Try some Dialogue

The book "The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook" says:

"The theory of dialogue suggests that breakdowns in the effectiveness of teams and organizations (governments??) are reflective of a broader crisis in the nature of how human beings perceive the world. As a natural mechanism to develop meaning, people learn to divide the world into categories and distinctions in our thoughts. We then tend to become almost hypnotised by these distinctions, forgetting that we created them. “The economy is falling apart,” or “The people are corrupt,” becomes our reality, with a seemingly independent power over us."

One of the problems that I see coming from this "fragmentation of thought" is that it holds us prisoner and manifests itself via a lack of creativity. Creativity is a skill that is often called upon when trying to solve complex problems.

"As one author (Bohm) has suggested, fragmentation of thought is like a virus that has infected every field of human endeavour. Specialists in most fields cannot talk across specialities. Marketing sees production as the problem. Managers are told to “think” while workers are told to “act.” Instead of reasoning together, people defend their “part,” seeking to defeat others. If fragmentation is a condition of our times, then dialogue is one tentatively proven strategy for stepping back from the way of thinking which fragmentation produces.

How many times have you been in a discussion where people defend their stance without attempting to understand the other person's reasoning or thinking? I'm not saying people need to agree but making ourselves a little vulnerable in a debate can open up effective dialogue where creativity and good ideas can form. If only they'd do this while running the country.

The Human Cost of not avoiding War

I spoke recently about my struggle to come to terms with the human cost of war. Using World War II as an example, I found a link to some information on a website called the information clearing house.

Here's a summary of the article by Professor Joseph V. O'Brien of the Department of History from John Jay College of Criminal Justice (sorry I don't have the original link):

World War II: Combatants and Casualties (1937 - 45)

Figures are gathered from various sources and, inevitably, are estimates for the most part. The starting point is taken as 1937, when in July of that year China was invaded by Japan in a widening war that continued until the defeat of both Japan and Germany in 1945. The figures for China and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), in particular, may be off by millions. The purpose is to indicate the immensity of the human losses in this most terrible of all wars, one characterized by unspeakable atrocities, germ warfare, enormous civilian casualties, genocide of 5 1/2 million European Jews, and the use of a new and terror-laden weapon of war--the atomic bomb. Estimates of the death toll attributable to the war for military and civilian losses have ranged upward to 60 million, with civilian losses at or more than 50 percent of that total (a stark contrast with the losses of WWI, in which such losses were no more than five percent). The war had a far greater global reach than its predecessor; over 50 countries or dependencies were listed as having some degree of involvement.

The greatest human losses, were suffered by combatants and civilians of the Soviet Union and China. In the near two-and-a-half year siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) by the German forces, 1 1/2 million Russians alone died from shelling, bombing, disease and starvation, a figure that exceeded all the military casualties of the U.S.A.and British Commonwealth combined. The cruelties perpetrated by morally depraved units of the Japanese army in China is demonstrated most vividly in the torture and massacre of civilians and the barbaric killing of war prisoners in the infamous Rape of Nanking that took the lives of over 300,000 Chinese. Other mass civilian deaths, apart from the singular destruction of European Jews, comprise the hundreds of thousands of slave laborers in the Japanese-held Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) as well as the 1 1/2 million deaths in Bengal as a consequence of war-related famine.

Axis Forces

Country	Pop.	Killed/Mising	Wounded	Total(Military)	Civilian (deaths)
Germany	78m	3.5 million	4.6 million	8.1 million	2million
Italy	44m	330,000	?		70,000
Japan	72m	1.75 million	?		350,000
Rumania	20m	500,000	300,000	800,000	400,000
Bulgaria	6m	10,000	?		50,000
Hungary	10m	120,000	250,000	370,000	200,000
Finland	4m	100,000	45,000	145,000	4,000

Allied Forces (in order of entry into the war)

Country

Pop.

Killed/Mising

Wounded

Total(Military)

Civilian (deaths)

China	450m	1.3 million	1.8 million	3.1 million	9 million
Poland	35m	130,000	200,000	330,000	2.5million
U.K.	48m	400,000	300,000	700,000	60,000
France	42m	250,000	350,000	600,000	270,000
Australia	7m	30,000	40,000	70,000	--
India	360m	36,000	64,000	100,000	--
New Zealand	2m	10,000	20,000	30,000	--
So. Africa	10m	9,000	14,000	23,000	--
Canada	11m	42,000	50,000	92,000	--
Denmark	4m	2,000	?	?	1,000
Norway	3m	10,000	?	?	6,000
Belgium	8m	12,000	16,000	28,000	100,000
Holland	9m	14,000	7,000	21,000	250,000
Greece	7m	90,000	?	?	400,000
Yugoslavia	15m	320,000	?	?	1.3million
U.S.S.R.	194m	9 million	18 million	27 million	19 million
U.S.A.	129m	300,000	300,000	600,000	--

I've been away

I've been away these last few days - no computer, no email, no phone. Felt pretty good to just forget about technology and all my commitments (except the kids) for a couple of days.

Whilst I was away it was ANZAC day. I have always struggled on ANZAC day. I was in the Australian Navy for 11 years and participated in at least 4 Sydney marches as part of a Navy Volunteer Band (I don't think they have these anymore). I was also lucky enough to be involved in regional ceremonies which are a far cry from the large Sydney march but not one bit less emotional.

My struggles stem from my inability to come to terms with the massive waste of life. I'm not a war scholar nor do I hold any formal education in history. But you don't need a formal education to look at names on a war memorial wall to figure out that too many people have died in wars. It also seems incomprehensible when you start considering the civilian lives not counted on these war memorials.

When I see an old digger on ANZAC day or hear the horrible war stories I can't help but cry. ANZAC day needs to remind us of the futility of war and should inspire us to find peaceful solutions to international stalemates and disagreements.

To borrow a phrase....."The inconvenient truth"of war is that people die, families are destroyed, environments are pillaged, and priorities can be skewed.

Having a "different" view can get you into hot water

Ok here's a controversial topic. I read in today's Sydney Morning Herald that a contestant in Miss USA is in hot water for giving the "wrong" answer to a question from a judge. (Read the article here)

The question to the contestant was essentially about whether she supported gay marriage. She basically said no. Her answer has been surrounded in controversy and even being touted as the reason she didn't win.

Here's my view....she was asked the question and she gave her honest opinion. It may not have been the wisest thing to do given that it probably cost her the crown. However, I personally think she has done the right thing because she didn't compromise on her belief at the time of the question when there is a great deal of pressure to say what you think everyone wants to hear.

Now here's the thing....instead of berating her and chastising her I think the right thing to do is to educate her on the discrimination that homosexuals have had to put up with for eons. I'm not gay but I certainly think that EVERYONE should be treated equally no matter what their belief etc.....I personally think it is appalling that homosexuals are treated poorly simply because they have love for another person who happens to be of the same gender. I know that there are many people who don't think this way and that's fine. When this topic comes up in conversation I normally attempt to get people to become more aware of their own thinking and reasoning (reflection) and to get them to make their thinking and reasoning visible to me.

In one of my favourite books (The 5th Discipline Fieldbook) there is something called "The Ladder of Inference". In short it is a mental model of how people generate attitudes toward things, people etc....The book says that...."Our ability to achieve results we truly desire is eroded by our feelings that: our beliefs are the truth, the truth is obvious, our beliefs are based on real data, the data we select are the real data."

So if you start with the wrong data you are on a road to nowhere. This is one reason that as an engineer it is important to obtain the right data. But you won't know what the right data is until you compare lots of it.

So getting back to the topic....if people have views that are different to yours then get them to reflect on how they came to have that view. Who knows you may even start to question and reflect your own ladder of inference. This is the start of dialogue - something needed in our world.

More Info on "our" representatives in the Federal Senate

Further to my previous post "Engineers Needed in Parliament", I have completed a quick look at our representatives in the Federal Senate (there are 76 senators).

• 30% of Senators are lawyers!
• 50% of Senators have either a law degree and/or a BA.
• 5% are accountants
• 4% teachers

There is only ONE engineer in the Federal Senate!

Clearly there is an over representation of lawyers in Canberra with both houses of parliament being dominated by them. Overall there are 226 elected pollies in Canberra - this equates to 66 lawyers! Comparatively in both houses there are only THREE engineers!

Is it any wonder that when you listen to a politician speak they tend to skirt the issue because this is what lawyers are trained to do. They are unable to provide straight forward answers because they have not be trained to give them. Engineers on the other hand have been trained to solve problems and provide solutions based on their engineering knowledge and the evidence that is before them. We can find faults in systems by analysing the effects of the interactions in that system.

It is important to note at this stage in the post that we live in what can be termed a "closed system" of inter-related objects. In our world nothing is created or destroyed, it just changes form. So if we decide to bury CO2 deep in the ground - it is not destroyed or removed it is merely "put in a closet" so to speak, until sometime down the track the closet is opened; either by a geological disturbance or some other change in the system.

Furthermore, everything we buy comes from "somewhere" and it is important to be educated in where your "stuff" comes from (and how it is made). If we truly want to help our seemingly dying planet then we have an individual responsibility for careful consideration of our actions.

Something to try at home

I do all the cooking at my place and I don't mind saying that I do ok. Last year I obtained a blank hardbound book and started to write my own recipes in it. I'm up to 7 unique Adam made recipes. I can't put my hand on my heart and say they are truly original but I haven't copied them from anywhere. I'd be very surprised if someone, somewhere hasn't cooked what I have made.

Anyway here's the first recipe from my, as yet, unfinished and unpublished book.

Carrot Cake for Dinner (Vegetarian)

Ingrediants

• 1 grated carrot
• 1 grated zuchini
• 440g creamed corn
• Clove of crushed garlic
• half teaspoon of cumin
• quarter pumpkin (cooked and mashed)
• 5 eggs
• 4 soft tortillas
• 1 cup of grated Cheese of your choice (mozzarella or tasty is good)
  Method
• Combine carrot, zuchini, corn, cumin , garlic in a bowl.
• Combine eggs and cooled pumpkin mash
• In a round oven proof dish (I use a spring form pan) layer the ingrediants in the following way (starting at the bottom); tortilla, half pumpkin mash, half carrot mix, tortilla, half cheese then repeat - ending up with two layers of ingrediants.
• Put in 190 degree oven for 40 mins and there you have it! Goes well with cous cous.
  
  

Let me know if anyone tries it and what they thought!

Engineers Needed in Federal Parliament

I've just been spending some time tallying up the "qualifications" of our elected officials in the Federal House of Representatives (all 150 of them).

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and have a Masters and PhD in Biomedical Engineering. One thing about studying and practicing engineering is that you learn how to SOLVE problems not CREATE them. I recall an ad campaign from the 1990s by the then Institute of Engineers Australia. The catch cry was "Engineers make it happen". Think about it for a moment. Without Engineering there'd be no internet, no buildings, roads, cars, in fact there wouldn't be much of anything.

If people ever ask themselves "why the government doesn't "fix" things?" then here's the answer:

according to my quick analysis of federal lower house policticians 41% are either lawyers (30%) or accountants (11%). There are only 2 engineers! Riddle Solved.

According to this link being a politician is one of the most untrusted professions - coincidentally so too are lawyers (untrusted). In fact, they are only 7 spots away from each other on the table in the link. So politicians will never be trusted as long as we continue to have 30% of them with a law background.

What I find particularly ironic about this that the professions we distrust (lawyers) are the ones we need to trust. Why do we keep putting these professionals with verbal diarrhoea in parliament?

We NEED more engineers in Parliament.

Stop buying bottled water

I'll be the first and put my hand up...yes I have bought bottled water. On 60 Minutes recently there was a story called "Liquid Gold"

Australians spent more than $500,000,000 on bottled water in 2008. I don't really care so much where people spend their money but the biggest issue for me is the energy going into getting that bottle of water into your shopping bag.....

....."for every product you make you need some oil, don't you. But how much oil is the question....that much oil (about 1 cup) to put that much water (1.25litres) in the same bottle. Jon Dee says the simple solution to such a wanton waste of energy is to take tap water back to the people. He champions the return of the old-fashioned bubbler delivering tap water - filtered and free."

So that's about 1 cup of oil (250ml) for every 1.25 litres of bottled water - approximately. There was 600 million litres of bottled water sold last year - this equates to about 120 millions litres of oil! Of course this is oil being processed, burnt or otherwise transformed into by-products and pollution.

A quote from the 60 minutes segment: "At the end of the day it's all marketing, it's all PR it's all spin and its aim is to extract money out of your pocket and to basically maximise profits out of your gullibility and that's one thing Australians need to look at".

Then there's the mammoth issue of all these empty bottles ending up in land fill or in our water ways. Here's some ideas on how to reduce waste.

Privatisation of NSW Electricity still on top of the agenda

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on a light, along comes treacherous Tripodi to continue the "good work" of former Transport Minister and State Treasurer "Disco" Costa. If you thought ousting Iemma was going to ensure that this whole debacle was put to bed think again!

Public Power Not Private Profit

Privatisation of essential services is NEVER a good thing. For one thing it does the obvious of take control away from The State which governs for the people. A private entity exists solely to make money and this is magnified when that entity is a listed company or part of a group of companies.

Take the proposed privatisation of correctional services in NSW. Sure at the moment there are only a couple of prisons earmarked but if it gets through the rest will surely follow (if labor has its way). What I find particularly ironic about this is that leading the charge is the former thorn-in-the-side of the NSW Labor government - John Robertson (Mr Anti-Electricity Privatisation).

He is quoted as saying, "He (Nathan Rees) has convinced me of his determination to bring the NSW Labor Government back to representing the interests of working people and in this context, has asked me to be part of his team. I have agreed because I believe that leaders who are prepared to stand up for Labor values deserve to be supported and that this is the yet another way I can represent the interests of the working people of NSW." (What he said)

Certainly food for thought! I didn't know that Labor values included privatisation? Duplicity? Mmmmm.....one wonders what was said to make someone vehemently against entering politics suddenly accept? Not my place to judge I guess but this is the sort of situation that perpetuates the lack of trust in politicians.

What qualifies someone to run for public office?

Before this journey I often wondered what "qualifies" someone to be considered for public office. So as someone does these days, I searched the internet for some info. I found this:

http://www.washblog.com/story/2009/2/6/16647/59571 and this http://www.iofc.org/clean-elections-campaign-qualities amongst other readings.

I had always assumed that to be a "politician" you had to have a law degree or have won a Rhodes scholarship or something similar. On top of that was the impression that one had to be a union official (if labor oriented) or a merchant banker (if liberal is your flavour).

I (we) am lucky that in this country we have a party such as The Greens who rely on "grass roots" democracy in order to function. When calls came out for Senate pre-selection I didn't entertain the idea because I simply thought there's no way I'd be considered. But considered I am, and I put my hand up because I know I can represent the people of NSW well.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. This provides an opportunity for interested people to find out who I am and what I stand for.

Like you, I am just one of the billions of people on this planet who has concerns and struggles and desires to do something positive. I have recently embarked on a journey to be included in the political process - not something I would have done some years ago. But I feel now is the right time.

I know that I will probably be considered insignificant and just some "random" name on any ballot paper that I'm included on. However, I also know that I am an honest and loyal individual who is tired of being duped by many of our elected officials. I may never have held a directorship, ran a non-profit or profit driven organisation or chained myself to a tree but I am more than capable of representing a diverse group of concerned people who desire change in the way our government does things and what their priorities are.

I look forward to adding to this blog over the coming weeks and months. Please return in the coming days as I write more about who I am and where I have been.