marriage, Wal-Marts and an endless unsustainable consumer mentality. It could well be that Kennedy’s legacy is to imbue an Obama Presidency with a sense of decency in a world where the greedy corruption of human spirit, foisted on the petard of global capitalism, is awakened and the measure of things worthwhile to living become the very thing that we trade in every day.

It might be idealistic, but then the practical, rational world of global finance has left us bereft of a connection to the key elements that make us human: our connection with each other, our relationship to the earth and the surrender to a force greater than ourselves. It is ludicrous to suggest that all will change at the end of this year, but in our hearts we must remain conscious of that which we should be heading towards. Now, more than ever.

Barack Obama is a true leader. His speech to drive change for the LGBT community is historic. He risks a huge amount politically, but he also makes himself a target of the same hate that killed Shepard. To me that says: “I stand with you to show the world that this is not how it should be.” Let us give him our support and, by all means challenge inaction, but remember that change begins with a bold determination to go where none have gone before.

What is a "right"?

“Suppose we agree that he can’t have babies, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans; but we agree that he does have the right to have babies.”

Judith – Brian’s girlfriend

People’s Front of Judea

Monty Python’s Life of Brian – 1979

Even Monty Python had worked out that oppression and child birth go hand in hand way back in 1979. 

Neil Shepherd, Director General of DoCS noted in the 2006-07 annual report, “The statistical probability is now that one in every five children in NSW will be reported to DoCS at some point before they turn 18 years of age.”

It would seem that opposition to gay parenting isn’t about whether you are good parents – it’s just about fear of sexual orientation or whatever else self righteous damn reason people have to children being raised as decent, fair, generous, loving and honest individuals. It is, apparently, more important where mummy and daddy stick their bits than raising fine, upstanding children, adolescents and young people in a safe environment who will become the next generation and will, whether you like it or not, challenge the way you think.

But I do have to say, after that spat, that I still have a problem. 

We inhabit a planet in a vast universe. Der. At this time, as we measure it in 2007 there are 6 billion of us. According to the United Nations report, World Population to 2300, by 2050 there is estimated to be almost 9 billion people on the planet or put another way: this growth in population we will consume as much food in the next 50 years as humans have consumed for the last 10,000. Notice a problem?

And while we are running around being busy, worried about the bus being on time or if that delivery will arrive at work today for the really important meeting and you’d just die if it failed to turn up, consider this:

At the moment our whole lifestyle, everything we rely on from the food on our table at night when we get home from work, to the computer you switch on in your office in the morning, to the power that drives the lighting rig at ARQ, relies on oil. Nitrogen for the soil that grows the crops, the bag you freeze to put the kids lunch in for school this week, everything that comes to the supermarket by road, sea or air or anywhere for that matter, not to mention the car itself and, oh, the liquid you put in its tank. 

So what is the big problem?

We have peaked, are peaking or are about to peak in world oil production. This, in and of itself, is not remarkable because like any limited resource, it tends to follow a production bell curve. In 2007 we are at the top of the quite narrow apex to this curve. It is also known as Hubbert’s Peak, after the American scientist, Dr Marion King Hubbert, who in 1956 correctly predicted that US domestic oil production would peak around 1970 – which it did. 

The issue is not whether we are running out of oil, but what will happen to the cost of oil as demand keeps rising and supply begins to slip and then descend into an irreversible decline?

Collapse. Wholesale, unprecedented, economic collapse. Being described as the Second Great Depression, it will make the 1929 event seem like a stroll through a bank vault full of gold.

What about alternative energy? Well, yes, what about it? It’s available, we can produce it but haven’t you noticed car manufacturers selling yet more cars still of the combustion engine variety every day? See many electric cars spinning around or lots of individual windmills in the backyards of people’s homes or several on the roofs of apartment blocks? 

Alternative fuels are available but they are not sufficiently developed by way of output to drive the $65 trillion world economy at the rate it currently spins; nor will they be able to fill the void as a cheap resource. Oil has gone from $12 a barrel a decade ago to nearly $100 a barrel today.

The simple fact is that our economy is predicated on the reliable supply of cheap, effective energy. Without it every financial market around the world will convulse and collapse taking with them many human lives; and I don’t mean to the grave, although that will undoubtedly be an outcome eventually. No, these people will lose something more surprising: Their assumption about rights.

Every thing we imagine that we are entitled to will be challenged in a world where you can’t get milk at 3 in the morning; shit, you won’t be able to even get it at 9 in the morning. If you want milk, you’ll have to milk a fucking cow  In a world like this where human life is brought closer to the prevarications of the natural world, who will we stake our claim for the right to exist? There is no justice so complete, so utterly indisputable as the kind that exposes our true vulnerability to the influence of a natural world.

In this new world will be issues that will slide us down Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as aspirational notions of self actualisation are replaced by more basic requirements. Like, where the fuck is my next meal coming from?

The funny thing about this, and I think it’s valuable to hold on to a laugh or two, is that on the other side of vast economic devastation is the very thing we’re already quite aware of: climate change. 

Yes! Hard on the heels of omniscient oil, is the product of our flagrant and quite profligate abuse of this extraordinarily useful and precious resource: increasingly erratic weather patterns making the reliable production of basic food stuffs in the quantities we need, a challenge.

All up I think that’s what you might call a triptych. Whatever you call it, the fact is that adding to the population is not something that should be entered into lightly.

I was at a party at Gretel Pinniger’s, aka Madam Lash, recently and I met a neighbour of hers who was a profoundly heterosexual, self made, male. He said in response to my statement about not having children, “why not?”

“I’m gay.” I replied defensively.

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Well, really”, I began in my most self righteous tone; “I don’t want to add to the planet’s overburdened population.”

He stopped and craned his neck, turning his head to look at me quizzically.

“Let me tell you one thing: we are heading into a future that is going to need a tenacious generation who will be able to face what’s coming. You blokes are usually bright, respectful and loving but, significantly, you also know how to survive.”

Ok, so are there are any lesbians out there looking for an involved father?

  HYPERLINK "http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCSwr/_assets/annual_report07/dg_message.htm" http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCSwr/_assets/annual_report07/dg_message.htm

  HYPERLINK "http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf" http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf

  HYPERLINK "http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/" http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

  HYPERLINK "http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2007/HeinbergEat.html" http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2007/HeinbergEat.html

  HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

  HYPERLINK "http://www.madamelash.com.au/" http://www.madamelash.com.au/

For Fight's Sake

Volumes fill halls in Libraries you know?

Cartons and boxes collecting and sorting.

Nothing is as real. Nothing feels better; 

Than songs on the wind, than words in a letter.

Brave little cherubs battle for more: 

More of material, more to fight for.

So it all syphons down in a pool of Fallujah;

And purpose is spent, democratically speaking.

In the service of good while goodness is leaking.

Half just see what there is to behold.

Fifty per cent scream till the world feels the sore

Guarantees slide over the Teflon TV

And we all scoop it up; gullible ice cream.

Oh, they say, as I do

That we’re being taken along;

Being ridden so hard,

Can’t hear what is wrong.

I caught the last breath

Water seeped into its bed.

The dust that was fought for

has to value its dead.

Wrecked and abandoned;

Gone like a comet.

Echoes of blustering, bulging good days

When life badged on chests and all beauty was saved.

Nothing is nothing is all that is left.

Garrisons splintered, broken, bereft.

Defending the last patch is my futile call;

Let me pick up my pumps and dance at the ball.

The Adventures of Puppy Jim & Raz the Wonder Dog

Chapter 1

 

What possible place could that be?

 

Now that Puppy Jim had emerged from his self induced daze brought on by way too much open space and finding himself in a state the size of Western Europe, he knocked on the door, only to find there was no one at home. He crept in by way of a dirt track. He was right in thinking that no one would notice, it was empty. But the trees and birds and other natural things that stand around doing natural things, stood around doing natural things and everything was good: Until the soft sand.

 

Puppy Jim was an experienced vehicle operator, but this tested even his mettle. Upon the Balladonia track not far from the entrance to the state he now found himself in was an unsuspecting pile of soft sand cunningly hidden amongst all the other sand laid out upon the track. Gallantly, Puppy Jim ploughed along the Balladonia Track, made famous by nobody, in his thoroughly unsuitable 2WD station wagon while Raz the Wonder Dog took it all in his stride acting like some kind of canine spirit level as they rounded corners and Puppy Jim (PJ) needed some commonsense input to correct speed in relation to conditions.

 

The sand was there, spread wide, ready to capture those without warning. PJ came upon the sand with the gusto of a chef chopping onion and in a loud operatic vocal style, declared his chagrin at having been duped so easily by some so sly and launched the anchors. With the natural air-conditioning in the vehicle open by way of its glass panels and the sudden change in velocity, dust that was following along behind filled the vehicle reducing vision in the vehicle to something similar to 600m below sea level.

PJ and Raz the Wonder Dog were the Jacques Cousteau team to rival. Extracting himself from the vehicle, PJ coughed and choked a moment. Raz the Wonder Dog followed suit, but his was merely a sneeze; a satisfied, "I told you so" kind of sneeze and PJ glared at Raz the Wonder Dog with a glare that glared glaringly. They now both stood on the non-famous Balladonia Track looking at their vehicle which resembled something of an hour glass. As the dust began to settle, the situation was evident: they would have to get back in the car and drive on. So was the day of their life.

 

Towards the end of the Balladonia Track, PJ and Raz the Wonder Dog had the hallmarks of intrepid travellers, or to the locals of Esperance: "There's another easterner gone got himself lost in the quest for inner peace." As they frolicked in the warm waters of the Southern Ocean at Great White Tea Time (GWTT has replaced GMT in this area to numb the effect that an actual attack has on locals. Don't ask me).

PJ remarked to Raz the Wonder Dog that dogs give off a good deal of splashing in the water and they should repair to the white, sparkling sand to avoid an inconvenient afternoon death. Raz the Wonder Dog was undeterred by PJ's trivial concerns and continued in his quest to put his head under water for about 20 seconds, bring up a rock, drop it and repeat the whole exercise.

 

Later that evening as PJ and Raz the Wonder Dog enjoyed a meal of copious individual portions all mixed together so that the portions were no longer the portions they had once been. The moon in a state of intoxication, began its ascent into the night sky. Big and square it was too, like moons are occasionally. This one was especially so. The man in it had obviously remembered to turn the yellow light on this time, because it was yellow and not white. PJ and Raz the Wonder Dog stared up at it. PJ then turned to Raz the Wonder Dog and announced confidently: "See! It is square." At which Raz the Wonder Dog cast a look at PJ and thought to himself: "I'm glad I'll be driving tomorrow."

 

The Adventures of Puppy Jim and Raz the Wonder Dog will continue..........eventually.