#2: On self improvement

I'm currently between assignments so I have had a bit of spare time on my hands.

There's been time to undertake a couple of modest home improvements, with a bit of input from IKEA (I once read that an astounding proportion of Western Europe's population born since WWII was conceived in an IKEA bed - something like 60%).

I've also been on an intermittent program of self improvement, which has introduced me to the genre of "how to" books - How to take over the world has inspired me.

Many of the others have been somewhat less than inspirational.

As a person contemplating new career directions, What color is your parachute? A practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers looked to be of interest. After all, it's Still the best-selling job-hunting book in the world! 9 MILLION COPIES SOLD!.

Could 9 MILLION readers possibly be wrong?

The idiosyncratic use of hyphens should have been a dead give away. As it turns out, I didn't make it past the acknowledgements (page XV) in which the author gives his thanks to "The Great Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and source of all grace, wisdom, and compassion....." and so on and on and on for 132 words. Now I'm not necessarily offended by public affirmations of personal faith (nor of irregular comma use) but:

1. 132 words is a mess of a sentence
2. there's a definite imputation here that this is divinely inspired - who does this guy think he is, the Pope?
3. there's not the usual disclaimer - 'thank God for the good things in this book and I'm responsible for the crap' (I suppose that if 2 is the case then then 3 is unnecessary?).

I should have browsed more carefully before handing over the requisite $34.95. I do take comfort in the fact that the book is printed on New leaf EcoBook50, made with 50% post-consumer waste , processed chlorine free, which saved 1116 full grown trees. Here's a recycling idea: anyone feeling the need to consult this manual can have mine for the cost of the postage.


365 ways to change the world - how to make a difference is quite an engaging browse (this is the sort of book you browse in off moments, rather than read). Did you know there are now over 46,000 pieces of plastic waste in every square mile of the world's oceans? I didn't and I have no idea whether it's actually true but it does give force to the recommended action on 22 February which is to "say NO! to PLASTIC BAGS". Perfectly rational to me.

A few random selections from other recommended actions

1. on 1 April (why doesn't this surprise me?) MASTURBATE for peace
2. if, sadly, you happen to die around 2 June, have a GREEN funeral which involves a bamboo coffin and burial in a paddock
3. on 25 July, whip up some open source COLA, the syrup of which comprises, among other ingredients, 2.25 litres of water and 2.25 kgs of white granulated sugar - just like the real thing.

That's the flavour of it - there's some quite wacky (and arguably vaguely criminal recommendations) but overall well worth a browse and, as these things go, just a snip at $24.95. Unfortunately, it's not printed on New Leaf EcoBook50.

But now to today, when I came across the SEE cafe (an establishment which is a story in itself - go here) and was immediately attracted by a blurb for a manual called GUTS - The book too bold for bookshops. This is possibly overstating it, but it does have a few contestable propositions:

Want the secret of success in life and business?
Then, first you need GUTS to tell the truth:

1. Like, we need fewer women in the workplace and more cavemen.
2. Jesus Christ was the original brand guru and business is our new religion.
3. Rationality is over-rated and it's why business can't connect with consumers.

As an aging SNAG and, I like to think, an occasionally rational person, I found this blurb absolutely arresting. It's not immediately apparent to me as to how you will unshackle the creative potential of humanity in a "new Renaissance" (which seems to be our author's goal) through shackling the greater part of humanity. And for my part, I think irrational behaviour is grossly overrated and quite often fatal for innocent bystanders.

But, hey, let's not get ahead of this - I haven't actually read this one, merely browsed through it on the 109 tram. You never know, there may be in this tome a pointer to the ultimate destination in my journey of personal self improvement (i.e. something akin to world domination in something), in which case this will be $45 well spent.

#1: On banning books

As Minister for Education, Science and Training in the Australian Government, you would have expected Julie Bishop to place a high value on intellectual inquiry, debate and reasoned judgement.

This expectation is obviously misplaced.

Ms Bishop’s call in September 2006 for the ban of a text on the Victorian Certificate of Education unit International Studies is nothing more than the political correctness of the Howard Government gone mad. It now seems that anything that does not conform to the Howard Governments political or cultural agenda is to be censored, banned or suppressed.

Apparently, Ms Bishop was offended by a passage in the text that states:

Terrorist acts are carried out by both small organisations (and individuals) and by states (governments). Throughout history, most terrorist acts have been carried out by nation states. The United States itself was accused of committing acts of state terrorism in Nicaragua in the 1980’s. Other examples of state run terror campaigns have taken place in Russia, (in Chechnya most recently), Turkey, (in Kurdistan), Israel (in Palestine), Indonesia (in Aceh, West Papua and East Timor most recently).

The book itself has not been been endorsed by the Department of Education nor by the VCAA as a set text. As the text itself states:

Reference has been made in this book to the VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education). This does not imply endorsement by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

The text was commissioned by the Victorian Association of Social Science Teachers (VASST) to assist VCE teachers, according to the VASST website.

While the particular examples cited in the text may be the subject of debate – which is, after all, at the very heart of intellectual inquiry – it is difficult to see how one could object to the proposition that the most horrendous acts of terror in human history have been committed by nation states.

If Ms Bishop is fair dinkum in her belief that the text ought to be banned, she ought to refer the text to the Commonwealth Office of Film and Literature Review. Does she also propose to prosecute the VASST for apparently giving comfort to terrorists?

In August (2006), Ms Bishop convened a history summit – she obviously needs a few lessons in history herself. Following are a few “true” or “false” propositions – the answers (or at least credible answers sourced from Wikipedia) are appended.

Q: The most serious acts of terror have been committed by nation states.

Q. Nelson Mandela was jailed for shoplifting.

Q. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin won the Nobel Peace
Prize for his advocacy of non-violent change.

Q. The so-called “Coalition of the Willing” invaded Iraq in 2003 to remove the threat posed to the region by Iraq’s extensive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Q. In October 2001, Australian naval personnel saved children from drowning in the Indian Ocean when their parents threw them overboard from the so-called SIEV 4.



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Q. The most serious acts of terror have been committed by nation states.

A: This is self-evidently true: how else would you typify the conduct of regimes such as Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Russia, Pol Pot’s Kampuchea and Saddam’s Iraq, if not “terrorism”, however defined?

It is an orthodox proposition of US foreign policy that a handful of rogue states (“the Axis of Evil”) either sponsor terrorism or conduct it themselves.

One could cite the Lockerbie aircraft bombing, in which the state of Libya was implicated, and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand by agents of the French state, as direct examples of “state terrorism”.

In 1986 the International Court of Justice found that the United States had violated international law by supporting Contra guerrillas in their war against the Nicaraguan government (which included bombings and assassinations) and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. Some commentators have described the so-called “unlawful use of force” of which the US was found guilty as “terrorism”. The US itself rejected the finding - and pulled out of the International Court of Justice..

See also:

· Augusto Pinochet
· Slobodan Milosevic.

Q. Nelson Mandela was jailed for shoplifting.

A. False. Mandela was initially jailed for illegally leaving South Africa (to undertake military training in Algeria) and for incitement to strike.

He was later convicted of sabotage.

Mandela was the founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated Spear of the Nation, the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). MK conducted a low level “guerilla campaign” against the apartheid regime, which included what would usually be described as terrorist acts. MK was styled after the Irgun (see below).

Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 (with FW de Klerk).

Q. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin won the Nobel Peace
Prize for his advocacy of non-violent change.

A: While it’s true that Begin did win the Nobel Peace Prize (with Anwar Sadat in 1978), he was hardly an advocate of “non-violent change".

In the struggle to create a Jewish State in the British Mandate of Palestine, Begin was the leader of a paramilitary organisation called the Irgun Tsvai Leumi (Irgun - “National Military Organisation”), which was responsible, for example, for the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 , resulting in the deaths of 95 people, mainly civilians. The Irgun was styled after the IRA.

The Irgun was condemned as a terrorist organisation by the British authorities as well as by several Jewish organisations, such as the Jewish Agency, Haganah and Histadrut.

Other Israeli Prime Ministers to participate in this struggle were Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon who were both leaders in the paramilitary organisation the Haganah. Yitzhac Shamir was leader of the Stern Group (or “Lehi”) , a radical offshoot of the Irgun. Under Shamir’s leadership, the Stern Group was responsible for a number of assasinations, including the 1944 assassination of Britain's Minister of State for the Middle East, Lord Moyne; and the 1948 assassination of the United Nations representative in the Middle East, Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been responsible for securing the release of 21,000 Jewish prisoners from German camps during World War II.

Yitzhak Rabin also won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 (shared with Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres).

Q. The so-called “Coalition of the Willing” invaded Iraq in 2003 to remove the
threat posed to the region by Iraq’s extensive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

A: True. In the event no arsenal of WMD was ever found.

Q. In October 2001, Australian naval personnel saved children from drowning in the Indian Ocean when their parents threw them overboard from the so-called SIEV 4.

A: It's true that naval personnel did save children but the accusation that the children were thrown overboard by the parents was found by an Australian Senate Inqiry to be false. It concluded that photographs released to support the claim were in fact pictures taken of navy personnel rescuing children when the boat began to sink.

Despite advice from the Defence Force that the original assertion was untrue and that the photographs were not what they were being represented as, Ministers did nothing to correct the public record.

The Inquiry concluded that the reasons for this included “genuine miscommunication or misunderstanding, inattention, avoidance of responsibility, a public service culture of responsiveness and perhaps over-responsiveness to the political needs of ministers, and deliberate deception motivated by political expedience.”

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