Kookaburra

Europeans despair at resorts without snow

Europeans despair at resorts without snow | Science & nature | The Australian:
SKIERS heading to the European Alps for Christmas will be sorely disappointed, with resort operators staring at bare slopes as a result of the warmest winter temperatures in 1250 years.

US accepts they are subject to Geneva Convention

In a turn for the better, the US Defence Department has decided that the Geneva Convention does apply to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It seems some parts of the US Adminstration believe in international laws and conventions.

Here's how crikey.com.au reported this good news.

Another small step forward for David Hicks

The US Defence Department seemingly bowed to the inevitable yesterday, promising to treat its detainees in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. This follows the Supreme Court's decision two weeks ago in Hamdan v Rumsfeld that the proposed military commissions to try detainees were unlawful, in part because they would violate the Conventions.

The announcement was accompanied by denials that it represents a change in policy. According to The New York Times, officials "told reporters that the memo represented an affirmation of a duty that was already being met voluntarily". But the Bush administration had repeatedly argued that the Conventions did not apply to the detainees, since they were "unlawful combatants", not prisoners of war.

The US government's strategy has been to try to have things both ways. It claims to be at war, which gives it the right to detain enemy combatants for the duration, but at the same time denies that they are entitled to the usual protection of prisoners of war. It maintains that there is some third status, different from both prisoners of war and common criminals, with the liabilities of both but the protections of neither.

This, of course, is the limbo in which David Hicks has been kept for the last four and a half years. But the Geneva Conventions lend no support to the notion of such a limbo. If enemy soldiers have fought unlawfully, they can be tried for war crimes, but such trials have to meet basic standards of fairness. If they are outside the laws of war altogether, then the only alternative is to treat them as ordinary criminals.

Despite the insistence of the likes of Janet Albrechtsen, there is no reason to think that the laws of war are inadequate for Hicks's situation. If he was really in a war, he's entitled to be treated accordingly. If he's just a member of some international criminal conspiracy, then he belongs in the civilian courts. But don't expect either the US or Australian government to accept that logic any time soon.

Average is best (when it comes to the sharemarket)

"Average is best" - a note to myself in my paper journal. A reminder to not bother trying to 'beat' the market but to be happy to accept what the market delivers - the sharemarket (in Australia and in most Western democracies) has delivered well over the longer term.

I can't control the return on my investments. I can control the risk (by being diversified; and through the right asset selection and portfolio structure). I can control the cost (by choosing fund managers which have lower costs).

I have to remind myself, that no one, least of all me, knows when the right time to buy or sell is. Or indeed what the right set of shares are to outperform the market over the longer term. With few exceptions, even the professional fund managers don't outperform the market over the long term - certainly they are not on average outperforming to a degree that pays their fees (at least that's the data I have seen). So rather than chase outstanding returns while driving up your costs and risk, accept a consistently average performance (that of the market) at a lower cost and potentially lower risk.

It doesn't make sense does it - we're all smart and intelligent (or you wouldn't be reading my ramblings!). Surely we can beat the market? No you can't. Accept it, take the average of the market and enjoy more life.

Do yourself a favour and read up on Index Funds (Vanguard is a good source of information) and invest in a copy of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" [AbeBooks]. Yes, it is about US markets, but the fundamental truths apply elsewhere.

It's a great treatise on the broad subject of investing and how not to be a mug and ultimately lose out by trying to beat the market (in the long run you can't - in the very long run, we're all dead, as a dead economist once said). I like how the author has demonstrated his methods by investing the royalties from the book in his son's name, and has successfully funded his (expensive as it's in the US) education.

Another great title is "The Four Pillars of Investing" by William Bernstein. You can read the Introduction and First Chapter online.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser. This is my opinion and it all makes sense to me. You really should do some reading and prove it for yourself. It took a long time for me to accept the paradoxical sense in "Average is best".

A nation built on myths?

Margaret Bourke-White
Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky 1937
from: Masters of Photography

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• Why does a nation need to promote itself so strongly to its own citizens?
• Why wouldn't Americans of the day not understand how this plays out internationally?
• Who coined the term "American Way" and what does it really mean? (apart from being not-communism, not-facism)
• How do these people feel queuing up for food after a natural disaster, after enduring most of the Great Depression to be standing under a poster which, to them, portrays a foreign world?

The photo looks too much like a set-up but from all accounts it is the real deal. I can't say I have answers, only questions.

Perhaps as an Australian (that's me) I was raised from the cradle to scorn people who are 'full of themselves' - as such I simply can't understand this. I am not saying it's wrong; just that in my eyes I just seems odd (specifically the advertising billboard). And of course all nations are made from myths - some develop deep within societies and some are shoved down your throat on a billboard. A current myth in Australia is our 'miracle economy' - the economy where the evils of inflation and stagnation have been as effectively eliminated as polio was for the west during the 20th century. It truly is a myth as time will surely tell.

Kerry Packer memorial service costs taxpayers $75K plus

Sure makes you think. Small change for the government but it's very strange that the taxpayer should be subsidising a billionaire's funeral.

From crikey.com.au

"As the prime minister goes on the front foot defending Work Choices, news has come through of the cost of Kerry Packer's memorial service at the Opera House earlier this year. The Oz reports it was more than $73,000 which was paid for by the federal government – ie taxpayers. It doesn't include the cost of NSW government provided security, police and parking arrangements at the Opera House. Here's how the amount was made up, according to a list provided by the PM to Sydney Labor MHR, John Murphy: "The government paid for hiring the Opera House ($28,643), advertising ($18,479), flights ($9254), administration ($8797), publicity ($6256) and Comcars ($1791)."

Contrast this with the strident defence the PM made this week of an attempt by the privately owned Spotlight company to get an employee (who votes Liberal) to agree to give up all her benefits in a new work place agreement, for an extra two cents an hour pay. This would cost her $90 a week, or more than $4,500. When he died, Kerry Packer was worth an estimated $6.8 billion and his Australian private company made a profit of $111 million last financial year. Some people, like the PM, don't know when to stop or how to get their noses out of the trough."

Firewalls - the political kind

It seems clearer than ever that we have developed a dangerous culture of unaccountability in the Australian Government. Ministerial advisors sit between the public service and the minister and act in effect like a firewall. Their lack of accountability shields the minister from knowing anything that might be dangerous to their career and public standing. Ministerial advisers are "invisible beings" that are only accountable to their minister and not the Australian parliament or the taxpayers who pay for them.

This issue existed before Howard but he has made grand use of it over the last 10 years and completely dropped any pretence of ministerial accountability. And sadly unless some one has the power and will to change it (unlikely) it will persist long after Howard is gone.

Michael Pascoe writes in Crikey.com.au's newsletter

From children overboard to AWB and all stops between, John Howard and his ministers have been accused of perfecting the art of not being told what they don't want to know. Now a former insider has spilled the beans on how it happens.

In New Matilda, we're told how it's been done by Paul Barratt AO, former Deputy-Secretary or Special Trade Representative in DFAT or the Department of Trade 1977-91, Business Council executive director 1991-96, Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries and Energy 1996-98 and Secretary of the Department of Defence 1998-99.

Hicks supporters hopeful, four years on

Hicks supporters hopeful, four years on. 09/12/2005. ABC News Online:

Today marks four years since Australian David Hicks was arrested on suspicion of involvement with the Taliban. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and is in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, awaiting trial before a US military commission. His Australian lawyer, David McLeod, hopes a decision by Britain's High Court on Tuesday, on a bid for British citizenship, may open legal avenues for Hicks's release.

Astounding! It is completely ludicrous for the citizen of any country to be held in (il)legal limbo for four years. Even more distressing is the pathetic attempts by the Australian government to bring this matter to a close one way or another. Obviously John Howard (Aussie PM) is a sucker for Dubya's flattery - he has called him a man of steel. Well he has certainly not used his 'super powers' to lean on Bush. Blair, on the other hand, has successfully extracted all UK citizens from Guantánamo Bay.

David Hicks is 29 with two children, 10 and 11 (according to Amnesty International) - he has spent 4 years, or close to half his kids lives in jail pending trial. Just get on with it! Better yet if you can't figure out how to try him or indeed if you have the right to pursue this military trail, free him. This whole scenario has made a mockery of US justice and the forces of democracy.

It is a pathetic indictment on the weakness of the Australian government that Hicks best solution is to gain British citizenship. At least they look after their citizens.

The real story of Australian politics

The Latham Diaries (which I don't intend to buy and read) really reflect on the sideshow of Australian politics - the Australian Labor Party - and only relevant to the general running of Australia to the extent that they explain why Labor is such a poor Opposition to the strength of Howard's Government.

The are sadly a great distraction from the main game - how Australia is governed today. It is shocking how inept the Howard government is outside the realm of economic policy. This is most illustrated by the Immigration Department which despite incarcerating and deporting Australian citizens (talk about failure to function!) seems to be above any agenda for change or indeed for anyone from Minister Vanstone down to take responsibility.

Michael Pascoe writing for Crikey.com.au nails it well.

Miserable Failure? Google has the answer

Type in the words "miserable failure" in Google and click on the I'm feeling lucky button.

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Update: It's an oldie but a goody. The BBC reported on it in 2003. Also SearchEngineWatch uses this as an example of the weaknesses of Google's design. It is a limitation of Google which is being exploited, rather than Google itself/themselves passing a political judgement.

War on Error

Doc Searls is nailing the next phase of America's history - The War on Error.

Katrina was what we are sure to avoid calling an "act of God". Yesterday my eight year old son asked how God could make something like Katrina happen. Not "let." Make.

Good question.

Ever notice that's how people answer questions they're not prepared to answer? Good Question, they say.

While we're not answering that one, we will face the question New Orleans' survivors will ask, over and over again. Why weren't we prepared? Why didn't we do more?

Thus will begin our War on Error.

Whatever else it causes, this war will change national priorities. Also social and personal ones.

With nobody but God and ourselves to blame, and with nobody but ourselves to help, we will put people first. And we will do our best to protect our civilization from acts of God for which people must be prepared.

The next hard question is, Which "we"? Our federal, state and local governments? Or ourselves? Or both, together, in some new way?

There is a great sense of optimism in Doc's postings. A realistic view forward - solve the issues, find out what went wrong but don't get stuck in the blame game. Wise words Doc.