Has the world gone crazy? or is it just me?
Drivers as a reflection of our society
I know by the end of this post I am going to sound like an old man talking about the good old days, but you know what I don’t care!
Now my scooter keeps up with the traffic (top speed over 120Km/h most limits in Australia peak at 100Km/h), the only people I “slow down†are the ones that want to travel well over the speed limit and then I will always be in the slower lane. However I tend to leave a good three second gap in front of me as stopping distance.
Today on the way to work on my scooter I experienced the most stupid dangerous piece of driving I have seen in a long time. I was undertaken (passed on the left hand side, remember we drive on the left here) while trying to negotiate a left hand sweeping turn onto a on-ramp. The road was wet from last nights rain and I was taking the corner a little easier than normal and was off to the right to give myself room as I turn into the apex on the left. Just as I start to turn in a large family sedan appears on my left hand side. Now this is a single lane on-ramp, the car had two wheels on the verge (actually a bicycle lane) and the other two in the lane. Luckily I had given myself enough room that I did not run into the side of the car (turn in) or end up across a traffic island (not enough turn) so I did survive to swear loudly at the person. It was also lucky that she did not slide out on the corner due to the wet greasy conditions and take me and my scooter out because I had nowhere to go to avoid that.
Now do you know what advantage this person got from this extremely risking driving maneuver? Well it was five car spots… behind me! Just after passing me the person pushed into the right lane (nearly collecting a small compact car, obviously did not mater car or bike), I stayed in the left and in the stop-go traffic I was taken ahead of them quite a way.
So this person risked MY life and limb (I was traveling about 65Km/h) on there drive to work to hopefully save themselves what 20 seconds at most. Even then due to the traffic that time was lost. Now this was not some 19 year old “lead footâ€, this was a “lady†in her 40’s driving to work for the day.
This is not a comment on old/young, male/female drivers but more a comment in general.
When did we as individuals stop thinking about the effects our actions have on other people?
This in most graphically shown on our roads, behind the anonymity of our vehicles we are impatient, aggressive and dangerous.
- People a buying cars that protect themselves to the detriment of the environment and other road users (yes SUV owners).
- People fit devices on the front of the car to reduce repair costs after small accidents, these same devices are shown to kill pedestrians much more effectively and at lower speeds than a car without a “Bull-Bar†or “Nudge-Barâ€.
- Drivers will double park, use disabled parks or parent parks just to save 20 meters extra walk to the shop.
- Parents the stop next to and sometimes across a school crossing because they don’t have the time to find a park and walk in with the kids.
What happened to the days when people would:
- smile and wait for the old lady to cross the road
- give the learner driver just a little more room
- let the lady with the kids in the back have the park that you “spotted firstâ€
OK so call me the old man pining for the good old days. To be honest I think the world is full of individuals now and because of that I am unsure how a society can survive.
Terror Laws – Terrorfied
Our federal government is thinking of introducing new “Anti-Terror” Laws. Now there is a couple of laws in this that I think I understand and am very concerned about.
The first is “Preventative Detention”, under these changes a person may have controlled detention or movement if the Police or other agency believes this will prevent a Terrorism act. To get a Preventative Detention order they only have to get it ratified by a retired Judge or the like. The person can then be placed in home detention for up to 12 months! All without the ability to contest the detention in a court of law (Update the PM is now saying he may modify to allow this). In the initial draft the police could “Shoot-to-Kill” if the person tried to avoid detention, however it looks like the state governments have made him back down on this. These laws (according to leading lawyers) are a breach of our own Human Rights laws.
The second set of laws are around Sedition, making it a crime to vocalize support of Terrorists or Acts of Terror. I do not believe that any democracy would want to implement laws that restrict open debate and free speech. Also it appears that media outlets that “encourage” people to express these opinions, up to 7 years for the person, the journalist and the media editor.
What are we coming to?
Detention
I am staggered by our government at this time. There is currently a investigation underway looking at the wrongfull detention by the immigration department under the governments current illegal immigrant detention policy.
It has come to light that over 220 people have been wrongfully detained at least twelve over 1 year and 2 people detained for over 5 years. Remember these are lawful permanent residents, and in some cases, full Australian Citizens. One famous case had a lady deported! another a mentally ill patient detained and denied treatement while detained.
I’m sorry what is that again! Australian citizens being detained for over 5 years by there own government because some immigration official thinks that they may be an illegal immigrant! I cannot see how this can be defended by any government anywhere, let alone a democracy.
But I want to take this to the next step, the Australian government has a policy of detaining all true refugees (the ones arriving by boats, the ones that have risked life, limb and family). They detain the ones that reach our shores in a prison in the middle of the desert, and the ones stopped before landfall within prisons on our small pacific neighbours. I cannot believe that any sane person can agree to this! They say they want to discourage the people smugglers, well then lock up the people smugglers!
White Australia??
Ok, over the last two days I am getting really worried about our society and where it is heading. Last night the current affairs show ACA had a guest. An associate professor in the Department of Public Law at Macquarie University, Andrew Fraser, was on to explain his views on immigration.
This all started with Andrew reading an article on how a Sudanese family had just become Australian Citizens and deciding to voice his opinion (which is not that of the University) in an email to his government representitive and the paper in question, the Sydney Morning Hearald.
This academic has said things like:
- “an expanding black population is a sure-fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and a wide range of other social problems”
- “these racial and ethnic conflicts are intractableâ€
- “black Africans have been shown to have an average IQ of 70”
To support his first view he quotes a google search “black on white homocide”, that shows US of A crime figures. Now I am pretty sure that even if the link is good and accurate, the history of slavery and continued repression of the American black community is DIFFERENT from the history and current situation of the Sudanese (and other) immigrants in Australia. I have yet to find a link to his IQ information.
Ok now to state my view. I think this guy must be the worst academic in history. If you want to convince people you must have an argument and base that on facts! My understanding is that the research he quotes has been disproved or discredited, also no reasoning seems to exist other than we will loose our common identity.
I thought I would give this Canadian Born Academic a little history lesson. Australia was populated by Aboriginees prior to being discoverd by the Portoguese and the English. It was used as a dumping place for the worst of the criminals of England, Ireland and Scotland. After gold was discoverd, the European and Chinese people came in great numbers. Towns like Briadwood and Ballerat were build by European and Chinese people working, living and growing together. Long after this when Australia undertook it’s largest infrastructure project ever, the Snowy River Hydro plan, it was the Italians, Greeks and other displaced immigrants that made it happen.
The history, the culture the flavour of Australia is our acceptance of people, from anywhere, from any background, location, race and religion into our country. Has it been always smooth, no! Will it be always perfect no! But together Australians old and new work together and build a new identity better and stronger than the past.
London Shaken
I am currently watching the news with some horror. In London a whole world away it seems there has been a large co-ordinated terrorist attack.
Now at this point I must say one thing, the English are just so different from their mainland neighbours. They seem so calm in the face of this compared to the Russians and Spanish that have gone through similar things recently. This is the real Brittish “Stiff upper lip”.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all people in London.
Social Comment
After reading an entry on Tonya’s site, and having a chat with my good friend (pommie_al), I have decided to write up some things that have been nagging me for a while. Our continuing drive to growth, wealth creation, corporate and private greed is going to be the undoing off our society. However I am getting ahead of myself and I do want to express this argument logically.
Currently we see several issues that are effecting our society and I hope to engage in meaningful discussion about them over the next few posts. Now I understand that some of the stuff we will post will be controversial and we are going to be trying to “solve the worlds problemsâ€.
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Some of the topics we will cover include:
- Peak Oil
- Globalization
- Corporate Greed
- Personal Greed
- Poverty
- Social responsibility.
OK I know that this is a little heavier than you usually see on my site, but things are starting to annoy me and I think it is about time I stood up and gave an opinion, or at least point to opinions I agree with.