Why celebrity, award-winning chefs are usually white men

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nancy Lee, Researcher and project officer, University of Sydney

This article is part of a series focusing on the politics of food – what we eat, how our views of food are changing and why it matters from a cultural and political standpoint.

Another year, another list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. And another round of Michelin stars, Good Food Guide hats, and Gourmet Traveller Top 100 Restaurants in Australia.

These days, there are more restaurant awards than you can poke a stick at. The World’s 50 Best list has long been a target for criticism for its gender imbalance and heavily Eurocentric perspective. (There is now an Asia’s 50 Best and a Latin America’s 50 Best list, because presumably “Asia” and “Latin America” are not included in “World”.)

Though it is well known the process behind choosing the restaurants for this list is pretty arbitrary, it still carries weight in the restaurant world, with rankings used as a selling point, including here in Australia. Judging by the fanfare that heralds another night of awards, and the rush of increased interest that follows the enthusiastic media coverage, restaurant awards and lists are here to stay.

Recently, an ABC article ruffled some feathers by providing an audit of which chefs and restaurants win awards in Australia. The perhaps not-so-surprising finding: European (namely, Italian) restaurants outnumber Asian restaurants in the number of accolades, year after year.

Asian restaurants run by non-Asian owners

There are multiple factors that play into this. The framework of “professional” cooking is French and has long been acknowledged as an “art” or “skill”, while “ethnic” food continues to be othered as a reflection of “culture”. The chefs representing most top-end restaurants and writers at most major food publications also remain predominantly white.

This is part of the reason why restaurants that offer dining experiences that hew toward the European notion of high quality – tablecloths, quiet rooms, attentive service – are regarded as “better”, or more worthy, than the Chinese or Thai place that may emphasise feeding you quickly and efficiently. It follows that the people winning the awards are, by and large, also white.

Dig a little deeper and another trend emerges: the few “ethnic” restaurants in Australia that are routinely feted and held up as high-end are largely owned or run by white men.

Chin Chin, for example, is run by Chris Lucas’ restaurant group, while Spice Temple is owned by Rockpool Dining Group, with Neil Perry at the helm. Supernormal is part of the Andrew McConnell empire, while Cho Cho San is owned by Jonathan Barthelmess and Sam Christie.

As the authors of the ABC article point out, plenty of cooks in restaurant kitchens are from diverse backgrounds, while the people in leadership positions are mostly white (sometimes capitalising on the food of different cultures). It should be noted, however, that one of the most prominent and respected chefs in Australia is Tetsuya Wakuda, who is Japanese. Dan Hong has headed up Mr Wong and Ms G’s, and Victor Liong is making waves in Melbourne, but they are comparatively rare examples of high-profile Asian chefs outside Asia.

The question of “ethnic” food prepared by “non-ethnic” chefs or served at restaurants with “non-ethnic” owners has recently become a sensitive issue in the United States, in particular. Given the fraught relationship all colonised countries have with race, however, this debate should also be happening elsewhere – including here in Australia.

Power dynamics and the influence of the media

While it can feel discomfiting for a person of colour to see a white person profit from the food of marginalised cultures, if done respectfully, with a deep, well-researched understanding of the culture that informs the food, it can also be seen as someone exploring a different culture and translating it to a wider audience. Maybe.

But there are broader dynamics at play beyond race – who has access to power, and what kind of power, and why. These are issues that tend to be glossed over. Understanding these dynamics will go some way to explaining why things are, and remain, the way they are.

Duck your head into any kitchen, anywhere in the world, and you will typically see workers from a diverse range of backgrounds. Often in Western countries, they are predominantly immigrants, doing what they can to make a living. They are the dishwashers and line cooks, performing the manual labour, while the head chef inspects everything at the pass before it goes out to the dining room.

To be considered for high-profile awards (or high-profile media coverage), you have to be a certain kind of chef, capable of presenting a certain kind of narrative. Usually this involves using food as an outlet for creativity, as a canvas for artistic expression, or to convey personal beliefs or passions.

Of course, these are also the chefs who have the budget to travel widely and extensively for “research”, gleaning the knowledge to replicate the traditional foods found in exotic countries. Chefs I spoke with in my research commented that it’s hard to know which comes first – great food that attracts media attention, or great PR that attracts media attention pushing you to be a better chef.

The quintessential “celebrity chefs” (like Neil Perry, Peter Gilmore, or Matt Moran) are, by and large, articulate and passionate about their work, their produce and their industry. They have generally, over time, been trained to be comfortable in front of a camera, or a roomful of media. Many now have PR firms fielding requests for their time; there are even PR firms that specialise in food content and working with restaurants.

The positive media attention of restaurant lists and awards relies on a positive media image of cooking as an artistic pursuit. Thanks to shows like MasterChef and Chef’s Table, we have been presented with a specific (and mostly false) cultural narrative: being a chef is glamorous and fun.

But as Australian restaurant legend Gay Bilson lamented at the most recent Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, in many ways, heightened media attention erases the labour that goes into cooking and hospitality – hours of working over a hot stove, of being on your feet all day, of constantly meeting the demands of other people, day in and day out.

The immigrants who run the local Chinese place in your neighbourhood are far less likely to get this kind of attention, and therefore less likely to enjoy the mobility that being a chef spotlighted in the media affords.

Some argue that more people of colour and diverse cultural perspectives in food media will help expand the way we understand the food world.

[embedded content] Comedian Jenny Yang’s parody in response to a Bon Appetit video featuring a white chef explaining the finer points of eating Vietnamese pho.

But it is also not the sole responsibility of people of colour to convince others that food from their cultural background is as worthy of acclaim as European food.

So what’s the answer? It’s always going to be complicated. But as consumers, it’s up to us to think a little more critically about restaurant awards. It’s on us to chat to the people cooking for us and get to know what happens in kitchens, to read more widely and understand what we’re eating.

It is not enough to get excited about the diversity of food in our multicultural cities. We need to engage with and understand the work and power structures that exist in the kitchens that make our food, and the media culture that tells us about what we’re eating, and who cooks for us.

Read other articles in the politics of food series here.

– ref. Why celebrity, award-winning chefs are usually white men – http://theconversation.com/why-celebrity-award-winning-chefs-are-usually-white-men-106709

Health Check: how do I tell if I’m dehydrated?

By The Conversation -

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Dwyer, Deputy Head, School of Medicine, Deakin University

It’s a message that’s been drummed into us since childhood. Drink water, especially when it’s hot, otherwise you’ll get dehydrated.

But how do you know if you’re dehydrated? Who’s more at risk? And what can you do about it?

What’s dehydration and why does it matter?

When people use the term dehydration, they usually refer to what doctors call “volume depletion” or hypovolaemia.

Volume depletion is a reduction in the volume of water in the blood vessels. But dehydration is quite different and is less common. It’s the loss of water from both blood vessels and the body’s cells.

Doctors are concerned about volume depletion and dehydration because adequate hydration is required for the body to function normally. Water maintains our body temperature and lubricates our joints. Our body’s cells rely on water as does our circulatory, respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological systems.

Severe cases of volume depletion can lead to shock and collapse. Without resuscitation with fluid, the consequences may be devastating.

Water, water everywhere

A 70kg person is made up of 40L (40kg) is water. Two-thirds of that water is in the cells (intracellular), one-third outside the cells (extracellular).

Outside the cells, 20% of body water is in plasma (around 3L), which together with red bloods cells (2L) gives a total 5L of blood. It’s the movement of water between compartments that maintains each one’s biochemical composition, allowing your cells and body to work normally.

The total body water volume (water in both the blood vessels and the body’s cells) is remarkably constant given the large variation in how much an individual might take in and lose each day.

Water intake is accounted for mostly by how much and what you drink and eat, and the daily variation is regulated by the kidney, which alters your urine output.

The main function of the kidney is to regulate the volume and composition of body fluids within narrow limits by altering output.

When you drink large volumes of fluid, your body can afford to get rid of increased amounts of dilute urine. But when you drink a minimal amount of fluid, your urine is concentrated and you pass only a small volume.

If you’re urinating less often than normal, or urinating small volumes of darker coloured urine, it may be time to drink more water.

Other small losses of water include through stool, sweat and lungs.

So if you have diarrhoea or are exercising in the heat, for instance, you will need to drink more fluids.

As fluid is lost from the extracellular compartment such as in cases of diarrhoea and vomiting or bleeding, you can develop symptoms of volume depletion including:

thirst, including a dry mouth
dizziness, particularly when standing due to the low blood pressure (a consequence of volume loss)
and when very severe, confusion (a consequence of inadequate oxygenation of the brain).

Doctors might also note:

that it takes longer for your skin to bounce back when pinched (known as reduced skin turgor)
low blood pressure as a reduction in volume directly affects blood pressure
an increased heart rate, in an attempt by the body to maintain blood pressure
reduced weight as fluid makes up two-thirds of body weight. A loss of 1L of fluid will read as a drop in 1kg on the scales.

Blood testing will often reveal a degree of kidney impairment. That’s because the kidneys require a large blood flow to work normally.

In cases of volume depletion and reduction in blood pressure, blood flow to the kidneys is compromised and they go into a state of “shock”. Mostly this is reversible when volume and blood pressure is restored.

As there’s no single test for volume depletion, doctors will make a diagnosis after taking a note of your history, examining you and a combination of blood and urine tests.

Here’s what happened to Tom

I was on call at the hospital recently when, at 9.45pm on a Sunday, I received a call from the emergency department.

Tom, a 78 year old man, had come in by ambulance after neighbours had found him on his bedroom floor. Tom’s cognition was not great at the best of times, and that night he couldn’t tell us how long he had been on the floor.

There were no obvious injuries, his blood pressure was low (100/60mmHg), pulse rate high (98 beats per minute) and his temperature was normal. Blood tests showed he had low sodium salt levels and kidney impairment.

Tom had been in the emergency department for six hours by the time the call came to me; in that time he had not passed urine. It all pointed to volume depletion.

Elderly people are at increased risk, so keep an eye on relatives and neighbours this summer. from www.shutterstock.com

We treated Tom with intravenous fluid. He needed 5L over 48 hours, after which he was passing urine again. His blood pressure was back to normal 140/70mmHg, his kidney function had normalised and his weight was up from 46kg on admission to 50kg.

Tom told us he had fallen while getting up at night. He had been on the floor for most of the next day and had not eaten or drunk anything for hours.

Who’s most at risk and why?

Some groups are more susceptible to volume depletion, including:

elderly people like Tom, as our total body water reduces with age and the elderly often have a reduced sensation of thirst. Many older people also have other health problems including chronic kidney disease, which may impact the ability to concentrate urine when the volume is depleted
babies, because they aren’t able to articulate when they’re thirsty. They have a higher metabolic rate than adults meaning they require more fluid
people with impaired thirst mechanisms such as the elderly or people with certain brain injuries
people losing large volumes of fluid via the bowel (from diarrhoea or through a colostomy)
people taking medications that promote water loss, in particular diuretics, often referred to as water tablets.

These vulnerable groups need to be aware of the increased risk of volume depletion, minimise their risk by maintaining fluid levels, recognise the symptoms of volume depletion early, and seek prompt treatment, including going to hospital if necessary.

If you experience the symptoms of volume depletion it’s important to take heed. At home, start with water if you’re thirsty. Once dizziness is present, significant volume loss has ensued and a trip to the doctor is in order. Confusion mandates emergency treatment.

How about physiological dehydration?

Physiological dehydration, which occurs when water is lost from both the blood vessels and from the body’s cells compartment, is distinct from volume depletion. But there are many overlapping symptoms, such as thirst, a drop in blood pressure and when severe, confusion.

Dehydration can happen with prolonged and sustained high blood sugar levels as can occur in someone with diabetes. This is because the high sugar levels in the blood pull water out of the cells in an attempt to lower the levels. High sugar levels also make you pass more urine. So in this instance there is loss of fluid from both the intracellular and extracellular compartments.

Read more: Explainer: what is diabetes?

So for those with diabetes, monitoring blood sugar levels is important. If the blood sugar is persistently high it’s important to seek medical advice to reduce the level safely and prevent dehydration.

In a nutshell

Water is vitally important to the normal function of the body. Volume depletion can occur during anytime of the year, but people are particularly prone over the summer months. The key is prevention and knowing what the signs and symptoms are. So in summer keep your fluids up; talk to your doctor about any medications that may need adjusting (such as diuretics) and keep an eye out for friends, family and neighbours.

– ref. Health Check: how do I tell if I’m dehydrated? – http://theconversation.com/health-check-how-do-i-tell-if-im-dehydrated-107437

Australia’s 2018 in weather: drought, heat and fire

By The Conversation -

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karl Braganza, Climate Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Last year was a time of exceptional weather and record-breaking heat according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement, which was released last night.

The Bureau issued four Special Climate Statements relating to “extreme” and “abnormal” heat, and reported a number of broken climate records.

One of the headline stories for the year was drought across eastern Australia — centred on New South Wales, but also affecting Victoria, eastern South Australia and southern Queensland.

Bureau of Meteorology

With the whole of NSW declared in drought during the latter half of 2018, this drought will be recorded as one of the more significant in Australia’s history, ranking alongside the Millennium, 1960s, World War Two and Federation Droughts. Of those historic droughts, only the Millennium Drought saw similar, accompanying high temperatures.

The below-average rainfall has persisted for around two years across much of NSW and adjacent regions. The drought conditions were particularly severe in the recent spring period, with low rainfall, persistently high temperatures, and record high evaporation.

This exceptionally dry period was influenced by sea surface temperatures to the west of the continent. Perhaps fortuitously, a developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean failed to mature in the second half of the year. An El Niño would have typically exerted a further drying influence on eastern Australia.

The dry conditions in eastern states were severe enough to see Australia record its lowest September rainfall on record, and the second-lowest on record for any month — behind April 1902, during the prolonged Federation Drought. Over 2018, Australia’s annual rainfall was 11% below average, and the lowest recorded since 2005, during the Millennium Drought.

In contrast, above-average rainfall was recorded across parts of the tropical north, and most significantly in the Kimberley, consistent with recent trends of increasing rainfall in that region.

The drought conditions were exacerbated by record or near-record temperatures across many parts of the country. It was Australia’s third warmest year on record, behind 2013 and 2005. Daytime maximum temperatures were the warmest on record for NSW and Victoria, and second-warmest for South Australia, the Northern Territory and Australia as a whole.

Bureau of Meteorology

Persistent dry conditions through winter are typically associated with low soil moisture and heatwaves in the following spring and summer, and 2018 followed this pattern — with the added contribution of a warming climate.

The year ended with some record-breaking heat events. Perhaps the most significant of these was the extreme heat along the central and northern Queensland coast in late November and early December, which saw maximum daytime temperatures of 42.6 °C in Cairns and 44.9 °C in Proserpine on the 26th of November.

These temperatures, combined with persistent dry conditions in the preceding months, saw catastrophic fire weather and bushfires along 600km of the Queensland coast, an event that fire agencies have called unprecedented for the state.

The year ended with a burst of heat over the Christmas-New Year period, with temperatures at least 10 degrees warmer than average across southern South Australia, most of Victoria and southern NSW, leading to Australia’s warmest December on record.

Subscribe to receive Bureau Climate Information emails.

– ref. Australia’s 2018 in weather: drought, heat and fire – http://theconversation.com/australias-2018-in-weather-drought-heat-and-fire-109575

National curriculums don’t always work for rural and regional schools

By The Conversation -

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Willis, Lecturer, School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast

In the past decade, federal government agencies and their state regulators have packaged most things in education in Australia. Big education decisions, like what to teach and what should be tested, are largely made in capital cities. These moves have all been made in the name of improving standards, but they’ve come at the cost of local independence.

We introduced anti-discrimination legislation across Australia between the 1970s and 1990s, but then we centralised curriculum and assessment between 2008 and 2010. One move opened up more opportunities for equity, while the other restricted the ability of teachers to make autonomous decisions in response to their local needs and values.

Belief systems – whether religious, philosophical, political, ideological or a combination – are one of the most understated influences in education. These systems are based on communities’ collective values and beliefs about what matters. Because we have diverse beliefs in Australia, we also have a diversity of schools.

We need to empower and trust local people to take responsibility and collaborate to develop programs for local people. National programs have not yielded improved achievement rates, so why do we persist with the idea of centrally packaging the curriculum?

“Them and us” attitudes make rural students disengage

Although we have about 9,500 schools across Australia, there are two central education powerhouses: The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in Sydney, and the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) in Melbourne. Urban bureaucratic perspectives are foregrounded and local and regional perspectives are marginalised. It’s a long way from Melbourne to Broome or Bamaga.

All over the country, schools spend hours reporting their activities to government departments, and bureaucrats spend hours checking and publishing school outcomes. It’s a big compliance game.

ACARA administers and reports on NAPLAN. Curriculum is developed by ACARA and interpreted by state agencies in capital cities. AITSL sets standards for teachers and principals, and state governments use these to set awards and develop career paths for them.

Disengagement in school among non-urban students is a major issue as education is seen as a metro-centric enterprise. www.shutterstock.com, CC BY

Because school data is published on the internet, efforts by local teachers and principals to provide high quality education are hijacked by comparative assessment and reporting agendas. If there wasn’t a national comparison game, local educators could give more time to creating meaningful learning experiences for their students.

Meanwhile, non-attendance is a major concern in the regions, but we fail to recognise the significance of the “them and us” attitudes that prevail between schools and parents in regional communities.

A review into regional, remote and rural education found there is a genuine concern in regional communities that students are “learning for leaving”. This means the main focus of education is seen to be to get educated school-leavers out of the country into the city.

Many non-urban students choose to disengage because they think school is irrelevant. A mismatch of beliefs about what’s important in education can lead to disengagement and poorer schooling outcomes for regional students.

Reforms

In regional Indigenous communities, socio-cultural divisions are too often reinforced by teachers who are ill-equipped to meet the learning needs of Indigenous students. We have included Indigenous histories and cultures in the Australian Curriculum, but at the same time we’ve compromised Indigenous teaching strategies as local teachers are asked to implement pre-packaged curriculum or foreign instruction techniques.

We have included Indigenous histories and cultures in the Australian Curriculum, but at the same time we’ve compromised Indigenous teaching strategies. www.shutterstock.com, CC BY

The personal touch

We falter in democracy when we impose programs developed by centralised bureaucracies as band-aids for local problems. Programs alone don’t solve social issues. The catalyst for change is often the teacher, coach, mentor, friend, or colleague. A local person.

We can bureaucratise, standardise and normalise education all we like, but education will always be personal and emotional for local communities because they have their own beliefs, which might not match the beliefs in big cities.

So what do we do about it?

Community consultation is not enough. OECD reports show teachers who are able to contribute to decision-making also report education is valued in their community, and have higher job satisfaction.

Local schools and teachers should be able to develop their own programs that are tailor-made to meet the needs of local communities so learning is meaningful. This way, local beliefs will not be compromised by government agendas, and teachers will feel empowered to meet the needs of their students rather than just getting through the material.

The power of local autonomy has already been proven in Finland, a country that is known for its high educational outcomes.

On a practical level, local schools should be able to choose what they teach and how to test it so learning and assessment is meaningful. We need local autonomy so education can meet the needs of local students.

– ref. National curriculums don’t always work for rural and regional schools – http://theconversation.com/national-curriculums-dont-always-work-for-rural-and-regional-schools-108071

There are lessons to be drawn from the cracks that appeared in Sydney’s Opal Tower, but they extend beyond building certification

By The Conversation -

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, Univeristy of NSW, UNSW

The reasons for the cracked concrete that triggered the evacuation – twice – of residents from Sydney’s Opal Tower over Christmas and the New Year are unknown and will take time to properly establish. Many commentators are jumping to the conclusion (yes that includes you, Senator Carr) that the problem is the result of the privatisation of building certification. Instead of being done by government or council inspectors, certification is now done by private contractors engaged by the developer.

It might well be a contributing factor, but what went wrong at Opal Tower is is much more complex than that. Making certification a government responsibility again won’t solve it.

Opal is unusual. Very few residential buildings in Australia have ever been evacuated due to construction defects, and fewer still because of structural cracking. The vast majority of construction defects in multi-unit residential buildings are waterproofing failures. Rather than creating short-term alarm, they create long-term misery. Because misery does not generate headlines, the problem of quality in multi-unit housing continues to be ignored by governments.

Most strata buildings are defective

Strata title allows each resident to own the space in which they live as well as a share of the common property including pipes and walls. It’s the way apartments are usually sold after they are developed.

We don’t have definitive, current data on the extent of defects in strata title buildings. Researchers from UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre have begun collecting the information for Sydney. But there are clear indications that defects are significant and widespread.

A 2012 study by City Futures surveyed 1,020 strata owners across NSW, and found 72% of all respondents (85% in buildings built since 2000) knew of at least one significant defect in their complex.

In 2017 a City of Sydney survey identified defects and maintenance as the top concern of owner occupiers of apartments, along with short-term letting through organisations such as Airbnb.

Unfortunately for those keen to leap to conclusions about certification, studies showed the same thing back in the early 1990s when certification was largely in the hands of local governments. In fact, studies have found the same thing ever since speculative housing became common in Australia, from the end of World War One.

In fact, ever since speculative housing development and investment has become common (after World War I in Australia), residential construction defects have been a concern both here and overseas.

The market for residential buildings is extremely competitive, and controlling the cost of construction is one of the key factors in making a profit. Sometimes, the urge to maximise profit dominates to the extent that both short and long-term construction failures are inevitable.

An apartment in Sydney’s Opal Tower with the ceiling and flooring removed and propping equipment installed. Supplied/AAP

It’s the consequence of cost control

There are, of course, reputable developers and builders, but reputation usually finishes last, undercut by less-reputable players who produce buildings that are slightly cheaper.

Defects in single-storey speculative houses with pitched roofs are probably just as common as defects in multi-unit dwellings with flat roofs, but they are much easier to fix because the houses are close to the ground and no strata committee is involved.

They are also much easier to find; a competent building inspection initiated by a purchaser is normally enough to protect the buyer. On the other hand, a building inspection of a single unit in a multi-unit development is highly unlikely to find defects which are located elsewhere in the common property of a building.

There are 653 apartments in the Meriton-developed Regis Towers, for example, which was the subject of a long-running legal action for defects.

Intervening at certification is too late

The only practical way to make multi-unit dwellings a good investment for the residents and a decent place to live is for government to take a pro-active role in driving quality throughout the design and construction process, not just at the end when the building is certified for occupation, or at the beginning when it gets a development approval.

It is a simple reality that no other actor in the construction process has the capacity to take this role. It is also simpler and cheaper to build in quality than to rectify defects.

Often, a $1 detail realised for fifty cents will cause endless grief and cost thousands of dollars to fix.

Reducing the amount of rectification required will improve sustainability outcomes by containing the amount of embodied carbon incorporated in the building.

If the building performs well, it will have a longer life and that will reduce the need to eventually replace it with a new building; again saving materials and improving the outcome for embodied carbon. It is worth remembering that 20 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste are produced in Australia each year.

Governments have been reluctant to intervene early

Governments have as good as ignored the problem of defects in multi-unit residential construction even though they have been aware of it for years.

This is particularly concerning because the state governments in NSW and Victoria have been busy spruiking this type of accommodation as the solution to the pressures of rising populations in Sydney and Melbourne. Given this, the protections for apartment owners under existing legislation are ludicrously slight.

Unfortunately, compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC) in its current form is no guarantee. There are so many ambiguities and grey areas in the NCC and in the way that it is applied that it is a guarantee of almost nothing, particularly when it comes to waterproofing.

A simple example is the construction of balconies with flat slabs, which is perfectly acceptable under the NCC. The floor slab is constructed as a single plane from the interior to the exterior of the building with the waterproof barrier at the balcony being provided by a masonry wall or a concrete ridge on top of the slab.

This design almost always leaks within a few years. The reliable solution is to cast the slab with a step, but this is more expensive and as a consequence is rare. Cut-price membranes under tiled terraces are also common, causing leaks, mould and misery, despite arguably complying with the provisions of the NCC.

Fortunately, there is plenty that government could do to improve quality of multi-unit construction without affecting prices much.

Five stars. Information could drive standards

One clear way forward is to make the construction quality of a building more transparent to buyers.

This could be achieved by introducing a similar sort of quality assurance scheme to the one government runs to improve safety in cars; a five-star rating.

People are free to buy a two-star car, but for obvious reasons, not many do, even if they are cheap. Similarly, it is unlikely that many people would buy a two-star unit.

It would be perfectly possible to star rate multi-unit housing for construction quality using an independent assessment body against a transparent set of criteria.

It’s been tried before

Such a quality assurance scheme was introduced by the now defunct Building and Construction Council (BACC) in NSW during the 1990s, but unfortunately foundered due to a lack of funding and will from Bob Carr’s government. This was a pity, as the scheme was designed to drive quality through the whole of the building process, from design to completion.

It still provides a perfectly valid model for a policy that would actually do something to improve multi-unit construction quality at a cost which is minimal in relation to the value of the benefits produced. If a building is built correctly in the first place, then owners will not need to rely on shonky fly-by-night builders and developers for rectification works nor need to claim against complex insurance policies.

If the NSW and Victorian governments are serious about having a greater proportion of people live in multi-unit developments, they have a responsibility to do something about their quality before we are left with a overhang of misery, leaks and failures. Just ask the residents and owners of Opal Tower.

– ref. There are lessons to be drawn from the cracks that appeared in Sydney’s Opal Tower, but they extend beyond building certification – http://theconversation.com/there-are-lessons-to-be-drawn-from-the-cracks-that-appeared-in-sydneys-opal-tower-but-they-extend-beyond-building-certification-109428

Eight Australian picture books that celebrate family diversity

By The Conversation -

January 10, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Mokrzycki, PhD Candidate and sessional lecturer/tutor, Victoria University

The official label used by the Australian government to define a traditional family (a two parent family with biological or adopted children only) is “intact”: Not damaged or impaired in any way. Complete. Whole. Unbroken.

This is problematic when we think about all the other possible ways to live in a family: blended, step, single parent, foster, or any other family that diverges from we might call the “traditional” family model.

Hardie Grant

In Australian picture books, family representation has been overwhelmingly traditional; not just “intact”, but specifically white, middle class, with a mum, dad, and a (frequently blonde) male child protagonist. Children from diverse families are rarely represented.

But this may be changing. The following are eight recently published Australian picture books that break the mould and celebrate family diversity, showing that all families – whatever shape they take – are intact.

Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer (2018)

This vibrantly colourful book showcases families in many forms, including same-sex and single parents, with character skin tones varying on every page. Although families are at the centre of this book, diverse family representation is explored through the illustrations, not the text. Instead, the story focuses on the one thing that truly makes a family – love.

The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke and Van T Rudd (2017)

Hachette

This book tells the story of three siblings and their patchwork bike – a bike that they have made themselves out of scrap. The reader is introduced to the child protagonist’s village with “mud-for-walls” houses, and their mother, who wears a hijab. Not only does this book showcase a single parent family of colour, but it also shows a very different lifestyle and landscape to what many Australian children would be familiar with.

I’m Australian Too by Mem Fox and Ronojoy Ghosh (2017)

This book focuses on the multiculturalism of Australia. It showcases families from different cultures and backgrounds (including several families that have fled war torn countries, and one young girl living in a refugee camp). The story acknowledges and embraces our differences while highlighting that we are all connected – and all Australian – regardless of where we come from.

Bigger Digger by Steve Webb and Ben Mantle (2012)

Penguin

Steve Webb’s Bigger Digger is the first of four books featuring a young boy called Bryn and his dog Oscar. In this story, Bryn and Oscar make an exciting discovery when digging in the backyard, and need bigger and bigger diggers to uncover what they have found. Each of Webb’s Bryn and Oscar books is set on “Mum and Ted’s farm”. The use of Mum and Ted as titles for the adult characters is a simple but effective way of introducing the concept of step families.

Family Forest by Kim Kane and Lucy Masciullo (2010)

This book showcases one particular family – with half, whole and step siblings as well as different parental relationships (a father and stepmother, and a mother and her partner). A common issue with diverse family representation is that it often comes in the form of “issue books” – books that are issue driven rather than story driven. It is often difficult to explain a topic or issue without sacrificing story, but Family Forest manages to explain blended families in a fun and engaging way.

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood (2014)

Goodreads

This book tells the story of a young girl who leaves her war torn country and settles in Australia. Raised by her auntie, the book showcases family diversity in both formation and culture. The story examines the character’s feelings of loneliness and isolation in a country where everything is “strange”, including the language, which she doesn’t understand. To cope, she metaphorically wraps herself in a blanket of things that are familiar. After befriending a white Australian girl, she starts to make herself a new blanket with her newfound sense of belonging.

The Lost Girl by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Leanne Tobin (2014)

Goodreads

This book tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl who is lost, but finds her way home to her people’s camp with the guidance of mother nature. Instead of having a mum and a dad, or one biological family, the story refers to the girl’s mothers, aunties, grandmothers, fathers, uncles and grandfathers. This book is unique in that it showcases a family type very rarely explored – traditional Aboriginal kinship groups.

One Photo by Ross Watkins and Liz Anelli (2016)

In this book, a father with early onset Alzheimer’s buys himself a camera and starts snapping pictures of the things that he wants to remember. This confuses and upsets his wife and son (who is telling the story), as he hasn’t taken a single photo of them. Eventually, the father passes away and leaves one photo behind – a photo of him with his wife and son – and they realise that he wasn’t taking photos of things he wanted to remember, but things he wanted them to remember about him. One photo examines both the illness and death of a parent in a touching and age-appropriate way.

– ref. Eight Australian picture books that celebrate family diversity – http://theconversation.com/eight-australian-picture-books-that-celebrate-family-diversity-109429

Women seeking asylum for family violence don’t have an easy time getting it

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tamara Wood, Doctoral Candidate, Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW

Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun’s story has travelled around the world this week, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s repressive treatment of women and that not only those who seek asylum by sea face perilous journeys to safety.

For now, al-Qunun remains in Thailand, where the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) is assessing her need for international refugee protection. If she is found to be a refugee, Australia has said it will consider granting her asylum.

Reports say al-Qunun fears, if she is returned to Saudi Arabia, she will be abused and killed by her family for renouncing Islam and asserting her independence. Sadly, al-Qunun’s fear of being harmed by those closest to her is not unique.

Worldwide, an estimated 35% of women have experienced family or domestic violence. In some countries, the figure is closer to 70%. Not all those at risk will be entitled to international refugee protection, however. Only those who meet the definition of a “refugee” can make a valid claim for asylum.

Women fleeing family and domestic violence must deal with a unique range of legal and practical hurdles before the threat of being returned will truly have passed.

Refugee protection for gendered violence

The international refugee convention of 1951 defines a “refugee” as a person outside their own country who fears persecution because of their race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

This legal definition was devised in Europe in the aftermath of the second world war, primarily with the political refugee in mind. Although the convention isn’t limited to those fleeing political persecution, women fleeing gender-based violence must overcome a number of hurdles to show they meet the definition’s criteria.

The most fundamental requirement for refugee protection is that the applicant be outside her country of origin. This alone precludes most women from accessing international protection. The cost of travel and the danger it entails – women and girls face heightened risks of sexual violence, trafficking and exploitation during their journeys – make seeking asylum a dangerous endeavour.

For women living under repressive regimes such as in Saudi Arabia, where permission to travel is required from a male guardian, leaving the country may be impossible. For those who do leave, trying to prove they are at risk of persecution poses further challenges.

A refugee must be outside her home country when seeking asylum, which precludes many women from applying. WAEL HAMZEH/AAP

Beyond obvious physical signs of mistreatment, obtaining evidence of domestic violence is notoriously difficult. In most refugee cases, the primary means of establishing the applicant’s claim to asylum is her testimony. Lasting effects of trauma, potentially significant cultural and language barriers, and being surrounded by often male interpreters, decision-makers and legal representatives, can make the burden of proof for such women overwhelming.

Moreover, the refugee definition itself was not designed with the experiences of women in mind. In cases like al-Qunun’s, failure to conform to religious expectations will likely play a role. But the tendency of refugee status decision-makers has been to see violence by family members as a private matter, and not attributable to one of the five grounds of persecution: race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group and political opinion.

When refugee claims involving family and domestic violence succeed, it is usually on the basis women may constitute a particular social group. Accepting that women in a particular country constitute a particular social group allows refugee status decision-makers to provide protection to women who fear persecution because they are women.

The UNHCR advises states that women are a clear example of a social group “defined by innate and immutable characteristics, and who are frequently treated differently than men”.

However, the worldwide prevalence of family and domestic violence, coupled with concerns about “opening the floodgates” to women seeking asylum, have seen this approach to gender-based refugee claims rejected on a regular basis.

What about in Australia?

The universal definition of a refugee has been incorporated into Australia’s domestic legislation – the Migration Act of 1958. In addition, Australia’s refugee status decision-makers routinely consider the claims of women at risk of family and domestic violence, trafficking, forced marriage and so-called honour killings if returned to their home country.

Two recent refugee decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal provide insight into how Australian decision-makers approach such claims.

In the first, the Tribunal held the violence experienced by a Turkish woman, who had been twice hospitalised due to injuries inflicted by her husband, was personal in nature. So, it could not be attributed to one of the five grounds of persecution.

Nevertheless, her claim was upheld on the basis Turkish authorities failed to protect her from such violence. Because of the country’s lack of enforcement of laws protecting women and widespread social attitudes linking domestic violence with family honour, the applicant was considered a member of a particular social group – women.

The act of seeking asylum for a woman is a dangerous experience in itself. AARON BUNCH/AAP

The second case concerned a refugee claim by a mother of five from Papua New Guinea, who had experienced repeated attacks by her husband and his family members for refusing to accept her husband’s infidelity. The Tribunal rejected the proposition women from Papua New Guinea constituted a particular social group, due to their diverse ages, backgrounds, religions and economic circumstances.

However, it accepted the more narrowly defined groups “married women in Papua New Guinea” and “married women in Papua New Guinea for whom a bride price has been paid” as particular social groups and awarded refugee status on this basis.

In some countries, such as Ireland and South Africa, “sex” or “gender” has been added as a potential ground of persecution in domestic legislation. This removes the need to argue whether women are a particular social group in any given society.

Australia has adopted a complementary protection regime, which offers additional protections to people at risk of such harms as torture or inhumane treatment. Australia also has a specific visa for refugee “women-at-risk”.

Individual refugee status decision-makers have also set out alternative paths for protecting women from family and domestic violence. In a notable New Zealand case, the decision-maker held the risk of domestic violence faced by the applicant was for reasons of her political opinion. They described her decision to leave her husband as an act of “self-emancipation” from the “structures of power and inequality” that had sanctioned the abusive relationship.

Even if the UNHCR determines al-Qunun is a refugee, her future remains uncertain. Thailand is not a party to the refugee convention and there are doubts as to whether she would receive effective protection there. Resettlement in a country such as Australia is possible, but obtaining the woman-at-risk visa would be at the discretion of the government.

The attention on al-Qunun should at least help ensure her claim for protection gets the consideration it requires. Let’s hope it generates similar support for the countless other women in urgent need of international protection.

– ref. Women seeking asylum for family violence don’t have an easy time getting it – http://theconversation.com/women-seeking-asylum-for-family-violence-dont-have-an-easy-time-getting-it-109509

Tracking the rise of room sharing and overcrowding, and what it means for housing in Australia

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

]]>

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahra Nasreen, PhD Scholar in Planning and Geography, Macquarie University

The proportion of households experiencing rental stress is on the rise across Australia’s major cities. High rental prices have been driving an increase in shared housing. The most extreme form of this is “shared room” housing – where residents share a bedroom or partitioned living space (such as lounge room or garage) with a number of unrelated adults.

Official statistics, such as those collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, fail to accurately record room sharing. Public knowledge is limited to anecdotal stories or periodic media coverage of tragic outcomes of living in shared room housing – such as a 2012 apartment fire that led to the death of an international student in Bankstown, Sydney.

However, the growth of online advertising platforms can provide new insights into shared housing across our cities. For our recently published research, we analysed 1,018 room-sharing listings for Sydney on gumtree.com.au between February and April 2017. While focusing on Sydney, the insights we present here are relevant to all Australian cities.

Who lives in shared rooms and where?

Sharing a room is typically short-term accommodation which allows residents to secure low-cost housing in well-located parts of the city, close to services and employment or education (typically universities). It’s an option most likely to appeal to young and mobile populations. Evidence suggests that international students, holidaymakers (those staying longer than typically housed via services such as Airbnb) and young professionals are most likely to live in shared rooms.

Thus, it’s no surprise that suburbs surrounding the Sydney CBD had the most shared room accommodation. The suburbs of Sydney, Pyrmont, Ultimo, Haymarket and Chippendale (Sydney City local government area – 409 rooms advertised), Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction (Waverley LGA – 80 rooms advertised) recorded the highest numbers. Beyond the CBD, Parramatta, Auburn, Strathfield, Chatswood, Lakemba and Rockdale had relatively high numbers of listings. Parramatta LGA recorded the third-highest number (76).

Author provided

These suburbs are well connected by public transport to employment and education opportunities. A number of these locations are immigrant gateways with diverse cultural and ethnic profiles. This suggests shared rooms are an important form of housing for recently arrived migrants.

How many people share a room?

The suburbs with the highest numbers of advertised shared rooms also had more people per shared room. For example, Sydney, Pyrmont, Ultimo, Haymarket, Chippendale, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst (all in Sydney City LGA) had average occupancy rates of more than 2.5 occupants per room. It was not uncommon for two-bedroom apartments to have between 5 and 14 occupants.

Author provided

In terms of overcrowding (using the “no more than two persons per room” standard), more than a quarter (27%) of residents living in shared rooms included in this study were in overcrowded dwellings. Inner-city suburbs recorded the highest rate, with 40% of residents in overcrowded dwellings. In middle and outer suburbs, 14% and less than 1% of residents lived in overcrowded dwellings respectively.

The Corso, Manly. www.gumtree.com.au

It’s more affordable, and profitable too

People’s willingness to live in shared room housing is due mainly to it being cheaper. Our study revealed that shared rooms are rented for much less than the rate paid in the wider private rental market.

For example, in Haymarket, where the average occupancy is three people per room, the weekly rent per resident sharing with two others was $150. This was well below the median weekly rent for a private room in a two-bedroom apartment ($455) or a private one-bedroom apartment/studio ($643).

Adding to the relative affordability of shared room housing, rent typically includes furniture and utility bills. Bond payments are also lower.

Access to this form of housing is easier, too, because formal requirements such as identity and rental history checks are removed. This means residents are typically not covered by formal leasing arrangements and the legal protections that go with them.

Bondi Road near Dudley Street, Bondi. www.gumtree.com.au

The other side of the shared room equation is that it’s an extremely profitable form of housing for landlords – or tenants subletting dwellings. The rent generated per dwelling in shared room housing is well above the rental income if the property was leased to the private market.

For example, in Chatswood the median weekly rent for a two-bedroom apartment with shared bedrooms was $1,020. For a two-bedroom private (non-shared) apartment the median weekly rent was $785. The $235-per-week difference represents a 30% profit margin for landlords/tenants who convert properties into shared room accommodation. This financial premium is observed across most higher-demand shared-room suburbs in Sydney.

Author provided

Policy and regulatory reforms are needed

Shared rooms raise a series of policy and regulatory concerns.

Rooms are usually sublet accommodation without written tenancy agreements. This leaves occupants in a precarious form of housing. They are often uncertain of their tenancy rights and reluctant to make claims for fear of being evicted
shared room rentals typically occur “off the books”, paid for in cash without written receipts. Thus, rental income for landlords and subletting tenants does not appear as income for taxation purposes
the allure of higher rental income per property increases chances of overcrowding as more tenants are squeezed into bedrooms and partitioned living spaces
the higher rental returns are also likely to remove housing stock from the market for other household types, as dwellings previously available for long-term tenancies are converted to shared room accommodation
unlike share houses in the UK and our boarding/rooming houses, private landlords are unable to obtain permits from city authorities to convert properties into shared accommodation. This limits the transparency of “responsible” landlords
overcrowded properties can lead to structural risks when illegal bedrooms are added and to infrastructure pressures such as low water and gas supply
noise and safety-related conflicts are increasingly reported in dwellings (mainly apartments) inhabited by both family (non-shared) and shared households
monitoring mechanisms are ineffective. Current inspection laws require that the landlord is notified prior to inspection. This favours landlords/head-tenants who are able to alter the number of tenants before an inspection.

With affordable rental housing in short supply in Australia’s major cities, shared room accommodation is likely to increase. This has profound implications for residents of these rooms, local housing markets and government agencies.

– ref. Tracking the rise of room sharing and overcrowding, and what it means for housing in Australia – http://theconversation.com/tracking-the-rise-of-room-sharing-and-overcrowding-and-what-it-means-for-housing-in-australia-107265

Curious Kids: do ants have blood?

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Senior Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney

Curious Kids is a series for children. Send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. You might also like the podcast Imagine This, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.

Do ants have blood? – Sita, age 4, Murwillumbah

Great question, Sita! The short answer is ants have something similar to blood, but scientists call it “haemolymph”. It is yellowish or greenish.

In vertebrates (animals with backbones such as humans, cats, dogs, snakes, birds and frogs) blood’s main job is to move important things around the body. It moves stuff like nutrients from our food, wastes, and oxygen from the air to where it needs to go to make your body work properly. Your blood is red because it contains lots of tiny, tiny packages called “red blood cells”, which carry oxygen around your body.

Ants and other insects also have a liquid inside their body that moves nutrients around. Although this fluid does some of the same jobs as blood, it is more correctly called haemolymph.

haemolymph is the greenish-yellowish fluid inside an ants body that does a lot of the same jobs that blood does in a human’s body. Flickr/Faris Algosaibi, CC BY

An important difference between blood and haemolymph is that haemolymph does not move oxygen around the insects’ body.

The reason insect blood is usually yellowish or greenish (not red) is that insects do not have red blood cells. Unlike blood, haemolymph does not flow through blood vessels like veins, arteries and capillaries. Instead it fills the insect’s main body cavity and is pushed around by its heart.

Breathe in, breathe out

You might be wondering how insects move oxygen around their bodies without the help of red blood cells. The answer is that insects get oxygen to their organs in a very different way than humans do.

In humans, oxygen gets in to our bodies through our mouth or nose and then goes to the lungs. The lungs pass oxygen on to red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body.

Insects, on the other hand, breathe through little holes on the side of their bodies called “spiracles”. Each spiracle leads to air tubes called trachea which branch through the entire body. The air tubes bring oxygen directly to the insect’s organs without needing the help of red blood cells.

Insects breathe through tiny holes in their sides called spiracles. The oxygen is moved around their bodies via special tubes. Shutterstock In this photo, you can see the spiracles on the side of a beetle’s body. Shutterstock

The insect’s breathing system doesn’t work very well in larger animals because oxygen cannot travel far enough down the tubes to reach the organs. That’s why insects are usually small.

About 250 million years ago when there was much more oxygen in the air, some insects did grow to amazing sizes. One type of dragonfly, for example, had wings that stretched almost a metre in length. That’s about the distance an average adult covers in a single step!

[embedded content] The Age of Giant Insects, PBS.

Some insects use their haemolymph in unusual ways. When threatened by a predator, blister beetles can squirt haemolymph from their knees! This might seem like a silly way to defend yourself, but it is very effective because the haemolymph contains poisonous chemicals that can hurt or kill predators.

Blood and haemolymph are both amazing liquids that keep different types of animals alive.

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au

CC BY-ND

Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

– ref. Curious Kids: do ants have blood? – http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-do-ants-have-blood-108925

How to take better photos with your smartphone, thanks to computational photography

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Layton, Senior Teaching Fellow (Journalism), Bond University

Each time you snap a photo with your smartphone – depending on the make and model – it may perform more than a trillion operations for just that single image.

Yes, you expect it to do the usual auto-focus/auto-exposure functions that are the hallmark of point-and-shoot photography.

But your phone may also capture and stack multiple frames (sometimes before you even press the button), capture the brightest and darkest parts of the scene, average and merge exposures, and render your composition into a three-dimensional map to artificially blur the background.

The term for this is computational photography, which basically means that image capture is via a series of digital processes rather than purely optical ones. Image adjustment and manipulation take place in real time, and in the camera, rather than in post-production using any editing software.

Computational photography streamlines image production so everything – capture, editing and delivery – can be done in the phone, with much of the heavy lifting done as the picture is taken.

A smartphone or a camera?

What this means for the everyday user is that your smartphone now rivals, and in many cases surpasses, expensive DSLR cameras. The ability to create professional-looking photos is in the palm of your hand.

Low-light photography shot on iPhone 8 Plus. Rob Layton

I started in photography more than 30 years ago with film, darkrooms, a bagful of cameras and lens, and later the inevitable switch to DSLRs (with digital single-lens reflex, light travels through the lens to a mirror [the reflex] that sends the image to the viewfinder and flips up when the shutter is fired for the image sensor to capture the image).

But my photography now is done exclusively with an iPhone – because it’s cheaper and always with me. I have two accessory lenses, two rigs (one for underwater, the other for land), a tripod and a bunch of photography apps.

It’s the apps that often are the powerhouse of computational smartphone photography. Think of it like a hotted-up car. Apps are bespoke add-ons that harness and enhance existing engine performance. And, as with car racing, the best add-ons usually end up in mass production.

That certainly seems to be the case with Apple’s iPhone Xs. It has supercharged computational photography through its advances in low-light performance, smart HDR (High Dynamic Range) and artificial depth-of-field: this is arguably the best camera phone on the market right now.

A few months ago that title was held by the Huawei P20 Pro. Before the Huawei it was probably Google’s Pixel 2 – until the Pixel 3 came out.

The point is, manufacturers are leapfrogging each other in the race to be the best smartphone camera in an image-obsessed society (when was the last time you saw a smartphone marketed as a phone?).

Stars are discernible in this image which proves astrophotography is possible on smartphone. Rob Layton

Phone producers are pulling the rug from beneath traditional camera manufacturers. It’s a bit like the dynamic between newspapers and digital media: newspapers have the legacy of quality and trust, but digital media are responding better and faster to market demands. So too are smartphone manufacturers.

So, right now, the main areas of smartphone computational photography that you may be able to employ for better pictures are: portrait mode; smart HDR; low light and long exposure.

Portrait mode

Conventional cameras use long lenses and large apertures (openings for light) to blur the background to emphasise the subject. Smartphones have small focal lengths and fixed apertures so the solution is computational – if your device has more than one rear camera (some, including the Huawei, have three).

An image in portrait mode that shows the 3D depth map generated to control the bokeh (blur). Rob Layton

It works by using both cameras to capture two images (one wide angle, the other telephoto) that are merged. Your phone looks at both images and determines a depth map – the distance between objects in the overall image. Objects and entire areas can then be artificially blurred to precise points, depending on where on that depth map they reside.

This portrait of a young longbow archer was shot with the Halide app, the background blurred in Focos app, and final editing done in Lightroom CC for mobile. Notice the bowstring disappears in low-contrast areas on the depth map, showing limitations in a technology not yet perfected. Rob Layton

This is how portrait mode works. A number of third-party camera and editing apps allow fine adjustment so you can determine exactly how much and where to put the bokeh (the blurred part of the image, also known as depth-of-field).

Other than what’s already in a smartphone, (iOS) apps for this include Focos, Halide, ProCam6, Darkroom.

Android apps are harder to recommend, because it’s an uneven playing field at the moment. Many developers choose to stick to Apple because it is a standardised environment. That said, you may try Google Camera or Open Camera

Smart HDR

The human eye can perceive contrast far greater than cameras. To bring more highlight and shadow detail into your photo (the dynamic range), HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a standard feature on most newer smartphones.

HDR exposes for shadow and highlight details to extend the dynamic range. Rob Layton

It draws on a traditional photography technique by which multiple frames are exposed from shadows to highlights and then merged. How well this performs depends on the speed of your phone’s sensor and ISP (image signal processor).

A number of HDR apps are also available, some of which will take up to 100 frames of a single scene, but you may need to keep your phone steady to avoid blurring. Try (iOS) Hydra, ProHDRx or (Android) Pro HDR Camera.

Low-light and long exposure

Smartphones have small image sensors and pixel depth, so they struggle in low light. The computational trend among developers and manufacturers is to take multiple exposures, stack them on top of each other, and then average the stack to reduce noise (the random pixels that escape the sensors).

It’s a traditional (and manual) technique in Photoshop that’s now automatic in smartphones and is an evolution of HDR. This is how the Google Pixel 3 and Huawei P20 see so well in the dark.

It also means that long exposures can be shot in daylight (prohibitive with a DSLR or film) without risk of the image overexposing.

A three-second exposure of passing storm clouds at midday, made possible through computation. Rob Layton

In an app such as NightCap (Android, try Camera FV-5), long exposures are an averaged process, such as this (image above) three-second exposure of storm clouds travelling past a clock tower.

Light trails, such as the main image (top) of London’s Tower Bridge and these images (below) of downtown San Francisco and a fire-twirler are an additive process to capture emerging highlights.

Light Trails mode was used to capture passing traffic in this long exposure of downtown San Francisco. Rob Layton Light Trails mode was used to capture this fire twirler at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. Rob Layton

A tripod is essential unless you use Adobe’s free editing app Lightroom (iOS and Android), which has a very good camera with a long exposure feature that adds auto-alignment to its image stacking.

Long exposure in iPhone’s native camera app can be made by tapping the Live mode button. The iPhone records before you press the shutter, so you need to keep the camera stable before and after you take the picture. Then, in the Photos app, swipe the image up to reveal four modes: Live, Loop, Bounce and Long Exposure.

A long exposure made with iPhone’s Live photo mode. Rob Layton

The key to successful smartphone photography is to understand not just what your phone can do, but also its limitations, such as true optical focal length (although this device by Light is challenging that). However, the advances in computational photography are making this a dynamic and compelling space.

It is worth remembering, too, that smartphones are merely a tool, and computational photography the technology that powers the tool. This old adage still rings true: it is the photographer who takes the picture, not the camera. Mind you, the taking is becoming so much easier.

Happy snapping.

An underwater housing for iPhone (AxisGo by Aquatech) was used to capture this picture of a father and daughter swimming in the ocean. Rob Layton

– ref. How to take better photos with your smartphone, thanks to computational photography – http://theconversation.com/how-to-take-better-photos-with-your-smartphone-thanks-to-computational-photography-107957

Let’s untangle the murky politics around kids and food (and ditch the guilt)

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Martin, Executive Manager of the Obesity Policy Coalition; Senior Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

This article is part of a series focusing on the politics of food – what we eat, how our views of food are changing and why it matters from a cultural and political standpoint.

Naturally, parents want the best for their children. While they shouldn’t chastise themselves for offering the occasional treat, what used to be an “occasional” treat is becoming something that’s “every day”, or “several times a day”.

When around one-third of the average child’s energy intake comes from processed junk foods, it’s clearly hard to stick to healthy habits. And with a large proportion of children above a healthy weight (currently 26%) we need to examine the broader social changes at work.

We have more and more packaged products to choose from, many dressed up as healthy. There’s a high volume of products with cute characters and giveaways on the packaging to appeal to children, coupled with nutrition claims designed to entice parents. Multinational food and drink corporations are also finding new and more insidious ways to encourage kids to eat unhealthy food.

With so many external forces influencing what to feed children, how can parents navigate this and make healthy choices?

Navigating the supermarket shelves

Most parents don’t set out to feed their kids unhealthy food, but once you move away from whole fruit and veggies, convenience and clever marketing become powerful influences.

Trying to find a healthy alternative means relying on the labels on food packaging. When labels boast “99% fruit and veg”, who can blame anyone for choosing these products for their kids?

Brands will go to great lengths to give the impression their food is healthy. This is most starkly revealed in the recent Federal Court’s decision about misleading marketing of Heinz Little Kids Shredz, products that were up to 68% sugar.

Court documents show how there was fruit on the label, but the product contained up to 68% sugar. ACCC/Heinz

Documents revealed in the court case also show evidence the packaging was updated to specifically create an image of a healthy and nutritious snack that would appeal to parents of toddlers.

Food manufacturers know that people associate the word “fruit” with good health. So many take advantage of this, plastering it over the packaging, especially for kids’ food. The reality is that a lot of these products actually contain sticky, sugary paste extracted from fruit; essentially a mouthful of concentrated sugar, minus the fibre.

It doesn’t matter if it’s sugar from fruit concentrate, honey, sugar cane, or the other names manufacturers use to conceal it – sugar is sugar. Parents deserve to know what’s really in the products they’re feeding their kids. Currently, that is hard to do as added sugars are not grouped together on the ingredients list, or listed separately on the nutrition information panel.

Ministers continue to avoid making added sugar labelling on products mandatory; the most recent meeting of ministers again deferred a decision. Yet there are ways to cut through marketing spin and choose the healthiest option.

Always look past the flashy promises of real fruit ingredients and make sure to read the label. Start with the ingredients list. Sugar could be hiding behind another name. As a general rule, anything with the words “paste”, “juice”, “syrup”, “cane” or, of course, “sugar” should raise a red flag.

Check the nutrition information panel to compare sugar content in products, against the “Avg per 100g” panel. Avoid anything containing more than 15g of sugar per 100g.

What should we feed children?

There’s more information than ever about what parents should be feeding children. This is leaving parents feeling not only confused, but often guilty about their children’s diets.

Despite the growing online literature and debate on what we should be feeding our children, the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines for children are pretty clear.

Children should enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods from the five groups every day. Resources also point out what to leave off the plate, or out of the lunchbox. But with little funding to educate the public about the guidelines, the information isn’t reaching parents.

So many food labels are hard to understand. No wonder parents find it tough working out what’s best for their kids. from www.shutterstock.com

But it can’t all be simply down to parents to steer children onto a healthier path.

We need leadership and action from government to encourage families to have healthier diets: better food labelling, investment in public education campaigns and tougher restrictions around junk food marketing are a start.

From the supermarket to the schoolyard

In term time, around one-third of children’s daily food intake occurs at school. So it’s vital schools follow nutrition guidelines and parents are supported to pack their kids off to school with the right sort of food.

Sorting out a child’s lunchbox shouldn’t be a soul-destroying, anxiety-inducing exercise. You don’t have to be a Masterchef to provide your child with a healthy lunch you know they’ll actually eat. Keep it simple. It doesn’t have to be a healthy muffin you spent half the night baking; a simple sandwich and some fruit will do the trick.

Schools need consistent guidelines and policies that support children and parents in making healthy choices. With a lack of consistent messaging and leadership, it’s no wonder there is confusion about what is healthy.

Children are exposed to pervasive and persistent junk food marketing through TV, social media or on their way to school. Then at school, there are mixed messages about what they should eat – some schools enforce no lolly policies, yet use lollies in school fundraisers.

Parents continue to face an uphill battle against the industry’s tactics to build brand awareness and encourage pester power among children. If we’re going to build a healthier world for the next generation, we need to do this through education, not guilt.

– ref. Let’s untangle the murky politics around kids and food (and ditch the guilt) – http://theconversation.com/lets-untangle-the-murky-politics-around-kids-and-food-and-ditch-the-guilt-108328

While law makers squabble over pill testing, people should test their drugs at home

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bright, Senior Lecturer of Addiction, Edith Cowan University

As the festival season ramps up this summer, so has the ecstasy death toll. There have now been five deaths that might have been preventable if people knew what was in the drugs they were taking.

This has led to a flurry of calls for governments to introduce pill testing by specialists at festivals. What many people might not know is they can already legally purchase reagent test kits to test their drugs at home (although possession of the drugs is still illegal). So, do at-home test kits work?

What are reagents?

Reagents are chemicals that react with a small sample of the drug being tested by changing colour. The most well known reagents are marquis, mandelin and mecke. The colour change indicates what might be in the drug (which you can check on a chart that comes with the kit).

The kits can be legally sold and purchased as a single use test, and makers report sales have increased by 110% in the past year.

However many of these products are not well labelled. For example, the ketamine reagent kit is actually mandelin, which is quite good for testing ecstasy, but not as good for testing ketamine. The actual reagent chemicals can be purchased for testing multiple samples. This is also legal, and much cheaper.

In 2017 I was volunteering at a large multi-day Victorian festival, camping with academic colleagues. Having brought reagent testing equipment, when people came to our camp site asking if we’d like to buy drugs, we said “perhaps, but would you mind us testing it first?” Within 24 hours we had identified the dangerous drug PMA.

We contacted the festival emergency controller. Being an ex-law enforcement official, he knew instructing people to test other people’s drugs would be illegal since the drug testers would momentarily be in possession of an illegal drug. Nonetheless, he didn’t want deaths on his hands and so instructed us to set up a covert pill testing station.

Several concerned members of the community volunteered to handle the illegal drugs brought to the covert pill testing station, all knowing full well they would be breaking the law. Within 48 hours 139 samples had been tested. We suspected a number contained Nbome, an adulterant found in ecstasy capsules that killed several people in Melbourne only weeks earlier.

Most people whose drugs were tested that we suspected were from this batch simply put these drugs in the bin. A volunteer sent one such discarded sample to a testing service overseas that confirmed what we suspected.

The limitations of reagents

Reagent testing is rudimentary at best, but it can identify potentiality fatal adulterants in ecstasy such as PMA and Nbome. However, just because a test shows that a sample contains MDMA, the chemical name for ecstasy, the sample could also contain other dangerous chemicals. This is further complicated given nearly 500 new drugs have been identified in the past few years.

Accuracy can be improved by using at least two reagents and triangulating the data. That is, each reagent turns a different colour depending on the drug it is exposed to, so if you do it twice with two different reagents you’ll get a better idea of what the drug contains.

The covert operation in 2017 involved at least three reagents. Nonetheless, we could only speculate the drugs were from the same batch as those that killed several people in Melbourne weeks earlier because the colour pattern we were seeing didn’t show up on the chart.

www.dancesafe.org

Had we had access to the internet, we could have downloaded more up-to-date information. For example, The Bunk Police have an app that provides people with access to an extensive library of videos showing the various reagent reactions of hundreds of drugs.

More rigorous pill testing

Given the limitations of reagent testing, many are advocating for more sophisticated technologies.

The first and only sanctioned trial of pill testing in Australia used infrared spectroscopy. This technology can quickly identify all known chemicals. It also provides an indication of the purity of each chemical.

Of 83 samples provided for analysis, two contained N-Ethylpentylone, a drug that has only recently emerged. It has caused deaths and “mass casualty overdoses”. Where very high purity MDMA was identified, people were advised to take lower doses to avoid overdosing.

This trial occurred in the Australian Capital Territory, which is unique since health-care professionals are able to handle illegal drugs for the purposes of analysis. Legislative changes would need to be made to allow sanctioned pill testing to be provided in other states – or at least some form of government support would be needed to run a one-off trial.

In the meantime…

While politicians continue to debate whether more sophisticated pill testing should be implemented in Australia, I recommend people use reagent testing. And so do Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), a grassroots network of young people campaigning for drug policy reform.

The University of Melbourne Chapter of SSDP provides students with free access to reagent test kits. Meanwhile, I helped the Edith Cowan University (ECU) student guild in collaboration with the ECU chapter of SSDP, to provide students with information on how to maximise the utility of reagent test kits along with free kits in October last year.

For more accurate information, people can send their drugs overseas to services such as Energy Control or Ecstasy Data. For a small fee they use sophisticated technologies to allow people to anonymously find out what’s in their drugs. However, mailing illegal drugs involves breaking the law and the turnaround time means people have to plan their drug use well in advance.

– ref. While law makers squabble over pill testing, people should test their drugs at home – http://theconversation.com/while-law-makers-squabble-over-pill-testing-people-should-test-their-drugs-at-home-109421

New regulations expose energy price gouging through ‘free’ comparison sites

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University

A new regulation has highlighted the thousands of offers electricity retailers make to new customers, mostly through commercial comparison sites. These sites typically do not include the best possible offers, funnelling consumers into higher-cost plans in exchange for fees from energy companies.

From January 1 companies selling electricity in New South Wales, South East Queensland and South Australia are required to publish all of the offers they make to new customers on the Australian Energy Regulator’s Energy Made Easy price comparison website. Retailers in Victoria are subject to Victorian regulations.

At the time of writing two of the three largest retailers, Energy Australia and Origin Energy, have complied. Before the change, Origin Energy and Energy Australia posted 547 publicly available market offers across the three markets. They now post 2,010 market offers in these markets, the difference explained by the offers they make available through commercial comparison sites.

Commercial comparison sites include offers from a subset of competing retailers. One of the largest comparison sites, iSelect, includes offers from 11 retailers (out of 22) that sell electricity to households in Sydney. The smaller comparison sites cover offers from fewer retailers – in some cases as few as three competing retailers. Some of the comparison sites do not disclose the identity or number of their commercial “partners”.

I analysed Origin Energy and Energy Australia’s offers to assess whether they are making better offers through the commercial comparison sites, than they make to customers directly. Using the retail market in Sydney as a case study, none of the offers that Energy Australia made available through commercial sites were cheaper than the offers it made to customers that signed up directly. In the case of Origin Energy, there were two offers on commercial sites that were better than the offers they made directly.

Typically prices in the offers available through the commercial sites were 5%-12% higher that offers the retailers made directly. One commercial comparison site had an Energy Australia offer that was 34% more expensive than if the household had signed up to Energy Australia directly.

The same picture is seen in the rest of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

Commercial comparison sites earn a commission (or “referral” fee) from the retailers for the consumers they send to those retailers. Since they are paid by the retailers, the commercial comparison sites describe their service to electricity consumers as “100% free”, “no cost to you” and “free to use”.

But providing better deals to consumers may bite the hand that feeds: retailers can be expected to be willing to pay higher commissions for customers that pay higher prices. Commercial comparison sites therefore have an incentive to provide the appearance – but not necessarily the reality – of a competitive market.

Should policy change?

It could be argued that this state of affairs requires no policy response. If the commercial comparison sites offer some convenience, consumers may wish to still use them; otherwise the sites will wither of their own accord. (One might suggest the operating margin of just 1.9% for iSelect’s energy comparison division – as disclosed in their latest Annual Report is a sign this is already occurring.)

The counter-argument is that the complexity and tedium of electricity bills is such that the commercial comparison sites will always have the upper hand in pulling the wool over their users’ eyes: users are unlikely to be able to work out how comprehensively they are being fleeced. Evidence to support this argument would be whether electricity customers are leaving meaningful amounts of money on the table.

On this, the picture is now pretty clear. Several studies and businesses have compared customers’ actual bills with all the offers in the market. The 2017 Thwaites review in Victoria found on average customers would be $294 per year (about 25%) better off if they were on the best deal in the market.

In 2018, CHOICE’s Transformer service found average annual bill savings of $622 for the customers that paid for their service. And in its trial, Service New South Wales found average savings of more than $520 per year for the customers that used their service.

And in research currently under way using CHOICE’s data, we’re finding customers who switched retailers in the last 12 months typically only saved half as much as they would have, had they been able to find the best deal in the market. While it is unreasonable to expect everyone will find the best deal, the existence of such a large gap for the typical customer is an indictment of the market.

Motivated to some extent by perceived shortfalls in the commercial comparison sites, governments have long provided tax-payer funded comparison sites. The Victorian state government currently compensates customers who use theirs. Federally, the Australian Energy Regulator has been awarded additional funding to improve and expand the comparison site it provides.

Taxpayer funded comparison sites may be part of the solution, but customers so far have not been overly drawn to them. This may change in future.

Irrespective, the primary evidence of inadequate market coverage and typically higher prices provided by the commercial sites, and the circumstantial evidence that customers are in fact leaving lots of money on the table even when they engage in the market, suggests that cleaning up the commercial comparison business now merits serious attention.

– ref. New regulations expose energy price gouging through ‘free’ comparison sites – http://theconversation.com/new-regulations-expose-energy-price-gouging-through-free-comparison-sites-109420

Almost every brand of tuna on supermarket shelves shows why modern slavery laws are needed

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Nicholl, Lecturer and Research Assistant, University of Melbourne

What is the chance the last tin of tuna you ate was made using slave labour? If it came from Thailand, the odds may be a lot higher than you imagine.

We have tracked the journey of tuna from the seas around Thailand to Australian supermarket shelves. This included interviewing more than 50 people, including people entrapped into forced labour. In doing so, we have been able to assess whether brands can say their supply chains are slave-free.

We believe just one brand of tinned tuna can confidently claim slavery is not involved in its supply.

Though we cannot name that brand, due to ethical guidelines to ensure our research remains independent of commercial considerations, our results further validate the need for the new Modern Slavery Act, passed by the Australian parliament late last year, to drive companies to address the problem of slavery in international supply chains.

Exploiting migrant workers

Thailand is the world’s top exporter of tuna, and one of the biggest exporters of all fish. Its marine fishing industry is particularly prone to modern slavery due to its size, lack of regulation, extent of illegal operations, and exploitation of migrant workers.

There are more than 50,000 fishing vessels and about 500,000 workers in the industry. Investigations by groups including Greenpeace and the International Labour Organisation suggest the majority of those working on boats meet the definition of modern slavery – any situation where a person is forced to work under threat; is owned or controlled by their employer; dehumanised or treated as a commodity; and is not free to leave.

Any person tricked or trafficked to work in locations far from home who then has their freedom of movement denied either physically or financially is a modern slave.

Statistics collected by Thailand Department of Fisheries on 42,512 fishing vessels in 2014 showed 82% of 172,430 fishermen employed on them were migrant workers. The majority of those also working in processing plants are also migrants. Mainly from Cambodia and Myanmar, they are often enticed by traffickers with promises of well-paid jobs, but find it is a different story once they arrive.

A processing plant near Bangkok visited by the authors. Almost all the workers are migrants. This factory works with local non-government organisations to ensure its workers are ethically recruited and supported. Kate Nicholls, CC BY

Migrant workers are not entitled to the same protections as Thai workers, and are generally paid about 25% less than the Thai minimum wage. They are unable to join unions as Thai workers are.

So being foreign, usually without education and language skills, makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation in an industry where “rogue fleets” already operate outside the law through illegal fishing operations, and where safety and labour standards are poorly enforced.

Lack of transparency

Practices in Thailand’s fishing industry (and elsewhere in Southeast Asia) were brought to the attention of the rest of the world in 2015 by the investigative work of Associated Press journalists (for which they won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2016).

Responses by governments and companies since then have proved the inadequacy of existing legal and managerial frameworks to effectively tackle the problem.

Transparency is the key issue. Illegal practices are by their very nature deliberately hidden. Methods that retailers might use to manage other aspects of their supply chains – such as sending out a survey to their suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers – don’t work.

What complicates transparency in fisheries is that it is not sufficient to just know the supplier or the wholesaler or even the geographic origin of the fish. Retailers also need to know the specifics of each fishing trip and the labour involved. Even then, there could be “trans-shipment” – where fish are transferred from one vessel to another out at sea. This a problem even with sustainable fishing certification schemes like that run by the Marine Stewardship Council (which does not certify labour conditions anyway).

There needs to be greater coordination and better mechanisms to trace risk exposure from fishing boat to factory to supermarket.

More to be done, but it’s a start

Therein lies the need for modern slavery laws.

Australia’s Modern Slavery Act will require companies with turnovers of more than A$100 million to report what they are doing to keep their products slave-free.

From 2020 they will have to produce “modern slavery statements” that detail where they source their products, and the actions they have taken to ensure slavery does not exist within their extended supply chains.

There is more to be done. The law does not include penalties for non-compliance. There is no statutory body to provide guidance and oversight, as similar British legislation enacted in 2015 provides.

But it is a start. It at least puts pressure on all brands to be more transparent about their supply chains and their efforts to ensure decent working conditions. Up to now scrutiny has been patchy, with some brands investing in cleaning up their supply chains due to being “named and shamed” while other brands have flown under the radar.

Hopefully now consumers will be more aware of the modern slavery risks, and in time be able to research the publicly shared information of their favourite brands.

– ref. Almost every brand of tuna on supermarket shelves shows why modern slavery laws are needed – http://theconversation.com/almost-every-brand-of-tuna-on-supermarket-shelves-shows-why-modern-slavery-laws-are-needed-108421

Hidden women of history: Caterina Cornaro, the last queen of Cyprus

By The Conversation -

January 9, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Barker, Education Manager, Sydney University Museums, University of Sydney

In a new series, we look at under acknowledged women through the ages.

The life of Caterina Cornaro could easily be the plot of a novel or TV drama. One of the most significant woman of Venice’s golden age, Cornaro (1454-1510) was an important figure in Renaissance politics, diplomacy and arts. She reigned as the queen of Cyprus for 16 years under immense pressure.

Portrait of Caterina, 1494-1495, by Albrecht Dürer. Wikimedia

As a patron of the arts, she was painted by greats such as Dürer, Titian, Bellini and Giorgione. Yet today she is relatively little known outside of Venice and Cyprus.

Caterina was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Cyprus between 1474 and 1489. Her tragic reign saw the Mediterranean island transfer from the hands of the Lusignan dynasty who had dominated the island since the Crusades, to the Republic of Venice, one of the clearest signs of the mercantile nation-state flexing its imperial muscle.

This significant event took place against the backdrop of interference from Venice’s rival, Genoa, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the east. Despite the complex political intrigue, Caterina became a much-admired figure in contemporary European society. Still, separating the real Caterina from the romanticised version of her can be a challenge.

Early life

Caterina was born in 1454, into one of the most noble and influential Venetian families. (It had produced four Doges, the senior-most elected official of the Republic.) She grew up in the family palace on the Grand Canal. Amongst the family’s many financial interests were rich sugar plantations on Cyprus. They developed close relations with the Lusignan family who had reigned over Cyprus since 1192.

Unknown artist, Caterina Cornaro Queen of Cyprus, oil on canvas, unknown date, University of Sydney Art Collection [UA1865.9] sydney.edu.au/museums

After a period of instability, James II became King of Cyprus in 1468 and chose Caterina as his wife. The marital bond was supported by Venice: commercial rights on the island were now secured for Venetian interests. She was presented with a dowry of 100,000 ducats; a not inconsiderable sum of gold and silver coinage.

She and James married by proxy in St Mark’s Cathedral on 30 July 1468 when Caterina was 14-years-old. She set sail for Cyprus in 1472 to finally meet her husband.

Caterina arrived and married James in person at the Cypriot harbour city of Famagusta. James, however, died a mere ten months after the two met, leaving the heavily pregnant queen consort to become regent to her newborn son James III. Tragedy struck the young queen again on 26 August 1474 when her son and last legitimate heir to the Lusignan line died. The child’s passing left Caterina as queen regnant, a role she would hold for 16 years. Rumours spread that James II had been poisoned by the queen’s relatives.

Thrust into a position of power and prestige through the title, Caterina was immediately the centre of various intrigues within the court. She survived conspiracies from within to overthrow her, and pressure from Naples and the Papal state.

It was Venice that exerted the greatest threat to Caterina. Control of Cyprus would consolidate the Republic’s influence over the entire Mediterranean, so they removed many of the queen’s trusted advisers and replaced them with commissioners and counsellors influencing decision making. While it is easy to portray her as a victim of Venetian manipulation, for years she faced down considerable pressure by the Republic to surrender the throne.

Hans Makart, Venice pays tribute to Caterina Cornaro, oil on canvas, 1872-3. Wikimedia Commons

Removal from Cyprus

In 1489 Caterina finally relented to the Republic’s exertions, mediated by her brother, to abdicate. Although she lost political power, she was still able to stage manage her image successfully. Contemporary chronicler George Boustronios’s account tell us

on 15 February 1489 the queen exited from Nicosia for Famagusta to leave … she went on horseback wearing a black silken cloak, with all the ladies and the knights in her company …. Her eyes, moreover did not cease to shed tears throughout the procession. The whole population was bewailing.

The reality was more complex. Cyprus was locked into a feudal system which was retained by the Venetians; for most Cypriots life would not change with their queen’s exile and the collapse of the monarchy.

Map of Nicosia in Cyprus, created in 1597 by the Venetian Giacomo Franco (1550-1620) for his book Viaggio da Venetia a Constantinopoli per Mare. The Venetian influence on Cyprus after Caterina’s fall, including the fortification of Nicosia, was profound. Wikimedia Commons

The pageantry of the fleet carrying the exiled Queen home was played as a brilliant piece of propaganda by both the Doge and by the former Queen. Her disembarkation in Venice became a common scene in contemporary painting.

Queen of the arts

On return to Italy, Caterina was granted for life the fiefdom of Asolo, a town in the Veneto region of northern Italy, in 1489.

Under Caterina, it became a flourishing court for Late Renaissance art and learning. Painters such as Gentile Bellini and poet Andrea Navagero were welcomed. The reputation of the Queen’s court soon spread, particularly after humanist Cardinal Pietro Bembo used it as the setting for his famed dialogues on platonic love, Gli Asolani.

There is some debate about who really spent time in Asolo, leading to one historian to describe the “mirage of Asolo”. Whatever the true nature of the court; the image of the cultured Queen in exile was manipulated by Caterina. She became a standard figure of portraitists. In later life, and in even in death, Cornaro had far greater control than she ever did during her reign.

Castello della Regina Cornaro in Asolo. Wikimedia Commons

In 1510 she died in Venice. The crowds wanting to participate in the funeral of Caterina were so large that a bridge of boats was constructed to allow greater pedestrian movement. She was buried in the church of San Salvador near the Rialto Bridge.

Legacy

Death was not the end of Caterina’s story. Even centuries later she continued to influence the arts. The audience hall of Caterina’s castle at Asolo was converted to a theatre in 1798; the theatre itself was later purchased by the John Ringling Museum of Art where it has been reassembled in Sarasota, Florida.

In 2017, a portrait of Caterina from a private collection underwent conservation and was exhibited in the Leventis Museum in Nicosia in Cyprus for the first time. The conservation work included both art historical research and scientific analysis and confirmed a 16th century date for the portrait.

Copies of original portraits of the queen continued to be made into the 18th and 19th centuries. The University of Sydney has within its art collection a large oil painting of unknown hand, but from the tradition of a lost Titian. The queen wears a black widow’s gown, a coronet and necklace.

Robert Browning wrote of Asolo. The libretto based upon her life by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges would go onto to form the basis of five operas. A highly romanticised novel Royal Pawn of Venice: A Romance of Cyprus was published in 1911.

It is time her story was once again better known. The story of the republican queen of arts.

– ref. Hidden women of history: Caterina Cornaro, the last queen of Cyprus – http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-caterina-cornaro-the-last-queen-of-cyprus-108495

The DR Congo is bracing for election results and it’s likely to get bloody. Here’s what you need to know

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hutchinson, PhD Candidate, Australian National University

When Congolese gynaecologist Dr Denis Mukwege received his Nobel Peace Prize a few months ago, he inferred responsibility for what happens in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to everyone who owns a smart phone. As well as diamonds and oil, the country is rich in the gold, coltan and cobalt vital to the production of the smart phone in your pocket.

But it is also rich in strife. The DRC is holding its breath while the electoral commission decides the results of elections held on December 30, 2018. The Congolese constitution limits presidents to two five-year terms. But current president, Joseph Kabila, has now been president for 18 years.

But that may be about to change. Martin Fayulu, the man supported by a former rebel commander who had been previously charged (but later acquitted) with allowing rape and crimes against humanity under his leadership, may have won the election away from the ruling party.

But though one of the most trusted institutions in the country, the Catholic church – which deployed tens of thousands of election observers – announced it knew of a clear winner, the results can only legally be declared by the electoral commission. And the commission announced further delays in the results over the weekend.

In the meantime, however, the New York Times has announced Fayulu’s win. Anticipating violence and unrest, the US has sent troops to neighbouring countries to protect US citizens and diplomatic facilities.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Security Council met to discuss the issue on Friday. Although the meeting was closed to the public, it is known the Council was unable to agree on steps forward. There is to be another meeting in an open session in New York on Tuesday.

So, what is actually going on in the DRC?

Who were the lead candidates?

President Joseph Kabila had handpicked the government’s candidate to run in the elections. Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary had been Interior Minister and enjoyed the full resources of the government for his campaign, including unlimited access to state-run media outlets.

Shadary is subject to an EU travel ban, asset freeze and sanctions. This is due to his role in obstructing Congo’s electoral process and carrying out a crackdown against protesters angry over the vote which had been delayed for years.

The government is good at repressing political opposition. During previous elections, SMS communication was cancelled. But this year the government also turned off the internet. Key independent radio and television programs have been closed and reporters ejected from the country.

In turn, opposition parties have struggled to form coalitions or campaigns to topple the government democratically. In a landmark sign of cooperation, seven opposition parties banded together to endorse a single candidate, Martin Fayulu, to run against the ruling party’s pick.

But that agreement barely lasted 24 hours before the parties with the largest membership withdrew their support to run their own leaders instead.

After the pact collapsed, former warlord, Jean-Pierre Bemba maintained his support for Fayulu. Bemba had returned to the DRC after being imprisoned at the Hague for charges he allowed his troops to use sexual violence in war crimes and crimes against humanity when he deployed them to the neighbouring Central African Republic. Bemba’s conviction was later overturned on technical grounds.

Despite this record, he was a popular choice to run against the current president but was deemed ineligible by the electoral commission due to witness tampering charges that had been upheld by the International Criminal Court. So, Fayulu prevailed.

Fayulu is a wealthy businessman, a former Manager at Exxon Mobil who has been politically active in opposition for many years. He was even injured when government forces fired on opposition protesters in the capital in 2006.

He has promised to create an environment conducive to business and investment in the DRC, and to revise mining and oil contracts. This won’t necessarily improve the lives of the average person as oil is seen as a driver of conflict and displacement in the parts of the country with such reserves.

What happens now?

Many state functions fail in the DRC. The country ranks 176 out of a possible 189 on the Human Development Index. In the latest Reuters Poll, it came in as the seventh worst country in the world to be a woman. An estimated 70% of Congolese have little or no access to health care. Serious diseases are rife, with a current Ebola outbreak in the country.

The electoral commission has made questionable decisions about the election logistics in the years and months leading up to the poll. Early in December one of their warehouses was burned to the ground, including the thousands of electronic voting machines stored there.

[embedded content] An electoral commission warehouse in the DRC.

In the lead up to the election, more than one million voters who live in largely opposition-held areas (and those facing the Ebola outbreak) were told they would not be allowed to vote for health and security reasons. But mock elections were staged in the area to show they were able to do so.

The United Nations Security Council published a report of “major security incidents including attacks against civilians, security forces and United Nations peacekeepers in many provinces,” as well as illegal importation of military materiel. Human Rights Watch have reported violence, widespread irregularities and voter suppression during the election.

Given Fayulu is not the government candidate, further violence is likely. The President has shown his reluctance to let go of power. He and his party have the capacity to either announce Shadary the winner of the election, regardless of the count; or to simply refuse to give up power.

Either way, it is looking more and more likely it will get bloody.

– ref. The DR Congo is bracing for election results and it’s likely to get bloody. Here’s what you need to know – http://theconversation.com/the-dr-congo-is-bracing-for-election-results-and-its-likely-to-get-bloody-heres-what-you-need-to-know-109422

Businesses think they’re on top of carbon risk, but tourism destinations have barely a clue

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

]]>

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University

The directors of most Australian companies are well aware of the impact of carbon emissions, not only on the environment but also on their own firms as emissions-intensive industries get lumbered with taxes and regulations designed to change their behaviour.

Many are getting out of emissions-intensive activities ahead of time.

But, with honourable exceptions, Australia’s tourism industry (and the Australian authorities that support it) is rolling on as if it’s business as usual.

This could be because tourism isn’t a single industry – it is a composite, made up of many industries that together create an experience, none of which take responsibility for the whole thing.

But tourism is a huge contributor to emissions, accounting for 8% of emissions worldwide and climbing as tourism grows faster than the economies it contributes to.

Tourism operators are aiming for even faster growth, most of them apparently oblivious to clear evidence about what their industry is doing and the risks it is buying more heavily into.

If tourism destinations were companies…

If Australian tourist destinations were companies they would be likely to discuss the risks to their operating models from higher taxes, higher oil prices, extra regulation, and changes in consumer preferences.

Aviation is one of the biggest tourism-related emitters, with the regions that depend on air travel heavily exposed.

But at present the destination-specific carbon footprints from aviation are not recorded, making it difficult for destinations to assess the risks.

A recent paper published in Tourism Management has attempted to fill the gap, publishing nine indicators for every airport in the world.

The biggest emitter in terms of departing passengers is Los Angeles International Airport, producing 765 kilo-tonnes of CO₂ in just one month; January 2017.

When taking into account passenger volumes, one of the airports with the highest emissions per traveller is Buenos Aires. The average person departing that airport emits 391 kilograms of CO₂ and travels a distance of 5,651 km.

The analysis used Brisbane as one of four case studies.

Most of the journeys to Brisbane are long.

Brisbane’s share of itineraries under 400 km is very low at 0.7% (compared with destinations such as Copenhagen which has 9.1%). That indicates a relatively low potential to survive carbon risk by pivoting to public transport or electric planes, as Norway is planning to.

The average distance travelled from Brisbane is 2,852 km, a span exceeded by Auckland (4,561 km) but few other places.

As it happens, Brisbane Airport is working hard to minimise its on-the-ground environmental impact, but that’s not where its greatest threats come from.

The indicators suggest that the destinations at most risk are islands, and those “off the beaten track” – the kind of destinations that tourism operators are increasingly keen to develop.

Queensland’s Outback Tourism Infrastructure Fund was established to do exactly that. It would be well advised to shift its focus to products that will survive even under scenarios of extreme decarbonisation.

They could include low-carbon transport systems and infrastructure, and a switch to domestic rather than international tourists.

Experience-based travel, slow travel and staycations are likely to become the future of tourism as holidaymakers continue to enjoy the things that tourism has always delivered, but without travelling as much and without burning as much carbon to do it.

An industry concerned about its future would start transforming now.

– ref. Businesses think they’re on top of carbon risk, but tourism destinations have barely a clue – http://theconversation.com/businesses-think-theyre-on-top-of-carbon-risk-but-tourism-destinations-have-barely-a-clue-105375

Parliamentary entitlements: what’s allowed and what’s not?

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Monash University

Queensland Senator Fraser Anning has used taxpayer funds to pay for flights to Melbourne to attend a protest with far-right extremists.

Anning’s use of taxpayer money for what many argue to be inappropriate reasons is another in a line of Australian MPs using their parliamentary entitlements in ways that have riled the public.

Who can forget former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter ride to attend a party fundraiser, which in the end cost her the job.

Such incidents have fuelled a public perception parliamentary entitlements are excessively generous. Fraser Anning defended his attendance at the rally, saying: “It’s official business. I am a senator. I didn’t go there for a picnic.”

Ministers do need to travel to perform official duties relating to their portfolio. MPs have to represent their electorate, as well as perform their parliamentary duties in Canberra. Public funds should be provided to allow them to carry out their duties effectively and without impediment.

But some MPs have been accused of rorting the system with exorbitant or improper entitlements claims. So, what are parliamentarians entitled to claim?

Official business, representing value for money

Above their base salary, politicians can claim certain additional “entitlements”, which are better conceived of as work expenses and allowances.

Bishop’s so-called “choppergate” scandal led to a review of the parliamentary entitlements system and, consequently, the establishment of the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority in July 2017. The Authority is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the travel and other parliamentary entitlements.

The new parliamentary expenses framework is based on two main principles.

First, MPs are able to claim reasonable costs incurred for the dominant purpose of conducting parliamentary business. MPs must not seek to disguise as official business an activity whose dominant purpose is personal or commercial.

Secondly, the costs incurred must represent value for money.

Under current legislation, MPs can claim for domestic travel expenses, including the cost of commercial flights, cars and private vehicles for travel within Australia. With prime ministerial approval, ministers can also claim overseas travel costs, as well as the travel costs of their staff and spouse.

These entitlements are limited to travel relating to parliamentary or electorate duties, or party political duties connected with their membership of parliament.

Under “family reunion” benefits, MPs’ spouses and dependants may join them in Australia several times a year.

MPs can pay for family members to join them, up to a limit. DEAN LEWINS/AAP

MPs are also entitled to claim a travel allowance for each night they have to stay away from home for parliamentary business. But there is a ten night limit for party political duties outside Canberra and electorate duties outside the MP’s electorate.

What falls under the rules?

Flights to Canberra and accommodation costs during the parliamentary sitting period
an MP’s travel within their electorate to meet with constituents
overseas flights by a minister on portfolio business that have been approved by the prime minister
flights interstate to attend a formal meeting of the political party or a national, state or territory party conference. These are political party expenses connected to the MP’s role in parliament
travel by ministers as part of their portfolio duties, such as travel interstate by the minister for Education to negotiate with the states on education policy.

What doesn’t fall under the rules?

Flights interstate to attend a friend’s wedding. This is a personal expense and not parliamentary business
a private jet chartered to fly to Canberra for a parliamentary sitting. Under the new principles, this is probably not value for money for a scheduled event
flights interstate to attend a party fundraiser. This is a party political expense unconnected to a MP’s role in parliament.

What about the grey areas?

It becomes murky when politicians have mixed motives in undertaking travel. For instance, former health minister Sussan Ley travelled to Queensland to make an announcement at a breast cancer clinic as part of her ministerial role. During her trip, she bought a A$795,000 apartment at an auction from a Liberal donor, which was said to be “neither planned nor anticipated”.

In such cases, politicians tend to argue their travel was for the dominant purpose of undertaking official business and their private affairs are incidental to this.

While such situations may comply with the rules, they tend to fail the so-called “pub test”. Although she didn’t break any rules, the public outcry led to Sussan Ley resigning from her role as the health, aged care and sport minister. Her statement read:

Whilst I have attempted at all times to be meticulous with rules and standards, I accept community annoyance, even anger, with politicians’ entitlements demands a response.

What happens when rules are breached?

So, is Fraser Anning’s trip to Melbourne for the weekend protests within the rules?

It depends on whether the trip was for the dominant purpose of parliamentary business. Anning’s electorate is in Queensland, which means there is less justification he was representing his electorate by travelling to Melbourne.

Anning’s argument was that Queensland was experiencing similar issues with crime gangs as Victoria.

However, attending a protest in Melbourne about purported Victorian crime issues would seem to have, at best, a tenuous connection with his duties of representing the Queensland electorate.

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority can make a ruling on whether the claim was in accordance with the law. If the claim contravenes the law, the MP has to repay the money. Where the MP has not repaid their claim within 28 days, an additional 25% penalty may apply to the debt.

As holders of high elected office, MPs are the custodians of public trust. But some MPs have made claims from taxpayer funds that are out of step with public expectations. It is incumbent on the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority to carefully police such claims.

– ref. Parliamentary entitlements: what’s allowed and what’s not? – http://theconversation.com/parliamentary-entitlements-whats-allowed-and-whats-not-109425

Holographic teachers were supposed to be part of our future. What happened?

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Cowling, Associate Professor in Educational Technology, CQUniversity Australia

Cast your mind back to the turn of last century. Experts predicted that by now classrooms would no longer feature human teachers, and holographic virtual entities would deliver lessons instead.

This certainly hasn’t happened. The closest we have come is group video chat via apps like FaceTime, Zoom or Google Hangouts. But this doesn’t mean holograms aren’t part of our lives – they’re just marketed differently.

For the past 20 years, researchers and companies have progressed with a vision of “mixed reality”, where the physical and digital blend together to create seamless, digitally enhanced experiences.

Initially limited to research labs and prototypes, we have seen a major increase in the use of mixed reality technology in recent years. And it’s of particular use in classroom settings.

A burgeoning industry

There are more than three billion augmented reality (AR) devices – a type of mixed reality – currently in use. And the industry has an estimated market value of between US$30 billion and US$200 billion.

Companies like Apple and Google have embraced AR through developer frameworks such as ARKit and ARCore, which run on a standard smartphone. Microsoft has also been pushing the field of mixed reality through the HoloLens, a standalone headset available to developers since 2016.

But progress has been slow – there has been confusion over the terminology, and missteps along the way. Users of Google Glass were famously termed “glassholes” out of fear they would use the built-in camera to secretly record people.

Two science students using Holograms via HoloLens to visualise the human brain during a physiology lesson. Dr Christian Moro

Significant military investment

Microsoft was recently awarded a US$480 million contract to supply prototypes of HoloLens to the US Army. HoloLens has been used in training before, but this is the first time these devices will be used in combat to “provide troops with more and better information to make decisions”.

Back in 2016, the Israeli government trialled HoloLens in battlefield training for soldiers. The device allowed soldiers to manipulate military terrain models, while also accessing intelligence data.

It could also be used to give visual and audible instructions to help combat soldiers to fix malfunctioning equipment, or medics to perform surgery on wounded soldiers.

By blending the physical and the digital, Microsoft and the military think they can provide new, enhanced information that will help soldiers detect and decide whether to engage with the enemy.

Although the military’s provision of the HoloLens will have enhancements and secret capabilities, a version is already available to developers. And this is currently being trialled in university education – so is it a disruptive technology that will change the way we teach our students?

Not a holographic professor, but a professor with holograms

Educational technology is increasingly used in modern curricula. This is particularly the case in disciplines such as health sciences and medicine, where 3D representations of the human body facilitate an enhanced learning experience compared with traditional media or textbook illustrations.

Virtual reality is already used for teaching at several universities. But VR technology requires users to wear a headset that blocks out the real world, removing learners from the classroom, and placing them in their own virtual space.

This makes it hard for educators to work with the technology during a teaching session. Education through virtual reality remains largely standalone and supplementary to the content otherwise taught in class.

On the other hand, mixed reality, as observed through devices such as HoloLens, could allow users to remain a physical part of the class, with the digital visualisations being included in addition to the normal instruction. In this way, the live educator remains part of the direct experience, with verbal instructions and teaching continuing as normal.

[embedded content] Holograms and devices used in modern teaching.

The holographic renderings provide an additional layer to normal learning sessions. It also allows the students’ hands to be free, so they can write notes or interact with resources around the teaching space.

This new range of hologram-capable devices may bridge the gap between the teacher-directed style of lessons, and the student undergoing self-study away from live instruction.

As these technologies develop, we, as educators, can work with the 3D representations to enhance our teaching. For example, during a lesson on the cardiovascular system, a beating heart could be represented in front of the students, while the educator guides them through the features. Or a human brain could be visualised in 3D space, while regions are highlighted and dissected in real time by the educator.

This creates a style of lesson not possible through simple pen and paper, or even through virtual reality.

Professor and holograms as co-teachers

Since 1928, when the first “teaching machine” was invented, educational technology has gone through periods where the newest devices received great hype, yet did little to enhance learning.

In fact, outside of PowerPoint and learning management systems, few technologies are widely used by educators, particularly in universities.

But mixed reality provides a mechanism where students, educators, physical resources and technology can all work together to create an augmented learning environment like never before.

The HoloLens remains a development edition, with the consumer release date still unannounced. But, with large investments from the military, this technology is here to stay, and will only improve.

While it’s not a standalone “holographic professor”, mixed reality is likely to disrupt the way we teach, transform the style of teaching that occurs across a number of disciplines, and revolutionise the learning experience.

– ref. Holographic teachers were supposed to be part of our future. What happened? – http://theconversation.com/holographic-teachers-were-supposed-to-be-part-of-our-future-what-happened-108500

Red meat and imported wine: why ethical eating often stops at the restaurant door

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History and Associate Dean Research (Faculty of Arts), University of Adelaide

This article is part of a series focusing on the politics of food – what we eat, how our views of food are changing and why it matters from a cultural and political standpoint.

Nowadays, ethical eating is often presented as a truism: we are told we should all be making ethical food choices, not only at home but also when we dine out.

However, it’s become something of a marketing ploy in the food world. Restaurants increasingly are presenting their menus and practices as ethical, throwing around buzzwords like “sustainability” and “seasonality”, particularly those establishments with high-profile or celebrity chefs.

But what do these words really mean to the people dining there? Do chefs – particularly those trend-setting ones – have greater responsibilities these days to promote more ethical forms of eating? And are they doing enough to change the ways in which we think about dining and food in general?

The quick answer is: it depends. What makes food (or the menus at restaurants) “ethical” is not typically assessed by most of us using one standardised definition, except perhaps strict vegans who eschew all animal products. Our food values differ based on our outlooks, past experiences and, perhaps most importantly, how we balance various trade-offs inherent in food choices under different circumstances.

For instance, although many people in Australia and elsewhere are starting to reduce or eliminate meat consumption for environmental reasons or due to animal welfare concerns, others are turning to wild or game meats as a more ethical way of continuing to eat meat.

Most interesting, perhaps, are “kangatarians”, or those who believe hunting wild game is the most ethical choice for meat eaters as they are taking responsibility for the killing, keeping feral populations in control and hence benefiting the environment.

The Noma 2.0 ethical dilemmas

Rene Redzepi is a fan of plant-based eating, but his latest menu is heavily meat focused. Noma handout

When it comes to restaurants, these dilemmas can feel more pronounced. Can a chef, for instance, promote foraging, seasonality and plant-based eating, yet also serve meat and other animal-derived protein products on the same menu?

An example that immediately comes to mind is Danish chef Rene Redzepi, co-owner of the two-Michelin-star restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, who recently had an extended stay in Australia.

After launching Noma 2.0 with an all-seafood menu and then a purely vegetarian menu featuring foraged native ingredients early in 2018, Redzepi shifted focus back to meat with a “Game and Forest” concept in October. Among the more meat-heavy items on the menu: teal, moose leg, reindeer tongue and wild duck brain.

Redzepi is still foraging from the forest, but he’s also made clear that the sole option for ethical eating is not just a plant-based diet – he wants to utilise all available and neglected resources in novel ways. Still, he acknowledges being conflicted himself:

The trade-offs in eating out

Although many chefs and diners agree eating “local” is highly desirable, they almost certainly are doing so for different reasons. For chefs, this desire might derive from reducing food miles from the farm to the table and supporting local communities, while diners might be more drawn to local produce because it is fresher and more interesting. Many consumers buying food for their homes may prefer local produce because it is (often) cheaper.

Such “ethical” food categories – including organic, free of genetic modification, free range, humanely produced, fair trade, sustainable and so on — often serve as proxies for deeper values in society. But these values are not necessarily the same for all of us.

Free range eggs, for instance, are often considered more ethical due to animal welfare concerns, but they are also favoured by consumers because they are seen as more nutritious and flavourful, despite limited scientific evidence to support these claims.

Our research has shown, for many people, eating out is a chance to not have to think about ethical issues. Sometimes you just want a dessert with mango in Adelaide or maybe some French wine with your meal (if you can look past all of those perfectly wonderful Australian wines on the menu, of course).

It’s easy to see why these issues may become less important the instant someone walks through a restaurant’s doors. Restaurant dining presents even more complex issues than daily decisions at the supermarket or at home.

How can you possibly know, for instance, how the food you are eating has been sourced or processed, let alone the labour conditions at the farm or restaurant itself, how waste is managed and controlled, and so on? If diners contemplated these issues every time they wanted to eat out, they might never leave home!

A way forward in Australia

One of Australia’s top chefs at the moment, Jock Zonfrillo of Orana restaurant in Adelaide, provides an example of a different type of ethical focus for diners to consider when eating out.

Orana emphasises respect for the land and Australia’s diverse cultures, with a menu focused on native ingredients, such as Indigenous herbs and plants, crocodile, kangaroo, marron and Murray River cod. Zonfrillo’s goal, in part, is to celebrate the nutritional properties of Indigenous ingredients and build a more sustainable commercial market for these foods.

Related initiatives such as the National Indigenous Culinary Institute and social enterprise restaurants like Melbourne’s Charcoal Lane, meanwhile, aim to train more Indigenous chefs. This provides another model for restaurants to consider when thinking about key aspects of “ethical” eating – a way to create demonstrable benefits for society and give diners a reason to feel good about themselves.

Jock Zonfrillo is trying to change the way diners think about native ingredients. Javier Etxezarreta/EPA

A New Zealand-based publishing company, Blackwell & Ruth, also launched guides to sustainable and ethical restaurants in Australia, the UK, US and elsewhere around the world in November that highlight other ways chefs are making a difference, from the minimisation of food waste to support for sustainable farmers, producers and winemakers.

But, again, the guidebooks have generated much debate about just what qualifies as “ethical” eating. Criticisms have been raised about the inclusion criteria for the restaurants and what the editors really considered exceptional.

What can all restaurants be doing better?

So, what should the bulk of restaurants out there be doing to help educate diners and help them to care more about their choices?

For starters, restaurateurs have clear responsibilities to provide accurate information about what they are serving and the practices associated with their establishments. This should go well beyond the typical descriptions about the food, its provenance and whether it is vegetarian friendly.

Many diners are concerned about the same ethico-political concerns that have arisen in recent labelling debates, such as fair labour conditions, nutrition, environmental degradation, fair trade and animal cruelty, as well as what restaurants give back to their local communities.

The more this information is evidence-based and transparent rather than marketing oriented, the more likely diners will start to pay attention and demand more from the places where they eat.

Being responsive and reflective is essential in this rapidly changing space, as consumers are spoiled for choice and are only likely to become more demanding. Restaurants can help diners to not only shape their eating habits, but also inform them in a way that helps them ask the right questions, rather than seeking set answers from celebrity chefs.

– ref. Red meat and imported wine: why ethical eating often stops at the restaurant door – http://theconversation.com/red-meat-and-imported-wine-why-ethical-eating-often-stops-at-the-restaurant-door-106926

Here’s why doctors are backing pill testing at music festivals across Australia

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martyn Lloyd Jones, Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne

For many years experts in the field of drug policy in Australia have known existing policies are failing. Crude messages (calls for total abstinence: “just say no to drugs”) and even cruder enforcement strategies (harsher penalties, criminalisation of drug users) have had no impact on the use of drugs or the extent of their harmful effects on the community.

Whether we like it or not, drug use is common in our society, especially among young people. In 2016 43% of people aged 14 and older reported they had used an illicit drug at some point in their lifetime. And 28% of people in their twenties said they had used illicit drugs in the past year.

The use of MDMA (the active ingredient in ecstasy) is common and increasing among young people. In the last three months alone five people have died as a result of using illicit drugs at music festivals and many more have been taken to hospital.

The rigid and inflexible attitudes of current policy-makers contrast dramatically with the innovative approaches to public health policy for which Australia was once renowned. Since the 1970s many highly successful campaigns have improved road safety, increased immunisation rates in children and helped prevent the spread of blood-borne virus infections.

The wearing of seatbelts was made compulsory throughout Australia in the early 1970s. Randomised breath testing and the wearing of helmets by bike riders were introduced in the 1980s. These measures alone have saved many thousands of lives.

The introduction of needle exchange and methadone treatment programs in the late 1980s and, more recently, widespread access to effective treatments for hepatitis C have dramatically reduced the health burden from devastating infections such as HIV and the incidence of serious liver disease.

Each of these programs had to overcome vigorous and sustained hostility from opponents who argued they would do more harm than good. But in all cases the pessimists were proved wrong. Safety measures on the roads did not cause car drivers and bike riders to behave more recklessly. The availability of clean needles did not increase intravenous drug use. Easier access to condoms did not lead to greater risk taking and more cases of AIDS.

We believe — along with many other experts in the field — that as was the case for these earlier programs, the evidence presently available is sufficient to justify the careful introduction of trials of pill testing around Australia.

Specifically, we support the availability of facilities to allow young people at venues or events where drug taking is acknowledged to be likely to seek advice about the substances they’re considering ingesting.

Pill testing can’t guarantee no lives will be lost, but the same can be said about all public health policies. from shutterstock.com

These facilities should include tests for the presence of known toxins or contaminants to help avert the dangerous effects they may produce. Such a program should be undertaken in addition to, and not instead of, other strategies to discourage or deter young people from taking illicit drugs.

Although pill testing has been widely and successfully applied in many European countries over a twenty year period, it has to be admitted the evidence about the degree of its effectiveness remains incomplete. That’s why any program in Australia should be linked to a rigorously designed data collection process to assess its impact and consequences.

However, we do know that the argument that pill testing programs will increase drug use and its associated harms is very unlikely to be true. Most people seeking advice about the constituents of their drugs will not take them if they are advised that they contain dangerous contaminants.

And it’s easy to avoid false reassurances about safety by careful explanations and detailed information. The opportunity to provide face-to-face advice to young people about the risks of drug taking is one of the great strengths of pill testing programs.

Over the last half century we have learnt public health programs have to utilise multiple strategies and provide messages carefully and tailored for different audiences. What works to combat the harms associated with drug-taking in prisons is different from what works for specific cultural groups or for young people attending music festivals.

The available evidence suggests pill testing is an effective and useful approach to harm minimisation in this last group. We believe it has the capacity to decrease ambulance calls to festival-goers, help change behaviour and save lives.

It has taken until now for pill testing techniques to be developed to a level where they are able to identify the constituents in analysed samples with sufficient precision, reliability and speed. These techniques, and the range of substances for which they can test, will continue to improve over time. On the basis of experience gained in the UK, Europe and Australia it’s clear pill testing is now feasible and practicable.

The members of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine within the Royal Australasian College of Physicians are the main clinical experts in the field of addiction medicine in this country. Together with the Australian Medical Association and many prominent members of the community with experience in this area we feel this is the time for pill testing to be introduced, albeit in careful and controlled circumstances. We believe this position is also supported by peer users, concerned families, and past and present members of police forces across Australia.

The fact the “War on Drugs” has failed does not mean we should give up. There are many new weapons available to us, as we have learnt from the successful public health campaigns of the past. Pill testing will not abolish all the harms associated with drug taking, but if handled carefully, carries the likelihood of reducing them significantly.

– ref. Here’s why doctors are backing pill testing at music festivals across Australia – http://theconversation.com/heres-why-doctors-are-backing-pill-testing-at-music-festivals-across-australia-109430

Adolescence can be awkward. Here’s how parents can help their child make and maintain good friendships

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Chambers, Lecturer, School of Education (Qld), Australian Catholic University

Secondary school can be a lonely place for adolescents who don’t have a best friend or a group of trusted friends. Young people will be more skilled in the art of making genuine friends (and keeping them) if they know how to be assertive, are optimistic about life, have some basic social skills and have a relationship with a parent/carer that includes honest talk.

Friendship troubles

Secondary school, in particular the junior secondary years, coincides with a time in life when young people are pushing new social and family boundaries. The transition to secondary school is especially demanding as once dependent kids become more independent in a new schooling order of new routines, new teachers, and new friends.

Young people can be cruel and unkind to each other and to adults in this stage of life. Being bullied, teased and left out are signs of friendship troubles. Understandably, victims of bullying feel less positive about the school environment.

Be assertive, not aggressive

Being assertive can help young people in not only sticking up for themselves, but it can also communicate to others a sense of self-assuredness. An assertive way of speaking and being can make young people attractive and more popular with peers.

Assertiveness involves polite but firm talk, eye contact, and controlled behaviour. It’s not to be confused with aggression which often takes the form of a raised voice, insults, put-downs and greedy behaviour.

Good and assertive communication goes a long way. from www.shutterstock.com

One way adults can foster assertiveness in young people is to encourage it in the safe environment of the home. Young people can practice assertive language and behaviour when they explain to siblings that their room is not a public thoroughfare, when they defend their right to use the bathroom by themselves but in a timely way, when they argue they need quiet and time alone to complete homework.

Optimism can lead to success

Grief and tears about friendships are inevitable in the secondary school years. At some stage, your child is likely to come home either sullen, withdrawn, crying or moody. They may even experience school refusal, which is when they refuse, or are reluctant about going to school.

An adolescent who has a positive mindset is more likely to bounce back into the usual routines of friendships. When a young person has a positive mindset, they tend to see setbacks and troubles as temporary. They identify them for what they are (specific, time-related issues) rather than for what they are not (global and eternal).

Encouraging your child to talk about themselves positively at home can help them bounce back when things go wrong. from www.shutterstock.com

That is to say, positive kids are more likely to identify a specific and reasoned account of friendship troubles (“Sally was mean to me today because she was in a terrible mood”) rather than a global and exaggerated account (“Sally is mean, she has always hated me”).

You can foster a positive mindset in your child by modelling and encouraging positive self-talk in the home. Expect your child to be looking forward to something each day at school. That might be catching up with friends, a particular class in school or even an exam or test!

Social skills and being genuine

Adolescents are more likely to fit in and make friendships if they are seen to be socially acceptable by their peers. Ask yourself if your child is comfortable with, and knows how to enter a group situation and greet friends. Does your adolescent mix with friends in the schoolyard during breaks? Does your child talk about their friendships at home? How many of your child’s friends do you know well?

Poor social skills can lead to increased loneliness in adolescents.

Being cool is a strong driver for secondary students. But being authentic is even more appealing. Adolescents recognise and appreciate genuine and authentic people – even if the peer is a bit quirky and seen as an outsider. It’s also a good idea to make contact with teachers at your child’s school to ask about their perceptions of how your child mixes socially with their peers.

Teens who have positive relationships with the adults in their life are more likely to have good relationships with their peers. from www.shutterstock.com

Healthy relationships with adults

Children who have good and healthy relationships with adults are more likely to have good and healthy relationships with their peers. So, it’s important for you to foster a supportive relationship with your child. Try to be an encouraging parent who really listens to your child’s concerns. Your child will not expect you to have all the answers.

But it’s likely a listening ear and a measured and moderate response will be welcomed by your adolescent child. If your child perceives you to be fair, that will go a long way to establishing a solid relationship between adult and child. In turn, it will increase the chance your child will have good relationships with his or her peers.

Adolescence can be tricky to navigate from a parent’s perspective. Making and maintaining healthy friendships is just one battle of the teenage years. Parental role-modelling, encouragement and seeking support from the school can make this aspect of the adolescent years rewarding and fruitful for many years to come.

– ref. Adolescence can be awkward. Here’s how parents can help their child make and maintain good friendships – http://theconversation.com/adolescence-can-be-awkward-heres-how-parents-can-help-their-child-make-and-maintain-good-friendships-107362

Very risky business: the pros and cons of insurance companies embracing artificial intelligence

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & SocioTechnical Studies, Griffith University

It’s a new day not very far in the future. You wake up; your wristwatch has recorded how long you’ve slept, and monitored your heartbeat and breathing. You drive to work; car sensors track your speed and braking. You pick up some breakfast on your way, paying electronically; the transaction and the calorie content of your meal are recorded.

Then you have a car accident. You phone your insurance company. Your call is answered immediately. The voice on the other end knows your name and amiably chats to you about your pet cat and how your favourite football team did on the weekend.

You’re talking to a chat-bot. The reason it “knows” so much about you is because the insurance company is using artificial intelligence to scrape information about you from social media. It knows a lot more besides, because you’ve agreed to let it monitor your personal devices in exchange for cheaper insurance premiums.

This isn’t science fiction. More than three-quarters of insurance executives believe artificial intelligence will revolutionise the industry within a few years. By 2030, according to McKinsey futurists, artificial intelligence will mean your car and life insurance premiums could change based on whether you decide to take one route or another.

It will be sold to you on the promise of more personalised service, faster claims processing and lower premiums – and it will deliver on those promises, for the most part.

But there are ethical risks too – data privacy and discrimination among them. An insurance company might use your data to figure out how much you would be willing to pay for cover. It might sell the information to a third party. The AI might decide you pose a greater risk because of your age, sex, income or ethnicity.

The internet of things

Though the insurance industry in general has an unenviable reputation for taking people’s money then refusing to pay, it is a highly competitive sector. The less agile will probably not survive against competitors using AI to stay profitable while lowering their premiums.

To offer lower premiums, an insurer needs to know an individual is, in fact, a lower risk. The enabling technology is the internet of things, the collective name for the billions of internet-connected sensors embedded in all manner of objects we use every day. They are in phones, watches, cars, fitness trackers, home assistants and many other things. Collectively they form an “ecosystem” of sensors.

Data collected over time allow the insurer to make an individually tailored risk profile based on a person’s actual behaviour, a practice known as behavioural policy pricing.

Getting ‘smart’

To lower your house and contents insurance, the insurance company will patch into the AI hub that runs your “smart home” through its ecosystem of sensors.

If there is a pattern of burglaries in the neighbourhood, the home hub will know, because it is connected to the insurer’s network. Locks and alarms can be primed and police called at the first sign of trouble. To manage the risk of fire, sensors will monitor heat, humidity and detect smoke. If the stove gets left on, the home hub will turn it off before it becomes a problem.

To calculate lower car insurance premiums, your insurance company may want to monitor the way you drive and maintain your car.

Health insurance premiums may require giving the insurer access to your medical records and wearing a fitness tracker.

A new industry sector will emerge. Specialist companies that deploy IoT sensors and gather the data will partner with insurers to form a new business ecosystem. The whole industry will shift from purely reactive insurance to proactive, risk-minimising cover.

It all sounds quite positive. But there are also broader risks in the narrow pursuit of minimising insurance risk.

China’s surveillance state gives a glimpse of one dystopian future using AI. Exploiting the technology to maximise private profit is another. Wu Hong/EPA

Discrimination

One very clear danger is the problem of profiling – being judged a higher or lower insurance risk because you belong to a particular demographic group.

AI can now differentiate risk into hundreds of factors. Algorithms scan these factors to identify clusters of previously unrecognised risk. They can also deduce clusters on their own.

But these conclusions may unintentionally discriminate. There are already many examples where AI algorithms have inadvertently amplified stereotypes.

The case of predictive policing in Durham, England, illustrates the problem. Police there developed an algorithm to better predict the risk posed by people charged with an offence should they be granted bail. What it did was discriminate against poorer people on the basis of where they lived.

Opportunistic pricing

There is also the prospect of more individualised discrimination.

Already quite well known is the problem of genetic discrimination – the risk of a health or life insurer increasing premiums or even denying cover for certain conditions based on what your DNA reveals about your genetic disposition to certain conditions.

AI opens up a whole new area of personalised discrimination, based on what it can glean from your behaviours and preferences.

For one thing, the plethora of data potentially available to AI can tell an insurer a lot about your spending habits. Where do you shop? What do you buy? When do you spend? Do you seek out bargains or pay full price?

Knowing all this will help an insurance company estimate if it can get away with charging you top price.

Some in the industry argue that this is just how markets operate, but when it is facilitated by unprecedented access to personal information, it becomes a highly questionable practice.

Loss of privacy

An insurer might also be tempted to use the data for purposes other than assessing risk. Given its value, the data might be sold to third parties for various purposes to offset the cost of collecting it. Advertisers, marketers, lobbyists and political parties are all insatiably hungry for detailed demographic data.

Contrary to what people might think, this data is not the property of the person it relates to. It is owned by whoever paid for it. Consumers must be legally protected against their data being used for other purposes without their informed consent.

Managing risk

With any powerful new technology there are benefits and risks. The benefits should be made clear and the risks managed down to an acceptable level. There is of course irony in having to manage the risk of managing risk.

Insurance companies have a job to do to ensure customers can trust there is far more upside than downside in AI. They will need to adopt transparently fair, if not benevolent, practices that contribute to the greater good. It has to be about more than profit.

– ref. Very risky business: the pros and cons of insurance companies embracing artificial intelligence – http://theconversation.com/very-risky-business-the-pros-and-cons-of-insurance-companies-embracing-artificial-intelligence-106536

Guide to the Classics: Juvenal, the true satirist of Rome

By The Conversation -

January 8, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Cowan, Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Sydney

An angry man stands at the crossroads and rails against the moral cesspit around him, teeming with sexual deviants and jumped-up immigrants. This is the image which the Roman poet Juvenal paints of the satirist castigating the vices of contemporary Rome.

Juvenal’s Satires provide a fascinating window onto the social melting-pot that was early second century CE Rome. But they also hold up a mirror to those whose feelings of alienation and disempowerment produce a bitter distortion of that society.

Juvenal wrote 16 satires, divided into five books. Most are between 150 and 300 lines in length, except for the monstrous sixth satire attacking women and marriage, which rants on for over 650 lines and takes up a whole book on its own. Each satire has its own theme or target, ranging from decadent aristocrats and hypocritical moralists to giant turbots (a fish) and Egyptian cannibals, but this theme only loosely constrains a free-flowing structure which follows the satirist’s fulminating stream of consciousness.

Contradiction is the essence of these poems. The satirist indignantly condemns Rome’s vices as he pruriently lingers on their salacious details. The sheer force of his outrage and the vigour of his rhetoric sweep the reader along at the same time as she recoils from his bigotry. In Juvenal’s own words, it’s difficult not to write satire, and once you are sucked into its twisted world, it is difficult not to read it. But working out what to make of it is really difficult.

Frontispiece from the 1711 publication of Juvenal’s Satires. Wiki Commons

The beginning of Roman satire

Roman satire bears only a distant family resemblance to the modern idea of satire. Instead of John Clarke parodically impersonating an incompetent politician, Juvenal and his predecessors take direct aim at the follies and vices of their day, lambasting any who deviate from social norms with moralizing fervour, scathing mockery, and stomach-turning obscenity.

The Romans admitted that they inherited all other genres of poetry — epic, tragedy, comedy, pastoral, and the rest — from the Greeks, but they proudly declared that satire was “totally ours”. It was written in hexameters, the lofty metre of epic poetry, but it always sets itself up as epic’s “evil twin”. Instead of heroes, noble deeds, and city-foundations recounted in elevated language, satire presents a hodgepodge of scumbags, orgies, and the breakdown of urban society, spat out in words as filthy as the vices they describe.

The first great Roman satirist was Lucilius, writing in the latter half of the second century CE at the height of the free Republic. Only tantalising fragments of his work remain, but his reputation among later generations was unambiguous: a fearless exponent of extreme free speech who would lay into the powerful, stripping away the skin of respectability to reveal the foulness beneath.

Every later satirist lamented his inability to live up to Lucilius’ freedom and aggression. During the rise of the first emperor Augustus, as the free Republic gives way to the monarchical Empire, the poet Horace wrote satire whose buzzword was moderation, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. Self-consciously playing it safe, his satirist chooses not to see — he even blames conjunctivitis — and not to talk about the death of political freedom.

Ninety years later, under Nero, the reclusive poet Persius turned satire inwards, boiling it down to dense, almost unreadable Latin which he doesn’t care if anyone reads. His image of the satirist is the barber whispering into a hole in the ground, “Midas has ass’s ears!” You can tell the truth, as long as you don’t need let anyone hear it.

Chariots of ire

With Juvenal, another half-century later, satire seemed to get its balls back. He dismisses epic and tragedy as tedious and irrelevant. Satire is the only possible response to the swamp that is Rome. Indignation is his Muse and the vices of Rome flow unmediated from the crossroads into his notebook. This is barely poetry at all. It is the unvarnished truth about Rome there on the page in front of you.

What folks have done ever since — their hopes and fears and anger, their pleasures, joys, and toing and froing — is my volume’s hotch-potch. Was there, at any time, a richer harvest of evil?

Except, of course, it isn’t. Juvenal goes through the same crisis as Horace and Persius. This isn’t the Republic and he isn’t Lucilius. It isn’t safe to tell it like it is when the rich and powerful can silence you. Juvenal’s solution is that he will only criticise the dead. The fearless satirist is compromised before he has even begun.

A depiction of Juvenal in the Nuremberg Chronicle, late 1400s. Wiki Commons

Yet it isn’t just his caginess about causing offence which problematises the satirist’s voice. His strident attacks on women, on homosexuals, on Greek and Egyptian immigrants are often put in the mouths of characters who sound remarkably like the satirist himself.

Satire 3’s panoramic view of a decadent Rome is presented through the skewed vision of Umbricius, “Mr Shady”, about to abandon the city because Greek immigrants take all the jobs.

I now proceed to speak of the nation specially favoured by our wealthy compatriots, one that I shun above all others. I shan’t mince words. My fellow Romans, I cannot put up with a city of Greeks; yet how much of the dregs is truly Achaean? The Syrian Orontes has long been discharging into the Tiber, carrying with it its language and morals and slanting strings, complete with piper, not to speak of its native timbrels.

But his main complaint is that they get away with the same things he tries.

We, of course, can pay identical compliments; yes, but they are believed.

This isn’t moralising, or even simple bigotry, but sour grapes.

Readers take the first-person voice of the satires as reflecting Juvenal’s personal opinion in a sort of autobiographical confession. Indeed, we know nothing about him except what we can try to deduce from his poems. More recently, the satirist’s voice has been seen as a persona, a mask, a character just like Umbricius.

Is Juvenal satirising immigrants or the bigots who rail against them? The latter is certainly the more comfortable reading, but we need to be careful not to make the Romans too like us. Satire is meant to be uncomfortable.

Beyond Anger

biblioteca de humanidades/flickr

Juvenal’s satirist doesn’t only “punch down” against easy targets. He also “punches up” and fights the corner of the little guy oppressed by the rich and powerful. Satire 5 condemns a rich patron for the humiliation he heaps on his poor client, though he acutely criticises the client for his complicity. Throughout, Juvenal’s main targets are hypocrites from all levels of society. The satirist stands outside and inveighs against what is wrong with Rome, but he has few suggestions on how to improve it.

In his later satires, Juvenal moves away from indignation altogether and adopts a new model. He will not be the philosopher Heraclitus, weeping at the state of the world, but another philosopher, Democritus, ironically laughing at it with a sense of detachment.

This is the spirit of satire 10, on the dangers of getting what we wish for. The satirist is not angry, but mockingly – and sometimes pityingly – amused by Sejanus, who got the power he wanted but was dragged through the streets on a meat-hook.

Now the flames are hissing; bellows and furnace are bringing a glow to the head revered by the people. The mighty Sejanus is crackling. Then, from the face regarded as number two in the whole of the world, come pitchers, basins, saucepans, and piss-pots. Frame your door with laurels; drag a magnificent bull, whitened with chalk, to the Capitol. They’re dragging Sejanus along by a hook for all to see.

Or the man whose prayer for long life is answered with impotent, incontinent senility.

The poor old fellow must mumble his bread with toothless gums. He is so repellent to all (wife, children, and himself), that he even turns the stomach of Cossus the legacy-hunter. He loses his former zest for food and wine as his palate grows numb. He has long forgotten what sex was like; if one tries to remind him, his shrunken tool, with its vein enlarged, just lies there, and, though caressed all night, it will continue to lie there.

The angry satirist hurls unconstructive abuse, but this new version has a suggestion for self-improvement:

Pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.

Juvenal unbound

Juvenal is the greatest Roman satirist. He, far more than Horace or Persius, defined what satire meant for most of the early modern period and it is translations and imitations of him by Pope, Dryden, Jonson, and others – not to mention Hogarth’s paintings – which dominate the great era of English Augustan satire.

His satires give us a ground-level view of a Rome we could barely guess at from the heroism of the Aeneid, the drinking-parties of Horace’s Odes, or even the histories of Tacitus. We cannot trust satire, but we can allow ourselves to enjoy it.

Recommended translation: Juvenal, The Satires, Oxford World’s Classics translation by Niall Rudd with introduction and notes by William Barr (1992).

– ref. Guide to the Classics: Juvenal, the true satirist of Rome – http://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-juvenal-the-true-satirist-of-rome-106156

The far-right may think they own ‘nationalism’, but we can reclaim it as a force for good

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

]]>

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Busbridge, Lecturer in Sociology, Australian Catholic University

We see the word “nationalism” as problematic. The weekend rally on St Kilda beach, organised by far-right activist Neil Erikson, reminds us nationalism is the territory of fringe groups who hold bigoted views, particularly towards people who aren’t “white”.

Nationalism means:

Identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

We often think about nationalism in these terms. To be a nationalist means loving your own country in a strident manner while being fairly suspicious of people in other countries.

The global rise of populism and the solid electoral gains made by far-right and xenophobic parties across the Western world seems to have underscored the association between nationalism and the base and aggressive in human politics.

Yet, is it possible to simply turf out nationalism? Beyond its ideological connotations, nationalism rests on one of the most important elements shaping modern social life: we live in a world of nations.

We often under-estimate the power of nationalism in contemporary societies, as well as the variety of roles – not all conservative and problematic — it plays as a social and political force.

How multicultural groups use nationalism

Australian nationalism may have come to be associated with right-wing groups such as Reclaim Australia. But multicultural communities often publicly frame their distinctive identities in terms of national belonging and participation in the life of the nation.

They may not always march under the flag — though sometimes they do — but they regularly appeal to a national “we”. My research has explored how multicultural communities in Australia invoke the national language of their new country while advocating for their unique needs and cultural differences.

Although flags are often associated with right-wing groups, they are also embraced by new citizens. Sophie Moore/AAP

Irrespective of our personal politics, we participate in the idea of nationalism when we identify ourselves as “Australian”, talk about “United States” politics or expect to encounter cultural differences at the airport.

Some say we should use the word “patriotism” as a softer alternative. While still guided by a love and loyalty for country, a patriot’s passions are tempered by a “spirit of cooperation”.

Others say we should throw out any loyalty for country altogether, becoming instead cosmopolitanists who celebrate a borderless common humanity, or localists who prioritise the interests of their immediate community.

But nationalism is not just a political ideology that demands the needs of the national group sit above those of outsiders. National loyalty doesn’t necessarily supersede any others while national interests trump all else. Nationalism is intertwined with the very idea of there being nations in the first place.

This is such a taken-for-granted reality, we often understand nations as stretching back to time immemorial when, in fact, they are only a couple of hundred years old – and most are far younger.

Modern nationalism has its roots in 18th century European thought and found its most powerful expressions in the French and American Revolutions. But it is only since the end of the second world war that the world transformed from one of empire and dominion to ostensibly independent nation-states.

Nations, of course, are real in the sense that the nation-state continues to organise everything from schools, markets, bureaucracies and military, to the structures of citizenship. But the idea of the nation as a political community united by a distinctive culture is an imaginary construct.

The notion of nation confers an idea of horizontal membership and solidarity (rich or poor, we are all Australian) belied by vigorous and often violent struggles that take place under its rubric – as well as a selective forgetting of history.

Yet, their ubiquity in the modern social imagination means nations matter.

Why nations matter

Nations matter because they provide identity, community and a sense of belonging for many people. In a world made smaller by globalisation, this is especially important to counter the sense of rootlessness and displacement.

Nations also matter precisely because of the things they promise yet fail to deliver. It isn’t possible to fulfil the national ideal of horizontal membership (Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart will never be neighbour to the average Joe), but the aspiration for equal participation and compulsion towards solidarity can make for powerful democratic fodder.

Historically, nationalism and the idea of popular rule was essential to the movement towards democracy. Today, the idea of belonging to a nation continues to fashion social solidarity across differences, encourages mutual responsibility among citizens and allows people to commit to or participate in public institutions and projects.

The confederate flag implies a nationalism that sees white Americans as superior, and promotes slavery. Kim Kelley-Wagner/Shutterstock

All this compels a more nuanced understanding of the roles and functions of nationalism in contemporary society. Rather than patronise “ordinary people” for their nationalist attachments, we would be well served to think about the democratic and progressive potential of nationalism.

The Trumps and Brexiters of the world are most certainly nationalists in the sense they organise around a “nation first” idea. But the political meanings of nationalism are not set in stone. Nationalism can take progressive forms that prioritise connectedness and equity rather than racism or white supremacy.

Nationalism can be used to fight colonial domination as much as enforce it.

Most importantly, nationalism needs to be understood as a driving ideology shaping our modern world. Grasping this is fundamental to understanding national community as more a political aspiration than a cultural given; something to achieve rather than something already fixed.

And this, in turn, is fundamental to refusing the claims of the far-right who would like to claim the nation for themselves.

– ref. The far-right may think they own ‘nationalism’, but we can reclaim it as a force for good – http://theconversation.com/the-far-right-may-think-they-own-nationalism-but-we-can-reclaim-it-as-a-force-for-good-107788

Curious Kids: is it true dogs don’t like to travel?

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

]]>

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul McGreevy, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, University of Sydney

Hello. My dad says that dogs don’t like to travel. Is that true? – Ankush, India.

Hi Ankush. Thanks for the question. The answer depends a bit on the dog and what you mean by travel.

Most dogs don’t like to travel, and those that do have usually had to learn to like it.

In the wild, being too adventurous could get a dog killed, so dogs may have mostly evolved to be cautious and remain close to what is familiar. That said, dogs may see some kinds of travel as a chance to find things they want – like food or a mate.

Home sweet home

It’s normal for dogs to value the territory they know well, where they know they can find food, water and shelter easily.

It is also home to the thing most precious to them: their social group. That is, the other dogs or humans they know and like. Yes, dogs probably see the humans they live with as their social group.

Many dogs are happiest in their home range. Flickr/anji barton, CC BY

Most dogs have what scientists call a “home range”. That’s the area in which they feel comfortable. At the core of the home range is its den (for example, your dog may see your home and garden as its den). Beyond that core, there’s what we call the periphery – that might be the neighbour’s front yard, the park down the road, and your street.

Dogs can recognise their home range by its smell. Have you ever noticed a dog weeing on trees and lamp-posts or scraping his hind-paws against the ground? That’s how dogs mark their territory with their own scent.

Many humans love to travel, but for dogs, travelling too far from home comes with risks. Dogs that wander into another’s territory might be outnumbered by other dogs, or overpowered by a stronger individual. Or they may return to their home range only to discover that the social group changed while they were away and they no longer fit in as well as they used to.

Travelling with friends

When we exercise dogs in unfamiliar areas, they may love the challenge of all those new places and smells to explore. Many dogs are clearly joyful as they explore all this with us, their social groups, but when alone their response may be very different.

For many dogs, a trip to the local park can be a fun and safe form of travel. Flickr/Gabe Lippmann, CC BY

For domestic dogs, exercise beyond the den (the house and garden) is exciting because it offers so many opportunities: to play, pee and poo in new places, to explore and eat food, to meet and greet new dogs, mark territory and find a mate.

So some dogs will take the chance to wander, if they really need to do any of those things.

Car travel – a mixed blessing

Many puppies and dogs who are not used to cars will get car-sick. But then again, cars can also be a way for dogs to encounter a cascade of odours, see new dogs, or score a stimulating walk in a new territory. Car rides can bring enormous joy to some dogs, once they get used to car travel.

For some dogs, cars can be a way for them to encounter a cascade of odours, see new dogs or score a stimulating walk in a new territory. Flickr/Linda Colquhoun, CC BY-SA

For some dogs, hopping into the car is associated with a trip to the park or beach. For others, it reminds them too much of a trip to the vet where they may have had a scary experience, like having an injection.

Dogs learn to mistrust the smell of the vet’s waiting room and now some vets use calming pheromones in their clinics. Pheromones are special chemicals that can affect mood.

At the end of the day, most dogs are happiest in places they know well. Flickr/Giuseppe Milo, CC BY

So, whether or not dogs like to travel might depend a lot on the individual dogs and their life experience. It may depend on whether travel reminds them of fun-filled trips or fear-filled ones.

Despite what some movies ask us to believe, very few dogs ever get the travel bug and want to explore the world. At the end of the day, they’re usually happiest at home.

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:

* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Tell us on Facebook

CC BY-ND

Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

– ref. Curious Kids: is it true dogs don’t like to travel? – http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-is-it-true-dogs-dont-like-to-travel-108670

Five life lessons from your immune system

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Groom, Laboratory Head, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

This article is part of our occasional long read series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity.

Scientists love analogies. We use them continually to communicate our scientific approaches and discoveries.

As an immunologist, it strikes me that many of our recurring analogies for a healthy, functioning immune system promote excellent behaviour traits. In this regard, we should all aim to be a little more like the cells of our immune system and emulate these characteristics in our lives and workplaces.

Here are five life lessons from your immune system.

1. Build diverse and collaborative teams

Our adaptive immune system works in a very specific way to detect and eradicate infections and cancer. To function, it relies on effective team work.

At the centre of this immune system team sits dendritic cells. These are the sentinels and leaders of the immune system – akin to coaches, CEOs and directors.

They have usually travelled widely and have a lot of “life experience”. For a dendritic cell, this means they have detected a pathogen in the organs of the body. Perhaps they’ve come into contact with influenza virus in the lung, or encountered dengue fever virus in the skin following a mosquito bite.

Dendritic cells form a surveillance network – shown here as reddish stained cells in skin. Ed Uthman (Houston, TX, USA) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

After such an experience, dendritic cells make their way to their local lymph nodes – organs structured to facilitate immune cell collaboration and teamwork.

Here, like the best leaders, dendritic cells share their life experiences and provide vision and direction for their team (multiple other cell types). This gets the immune cell team activated and working together towards a shared goal – the eradication of the pathogen in question.

The most important aspect of the dendritic cell strategy is knowing the strength of combined diverse expertise. It is essential that immune team members come from diverse backgrounds to get the best results.

To do this, dendritic cells secrete small molecules known as chemokines. Chemokines facilitate good conversations between different types of immune cells, helping dendritic cells discuss their plans with the team. In immunology, we call this “recruitment”.

This 3D image of a lymph node shows the cells that produce chemokines in red and blue. Joanna Groom/WEHI, Author provided

Much like our workplaces, diversity is key here. It’s fair to say, if dendritic cells only recruited more dendritic cells, our immune system would completely fail its job. Dendritic cells instead hire T cells (among others) and share the critical knowledge and strategy to steer effective action of immune cells.

T cells can then pass these plans down the line – either preparing themselves to act directly on the pathogen, or working alongside other cell types, such as B cells that make protective antibodies.

In this way, dendritic cells establish a rich and diverse team that works together to clear infections or cancer.

2. Learn through positive and negative feedback

Immune cells are excellent students.

During development, T cells mature in a way that depends on both positive and negative feedback. This occurs in the thymus, an organ found in the front of your chest and whose function was first discovered by Australian scientist Jacques Miller (awarded the 2018 Japan Prize for his discoveries).

As they mature, T cells are exposed to a process of trial and error, and take on board criticism and advice in equal measure, to ensure they are “trained” to respond appropriately to what they “see” (for example, molecules from your own body, or from a foreign pathogen) when they leave the thymus.

Importantly, this process is balanced, and T cells must receive both positive and negative feedback to mature appropriately – too much of either on its own is not enough.

In the diverse team of the immune system, cells can be both the student and the teacher. This occurs during immune responses with intense cross-talk between dendritic cells, T cells and B cells.

In this supportive environment, multiple rounds of feedback allow B cells to gain a tighter grip on infections, tailoring antibodies specifically towards each pathogen.

The result of this feedback is so powerful, it can divert cells away from acting against your own body, instead converting them into active participants of the immune system team.

Developing avenues that promote constructive feedback offers potential to correct autoimmune disorders.

The colours in this magnified slice through a lymph node show different cell types interacting as part of an immune response. Joanna Groom/WEHI, Author provided

3. A unique response for each situation

Our immune system knows that context is important – it doesn’t rely on a “one-size–fits-all” approach to resolve all infections.

This allows the cells of our immune system to perfectly respond to different types of pathogens: such as viruses, fungi, bacteria and helminths (worms).

In these different scenarios, even though the team members contributing to the response are the same (or similar), our immune system displays emotional intelligence and utilises different tools and strategies depending on the different situations, or pathogens, it encounters.

Importantly, our immune system needs to carefully control attack responses to get rid of danger. Being too heavy handed leaves us with collateral tissue damage, such as is seen allergy and asthma. Conversely, weak responses lead to immunodeficiencies, chronic infection or cancer.

A major research aim for people working in immunology is to learn how to harness balanced and tailored immune responses for therapeutic benefit.

4. Focus on work/life balance

When we are overworked and poorly rested, we don’t function at our peak. The same is true for our immune cells.

An overworked immune cell is commonly referred to as being “chronically exhausted”. In this state, T cells are no longer effective at attacking tumour or virus-infected cells. They are lethargic and inefficient, much like us when we overdo it.

For T cells, this switch to exhaustion helps ensure a balanced response and avoids collateral damage. However, viruses and cancers exploit this weakness in immune responses by deliberately promoting exhaustion.

The rapidly advancing field of immunotherapy has tackled this limitation in our immune system head-on to create new cancer therapeutics. These therapies release cells of their exhaustion, refresh them, so they become effective once more.

This therapeutic avenue (called “immune checkpoint inhibition”) is like a self-care day spa for your T cells. It revives them, renewing their determination and efficiency.

This has revolutionised the way cancer is treated, leading to the award of the 2018 Nobel prize in Medicine to two of its pioneers, James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo.

5. Learn from life experiences

The cornerstone of our adaptive immune system is the ability to remember our past infections. In doing so, it can respond faster and in a more targeted manner when we encounter the same pathogen multiple times.

Quite literally, if it doesn’t kill you, it makes your immune system stronger.

Vaccines exploit this modus operandi, providing immune cells with the memories without the risk of infection.

Work still remains to identify the pathways that optimise formation of memory cells that drive this response. Researchers aim to discover which memories are the most efficient, and how to make them target particularly recalcitrant infections, such as malaria, HIV-AIDS and seasonal influenza.

While life might not have the shortcuts provided by vaccines, certainly taking time to reflect and learn after challenges can allow us to find better, faster solutions to future problems.

– ref. Five life lessons from your immune system – http://theconversation.com/five-life-lessons-from-your-immune-system-103425

Pencils ready: it’s time for Politics 2019 Bingo!

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Manwaring, Senior Lecturer, Politics and Public Policy, Flinders University

Australian politics in 2019 will inevitably be dominated by the federal election, expected in May. So what can we expect for the year ahead? Here’s your handy politics bingo card to play as we watch the ideas, strategies and tactics of the political parties play out.

Votes for sale! The Liberal-National Coalition, currently being hammered in the polls and with the Nationals engulfed in scandal, will be desperate to save some electoral “furniture”. Victoria might well have its own specificities, but the state election delivered a crushing defeat for the Coalition. On the back of the midyear budget update with a projected surplus, expect some lavish and targeted tax cuts and laser-like spending pledges. What a time to be alive (in a marginal seat).
Neutralisation! Both the major parties will be seeking to recalibrate “problematic” policy areas and limit any potential damage. For Labor, immigration policy was a potential flashpoint, but the sniff of government will see a range of difficult policy issues neutralised. Raising Newstart? Ah, maybe next year. Right now, the Liberals would love to have an energy and climate policy that any of their MPs actually believed in.
Disaster! Facing the prospect of a huge electoral loss, the Coalition might well be hoping for a disaster-related circuit-changer. It worked for John Howard – as David Marr and Marian Wilkinson catalogued in their book Dark Victory. Whether it’s terrorism or a significant weather-related event, there is political hay to be made from disaster.
Pick me! (Not him) The Coalition thinks it sees a key weakness in the ALP’s seeming inexorable rise to power – Bill Shorten. Shorten has consistently polled poorly, and Liberals will sense an opportunity. Look out for personality attacks. Likewise, after Morrison’s risible cap-wearing, fair-dinkum efforts in Queensland, we might see a new side to the PM.
Small target nerves! Fear can do funny things to people – and political parties. In the UK in 1992, British Labour finally looked like defeating the Conservatives after long years of exile. A clever tax scare campaign by the Tories and a misplaced triumphant rally in Sheffield by Labour leader Neil Kinnock enabled the latter to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In Australia in 2019, the ALP will be desperate to stay unified and on message, and on contentious issues might play a “small target” game – minimising the space between Labor and the Coalition.
Dead cats! This is the infamous trick of Liberal strategist Lynton Crosby – to change the discourse by throwing the proverbial “dead cat” on the table. The aim is to change the political discourse by introducing a surprising new element to the debate. As the election draws nearer and desperation creeps in, expect some policy over-reach or desperation (for example, recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel), or the raising of issues long ignored by the major parties.
Cross-bench hysteria! Federal elections also entail Senate elections, including, of course, the “unrepresentative swill” of the cross bench. With a handful of senators on rather shaky numbers, we can expect more outbursts from some of the more – if we want to be polite about it – “ideologically driven” senators. Ah, the reassuring light of enlightenment and reason shining its beacon of “truth” to the electorate during the election season!
Faux populism! It seems near-impossible to have political debate without mentioning two key terms: “Trump” and “Brexit”. Both are used to signify a growing trend towards populism. Alas, as scholars of populism tend to note, the term is frequently ill-applied and misused, with people often confusing “popular” with “populism”. In any case, we can expect to hear the “p word” bandied about as the major parties slug it out for office.
Hip-pocket economics! As election time draws closer, expect to hear a lot more usage of some favourite political terms in Australian politics – “mums and dads”, “ordinary Australians”, “working families” and so on. In electoral terms, the nuclear family is far from dead, and the parties want their vote.

And, of course, if Labor wins as the polls suggest, we will have had the first change-of-government election since 2013. This will trigger our “bonus ball” bingo, and we can listen out for the following:

It’s all their fault! The classic default of any new administration is to blame their predecessors for all ills – sluggish economic growth, poor wage growth, lack of support for economic or environmental reform. Happily, we can also add at least two other main sources of blame – the (opposition) state governments for failing to sign up to X, Y and Z agreements, and the inevitable ragbag on the Senate cross bench.

And so, as the electoral countdown ticks down, the same creaking old machine of Australian politics rolls on. As the old saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

– ref. Pencils ready: it’s time for Politics 2019 Bingo! – http://theconversation.com/pencils-ready-its-time-for-politics-2019-bingo-108503

Is the ‘midlife crisis’ a real thing?

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, University of Melbourne

Middle age is often seen as life’s pivot point. A hill has been climbed and the view over the other side is unsettling. As Victor Hugo said: “forty is the old age of youth” and “fifty the youth of old age”.

The idea adults in midlife face a dark night of the soul – or desperately escape from it, hair plugs flapping in a convertible’s breeze – is deeply rooted. Studies show the great majority of people believe in the reality of the so-called “midlife crisis” and almost half of adults over 50 claim to have had one. But is it actually real?

There is good evidence a midlife decline in life satisfaction is real. Population surveys typically find both women and men report the lowest satisfaction in middle age. The Australian HILDA survey locates the lowest life satisfaction at age 45 and the Australian Bureau of Statistics singles out the 45-54 age bracket as the glummest.

Middle age may be dislocating for some but there is little evidence it is usually a period of crisis and despondency. Psychologically speaking, things tend to get better. If there is a small dip in how people evaluate their lot – even if it is objectively no worse than before – this is understandable. Our attention shifts from time past to time left, and that requires a process of adjustment.

When is midlife?

Clearly there are many grounds for being unsatisfied with life during the middle years. But does that make the midlife crisis real, or just an intuitively appealing phantom? There is good reason to be sceptical.

For one thing, it’s hard enough deciding when the midlife crisis should occur. Concepts of middle age are elastic and change as we get older. One study found younger adults believe middle age stretches from the early 30s to 50, whereas adults over 60 saw it as extending from the late 30s to the mid-50s.

A midlife crisis could happen in your 30s, depending on how old you are when you’re assessing what ‘midlife’ is. Roberto Nickson (@g)/Unsplash

In one US study one-third of people in their 70s defined themselves as middle-aged. This research accords with a finding middle-aged people tend to feel one decade younger than their birth certificate.

However we define midlife, do crises concentrate in that period? One study suggests not. It indicates instead that self-reported crises simply become steadily more common as we age. Among study participants in their 20s, 44% reported a crisis, compared to 49% of those in their 30s, and 53% of those in their 40s.

In another study, the older the participants, the older they reported their midlife crisis to have occurred. People aged over 60 recalled theirs at 53 while those in their 40s dated theirs to 38.

Arguably there is no distinct midlife crisis, just crises that occur during midlife but might equally have occurred before or after.

What the theorists thought

The psychoanalyst Elliot Jaques, who coined the term “midlife crisis” in 1965, thought it reflected the dawning recognition of one’s mortality. “Death”, he wrote, “instead of being a general conception, or an event experienced in terms of the loss of someone else, becomes a personal matter”.

The key achievement of middle age, according to Jaques, is to move beyond youthful idealism to what he called “contemplative pessimism” and “constructive resignation”. He argued midlife was when we reach maturity by overcoming our denial of death and human destructiveness.

Carl Jung presented a different view. He argued midlife was a time when previously suppressed aspects of the psyche might become integrated. Men could recover their unconscious feminine side or anima, previously submerged during their youth, and women come alive to their hidden opposite, the animus.

Jung thought the masculine and feminine parts of a person came together in midlife. from shutterstock.com

Less profound explanations have also been offered for midlife dissatisfaction. It’s when children may be leaving the family home and when adults are generationally sandwiched, required to care for children and ageing parents. Chronic illnesses often make their first appearance and losses accelerate. Workplace demands may be peaking.

But there may be something to it that’s even more basic and biological. Chimpanzees and orangutans aren’t known to suffer from existential dread, empty nest syndrome or job stress. And still, they show the same midlife dip in well-being as their human cousins.

One study found chimps in their late 20s and orangutans in the mid 30s showed the lowest mood, the least pleasure in social activities, and the poorest capacity to achieve their goals. The researchers speculated this pattern might reflect age-related changes in brain structures associated with well-being that are similar between primate species.

Midlife as a time of growth, not crisis

Crisis episodes may not be tightly tied to adverse life events. Research often fails to show clear connections between adversities and self-proclaimed crises.

One study found reporting a midlife crisis was not associated with recently experiencing divorce, job loss or death of a loved one, and was primarily linked to having a history of depression.

The idea middle age is a time of psychological gloom is also belied by research evidence. The U-shaped life satisfaction curve notwithstanding, most change during midlife is positive.

Consider personality change, for example. One longitudinal study that followed thousands of Americans from age 41 to 50 found they became less neurotic and self-conscious with age. These personality changes were unrelated to the adults’ experience of life adversity: resilience, not crisis, was the norm.

Another study that followed a sample of women from age 43 to 52 showed they tended to become less dependent and self-critical, and more confident, responsible and decisive, as they aged. These changes were unrelated to the women’s menopausal status or empty nest experiences.

Other research tells a similar story. In general, psychological changes during midlife are positive. Personality becomes more steady and self-accepting, while positive emotion, on average, gradually rises through the lifespan.

Even the self-reported midlife crises may have a silver lining. One study showed the more crises people reported, the more empathetic they were towards others. It is perhaps unsurprising older adults choose middle adulthood as the phase of life they most prefer.

The challenge is to come out the end of middle age with life satisfaction restored, as most do. Victor Hugo says it well again: “when grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable”.

– ref. Is the ‘midlife crisis’ a real thing? – http://theconversation.com/is-the-midlife-crisis-a-real-thing-105510

Why we need to take food education in Australian schools more seriously

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Worsley, Chair In Behavioural Nutrition, Deakin University

This article is part of a series focusing on the politics of food – what we eat, how our views of food are changing and why it matters from a cultural and political standpoint.

Schools are expected to do a lot of important things. We frequently hear calls for schools to make children job-ready, help drive economic innovation, provide them with greater literacy and numeracy skills, maintain social cohesion and fairness through anti-bullying and gender equity programs, prevent obesity and promote students’ mental health. And much more. So what is happening about food in secondary schools?

The renewal of interest in food issues

In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in food education, particularly in secondary schools. This is partly encouraged by celebrity chef television shows, the surge in obesity, growing unease about our environmental impacts, and the diverse, multicultural nature of contemporary Australian food. This range of interests is reflected in what is being taught in Australian schools.

The renewed interest is seen among various international innovations. One example is compulsory cooking programs in English and Welsh schools. These programs require students to develop an enjoyable meal repertoire consistent with the UK dietary recommendations, and sustainably source school food.

Food skills like cooking are taught in the technologies stream of the curriculum. from www.shutterstock.com

An associated venture is the Food Teachers’ Centre in London. This provides in-school professional development for food teachers.

How is food education taught in Australian secondary schools?

The current Australian curriculum splits food education into two streams: the health and physical education (HPE) stream and the design and technologies stream. Nutrition principles are taught in the HPE stream and food skills (such as cooking) are taught in the technologies stream. If a school is fortunate enough to have a year 7 or year 8 home economics course, the two streams may be combined in the one course.

The duration of food education courses in secondary schools varies a lot, from none to one or two hours a week, often for a year or less. At senior levels (years 11 and 12) elective subjects are offered in the various states and territories such as Food Technology or the new food studies curriculum in Victoria.

Research with home economics teachers in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia suggests time and resources are often inadequate for teaching the diverse knowledge and skills associated with food.

Aspects of food may be taught in science (such as food chemistry) or in humanities (such as cultural foods and environmental issues) or in PE. But most food education happens in home economics, and contrary to many people’s opinions, it is alive and well in many parts of Australia.

Food education takes place in preschools, primary schools and secondary schools, though in different ways and to different degrees. Programs like the kitchen garden scheme have been well received.

Many teachers deal with food, in all its aspects, across the school years. These include activities like growing food in school gardens, cooking it, analysing its nutritional properties and environmental impacts, exploring local farms, shops and food markets, taking part in BBQ or Masterchef style competitions and catering for schools and Fair Food Universities.

Research in secondary food education

A growing evidence base, mainly in the US, Canada, western Europe and Australia suggests food literacy and skills education programs lead to greater confidence in performing practical food skills, such as planning and preparing meals, interpreting food labels, basic food safety, food regulations. This, in turn, is associated with healthier dietary choices.

Australian research in this area has grown strongly over the past ten years. It has provided evidence for the establishment of several food literacy frameworks with focuses on food gatekeepers and families as well as broader environmental aspects of food systems.

Understanding how to read food labels can help people make healthier choices. from www.shutterstock.com

Recent research has shown many secondary school food teachers tend to favour practical domestic skills and associated knowledge. They express less interest in broader historic, social, environmental and ethical issues. Food and health professionals remain strongly supportive of food education – especially for acquiring practical skills – as does the general public.

Our recent work has also examined the views of parents and recent school leavers who live independently. Although they hold a broad spectrum of opinions, around two thirds see food education as an important life skills subject. Most think it should be compulsory for between one and three hours per week in each of years 7 to 10. These views contrast sharply with the priorities of most secondary schools.

Current and future challenges

Food education in Australian secondary schools is now facing several challenges. These challenges are related to changes in population health status, changing food patterns, food technologies, food and beverage marketing and environmental impacts.

The fundamental question is: Does it meet the present and future life needs of students and their families? At present, food education tends to be patchy, with some emphasis on students’ acquisition of food preparation skills but lesser coverage of environmental and social issues, marketing practices or family dynamics.

Possible solutions include providing more intensive education about food in university teacher education programs and continuing professional education for food teachers. These teachers also need more adequate timetable allocations and resources.

A comprehensive food education framework from pre-school to senior secondary school is required to prevent repetition and reinforce skills learned in the early years. This has begun in the UK and in the RefreshED program in Western Australia. A more focused curriculum across all years of education is required. This should be accompanied by continuing evaluation of the impact of food education on students, their families and the wider population.

– ref. Why we need to take food education in Australian schools more seriously – http://theconversation.com/why-we-need-to-take-food-education-in-australian-schools-more-seriously-106849

China wrestles with contested heritage of conflict and colonial rule

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shiqi Xiong, Visiting Scholar, Griffith University

China often makes headlines on a great variety of topics, yet very little is said and known about its contested heritage. At a time when this country with a complex and rich history is undergoing rapid urbanisation, one might expect contested heritage to be a hot topic.

For example, many Chinese scholars, officials and villagers view heritage preservation and display as tools of modernisation and improvement in “backward” rural areas. Therefore, the project of cultural heritage display becomes a colonising project, one that estranges local communities from their own cultural resources. In that case, the display of cultural heritage in rural China becomes a contested project.

The village of Tunpu in Guizhou province is a distinctive example of this. The language and culture of Tunpu are not derived from local villagers, but are defined by scholars to represent villagers.

More urbanised areas, notably Hong Kong, also have many cases of contested heritage. The city has a long British colonial history and returned to China in 1997. Many cultural heritage sites remained. These including the Marine Police Headquarter Compound, the Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier, and the Central Police Station Compound.

Nowadays, in the development of Hong Kong, there are differences between the governor and the community in interpretation, restoration, preservation, assignment, commodification or elimination of these heritages.

What exactly do we mean by contested heritage?

Interestingly, an international literature review produces no clear definition of contested heritage. Rather, there is a consensus on its common characteristics.

Firstly, the value and meaning to be given to a specific heritage are contested. Most of the time this is because there are different views and conflicts on aspects of this heritage during its preservation, redevelopment or urban restoration. For example, this happened when deciding the future of the Nazis’ Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. It eventually became an educational tourism destination.

Contestation over heritage has many origins, but always involves negative sentiments. Karine Dupré, Author provided

Secondly, contested heritage sites always convey a negative sentiment to some extent. Think, for instance, of a walled city: those living either side of the wall will have different attitudes to it. These contested heritage sites are about colonisation, apartheid, slavery, conflict and war, and religious divides.

Although in postcolonial settings multiple communities can succeed in sharing a common negative heritage and become resilient about it, the heritage left by war is always contested, since different countries have different positions. For instance, Japan, America and China have different views of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome), which was inscribed on the World Heritage List. America and China opposed the nomination but for different reasons.

Finally, interpretations of contested heritage by different interest groups fluctuate as these interpretations and meanings might vary depending on the historical period. This is obvious in how the terminology has evolved. It was previously discussed as dissonant heritage and later as ambivalent heritage and even negative heritage.

So what about China’s contested heritage?

As a country with a very long history, China is rich in heritage. It already has 36 cultural heritage sites and four mixed heritage sites on the World Heritage List.

Yet the modern Chinese consciousness of cultural heritage protection began in the late 19th century. This was closely related to Western influence on China at that time (Guo, 2009). That is once source of contested heritage today.

Other contested heritage relates to the traces left by Russian and Japanese colonisation of China. There has been a shift in national heritage policies and in the handling of such memories.

Dalian, on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, is a good example. Like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Qingdao, Dalian’s development stemmed from colonial occupation. Invaded by the Russians in 1897, the Japanese in 1905 and returned to China in 1955, the city went through half a century of colonial rule.

This has left lasting imprints on Dalian’s urban planning and urban landscapes. Basically, these are either highly valued (the Russian Nikolayev Square main square is heritage-listed), targeted for demolition, or dismissed (low-income districts built under Japanese rule) … until recently.

Model of Dalian’s historical main square. Courtesy of Dalian Urban Planning Museum, Author provided

A more nuanced view of heritage

Attention to contested heritage is quite recent in China. There is still little discussion about it as urban modernisation has for a very long time been the number one priority.

However, with rising awareness of the cultural and economic benefits that some heritage could bring to communities, as seen in Dalian, the debate about contested heritage has been gradually gaining more prominence. This is important as it contributes to rewriting the national narrative with more shades of grey.

– ref. China wrestles with contested heritage of conflict and colonial rule – http://theconversation.com/china-wrestles-with-contested-heritage-of-conflict-and-colonial-rule-108158

Brick-bait: three tricks up retailers’ sleeves to lure you back to physical shops

By The Conversation -

January 7, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eloise Zoppos, Senior Research Consultant, Monash University

Bricks-and-mortar retail stores are under intense pressure from online competition. Feeling the most heat are clothes shops and department stores.

This year David Jones’s profit halved, to A$64 million. Myer declared a “disappointing” A$486 million loss. German giant Esprit, whose global sales have fallen 40% in four years, has shuttered its Australian operations. The US-based Gap closed its last Australian store back in February. Other brands to have collapsed include Metalicus, Oroton, Marcs, David Lawrence and Pumpkin Patch.

What to do?

One answer is to invest in and enhance those aspects of the shopping experience that online retailers just can’t provide.

To do so department stores and clothing retailers are drawing on consumer behaviour and psychological research to make themselves more appealing – sometimes without shoppers even consciously realising it.

Here are three of the most significant strategies.

Home is where your heart is

Shopping from home is comfortable. You can do it in your time. You feel no pressure to hurry up and buy something. You can do it in your pyjamas.

To compete against the home shopping experience, retailers are exploring how to make you feel more at home in their stores. Tactics involve evoking sensory familiarity through furnishings, lighting and even scents.

Men’s clothing retailer Rodd & Gunn is taking the homeliness vibe to its logical extreme, with shop fit-outs that mimic an actual home.

Rodd & Gunn’s ‘experiential’ retail store in Chadstone, Melbourne. Rodd and Gunn blog

The picture above shows Rodd & Gunn’s “experiential store” in Chadstone, Melbourne. There’s a slanted wood-panelled ceiling to evoke a real house roof. In the centre of the shop floor is a “living room” space with sofa, armchairs and a coffee table. Artworks hang on the walls. It’s all intended to make you feel as relaxed (almost) as you would in your own home.

This approach reflects the research that shows how familiar design elements help make shoppers feel comfortable. Colour and music choices apparently don’t make much difference, but layout and other sensory experiences do.

Familiar scents, for example, can affect your decision to go into a store, how long you stay and ultimately how much you spend. They are particularly effective when they complement the brand, such as the faint smell of wood in a hardware store or a more herbal scent in a wellness store.

You want space, but not too much

What can make or break your experience in a shop is how the staff treat you. As Sarah Alhouti and her colleagues have put it, there’s a thin line between love and hate of attention.

An overly attentive salesperson can be perceived as desperate, pushy or aggressive and drive you away. Too little attention, on the other hand, can leave you feeling ignored, unwanted and unworthy, with the same result.

With the Goldilocks zone being different for different people, retailers are turning to technology to help get the attention levels right.

For example, Australia’s largest swimwear label, Seafolly, is trying out an interactive mirror in the fitting room of its Bondi Junction store in Sydney.

The interactive mirror in Seafolly’s Bondi Junction store. Seafolly

It allows the customer to message staff directly from the changing room for assistance only if, and when, they decide they need it.

You’re so special

Shopping online is highly convenient but it doesn’t necessarily make you feel special.

Some bricks-and-mortar retailers are positioning themselves at the premium end of the shopping market by appealing to the human desire to be pampered. It makes sense to invest in the “VIP experience”, because now every customer they get is very important.

Creating the VIP experience extends from personal greetings to champagne and caviar bars.

Department store David Jones has embraced this trend as part of the A$200 million redevelopment of its Sydney premises.

Its revamped shoe floor – the largest shoe store in Australia – includes “shoe concierges” to greet and guide you and specialist shoe fitters recruited from around the world. And yes, there’s also a champagne bar.

David Jones’ new ‘Level 7’ shoe floor in Sydney. David Jones media release

Such experiences meet the desire for a “luxe” experience without the luxury price tag. Research has found that even the simple act of just being welcomed at the entrance of a store can influence how your perceive service quality as well as customer satisfaction and store loyalty.

Whether such strategies can save bricks-and-mortar stores remains to be seen.

In the meantime, champagne anyone?

– ref. Brick-bait: three tricks up retailers’ sleeves to lure you back to physical shops – http://theconversation.com/brick-bait-three-tricks-up-retailers-sleeves-to-lure-you-back-to-physical-shops-107506

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Jami-Lee Ross – Bridges’ new year’s hangover?

By Bryce Edwards -

January 4, 2019

Simon_Bridges — Current National Party leader, Simon Bridges.

Political Roundup: Jami-Lee Ross – Bridges’ new year’s hangover?

by Dr Bryce Edwards

Could Simon Bridges’ political year again be dominated by Jami-Lee Ross? Don’t rule it out. The rogue MP’s impact on politics in 2018 was immense, and the many issues raised by him – advertently, or not – haven’t gone away. And nor has he, despite going quiet over the last month.

The Jami-Lee Ross mega-scandal was the biggest political drama of last year and featured prominently in the end-of-year politics wrap-ups.

For example, Stuff’s political editor Tracy Watkins scored his performance as 1/10 – see my column from Wednesday, NZ’s worst performing politicians.

A huge impact on the year in politics

Although no one dubbed Ross as the “politician of the year”, he was certainly acknowledged as the top newsmaker of the year, for plunging New Zealand politics – or at least the National Party – into chaos and bewilderment.

Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien named Ross as performing the “best political move of the year” in his “kamikaze efforts” at Parliament – see Alice Webb-Liddall and Tova O’Brien’s Political superlatives 2018: Tova O’Brien reviews the political year. According to O’Brien, his efforts were “unprecedented”, and “the way it was all done was absolutely mind-boggling”.

Likewise, 1News political editor Jessica Mutch McKay said Ross’ revelations were “the biggest moment of the year” – see her 4-minute evaluation of the year: From Jami-Lee Ross to baby Neve – 1News political editor takes a look back at 2018.

In another summary of the scandals of 2018, 1News explained why Ross’ downfall was important: “The news maker of 2018 dropped a nuclear bomb on his National Party leader Simon Bridges in October, after returning from ‘leave’, by revealing a huge falling out with Mr Bridges, that he was being fingered as the leaker of Mr Bridges’ expenses, that he was innocent and that he’d taped phone calls with Mr Bridges and had plenty of dirt ready to dish out… When National later revealed Mr Ross was originally on leave after claims of harassment against females, Mr Ross admitted to adultery and disappeared from Parliament, taking off the final months of the political year on sick leave” – see: 2018 in review: Five who fell from grace.

Stuff’s irreverent list of The best and the rest: Stuff’s 2018 political awards includes four awards relating to the Ross drama, including “Quote of the Year” (Simon Bridges: “Maureen Pugh is f…..g useless”), and “The Best Shakespearean dramatist award: Jami-Lee Ross, the Brutus of the National caucus”.

In the Listener, Jane Clifton awarded Ross “The Sir Geoffrey Palmer Prize for Not Taking Oneself Seriously Enough”, explaining: “The longtime whip went postal after he was denied the jobs of chief party pollster, campaign manager and leader of the House. He only got promoted to the front bench. Being a modest, unassuming sort, he took this oversight in good part. Until he didn’t.

According to Steve Braunias, “JLR was an artist. He left all of us wanting more; he gave us so much, and yet he left so much to the imagination. The day of his epic 53-minute press conference was the central event of the ongoing JLR farce but the events leading up to it were also a rich comedy.”

In his end-of-year Secret diary of 2018 Braunias declared: “With the limited power invested in me as New Zealand’s longest-serving newspaper satirist (the Secret Diary, honking its rubber hooter since 2009), I hereby knight him for his services to satire in 2018.”

Did the Jami-Lee Ross mega-scandal matter?

Some end-of-year commentaries have suggested that the whole drama ended up amounting to very little, when all was said and done. Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan wrote: “let’s be honest. Few of us will remember the events of this year even this time next year. Most of us will have to google Jami-Lee Ross to remember exactly what he did. It’s easy, when you follow politics almost too closely, to get engrossed in the scandals and controversies. But, really, they are blips on the radar screens of history” – see: What a year that was.

Similarly, RNZ’s Guyon Espiner concluded that in the end, Politics wasn’t all scandal and leaks this year. He argued, “The Jami-Lee Ross rupture was explosive. But when the ash and smoke cleared the damage was limited.”

Two commentators from the Spinoff website declared the whole affair a “flop”. Alex Braae said: “specifically the tapes that he claimed were evidence of corruption. They didn’t sound good, and corruption might be going on, but the tapes didn’t show that.” And Simon Day: “What initially felt like quite an exciting moment in New Zealand politics was ultimately sad and quite gross.”

But for a strong argument for why the issues arising out of the Jami-Lee Ross scandal continue to be relevant, it’s worth reading journalist Graham Adams’ very good column Strange lessons of 2018: What goes on when we’re not looking. In this he celebrates Ross as the “most prominent stirrer of the year”, and he bemoans that “he is never referred to by the media as a whistleblower”.

Adams suggests the reluctance of the media to give credence to all Ross’ allegations quite possibly springs from the close relationships that journalists have with politicians.

In terms of the issues Ross raised, Adams says “he has given us valuable insights into how Chinese money may be corrupting our politics and how political donations can be disguised to hide their source”. He also argues that this focus led to the media giving more attention to the situation and scholarship of Anne-Marie Brady, who had spoken out on similar issues.

In his end-of-year column, John Tamihere also saw merit in the issues raised, because it helped the public understand the realities of how politics works: “The Jami-Lee Ross saga exposed the true underbelly of politics — both from a party frame and from a parliamentary frame. Most people vow to protect the party brand. Jami-Lee Ross chose not to, and disclosed what a good time some MPs have with one another in Wellington” – see: Marking the Government’s cards.

Writing at The Spinoff, Max Harris also concluded the scandal was important: “That saga revealed distrust and suspicion in the Party, and some disquiet about Simon Bridges’ leadership, but it also revealed a failure to take seriously enough sexual harassment and bullying (a cultural problem that no doubt exists more broadly within New Zealand political and corporate culture).”

John Armstrong’s end-of-year column focused more on the Jami-Lee Ross scandal than anything else. He labelled it a “political horror story to beat all political horror stories”, and declared “Ross’ clandestine taping of his phone conversations with a supposed close friend and political ally” to incriminate him as “a new low in the handbook of dirty tricks” – see: Like him or loath him, Shane Jones delivered big time in a drama, intrigue-filled 2018.

Armstrong had some concluding questions: “Did Ross exploit public sympathy for his suffering mental health issues? Did he blame his ailment for his actions? Did he use his medical condition as a shield to hide behind and to handicap how Bridges was able to respond to his treachery?”

What happens next in the Jami-Lee Ross saga?

Right from the start, the Ross saga has been extremely difficult to chart and to forecast where it will go. But there seems no reason to believe that the story has come to an end. Bill Ralston’s latest column in the Listener predicts more drama: “You can reasonably assume his return to the House will result in a steady drip, if not a torrent, of further embarrassing leaks and accusations about his former boss. This will serve to further destabilise Bridges’ already wobbly leadership” – see: Grab your popcorn, there’s plenty more political drama to come.

Some commentators are expecting the National Party to use the newly-passed “waka-jumping law” to expel their former colleague from Parliament, therefore forcing a by-election. The Stuff parliamentary gallery journalists have included this as one of their predictions for the year: “National will trigger the waka jumping bill to remove Jami-Lee Ross from Parliament after he becomes a thorn in their side following his return to Parliament” – see: 2019 Political predictions: Big calls for the year ahead.

But National Party blogger David Farrar has responded to this, saying “Whether it gets triggered will depend on what JLR does when he returns.” And Bridges still sounds unenthusiastic about using the law, reminding the public in December that his party “voted against this law” and “There is politics but there’s also principle, we think it is a bad law” – see 1News’ Colmar Brunton poll: Should Simon Bridges boot Jami-Lee Ross from Parliament using waka jumping law?

This article reports a survey in which “44 per cent of those asked said Mr Bridges should remove Mr Ross from Parliament using the new law. Twenty-four per cent disagreed, and 31 per cent did not know.”

Of course, there are plenty of other ongoing elements relating to the Jami-Lee Ross saga to watch out for this year: the Police investigation into Ross’ allegations about breaches of donation disclosure laws, whether the media name the National MP who Ross reportedly had a three-year affair with, and National’s own internal review into its culture.

Finally, for Steve Braunias’ satire relating to the whole saga, see: Secret Diary of Jami-Lee Ross 1, Secret Diary of Jami-Lee Ross 2, Secret Diary of Judith Collins, and Secret Diary of Simon Bridges.

Message sent, received but no instant reply: how does that make you feel?

By The Conversation -

January 4, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Cowan, Lecturer, The University of Queensland

Your phone chimes, it’s a message from your partner. You reply instantly because that’s what you always do.

Then you decide to add another message: “By the way, I love you ☺”

You see the “read” status appear under the message, and you wait for her reply. An hour later you are still waiting, still checking.

Has this ever happened to you?

For most of us, there is an unwritten social contract that underlies our online messaging interactions. The clearest part of that contract is that certain types of messages demand a timely response.

In our world of instant communications, it seems we have come to expect that the general immediacy and access to information afforded to us by our technology, should be reflected in our online social communication, just as it would be when face-to-face.

But norms that exist in the real world don’t necessarily transfer easily to the digital realm. Is it time we developed a new social contract for online communications?

Stoking the fires of social anxiety

When the social contract is broken or even bent a little, it can introduce a hierarchy of discomfort into the communication process, often including anxiety and introspective rumination over the reasons for the non-reply.

These types of emotions may be felt much more powerfully when we believe the person on the other end has actually read our message but has chosen to ignore us.

In these cases, our discomfort may rise with the passing of time. The rising anxiety may escalate to the point where we bombard the non-replier with yet more messages to try to elicit a response.

Of course, responses such as these can vary from person to person, and culture to culture. It has been suggested some people who are highly emotionally reactive and use text messaging excessively may actually feel rejected, isolated and suffer deep anxiety when replies to their messages are not immediate.

Read receipts makes things worse

It’s worth considering that the technology platform we use to conduct our messaging activities, may contribute to our expectations of an immediate reply.

Virtually every online messaging platform has a way of informing us when our message has been delivered to, and read by, the recipient.

WhatsApp has two blue ticks, one for successful delivery and one for when the message has been read. Facebook messenger shows the recipient’s profile picture beside the message, and so on.

If we know the person well, we may even know they have message receipt notifications set to appear on their device. These notifications do not specifically trigger the read-receipt for our message, but we know it’s likely the recipient has at least seen our message.

Combine all this with the ability to see when someone was last active online, and you have the perfect reply-status nightmare, if you are someone who cares.

The fear of being ghosted

It’s easy to understand how read-receipt anxiety has evolved. Just imagine the offline equivalent – you say something to someone, you know they have heard you, but they deliberately ignore you.

When face to face, we would almost always make further enquiries to get our response and we’d be confused, or angry if it was not forthcoming.

It’s really not very surprising, given the very high volume of online messaging we now engage in, that people expect the same communication etiquette when using messaging platforms.

When non-reply behaviour is taken to an extreme, it may be analogous to a phenomenon known as ghosting. Ghosting involves indulging in behaviours such as not returning text messages, emails, phone calls or any related electronic communications.

It can occur within any type of close relationship but is more often associated with intimate ones. People often use ghosting as way of breaking off a relationship without any apparent justification.

Most of us would agree that a non-reply to an online message of love to an intimate other elicits a very strong emotional response, one that has very little to do with the length of the relationship in question.

Evolving norms for new technologies

In any intimate relationship, a non-reply may make us feel humiliated, rejected isolated and embarrassed. Over time our anxiety will increase until we hear that return chime – hopefully they love us too, along with an apology for the delay, and all emotions can return quickly to normal levels.

Some people may actually use non-reply behaviour to manage their relationship dynamics, and torture their friends and loved ones. Of course no one reading this would ever have engaged in such Machiavellian behaviour!

Perhaps we need a new type of online communication social contract, and let’s set these expectations at the beginning of a relationship, or any friendship.

For example, on Tinder, profiles should perhaps have a box to tick to specify whether immediate replies are optional. Thanks to read-receipts and their associated emotional impact, relationship communication really has never been more complex and perplexing.

– ref. Message sent, received but no instant reply: how does that make you feel? – http://theconversation.com/message-sent-received-but-no-instant-reply-how-does-that-make-you-feel-101110

Australia should brace for a volatile year in foreign policy in 2019

By The Conversation -

January 4, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Harris Rimmer, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Griffith Law School, Griffith University

By the end of 2019 we should be able to assess how Australia is travelling with the grand plan laid out in the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper. In this, an election year, I examine the status of our most important international relationships.

My verdict: decidedly shaky.

A difficult 2018

Even before the August leadership spill, 2018 was a difficult year for Australia’s foreign policy.

New prime minister Scott Morrison visited Jakarta within days of his appointment, but did not attend the Pacific Island Forum on Nauru. He also cancelled long-planned visits to Malaysia and Vietnam. He then jeopardised the Indonesian relationship with a rushed announcement about moving Australia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Australia was increasingly criticised in various multilateral fora for its detention practices on Nauru and Manus Island, as well as its climate policies and defence of the coal industry. Morrison then had a shaky summit season.

Relationship with China, Middle East

China put us in the “deep freeze” for most of the year, putting off visits between ministers, deferring a trip by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary, and delaying a range of educational exchanges.

The Chinese embassy issued a safety warning to international students, a large market for international education. This was in response to then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s vow to crack down on foreign interference in Australian affairs, as well as our position on the South China Sea.

Australia’s relationship with China has long been a crucial one, and was tested in 2018. Parker Song/Pool/EPA/AAP

In August, the federal government banned Chinese-owned tech giant Huawei from taking part in the roll-out of 5G mobile infrastructure over national security concerns.

This was the one relationship that may have benefited in the short term from the change in prime minister.

Despite these set-backs, the need to be principled and steady, and to build a long-term relationship with China, remains a challenge.

The year ended badly. With the West Jerusalem embassy announcement in December, Morrison proved a new diplomatic adage: that you can, in fact, please no one, all of the time.

In the Pacific

Some issues are slow-burn. Most Australians still do not realise the deep implications for domestic policy raised by the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that came into effect on December 30, 2018. These implications range from changes to labour market testing, intellectual property issues and the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions that allow private corporations to bypass national courts and seek compensation from extraterritorial tribunals if they believe a change in the law or policy has harmed their investments.

But one bright spot was the so-called Pacific pivot, which Morrison announced in November, and now has to be realised.

While the white paper laid out a stepping up in engagement, long overdue, with the Pacific, it was China’s increasing influence in the region that led to a sense of urgency and scale to the Pacific pivot announcement.

The announcement includes A$2 billion of new funding for infrastructure, a billion dollars to entice Australian businesses back into the region, adding five new diplomatic missions, enhancing labour mobility opportunities and creating an “office of the Pacific” with whole-of-government oversight. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the US promised to connect electricity to 70% of PNG’s population by 2017.

These goals must be realised in a spirit of true partnership. Australian researcher Tess Newton Cain points out that Australia often misses the right tone of respect and partnership in its announcements to the region. And without climate leadership, will the Pacific trust us?

Leadership churn

No white paper can protect Australia from the damage to our international reputation over our constant turn-over of prime ministers. Based on current polls, another one is likely in May after a federal election.

The Lowy Institute’s Michael Fullilove says that worse than being a laughing stock, now Australia can be ignored while the region moves on.

The image of German Chancellor Angela Merkel barely concealing her boredom at meeting her fifth Australian leader in five years at the G20 Summit spoke volumes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel checks her notes as she meets Scott Morrison at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2018. Lukas Coch/AAP Image

Opposition leader Bill Shorten is not known for his foreign policy vision, but Penny Wong is a respected foreign policy thinker, and an interesting symbol for the region on diversity, multiculturalism and the rule of law.

Will she take the foreign minister role in cabinet if the ALP is elected, assuming she may have some choice? For Australia’s sake, she should; we desperate need steady interlocutors. Richard Marles is also a respected figure in the Pacific.

A Shorten government should also display bipartisanship and give Marise Payne and Julie Bishop roles as special envoys or ambassadors to shore up some degree of continuity. Former PMs Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Malcolm Turnbull could all be given roles to play.

Big meetings ahead

Thailand will host ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2019. The 10-member association has been criticised for allowing Thailand’s military government to become chair.

APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) will be hosted by Chile in 2019, showing the reach of APEC across the Pacific. APEC was not able to produce a leaders’ declaration at the PNG summit and it was the scene of extraordinary tension this year. Chile will be hoping for a return to business as usual.

Japan will also host an early G20 Summit in Osaka in June, part of an enormous diplomatic year for them. In 2019, Japan is hosting the Rugby World Cup and preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Then in April, Emperor Akihito, will abdicate, making way for his successor Crown Prince Naruhito.

Threats on horizon

The Council for Foreign Relations, an independent US think-tank, nominated its highest risks for 2019, which I have modified for Australia:

A highly disruptive cyber-attack on critical infrastructure and networks
Renewed tensions on the Korean peninsula following a collapse of denuclearisation negotiations
Armed conflict between Iran and the US or one of its allies
Armed conflict over disputed maritime areas in the South China Sea between China and one or more Southeast Asian countries (Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam)
A mass casualty terrorist attack by either foreign or home-grown terrorist(s)
Continued violent re-imposition of government control in Syria
Deepening economic crisis and political instability in Venezuela leading to violent civil unrest and more refugees leaving
Worsening of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, exacerbated by ongoing foreign intervention in the civil war
Increased violence and instability in Afghanistan resulting from the Taliban insurgency and potential government collapse.

International elections

The Indian general election is expected in April or May 2019, a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other major elections in 2019 are due in Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines.

Key partnerships

Alas, the UK remains focused on Brexit.

And all international diplomats are bracing themselves for the next phase of Trump’s foreign policy.

The US foreign policy think-tanks argue that with the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, the Trump White House will be more active in foreign policy as it struggles to pursue a productive domestic agenda. This could lead Australia into some kind of rollercoaster if we are not willing to disengage from some US requests for our assistance.

In 2019, the US Ambassador to Australia will finally arrive after more than two years’ delay. Republican Washington lawyer Arthur Culvahouse might well spice things up during his posting.

He told the US senate that while China is Australia’s largest trading partner, Australia has also given China “a nation that’s already … aggressive” an “outsized” influence and opportunity to press its agenda.

Depending on the election outcomes, India is looking more like a natural ally for Australia, at least in the shared interest in strengthening ASEAN and the EAS process, and the early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in which both countries are partners.

The way forward for Australia is clearer too, if the government adopts the approach laid out in Peter Varghese’s report An India Economic Strategy to 2035. The former diplomat and public servant envisages the goal by 2035 to be to:

… lift India into its top three export markets, to make it the third largest destination in Asia for Australian outward investment, and to bring it into the inner circle of Australia’s strategic partnerships and with people to people ties as close as any in Asia.

Strategy requires skill and leadership. We will need all three in 2019. We have a volatile year ahead.

– ref. Australia should brace for a volatile year in foreign policy in 2019 – http://theconversation.com/australia-should-brace-for-a-volatile-year-in-foreign-policy-in-2019-109006

Now Christmas is done, what on earth should you do with the tree?

By The Conversation -

January 4, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cris Brack, Associate professor, Australian National University

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: deciding what to do with your Christmas tree.

If you bought a plastic tree, you might have already made the commitment to store and reuse it next year. However, if you were just looking at the greenhouse gas credentials of Christmas tree options, a full life cycle analysis indicates you’ll need to reuse that plastic tree at least 20 times to break even. So you had better store your plastic tree really carefully (even if you are prepared to accept it might be a little bedraggled by 2038, and no longer even in style).

What about the living or cut trees? Do you throw you throw them out, stash them in the backyard for a midwinter bonfire, or start a compost heap? You might be surprised to learn that your real Christmas tree can bring you all sorts of joy both before and beyond December 25.

Selecting a real Christmas tree as a family is an enjoyable annual ritual for many, but actually the tree itself can also directly reduce stress. Yes, the presence of natural living things – and even objects made from natural things like wood – has been demonstrated to improve physiological well-being. The more you have in your home or office, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your work and well-being.

So, having a living or a cut Christmas tree in a wooden planter box, positioned in front of a large window, over the Christmas period would have allowed you to gain the full stress-reduction effects, reduce your greenhouse gas footprint, and enjoy the festive season.

Plastic trees don’t give the same benefits as real plants. Kristina Alexanderson/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

The love you give (to trees)

The improvements in well-being associated with nature-based objects is part of what is now termed biophilia. It is not only plants or trees in a pot in your room that can promote these improvements. Wooden furniture, natural light, nature seen through large windows, and even images of nature can all combine to enhance the biophilic experience.

But if images of nature can help with biophilia, wouldn’t a realistic plastic tree also work? In a recent study, my colleagues and I found that photographs of plants could indeed result in volunteers responding that they felt positive emotional, physiological, cognitive and behavioural responses.

However, when exposed to the real plants that were the subject of the photographs, the response was even more positive, and people went out of their way even just to walk past the plants. Plastic Christmas trees are generally more “symbolic” than realistic and it is unlikely that these could directly induce any feelings of biophilia.

Cut trees, and even live trees left inside too long, will lose leaves or needles and eventually need to be discarded. But even these processes may engage aspects of biophilia if done sensitively.

Dead needles and twigs can be crushed and used as mulch, and if the tree stem is too big to break into mulchable parts, you might be able to whittle or craft a small wooden artefact or piece of jewellery. Composting or reusing the material produced by a once-living Christmas tree, as a part of the Christmas tradition, would certainly increase the biophilic response.

While out in the garden or veranda spreading a little mulch, you could also begin a new tradition – planting next year’s living Christmas tree in a pot! Almost any tree could be used as a living Christmas tree, depending on how big you want it and how much tinsel or popcorn string you plan on wrapping around it.

However there are a number of native species (like the Norfolk Island Pine) which work well as Christmas trees, and which you might be able to plant in your yard when they get too big.

Growing your own tree, complete in its little wooden planter box on your veranda or balcony, will give you a hit of biophilia and a glimpse of next Christmas every day.

– ref. Now Christmas is done, what on earth should you do with the tree? – http://theconversation.com/now-christmas-is-done-what-on-earth-should-you-do-with-the-tree-108756

Is your ‘experience diet’ making you unwell?

By The Conversation -

January 4, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Donovan, Urban Designer and Sessional Lecturer, La Trobe University

Just as our food diet affects our physical and emotional health, so does our “experience diet”. This is the day-to-day mix of the things we do, see, hear and feel. And, just like our food diet, the quantity, quality and balance of those experiences need to be right.

This is because meeting our needs depends on experiencing a wide range of opportunities and qualities. Although not a comprehensive list, these include things like getting enough exercise, food and water, connecting with others, belonging, and experiencing beauty and nature.

Unfortunately, many of us have lifestyles that make it difficult or even impossible to meet all these needs. This diminishes our lives and leaves us isolated and unwell. This happens for several reasons, among which is the range of experiences our surroundings invite us to enjoy, endure or miss out on.

What’s on your experience menu?

You might call this our experience menu. If it’s not on the menu it doesn’t get to be in our diet.

Contrasting experience menus offered in two similar towns. Jenny Donovan, Author provided

If your community’s experience menu lacks things that are good for you and offers many things that are bad for you, good health becomes harder to maintain. The truth is we are not always good at identifying our needs and are easily swayed by our wants. An example is choosing to drive rather than walk, even for short trips.

To add to the problem, something that needs fulfilling might be on the menu but be so poorly presented as to be quite unappealing. In places like this it is possible to walk, cycle, connect with others, set and meet self-determined challenges or do any of the other things you need to do to meet your needs. However, it is less likely. And, if you do choose these options, these good experiences are likely to come at a cost, exposing people to fear, boredom, or other unpleasant emotions.

A poorly presented walking experience (left) is less likely to be chosen from the menu of urban opportunities compared to a well-presented walking experience (right). Jenny Donovan, Author provided

Many of us have an inadequate experience diet, with too much emphasis on the unhealthy “experience groups” – isolating, sedentary, stressful experiences. This is the equivalent of a diet high in fat, salt and sugar, and low in green leafy vegetables. And it has the same outcomes: obesity, greater vulnerability to a range of non-communicable diseases, and general ill health. You might say such built environments are all fast food and no salad.

The good news is that, in cities that are forever renewing themselves, we can change this. We can use good design to put the full range of health-supporting behaviours on the experience menu. This means making needs-fulfilling behaviours not just possible but preferable, so a healthy experience diet offering variety, the right quantity and quality, and including a little bit of what you like becomes the easy (or easier, at least) choice.

So how can we do this?

As explored in my recent book, Designing the Compassionate City, we can help people improve their experience diet by thinking about the rewards a place offers them for being there and using the place in particular ways. Their motivation to do things that meet needs comes from the pull of the place as well as the push of their desire to meet that need. By framing opportunities with qualities that welcome and inspire people (and incidentally meet other needs), we can tip the “balance of influences” on the decisions people make.

Another essential design influence is to ensure a particular use or activity doesn’t appropriate the benefits of a place and limit the enjoyment of that place for others. Perhaps the most significant challenge this raises is designing our streets so they are not dominated by cars, where possible.

As the Danish architect and urban designer Jan Gehl says, “there is so much more to walking than walking!” Apart from keeping us physically healthy, it stimulates our minds and integrates us better into our surroundings.

Thus, we need to privilege walking and cycling, still allowing cars as an essential ingredient but not so they taint their surroundings. This can help make places “experience-nutritious” by offering a range of experiences. This involves designing to meet multiple needs in each place or intervention.

A woonerf is at once a play space, a meeting place, offers opportunities to express oneself and experience nature as a place of reassurance and belonging, as well as a movement corridor. Jenny Donovan, Author provided

Finally, we need to make places “sticky” so people hang around long enough to be there when other people pass through. It is not enough to have many people experience a place if they are unaware of the other people who share it, and the fascination, delight and stimulation that can be gained from sharing a place. This means, among other things, creating “adornable places” that have an intrinsic value that is also amplified when people engage in it.

Warin the wombat: artwork to some, plaything to others. Adorned by children it adds to vitality and interest and provides a minor landmark. Belinda Strickland, Author provided

– ref. Is your ‘experience diet’ making you unwell? – http://theconversation.com/is-your-experience-diet-making-you-unwell-105370

Hidden women of history: Hop Lin Jong, a Chinese immigrant in the early days of White Australia

By The Conversation -

January 4, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antonia Finnane, Professor of Chinese History, University of Melbourne

In a new series, we look at under acknowledged women through the ages.

There are “hidden women” in history who deserve to be known for the same reasons as we know about “great men”. The film Hidden Figures showed us a few of them: African-American women who did the mathematics for the first US space program.

And then there are the rest of us: ordinary people who at first glance look more like products than producers of their times. Hop Lin Jong was one of these, or should I say one of us: a turn-of-the-century immigrant whose arrival in Western Australia in 1901 was remarkable only because she was Chinese. Her life might have passed in obscurity if her daughter Ruby had not been murdered in 1925.

Hop Lin Jong was born in Guangzhou according to immigration records, but arrived in Australia on the S.S. Australind, which plied the Singapore-Fremantle route. Singapore was a hub for human trafficking from China, a multi-million dollar business that linked villages in South China to the world. Hop Lin Jong may have been a victim of this trade.

The year of her birth is uncertain: 1884 in the family genealogy, 1886 in her residential documents. When she disembarked in Fremantle she was somewhere between 15 and 17 years of age. Her surname was Jong or Jung. In Australia she was known as Lin or Lucy, or more formally as Mrs Lee Wood, for on arrival she was wed to James Lee Wood, butcher, merchant and a prominent member of the local Chinese community. The instability of names resulting from poor English rendering is typical for this generation of Chinese migrants.

Lin arrived at the very dawn of the White Australia era, when restrictions directed mainly at preventing Chinese immigration had just been brought into force across the country. How she crossed this colour line is unknown, except that minors were treated differently from adults. Her youth may have been a factor.

Life in early 20th-century Perth

Lin’s wedding photo, published on the Chinese-Australian Historical Images site, shows a well-dressed young woman in a ruffled blouse and tailored skirt. Ruffles must have been all the rage then. A second family photo shows her older daughters, May and Ruby, aged around two and three, dressed identically in ruffled dresses and little boots. She had five children in all, born between 1902 and 1910.

At that time there were few Chinese women in Perth. Census figures for 1901 show 18 women of Chinese nationality in the whole of Western Australia. But the European wives of Chinese men and their children added to the size of the local community. Lin undoubtedly knew Elizabeth Gipp, the wife of Charlie Ah You, and mother of the Gipp boys of Anzac fame. (George, Leslie, and Richard Gipp all served in the First World War.) These women must have supported each other during confinements: this was before the age of hospital births.

The Chinese community of Perth was centered in James St, Northbridge. The Chung Wah (Chinese) Society, established in 1909, had its premises in James St, and Lee Wood’s butcher shop occupied the ground floor of the same building. In 1914, the Lee Woods bought a house in Tiverton St, not far away. Family social and economic life appeared to have operated between the two poles of Tiverton and James Streets. There was a primary school in James St that was attended by the Gipp children. It is possible that the Lee Wood children, too, went there.

Lin Lee Wood, 1948. National Archives of Australia

Lin was a seamstress, and took in sewing. She may have passed her skills onto Ruby, who became a dressmaker. She also worked when needed in the butcher shop. The marriage, however, was not happy. By the 1920s, she and Lee Wood were living apart, she in Tiverton St and he at the shop. Yet as an economic and social unit, the family remained intact. There were family photos, and family notices in the local newspaper. Both parents were involved in the marriages of the children: May’s to local merchant Timothy Chiew in 1922, and Ruby’s to recent immigrant Leong Yen in 1924.

Death of a daughter

Ordinary life with its ordinary problems changed forever in the middle of 1925. On the morning of 13 July that year, a Monday, Lin was working in the shop when Ruby called in to leave the house key with her. That night, when her daughter failed to return home, Lin knew immediately that something must have happened. On the Thursday she went to the police. On the next Thursday again, Ruby’s body was pulled from the harbour in Fremantle.

Coverage of Ruby Yen’s murder in the Sunday Times Magazine in 1941. National Library of Australia

There followed a coronial inquest, the arrest of Leong Yen for the murder of his young wife, and a trial presided over by Chief Justice Robert McMillan. The case meant an unusual degree of public exposure for a Chinese-Australian family. Newspaper reporting was detailed, giving close to verbatim accounts of the evidence. Perth was glued to the events. During the trial, the public gallery was packed, with women making up a large percentage of onlookers.

From the court records we learn that a local Chinese pharmacist, George Way, had served as matchmaker for Ruby’s marriage; that Leong and Ruby had lived with Lin after their wedding in 1924; and that at one stage Lin had thrown him out of the house. We know from the forensic report that the marriage had not been consummated, and from Leong’s evidence that the couple did not share the same bedroom. Perhaps due to these facts, the all-male jury felt sorry for Leong and while finding him guilty of manslaughter, recommended leniency. The judge obliged, with a sentence of two years hard labour. On expiry of the sentence, Leong was deported.

In later decades, the press periodically revisited the case in salacious and sometimes imagined detail (“as the taxi rattled towards Fremantle, thunder rumbled and rain lanced down in swirling flurries”). Quite recently, The West Australian carried a report on the “chilling coincidences” between the current “body-in-a-suitcase trial” centred on the death of Annabel Chen and the trial of Leong Yen more than 90 years ago.

After Ruby

Between the obscurity of life as a Chinese working-class woman in a small Australian city and the glare of publicity surrounding her daughter’s death, Lin is just dimly visible to history. At only five foot high, she was smaller than any of her Australian children. The West Australian reported on her appearance in court, describing “a slight, frail woman, in deep mourning and weeping quietly.” But she was stalwart. According to her grandson Bill Chiew, she “used to work like hell.”

She was barely if at all literate, finding it difficult to sign her immigration papers. Her spoken English, however, was quite good, according to immigration records. In middle age she spent much time minding her grandchildren. Her English may have benefited from time with these second-generation Australians, who could hardly speak Chinese at all; and she may have taken comfort from them.

From the public record we can see that she was swept along in the course of Australian history. With the outbreak of World War II, her youngest son, William (“Boy”), joined the army. In the post-war years, the family enjoyed upward mobility. Granddaughter Irene graduated from university in 1952. And by the time Lin died in 1970, the White Australia Policy had effectively been dismantled. Citizenship had become possible for someone like her.

The last photo of her in the public record is attached to her application for renewal of residential status in 1948. It shows a woman in the ordinary dress of the post-war era, a button-through frock, her hair parted in the middle and done up at the sides. Her birthplace is given as Canton and her nationality as Chinese. By then she had lived in Perth for nearly 50 years. Not surprisingly, she looks Australian and Chinese at the same time.

– ref. Hidden women of history: Hop Lin Jong, a Chinese immigrant in the early days of White Australia – http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-hop-lin-jong-a-chinese-immigrant-in-the-early-days-of-white-australia-108744

250 years after Captain Cook’s arrival, we still can’t be sure how many Māori lived in Aotearoa at the time

By The Conversation -

January 3, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Chapple, Director, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

Two hundred and fifty years ago this year, James Cook’s ship the Endeavour arrived off the eastern coast of New Zealand. The following circumnavigation marked the beginning of ongoing European contact with the indigenous population, and eventually mass British immigration from 1840.

One important question historians are trying to answer is how many Māori lived in Aotearoa at the time of Cook’s arrival. This question goes to the heart of the negative impacts of European contact on the size and health of the 19th-century Māori population, which subsequently bottomed out in the 1890s at just over 40,000 people.

The conventional wisdom is that there were about 100,000 Māori alive in 1769, living on 268,000 square kilometres of temperate Aotearoa. This is a much lower population density (0.37 people per square kilometre) than densities achieved on tropical and much smaller Pacific Islands.

Examples of order-of-magnitude higher density Pacific populations in the contact-era include:

In conjunction with later 19th-century census figures, the conventional wisdom implies that European contact and colonisation following Cook’s arrival was much less devastating for the indigenous population of Aotearoa than for many other Pacific islands.

Three approaches have been used to support the estimate of 100,000 Māori. Unfortunately, none bears any serious weight.

The Cook population estimate

The 100,000-strong estimate of the contact-era Māori population is often attributed to Cook. However, it never received his seal of approval, and it was not made in 1769.

It was published in a 1778 book written by Johann Forster, the naturalist on Cook’s second expedition of 1772-1775. Forster’s estimate is a guess, innocent of method. He suggests 100,000 Māori as a round figure at the lower end of likelihood. His direct observation of Māori was brief, in the lightly populated South Island, far from major northern Māori population centres.

Later visitors had greater direct knowledge of the populous coastal northern parts of New Zealand. They also made population estimates. Some were guesses like Forster’s. Others were based on a rough method. Their estimates range from 130,000 (by early British trader Joel Polack) to over 500,000 Māori (by French explorer Dumont D’Urville), both referring to the 1820s. The wide range further emphasises the lack of information in Forster’s guess.

A map of the east coast on New Zealand’s North Island, drawn by Captain James Cook. from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-ND

Working backwards from the 1858 census

A second method takes the figure from the first New Zealand-wide Māori population census of 1858, of about 60,000 people. It works this number backwards over 89 years to 1769, making assumptions about the rate of annual population decline between 1769 and 1858.

There is a good quantitative estimate for the rate of decline back from 1858 to 1844, taken from a Waikato longitudinal census. But there is nothing solid for the period before 1844.

To overcome the absence of numbers, an apparently better documented and very low average annual rate of decline of the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands of 0.4% between 1791 and 1835 has been applied to New Zealand. However, the estimated rate is calculated from wrong numbers for both the 1791 and 1835 Moriori populations. In fact, there is no contemporary 1791 estimate of the Moriori population from which to calculate a meaningful rate of quantitative decline to 1835.

The qualitative conclusion of low population decline is based on two propositions. The first is that prior to the 1850s, imported European diseases were localised to a few coastal areas. The second is that the impact of warfare on populations over the first half of the 19th century was minimal. What is the evidence for these propositions? The answer is not much in either case.

Historical evidence suggests that there were indeed widespread epidemics in New Zealand prior to the 1850s. For example, there is evidence of a great epidemic around 1808, possibly some form of enteric fever or influenza, which killed many people across the North Island and the top of the South Island. Other high-mortality diseases known to be present in New Zealand pre-1840 and readily transmittable internally include syphilis and tuberculosis.

The estimates of how many Māori died directly and indirectly on account of warfare over the 1769 to 1840 period lack a coherent method. They are weak on definitions of what they count. They cover varying or indeterminate periods. Where they can be made roughly comparable, the numbers arrived at are wildly different, with estimates of deaths ranging from 300 to 2000 people on average annually. In other words, the impact of warfare on population decline could have been quite small or quite large. We simply don’t know.

Overall, Hawaiian archaeologist Patrick Kirch’s conclusion on the validity of this method for estimating other contact-era Pacific populations is also applicable to New Zealand. It is a largely circular exercise in assuming what needs to be proven.

Waka paddles, as described in Joseph Banks’ journal in 1769. From New Zealand drawings made in the countries visited by Captain Cook in his First Voyage. from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-ND

Predicting population from settlement

The third method used to estimate 100,000 Māori predicts the population forward from first arrival in New Zealand. Prediction requires a minimum of three parameters. These are the arrival date of Māori in New Zealand, the size of the founding population and the prehistoric population growth rate to 1769.

The current consensus is that voyagers from Eastern Polynesia arrived in New Zealand between 1230 and 1280 AD and then became known as Māori. However, even a 50-year difference in arrival dates can make large differences to an end population prediction.

Geneticists have estimated the plausible size of the Māori female founding population as between 50 to 230 women. The high population estimate which would result from using these numbers is therefore nearly five times the size of the low estimate. Such a broad range is meaningless.

The third big unknown of the prediction method is the growth rate. Minimalists have employed low rates, based on prehistoric Eurasian populations, where humans had lived for tens of thousands of years. This perspective of low Māori prehistoric growth rates is problematic. Humans did not live in New Zealand prior to Māori. The population density faced by newly arriving people was zero.

Also, New Zealand’s flora and fauna had evolved without people. Once people arrived, they would have found more niches of exploitable nutrients than in regions where plants and animals had long co-evolved with people as apex predators. Such circumstances allowed for a potentially rapid Māori population expansion.

Indeed, historically recorded population growth rates for Pacific islands with small founding populations could be exceptionally high. For example, on tiny, resource-constrained Pitcairn Island, population growth averaged an astounding 3% annually over 66 years between 1790 and 1856.

Arguments for rapid prehistoric population growth run up against other problems. Skeletal evidence seems to show that prehistoric Māori female fertility rates were too low; and mortality, indicated by a low average adult age at death, was too high to generate rapid population growth.

This low-fertility finding has always been puzzling, given high Māori fertility rates in the latter 19th century. Equally, archaeological findings of a low average adult age at death have been difficult to reconcile with numbers of elderly Māori observed in accounts of early explorers.

However, recent literature on using skeletal remains to estimate either female fertility or adult age at death is sceptical that this evidence can determine either variable in a manner approaching acceptable reliability. So high growth paths cannot be ruled out.

Because of resulting uncertainties in the three key parameters and the 500-year-plus forecast horizon, the plausible population range around 100,000 Māori in 1769 is so broad as to make any prediction estimate meaningless. Virtually any contact-era population can be illustrated by someone with a modicum of numerical nous.

Density analogies

In the 2017 New Zealand Journal of History, New Zealand archaeologist Atholl Anderson argues that medieval population density on the large (about 103,000 square kilometres, slightly smaller than the North Island), isolated and sub-arctic island of Iceland is a much better analogy for likely contact-era Māori density than those of smaller tropical Pacific islands.

He uses Icelandic population density from the year 1800, over 900 years into the settlement sequence. If Icelandic population numbers closest to 500 years into the settlement sequence were used, they would provide a more direct temporal analogy for 500 years of Māori settlement in 1769.

Iceland was settled circa 870 AD. The best estimates of the pre-industrial Icelandic population closest to 500 years post-settlement are from 1311. They are based on farm numbers counted for tax purposes. This method gives 72,000 to 95,000 Icelanders. So, in its medieval period, sub-arctic Iceland achieved population densities of 0.70 to 0.92 people per square km. Applying these densities to contact-era temperate New Zealand gives a Māori population of between 190,000 to 250,000 people when Cook arrived.

In terms of a New Zealand-related density analogy, there is good 1835 population data from the temperate Chatham Islands (about 970 square kilometres in area), giving a Moriori population density exceeding two people per square kilometre. It was measured after decades of likely population decline from contact with European sealers and whalers, as well as after at least one serious epidemic. Applying this density figure to the North Island alone, which the Chatham Islands climatically best resembles, gives 230,000 people when Cook arrived.

Using analogies from Iceland and the Chatham Islands suggests that post-Cook European contact may have been more devastating for Māori than conventional wisdom acknowledges. There may have been 200,000 or more Māori in 1769, falling to about 40,000 in the 1890s. Additionally, a figure of 200,000 or more Māori implies that much post-contact population decline occurred prior to mass British immigration.

As elsewhere in the Americas and the Pacific, perhaps European germs, not mass immigration, were the primary driver of indigenous population decline. But 250 years on from Cook, more work and different methods are needed to answer this question.

– ref. 250 years after Captain Cook’s arrival, we still can’t be sure how many Māori lived in Aotearoa at the time – http://theconversation.com/250-years-after-captain-cooks-arrival-we-still-cant-be-sure-how-many-maori-lived-in-aotearoa-at-the-time-107707

Mark Zuckerberg’s admiration for Emperor Augustus is misplaced. Here’s why

By The Conversation -

January 3, 2019

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frederik Juliaan Vervaet, Associate Professor of Ancient History, University of Melbourne

On his 2012 honeymoon to Rome, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took so many photos of the Roman Emperor Augustus’s sculptures that his wife joked it was like there were three people on the honeymoon. The couple even named their second daughter August.

Explaining his fascination for Rome’s first emperor, Zuckerberg recently told The New Yorker:

basically, through a really harsh approach, he established two hundred years of world peace (…) What are the trade-offs in that? On the one hand, world peace is a long-term goal that people talk about today (but) that didn’t come for free, and he had to do certain things.

Augustus (27 BCE to 14 CE) was Rome’s first Emperor, who established an enduring monarchy following some 20 years of civil war in the aftermath of the assassination of his adoptive father, Julius Caesar, on the Ides of March 44 BCE.

Augustus has a long line of high-profile admirers. They see him as a great statesman who brought peace to a Roman Republic long afflicted by civil wars. But what “certain things” did he do and how admirable were they?

A prominent contemporary admirer of Augustus is Dr David Engels, a distinguished Belgian Professor of Roman history. He makes a chilling case for an authoritarian, conservative and imperial European New Order, inspired by Augustus, who effectively converted the Roman Republic to an autocracy.

Dr Engels argues Augustan-style authoritarianism would be the best practicable solution to Europe’s current woes as he sees them – mass immigration, low national fertility rates, the decline of the family and traditional values, materialism, egoism, globalisation, insecurity, and a growing democratic deficit caused by spiralling inequality and technocratic tendencies.

This modern day appeal of Augustus is perhaps being echoed in the increasing attractiveness of strongman politics in countries like the US, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, the Philippines, and Brazil.

Bloody and cynical methods

But the idea of Augustus as one of history’s greatest statesmen warrants a closer look at his statecraft, particularly how he handled truth and the often bloody and cynical methods he used to establish an autocracy that would endure for centuries.

Julius Casar, Augustus’s grand uncle. Shutterstock

Augustus’s own autobiography is a towering example of “alternative truth”. It’s a boastful retrospective, but other evidence suggests this masterly piece of propaganda closely reproduces the artful politics he adopted after his grand uncle, the dictator Julius Caesar, was stabbed to death in the Senate in 44 BCE.

In the first chapter, Augustus boldly claims that, roughly one year after Caesar’s assassination, he raised a private army at the age of 19 “to restore liberty to the Republic when it was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction”.

Hammering home his point, Augustus goes on to assert that:

when I had extinguished the flames of civil war, being in absolute control of affairs by universal consent, I transferred the Republic from my own control to the will of the Senate and the Roman people.

However, the reality, couldn’t have been more different.

Apart from the fact that it was a criminal offence under Roman law to raise private militias for factional subversion of the state, he didn’t come out of the blue as a selfless saviour in that fateful spring of 44 BCE.

Augustus, or Octavius as he was then known, was already poised to be second-in-command in Caesar’s New Order. Styling himself as the Young Caesar, he made a brazen bid to reclaim rank and stature by ruthlessly rekindling the flames of civil war. This shattered the compromise peace made between Mark Antony, Caesar’s foremost lieutenant, and Caesar’s leading assassins, Brutus and Cassius.

His claims he took control by universal consent and subsequently restored the traditional republican polity after his military victory over Antony and Cleopatra 30 BCE are equally mendacious.

Repressing opposition

Augustus repeatedly conducted murderous as well as bloodless purges of the aristocracy from November 43 through to 29 BCE, repressing all political opposition. Late in 43, he and his then allies Mark Antony and Lepidus ruthlessly proscribed over 300 senators and 2,000 equestrians (the lower aristocracy and business elite). Many were hunted down and butchered in plain view, including the great orator and republican Marcus Cicero.

In 28 BCE, after his final civil war victories and shortly before his much vaunted “restoration” of the Republic, he removed another 40% of the Senate, reducing their numbers to 600.

In 27 BCE, when he finally laid down his official emergency powers – powers he had alleged were needed to confront real or imaginary crises he and his henchmen had engineered – a compliant Senate promptly reinvested him with a vast, 10-year military command. This command was the cornerstone of his autocracy, and was suitably renewed every 10 years, invariably justified on the grounds of ongoing military exigencies in the provinces.

One major consequence of this charade was unprecedented imperialist expansion and warfare. At enormous human and material cost, Augustus would more than double the size of the Empire and add more territory to Rome’s provincial dominion than any Roman before or after him – so much for his much-vaunted peace, the Pax Augusta.

At the same time as he consolidated his power, Augustus was careful to ensure that Rome’s ancestral republican institutions and political bodies were scrupulously upheld. This created a powerful, if hollow, semblance of normality and traditionalism. He studiously avoiding the odious title of dictator, no doubt mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar.

By his ruthless and cynical actions, Augustus arguably wrote the script for some of the most notorious tyrants of the 20th century – Stalin and Hitler.

The Soviet Constitution of 1936, duly adopted by popular vote and put into effect by Stalin, demonstrably enshrined a number of democratic and liberal rights. For example, Article 125 declared:

In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the USSR are guaranteed by law: freedom of speech; freedom of the press; freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings; freedom of street processions and demonstrations.

But in true Augustan style, Stalin’s Constitution was marked by a staggering divide between theory and practice.

Did Stalin draw on Augustus’s example in drafting the Soviet Constitution of 1936? Wikimedia commons

Similarly, Hitler’s power grab in Germany in 1933 was right out of the Augustan playbook. Blaming an arson attack on the German Reichstag (parliament) on the Communist opposition, Hitler was able to pressure an ailing President Hindenburg to decree him emergency powers. This nullified many civil liberties and transferred key state powers to his Nazi-led government.

Hitler then ruthlessly exploited these powers to repress and imprison anyone deemed inimical to the Nazi regime. A month later, with his opponents purged, he passed a law allowing him to directly enact laws, bypassing the Reichstag.

By virtue of these laws, Hitler secured a legal dictatorship in the best Augustan tradition, allowing him to rule by decree while the democratic Weimar Constitution technically remained in force until the Allied Occupation.

Given the actual history of Rome’s first emperor and his subsequent imitators, anyone looking to Augustus and his methods as a source of inspiration and a role model for crisis management should be very careful what they wish for.

– ref. Mark Zuckerberg’s admiration for Emperor Augustus is misplaced. Here’s why – http://theconversation.com/mark-zuckerbergs-admiration-for-emperor-augustus-is-misplaced-heres-why-108172