All for one and one for all

I went for a little stroll this morning. Past the newly planted vegetable garden where the beans have just poked their heads above the soil, through the citrus orchard heavily laden with oranges, lemons, grapefruits, kumquats, guava and mandarins. The guinea fowl crept along behind me, huddled like conspiring criminals - plotting my downfall. While Willy the Border Collie nuzzled my hand wanting a pat and some reward for outstanding obedience, Rupert fell over while trying to bite his testicles, no doubt also plotting some fiendish scheme to infiltrate the house and steal some tasty morsels.

As I wandered down into one of the dry-bottomed cracked-mud dams the loudest noise was the buzzing of beetles and the odd crack as a dry branch finally succumbed to the will of gravity. I stood still and listened and looked, as I like to do when I'm home. In this drought ravaged little corner of small slice of the Gold Coast hinterland there was such an abundance of life. Insects, who knows how many hundred varieties scuttled and buzzed in any place one cared to look close enough. The cry of a multitude of birds suddenly came on the station that my ears were tuned into and Rupert tore off after a Kangaroo, Willy trailing behind. One old heifer was standing on a ridge in front another 15 or so heifers, giving what appeared to be an information session on food rationing during the drought, others ignored the attempt at group survival and continued munching at the greenest grass, "We'll be 'right, we are rich, we can just buy more food" they mooed smugly at the increasingly exasperated civil-minded heifers, concerned that the price rise for food would starve the poorer cattle out of the market.

At first I wasn't sure whether to be more concerned about the fact that this situation with the small-brained starving heifers (while others ate like pigs) closely mirrored the way the human species behaves or the fact that I was hearing cows speak to one another. Then I decided the former was of a more frightening nature than the latter.

Ragnar Frisch (1931) said "the world is like a ship loaded with the goods of life, but the crew starves because they don't know how to distribute the food". And this is what countless of humanitarians have been saying before and after Frisch, and today. The rich have too much. I am still appalled at the way people waste their money, clothes, haircuts, handbags, matching napkins and table cloths. NOBODY deserves that much and NOBODY deserves to be forced into civil war at the age of 12, murder or be murdered by countrymen and die young of malaria, TB or AIDS.

The foolish, greedy and uninformed immediately blame the 'corrupt' governments of these violence and disease ridden countries. The 'Asian Tigers' of East Asia and their rapid economic growth was achieved under corruption greater than any African Nation. The finger pointers ignore the international order and institutions that ensure the 'national interest' of the most powerful countries is considered before the development and empowerment of the weakest and poorest. It is a mature, humble and wise human being that accepts the worlds problems as the fault of themselves, their families, their friends, their heritage and their society. It is an insecure and cowardly person who hides behind the status quo, blames the weak for being weak and accumulates wealth to bury their fears beneath.

The human consciousness is ever evolving and maturing, we will get there. I would just like to see it in my lifetime.

Hmmm, and I was going to write about planting a veggie patch on a mild and sunny Sunday afternoon.

Life is a funny thing

As I finally get a handle on how I'm going to squeeze the solution to the world's problems into 2500 words I have the urge to blog. Maybe my writing fingers are feeling warmed up and want to run free for a moment before returning to the regimented academic world of referencing. I see some journalists (in the true sense of the word - those who write for Journals) are able to include anger, wit, passion and philosophical reflection into their academic writings - which gives me hope that the world of academia is not a soulless information hungry battle between opposing ideologies.

Christian (my elder brother) has just departed for a new career and new-ish life down in Canberra. I wasn't sure what advice to give, I spent all my time at work, in the gym or in the pub - much like London. And therefore wasn't able to offer much other than to suggest a few of the coping mechanisms I used - sport mainly. But I'm certain that added to the fact he will enjoy his job, he will have more internal resources than I did at age 22 when I started my life as a public servant. And as such should derive more pleasure from the environment that Canberra has to offer.

Committing to something changes ones perspective on so many things. The most pertinent 'thing' being you realise what you have just before you lose it. Committing to a travel plan, a career path, a partner, anything. I remember how I felt when I got on that early morning bus from Prague to Istanbul after saying goodbye to Heather for what we expected would be 3 months until we met again in India. As night fell on that first night I still had my teeth clenched and tears dripping down my cheeks as I swore at myself for being such a fool to chase fanciful dreams across Persia at the expense of being away from Heather. It was really only two weeks later when I about to buy my train to ticket to Tehran that I was once again fully committed to what I wanted to do - which was when it was suddenly snatched away by consular officials. 'Tehran says no'.

A similar feeling is in my bones now, as I am taken on as a volunteer on the current Global Burden of Disease study, and my Head of School sets up an internship for me with the WHO in Geneva, I can feel myself being sucked (or am I walking into it - semi-consciously which makes me feel like I am being pulled) into a career, and a life that I don't know enough about to make a judgement about whether I want it or not. An edge panic, performance anxiety, homesickness, boredom, insomnia, - pressure - rattles in my bones. Why didn't I just become a carpenter? Simple pleasure of building something. But my brain needs work, but not too much, but how much, but, but, but.....

Know where the exits are and keep them clear has always been an automatic mindset for me, although to this date I've never abandoned a ship (not counting finally escaping Dept of Finance). But with my twenties slowly edging away from me I feel the need to find what I'm looking for before I commit to something that leaves me angry, unfulfilled, frustrated and unable to support the family that I plan will win Cricket World Cup 2030....maybe.

But in the short term, I would just like my sense of humour back - too much work and no play has made Nicky a dull boy. I can't help using big words when I talk and am becoming a menace on the roads - I drive like I own Brisbane and am above the law. I wonder if perhaps I've accrued too many brain cells and need to dispense of some before I go totally bananas.

10pm Saturday night - enough time for a little more essay writing before bed, then up at 7am to collect Heather from night shift, go to the gym and....spend the rest of the day studying. I'm loving the learning, but hating the lack of time I have for the rest of my life.

If I gave one piece of advice to someone, it would be this.....turn your lights off and have shorter showers.

Widgets, Weights and the WHO

I get the occasional bout of hyper-excitement as the temperature starts to drop here in Brisbane.

What? Excited about cold weather? Actually, excited about how cold it isn't going to be. The nights are cooling down and with the mercury (not that anyone uses mercury anymore) dipping below 20C overnight I'm tempted to put on a long sleeve shirt after my post-work/gym evening shower.

The days are still long, brilliant blue skies in the high 20C, with a perfect balance of humidity and dryness in the air. The fragrance of eucalypts and autumn bloom flowers drifts along in the gentle breeze. During the 20 minute stroll to the beautiful St. Lucia Unversity campus I can hear birds twittering and the far off sound of a house being built. I alternate between walking in the direct sunlight and mottled light on the footpath - getting myself to a perfect temperature.

That early morning (8am is pretty early....) walk is one of my limited chances these days to stop and look at the world around me before plunging back into the world of economics, development, governance and international public health......and stationery (being the dedicated bookshop attendant that I am).

The Widgets referred to in the title are those undefined units of production that microeconomists base their lives on. How seemingly neat and intuitive the concepts of demand, supply, marginal costs, optimal firm sizes and indifference curves are. And how easy is it to apply those concepts to the real world and have defined answers to our problems of poverty and underdevelopment. But what seems to screaming out of every book, journal and magazine that I read is that there are no clear cut answers. And the more one tries to find a single solution, or a formula that is based on limited education and ideological underpinnings the further one will find themselves from the solution.

Neoclassical economics is a case in point of a simplified attempt at solving problems with no real effort at addressing the complexity and subtlety of the real world. People do not act as rational agents in accordance with economic theory, that much is obvious, so why the persistence with one dimensional theories? Sure it can be argued that people are inherently rational, but their preferences and decision making processes are too complex for any model or equation.

Strong governments and regulatory insitutions are certainly one of the greatest contributors to the development and economic growth of a nation. The autocratic regimes of Singapore and China (as well as the less autocratic ones of Taiwan, S. Korea and Hong Kong) are examples of strong state leadership and intervention (less so in Hong Kong). Highly protectionist import substituting policies defined these countries in the early stages of their development, only when the industries were strong did the government allow competition with the world market. In this case they had a comparative advantage in terms of the international product cycle (ie. they had large quantities of cheap labour and could specialise in labour intensive manufacturing). The confucianist culture of saving for the future (delay of gratification) also played an important role.

The unmitigated disaster that was the structural adjustment programs for developing countries in the 1980's is further evidence of the failure of neo-liberal economic theory in its application to non-theoretical dilemmas. Anyone who doesn't cringe at the horror committed by the World Bank and IMF in designing, implementing and then excusing themselves from, doesn't realise the tragedy that is occuring in places like Brazil. The inequity is ludicrous, and no level of economic growth will make up for it - no money can filter into the rural sectors when the insitutions are designed in such a way to ensure all profits are captured by the wealthy urban sector.

I'm digressing from whatever I was going to write about initially. But as you can see, the dominant theme occupying my thoughts is economic development - and how it relates to health - which in fact is one of the biggest factors in development. No economy will grow when 25% of the workforce has AIDS and another large proportion are dying of Malaria and TB.

The gym is still being frequented but I can feel in my joints that more care and precision will be required than a few years ago when I could twirl a barbell round my head without fear of straining a back/forearm/shoulder.

We also had our inaugural Tabragalba Grove Olive Picking Festival 2007, a couple of weeks ago. Here is a little montage of the day.

Olive picking