Sermons and Confessions

I love the old codgers who phone talk back radio.  This morning there was a guy who thought that way to solve the health issues in Australia was to get rid of all the beaurocrats and replace them with health workers like doctors and nurses.
 
These thoughts are so shallow they almost don’t need a rebuttal, but they persist in our community so for what it’s worth…
 
There are more jobs than just health care in a hospital.  Staff have to be paid, patients records have to be kept, stock levels monitored and ordered, bills paid.  This is before the government reports that have to be submitted so that we, the public, can be comfortable that things are being run correctly. 
 
A reduction in clerical and administrative staff does not result in a free up of resources for more nurses.  Rather, it results in already overworked nurses having to cover admin jobs.  A friend of mine recently returned to nursing after a few years in an office job.  One of the first things he had to do was employ his clerical skills at the nursing station and fix up a spreadsheet.  This is surely a ridiculous use of a highly skilled professional person’s time.
 
Public service bashing is a common practice at the moment.  As employee of a government owned corporation I have been the recipient of it myself.  In fact the public service can’t be as bad as they are made out to be.  Where I live the trains run, the roads are fixed, the births are registered.  Most government employees that I know are moderately hard working people who are dedicated to their jobs.  They are generally paid at a lower rate than they could command in private enterprise, but this is offset by more flexible working conditions and hours. 
 
Let’s not forget, too that the government is the largest single employer.  So chances are when next your public service bashing at least one of the people you are talking to is a public servant.
 

My employer and my union are currently negotiating a new enterprise bargaining agreement.  There is, as always, a lot of B.S.  coming from both sides.  It particuarly annoys me when the union says inflammatory and insulting things about my employer.  They don’t seem to understand that having been with my employer now for well over 10 years I have a loyalty and a respect for the institution.  I’m not against them, I spend my working life being for them, trying to make their business as successful as possible.

It particularly annoys me at union meetings when they get up and address us as “Brothers and Sisters”.  I mean, come on, this is not a 1930’s communist uprising. 

So why do I stay a member?  I’m not naive enough to think that a large organisation cares particularly for me.  They’re not my family, they are my employer.  I don’t think that we would have anywhere near the offer that we do have were we required to bargain as individuals.  I pay my money to have a professional negotiator sit down with the professional negotiators employed by my boss.  It puts me on a level playing field and ensures my services are sold at a fair price.

Of course, if I wasn’t a member, the unions would still exist and the negotiator would still sit down, and my pay and conditions would still be improved by the same amount at the end of the process.  I retain my membership because I don’t think it’s fair to stand back and let other people fight for benefits that come to me.

Unions have lost touch with their members, but the answer is for employees to join unions, demand reasonable union behaviour and vote no to strikes and industrial action they don’t agree with.  That way we maintain a strong voice to stand up for fair pay and conditions and we reserve the right to industrial action in extreme cases where employers behaviour is genuinely unfair.

A friend of mine is a “stay at home dad”.  His wife is a solicitor and they made the choice that as she would be earning more money he would give up his very highly paid career for a few years to look after the kids.  It seems to have been a successful move for them. 

I was shocked when he told me that every year he has to prove to the Family Assistance Office that he has no income.  It seems that because he’s a man and his wife has earned a large amount of money he must by definition have earned more.  What hope for the community when the government agencies are sexist in their approach?

Former Howard Government Minister for Immigration, Phillip Ruddock has stated that it is only due to the Howard Government’s tough policies on immigration that the current government can afford to take a more lenient stand on illegal immigrants.

Listening to him I was reminded of the Doctor who says to the malpractice enquiry.  “The patient was complaining of a pain in his arm.  It was only because I took his arm off that another doctor could diagnose the heart attack and perform the triple by-pass!

The way Australia has treated Asylum seekers over the last few years will remain as a permanent scar on our history.  There is never an argument for inflicting mental torture.  By locking up already traumatised people many of them children, we did just that. 

I’m embarrassed to admit that I have watched, enjoyed and owned pornography.  I suppose it started as a teenager when like most boys I was interested to find out what girls looked like and what people did.  The few items of porn that were available from other, richer boys were exciting and fascinating and they fostered my burgeoning sexual fantasies.   It’s hard to explain the fascination and excitement that I felt at that time, it’s not true that boys think about nothing else, but in my experience it is true that their thoughts can turn very quickly and intensely to sex with very little prompting.    As an adult this fascination has matured and changed but hasn’t really gone away.  Of course I am married and have two children, proof to the world that I have had sex at least twice.  I own two pornographic DVD’s and I look at pornography on the internet although I haven’t ever subscribed or bought porn on the internet.  I’m not under any misconception that the stories reflect anyone’s real life and they certainly don’t reflect the sexual thinking or acts of any woman that I have been close enough to ask about the subject.My justification was that the movies and pictures were of adults who were being paid lots of money to perform under their own free will.  It enhanced my fantasies and sometimes made the fun activity of masturbation more interesting and exciting.  In short a fairly harmless practice. That view has been challenged in the last couple of weeks.  I recently heard John Safran and Father Bob (Sunday Night Safran, Triple J) talking to two women who have a ministry in Los Angeles that works with people in the porn industry.  According to these two women, ex porn stars themselves, most porn actors are victims of child abuse.  Their self esteem has been damaged and they try to make sex a meaningless act that they can do for money.  Often they have drifted from stripping or prostitution into the porn industry.  Often they are supporting drug habits.  They are vulnerable people who are used by organised crime to make these movies.  Many are suffering from STDs because most pornographers ignore laws that forbid the exchange of bodily fluid in these films.  Many of the actors are stuck in the industry, too afraid to leave and fearful of being recognized by potential normal employers.  Some are even suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I can’t say that I will never look at porn again, but I certainly can’t think of it as harmless any more.

For those of you who haven’t realized from the name of this blog, I was raised as a Catholic.   I don’t go to Mass.  I don’t pray much.  I cannot share the church’s views on homosexuality and I think the church itself is somewhat old fashioned, male dominated and political organization that makes terrible mistakes.  That said at heart I think of myself as a catholic.  I still feel comfort and connection when I do go to mass and still believe in a Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead.   To that end I think it’s great that there is such a thing as World Youth Day and that it’s being held in Australia.  It would be a great adventure to be a young delegate going to Sydney.  It’s great too that the Pope is in Sydney for World Youth Day.  I don’t have any problem with the government paying money for him to be here.  They pay for other world leaders and they pay money for sporting and cultural events.  The money generated by the visitors (more visitors than the Olympics) will more than offset any cost. Whatever else the Pope may stand for he fundamentally stands for Jesus Christ.  JC was about people living together, trying to have compassion and understanding for each other and about them growing spiritually.  The church hasn’t always practiced Jesus teaching, but the teaching itself is pretty good.  Maybe a bit of Christianity will rub off onto the church and the pilgrims.

Our beloved Prime Minister wants public servants to work harder.  Lots of people in the community believe that the public service are lazy, you’ve possibly heard the old joke?
Two public servants were waiting for a lift when they spotted a snail. One of the P.Ss violently stamped on the snail and crushed it.“Why did you do that?” asked the second P.S. “That thing has been following me around all day!” said the first.

I voted for Kevin Rudd. I live in his electorate so I’m someone who can actually say that I personally voted for him. He always seemed an intelligent man, standing for the time honored labor traditions of a fair go for workers.  He’s also a Christian, I believe.
There are a number of things about Mr. Rudd’s statement that make me sad and surprised that he made it.

It’s dumb to insult people that you should be trying to inspire and lead to greater productivity.
It’s hypocritical to campaign on a platform of standing up for working families and then expect the workers in the families to be at work for long hours.

It’s a cheap political shot, that panders to the uninformed in the community who think the public sector really is inefficient and lazy. Rudd knows that that stereotype is wrong he was a public servant.
I have voted labor all my life and been a member of a trade union for my entire working life. I heard horror stories about Rudd’s treatment of the Queensland Public Service before the election and was a little concerned.
This statement was a bad mistake. Let’s hope that it was a mistake in communication and not a true reflection of Rudd’s personality and plans.

I am a bit of lefty pinko.  My family history of association with the Australian Labor Party and the Union movement started me on this road, but I think a basic concern for other human beings has contributed to it.

I am concerned about the rising price of living.  I’m concerned that some people will be caught by the higher interest rates and there may be severe impacts on families.  To imagine myself, with my wife and children having to leave our home is a horrible thought.  We would have family to fall back on, but even so it would be horrible.

I have empathy and sympathy for people in that position.  One of the results of having a fear of that happening to me is that She-Ra and I have not over extended.  We have not borrowed more than we can repay.  Not borrowed more than the value of our home.  Not borrowed for holidays, or presents, or non capital items.  I don’t have an income that allows me to have new things all the time.  It was my choice not to study, not to apply for higher jobs.  The consequence of my choices is my level of income and I have a responsibility to live to it.

Of course governments have a role, but they can never guarantee that prices won’t rise or that some people won’t be caught.  Governments sometimes cannot protect people from themselves.