Film Review - Eye in the Sky

Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell in Eye in the Sky

Director Gavin Hood has chosen a very topical subject for his film Eye in the Sky - the use of remote controlled military drones for seeking and, if necessary, destroying strategic human targets. The film has multiple settings for the action - England, Kenya and the United States however it was shot entirely in South Africa. The screenplay by Guy Hibbert focuses on the choices and decision-making of senior military and political leaders when ordering a drone strike against dangerous Al-Shabaab  extremists operating in Kenya. In terms of the plotline for the film, Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is coordinating a mission with the Kenyan Army to capture Al-Shabaab militants including British converts. During the course of surveillance, its becomes apparent the militants are preparing for a imminent mission of their own with suicide bombers being fitted with explosive laden vests. Powell makes a decision to change the mission from capture to kill and orders the drone pilot to prepare a missile strike against the targets. A mission oversight committee in London headed by Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman), while monitoring the situation is unable to come to a clear decision to authorise due to conflicting opinions from assembled politicians. Searching for a legal position to provide the basis for authorisation and with differing opinions about the risk of collateral civilian casualties, the oversight committee dithers as the militants steadily complete their preparations.  

This is a well paced and executed film with a strong cast and high production values. There are small elements of contrived situations and moments of excessive sentimentality but nevertheless the film does effectively portray the challenge of balancing impact versus cost.

The late Alan Rickman as General Benson in Eye in the Sky

Film Review - RAMS - Icelandic drama

Brothers Gummi and Kiddi herd their prize sheep into the mountains

Written and directed by Grímur Hákonarson, RAMS is the story of the relationship between two brothers in the harsh rural hinterland of Northern Iceland. Gummi (actor, Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and his older brother, Kiddi (actor, Theódór Júlíusson) both aged in their 60s live on adjoining farming properties but have not spoken to each other for over 40 years. Instead they communicate by written message delivered by their dog. Their livelihood and passion are their sheep and the annual Ram competition in the small Icelandic community which is their home. When the contagious sheep disease, scrapie, is discovered  in the valley and in Kiddi's prize ram, a crisis envelopes all the farming community as they face the destruction of their herds. Gummi and Kiddi's isolationist stance toward each other is finally broken as they make one last desperate gamble to save their prize breeding stock.

This is a film structured and fashioned within the Icelandic genre of deadpan, almost absurdist black humour and long brooding expressions of Icelandic stoicism. Sweeping landscapes and atmospheric effects abound in this film and as one reviewer commented, " if there's an end to this Earth, this must surely be the place".

American Politics - How Australians view a Donald J Trump US presidency

Donald J Trump

Polling research released by the Lowy Institute this month showing a bare majority of 51% of Australians support remaining close to the United States if Donald Trump is elected president should not be a surprise. In most respects Australian support for the United States has usually been affected by perceptions of the person holding the role of US President. In 2007 when George W Bush was US President, an extraordinary 69% of Australian adults indicated that he caused them to feel unfavourably towards the United States. Previous polls by the Lowy Institute have shown that, in general terms, Australians express strong support for the Australia - US Alliance in the range of 78% (2011) and 80% (2015) due to a regard for shared values and ideals. This support can and is substantially eroded by the actions of a US president in office. It is more unusual to have this effect occurring during the US primaries before an election has even been held.. The political rise of Donald Trump and the unease with which his public persona is viewed is reflected worldwide.

As of the end of April, Trump remains the front-runner for the Republican nomination with 996 delegates to the target number of 1,237 for the nomination.  He needs 241 delegates with only 571 votes still available hence he must win at least 42% of the remaining delegate vote. It is certainly a viable target to win.

Australian household and consumer spending trends 1900-2015

Figure 1: Australian Institute of Company Directors 2016

With constant public discourse on possible changes to taxation, the increasing cost of living and stagnant wage and salary conditions, research released by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) provides a useful balanced  insight into actual longitudinal spending patterns over the past 115 years. Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), various comparative conclusions demonstrate that although incomes have been static over the past few years, in relative terms, Australians are living more comfortably than previous decades.

On the income side, allowing for a disputed measure of "imputed dwelling ownership" value of $14,500 (non cash ownership value which the ABS claims home owners receive) net average income for a household is $135,000 per annum (or 71,726 British Pounds Sterling at current exchange rates). Taxes at the turn of last century were 2 per cent of incomes compared to 14 per cent today plus the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other embedded indirect taxes. Other observations of note are:

• the proportion of income expended on durable goods (cars, furniture, appliances) and non-durable (food, alcohol, clothing, fuel, pharmaceuticals, books etc) has fallen from 62 per cent to 21 per cent. Households now spend more on entertainment than food and twice as much on hospitality than clothes.
• the outsourcing of household functions and chores (such as meal preparation, travel, holidays, financial advice, health services, house cleaning, gardening) has grown to a staggering $42,700 per household or $818 per week. These were previously do-it-yourself functions or 'chores' in the earlier industrial era.
• Online shopping despite media comment does not yet account for 10 per cent of retail spending in Australia however it is projected to reach almost a third by mid century.

With all this extra outsourced support, one would imagine there would be many more hours in the day for leisure yet the phrase 'time poor' has become a familiar refrain in the digital age. 

Easter - the tradition of Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Bun - ready for eating

Easter - this religious Christian event in the calendar has become synonymous with Hot Cross buns, Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny (although in Australia this has been partially displaced by the Easter Bilby). So what is the significance of Hot Cross buns ? Traditionally these are consumed on the Good Friday of the Easter period to mark the end of Lent and may be consumed from the period of Shrove Tuesday through to midday, Good Friday. The buns are sweet buns but can be made without dairy products for those persons who have a more strict traditional interpretation. The cross on the bun is intended to depict the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the spice in a bun is intended as a representation of the embalming of Jesus at entombment. But Easter itself originated from ancient polytheistic religions or pagan and the name comes from the goddess Eostre. The use of crosses on various small cakes has a multiplicity of sources from Anglo Saxon to Roman and has since been appropriated by the Christian religion. Like Christmas, Easter is a blend of various religious practices over different periods of time representing a fusion of old and younger beliefs.

Earth Hour - March 19, 2016: 8.30pm - 9.30pm

Earth Hour 2016

Climate change and mosquito borne pathogens and parasites

Over recent months, much of the media commentary has been focussed on the Zika virus (transmitted by mosquito bites) and its potential to affect the Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro between 5th and 21st August 2016.  The increasing risk of serious vector-borne disease is much greater that most periodic media reports would suggest and more so with the increasing impact of climate change. The main risks, which to a limited extent, are already realised involve pathogens and parasites such as Malaria and Dengue fever (from Mosquitoes), Sandfly fever and Leishmaniasis (from Sand Flies) and Lyme Disease and Encephalitis (from Ticks) all of which have the potential to have an expanded geographic range due to warmer weather. The increased temperatures enable the transmitting insects to travel further afield than is currently the case moving into areas that previously were free of disease. Dengue fever, for example, is found in a band between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn and not fully across the entire region. Warmer weather will enable this range to expand in both North and South latitudes. Dengue cases have already been increasing from 0.5m in 1990 to almost 2.7M by 2013. The projected increase in future years is 12-18% by 2030 and vaccines are only in the very early stages of developmnent. Malaria has now been detected in higher altitude regions of Papua New Guina where there was no previous exposure. Public health authorities have only just started to grasp the scale of this on-the-horizon issue and the threat to health may yet prove to have a significant impact on outdoor living activities.

Film Review - Brooklyn

Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) in Brooklyn

Brooklyn attracted three Academy Award nominations this year for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although ultimately unsuccessful in the Awards, it's easy to see why this film attracted the attention of the film industry and the viewing public with its themes of identity, discovery, loss and relationships at many levels. A period drama set in the early 1950s the film traverses between Ireland and North America following the journey of a young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey as she seeks a new future in Brooklyn, New York, far from her home in the little town of Enniscorthy in southeast Ireland.

Eilis' older sister, Rose Lacey (Fiona Glascott) wants a better future for her younger sister and arranges for Eilis to migrate to the United States following a well worn sea journey travelled by many Irish to America. Arrangements for employment and a place to stay at a Boarding house in Brooklyn have already been made courtesy of the local Catholic priest in Brooklyn (Father Flood) so Eilis finds herself in a new life albeit suffering terribly from homesickness. A budding relationship with local boy and plumber, Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen) and part-time college studies cements her acceptance of the new place and culture. However the old life in Ireland is not far away and the sudden death of Rose forces her to return to Ireland to comfort her grieving mother.

This is a competent, well-paced and executed film demonstrating that the art of storytelling does not require reliance on high-end CGI effects and extraordinary $100m+ budgets in order to delivery a quality piece of entertainment.  Shot on location in both Enniscorthy, Ireland and New York City with additional locations in Dublin and Montreal in Canada, the film effectively conveys the context and atmosphere of the era, the two different societies which Eilis must negotiate and the juxtaposition of the old world with a new one.  The screenplay was written by Nick Hornby, directed by John Crowley and the supporting cast includes veterans such as Julie Walters (as Madge Kehoe, the Boarding House landlady) and Jim Broadbent (as the Catholic priest, Father Flood).

Film Review - Star Wars Episode VII - the J J Abrams version

The new villians - Kylo Ren and Storm Troopers from the First Order

As Star Wars VII The Force Awakens finishes its cinema run, Star Wars VIII is already in production continuing a substantial film franchise established by George Lucas in 1977 when Star Wars Episode IV was released. Since Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012 for $4.06B there is a new Star Wars owner bringing some changes to the overall method of storytelling most notably with the appointment of Director J J Abrams to continue the series.

The story picks up thirty years into the future and introduces a new generation of characters and reintroduces old favourites. New characters are Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscvar Isaacc). Old favourites such as Hans Solo (Harrison Ford), Princess [now General] Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), the androids R2D2 and C3PO and the wookie, Chewbacca also return.  The Empire is gone along with Darth Vader, the Emperor and the Death Star however the remnants have regrouped as the 'First Order' aligned with the Dark Side of the Force. A fledgling Republic is re-established which supports the ongoing Rebellion Forces (its not clear why the forces are still termed as 'rebels' at all) and continues to be threatened by the ambition of the First Order.

As the First Order gains strength and threatens to topple the re-established Republic, the new quest is to search and find the remaining Jedi Knight and Rebel leader Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who has gone into seclusion many years previously.  

As with many Abrams efforts there is a strong reliance on instantaneous gratification and unyielding, almost continuous action. Subtlety and development of plot are missing and key elements of back story to give context are not mentioned. Whereas in the original first three films, Luke Skywalker needed tuition and training from Jedi masters such as Yoda to handle a light sabre and  develop a connection to the mystical 'Force', the new heroine Rey, just picks up a light sabre and starts combat with no training at all.  Many characters are very stereotypical and more so than the original Lucas versions - there is the remorseful Stormtrooper, Finn, who deserts his Division and reluctantly joins the Rebel forces; the young female heroine, Rey, a scavenger outcast who has some latent powers of the Force and can immediately use Luke Skywalker's own light sabre; and the X-Wing fighter pilot, Poe who is reminiscent of a younger Hans Solo of sorts (Hans Solo was an contrary-hero figure in the first film).

This is a film well pitched at a Gen Y audience, easily digestible, predictable and with few surprises. Familiar motifs, images and settings abound grounding this film strongly with the previous six films. Of interest, the forward planning is to proceed to Star Wars IX for release in 2019.

Shareholder activism - who is running the agenda ?

Traditionally when reading and hearing about shareholder activism, images of small shareholder groups, retirees and mum and dad investors petitioning company executives at Annual General Meetings has been the most likely image. The 'activism' landscape has now substantially changed however and shareholder activism now encompasses a much wider definition of participants.

Overseas giant mutual and exchange traded funds have been backing activist hedge funds exerting pressure on publicly listed companies by aggressively calling for change - the ultimate goal to force greater effort to unlock shareholder value and to shake up complacent boards. Current estimates of the amount of funds invested in activist funds in the United States are over $300 billion and the old model of passive asset managers has started to disappear. This is a trend which has not really materialised in Australia with the opposite being more likely than not - characterised by the top ten shareholder groups (usually financial institutions, trustee corporations or investment funds) in ASX listed companies being extremely reluctant to take a position unless absolutely forced.  The question which now is being asked in financial circles is whether this is an ongoing structural trend or merely a cyclical response to a low-growth, low return financial environment. If a structural trend is underway this reveals a major shift in influence as shareholders are clearly demanding a greater active say in corporate strategy than previous decades. Confidence in many boards of listed companies has taken a major fall in recent years due to perceptions that change is not being implemented fast enough. Will Australia join this trend ? Given current shareholder activity, there is a high chance a similar picture, albeit on a smaller scale, will evolve here.