Flannery on pied pipers

Takes one to know one perhaps? Not sure why the ABC has such a restricted guest list on such an easy spend list .
Bertina Arndt (Qand A) was correct to identify Tim's skills at advocating solutions as very unreliable.
Worse, anyone who can see a 12 billion gift to the polluters as a good thing and THEN thinks the government piper can call the tune has not seen the lights and mirrors games that go on once this is done - Tim's a complete innocent on this one.

The only safe way for Rudd to conduct a sin review of carbon polluters is to get them all to church and agree( and before he goes to Copenhagen )
Just handing out money will soon dry up the churches commitment to this heretical campaign of atonement without cost ( let alone bureau led brilliance with our taxes ) .

notnow

look later

Cultural wars or cultural stalemate?

Jeff Kennett and Jon Feine this morning: Victorian College of the Arts
When the left and the right meet, we are right to suspect trouble ; either we are in deep limbo land or perhaps, love, at last bite land . Love(of culture) is not in doubt , so we will assume that we are in a place where we don't want to be , but are no longer sure about how to get out of there.
The wheels have fallen off and we've come together to discuss, not new wheels , chassis , but how to preserve the eroded walls and floors .
VCA is not a work of Art , is it ?
Without Art indeed , we are less than human; but ,are we afraid of change for once ?
Have we really got to the bottom of the pit which Pratt himself abandoned or don't we want to discover the bare emptiness of the way we have been going - that we must keep funding it further ( in the name of independance) ? Why do the wannabes arrive only as the facade is falling (VCA) We need them to act while the building itself was crumbling ?

"Not crumbling" according to ever facade orientated pioneer of recapitalizing everything. "we painted it all" just recently?
.Jeff brings along his tried and failed means of reinvigouraging everything($) . Jon ,clearly unmoored from his reactionary roots, is unaware that he doesn't have an alternative. "How much money do you need to create good art" he might have said? How much do we have ? we have 3 tv stations to fill
. Jeffed again -
Sure its a problem for the right and a problem for the left
?Maybe its not cultural wars we need to address but cultural stalemate

A needed dialogue with the deaf and dumb founded?

Was a great idea yesterday to visit communities at risk of bushfires. The questions were good ( richard and others ) even if predictably the answers were all over the place - this confusion is good background to risk assessment and how to promote prevention strategies. Something most governments aand commissions only talk a lot about .

How creative is ABC local radio

This is not something ABC presenters seem to think is an issue - but listening to them fail to improvise on interactive structure has been a big issue for a long time for me .
Take reading and summarizing SMS's just as an example -its a jolly good thing BUT its taken years to get feedback to work well .
Jon Feine likes to think he is an innovator, but here he is, after many years of emails to ask his producers to stop him controlling the discussion, he has finally copied what Neil Mitchell's team have been doing for a long time - summarizing responses from SMS.....Yes about time.
So what interactive technology aren't they using ? The problem may not be technological , it may be more about losing control the ABC is too slow to really take up in practice the innovations that science and new technology imply .

And more than ever, Australians need to be brilliant in these areas of real innovation and construction , if education is going to cut ice ( ABc is often only running another predjudice driven quick fiz focus and it means even our election briefings etc etc for years, are on a fiz to nowhere on the real agendas - like: why is the liberal party ineffective in matters of conservative issue capture) .
The point is following Mcluhan , with modern communication, even high priests and contented congegations can have their cake and eat it ....and be ahead of 3AW (Have both shock jocks, stupid jocks and seriuos stuff as well)

As the ABCchurch members will finally be told - the future is not about the people on the switches, but the people at the end of the switches . ABC radio could be very innovative and lead the technological revolution by posting the callers contact details ( esp feedback) as they have been asked to do for years now--- plus other innovations that respect new media opportunities.
Never was this more obvious over the last few days than when 774 missed the chance to make the BULLYING discussion move on (to go beyond what Mitchell was doing with it) , by finding a way to link/ encourage the discussions/competency elements out in cyberspace (building onto RN too) .
Where is the link for 774 ? On aggression and how to deal with it
Sorry Jon ---we don't always want to talk to you - but each other. That frustrated doctor who called for a ban on alcoholic advertising was never likely to get the discussion to move well .
It would be great if 774 was the first shock jock station to actually move discussions on . At the moment it's all talk - infotaining perhaps ; the presenters are moving along and moving away.It can be very dissipating if you want political and media preoocupations to further than quick fix .
Most importantly, the ABC could be facilitating its busy listenership with food rather than snacks for the day. Now that would be really good for the wellbeing of the community !Communities and local - lets get real now and make our engagement more effective in finding concrete directions - at least !.

Religious nutters

It seems that when the ABC high priests are not standing infront of some truly inspirational paradigms , the sheep are seen to be .
It's true that one of the most cutting arguments against following a good cause .....of any kind, is the bleeting noises made by the unthinking people who tag along. ( Motherhood blah blah, for example ,particularly on some commercial current affairs shows )
Bleeting noises are enough to make anyone cynical, but so is sledging the sheep - Jesus after all could love them . Why can't we ?
Feine is certainly not alone in finding it difficult to think that something good could be happening inside a church - in his talk with the theology parliament rep to come to Melbourne in November -"Ok, say we take you seriously, BUT " he implies "how do you deal with the crazzies?"
Its a very natural big question. C.S.Lewis addresses it as best as one can in the Screwtape letters. Followers of Christ throughout the centuries have learnt that sometimes it not only the crazzies but " the very visible churches" which stand in the road of following Him. The concept of "the invisible church" is a very strong Christian tradition that attempts to deal with that paradox.
Mind you ,its easy for Feine to focus on those people - you never see "a normal christian" on the TV-- do you? You have to meet one to know they exist ! Sort of like reverse discrimination - until they become Presidents or something.
Unfortunately to be a Christian you have to be a bit "crazY '- its true . "you have to be a bit crazy to be a christian" I thought the spokesman might have said" . Christians too, ask why God doesn't seem to make it easy to believe.He clearly doesn't!
Wherever you, the reader , are on this , unthinkingness , is still something, in my mind , that offends . I would put it next to ungodliness in an adult, but their are still children and sheep around ; we need to educate them , as best we can.
We have believed until recently in education .Sheep are easily led - like in earth care issues there is often more heat than light in the crowd that gathers .

To sledge the sheep is often not to help the sheep . Rememember when YOU were a teenager - more passion than sense .But who wouldn't prefer to preserve their passion when it can clearly lead to the peacable fruit of a great job. Who wouldn't take their passion and help them run with it?
Theology talk, like green talk , paradoxically, is very rich with thinking and carefully applied actions. Its not threatening at all, unless you are afraid of words and ideas. Unless you want to be a sheep of a different kind?
Lets not get distracted then --- the subject of your or my/ insanity is a big one for another day .
Focusing on the followers, rather than the leaders, or the surface matter and not the substance ( theology) is to miss the chance to think.
( theology has implications-- focus on that ) .eg question What is it about christian theology that stops support for acting out terrorism - apart from "annoying type talk terrorism " ( not my wordsmate ) ???? What is about following Jesus that limits the revenge mentality that breeds bullying?

Can any one of us thinking aussies identify with those unthinking worshipful Michael Jackson lovers .....who ignore the real michael jackson?

If we care about reality and acting effectively with real compassion , we will think about what we say and reject a lot of what is said by " the sheep" . Well intentioned , maybe, but not well targeted . No use criticizing your teenage children for their enthusiasm - try to build on it .They are, for all their faults, the new conservationists .
If we are going to go somewhere together ( better earthcare for example) we will ALL be "followers" - we can agree to disagree and to discuss. Thats the democratic vision - unity in diversity- Making the west more effective .
Moving on then - If we are going to tackle other faith fanatics with thinking , we need to do tackle the talk not the perosn - take their theology seriously - If you know the balance between punishments and rewards theory in any theology , you can start even a green enthusiast thinking- and thats healthy for everyone. Share the rewards, .....as well as the fears ?

To focus on the sheep in the crowd is to miss the point. God loves em , so why can't we? Jesus got well beyond the handicaps , capturing the wonder of the reality that " you can even love sheep "
He said it , and He said it so well . Wow .
How can we mere mortals capture such paradigm shifts? Religious nutters- only God Himself could love them!

Fear --You bet

For I bring you bad tidings of great worry which shall infect the whole 774 listenership if they are not careful to take the feinefluvirus vaccine - available here

Faine is at it again. This time he's really worried about water.
"May has had its lowest rainfall for oh oh so long '
Next month, when it rains, it will be "landslides in the catchments" --one presumes .
For your information, the only time to review water restrictions in Victoria is in November.

and while Jon taunted Brumby over the new authority and their charging method , he's missed the major point - Brumby has without any flack , started up yet another uneccesary Authority.
New governments will have to give new names to competent institutions now that they have overused the word authority. The unauthoritative nature of so many new authorties is real. take the Coastal MA. Think of others?
Maybe someone could throw the word "commission" in at this moment.
Where is Baillieu when Brumbys planning fiascos are so obviusly destined to be ineffective and uneccesary for good governance; new Authorities for everything displacing anyone whose really responsible for anything.

Local my foot

Ash Feb09 . "Your emergency services station" - a little too grand a title , I suggest . Never been happy with 774 and the ABC overplaying the "local" idea. Sure its OK most of the time but not on days like predicatable high danger days like Saturday.
Can they be the conduit for everything good that is happening? . Even when there is no emrgency we switch off . We hear people on the rdaio talkback who make sense and we can't effectively support them. We always hear lots of John and Terry, but noone ther is making the exchange go any further using postings and weblists. Lots of people switch off for example because the conduit is too narrow ( why hasn't Jon Feine got to publishing the names of agreed callers so we don't have to always rely on him as the conduit- i put that point to 774 producers over 4 years ago - He's still in control of the flow? its not right and prehistoric in the info internet age )

The B government don't understand the profession of providing risk management advice, so 774 can hardly be blamed entirely for taking on too much.
It clearly suits some presenters to think they can, like our leaders, do much much more than they really can. Time for more shared responsibility.
Really effective risk management ( the stuff we think about here every day) builds from true local responsiveness, responsibility and diversity. That way you get tough pointed and targeted decisons ( as opposed to generalised smalz)
There is nothing better than RADIO is such high risk situations, but some elements SHOULD be dedicated and the rural community should KNOW exactly where to tune to for minute by minute updates ( slow as they might be to come )

for eg there are such things as truly local community stations who dedicate all their airtime to warnings and reports in such situations and were doing it well before 774! not a mention is given to them. Its all ABC

If you warn everybody about everything all the time, you warn nobody. 774 should not be advertising itself as the fount of all knowledge. Reinforce Diversity , competence and authorship. Besides being the fount is no fun when things are really busy; you just become a big fat bottleneck and are standing in the road of diversity and shared responsibility and ....... More here