Brad's Blog

Climate change deniers

2010-01-26T09:45:00.002+11:00

I have no problem with the opinions of a prominent climate change denier being published, as The Australian did today. It is important that all arguments and views are discussed openly and scientifically. However, I am dismayed that the article didn’t offer anything persuasive to make a case that anthropogenic climate change is not true.

It referred to several claims made by Christopher Monckton: that reactions to global warming have diverted food into biofuels and prolonged starvation across the world, that action to halt global warming will be very costly and potentially ineffective, that there have been cycles of rapid warming and cooling over geological time, and that the IPCC is a “venal, corrupt and incompetent organisation.”

There may be truth in some of these statements. Yet even if they all were true, none of them provides either evidence or logical argument against the hypothesis that is considered most likely by a large majority climate scientists today: that emissions of greenhouse gases by humans are causing irreversible climate change.

Why can’t we have sensible debates on climate change that avoid resorting to logical fallacies, diversions and emotive language?

Republic

2010-01-26T09:44:00.000+11:00

Royal visits often stimulate discussion about whether (or when) Australia should become a republic. It's time we did.

Interest seems to have waned greatly since the referendum 11 years ago. But that was a flawed proposal that involved undesirable changes to our political system. The current Australian political structure has served us well. It works. There is no reason why we can’t retain it when we become a republic.

Another referendum is needed. Let’s keep things just as they are, but rename the position of Governor-General to President and drop the Queen as our head of state. More fundamental changes can be made separately in later referendums.

Many Australians admire members of the Royal Family, but our affection or respect for them is no reason to retain them as our heads of state. After all, many of us also admire Queen Mary of Denmark—and she’s more Australian than Prince William will ever be.

Productivity

2010-01-20T21:16:00.001+11:00

Kevin Rudd is undoubtedly right that an improvement in productivity growth will lead to larger increases in income per person over time. However, his vague statement that “working families” have an interest in Australia’s productivity demonstrates that perhaps he has not put much thought into the matter. It affects them for sure, but what can they do to change it?

In basic terms, productivity is the efficiency with which inputs in production (capital, labour, raw materials) are transformed into outputs (finished goods). It is largely dependent on technological advancement. Productivity growth grew so much after the Hawke-Keating reforms due to moves towards more efficient methods of organising production and allocating resources. However, the lowest hanging apples are picked first, and we reached a higher level of productivity, not a permanently higher growth rate.

Since then, productivity has been driven largely by technology. That is something that governments (or working families for that matter) have little control over. Unless, of course, they invest more in government-funded research and development so that the gains are ongoing over time.

If Kevin Rudd is serious about improving productivity, where is the extra funding for universities, CSIRO, ANSTO, etc?

(published under a pen name in The Age, 20 January 2010).

Religion

2009-12-22T09:37:00.004+11:00

If only people put as much time, effort and resources into debating the important problems of our world as they do into nit-picking over religion, then we may find we no longer need faith or superstition or philosophy to make our world a better place.

It's a strange world indeed. Christmas time makes it perhaps more apparent than at other times of the year the silly things that people do, or believe in, in the name of religion. Admittedly, religions are quite clever, with a defining feature for many being faith--not questioning the evidence, the history, the conclusions.

Dogma reigns supreme in our world. For whatever reasons people choose to believe, there is no evidence at all that any religion is 'true.' And even if there was a God, which religion would (s)he/it belong to? The world's main religions aren't exactly peaceful and are fundamentally incompatible.

I'll stop now. This issue always generates more heat than light.

I'll just refer to my universal theory of humankind: people are stupid.

------------------------

Nevertheless, Happy Christmas (it may have started as a religious festival, but in modern Sydney it has turned into a secular orgy of over-consumption and monstrously ghastly flashing things).

Telstra, Telstra, Telstra

2009-09-20T11:23:00.001+10:00

Thankfully the government is finally trying to separate the retail and wholesale divisions of Telstra. No doubt shareholders will complain loudly about this, having bought into a company that was somehow able to maintain many of its monopoly privileges after privatisation. However, many of Telstra’s profits came at the expense of consumers. Making Telstra retail compete fairly and on the same terms as other telecommunication companies is good for competition, innovation, customer service and prices. Around the world, countries with well regulated telecommunications markets that promote competition do well in these areas. Countries with big monopolies that have not embraced reform properly do not.

Whatever happens with the national broadband network, it will always be desirable to split Telstra’s infrastructure-owning wholesale arm from its retrial division. Telstra’s monopoly power has harmed consumers in the telecommunications market for too long.

Allowing a monopoly over essential infrastructure to be privatised was inexplicably poor policy by the Howard Government, which should have known better. This makes me suspect that they had other reasons for selling off Telstra the way they did. Some of the funds raised were used to pay off the net government debt accrued under the previous Labor government. Perhaps Telstra was kept whole to help keep the share price high, and thus cut more of the debt, with the regulatory mess of fixing things up in telecommunications left to the next government.

Phil Burgess reckons that a forced separation of Telstra’s wholesale and retail divisions is a form of “blackmail” that would “destroy Telstra’s future” and “delay innovation and investment.” There may be some truth in this, but if anything his comments provide further reasons for the government to go ahead with the break up. Telstra’s monopoly power has lasted too long and it must be forced to compete more fairly with other telecommunications companies. Of course this would erode Telstra’s market value and remove the company’s stranglehold over infrastructure and innovation in the industry. Telstra’s profits should be determined by its ability to meet consumers needs efficiently and cheaply, not on its ability to exploit market power.

It is also important to keep this matter somewhat separate from the government’s proposal to build a national broadband network. It will always be good policy to take monopoly ownership of infrastucture off Telstra, regardless of whether the NBN gets built. And if there is a NBN, far better that is is publicly owned and properly regulated than it is controlled by a single private sector company.

Award simplification

2009-09-04T15:33:00.001+10:00

The debates over award modernisation are going to be long and protracted. It is inevitable that there will be many losers from award simplification in the short term (as well as many winners, who will be much less vocal). However, in the long run there are widespread benefits from having a system of simpler and nationally consistent awards.

So why is the Rudd Government pushing ahead with award modernisation in a time of economic uncertainty and rising unemployment? Arguably, the Government needs to be a lot tougher and decisive in making economic decisions and standing up to vested interests, but surely it could wait until the recovery is a bit firmer and confidence has fully recovered.

The best strategy would involve phasing in the new awards over time. The Government should announce a (fixed) future date for full implementation—say, 1 July 2010—to provide a period for workers and their employers to adjust.

NSW

2009-09-04T15:32:00.000+10:00

The NSW Constitution was amended in 1992 to create fixed terms for governments which would prevent premiers from varying election dates to suit their own political ends. This is all well and good, but we can no longer assume (as some might have then) that voters will hold governments to account for their stuff-ups, or that there will always be sufficient and competent competition available at election time.

Has state government in NSW ever been in such a mess? The Labor government has been going downhill for nearly a decade, with the Coalition not far behind. If we held an election tomorrow and voted in the Opposition, would they really have the vision and courage to change anything? Where are the alternatives?

Surely we can find a better system of government and democracy in NSW. The major parties have failed us catastrophically.

Malcolm Turnbull

2009-08-03T09:07:00.000+10:00

Malcolm Turnbull writes that “The Coalition left Rudd with a national balance sheet free of debt and with cash at the bank, not to mention sustained economic growth.”

What rubbish. The Coalition delivered these things not because of particularly strong or visionary economic policies, but because it was lucky. Earlier deregulation reforms and the floating of the currency made Australia rather resilient to the Asian Financial Crisis and US tech-bubble recession. The industrialisation of China and India ensured that revenues from resources would keep piling in. Funds were in such over-supply that the treasurer had to create a “Future Fund” and cut taxes annually to stop the budget surplus getting too big. These are all cyclical events in which Australia was lucky. The previous Coalition government did not tackle the choking infrastructure and skills shortages we faced; it did not leave Australia immune to the global financial crisis. The Rudd government has taken a large and proactive policy stance to offset some of the worst effects of the crisis.

Could Malcolm Turnbull, if he was Prime Minster, really have done anything different without making more Australians jobless? What is his alternative vision for dealing with these events, and for the future? His essay is glaringly silent on these.

The Chinese diaspora in Australia

2009-08-03T09:06:00.000+10:00

The Chinese government’s demand for support by the Chinese diaspora is hardly unprecedented in historical terms. Many politicians in many countries have attempted to exploit the long-distance nationalism and ethnic sentiments of their diasporas as a means to obtain investment, foreign exchange or votes (for example, Israel, India, Italy, and that’s just the I-countries). This is nothing new.

We need not worry about such rhetoric. The Chinese diaspora in Australia poses no threat. Many of these people have migrated because they do not agree with the Chinese government, or because they seek better lives in a democracy. Many of those who subsequently send back money to their family or invest in China do so because they care about their relatives or because their background and connections provide them with a valuable understanding of business cultural and commercial opportunities in their homeland. It is rarely (if ever) because they have unwavering patriotic support for the government.

Many diasporic people yearn for a homeland that no longer exists, and many come to feel alienated when making return visits after a long time away. For most migrants, the material standard of living in the new country is often superior to that of the old. For these reasons, it is likely that Chinese immigrants, like millions of others, have a greater allegiance to democratic Australian society than they do to the repressive Chinese government. Migrants do not need their homeland to tell them to feel pride in their cultural background. The Chinese government may well find that a drive to enlist overseas Chinese as supporters by making silly-sounding statements about “blood lineage” could easily backfire.

Coorong wetlands

2009-08-03T09:04:00.000+10:00

It is a tragedy that the Coorong wetlands have become so degraded they are almost beyond the point of recovery. The tragedy is compounded by the negligence of governments that could, and should, have seen this coming. State governments' stubbornness on buying back water allocations from farmers is destructive. How many more precious ecosystems and bird habitats must die before action is taken?

There are complex processes underlying the changes being observed in the Murray-Darling basin, but the basic causes are straightforward. There are too many farms using too much water, and often in an extraordinarily unsustainable way. The landscape simply cannot support this level of agricultural activity. When European farmers first saw Australia's wide open spaces, they assumed these lands had the same high levels of soil fertility and could grow the same types of crops as in Europe. To overcome the lack of water, the Snowy River was diverted into the Murray, causing immense shock and change to the ecosystems of both rivers.

Governments' inability to actually implement changes that will stop the Murray River degrading further continues this pattern, as if they think that one day more water will simply appear out of nowhere. Environmental determinism is never sustainable in the long-run. We need to respect the constraints of nature and farm our land more sustainably. That means fewer farms and lower water entitlements in the Murray-Darling basin.

The Australian book industry

2009-08-03T09:03:00.000+10:00

Do not be fooled by the eloquence of Australian authors. They have been repeatedly arguing that Australian authors deserve a fair profit and that Australian literature has great cultural benefits for many of us. That’s difficult (and slippery) to dispute, but it’s an attempt to reframe the argument over book import laws in a way that stirs emotions.

Unfortunately, such emotions rarely lead to good public policy. The territorial copyright restrictions currently in place are a market distortion, a barrier to trade and the cause of over-inflated book prices paid by consumers. If an author (or their publisher) wants to boost their profits by printing different editions abroad and pricing them differently, why should Australian law permit them to prevent imports of the foreign-market version? If authors and publishers are too scared that cut-price books from abroad will threaten their royalties and profits in the Australian market, they should stop publishing in or supplying to foreign markets. They will continue to have control over this, and retain the copyright to their own work, regardless of any changes in book importation laws. Despite what they may say, the integrity of copyright itself is not at stake.

By restricting imports in such a way, laws against parallel imports cause the price of all books to be much higher than they otherwise would be. This seems to be mostly for the sake of supporting a few Australian authors who, judging by the shrillness of their recent complaints, would otherwise be unable to remain viable. I am sick of having to pay through the nose for books in Australia, or pay high freight costs to buy them online from America.

If consumers valued the work of Australian novelists more than that of other authors, they would be willing to pay more for their books. These writers should stop trying to stir up emotions through the media and focus on writing better books.

War on terror

2009-07-07T10:29:00.000+10:00

I’m glad the government is dumping use of the preposterous term “war on terror.” The term never made any sense. The Australian government joined the US to invade Iraq and create an enormous sense of terror amongst many Iraqi civilians. Both countries made stellar efforts to make many of their own Muslim citizens feel terrified. These events inspired further violent attacks by extremist groups throughout the world. The way events were spoken about and reported created a further sense of terror amongst voters, which politicians repeatedly reinforced.

This was not really a war on terror, but a war in support of it.

Planning boards

2009-05-03T11:34:00.000+10:00

It seems like the Planning Minister is trying to make the large projects approval system more democratic and transparent. Instead of approving such projects herself, the Planning Minister is now devolving that power to regional boards. Great. The only problem is that the minister will appoint a majority of members on each board. Instead of decisions being made by an elected politician, they will now be made by faceless bureaucrats, non-elected non-experts or, it is possible, Labor party donors and development industry supporters. The minister can then praise these regional boards when good decisions are made, yet distance herself when politically controversial developments are approved.

Training schemes for youth

2009-05-03T11:31:00.000+10:00

Kevin Rudd's latest scheme to cut welfare payments to unemployed youth who do not take up education or training places when out of work may seem a clever way to massage youth unemployment figures, but it is fundamentally a good scheme. With the level of unemployment predicted to rise so high in this recession, it will be vital to ensure that the skills of those who are unemployed do not lapse behind what the labour market is likely to demand in a recovery, and that existing skills do not deteriorate from lack of use.

It will be vital, however, that the government ensures there are sufficient training places available for those who will have their youth allowance cut off, and in the areas where these youth live. It is also essential that general skills are taught alongside occupation-specific skills to ensure that the workforce remains flexible. Decisions will have to be made about which skills will be in demand in the future, but it workers must also be able to adapt should labour demand evolve if the predictions of skills demands are off.

Nevertheless, the strong focus on education and training is good for Australia in the long-term. More productive workers and a more highly educated workforce leads to more people being employed in 'good' jobs and higher wages once the economy is back to normal.

The labour market and the downturn

2009-03-17T08:16:00.001+11:00

New OLO article: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8630

The labour market

2009-03-17T08:15:00.000+11:00

The geographic unevenness of job losses is one of many worrying developments in the labour market. The overall unemployment rate is forecast to rise above 7 per cent in the coming year, but the impacts will be much more severe for particular groups. Not only will some suburbs and regions suffer badly, but so will many part-time casual workers, unskilled workers, indigenous Australians and migrants with poor English skills. Particular occupations and industries, especially those that have been doing it tough for some time, will be hit much harder than others. Underemployment will rise markedly and the number of "hidden unemployed"--people whom remain outside the workforce because they have given up on finding a job or do not enter the workforce in the first place--will rise much faster than the number who are counted as unemployed.

The challenges for the government are large. More needs to be done to assist those who will be hit hardest to get by, and to help them up-skill, retrain and then find suitable work once the economy is growing again.

Don't turn migrants away

2009-03-17T08:13:00.000+11:00

The government's decision to cut the immigration intake by 14 per cent is disappointing. This looks like a populist measure that will generate very few benefits. The impacts of immigration on the Australian labour market have been extensively studied and, contrary to popular opinion, there is no firm evidence to suggest that skilled migrants either steal jobs from locals or reduce wages.

Yet in the name of this populism--and to kowtow to the unions--the government wants to remove part of the boost that migrants give to aggregate demand. Many highly skilled migrants with good ideas and entrepreneurial drive will be turned away, hurting Australia in the long-run. Migration benefits both the migrants, whose lives and opportunities can improve markedly in Australia, and the economy as a whole, helping to make it stronger, more diverse, and more productive.

Carbon emissions trading

2009-02-19T11:49:00.000+11:00

The federal government wants to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by implementing a carbon trading scheme. This will raise the prices of energy and energy-intensive goods and services for consumers. Yet, at the same time, it wants to give $9 billion to heavy polluting industries to "cushion" the effect of the scheme. This is great for those companies that churn out most of our greenhouse gas emissions, but what on earth is the point? If the aim is to preserve jobs, why spend oodles of money to subsidise jobs in these industries when it would be cheaper and more productive in the long-run to assist both labour and capital to switch to greener industries?

This kowtowing to business lobbies is ridiculous. The point of a carbon emissions trading scheme is to reduce emissions in a way that encourages efficiency and innovation by users of carbon. Doling out billions to heavy polluters defeats the point entirely.

Stimulus package

2009-02-13T08:55:00.000+11:00

It seems that Nick Xenophon has unwittingly called Malcolm Turnbull's bluff. The package urgently needed to stimulate the economy and mitigate the severity of the coming economic downturn and rise in unemployment has been defeated in the Senate. Malcolm Turnbull took a political gamble by resisting the package, hoping that the crossbenchers in the Senate would let it pass, so that he could turn around later and blame the government when unemployment worsened or government debt rose (since no-one would know exactly how much extra unemployment the package would have avoided).

Of course, the type of stimulus used and long-run debt accumulation are important problems, yet the amount of debt as a proportion of GDP that Rudd has proposed pales into insignificance compared to the debt/GDP ratios of most other developed countries. Furthermore, Turbull's alternative package would have been less stimulatory (with tax cuts spread over time) and still require substantial government borrowing.

Now, if the package continues to flounder in the Senate, the Coalition will be conveniently blamed by Rudd when the economy inevitably does turn sour. That will also be counterproductive, reducing the possibility of cooperative policymaking to deal with the recession as it hits.

Hopefully the legislation will pass on the next attempt, as action is urgently needed on the fiscal policy front, according to most economists. It's been a long time since the last recession, but surely we don't forget how bad these things are, and how important it is to tame them early on?

Mardi Gras parade

2009-02-13T08:54:00.000+11:00

The 'assimilation' and 'gentrification' of gay culture into straight culture that Elizabeth Farrelly laments is the cultural consequence of a much more important development, the growing social tolerance and acceptance of non-straight people. Gay people are now more visible in the Western suburbs and in the media precisely because of this growing acceptance. Perhaps that has blunted the edge of gay culture, but in the grand scheme of things it's a most welcome development.

The State Government's bizarre proposal to move the Mardi Gras parade to Homebush, on the other hand, most certainly is not. Oxford Street may not be the geographic centre of Sydney's gay population anymore, yet the symbolism still remains. Sure, Oxford Street is run down now but it's still the Golden Mile, however tarnished, that thousands have marched up defiantly to claim many of the rights that are now taken for granted.

Interestingly, this is the first year that any government has offered any funding to the event, despite its status as one of Sydney's largest which attracts thousands of people (and dollars) from all over the world. It seems the State Government wants to move it to Homebush and continue to offer funding, not because of a deep seated love for the event or gay people, but out of a desire to make more money out of it for itself. To capture, commercialise and tame it. To fence it into a stadium where people can be charged money to gawk at the show. The Mardi Gras organisers only considered it because they need the money.

Yet gay Sydney will never let that happen. Gay culture may be going straight but it's not dead yet. There are still rights to be fought for (and parties to be had). If the State Government tries to move the Mardi Gras parade it will still find people marching up and down Oxford Street.

Turnbull's claims

2009-02-05T10:20:00.001+11:00

Malcolm Turnbull is absolutely right when he argues that, "somebody has to stand up for the taxpayers of Australia and ensure that we do not impose staggering levels of debt on future generations."

I suspect that Kevin Rudd agrees with this. That is why he is not proposing big tax cuts, as the Coalition would like, and instead wants to make direct payments that have a more up-front stimulatory effect on the economy. Tax cuts would permanently shrink government revenue and prolong the amount of time the budget is in deficit.

Rudd is also acting now, before the recession really hits and unemployment rises skywards, so that a moderate amount of debt is incurred in order to reduce the severity and (hopefully) the length of the coming recession. Once the economy is on the path to recovery this debt can be paid off. By contrast, Turnbull wants to hold back and tinker around the edges until the recession is fully upon us. Then, presumably, the fiscal stimulus needed (and thus total amount of debt) would likely be much bigger that what Rudd is proposing for now.

So I agree with Turnbull's statement. Rudd is standing up for Australian taxpayers, workers and businesses. His scheme is not perfect but then no policy is. It should be implemented immediately.

Commercial property loans

2009-02-05T10:06:00.000+11:00

The Rudd Government's scheme to take over commercial property loans that are at only a small risk of being called in by foreign lenders at first looks bizarre. However, this is just another way for the Government to look like it is doing something to fix the financial sector and revive the economy by pouring taxpayer funds into a black hole. If this is the best they can up with, the public won't take long to see through it.

Harry Triguboff

2009-02-05T10:05:00.000+11:00

Harry Triguboff isn’t paying his land tax and doesn’t agree that two separate houses are indeed just that. Is this the same Mr. Triguboff who, only recently, declared that his company’s donations to NSW Labour used to be very good investments? How strange that he is willing to make large donations to the ruling party but, when it comes to paying what he owes in tax to the state of NSW, he is fighting tooth and nail. How strange that the state government has had to cover some of the costs of providing infrastructure for new Meriton developments, yet that company’s managing director refuses to make a fair tax contribution according to the law. Who does this man think he is, a property developer?

Farming

2009-02-05T10:04:00.000+11:00

If the aim of Kevin Rudd's new stimulus package is to stop the economy sliding into recession, create jobs and help address future challenges, why on earth is he giving $950 to drought affected farmers, when most of them will already receive $950 as workers earning less than $100,000?

It's been clear for a long time now that large swathes of Australia are being farmed when it is not environmentally or economically viable to do so in the long-run. The Australian environment is fragile and our topsoil among the world's thinnest, yet the expolitative farming mindset continues.

Kevin Rudd should be spending this money on helping these farmers to retrain and relocate, so they can work in more sustainable sectors when the economy does pick up. Now is the time to take action. Instead, we have a thinly veiled form of protectionism in an attempt by the government to prop up an unsustainable industry.

Job search assistance

2009-02-05T10:03:00.000+11:00

The welfare system the Howard Government left us is starting to show major cracks. The point of the Job Network is to help people to find jobs and to minimise the length of time they spend in unemployment. However, the current rules seem to be effectively extending unemployment spells (and the corresponding erosion of skills) by holding back assistance for trivial reasons.

If the unemployment costs of this downturn are to be minimised, the Rudd Government needs to act straight away to fix up welfare and job assistance rules to ensure they are fair, as well as making sure they operate in ways that are in the long-term national economic interest.

Financial reform

2009-01-26T13:12:00.001+11:00

The Australian's leader was right to argue that any government intervention in the financial system should only be short-term, and that in the long-term the government should let market forces operate throughout the economy. Yet no-one has actually proposed that parts of the financial sector (or other industries) be taken over permanently by the government.

At present we are facing both big problems in the financial system and a rapid slowdown of economic activity. Usually, in a recession, as bankruptcies rises and collateral asset values fall, it becomes harder to obtain credit even at a lower interest rate. In this downturn, problems with the allocation of credit by financial markets are making it extra hard for some firms to obtain the cash they need to keep running, or to invest in profitable projects. This is exacerbated when foreign banks recall their loans, contracting the total amount of credit available to our economy and causing potentially severe real economic damage.

A government scheme to extend credit to firms in the short-run would thus be a beneficial intervention. It would stave off job losses and further declining economic activity by allowing firms that can afford credit, and can use it in an economically efficient way, to actually obtain it.

Crucially, however, the credit must be offered at market interest rates, and allocated impartially rather than by government decree. The scheme must also be wound back as soon as financial market conditions improve. This would not be the state doing the market economy's job--as your leader suggests--but, rather, the state helping the market to return to normality and health.

Superannuation

2009-01-23T09:54:00.001+11:00

It's sad that so many hard working Australians have suffered large negative returns on their superannuation over the past half year. However, many of the complaints being made seem to overlook simple realities in the search for someone to blame.

The government requires that 9 per cent of incomes go into superannuation savings, yet this isn't the cause of the losses. The government doesn't dictate how super is invested; it only restricts when an individual may withdraw funds. It also provides plenty of tax benefits that mean super is taxed at a much lower rate than other incomes.

The superannuation industry itself should also not be blamed for what's happened. Balanced investments have gone badly, but the higher the return, the higher the risk. Balanced funds did amazingly well over the decade to mid-2008, but global economic and stockmarket conditions have since changed. Yet no-one forced individuals to put their super into balanced funds rather than cash--which typically earns sufficient interest to stay ahead of inflation--and most workers have the option of changing their super fund if they don't like it

Perhaps the loss in super savings isn't anyone's fault. These things happen. Trying to focus blame on others is vituperous and won't fix anything.

China

2009-01-23T09:52:00.002+11:00

China's economic slowdown and falling demand for raw materials may be a setback for the Australian economy in the short-to-medium term, but if we step back and consider the long-term, we should be more upbeat. Prices for Australian mineral and metal exports soared so high so fast because China was industrialising so rapidly. Indeed, China's recent "modernisation" is remarkably similar to that of Western Europe in the Industrial Revolution: rapidly expanding heavy industry and construction, massive rural-urban migration and high levels of pollution.

At present the world is overpopulated, with current natural resources unable to support the existing population indefinitely. In the long-run, we all have a vested interest in a peaceful and steady rise in Chinese per capita GDP in a way that generates minimal environmental damage. When China grows as rapidly as it was recently, it depletes natural resources, emits huge amounts of pollution (including greenhouse gases), poisons or kills rivers and farmland, accelerates erosion and depletes further the world's fish stocks. China's sheer size means the whole world feels the environmental strain.

The world's environment is fragile, not least because of past and present environmental vandalism by the West. China has every right to aspire to Western standards of living, yet it is in everyone's interests that that happens in a gradual and sustainable way. The alternative is the stuff of nightmares.

Telstra

2008-12-17T09:34:00.000+11:00

The announcement that the government has barred Telstra from building the national broadband network is the best news in Australia telecommunications I have read for a long time. Australia lags far behind many Asian and European countries in the provision of high-speed, high-quality and affordably priced broadband internet.

When Telstra was privatised, a very valuable public asset--the copper wire phone network--was handed over to it. Telstra has since done all it can--including intense lobbying for changes to laws and regulations--to exploit its monopoly position. This has been to the detriment of its customers, contractors, other telecommunications companies, the government and the Australian public.

Innovation in telecommunications has also been stymied due to the lack of proper competition.

I eagerly await the announcement that a different consortium has been awarded the national broadband contract. This contract would be a perfect opportunity for the government to fix up telecommunications regulations. Then we may even have a chance of catching up with those other countries.

Circular Quay

2008-12-11T10:02:00.000+11:00

I don't understand what Philip Cox means when he says the proposed Rubik's Cube lookalike building for the Museum of Contemporary Art doesn't "actually respond to [Sydney's] Circular Quay."

Such a building, comprising of ugly squares and badly placed blocks, would fit perfectly with Circular Quay railway station and the Toaster, two other ugly monstrosities that hog prime architectural space on the waterfront.

The Opera House and the old sandstone buildings of The Rocks are not the rule for this part of Sydney but, sadly, the dying exception to it. One more hideous contraption surely won't be noticed.

Bill of Rights

2008-12-11T10:00:00.001+11:00

The four people appointed to the Australian Government's Bill of Rights advisory panel have been criticised as being "not representative" of the Australian population, and their selection is dismissed as mere "political correctness."

In what sense are they unrepresentative? Of the four, there are two women, a member of a religious minority, someone of migrant background and an indigenous Australian. That's a pretty good sample of discriminated-against groups that a bill of rights would protect. Are they unrepresentative because there are no blind lesbian single mothers included? Or because they are not all ageing white males?

Industry assistance

2008-12-07T17:31:00.001+11:00

If the large majority of car dealers are economically viable, as Kevin Rudd claims, why does he need to introduce a government-backed scheme to extend credit to car dealers? Surely if the dealerships have no trouble paying off the loans they would be lent the money by banks anyway, without a government scheme.

Using government funds to back up a scheme to keep uneconomic businesses afloat is a waste of taxpayer funds and constrains Australia's economic potential in the long-run as productive resources are tied up in unprofitable activities.

The economy

2008-12-04T08:58:00.002+11:00

In hindsight we all have perfect vision. However, if we are to properly judge past decisions, we must consider the context at the time that they were made.

The Reserve Bank interest rate rises at the start of the year may well be beginning to show up in the national accounts data. It is indeed something that is working to harm the already fragile economy. However, given the information the RBA had in February and March, it is difficult to criticise the decisions they made then.

Until September, the overriding concern of the RBA was inflation. Inflation distorts relative prices, reduces the real value of money, redistributes wealth from debtors to creditors, and disrupts the tax system. The RBA sets interest rates in a forward-looking manner, seeking to bring inflation into the 2 to 3 per cent band over the medium run. Given the outlook earlier in the year--strong growth, very low unemployment, a terms of trade boom and inflation around 4 per cent--they were right to rate rates. If anything, they didn't raise them high enough to combat the inflation scourge quickly.

Since September rates have fallen by three whole percentage points. The RBA was quick to react to the financial crisis and global downturn, and did so in a pre-emptive manner, cutting rates well before the downturn shows up in national accounts and unemployment figures. In hindsight this monetary policy may look schizophrenic, but it merely reflects the way that interest rates are set by balancing all information (and risks) that is at hand each month and looking towards the future.

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We shouldn't be too concerned about the September quarter national accounts. Yes, national growth is at a standstill (0.1 per cent for the quarter), but we have to look at the bigger picture.

First, we are one of the few big industrialised economies that is not already in recession.

Second, the high interest rates that we had until a few months ago were acting to constrain economic activity during the September quarter, which combined with the financial crisis and global slowdown to produce such a low growth figure.

However, as the RBA's 300 basis point rate reduction since September and the government's fiscal stimulus kicks in over the coming year, we are likely to see some better figures on the national accounts. Whether we go into recession depends a lot on what happens to our trading partners, but our policymakers are working hard to pre-emptively stave off recession.

Infrastructure investment

2008-12-04T08:57:00.001+11:00

Kevin Rudd's plan to borrow billions of dollars to pay for infrastructure projects is an idea worth looking into. Depending how the money is raised and used, it may well lead to big long-run benefits.

However, simply passing on the funds to state governments would be a disaster. The NSW Government's record on infrastructure spending shows few--if any--successes. Money tends to be wasted or spent inefficiently.

A far better idea would be for the Federal Government to fund projects directly, bypassing incompetent state governments (ie, NSW) that refuse to borrow for the bizarre reason that it would slightly tarnish a credit rating that, since they're not borrowing, they don't need to use anyway.

Telstra

2008-11-28T11:01:00.002+11:00

The Sydney Morning Herald's editorial on Telstra points out that Telstra is acting in the financial interests of its shareholders, against the interests of Australian consumers and healthy competition. The suggestion to force a separation of Telstra's wholesale and retail divisions if it wins the broadband tender is a good one.

However, even this would be inadequate. Telstra is only likely to stuff things up, cut corners, or even pull out of the contract altogether if the government forces its two halves to separate as part of the national broadband project.

There is a better solution that will improve Australia's telecommunications pricing, technological uptake and consumer treatment. Give the tender to one of the other bidders and force apart Telstra's retail and wholesale components. The infrastructure should be owned by an independent and specifically regulated company, whilst retail Telstra should be forced to survive like every other telecommunications operator.

University fees

2008-11-28T10:37:00.001+11:00

The Australian's editorial reasons that the extra $1.5 million that university graduates are estimated to earn over their lifetimes is more than enough to justify the mere $20,000 in out-of-pocket costs for the average degree. That’s a pretty big return—and it’s potentially an argument why the government should invest in free tertiary education, as the amount of tax collected on $1.5 million will greatly exceed $20,000.

However, this argument is wrong. What is needed is not cheaper course costs, but more HECS places and a better approach to university funding. HECS is, in effect, an interest free loan (in inflation-adjusted terms) that one pays back only when one is earning good money. It doesn’t put graduates under financial hardship.

Given the big returns to investment in human capital, the government should be spending a lot more than it does on our universities. Why has Australia only got one or two universities that come within a million miles of being world-topping teaching and research institutions? If more public investment is directed towards university facilities, staff and research grants, not only will the returns to education get even bigger, but the productivity growth of our whole economy will be enhanced as well.

Industrial relations laws

2008-11-28T10:36:00.000+11:00

The newly unveiled industrial relations laws, like the WorkChoices laws before them, do some things right yet go way too far in other areas. Giving Fair Work Australia the power to impose wage settlements when a bargain cannot be reached is a good reform that provides the low paid with a safety net and reduces the time lost to industrial disputes.

However, giving unions a seat at the bargaining table when even only one employee is a member is going too far. How does Labor think this will make bargaining either more fair or more efficient? It sounds like a consolation prize for their mates in the unions who unsuccessfully sought a complete tear-up of WorkChoices.

Why must we take two steps forward, one step back all the time?

Budget deficits

2008-11-28T10:35:00.000+11:00

Even in Opposition, the Liberal Party is still trying to promote the baseless idea that a federal budget deficit is always a "failure of economic management." By making such statements, Malcolm Turnbull is only making it harder for the government to implement sensible policy to stimulate the economy. Trying to influence the whole economy for selfish political aims, as the Liberals are doing, is a truly terrible failure of economic responsibility.

Reshaping global finance

2008-11-19T11:22:00.002+11:00

The Economist’s analysis of the prospects for redesigning global finance and the outcomes of the G20 meeting to approach that task don't inspire much confidence that things will change. Financial and stock markets have overstepped the mark on countless occasions before. The 1980s stock market crash and 2000s technology crash, and their subsequent recessions, did little to fix the fundamental architecture of the world financial system. That is unlikely to change now.

What the world needs is a big expansion of the Bank of International Settlement's reach and regulatory power, putting it on par with the IMF and World Bank. A global financial market requires global regulation, and a regulator large enough to bail out banks when necessary, taking the burden off national governments. The board of the BIS needs to be updated so all G20 nations--and others--are represented, according to their relative economic size. If this were to reduce the clout of the IMF and the stigma of borrowing from an international body, that is all for the better.

Many proposals have been doing the rounds. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, writing in the Financial Times, are right to argue that an international regulator "with teeth" is needed to reform global finance. But who will have the say in how this regulator is run, who will fund it, and how will we get all nations to go along with it? There are difficult political hurdles that just can't be brushed over. Finance may be global, but bank bail-outs are almost always national.

If a global regulator could be established--a finance version of the WTO, or an IMF with greater regulatory power--several other aspects will be vital. It must be controlled by all major economies, developed and developing, and the say each one has on the regulator's board should always reflect the relative economic size of the countries involved. There needs to be global oversight not just of banks, but also of the the ratings agencies, which are responsible for much of the recent financial strife. Finally, the new regulator will need a great sum of money at hand to bail out troubled banks when required, rather than national governments doing so, as a way to encourage nations to cede regulatory control.

(First two paragraphs published on The Economist letters page, 28 November 2008)

NSW: The stuffed state

2008-11-19T11:20:00.001+11:00

Shaun Carney seems pretty spot on with his comparison to NSW's current malaise to that of Victoria in the early 90s. However, there's one key difference he didn't mention. Victoria was eventually pulled out of the doldrums by Jeff Kennett. In NSW we have no Kennett to elect at the next election, only the current opposition leader, Barry O'Farrell, who is saying nothing, devising no policies to save NSW, and doing his utmost best to be even more useless than the string of opposition leaders who preceded him.

In other news, The NSW economy is so stuffed that even the Treasury secretary admits we've been on a downward trend in governance for years. This highlights just how parlous things have become. It wasn't the Treasury running the government all along, as many have suggested, but elected politicians refusing to act in their state's best long-term interests. Coupled with the absence of a credible opposition, NSW is well and truly a basket case.

Sydney local councils

2008-11-18T21:47:00.000+11:00

The suggestion to amalgamate Sydney councils into ten mega-councils seems a strange response to recent urban planning and infrastructure problems. The big challenges facing Sydney--public transport, health and education provision, over development, poorly designed large developments and urban sustainability--are not problems that local councils can solve, no matter how big each one is, or how well councils work together. The problem is state government mismanagement, underinvestment and disregard for community-based planning consultation. Until that fiasco is rectified our problems will continue indefinitely.

G20 and global trade

2008-11-18T21:45:00.000+11:00

The words that came out of the G20 meeting on the global financial crisis seem very promising. Reducing barriers to international trade would be of great assistance to the world economy and its people, both in the short term for fixing the current mess, and longer term for raising standards of living.

However, two aspects are crucial. First, that this actually happens and isn't just heat-of-the-moment rhetoric. Second, that the right trade barriers are brought down. The United States and European Union have quite a history of ignoring barriers to agricultural trade that severely harm food production and markets across the developing world.

Instead, they focus on reducing trade barriers for high tech services and medicines whilst implementing particular global 'standards.' Restrictive and harmful patent measures that privilege US corporate interests are globalised in this manner. The result is higher prices paid by poor countries for technologies and medicines that would otherwise be the case.

Let's hope this doesn't happen this time. Australia, as a large agricultural producer, is in a key position to mediate global trade talks to achieve the best solutions for the long-run benefit of the whole world.

NSW is a mess

2008-09-10T09:35:00.001+10:00

Whatever the faults with Premier Rees and his team, we must remember that they’ve been chosen from a fairly small (and rotten) pool of sitting Labor MPs. Given the rigidity of the NSW constitution, effectively making an early election impossible, the current line-up is by far the best of a bad lot. Let’s hope they don’t let this get to their heads and continue to ignore the interests of NSW citizens. If they do, I’m moving interstate.
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It disappoints me greatly that the citizens of NSW could vote for Morris Iemma and his Labor Government in 2005. Now they’ve stuffed up big time and we all have to bear the consequences. This state lurches from one crisis to another, and this is not likely to change much with a new captain on board.

It seems that voters were asleep at the wheel, and now we’re all paying the price. I no longer care who forms the government in NSW—just as long as it’s not Labor.

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Again we see more dogmatic idiocy from the clowns running NSW. Both the new Premier and Treasurer are sticking to the mantra that all government debt is evil and a downgrade to NSW’s AAA credit rating would be on par with the apocalypse.

The state’s finances are a mess. New infrastructure—particularly in public transport and health—is sorely needed. Now is the time, if ever there was one, to borrow the funds and invest directly in the future. Since we still have the AAA rating, we should use it.

Sadly, politicians in this state are extraordinarily inept at planning for the future.

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Suddenly the North-West Metro plan is being torn up as quickly as it was launched. Is anyone surprised?

Policy and geography

2008-08-23T10:55:00.001+10:00

Noel Pearson makes an interesting, even if not new, observation that many Indigenous Australians are rationally choosing not to work, given the extent of welfare payments and other government benefits. However, this, and his proposal to eliminate welfare payments for people aged under 21 opens up some bigger questions.

Should indigenous people be given special treatment when it comes to welfare, employment and housing policy, or should the government set the same rules for everyone (regardless of cultural background) and then be responsible for ensuring everyone has a minimum quality of life?

Should government policies vary geographically, depending on the availability of particular types of employment, number and quality of schools, and housing prices and rents within different areas?

Perhaps a focus more on the geographic inequality of outcomes and opportunities, rather than on categorising people as Aboriginal and therefore inherently different to everyone else, would be a better way of going about things.

Compulsory student social fees

2008-08-21T10:48:00.000+10:00

The Rudd Government must be absolutely crazy to be considering re-introducing compulsory student fees to cover social and sporting services. They are completely misguided to think that all student will happily go along with this if they are given a choice about becoming a member of the student union.

This is not all about union membership. This is about a group of people--many who aren't earning big incomes--being forced to pay for services they may have no personal need for or interest in. Course fees are high enough without adding on extra costs for students.

If the Rudd Government is so determined to improve sporting and social services in universities, it should fund these directly out of government revenue and see what the electorate thinks about it all at the next election.

Langton on Greer

2008-08-20T08:52:00.000+10:00

Marcia Langton's comments on Germaine Greer and responses to these comments both seem to ignore what Greer is really saying. Maybe Greer is a radical left-wing feminist, and a racist too, but that is no reason not to refute her arguments on intellectual grounds alone, rather than taking a swing at her as a person.

A common response to Greer’s On Rage, as made by Langton and others, has been that perpetrators of violence need to be individually accountable for their acts and take individual responsibility for their actions.

Well of course they should. Attributing a widespread problem to a social cause does not excoriate from blame those individuals who have committed repugnant acts. When there is violence committed by men against women and children across numerous Indigenous communities--as there has been--"individual responsibility" alone cannot explain why this has occurred. Social problems stem from social causes.

Trying to identify such causes and, ultimately, work towards overcoming them is a crucial step for improving Indigenous communities across the country. Whether or not Greer is right to nominate 'rage' in Aboriginal males as such a social cause is up for debate. If she is “racist” and “just plain wrong” as Langton alleges, and this is not the cause, then what is?

Pacific migrant workers

2008-08-19T09:37:00.001+10:00

It's good to see that workers from the Pacific Islands will be allowed to work on Australian farms if they wish to. It should be hoped that this scheme is soon made permanent and expanded to other economic sectors. Australia, faced with a shortage of skilled labour, and many Pacific Islands, faced with a shortage of appropriate jobs, make for a good labour-market fit. If the scheme leads to greater training and skill development amongst Pacific Islanders, then that is an added bonus.

Car industry assistance

2008-08-17T09:46:00.002+10:00

Andrew McKellar, as head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, argues that because the Doha trade talks have recently collapsed, “the Government should rethink and adopt a phased or staged approach to [automotive] tariff reductions.”

This is the worst piece of economic reasoning that I’ve seen in a long time. Just because progress on freeing up trade (and thus boosting competition) around the world has stalled does not mean that it is desirable to continue handing the car industry billions of dollars of trade-distorting assistance via tariffs.

Regardless of talks at the global level it is still in Australia’s interest to get rid of automotive tariffs and reduce assistance given to the car industry. This also means that the Bracks car plan is just as bad as the tariffs. Removing all “industry assistance” will not only reduce inefficiencies and distortions in the economy, but will also greatly reduce prices for consumers (and increase options are most models become profitable to import) and avoid propping up thousands of jobs that are just not sustainable.

It is better to retrain and move workers now, while the economy is still functioning relatively well and government finances are in top shape, than to forgo taxation revenue and keep consumer prices high to maintain jobs in a dying sector that will eventually need to shed them.

With the kind of ignorance and blatant self-interest amongst top car industry officials as shown by Mr. McKellar, no wonder they need massive subsidies to be able to survive and are scared stiff of competition from companies who can produce high quality cars that consumers want for low prices.

Wien photos

2008-08-03T06:53:00.000+10:00

My photos for Vienna/Wien are now online as well.

Slovakian excursion

2008-08-03T01:12:00.004+10:00

I've just got back from a half-day trip to Bratislava. It's really easy to get to, only an hour by train from Wien and there's a special 'Bratislava ticket' from the train station ticket machines that gives return travel to Bratislava and use of the public transport systems for the inner cities of Wien and Bratislava. Valid for one day, 14€... which seemed like decent value I thought.

For some reason the train there took nearly 2 hours, and the one back only 1 hour... hmm. (At least the one going there was air conditioned though). I arrived in Bratislava station--looking like an old railway station does about 40 years after construction without any maintenance--and managed to find a tourism office, map and the bus number I needed.

Well, the buses aren't quite as good as those elsewhere (including the other parts of Eastern Europe I've been to) and a few old people with soiled pants were shuffling around. Kind of smelly. The city was three stops away... and my first destination after that was Bratislava Hrad (castle), high up on the hill and the only thing in the city that actually stands out. It had mostly been destroyed at some stage (world wars I think?) and was still being rebuilt.

Strangely enough, there were no signs around the place; I found it hard to find the exit to the complex and the only things that were inside were toilets and a small museum... I waited at the counter for a few minutes and no-one showed up, so I figured they just couldn't be bothered and left. It looked like a small and boring museum anyway. There was no way to go inside the castle.

That was my first taste of Slovakia... it seems almost as if since Communism fell almost two decades ago this city has been stuck in time ever since. There's one wide pedestrian boulevard with gardens, fountains and bizarre statues (where I had a very nice lunch--pork and walnuts with baked potato, paprika and dark beer... yum!) but apart from that the rest of the city looks a tad on the worn side.

So I wandered around the streets, bought some tacky souvenirs, took some photos of random buildings... then made my way back to the train station. It was a hot, humid day and I don't think there's a single air conditioner in Bratislava, so it wasn't very comfortable. Even worse when I got to the station and discovered the next train back to Wien was 45 minutes away... and there was no-where to sit.

I'm glad I saw Bratislava (it has potential, I suppose) but I'm also glad to be back in Wien. I wanted to go see another museum this afternoon (I saw the Treasury yesterday, v v impressive) but now it's too late. And raining. Oh well.

And tomorrow I head back home... via four (!) flights. Sydney, here I come (via Riga, Helsinki and Bangkok)!

Budapest

2008-08-02T06:35:00.004+10:00

Yesterday I went on a (whirlwind) bus tour of Budapest. It departed at 7.15am... and they said they'd pick me up from my hotel. Which they did, but I was told 6.15am, and it was a bit after 6.45am when they came to pick me up. Hmm. Other people on the tour had similar problems, and many assumed they weren't being picked up and headed to the main bus stop on their own.

Other than that, though, it was a good day, and reasonably well run. There were about 20 people on the bus, plus driver and tour-guide girl. Three and a bit hours after leaving Wien we were stuck in an authentic Hungarian traffic jam, winding our way through the streets of Budapest to some random hotel restaurant, where we could 'purchase lunch if you want, but you don't have to, you can just get a drink'... I was hungry so I had lunch, but it was a bit expensive, and it was terribly slow.

Afterwards was a guided walking tour with a 'local guide' (she was about 75 years old... but still walked faster than most of us could) on the top of the mountain on the Buda side of the river, near the castle, Fisherman's Bastion, and other monumental sites I forget the names of. The view was good, although it was hot weather and a little hazy.

It's really quite an impressive city. It's been around for yonks, was first settled by the Hungarians in around 800AD ish, although much of the gothic and renaissance architecture was destroyed in the two world wars. Nevertheless, it's all very impressive, especially the castle up on the hill, and the parliament building on the Pest side of the Danube (see the photos). Many buildings are newer than they look as they were reconstructed in older styles.

We then were dropped in the city centre, on the Pest side, and had just under 2 hours to wander about. So I went for a walk. First stop, St. Stephen's Cathedral, a big-ish Catholic church that houses the mummified hand of (Saint) King Isvan (Stephen) I, Hungary's first king. I'm not an expert in 11th century body parts, but it looked pretty disgusting. Thankfully the photo I took didn't turn out well enough, and all that can be seen in it is the shrine that houses it.

Then I went for a walk up to the impressive parliament building. You have to pay for a ticket to get right up next to it (!!) so I just walked around. I ended up on the river bank, but (what seems to be) a remnant of Communist times, big highways, hug the riverbank on both sides. I had to walk about 500-600m in the hot sun just to cross the road! Not fun.

So then after that was buying a bottle of water (by credit card... I got a strange look) and going to the toilet in Maccas (70Fl, or 50 euro cents... look up the exchange rates to see how anti-tourist that is). And, of course, sitting in the shade with a beer, watching the main pedestrian street.

Then a quick dash to the meeting point and a bus back to Wien. The End. (And I didn't even call the locals 'Pests').

Tomorrow is Bratislava (briefly)!

Wien

2008-07-31T06:08:00.005+10:00

Yesterday I arrived in Wien (Vienna). It's a lovely city, so much to see and do, very easy to get around, and not as expensive as I expected.

My good impressions are also biased by the way that I got here--in contrast to the trip from Dresden to Praha, going from Praha to Wien, everyting went right. I got to the main station in Praha easily and without hiccups, the train was comfortable and air conditioned, I had a window seat and was facing forwards, I found a good spot for my luggage before all the luggage spaces filled up... etc. Four hours and 15 minutes later I was in Wien, hopped on a tram and arrived at the hostel without getting lost (!). The hostel room is decent, the staff friendly and efficienct.

I'm staying about 15-20 minutes walk from the centre of town, but there's a U-bahn station at the end of the street, so there's no need to walk. But I have walked it (along Mariahilfergasse); it's a busy shopping and eating strip, the modern part of town I guess.

So far all I've managed to do was walk around a bit (even despite the heat... although the evenings are a great time to walk) and take some photos. Today I went to Schönbrunn, where there's a lovely old palace and massive gardens (and I mean massive), filled with fountains, statutes, monuments, etc. I was asked three times in about 15 minutes to take photos of/for people!

Wien is a great place to wander through (moreso when it's not so hot... 31C today), and whilst there's lots of tourists, they're not always all that noticeable. (Apart from some very rich Saudis who are in town... I saw one being driven around in a Rolls Royce; a Porsche Cayenne with arabic number plates; a woman with black full-body veil... but sporting Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and Fendi handbag...)

And when wandering gets tiresome, there's the U-bahn. It's so fast, and so frequent, and so efficient. Ok, there's no air conditioning so it's not perfect, and the platforms are a fair way underground sometimes so there's a bit of walking (but not as bad as in Praha, where it felt quicker to walk to my destination than to navigate the labyrinths leading from the street to the metro platform). The doors on the trains are interesting too... there's a quick buzz whilst they're closing, and within less than a second they slam (yes, slam) shut. Then about 2 seconds later the train takes off... I reckon these things must reach at least 100km/h. So all seems kind of dangerous if you're not paying attention.

Tomorrow I'm off on a day trip to Budapest... which is exciting, other than the 6.15am start! Friday and Saturday are my last two days here (and in Europe, sans airports) so I'm not sure yet what to do. I'm sure I'll find something. There's museums galore here... perhaps I'll try and look at one without getting bored. Worth a go.

Praha

2008-07-29T06:31:00.003+10:00

Greetings from the world’s largest theme park! And no, it’s not Disney Land—but it is filled with American tourists, Italian restaurants and loads and loads of kitsch.

Yup, I’m in Praha (Prague). It’s an interesting—and big—city, but at peak tourist season it’s kind of strange. There are people EVERYWHERE taking photos of EVERYTHING. I feel bad whenever I take out my camera as it must mean I’m one of them. (Which I am, but I don’t like to admit it). One of the most popular attractions is the ‘astronomical clock’ (as in astronomy, not the exaggerative adjective), which makes some noise every hour and some little figures spin around. Ok, it’s kind of pretty (for children perhaps) but it’s really nothing special. I’ve seen more impressive displays on cuckoo clocks. Yet every hour hoards (and I mean hundreds) of tourists gather in front to watch it. I happened to be walking past on the hour on two occasions—once at night, where there were more flashes than an Olympics opening ceremony. At the end was a big applause and cheering (with the odd ‘happy new year’—cynical?).

People really are crazy. That and the fact that so many attractions, museums, restaurants here are complete rip offs… yet they obviously survive.

Now that rant’s out of the way, it’s time for another one. I arrived here on Saturday via train from Dresden—a very hot trip with the discomfort steadily increasing as the journey went on. Arriving in Praha (on a very hot day… actually, all the days have been very hot this week) I had to get onto the metro (underground train thing, like Berlin’s U-bahn) and then somehow find the hostel I was booked in at. That took a while and I was very hot and bothered by the time I arrived there.

…Only to be met at the door by a 75 year old woman (she told me her age). She was very friendly, spoke good English, and was kind of funny. But oh so awfully slow. Everything had to be done at a snail’s pace and checked in triplicate. Twice. My booking had been lost by the dodgy hostel, so she had to call her manager and he told her what room to put me in. That was the quick bit—in total, checking in took a whole hour! She went through the motions, got my details, money, etc and then showed me the room—which was totally underwhelming but by that stage I was tired and over it. Besides, it was relatively (the stress on the relatively) good price for a single room. She then had to change the linen, etc, and that took another eon or so.

Once that was all over… and by this stage I was almost over it all… I went for a wander around, lunch, a 2 hour bike ride (not the best, as there are wonky cobblestones everywhere here. It kind of hurts on a bike. That and there are hardly any bicycles here at all—I’ve seen on average maybe 5 a day at most). I then went back to the hostel to shower and change.

… Only to walk into the shower on my floor (the hostel was over the 3rd and 4th floors of a building), turn the tap on, and find something rather unpleasant coming up through the drain, which was obviously connected via very bad plumbing to the toilet. Hmmm.

So I then, of course, had a quick shower upstairs—also a dirty bathroom and a dodgy (but a bit cleaner) shower with no holder for the shower nozzle. By this stage I was really upset—the hostel was totally disgusting and if something like that was operating in Australia it would be closed down by state health departments—so I went for a walk, a drink, had dinner… wasn’t in the mood for going out. So I resolved the next day to find a better place to stay. Even if I had to pay through the nose for it, I didn’t care.

The last straw was discovering that there was only one power point in my room, hidden behind a bed. And it didn’t work.

Well, thankfully I found somewhere else straight away, thanks to an Internet café. This place (Lion Hostel—I recommend it) wasn’t cheap for a single room for two nights, but it was less than I was expecting I’d have to pay for a hotel room at same day’s notice in peak season. It’s really lovely here actually, the room is clean, the bed is clean, I have my own bathroom with properly functioning plumbing, and a balcony (there’s also a TV and fridge, not that I use those). Once I had checked into here (and did a rather painful luggage move from one end of town to the other, via slow Sunday timetable trams and hot weather) I had a shower and walked outside, feeling all fresh and new.

Oh, and that morning (before the hostel transfer) I went for a walk around town, and across one of the bridges to the western side of the river, and up the hill to the castle. It’s lovely up there, albeit very hot walking in the sun, and I was even allowed a quick peak in the cathedral. Very nice.

That afternoon (after the transfer) I did some general wandering, walking around pretty much everywhere in the old town, taking oodles of photos like the good tourist I am. It’s quite easy to get lost here, as the tourist maps don’t have every single street named, and even worse, the city government hasn’t really made much effort to label every street—there’s one sign hidden away somewhere on each one, but often at the end of the street only, or at big intersections. That and the winding character of some of the streets makes it rather easy to get lost!

Last night I was very tired so I just had dinner, walked around a bit more, then walked back to the hostel to sleep. Today was more walking and wandering, although I used the metro to help me. After breakfast (and it’s alarmingly difficult to find anywhere here that is a. open before 9am; b. serves decent food/pastries; c. has coffee) I went to the Holesovice railway station to ask about getting a ticket to Wien (Vienna) tomorrow… it was surprisingly easy actually, I just had to pick a time and I was issued a ticket for that train (now fingers crossed that Czech rail works…)

I then decided to wander around the main railway station, which is out of town a bit…. Well, there’s nothing there, all I found was an old amusement park / show grounds. By this stage my feet were starting to hurt—I’ve had bad blisters for a few days and today it was really quite painful.

After that I metro-ed to Vyšehrad, the church and gardens (and other assorted old buildings) where the first King of the Czechs lived. It’s a nice place, lots of shade thankfully, and spectacular views of the city (it’s up on a hill to the south). I then had an early lunch—hey I was hungry—and then proceeded to get rather lost trying to find the metro (the big hill meant that roads in reality didn’t quite behave like roads on the map). I eventually got there, feet KILLING me, so then made it back to the hostel. I needed a siesta for a few hours after that.

And then this afternoon I went to check out Jiriho z Podebrad to the south-east, but found not much other than the TV tower—it was tempting to have dinner in the restaurant at the top, but it was very overpriced. So I went back into town and got ripped off having what I thought would be cheap (and bad) Chinese food. Oh well. Nothing a walk along the river couldn’t fix… although it was a quick walk as my feet still hurt.

Tomorrow is Wien! I’ll post more photos soon.

Leipzig und Dresden

2008-07-27T01:35:00.000+10:00

Well, I’m now sitting on the train from Dresden to Praha (a very nice trip actually.. so much to see outside the windows). However, I’m not too comfortable as it’s a VERY hot day here, full sun, and the air con in this train carriage doesn’t work too well.

Getting to the station this morning was rather difficult—I was meant to get tram 13 for 2 stops then tram 7 to the main railway station at the other end of town. Well, the 13 was a million years away so I walked to the stop for n. 7—wasn’t far, and only sweating moderately profusely by then—and luckily a tram 7 came within two minutes. However, there was some madwoman driving it (at least, that’s what her hair suggested) and it went to the middle of the town then decided not to proceed to the railway station, as n. 7 is meant to, but instead the indicator boards were blanked out and the tram headed off into the middle of nowhere. By the time I realised this, I got off… and tried to work out where I was, only to find that street signs are not very popular in that part of town. Actually there were none, so after about 10 mins walking around trying to work out where I was I realised I was fairly far from the station…and the train was due out in 15 mins. So I was walking rather quickly, in the sun, barging through fat stupid people blocking the footpaths… not fun.

Besides that, Dresden is lovely. But first Leipzig, which I visited for 3.5 hours on the way to Dresden from Berlin. The main station there is huge, almost as modern as Berlin’s, and the city centre is nice and small and very walkable (albeit with very, very few places to buy a bottle of water. Hmmm.) I meandered for a few hours, took some photos, saw lots of Bach stuff (he lived there… and is buried in one of the churches)—then sat down for a beer as it was too humid that day.

So humid, actually, that it felt almost tropical. And that means a storm is coming—which it did, as soon as I got off the (insanely hot) train to Dresden. Just as I’m trying to walk to the hostel and negotiate trams etc it just pours down. So I was a bit drenched by the time I arrived (even with my umbrella).

Thankfully, though, the rain soon cleared (just my luck to get the brunt of it for the small 15 minute time period where I’m walking with my suitcase) and I went exploring. The hostel I was staying at was at the north end of town… and it seemed a nice, quiet, small, sleepy town. Well it’s nice, and mostly quiet and sleepy, but oops, not small. I wandered down to the river (Elbe) and whoa—ok, there’s Dresden on the other side. So many massive 19th sandstone buildings… all very elaborate and beautiful. I spent a few hours wandering around and still didn’t see them all. Simply amazing (and it killed my camera battery).

By then it was 9pm and time for dinner… so wandering up a street that heads north—in a district that seems to be populated by artists, musicians, and ugly youth who like to sit and drink on the street—I found a quiet looking Italian restaurant… went in and some crazy waiter starts blabbing at me in Italian and hands me a small glass of sparking wine. Hmm. Eventually I worked out I (along with a few other people) was waiting for a table (they were all hidden away outside, out the back… all the ones inside where I was standing apparently were not there to be used). The food was OK, not bad for the price, but the crazy waiter made it memorable.

And then it was time for a shower, etc, and possibly going out—although I wasn’t sure where to go. As it happens, two girls staying in the same room at the hostel were about to head out as well, and didn’t know where they were going, so asked if I wanted to tag along. We did a bit of bar hopping—a cocktail, a shot of Jägermeister, a beer—there’s not an awful lot of places to go in Dresden on a Friday night, and the two clubs looked a bit crap. Eventually we ended up at some really tacky and slightly seedy gay bar in the same street as the hostel, so we had a few more drinks and requested bad music, which was quite an improvement on the rubbish they were playing when we got there.

This morning I got up early (so I’m quite sleepy now) and did more exploring in the old town, seeing the parts I missed last night. I didn’t last long, though, as it is SO hot today. It’s Australian weather here today!

Berlin

2008-07-27T01:34:00.000+10:00

Ok, well I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been busy exploring Berlin!

There’s so much to say about the place but I’ll keep it brief. It’s such a huge city! The centre (mitte) and inner districts seem to go on forever. Under den Linden and all the old buildings are wonderful, so many of them, each more bigger and more impressive than the last. Brandenburg Gate was impressive of course, as was the Reichstag.

I would have gone inside more things and climbed up more structures if I had the time or patience to stand in a queue of fat sweaty tourists for hours upon hours… and could afford all the entry fees. It’s hard to do much here for less than 10€ a pop!

That said, in general the city wasn’t all that expensive. Sure, there’s heaps of really dear things and places, but also a lot of cheap stuff. The price of food, coffee, beer, souvenirs, bits n pieces, etc seemed to be on par with Sydney, perhaps even a tad cheaper. The public transport is also quite handy in Berlin--6€ for a day ticket on ‘zone AB’ (inner and middle rings of city), which means U-bahn (little subway type trains), S-bahn (big normal suburban trains), buses, trams, etc.. although all I ever really needed was the U-bahn. My hotel—I splurged on a proper hotel, although I got a very good price when I booked it—was technically in mitte but kind of on the edge in the middle of nowhere (its focal point was the internal courtyard, as there was nothing else around)… but right next to a U-bahn station so getting around was quite easy.

Tuesday, when I arrived, was just random walking about and looking around… and lots of confusion trying to decipher the directions from the airport to the hotel (and the flight was interesting too—I was in row two, and in row one on the other side of the plane was a large, very loud Latvian.. who had never flown before, was drunk as a skunk, and was screaming around and pestering the attendants the whole time. But thankfully it was only a 1.5 hour flight.)

Wednesday I walked around Alexander Platz, Under den Linden, Zoologisher Garten and other random inner city spots. That evening I went to check out some bars that had been recommended to me—one was ok, but basically empty.. the other shut. Oops! Oh well

Thurs, yesterday, I hired a bicycle and rode around for 4 hours. It was great! The road systems here work so well and drivers actually respect bikes… amazing. A few times I caused confusion by stopping for cars, except since I had the right of way they stopped also to let me through. There’s also bike paths on many roads as well to make it easier. It was a good way to see the city, to get around, see new places, etc. Well worth the mere 7€!

And then that evening I did more random wandering. I went to Fassbinder and Rausch, an amazing (and amazingly expensive) chocolate shop with a chocolate Titanic, Reichstag, church, and other Berlin landmarks. Also bought a few things—not cheap but well worth it. Yum!

Barack Obama was also around yesterday—I didn’t go watch him speak or anything (God forbid) but quite a few roads had been closed off during the day… which was irritating. But the rest of the city still functioned normally. (A nice change from the days of APEC in Sydney!)

I’ll have to go back to Berlin sometime. Still so much that I haven’t seen.

Right now I’m on the intercity express train to Leipzig (there for 4 hours then onto Dresden). The Berlin-HBF central railway station was huge and very modern… but with lifts that didn’t work and random platform changes for trains, I wasn’t overly impressed. At least the train is comfortable, AIR CONDITIONED, fast and reasonably quiet.

Tschuss!

Leaving Riga

2008-07-23T06:57:00.001+10:00

Well, I’m writing this whilst sitting at Riga airport. My flight doesn’t leave for another 2.5 hours, but I’m bored so thought I’d head over here early. Riga is a nice city, but today it was quite hot in the sun and I’d pretty much seen everything so just went for a random walk through the old town then some other parts of the city to the east of it. I think 2 days is long enough to see Riga. I actually wanted to hire a bicycle the other day, so I asked at the tourist information centre where I could do that. She told me there’s one place, “only” about 2.5 km away, and another that’s online and delivers to hotels/hostels… and located “only” 3km away. So I gave up on that idea as I didn’t particularly want to wait standing outside the hostel for some random bike delivery that may or may not show up.

The hostel was GREAT, actually. I’d recommend it to anyone, Tiger Hostel in Riga. Even the bed linen and towels were themed in tiger stripes and orange colours! Very clean hostel, very clean room, lots of space in my room, and each room has free wireless internet as well as a desktop computer with internet. The staff don’t have the best English and there’s no parties going on, but so what? I wish other hostels I’d stayed in were as nice as this one… (and it was a pretty reasonable price, good location, etc).

At the other extreme, the bus to the airport is one of the stupidest things about this city. Ok, at least they have an airport bus, unlike Sydney (as far as I’m aware). But it’s only four times an hour from the central railway station and runs like a suburban service that also does the airport as an afterthought. The conductor spoke English at least—but a suitcase costs two tickets (so person + bag = 3 tickets). Which is fine, I don’t mind paying more, but since a suitcase is smaller and a lot lighter than a person, why is it two tickets on its own?

That and the bus—which was fairly new and comfortable if you got a seat—was a little hot and overcrowded. And it took forever, through stupid backstreets and stopping every few hundred metres for 2 or 3 passengers. Riga really needs a dedicated airport bus along with suburban services…

And that ends my grumble. I’m going to check in now. I hope my bag is under 20kg! I’m on the sole EasyJet flight for the day to Berlin. I’m just hoping I manage to find my hotel there without getting lost—apparently there’s a train from the airport to the station that’s only 100m from the hotel… but we’ll see.

I’ll add Riga photos very soon (Tallinn 2, Tartu, etc are up).

(Update: Yes, it was under 20kg... just! At 19.6kg I really need to lose some stuff before I pick up more and return to Aus. Plus I've already posted a parcel home!)

Regal Riga

2008-07-22T00:15:00.003+10:00

Greetings from Riga, the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltics (as they continually boast).

I arrived yesterday,and spent yesterday afternoon and most of today walking around exploring the place. The old town is fairly beautiful, lovely buildings everywhere, and the city has a park that runs alongside the old town, which is a nice place to sit and relax. There are statues and monuments on every corner!

The biggest annoyance is the tourist maps, as none of them label every street in the old town, making it rather easy to get lost amongst the meandering cobblestones.

The river looks pretty (I'm about to go for a walk alongside it soon). There's also a 26-storey hotel with a bar at the top, which has been a great spot to see everything (and sit down to have a drink).

The language is a bit strange--thankfully lots of younger people speak English--and the streets are a bit confusing. A lot less pedestrian and bicycle friendly than Helsinki or Tallinn. Here, some of the major roads have nowhere for people to cross, and so it's a matter of just running across and avoiding the cars/trams/trolley buses.

Prices are a bit more expensive here than in Estonia it seems, but not too bad. (Plus they use Lats, one of which is worth even more than one pound sterling at spot rates! There's 0.4 AUD to 1 LAT).

Well, I'm off for a walk and to find some dinner... ciao!

Tartu!

2008-07-21T20:41:00.002+10:00

Well, I forgot to mention, Friday afternoon I also went to meet some family friends who live near Kadriorg Park in Tallinn. That was ok, we had some very nice food and wine followed by fresh Estonian strawberries (yum)!

Saturday I slept in (oops) then caught a bus to Tartu. Because I didn't get there early enough, the bus I was on (11am service) was packed full. I was squished in the middle of the back seat. Oops. Oh well. It was only a short trip, about 2h 20m.

Tartu was nice (although took me a while to find my hostel... hidden away next to the Russian Consulate in a back alley). I'd heard it would be very sleepy in the summer--it's a university town, so most of the students would be away on their summer break--but as I arrived the place was totally packed with people for a mediaeval festival. Most streets were clogged with stalls, food, beer tents, craft ladies, and lots of fat, clumsy tourists getting in the way. So I avoided the main bits as best I could (until it got late) and just walked around the edge of the town.

The buildings are pretty, although the famous university building, whilst big, wasn't as big as I'd expected (perhaps because it is squished in amongst lots of other buildings). There's a rather nice park and hill just next to the town, which was good for meandering through. I also checked out one of the older suburbs just to the north of the centre, which was interesting, and walked to the local 'beach'! (Tartu is on the Emajõgi River, which is a dark brown colour and didn't look like the nicest thing to swim in... but swim people did!)

Like Tallinn, it's also a town of contrasts--and old town full of old buildings (most are a bit newer in Tartu, mostly 18th and 19th centuries) and across a major road is a new town full of plate glass and steel.

And apart from the crowds that day and terrible service at the restaurant I had dinner at, it's a nice place to visit... but for no more than 2 days I reckon.

Next stop--after a not very nice 5.30am alarm clock for a 6.45am bus--was Riga! (where I am now, and which I'll write about tonight)

Thursday and Friday

2008-07-20T19:33:00.002+10:00

These days were spent back in Tallinn. Not as exciting as the first time I was there but still fun. Thursday involved a tram to Kadriorg Park then a walk along Tallinn Bay to Pirita, where the regatta events of the 1980 Moscow Olympics were held. There's not an awful lot there, just a marina and a few shops, plus old church ruins.

I was rained on heavily during the walk, which wasn't fun. Oh well, lucky I packed an umbrella! My half way stop-off point was what I thought was a small museum on 20th century Estonian history. Well, it was pretty big and very well presented, very good quality. Plus most stuff had been translated into English, which was helpful.

Pirita itself was pretty boring. I walked around the old ruins then had lunch at the marina. Decent food but slow service.

Friday.... I can't quite remember so it can't have been to exciting. In the morning I climbed up St. Olav's church (Oleviste kirik), which dates from around the 12th-16th centuries, and during 1549 to 1625 was the world's tallest building... And it was tall! The viewing platform was just over half way up but it felt like the top of the world (and the old stone steps weren't too fun). And The church is located on top of a small hill, and is the height limit for the whole city--ie, no glass-plated modern skyscraper is allowed to be higher above sea level than Oleviste.

Friday afternoon was lunch at the airport (something to do!) and then more walking around.

Wednesday: Muhu and Saaremaa

2008-07-20T01:56:00.003+10:00

This day started off rainy and miserable weather-wise, but ended up rather nice and sunny.

The day started reasonably early with a drive to the islands, across the car ferry that runs every hour. There are two big islands off the western Estonian coast, Hiiumaa and Saaremaa. We went to the latter, and the smaller island of Muhu that's joined to it by a sand spit (and highway).

Muhu was nice, we went to see another manor house on the south of the island and then some sea cliffs and caves in the north (only 10 mins drive away). There were also lots of wild strawberries--they were very small, but yum!

Next was Saaremaa, which is quite popular amongst Estonians but looked to me a lot like the mainland with shorter vegetation. It was nice enough though (and moreso when the sun came out). We visited meteorite craters, old buildings, Kuressaare and some wooden windmills.

Kuressaare was the best part, a lovely little town, not too busy or crowded. Lots of old buildings, small streets, cafés etc (and a monkey tied to the top of a van advertising the local circus). We had lunch at a pub, sitting outside. It was great.

Then onto Kuressaare Castle, which is one of the best in Estonia (and the best I've seen so far). It even has a full moat around it! And a drawgate! A big buildings; we didn't go inside but it was fun enough just walking around and having a go at archery (as you do).

Wednesday night I had to return to Tallinn, and after much confusion with bus stops and times, I said goodbye to my relatives and headed back to the big city (well, not a big city, but big by Estonian standards).

More photos are up.
Next posts: Pirita, wandering around Tallinn, Tartu (where I am now)

Tuesday: Pärnu

2008-07-19T04:28:00.003+10:00

Continuing on......

Tuesday I got a lift to Pärnu, Estonia's beach city, and was able to spend a few hours there while my relative was busy at a work function. It's quite a small town (although Estonians like to call it a city), only about 25,000 people and three or four main streets. The town itself is small, quaint, pretty... and then a few hundred metres walk to the beach. This was the main attraction of course, especially since it was 26C and sunny.

The beach is wide and long enough (although not as long as most Australian beaches). It's also got brown water (...yuck) and so much stuff on the sand! Chairs, tables, seats, ads, stands, tents, volleyball nets, football nets, boardwalks... bare patches of sand were a rare commodity!

Well, not really, as the crowds were decent (it was a hot day, after all) but I wouldn't say it was crowded like Australian beaches can get. Most people were also rather pasty and quite ugly. Hmm.

Other than that, it was a nice day. Quite relaxing--and I got a bit sunburnt. Oops!

That afternoon I went back to Martna, and then down the road to Suure-Lähtru, the manor house (mõis) owned and renovated by the other rels. It was very nice! My friend (the one who gave me the tour of Tallinn) also gave me a tour of the house. It's so big, and so many old and interesting things! (see the photo gallery). A LOT of work has gone into the renovation and it shows, but they've done really great work with it (and when we got there, we found them in the process of constructing a roof on a new building!)

The past week

2008-07-19T04:20:00.003+10:00

Ok, about time for me to write some more on here. I realise it's been quite a while, oops! So in chronological order...

Monday: Today was a visit (with the family I was staying with) to northern parts of Läänemaa, including some very nice national parks and beaches. It was pretty miserable weather, lots of rain, but it was still good to see all these places. We also went to a very nice manner house in Vihterpalu (with about 4 gardeners hard at work...) and an old castle (very famous locally) at Padise. Lovely old buildings.

That night was a stay at the grandmothers' (of the family) country house in the village of Martna. It's a lovely place, with a big vegetable garden and lots of berry trees. Plus an outdoor fireplace/BBQ shaped like a toy train. And I had my very first sauna... but wasn't really to my liking. They were all talking about how 110 degrees is good for a hot sauna and about 70-80 for a normal one... I was thinking this must be farenheit but no, it was celsius... (because saunas are so dry, it doesn't hurt to have it that hot).

All in all a rather nice stay in the country. However it was a bit awkward at times with the family (some others came over too) as only two of them could speak any English and the conversation was in Estonian most of the time (of course). So communicating was a little difficult.

Photos

2008-07-18T00:45:00.003+10:00

A few more (only the Suomenlinna Islands in Helsinki, plus a repost of the Tallinn ones) are up at the photos website

I've downloaded and resized the photos for Haapsalu, Läänemaa, Pärnu, Suure-Lähtru, Muhu, Saaremaa and Pirita... but I just need to go through and select the best ones. I'll have these online ASAP.

And I'll have another post too!

Läänemaa countryside

2008-07-14T05:48:00.002+10:00

Well, today's been interesting. I got up nice and early to get on the 8am bus to Haapsalu, after convincing my friend to come with me, as he had to be at his parents' mõis (old manor house) out this way. Except he gets to the bus station and then finds out that the bus doesn't go to the little stop that he needs. Oops! I felt like an idiot. And even more so when I rang my relative here asking if she could give my friend a lift to where he was going... except I'd got confused about where she lived and it was in Haapsalu, not the town next to the mõis. Whoops! It all got sorted out in the end, his mother could pick him up from Haapsalu, but after an 8am start and two phone calls waking people up we both felt a bit silly I think. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The bus trip was... suitably boring--but only a bit over an hour away. Haapsalu is very small, but it's very pretty. First stop was here (relatives' house) for breakfast (my second breakfast, but it was hard, not to mention impolite, to refuse the yummy Estonian food). Then we all jumped in the car (with the two boys and the dog) and off we went to see the countryside. It's very different to Australia. So green and the trees are just... completely strange to me. We went to see a big wetland, Matsalu, that's a major bird breeding site (although not many birds were in today) and an exhibition on birds, wildlife, etc at a nearby mõis (these things are everywhere). Then on to the town of Lihula where there's a 16th century mõis (in need of a bit of renovation) and ruins of a 12th century castle. The ruins were fun to climb, but there's not much left, just a few walls and mounds.

And after that was dinner in Haapsalu followed by walking around the local castle--also 12th century but this one was a lot bigger. So old!! And in the middle of it all was a huge modern children's playground... as you do. It was a very popular actually.

Then a quick stroll through parts of the old town (Vanalinn, as they call old towns) and by the water. All very pretty and serene. Not much seems to happen in downtown Haapsalu, but I suspect the locals like it that way.

To top it all off, I went for a bike ride around town. I was a bit wobbly at first, not having ridden a bike in... 6 years(?).. but soon remembered how to do it. I didn't get back till 10pm, but it's still daylight here then and everyone was still up. (It's 11pm now and the sun has only just set)

Anyway, I'm off now, as tomorrow is apparently a tour around the rest of Läänemaa (the county this is all in) and staying with some other relatives. Fun times... I just wish I'd packed more clothes into my backpack, as I wasn't expecting to be away from the place I'm staying in Tallinn, where my suitcase lives, for so long. Oops! I don't think I''ll get back there until Wednesday evening. Oh well!

More photos soon, of course, but I may not be able to post them until I'm back in Tallinn.

Head aega! (bye)

More photos...

2008-07-13T13:48:00.003+10:00

More photos are online

It's just Helsinki up so far, but I'll put the Suomenlinna Islands and Tallinn photos up on there soon as well.

Photos!

2008-07-13T06:31:00.003+10:00

Finally, I have photos to post!
I've put them on my Facebook as it's easiest:

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=700730411&k=Y3A424V544WMWJGEWG56Q
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=700730411&k=ZW15PV6XSWWMWJGEWG56Q
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=700730411&k=X6MTZ4S6P35MWJGEWG56Q

(Click on the link, then on the album name)

For some reason the Helsinki ones wouldn't upload so they'll come later. But for now, there's three albums of Tallinn!

And I will use a photo sharing website for any more photos

Greetings from Tallinn!

2008-07-12T04:15:00.000+10:00

Tere! Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but so much has been happening! On Wednesday I left Helsinki and went via ferry to Tallinn. Finding the ferry terminal in Helsinki was hard work (and involved a long walk down a rather industrial looking road, asking two Russian women, that didn’t speak English, for directions along the way). Ferry trip was kinda boring, it was just a big cruise ship full of boring shops, bars, cafés… and then this island appears in front of the ship soon after we’d left. I could have sworn there were no big islands between Finland and Estonia, and I was right. It was Estonia. Those ferries are very fast.

I arrived, carrying my already overweight baggage, walked through a variety of mazes and walkways to get out of the terminal, and was met by two relatives! (And a third in the car). I wasn’t too sure what to expect, meeting them for the first time, but they were all very friendly and easy to get along with (although one of them, who’s my age, had to translate a bit for the other who, who are a bit older).

So they drove me to my hostel, which was very nice of them (especially since the hostel was impossible to find), and I checked in and dumped by bag (the room is very small and primitive… but it will do, especially since it’s only for sleeping). Next was finding a SIM card so I have an Estonian mobile number (+37255932750 if you have the urge to text me) and then arranging to meet two of the rels again on Sunday for a tour of Western Estonia! (they had to head back home).

So that afternoon the other one (my age and speaks English almost better than I do) took me on a really quite detailed tour of the Tallinn old and new towns. It’s such a contrast here—the old town is lovely, mediaeval, narrow streets and lanes, many hidden treasures (and hoards of tourists… like me), whereas the new town is steel and glass plated, all sparking and clean, with most buildings constructed within the past 5 years or so. I went into an Estonian department store!! Which really wasn’t all that exciting as it was nearly identical to Myer in Australia…. But still quite novel at the time.

The next day (yesterday) I got another tour! My friend’s friend was meant to be coming along too but couldn’t make it, but that didn’t stop us. I got a wonderfully detailed tour of the areas surrounding the city, Kadriorg Park and Palace (very pretty),the beach at Tallinn Harbour (not so pretty), and then on to meet his parents for lunch. Estonian food is so nice! Plus it was great to meet everyone.

Following from that we got a lift to the (huge) outdoor museum, which wasn’t too far from his house. It was quite tranquil but museum-ey, old wooden buildings and straw roofs, windmills, animal houses, etc. And it was also a great seaside location with good views, lovely sunny weather and a nice breeze. There was an Estonian swing by the water, which I got to go on (along with my friend and two women who were also there). It’s four people standing on a wooden A-shaped structure that swings off a rectangular frame, and everyone faces inwards, two on each side. These things can go quite high! And quite enjoyable in a peaceful sort of way.

Next was a tour of the residential parts of town, largely Soviet-era apartment towers and the like. One of the regions was called ‘Blossom Hill,’ but I was assured it wasn’t meant to be ironic. The flats looked quite basic but many had flowers etc on the balconies so I guess they’re home to many people. And the tram lines, shops, etc are all within walking distance so it doesn’t look too bad—unlike in pictures of big Russian cities etc.

And then was supermarket time! The supermarket was HUGE, it had 33 aisles, all full of random stuff. The bread selection was amazing (and I bought an Estonian rye bread) as were all the berries… so we then sat outside eating copious amounts of raspberries and strawberries and biscuit things.

By the time we got back into town—and it was still full daylight—it was about 10pm. Oops! So there was time for a quick drink at a nice Italian wine bar (this city is very ‘multicultural’ when it comes to restaurants and bars) and then he had to head home. So I walked around a bit more then did the same.

And this morning was me exploring some more on my own—cobblestones do tend to hurt the feet after not very long at all—and some aimless wandering around in general. Plus a quick tour of the southern parts of the city by my friend, who was passing through town. Now it’s 6.30, nearly dinner time, and I need to decide what/where to eat! Head aega!

(PS, photos are delayed again, will do my best to get them up tomorrow)

Walking around...

2008-07-08T23:58:00.000+10:00

It’s 4pm and my legs are killing me! I’ve just spent the day walking around Helsinki and the Suomenlinna Islands. It’s quite a lovely place here, although I still can’t get over how expensive everything is!

I started the day by walking down to the central railway station—and a nearby shopping megacentre, the name of which escapes me right now. It’s kind of like Melbourne’s QV centre. All very modern.

Next was Helsinki Cathedral, which has the most amazing pipe organ, followed by its Orthodox counterpart, which would have been perfect without the busload of Russian tourists that got there just as I did.

I worked out I could buy an all-day bus/tram ticket for a mere €6, which turns out would also get me to the Suomenlinna Islands on the ferry. So I did that, after some walking around some random streets. The islands were lovely, and have a World Heritage listed 18th Century German (I think?) fortress… which just goes on and on, but is really nice. Lots of places to walk to and down to the water, etc. Would be a great place for kids!

Then I came back to the main harbour, jumped on a random tram and ended up somewhere rather boring. So then tram back half way and walked. There are SO many people selling strawberries here! I’m very tempted to buy some, but a €5 a punnet it just doesn’t seem worth it. Oh well, maybe tomorrow morning before I leave.

Photos to follow soon—probably on Facebook as it’s the easiest thing to upload photos onto.

A quick update from Helsinki

2008-07-08T17:05:00.002+10:00

Well, I've arrived... This place is so strange, everything looks so old and different, the trees are odd, the language is just bizarre (most people speak English but the signs are all in this awful gobbledegook called Suomen)

It's a bit strange here... there are about five internet cafes in the whole city and im in the only free one--well, free if you buy a coffee (€2,70) and its only 15 mins. but hey, i needed a coffee anyway. I'm actually in the food hall type section of a David Jones-like department store.

I will post some photos once I get to Estonia and have better internet access.

The streets here are quite nice, everything is old and cobblestone-ey. And the transport! the city planning!! itś just amazing. so many bikes, pedestrians have right of way and DON'T have to press a button to apply to cross the road. Plus a crossing on EVERY street corner. And wide streets. They've done something right here!

My hostel is pretty plain but for two nights it will do. I was feeling a bit lost and out of it last night so I went to the ... Aussiebar! Which felt alarmingly like Australia, even the bar tender was Australian (well, Kiwi apparently but his accent was Sydney I thought). But I've been wondering, why move to Helsinki? Crazy!

Anyway, time for me to go exploring, I want to go and see the Suomenlinna islands if I can work out how to get on the ferry. And I have a tram/bus ticket... €6 for a whole day but I'm yet to work out how to actually use the thing... oh well!

Greetings from Narita!

2008-07-07T09:13:00.002+10:00

Well, Ive (cant find apostrophe on silly bilingual keyboard) (ps, こんいちは) landed in Tokyo, where I must wait 4 hours before I get on my next flight--Helsinki here I come wooo...

My legs are a bit sore after 9 hours of conditions the RSPCA would forbid livestock from being transported in. But hey, Im in a new country, its exciting. This airport is a bit old and grey... as is the weather... and the air con is set to a sweltering 32C or so. But all is efficient, the shuttle train between terminals 2A and 2B is kinda funky. And I just want to buy EVERYTHING in the tacky little shops... if only my baggage allowance would, well, allow for it (or if I could find a post office).

I think I might go find some expensive airport coffee now (on credit card of course... yen, what?) then maybe something gorgeous I saw at the shops.

Anyway, on that note, さよんあら！

National Sustainability Policy

2008-06-25T10:05:00.001+10:00

After the overall successes of the National Competition Policy to improve economic efficiency and governance across the country, it now makes much sense to expand this initiative to also include environmental and social efficiency and governance.

This could not come at a more crucial time. It should be hoped that the policy is well formulated and implemented. There is also an historic opportunity to integrate it with strategies to address climate change, such as an emissions trading scheme, and policies to improve the way our cities are planned, managed and function.

Congestion tax

2008-06-25T10:04:00.001+10:00

Whilst a congestion tax could potentially work wonders for the inner city region of Sydney, caution must be taken. A congestion tax would disproportionately hurt people who have to drive into the city large distances every day, in part because there is no reliable public transport in many parts of Sydney.

There’s also the inconvenient fact that the CBD is still a transport vortex, sucking in almost every major highway in the city. With the rail system inhumanely overcrowded in the morning peak, this doesn’t leave most people with much of an option. The congestion tax would thus be a great revenue raiser, but without public transport improvements it wouldn’t help our problems.

Whilst the NSW Government has an opportunity to use the funds from a congestion tax to fund public transport, I suspect it would probably find other areas to spend these in. Add in all the exemptions and concessions they make before it’s implemented, and there will not be nearly enough funds to cover public transport needs. A smarter approach to transport planning is needed—and preferably one that looks at our long-term needs.

Qantas

2008-06-24T08:46:00.001+10:00

As someone who is about to travel on an international flight with Qantas in the coming weeks—one that departs Sydney rather close to the curfew, and which also connects with another airline elsewhere—I am quite anxious and concerned about the recent stories of delayed and cancelled flights. When I booked my tickets, I was under the impression that Qantas was a reputable airline that was safe to travel on and would leave on time without trouble. I no longer feel this way. With delays becoming both endemic and ridiculous, and with the quality of aircraft maintenance compromised by a stubborn refusal to increase engineers’ pay by more than the inflation rate, surely it is just a matter of time before an irate international customer takes Qantas to court for failing to provide the service the customer paid for. After all, the recent delays are certainly not beyond Qantas’ control.

I'm excited

2008-06-20T11:36:00.000+10:00

I'm off to Hobart in just over a week, and then off to Helsinki in just over two weeks. Time is flying by!

I'll try and update my blog with exciting (or not so exciting) random travel stories and snippets.

Energy provision

2008-06-20T11:35:00.001+10:00

Western Australia’s gas crisis shows just how fragile our energy provision and infrastructure is. One explosion can throw an entire state economy into crisis and threaten the viability of many businesses. It may even hurt the nation’s export performance.

This is a concern, especially when almost our entire economy and society are at the mercy of electricity provision.

This should be another reason, alongside global warming, to switch to diverse sources of renewable energy. Had Western Australia had extensive solar, wind, tidal and geothermal energy systems in place, a single gas explosion wouldn’t be nearly as troublesome.

Grammar teaching

2008-06-13T10:24:00.001+10:00

The minutiae of the grammar rules of proper English may be a matter of interpretation and opinion, but there is very little point in arguing over the difference between a preposition and a conjunction when most school children have no idea what any of these terms refer to.

If there is ever an appropriate time for national syllabus to replace the state systems then it is now. Plain English must be taught before postmodern critique; knowing the rules of basic grammar in the first place is more important than appreciating how authors creatively manipulate these.

What is the point of English classes if students aren't learning about language, and their teachers don't know how to teach it? Grammar must return to high school English across Australia.

Get a move on, Rudd

2008-06-11T09:06:00.002+10:00

The last Labor Prime Minister, Paul Keating, was the main force behind floating the currency, deregulating the financial sector, cutting many tariffs and subsidies, creating an enterprise bargaining system that sapped the power of unions, privatised Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank, and modernised the Australian economy. All of these were brave moves that got a lot of people offside, but in hindsight after many years of solid growth we can see how beneficial these reforms were.

Kevin Rudd, by contrast, has shown a remarkable ability to set up committees and write reports, but at any chance of being able to make some brave changes he runs for the cover of populist politics. Instead of addressing climate change we get inquiries into why petrol isn’t cheap enough; instead of reforming protected industries (like cars) we get more talk of tariff freezes and subsidies we don’t need (like an Australian-made hybrid); instead of a budget that seriously tackles inflationary pressures we get more tax cuts and a failure to address the ‘middle-class welfare’ problem. And then there’s the lack of both vision and spine on industrial relations law and private school funding.

You’re Prime Minister now, Mr. Rudd, not the Opposition Leader. This is your chance to make your mark.

Train fares

2008-06-07T12:08:00.001+10:00

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal wants to raise Sydney suburban train fares dramatically, in the hope that this will improve CityRail’s finances and allow for future improvement of the network. Only in NSW could a proposal like this ever be taken seriously. Who in their right mind would charge passengers more for declining service quality? A more sensible option would be to borrow funds to finance an improvement of the train network and then, once services have improved, raise fares to pay off the loan. CityRail certainly has funding problems, but slugging the hapless passengers who have had to put up with CityRail for years—and who are doing society a benefit by not clogging up roads with polluting motor vehicles—is not the way to solve the problem.

NSW Budget

2008-06-04T10:45:00.001+10:00

The focus on infrastructure spending and public transport projects in the NSW Budget is welcome, but as usual the devil is in the detail.

A look at the budget papers reveals that of infrastructure spending on transport for 2008/09, $1.14bn is devoted to roads whilst only $563m is put aside for public transport projects.

The Labor Government’s attitude towards public transport spending doesn’t seem to have changed much.

Health system inefficiencies

2008-06-03T09:41:00.001+10:00

Tanveer Ahmed raises an important, if disturbing, point about the outdated and archaic nature of specialist medical examinations that aim to restrict the number of qualified specialists to ensure those already in the workforce can charge more. This is counter to the public interest. It makes me wonder how many other pathetic inefficiencies and stupid administrative practices exist within the health system. Many recent news stories have described how accountant-minded managers in hospitals have cut corners at every opportunity, simply raising the total cost to the health system in the long-term as patients fail to recover properly. Public hospitals are in such a bad state because of a lack of funding, of course, but how much better could things be if they were simply run properly with the long-term public interest in mind? The state treasurer might want to think about this in his budget: here is an opportunity for a big improvement in services and efficiency at minimal budgetary cost.

Of planning and racism

2008-05-31T20:05:00.001+10:00

Camden Council has rejected the development application for an Islamic school “on planning grounds alone,” as if the sentiments of local residents are somehow independent of the planning process. The decision may make some locals feel better, but the whole matter does little to foster social cohesion more widely.

It is a great disappointment that such narrow-minded racism still exists in Australia. This hostility, reflected in the vociferous opposition to the development application, has obviously influenced the council’s decision: Would they really have approved the school in spite of such local attitudes, had the traffic and other technical “planning” conditions been adequate?

The planning process needs to simultaneously balance economic, environmental and social sustainability alongside both local attitudes towards development and the broader public interest. This is easier said than done. The council’s decision was, given local attitudes, the correct one. Approving an Islamic school would only have lead to greater hostility, violence and racism in the area. It would not change attitudes; nor would it encourage the acceptance of difference. Indeed, it would probably prove counterproductive in these respects.

Public transport in Sydney

2008-05-30T11:17:00.002+10:00

Rising petrol prices and increasing demand for trains and buses suggest that the inevitable transition towards a less carbon-intensive world is beginning to occur in Sydney. Sydney needs a decent public transport system now more than ever, with growing populations and fuel costs threatening the way our city functions.

However, effective, large-scale public transport systems can't be built overnight. They need to be planned and invested in well in advance. The state government must borrow the required funds to do so immediately. The borrowing can be paid off over time through higher taxes on fuels and cars, and on slightly higher ticket prices for public transport. We can't wait any longer.

Inflation targeting

2008-05-22T09:58:00.002+10:00

Joseph Stiglitz's criticisms of inflation targeting are cause for concern. It's widely acknowledged that when an economy is faced with inflation caused by rising input prices, automatically raising interest rates in response risks pushing down economic growth even further. It's also widely acknowledged that food and energy prices cannot keep rising indefinitely forever. Once they stabilise, price levels stop growing and the inflation that they cause tapers away.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is aware of this and has already set monetary policy accordingly. Inflation is high but the RBA hasn't been raising rates month after month as it expects that the temporary supply-side inflation will eventually subside. Rather than force inflation into a rigid 2 to 3 per cent band, it is focusing on moderating the extent to which supply-induced price rises flow on to other prices and affect wage determination. We must remember that inflation is high at present mostly due to strong demand growth.

The other flaw with Stiglitz's claim concerns what a more appropriate nominal target for monetary policy would be. The experiences of the late 1960s and 1970s showed that exchange rate targeting was not optimal policy. The mid-1980s showed that money growth targeting was difficult and didn't work. The late 1980s, during which there was no specific target, eventually culminated in the early 90s recession.

Inflation targeting has worked well since its inception in the early 1990s, and if implemented flexibly--like it is now in Australia--there is no reason to dump it for an unknown alternative.

Labour market outcomes

2008-05-19T13:04:00.004+10:00

"Australia may be lucky and sail through the boisterous economic seas without any significant impact on unemployment. However, while we may have seen the worst of the credit crisis, I would rate this outcome as only a ⅓ probability.

"Allowing for the delayed impact of earlier interest rate increases, a more likely outcome over the next couple of years is that official unemployment will rise above 5 per cent for a sustained period of time and that the overall under-utilisation rate (which allows for under-employment and discouraged workers) will grow to 8 to 8.5 per cent."

... writes Fred Argy in On Line Opinion. With inflation looking like it's reached its peak, and looming uncertainty about Australia's economic future, it's a very real possibility that unemployment will have to rise soon.

Argy argues that the Howard-Costello government ran a 'neutral' fiscal policy at the expense of a contractionary one when the economy probably needed slowing down (that is, there was a big cyclical surplus but policy opted for a moderate structural deficit). As a result, inflation kept rising and unemployment fell lower than it should have.

To bring inflation down, the RBA raised rates at the start of the year. But did they raise them by too much, and will we now see an upwards surge in unemployment?

Besides, what is the 'natural' or long-term rate of unemployment these days anyway? With the evolving labour market policy landscape, this is an important question to think about. The new government may not have things as rosy as their predecessor did.

A geographic revolution?

2008-05-18T14:24:00.001+10:00

Geography is all around us. Where you live and work, why you go where you do to shop or have fun, how you move about, and what public and private spaces mean to you can be thought about geographically. So can globalisation, climate change, landforms, macroeconomics and events happening on the other side of the Earth. As can the view out the window. Being able to think geographically is an important skill; it helps us to make sense of our world.

The world is far from perfect, and these imperfections matter. Why places are different, the way people interact with their environment and with each other, and what places mean to different groups all constitute geography. Geography is the world, and knowing the world is important.

Read more...

The politics of envy

2008-05-18T14:06:00.001+10:00

There was a time when welfare dependency was looked down upon and Australian society was based upon hard work. A time when everybody had the chance to climb the social ladder if they put in the effort, and those who were poor and struggled more than most to put food on the table got help from the government. But the Australia of today doesn’t seem to look like this anymore.

The poorly devised federal budget has opened up debates about whether we should redistribute income from the rich to benefit the poor, on one side, or whether we should move beyond the “politics of envy,” on the other. Despite the terms used, the argument is really about whether government handouts should be given to wealthy, high income-earning households, who live quite comfortably but are only “struggling” because they’ve overcommitted themselves to excessive mortgages.

An efficient tax-welfare system would recognise that government handouts distort and reduce incentives to work, and that they are a privilege, not a right. Those who are really struggling and living close to the poverty line deserve government help; those earning over $80,000 a year most certainly don’t. If the government wants to use mining boom revenues to benefit more people it should direct these towards reducing inequality in our society, or, alternatively, simply give everyone a lump sum cheque rather than using the revenues to distort the economy through all manner of complicated welfare payments.

In any case, the “politics of envy” haven’t disappeared, they’ve simply flipped. The rich now expect not just high incomes to compensate for their hard work, but government handouts too. This is not the Australia I know.

(Published in The Australian letters, 19 May 2008)

A new blog...

2008-05-18T13:31:00.000+10:00

Well, I've had this blog sitting here unused for quite a while, so I'd thought it would be a good idea to resuscitate it. So I’ve deleted all the old posts and I’m starting afresh.

I’m not sure what to post here, but I guess it will just be a collection of snippets, travel stories and comments on the state of the world.

Seemingly everyone has a blog these days, so I thought I’d join in the fun!

Brad