Aug 2024 – sillysocksonfriday

Crime does pay

Criminals and wrongdoers will be somewhat chagrined (polite version of pissed off).

Why? – because they are not the ones getting the money – the Government does.

What’s more, we the public pay without a squeal!

Every third year on 1 July, there is a blanket increase of the value(?) of a penalty point, called indexation, which means of course, that the Government gets more money, so crime pays.

Fines are standardised by the allocation of penalty points e.g. not controlling your dog in a public place costs 5 penalty points.

One penalty point is now A$161, up from A$154 (4.2%); CPI is only 3.8% over the same period.

Dear me, inflation is terrible, yet Government continues to find ways to maintain the flow of money paid by us all. Without lifting a finger or risking public debate in Parliament. Such a cunning trick to ensure its revenues are maintained.

Like Justice, these increases are blind – they do not take into account whether there has been an increase or decrease in offending or whether the penalties deter or eliminate crime.

In fact, it appears that the number of offences detected on camera for every 1,000 vehicles has reduced. “This is a promising sign of changing driver behaviour.”

Yet the penalty amounts increase!

The state government forecast its Camera Detected Offence Program (CDOP) would bring in $465.8 million in revenue in 2023 financial year — up nearly 70 per cent on the $274.5 million collected in 2021-22.

Yet the then minister stated “Research tells us that CDOP was associated with a reduction of 897 casualty crashes in 2020 and 1191 casualty crashes in 2021,”

From next financial year, the government forecasts CDOP revenue of $503.5 million – the equivalent of $1.37 million per day!!

What started me of on this theme was recently the penalty for allowing one’s dog to walk unleashed in a public place increased from $322 to $806!

Why ?

I really don’t want to get started on how governments control its citizens by making them criminals or government ingenuity on extracting money.

To me it’s simple: if you don’t control your dog adequately, you will be warned. If it happens again your dog will be destroyed.

If you drive without a seat belt, in excess of speed limits, using a phone, or go through traffic lights, you will be warned. Next time your licence is cancelled. Third time – you go to gaol.

Offences will dry up quick time. But so will revenue…

Is that likely to happen? Yeah, right!

Winter is gone

The path I walked this morning was strewn with small branches bearing sprays of gum flowers, strewn by honey drunk lorikeets. The flowers still had a rich honey scent.

The birds shriek even louder now and the crows chuckle and cawl, marking their territories. A noisy friar flew over with a twig in its beak for a nest in our jacaranda. I was swooped by a butcher bird in the usual place.

When I sit on the stoep in the morning, the shrill birds’ calls are almost annoying, but their joy overrides the irritation.

The wattle mimosa is almost over, now the bauhinias are flowering, to be followed by jacaranda and eventually flamboyant Poinciana.

On our walk I have seen two dead snakes, so they are on the prowl too.

Winter is gone.

This poem always reminds me of the circle of life, mostly grim but the idea of a crows’ nest embellished with ‘gowden’ hair is almost amusing. It is not by Robbie Burns; its origin is unknown.

Twa Corbies

As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the t’other say,
‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’

‘In behint yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new-slain knight;
And naebody kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.

‘His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk, to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en another mate,
So we may mak our dinner sweet.

‘Ye’ll sit on his white hause-bane,
And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een.
Wi’ ae lock o’ his gowden hair,
We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare.

‘Mony a ane for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whare he is gane:
O’er his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw for evermair.’

Vesti la giubba

Put on your costume and do your job. Heart-broken, Pagliacci the clown had to go on with the show

Ridi del duol che t’avvelena il cor

Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart.

Sometimes we just have to do it. Of course there are worse jobs with worse things to do: imagine a frontline soldier having to face the enemy or a doctor who has to tell a child they are going to die or a policeman to a mother whose baby is dead

But everyday some of us have to gird our loins just to go on with our lives, open the door, go to work and be polite.

So many silent, secret heroes out there.

Why Do People Avoid Thinking About Serious Stuff?

… look away now if you’re not up for it

Not everyone does a lot of contemplation … when asked to elaborate … they are forced to parrot whatever echo chamber to which they subscribe. I blame the schools, all of them.

We are a culture of people who would rather be distracted than confront real issues, and we shy away from acknowledging problems because if we actually notice them we’d have to work to fix them.

My dream is that we find a way to incorporate critical thinking into the education system. Not only would we encounter people capable of having an intelligent conversation, we’d be more likely to hold politicians, business people, and everyone else accountable for their decisions and what they advocate. Imagine a return to fact-based decision making!

If the success of religions since the dawn of civilizations taught us anything, it is that most people are terrible at thinking independently and would much rather be told what to believe, think and do.

Most people don’t talk about deep stuff because they are shallow. They are shallow because they were never challenged properly as children to develop their critical thinking faculties. Children are constantly told to shut up and listen or else. Hence followers are manufactured in the home.

It’s a cycle that won’t be broken until someone brings forth a functioning model that provides working methods for existing damaged people to inadvertently not damage their children.

Once you’re raised to follow, you can’t listen to the truth because it forces you to violate your dependency on others which is now hardwired into your brain for survival. Hence the prevalence of dominance hierarchies.

These are responses on Reddit to the title question, not my words, although they resonate with me

How red is my neck?

The Altemeyer RWA scale measures right wing authoritarianism. I was curious so did the test. Now write down what you think I scored.

(22 is minimum and 198 is max).

I will tell you my score at the end of the blog.

Is compromise good or bad?

In a long ago industrial relations training session I was mildly scorned as I maintained compromise should be the realistic and most pragmatic outcome. Society in South Africa at the time generally endured an authoritarian regime and was engaged in a national power struggle .

Compromise seems to have an undesirable reputation and various negative meanings and circumstances attach to it. But in the context of bargaining I still firmly believe it is a better solution than total victory, unless the relationship is broken beyond repair.

That is because each party gets something, admittedly not what was desired but enough. If one can widen scope from total victory to partial victory then a solution is possible.

Of course, the degree of antagonism means that compromise solutions are difficult.

But that is what must prevail in Ukraine and Gaza as the degree of antagonism is reduced by the grief and loss felt by both warring countries. Sadly the latter seems to be spiralling out of control as fringe participants step up their antagonisms.

Both these regions existed for centuries in relative harmonies before borders became so darkly drawn on maps.

My RWA score was 33! Even I was surprised!

You can’t say that!

At a friend’s baby’s first birthday (can you believe it?) last week, I saw an Irish friend, who recently returned from a visit to the Emerald Isle. I puffed out my cheeks and chirped that it seemed he had brought some potatoes back with him. He laughed and said he had put away a few while he was there.

Another friend sitting next to me was aghast and berated me for making such a remark about someone’s appearance. I protested that he was a friend and wouldn’t take offence, to which he laughingly agreed.

Earlier in the month, I had been castigated by one of my daughters for calling a nephew chubby.

Should we not say what we think ? And why do others feel they need to spring to defend, calling out possible offence?

Much of the current erosion of western values has arisen from the failure to speak out for fear of treading on some sensitivity or other and causing offence.

So when a few people promote the right of people to choose their own gender and pronoun and demand that the rest of society follow suit, much of society followed suit, without demur.
When a few students muzzled the Oxford Union, professors obliged.
When mobs toppled or defaced statues of historical figures, little action was taken.
When immigrants heckled soldiers’ funerals, little was done.
When immigrant priests urged defiance and eradication of Jews and supported jihad, governments demurred….
When foreigners started flooding borders and consuming benefits funded by citizens’ taxes, governments tip toed and hesitated.

Yet, I shouldn’t tell someone he is looking fat!

Resentment festers and if unresolved can erupt. The recent violence n the UK seems to me a clear demonstration of resentment. It is going to take a lot of undoing, because the damage is a cultural wound and those cannot be fixed by decree. Once you have let people in the gate, it is very difficult to get them out and the process involves bloody mauling.

So defy sensitivity and correctness and speak out or you will forever have to hold your tongue.

It is not just a right, it is a duty.

How do I feel?

What I believe is greatly influenced about what I feel. Thoughts and words express our perceptions which are greatly influenced by our emotions.

I suffer from bouts of insomnia for as long as 10 minutes and occasionally wake up too soon to get up in winter.

These are some of the thoughts that exuded from my foggy brain this morning:

How do we address the erosion of western values by the woke generation, some of whom are our own kith and kin?
How did I learn to feel and think the way I do?
What was the world like when I learned to think and articulate what I believe in?
What do I believe in?

It gets quite difficult and foggy, very quickly

Coincidentally, someone posted this on Facebook recently:

I am God … I think therefore I am.. I am a biological thinking intelligent machine… I can create my own reality.

I believe we are mostly good, but that experiences mould us:

There are some bad and weak people who choose to follow their own ways, despite knowing better ways.
We are easily distracted and tempted; self-discipline is difficult, but rewarding.
We are also easily misled and pride rules our redemption.
We forget that emotion guides every choice and harnesses intellect, so that it becomes imperfect..

I started life in Africa, as everything did apparently. That history was a great place to learn values and witness injustices.

Discrimination based on race, gender, ability and history is wrong.
We have a duty to stand by our family and friends.
We pay the State to serve us and we must also serve the State in times of need. But we cannot blindly follow the State.

Hmm! That should be enough for you to chew on.

I do not doubt that there will be little response to these humdrum words – that usually only comes after blogs about birds and flowers and such like.