A kind of cyber-winter

There is a season for everything, or so says a wise man.

I've entered a season, which I'll awkwardly term a cyber-winter, during which I will no longer be posting blogs at this site. (You, perceptive reader, have probably noted that I've not been doing much of late anyway...)

The reason for my hibernation? In this season, my Lord, his people, my wife and my daughter have a greater call on my time.

Thanks to those who have sauntered with me over the last few years.

PS The picture above conveys how I feel about this cyber-winter.

Update on Aussie Publishing

If, like me, you've been wondering what happened to the Productivity Commission's report on the parallel importation of books, the Australian Society of Authors' press release below might help. Sounds as though politics, national conferences and political working groups might be working for the *good* guys. Somebody slap me.

31 July 2009

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) welcomes yesterday’s resolution of the ALP National Conference “that the Government should give priority to encouraging Australians to keep on buying Australian books and to maximising the economic, cultural and creative viability of Australian literature and Australian book industries”.

The ASA rejects completely the illogical and unfounded research promoted by the Productivity Commission in its recent report on the parallel importation of books, and looks forward to the determinations of the Working Group that the National Conference has set up to consider the report and recommend actions to relevant Ministers.

I think I'm getting hot under the collar ...

The Productivity Commission has just released a report to the Federal Government on how books are sold in Australia. I'm new to this discussion and a touch green; but, based on what I've read, if the report's recommendations are followed, it will be bad for Australian authors and damaging for the Australian publishing industry.

From what I can gather, if the market's 'supports' are removed, as per the report's advice, at least 4 negative consequences are likely:

(1) Australian authors will lose their territorial copyright protection, which in many cases will mean they have to accept the lower royalties of overseas' publishers (7.5% on a paperback in the US vs. 10 to 12% in Aus.), and, in some cases, if remainders of their books from overseas markets -- i.e. books that haven't sold and are deemed to be passed their used-by date -- are sold in Australia, the authors could get zero royalties.

(2) The big guys -- "Dymocks in cahoots with Coles and Woolworths," to quote Richard Flanagan in his address to this year's Sydney Writers' Festival -- will increase their market share, squeezing out many small, independent book retailers.

(3) Overseas' editions of Australian books change words -- up to 500 words -- meaning Australian readers could be reading about sidewalks (footpaths), trash cans (rubbish bins) and bathrooms (toilets) in books written by Australian authors!

(4) Rather than being fostered by a slightly protective market, talented Australian writers, both established and up-and-coming, will, at best, be supported by public money, i.e. government grants doled out by beauraucrats.

Here's an excerpt from The Australian Society of Authors' press release:

The Australian Society of Authors rejects the findings of the Productivity Commission on the Parallel Importation Restrictions of Books into Australia. “If these changes are implemented by government, Australia will become an international laughing stock,” says Dr Jeremy Fisher, ASA Executive Director. “Removing the territorial copyright of books will simply destroy our hard-won literary culture. There will be no benefit to anyone – authors, booksellers, publishers, printers and readers will all suffer.

The following, by Michael Heyward, managing director of Text Publishing, are worth reading: On a thriving literary culture, and Changing book import rules.

Author Richard Flanagan also made an impassioned speech on this topic at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival -- it is a magnificent if not at times overblown piece of rhetoric. I'd be happy to email to it to anyone wanting a copy.

Current affairs and determination: through the eyes of five-year-olds

Before starting our Monday afternoon PE lesson, another teacher and myself have a short talk with the kindy kids about current affairs, to settle them a little before they (and we) start madly running around.

Here's our discussion from a couple of weeks ago:

"Did anyone watch the news over the weekend? What were some of the big events that happened?"

Kids: Michael Jackson died.

"That's right. Who was Michael Jackson?"

Kid 1: He was the King of the Pop!

Kid 2: Yeah. He was the first zillionaire!

Kid 3: Yeah, I saw that on the news a few weeks ago.

Mr Walker: "Are you sure you saw it a few weeks ago, C. He only died on the weekend."

C was adamant: he'd seen it on the news a few weeks ago.

Teacher: " And where did Michael Jackson live?"

Kid 4: He lived on Anzac St [in Leederville, Western Australia].

Kid 5: Yeah. My brother's birthday is on Anzac Day.

Teacher: "I think we'll end our little talk there, and go out to sport now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When talking with four- and five-year-olds you've got to tailor your delivery: short words, concrete objects, and loads of passion. Oh, and be prepared for random interjections.

With these things in mind, I gave the kids the following pep-talk on goal setting and determination.

Last year I had a goal. A goal is something you want to do in the future. Something you work hard to get.

My goal was to run the City to Surf Fun Run. Who's heard of the City to Surf? Near-unanimous show of hands.

To help me, I got a piece of paper and drew some boxes on it. I put one box for every week in the year. Does anyone know how many weeks are in a year?

Kid 1: Seven?

Kid 2: Twenty?

No, there are fifty-two weeks in the year. So I drew fifty-two boxes on the sheet of paper. And every week, after I'd been for a run, I stuck a gold star in the box. I had lots of gold stars.

Then, something happened: the week before the City to Surf, Mrs Walker had a baby.

Because we had a new baby, it wouldn't have been fair for me to go and run the City to Surf. So, I missed out.

BUT, this year, I thought: I'll do the same thing. So I set another goal to run the City to Surf.

Yesterday, boys and girls, I went for a run. I ran up some hills so I could get extra fit. But yesterday was stormy and windy, wasn't it? [Nodding of heads.] I got to the bottom of one hill, and guess which way the wind was blowing?

That's right, it was blowing against me. So, as I was running up the hill, I felt like a piece of paper, that could be blown away by the wind. But I stuck at it. I kept running up the hill. Why do you think I did this? Because you wanted to make it to the top.

That's right. Because to be good at sport, you have to be determined. You have to do what you say you'll do. You have to train hard, even if it hurts.

[This was the crescendo; I was bristling: I'd just boasted to and, I hoped, given a glimmer of inspiration to these kids.]

What do you think about that, boys and girls? Would anyone like to ask any questions?

Kid 3: Who's Mrs Walker ... is she your mum?

Quotes I've appreciated

"In the new economy* there were [are?] three kinds of people: the haves, the have-nots and the-have-not-paid-for-what-they-haves" (Sarajit Das, Comment in "The Nation Reviewed" in The Monthly, April 2009, p. 10).

* i.e. the one in which consumption financed by borrowing is rife

I like the following pithy response to the question: what is Christian faith?

... Christian 'faith' is not mere acknowledgement of 'facts'. Faith is not even apprehension of a person. It is, however, the spiritual appropriation of relationship with that person. Therefore, to appropriate relationship with the person of Christ (which, because he is a person, must be done on his terms) requires spiritual re-creation.
(Matthew Brain, unpublished PhD, ch. 4: "Newbigin, Paul and Generation Y in Dialogue -- Part One: The Plausibility Structure", p. 31 )

As I said, I like this: appropriating a relationship with someone, which, because they are a person, to be reasonable, must be done on their terms. My "to be reasonable" flows from what I think is a key epistemological principle, which I got courtesy of T. F. Torrence, via Marty Foord, and in Torrence's book Theological Science. The principle is that in order to truly / reasonably know a thing, we must let it reveal it to us on its on terms.

As far as I can tell, this principle holds widely: it applies to rocks, to people, to animals, to sub-atomic phenomena, to the environment, to wine, to art ... the list goes on.

For example, if I really want to know my wife, I must let her be the person she is, including all the history, emotions and different ways of seeing, doing and responding to things -- i.e. different to me! -- that she brings. That is, I must not presume to know her; I must not project some cardboard cut-out of her and relate to this, rather than to the real person -- no matter how much the real person cuts across my view of how the world, or to be more specific, my view of how a woman or a wife, should be. (Ed.: I guess this is one of the not-so-small-challenges of marriage!)

Anyhow, there endeth my musings on what it means to know an object. On a lighter note, I have some cracker stories from my time with the five- and six-year-olds today. Hope to post them soon.

Cleanliness

When you wash," five-year-old M tells me, "it's important to wash behind your ears. Becuase if you don't, mushrooms grow there."

Our changing climate

People who have followed this blog for a while will know that I am uncertain about climate change: about its extent, about the 'science' by which conclusions are being drawn, about the way public (non-)debate is taking place and about what we should or shouldn't do in response to our changing climate.

Being uncertain is okay. But, of course, it's not a strong position for those in public life to hold. This article by Senator Stephen Fielding, about his recent fact-finding trip to the US, is worth a look. He writes pretty well for an engineer ;-).