Mission Ultra Complex: The War in Afghanistan

Australia's involvement in Afghanistan is crystalised in Chris Master's carefully constructed two part documentary 'A Careful War' for the 4 Corners program of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Speaking at the Lowy Institute for International Policy on 30 July 2010, Masters commented that no single media account of this conflict is accurate - the reality of the situation in Afghanistan is rather that there are hundreds of many individual different conflicts being fought throughout cities, towns and villages of that country. Masters also highlighted a weakness of understanding by the Australian public of the 'battle space' being occupied by Australian soldiers serving in that theatre of operations. More than any previous military commitment, Australian soldiers are required to be part fighter, diplomat, anthropologist and social worker - a complex set of skills to utilise simultaneously while still within a combat environment. The ability to continue such an intense and difficult military commitment for several more years and outlast the Taliban will test the resolve of the western powers as well as the Afghan National Army to fill the void once troop withdrawals occur.

Geoengineering to avoid climate change - science fiction or fantasy?

With ongoing debate on the ramifications of climate change on the planet or, in some quarters, continuing doubt as to the validity of the science itself, one aspect which has escaped wider consideration are some of the proposed solutions. While many focus on alternative energy production methods or ways to avoid carbon emissions, a few actually propose further intervention in the earth's climate. One of these is geoengineering or in simple terms using engineering solutions to affect climate change. In science fiction, this is often referred to as terra forming but whether it is science or science fiction, such a direction is fraught with high level risk particularly considering the basis for such proposals are untested and often commercial or 'market-based' approaches seeking a quick fix. The most unusual is injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere to counteract carbon emissions. How sensible is such a proposal? Would this approach only add one more problem to the already existing ones?

Where film becomes too grim....

The art house or alternative film industry has often presented confronting and provocative images of contemporary society and/or political or moral dilemmas. The 2010 Sydney Film Festival which showcases a selection of such films appears increasingly stark as the mid point of the festival is crossed. Winter's Bone is set in the hillbilly badlands of Missouri and provides a grim perspective on a family in an inwards-looking struggling rural community. The Killer Inside Me appearing more like a poor man's version of American Psycho, follows the story of a sociopath murdering deputy sheriff and his brutal way of dealing with women as pawns in a larger plot (although in many ways its not clear what that may be). Women Without Men a more sublime, allegorical Iranian film deals with repression particularly within contemporary Iran especially as it affects women. So many of these films take a dark look at life that at times it seems the genre itself has difficulty in uplifting itself from a sense of depression.

On the screen.... big pictures but few new stories...

The 57th Sydney Film Festival is at its mid point this week and once again offers a mix of films from across the globe drawing also from the other major film festivals of Sundance, Venice, Cannes, Berlin etc. The festival in recent years has been significantly trimmed in duration and numbers of films screened. Perhaps one early observation that can be made is the lack of original screenplays and an almost endless easy-to-see collection of cliches. A few stand-outs are Kawasaki's Rose, a Czech film dealing with the controversial issue of collaborators and totalitarian regimes and Ajami which features inter-related stories in the occupied territories in Palestine. Sadly Australian films such as The Tree and Red Hill lack original imagery and thought, preferring to rely on cliche driven plot lines (although not lacking enthusiasm).

Biennale Bust

The arts calendar has once more swung around with the 17th Biennale of Sydney running from 12 May to the 1st of August 2010. Like many contemporary art festivals increasingly it's the main platform for new media using film, photographic images, computer graphics and modern sculpture to constitute the bulk of mainly large installation works. For the 17th Biennale, 'spectacle' is often a better description than 'art' for the what the general public discover at the various sites. Spread across Cockatoo Island, MCA, the Art Gallery of NSW, Pier 2/3 and Artspace the Biennale offers a variety of spaces as well as works to view. Some visually impacting works by Russian consortium AES+F, Cai Guo-Qiang, Dale Frank, Shen Shaomin contrast with some truly odd films by Amal Kenawy and Katarzyna Kozyra to name a few.
 What can one say about it all ? Its free so that's a blessing in itself.

The Easter Bunny hops again in 2010

Easter once again has come around for those with pious religious conviction who celebarate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, is a foundation of the Christian faith. For most others, Easter represents chocolate Easter eggs and a multitude of chocolate bunnies.

And where did Eggs come from? Apparently as a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in celebrations of spring, the eggs were adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus. According to academic literature, the oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs (which is still the case with many Orthodox Christian Churches), but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. For children, these eggs are often hidden, allegedly by the Easter Bunny, to be found on Easter morning (which is Easter Sunday).

The Easter Bunny is actually not originally an Easter symbol but has origins in Alsace and the Upper Rhineland, both then in the Holy Roman Empire, and southwestern Germany, where the practice was first recorded in a German publication in the early 1600s. The first edible Easter Eggs were made in Germany during the early 1800s and were made of pastry and sugar. So there is nothing particularly religious about the Easter bunny which in most respects has taken on a wholly commercial identity in the modern world.

Carbon Emissions - one problem among many

The debate on climate change often focuses on the level of Carbon Emissions (CO2) and global warming but the overall complexity of the earth's environment means there are several other possible serious factors to consider. Some of  these are listed below - 

Acid Oceans: the amount of carbonic acid in the oceans and the loss of aragonite,

Ozone Depletion: this was the environmental issue of the 1970s and remains a current concern as trapping warmer air closer to the surface of the planet means a colder stratosphere and hence ozone comes under threat again from those chemicals still is use which deplete it.

Fresh Water: Water is becoming so scarce in many parts of the planet, despite unseasonal periodic flooding that underground aquifers are being pumped out and cannot be replenished,

Biodiversity: continued mass extinction of species has considerable impact on ecosystems and on human habitation - the current rate of change has far exceeded levels of adapatability,

Nitrogen and Phospherus cycles: agriculture and fertilisers, burning fossil fuels/timber/crops and human sewage have contributed nitrogen in such quantities that dead zones and algae blooms are now more frequent in the oceans,

Aerosol Loading: dust, sulphates and other particles created by human activity continue to affect air quality and hence have a negative impact on agricultural crops and human health,

Chemical pollution: There are almost 100,000 different human made chemicals now in use on the planet among these are toxic heavy metals (such as lead) and persistent organic pollutants (such as DDT, PCBs and dioxins).  These have strong detrimental effects on humans.

Many of these factors are causally linked to each other and only a comprehensive strategy on climate change togther with a wider linkage to other aspects of pollution has any hope of succeeding.

Up in the Air - George Clooney hits home again

George Clooney's latest film directed/written by Jason Reitman (and based on the novel by Walter Kirn) is another clever subtle and ultimately ironically funny observation on the usually sad spectre of corporate restructures. Clooney's character is corporate downsizing expert Ryan Bingham, whose specialty is to help ease the transition of long-term employees to unemployment. Clooney's character takes his job very seriously and loves the 290 days spent travelling away from home. His only problem is the 70 days at home in his rented empty apartment. His professional world is up-ended when a young Ivy League graduate comes to  the company and threatens to ground the downsizing consultants by the innovative and cost cutting idea of firing people via the internet.

Ryan Bingham is not standing for a change in life, nor the chance of missing the goal of reaching total airline miles to gain lifetime status recognition ("Let's just say I have a number and I haven't hit it yet"). His mission becomes one of proving how personal his job really is and how important a face to face meeting can be to talk down an emotionally unstable person facing unemployment.

In this travelling story both Ryan and the recent college graduate, Natalie, played by Anna Kendrick, both reach realisation as to what has been lacking in their lives, how to become better people and open themselves to love, heartbreak, and the need to mature. The film touches on the many elements of modern corporate life and relationships in this electronic interconnected world.

Earth Hour 2010

Its time once more to give a commitment to dealing, in a personal sense, with carbon emissions and energy usage.

Turning Wall Street ?

US President Barack Obama has unveiled a sweeping series of measures aimed at checking the behaviour of banks and creating pressures against high risk financial transactions and deals. The proposals which are touted as the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s, include limitations on the size of institutions and barring the most cavalier trading practices.

According to media reports, Obama stated “We should no longer allow banks to stray too far from their central mission of serving their customers,” “My resolve to reform the system is only strengthened when I see record profits at some of the very firms claiming that they cannot lend more to small business, cannot keep credit card rates low and cannot refund taxpayers for the bailout. If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I’m ready to have. Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail.”

Obama stated that Wall Street banks must: halt “proprietary trading”, where banks risk huge sums predicting the outcome of future moves in the price of commodities such as oil; operate more cautiously and have more available funds; not become too large by limiting the amount of ordinary banking business they can undertake.

Wall Street has certainly demonstrated the degree of risk for the global community when an unfettered market is allowed to trade with unfettered greed, however Obama faces considerable barriers to effecting change needed in the World's largest capital markets. Risky deals and large executive remuneration has been the practice for many years and turning around such a culture, which also influences the rest of the international finance community, is a mammoth almost impossible task.