Bob Wilson - thegoodwills.com

A New Twist On The Term Dog Act

dog-act-covid — Well-socialised Staffie out for his daily walk. Photo BW

“Starting on Monday,” our Staffie said, “you need to take me for a 30-minute walk, twice a day.” He confessed to sneaking a peek at an article in The Guardian about a new law in Germany, known for our purposes, as the Dog Act.

The Guardian reported that Germany’s agriculture minister, Julia Klöckner, is introducing the new law, based on evidence that many of the nation’s 9.4 million dogs are not getting the exercise or stimuli they need. Under the new regulations in the Hundeverordnung, or Dogs Act, owners will be required to take their dogs out twice a day (one hour in total), seven days a week.

Klöckner said scientific findings showed that dogs need a “sufficient measure of activity and contact with environmental stimuli”, including other animals, nature and people.

The new rules, starting in 2021, will complicate the lives of German dog owners who go out to work. The tethering of dogs for long periods will be banned, as will leaving your dogs alone at home all day.

When I read this report out loud, She Who Edits promptly got the giggles (probably because of my faux German accent). I was more amused by the association with the Australian term, ‘dog act’. For the benefit of our international readers, if two blokes are fighting and one puts in the boot while his opponent is on the ground, that’s a ‘dog act’. Same goes for pushing an old lady over and stealing her purse – ‘dog act’, or throwing the footie at an opponent’s head.

But this new German law is no laughing matter; it will put working dog owners in a bind. I foresee a steep increase in employment for dog-walkers and a variety of household objects chewed to shreds in the owners’ absence.

In Australia, regulations concerning companion pets are left up to individual States and Territories. The RSPCA has a very clear code of conduct and anyone transgressing runs the risk of being investigated, and in dire cases, prosecuted.

There are signs that governments are aware of a worrying statistic that 41% of people don’t regularly walk their dogs. I’ll go into the origins of that number later. Meanwhile, the Australian Capital Territory has passed a new law in which dog owners could be fined $4,000 if their dog has been cooped up all day without exercise.

In a first for this country, the new Bill recognises dogs as:

“sentient beings who have the ability to feel their environment and experience sensations such as pain, suffering or pleasure”.

That’s a new twist on the Federal Government’s definition of an animal as an ‘object’.

The Pet Industry Association says that 38% of Australians own one or more of the 4.8 million dogs in Australia – that’s 1.9 each, so there are a lot of two-dog households. The RSPCA also estimates that the average dog costs roughly $13,000 over the course of its lifetime. The annual bill (about $1,400) explains in part why so many dogs are abandoned or given to refuges. Which is as good a place as any to let you reflect on the fact that 200,000 dogs and cats are euthanased in pounds and shelters each year for lack of a good home (www.peta.org).

The COVID-19 pet fad

There was a nation-wide increase in animal adoption from shelters and refuges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian academic L.F (Lisa) Carver, writing in The Conversation, said the worldwide upsurge in adoptions and fostering would at best lead to better physical and mental health among new owners.

“Although many people did this for the animals, they, perhaps unwittingly, set themselves up for better mental health during the pandemic.”

Dr Carver says having a pet may help their owners maintain health-protective behaviour including bending, reaching and using both arms to provide food, water, and grooming.

“These basic activities involved in animal care actually provide exercise, which is very important for people who spend the day in a stationary position.”

There are tough laws governing cruelty and neglect and a cornucopia of bureaucratic hurdles to navigate (registration, tagging, vaccinations), before your new pooch can be taken home.

Australian authorities are fairly relaxed about dog owners, although you risk a fine if a dog is (a) off lead in a public place (b) wandering unaccompanied (c) not wearing a (current) registration tag or (d) barking incessantly while the owner is away from the house.

An entertaining blog produced by Scratch, a major pet food company, published the results of Australia’s biggest survey of dog owners. Scratch surveyed more than 20,000 owners to come up with novel findings about dog/owner behaviour including:

74% of participants allow their dog on the bed; (additional research by FOMM suggests that some allow the dog in the bed);
64% would use leaves or straw to remove a dog poo (if they forgot to take a plastic bag while out walking). The others (about 9,200 owners) would just skulk off;
66% of participants said they spend six or more hours a day with their dog;
28% said 3 to 6 hours, which is not so good;
91% support mandatory education for first-time dog owners;
65% of owners had just one dog – 28% had 2 with 7% three or more.

A third of dog owners are just plain slack

I was a bit disappointed this survey did not try to establish how often dog owners take their pets for a walk.

For that reason, I refer to this US study in Psychology Today that (drawing a longish bow), worked out that 41% of dog owners do not regularly walk their dogs.

Author Dr Stanley Coren’s study of surveys on this subject found that 57% of dog-walking owners admit to skipping walks each week. Reasons included unsatisfactory weather (56%), work pressures (32%) difficulties dealing with the dog (31%), or family responsibilities (24%). A worrying 32% admitted to cancelling a walk on a given day out of laziness or fatigue.

On the plus side, Dr Coren concluded that owners who did walk their dogs always went the extra mile.

“One of the larger studies found that the average pet dog is taken on a walk around nine times a week, with the walk lasting around 34 minutes on each occasion and covering almost two miles.”

So, as Germany prepares to usher in its tough new law, do Australians need someone to force them to walk their dogs?

If and when we return to some form of normalcy and people return to the ritual of commuting to work in an office, those pampered pets who cannot distinguish lockdown from normalcy may well fret.

Whatever the post-covid world looks like, try to maintain your dog-walking regime; the dog and your blood pressure will benefit.

Or, if you want to help stimulate the economy, there are always people offering to walk dogs for, on average, about $21 an hour.

As for the Staffie (who misrepresented me, as he does get a walk every day), I say this:

“Noch ist keine Zeit für einen Spaziergang”

Loosely translated this means: “We will decide who goes for a walk (and when), and the circumstances in which we walk. ”

FOMM Back Pages

Conspiracies, Daffodils and Tulips

In spring, as the poet said, a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of conspiracy. Wait! I just misquoted Alfred Tennyson and there’s a one in eight chance that someone under 34 will believe the quote is authentic.

While the new season takes tentative steps towards summer (tulips and daffodils flowering), imported conspiracy theories have taken root in Australia. The media noticed; with The Australian, the New Daily, The Guardian and 60 Minutes among those to investigate. Satirists weighed in, mocking the worrisome ideas fomented by the mendacious QAnon. While satire has its place, conspiracy theories can cause a lot of damage if people act on them.

During the lockdown of public housing towers in Melbourne, some 10,000 people refused to take a covid test. Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said some had declined believing that Coronavirus was a conspiracy, its effects overstated, or simply with a misguided faith that it would not affect them.

More recently, News Corp reported that people are being “actively investigated” by police for encouraging Melbourne residents to protest against Stage Four lockdown. Anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police in the Victorian capital on Sunday night. The anti-lockdown lobby has been very active on Twitter and other social media outlets before and after those events.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ attempts to hose down the second phase of COVID-19 are being defied by those including followers of the social media conspiracy spreader, QAnon. If you hear someone utter the words ‘sovereign citizen’, its a sure sign they follow one of the far-right conspiracy groups in the US (and now, it seems, in Australia).

QAnon believes the world is being controlled by a ‘deep state’ of Satan-worshipping paedophiles and people traffickers. The plot (there always is one) is that the deep state wants to overthrow the incumbent president, Donald Trump. Even though QAnon has previously turned on Trump, at this stage in the election cycle it appears they think he’s the right man to fix what ails the US.

There’s more available, if you want to go looking for it, on Facebook and bulletin boards like 4Chan and 8kun (known as 8Chan before the Christchurch mosque massacre). The latter was in the news again this week as the perpetrator was jailed for life without parole.

The shooter posted simultaneous footage of the massacre on social media forums and investigations since showed him to be active on right-wing bulletin boards like 8Chan.

The London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks extremism around the world, detailed the rise of QAnon across social media platforms. Its report, The Genesis of a Conspiracy Theory, shows that interactions with content in social media groups more than tripled, from 2.35 million in February to 7.26 million in June.

The ISD report shows a marked increase in discussions on social media platforms between March and June. Unique users discussing QAnon jumped by 12.02 million, or 63.7% on Twitter, 188,855 or 174.9% on Facebook and 96,894 or 71% on Instagram. One should hope that some of those discussions were rebuttals posted by people who know that it is just so much hokum.

Little wonder that the FBI and ASIO warned that extreme-right radical groups are a domestic terrorism threat.

The definition of a conspiracy theory is that which is promulgated as fact yet cannot be supported by evidence. Or as Daniel Pipes (a US historian and writer) was quoted in a Senate report:

“Like alchemy and astrology, conspiracism offers an
intellectual inquiry that has many facts right but goes wrong
by locating causal relationships where none exist.”

Australia has always had an element of conspiracists; holocaust deniers, anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, mask-deniers, Islamaphobes and those who subscribe to (US) theories that the world is controlled by a cabal of (Jewish) financiers (and that aliens are being kept in a secret underground facility in the desert somewhere, for breeding purpose, perhaps). The adherents may be small in number but they wield a disproportionate amount of influence.

People aged 18-34 appear to be susceptible to being swayed by conspiracy theories. About 20% of this cohort told pollsters they believed the 5G mobile network was being used to spread coronavirus (a widely debunked and baseless theory).
The better news is that 5G theory beliefs decreased in older age groupings. About 13% of 35 to 54-year olds responded positively to the theories, and between 4% and 8% of the 55+ cohort.

The rapid growth of QAnon appears to have started with the emergence of the Coronavirus in March. Those who believe that vaccinations cause more health problems than the specific ones they are forestalling, were the obvious target.

ASIO’s annual threat assessment released in February outlined the threat of right-wing extremism as “real and growing”, according to a Lowy Institute report. A June update revealed that right-wing extremist investigations now make up a third of ASIO’s domestic caseload. ASIO warns that far-right groups are using Covid-19 as a cover to push ideologies and gain recruits.

In Australia, this manifested itself in a series of rallies in May, with protesters calling Covid-19 a scam and protesting against vaccines, pharmaceutical companies, fluoride and 5G.

As if this was no disturbing enough, a meme being circulated (again), purports to claim that Australia does not exist. I thought it was satire, and so did the person who brought it to my attention. No, it is a conspiracy theory/hoax that’s been around long enough to have its own hashtag, #australiadoesntexist.

So, enough of this nonsense; let’s just enjoy the daffodils and tulips, the pardalote chit-chitting away, the smell of jasmine…

If you see Junior thumbing away at his phone or tablet when it’s supposed to be family time, share the real quote from Tennyson: “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

Or if you prefer a poem with an Australian flavour:

And jolly Spring, with love and laughter gay
Full fountaining, lets loose her tide of bees
Upon the waking ember-flame of bloom
New kindled in the honey-scented trees.

Hugh McCrae

Asthma and Australian Dust Storms

dust-storm-asthma — Australian dust storm September 23, 2009. Image from NASA (CC)

As a kid growing up in the North Island of New Zealand, I don’t recall ever seeing dust storms of the type seen in the Australian outback. In recent weeks, we’ve seen clouds of ochre dust blowing in from South Australia. The worst dust storms converge on the eastern seaboard, shrouding cities in an eerie, fog-like miasma.

You may recall the really bad one (September 2009) when motorists in Sydney and Brisbane drove with their lights on in the middle of the day.

Fortunately, the red dust (which gets into everything), lasts only a few days, although the customary early spring westerlies tend to blow them east in sequence.

While he was writing about the Dust of Uruzgan (Afghanistan) at the time, songwriter Fred Smith could have been describing dust storm conditions in the outback.

“It’s as fine as talcum powder on the ground and in the air
And it gets in to your eyes and it gets in to your hair…
…It gets in the machinery and foils every plan…”

Yes, and it gets in rainwater tanks when the next rains wash the dust off iron roofs. Residents of Auckland, some 1,500 kms away, have previously reported how dust storm drift from Australia turned their roofs a curious pink colour.

While New Zealand can fairly claim that it does not have dust storms in-country, it certainly sees the worst of them drifting across the Tasman. Reports of red ochre dust settling on the New Zealand Alps date back more than a century. You may have seen reports like these in recent years:

A series of dust storms in 2019, intermingling with smoke from bushfires, reached New Zealand\s Southern Alps, some 2,000 kms away. The ABC published photos, taken by adventurer Liz Carlsson, of the Mount Aspiring glacier sporting a red/pink discolouration.

University of Queensland geographer Hamish McGowan told the ABC it was not uncommon for this to occur during periods of severe drought in eastern Australia.

“In the right conditions, dust particles can be blown across the Tasman Sea by north-westerly winds, coming down on the Southern Alps in rain or snow and leaving behind an orange discolouration,” Professor McGowan said.

The same phenomenon can be seen in the Australian Alps. Black or grey discolouration is more likely to be ash falling from bushfire smoke clouds. The population in general is more aware, now that we have the technology to show images taken on mobile devices, or from satellites or drones.

Dust storms quickly remind me that I should take my asthma preventer medication as directed. Like so many asthmatics, I’m guilty of forgetting/ignoring the inhalant medication if I’m feeling free of symptoms. Australia’s 2.7 million asthmatics ought to know that asthma attacks can be random. They are also triggered by air quality factors including industrial air pollution, a high pollen count, smoke, dust and indoor environmental hazards (house dust, pet dander).

I do remember that 2009 dust storm, as we were in Brisbane for Queensland Ballet’s season launch at QPAC. People with any kind of respiratory condition should be on red alert when a dust storm comes calling. Luckily, I had my asthma inhaler with me (and needed it).

The numbers of people presenting at hospital emergency departments with respiratory symptoms were well above average on that day. Analysis of the air pollution found the 2009 dust storm to be far worse than any bushfire or dust storm event of the previous 15 years.

The Environmental Health Journal said extremely high levels of particulate matter were recorded on September 23, 2009.

Daily average levels of coarse matter (<10 microns (μm) peaked over 11,000 μg/m³ and fine (<2.5 μm) particles over 1,600 μg/m³.

The World Heath Organisation guideline is that any level of fine particulate matter over 35 μg/m is considered unhealthy.

(We should also remember that major cities known for air pollution routinely record <2.5 μm levels of 50 and higher).

The EHJ authors reported that the dust storm returned on September 26, with elevated PM (particulate matter) levels of an “unprecedented order of magnitude higher than those experienced during previous years.”

The fine particles are the main problem for people with respiratory complaints, as they deeply penetrate the airways.

The 2009 dust storm originated in drought-stricken western New South Wales. Last week’s storms reportedly started in outback South Australia.

Reports of giant dust storms in Australia pre-date the technology which can now spot them from above. Dust storms were common during the series of droughts that afflicted Australia in the last decade of the 19^th century. Still, scientists are predicting that climate change will make dust storms larger and more frequent.

A Science Daily report predicts that climate change will amplify dust activity in parts of the US in the latter half of the 21st century.

A statistical model developed by researchers at Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that climate change may lead to the increased frequency of spectacular dust storms that will have far-reaching impacts on public health and infrastructure.

Despite their dramatic visual impact, Australia’s dust storms are a blip on the the global chart. The World Meteorological Organisation says most sand and dust storms occur in the arid and semi-arid regions of Northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia and China. Australia, America and South Africa make minor, but still important, contributions.

The WMO estimates that 40% of aerosols in the troposphere (the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere) are dust particles from wind erosion. Global estimates of dust emissions vary between one and three gigatons per year.

Spectacular though they are when they appear on the horizon, dust storms are infrequent and often blow over in a day or two. Bushfire smoke, however, as the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires demonstrated, have far more serious ongoing health effects.

An Asthma Australia report details the effects of the bushfire smoke between July 2019 and March 2020. The air pollution caused a public health emergency, adding to the direct bushfire impacts already felt by communities. Bushfire smoke contains high concentrations of fine particulate matter.

“At its worst, the smoke resulted in the Air Quality Index reaching more than 25 times the hazardous level (in Canberra, January 1 2020),” the report states.

The Air Quality Index reached greater than 10 times the hazardous rating on multiple occasions in certain areas of Sydney between November and January.

“It is estimated the bushfire smoke was responsible for more than 400 deaths, 2,000 respiratory hospitalisations and 1,300 presentations to the Emergency Department for asthma.”

The most recent study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 2.7 million Australians (one in nine or 11.2% of the total population) had asthma in 2017-18.

“Over the last 10 years, the prevalence of asthma increased in the Australian population from 9.9% in 2007-08 to 11.2% in 2017-18″.

This is as good a time as any to remind you that September 1-7 is National Asthma Awareness Week.

Don’t leave home without your puffer.

Journalism and Bees In a Bottle

journalism-bees-bottle — Unsold newspapers being returned to sender. Photo by BW

One of those ubiquitous news portals this week outed The Australian Women’s Weekly for a string of what we in the journalism business used to call ‘howlers’. The AWW meekly apologised for mis-naming TV personality Richard Wilkins as ‘ Rachael’ in its front cover feature, one of several glaring errors. The knife job from Mumbrella (the news portal to which I originally referred), drew sharp comments from (ex) journalists. As the auld wifies used to say in my homeland: “People in stane hooses shouldnae throw glasses”.

To err is human, someone said, and I forget what you had to do to be divine. Mistakes happen across all levels of business and industry, in office jobs, in the pubic service and even, dare I say it, the arts. (For those of you who were paying attention, I wrote ‘pubic’ rather than ‘public’ to demonstrate how easy it is to mis-type). The skill of a journalist/editor is to catch the mistake and fix it on the read-through. The errors made in the Richard Wilkins profile will have caused red faces, but it is hardly a sign of a failed State. Wilkins and family laughed it off, like the good sports they are.

Hard to believe, but when I first entered a newsroom with intent, the newspaper still employed a proofreader. The paper was just moving to offset printing, retiring their one surviving Linotype machine. Pages would be ‘pasted up’ and the proofreader’s job was to read every word, including headlines, photo captions and advertisements. The proofreader was basically looking for typos and literals, as the time had long passed to save a reporter’s bacon on a legally dodgy story. The lawyers would already have done their own version of proofreading, at a much higher hourly rate.

Honest mistakes are made in the media, and the people who make them are often mortified. We are seeing more of it now because newsrooms have been gutted and fact-checking is not valued.

But then there are the deliberate editorial choices made about controversial content. The Australian’s editor, Christopher Dore, made a rare editorial decision to go public about the furore which arose on social media over a cartoon by Johannes Leak, construed by many as racist. Dore defended the cartoon as a satire of presidential candidate Joe Biden’s reference to ‘little brown girls’. If you missed it, The Conversation’s balanced piece by RMIT journalism lecturer Janak Rogers, goes into the topic in depth. tful place in the world. We used to call such kerfuffle ‘bees in a bottle’ – give the jar a good shake. Nobody will get hurt unless you take the lid off.

But gee, they make a lot of noise.

Sadly, it is what we have come to expect from The Australian, a conservative national broadsheet newspaper launched in 1964. Its opinion columnists tend to be dry conservatives and the political tone is decidedly to the right. The Oz, as it is known, has many critics. It often rates mention in news outlets whose sole mission is to critique journalism.

Mumbrella, Crikey, the ABC’s Media Watch program and other current affairs programs leap upon journalists who write slanted stories or indulge in epic errors of fact. Increasingly, social media is the place where people froth about journalism today, singling out examples of appalling spelling and misuse of grammar, hostile beat-ups and stories that are just plain wrong. I do feel like critics should be more tolerant of mistakes in regional news outlets, as staffing levels in this sector have been drastically reduced. In some cases there are not only no proofreaders, there are no sub editors either. (Ed: Even FOMM has an editer (sic).

I know many people are dismayed by the state of journalism and the rush to the bottom by those who survived the purge. In May, the situation became much worse for those who rely on local news. News Corp announced the closure of more than 100 regional daily and non-daily titles. Some survived as digital-only and a few newspapers are still being printed. Our locals, The Warwick Daily News and The Border Post (Stanthorpe), are no longer printed. A selection of Warwick district stories appear in The Chronicle (Toowoomba) and the WDN and BP have online editions. But it’s not the same. And we have to buy firelighters.

Fortunately, the Southern Free Times, owned by the Star News Group, which publishes community newspapers, has continued to print, albeit with a short hiatus. Editor Jeremy Sollars said the Free Times went into print hibernation from April to early June. He continued to produce an on-line edition, working part-time from home.

“We had fully intended to resume printing again at some point but did not have a clear idea when that might have been.

“We saw the announcement by Warwick Daily News and The Border Post (Stanthorpe) in late May as a clear opportunity.

“Since our first print edition in early June we’ve had a tremendous response from both local advertisers and readers. Clearly our community values a printed news product, complemented by website/social media.”

The Free Times covers the Warwick/Stanthorpe/Inglewood and Border regions – currently 8,000 copies a week. The paper is not home delivered, but is bulk-dropped to around 100 retail and community outlets.

“I believe that print publications like the Free Times have a very strong and healthy future in regional centres like Warwick and Stanthorpe,” Mr Sollars said.

Despite the shake-up of a venerable industry, there’s something for everyone out there in the on-line world. My best advice to those with a thirst for reliable, quality journalism is (a) buy a Tablet or an iPad and (b) source a mix of free and paid news feeds. All on-line news portals allow you to customise news and filter it to the topics you prefer, so you don’t get overwhelmed.

In no particular order, I recommend ABC Online, SBS News, The New York Times,The Guardian, the Conversation, the New Daily and Crikey (the ‘stayer’ of independent papers, founded in 2000). Then there’s the left-leaning Saturday Paper and The Monthly, both published by the Schwartz Media Group. If you want another view of world news, try Al Jazeera. When it comes to business and economics, The Economist carries a hefty annual subscription, but worth it if you have a vested interest in the fate of your investments.

At which point I should add that a subscription to The Australian includes access to the Wall Street Journal.

For those with budget constraints, I recently discovered The Independents

which aggregates news from more than 50 sources, some of them mentioned here. It’s set out in an easy to browse format.

Or if you are plain fed up with the news and its follow-the-pack mindset, you could instead binge watch (in no particular order), all seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, Homeland*, The Bureau*, Breaking Bad*, Goliath*, House of Cards, The Crown, The Bridge* and Homecoming. By the time you come up for air (Christmas 2021), it might all be over. Or it might be like yesterday: The Oz publishing offensive cartoons and being castigated for it (and as usual, not at all contrite).

*confronting and/or violent content

Cinemas And The Return Of The Drive-In

cinemas-drive-ins — Photo of Jericho Drive In (the world’s smallest) by Graham Adams

In any learned discussion about cinemas and movies, it does not take long for someone to relate that old Dad joke about two goats.

(Two goats are munching on a spool of film at the local dump). First goat: “What did you think?

Second goat: “I preferred the book”.

It’s a bit that way one episode into the SBS series Archangel, based on the thriller by Robert Harris about an academic who stumbles upon the lost diaries of Joseph Stalin. But I digress.

I don’t know about you, but even with the cinemas open again, I am loathe to sequester myself in a dark, air conditioned room with a posse of strangers. Who knows where they have been!

My main objection to attending cinemas at this point in time was (until I read up on the topic), the dangers of the virus being spread by air-conditioning. Safe Work Australia says there is no evidence that COVID-19 is airborne – it is primarily spread by respiratory droplets and personal contact. All the same, one would hope businesses are taking extra care with cleaning and maintenance of air-con plants. So, I might just be anti-social, then?

The allure of the cinema has been eroded by the variety of in-home cinematic content available in the Cloud, much of it ‘free’. Despite telling ourselves we should be watching the foreign movies available on SBS or new release movies on subscription services, we usually end up binge-watching 50-minute episodes of TV dramas.

The most recent was season five (Prime) of the excellent UK series Line of Duty, about a fictional police corruption unit called AC12. There will be no spoilers here if you only got to season three or four, but safe to say series six is ready to go. Filming was supposed to start on series six earlier this year, but COVID-19 intervened.

Anyone who works in the Arts will know how that sector has been hit harder by the pandemic than, say, the National Rugby League.

The last movie we saw at the local cinema was ‘A beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’, in which Tom Hank plays the role of TV children’s entertainer “Mr Rogers”. We went with a small group, who met for coffee and drinks afterwards to discuss the movie. Perhaps I’m just a jaded, cynical journalist, but I found agreeing with Empire Online’s opening remark: “It could easily have been twee twaddle…:.:

I hasten to add Empire went on to give the movie a solid review. Based on a true story, the plot involves a magazine journalist Lloyd Vogel, who sets out to do a hatchet job. But he ends up receiving life lessons from the benevolent Mr Rogers. The film is based on a feature article by Tom Junee.

The other place where you can safely go to watch movies is your local drive-in theatre. What, you don’t have one? Research indicates there are still at least 16 drive-in theatres active in Australia, and more than a few ‘pop-up’ venues.

If you are of my vintage, you probably remember the glory days of the drive-in theatre. For those who cannot envisage the concept, a drive-in theatre is an open piece of land, usually on the town’s outskirts. People pay to come in and park their cars and watch movies on a very large screen. In the 1950s and 60s, those attending drive-in theatres attached speakers to their car windows (trying to remember not to drive off without hanging them back on the posts). Today, with FM radio, Bluetooth and streaming audio, it is a cinch to listen to the digital sound track in your car.

The drive in theatre liberated teenagers of the 1950s, an era where it was not uncommon for a boy keen on a certain girl to ask her father’s permission to take her on a date.

The drive-in offered teenagers a rare few hours of privacy at a venue where they may or may not have watched the whole movie. There are only three major drive-in theatres in Queensland: the Tivoli (near Ipswich), the Yatala drive-in at the Gold Coast and the Starlight theatre in Ayr (north Queensland). At one stage in the 1950s, there were 300 drive-ins in Australia, the third largest number in the world, after the US and Canada.

Outback cinemas are essential entertainment in small, remote locations. The Paraburdoo Drive In Theatre in Western Australia recently re-opened after a COVID19 induced hiatus. There is also a drive-in in the mining town of Tom Price.

Last Saturday’s double bill was ‘Moana’ and ‘Jumanji’, and meals were served. Tom Price is a town of 3,000 people, median age 31, which probably explains last Saturday’s kid-friendly choice of movie.

The benefit of a drive-in for families is fairly obvious – as Paul Kelly sings – ‘Mum and Dad up the front and the rest of us snug and tight’.

Developers would tell you it is not the highest and best use of urban land and indeed some former drive-ins have been replaced by big box warehouses, retirement villages and the like. While urban sprawl and competition from in-home digital entertainment has put paid to many, nevertheless, the drive in prevails. Australia’s largest theatre, the Lunar Theatre at Dandenong in Victoria, is a big operation. One of the country’s oldest, it closed in 1984 and re-opened in 2002. Now, with a capacity of 960 cars, its four screens operate seven days a week. Conversely, the smallest (at Jericho in Queensland), has room for 36 cars

The effects of Covid-19 on the entertainment industry has forced entrepreneurs to come up with novel ways of making a quid. There is more than one example of promoters staging drive-in concerts to give punters and artists a safe live forum.

Untitled Group had planned an elaborate drive-in show at Flemington Racecourse in July. A new promotional division, The Drive In, planned a dozen such concerts, each for up to 500 cars. But as organisers state in this link, they had no choice but to cancel as the COVID-19 situation in Victoria worsened. For Australian musicians, unfettered travel is essential to earning a living.

So far, no-one has come up with a scheme in which punters get to enjoy live music while those performing get paid what they’re worth.

We are a bit keen on film festivals, where you can binge on quality movies for up to a week. We may yet head North-West next month for the the Vision Splendid International Film Festival at Winton. The key advantage for those who take COVID-19 seriously is that the majority of movies are screened in the town’s historic open-air cinema. I have attended this festival twice and written about it once.

The festival has been held in late June every year since 2014. In 2020, a decision was made to postpone the event to September 18-26. Coincidentally, the festival was officially launched in Brisbane this week. It remains to be seen if interstate visitors will be allowed to travel to Queensland’s outback by mid-September.

In the interim, this at-risk bloke will confine his entertainment to YouTube music videos, Prime, SBS, ABC on Demand and the NRL (which is entertaining in all manner of unexpected ways).

Bushfires, Methane and the Climate Crisis

methane-climate-change — Nature’s resilience – regrowth in the fire-ravaged Cunningham’s Gap. Photo Laurel Wilson

You’d think those with an interest in promoting the climate crisis would have made more of James Murdoch quitting the family media business.

While there is much to be wary of when considering Murdoch Jnr’s defection, he did make it crystal clear that he and his wife Kathryn disagreed with News Corp’s climate agenda. The first real signs of family business friction emerged last year. James accused News Corp of promoting climate denialism during its coverage of last summer’s Australian bushfires.

University of Sydney professor Rodney Tiffen’s thorough examination of James Murdoch’s chequered history points out that it was James who first persuaded Rupert Murdoch (in 2006) to embrace the climate change cause. While Rupert soon drifted away, James remained committed. Tiffen makes a trenchant point, that Rupert’s conversion had little impact on the company’s journalism:

“Its upper editorial echelons contained a large number of climate denialists, and Rupert seems to have never made any effort to change their views.”

This is an interesting read if you want to be reminded of James Murdoch’s role in the UK phone hacking scandal and management of News Corp’s global satellite TV business.

Despite the claims about climate denialism within News Corp, its Australian flagship has kept up with the topic. You won’t be able to read about it unless you subscribe, but Erin Lyons filed a story on July 29 from a Senate inquiry headlined ‘Unequivocal link between extreme bushfires and climate crisis’.

I note with interest the use of language officially adopted by The Guardian to describe climate change as a ‘crisis’.

Lyons quoted Bureau of Meteorology chief executive Dr Andrew Johnson who said a rise in global emissions was driving up temperatures, which was likely to increase the risk of bushfires.

“Bushfires are starting earlier and ending later. There’s a climate signal in that,” he told the panel. “How that plays out in the future will very much depend on how humanity responds.”

Lyons followed up next day with a story about firefighters and bushfire survivors calling for the fossil fuel industry to pay for the damage.

Almost on cue, the weather map showed the first signs of an early bushfire season, with large swathes of central Western Australia painted red for danger. In southern California, not all that far as the crow flies, the northern summer’s first forest fire forced thousands to flee their homes south of Los Angeles. Here we go again: “There’s always been bush fires.” (Climate change deniers drag out last year’s talking points). No, it’s because of the dangerous build-up of methane in the atmosphere. (Ed: He said, interpreting science, which is a danged dangerous thing for a journalist to do).

The thing is, such is the media pre-occupation with COVID-19 and the risks to Australian (and global) economies, the topic of climate change barely gets a look in. Allow me to fill in the gaps and maybe do a bit of fact checking while I’m here.

My attention was dragged back to this subject when reading a four paragraph filler in The Guardian about methane. Animal farming and fossil fuels have driven levels of the greenhouse gas to the highest on record, it stated. The Guardian cited the Methane Budget study, published by Earth System Science Data, which stated that discharges of methane gas have risen about 9% on the 2000-2006 average, to 600 million tonnes a year.

It’s no easy task, quantifying methane emissions, which occur naturally in wetlands and inland water sources, but also from biofuel, waste, coal mining, oil and gas production and agriculture. A global team of more than 90 researchers from 70 institutions contributed to this latest update. Ironically (well, I think it’s ironic), melting permafrost contributes to the release of methane.

The increase of atmospheric methane is important, in that its global warming potential is estimated to be up to 34 times higher than CO2 (over 100 years). That’s why you will see large-scale industrial plants like oil refineries burning off methane (converting it to CO2). Besides, methane build-up within an industrial complex can be quite lethal because of its explosive nature. Major oil companies including Shell and Exxon made commitments several years ago to cut methane emissions by up to 15%. (I read that 2018 report in The Australian, while fruitlessly searching the database to see if it had published anything about the Methane Budget study). The most recent reports involving methane were to do with the explosion at the Moura coal mine.

As we were saying at the outset, James Murdoch’s resignation from the board of News Corp came with a statement in which he castigated the chairman (Dad) and the company over its climate change denialism. It’s not so much about bias as choosing which stories to cover (and when) .

While the Methane Budget study might be deemed by editors of mainstream tabloids to be ‘boring as batshit’, nevertheless its key findings were reported by outlets including the ABC, Washington Post, The Guardian, the Straits Times, Nature and quality monthlies that report on science. There is a good analysis by carbonbrief-org where the key points can be grasped by the lay person. Methane is often ignored in climate change discussions, despite having a more deleterious effect than CO2 (more carbon per molecule) – thanks Dr John.

One thing I missed on the first read through was that South East Asia and Oceania were in the top three regions for recording increased methane emissions. Global methane emissions were 1875 parts per billion at the end of 2019 – two and a half times higher than pre-industrial levels.

Why this topic caught my attention was an awareness, given a wetter winter than usual (building up fuel loads), that we could be heading into an early bushfire season. This was the case in 2019, with the first reports of serious bushfires alerts emerging in early August.

Those engaged in fire fighting know why bushfires are getting earlier and nastier. A report by volunteer firefighters published in the University of Melbourne’s Voice magazine in early 2015 flagged a few warnings about bush fire prevention. It also cited the role of bushfires in escalating the release of methane and CO2 into the atmosphere.

The study authors found that levels of carbon and greenhouse gases released in Eucalypt wildfires could be reduced by fuel reduction burning, or planned burns conducted prior to the bushfire season in high risk forests.

“The results of these actions could inform land management decisions as well as government policy regarding planned burning. Also, it could enable more accurate estimations of the contribution that bushfires make to Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.”

As we head into the spring of 2020, I can but offer this insight on the left and right of politics, still bickering about hazard reduction burning (and whether it works or not). What was that about Rome burning?

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Keeping your distance – way out west

There’s a misleading headline for you – ‘way out west’. At best we were 400 kms from home at any one time. All the while, though, we were keeping our distance, as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk encouraged us to do. Regardless, she also said we should to go forth and do tourist things in the State of Queensland. Spend money and support our small towns, the Premier said, while reminding us to meet COVID-19 restrictions. These include keeping 1.5m distance from other humans, washing your hands at every opportunity and avoiding Victorians like the plague. (I added that bit, just for a bit of colour.)

On the first day, we stopped for the few minutes it takes to navigate into the viewing enclosure built so tourists can enjoy the art work at the Yelarbon silos (above). The last time we drove from Warwick to Goondiwindi, this controversial project had not been completed. I include this link not to rake over old coals, rather to showcase the solid regional reporting that is at risk now that so many country news outlets have been shut down or relegated to online-only.

Before Yelarbon, our first stop on a 10-day circuit through western Queensland was Inglewood, where a wind chill made the noon temperature of 12 degrees feel like 5. We stopped at the Shot 2 U cafe for lunch, since our first day out was a day off for the cook. This cafe was serving takeaways and limiting the numbers of people who could be in the building at the same time. She Who Prefers Gluten Free found that this cafe ticked all of the boxes so we bought a container full of gluten-free, dairy-free brownies. It’s like the Premier keeps saying – go out into these small towns and spend some money. That’s not what they are saying in other States right now, but on the other hand, Queensland is/was COVID-free.

On we travelled to the Moonie Crossroads Roadhouse, where we parked our van and adjourned to the lounge for whatever was on the menu, while keeping our distance. The German tourist who works behind the bar happily found and served a piccolo of bubbles to celebrate Bastille Day. Next day, we set off on a short drive to Glenmorgan and Myall Park Botanic Garden. This 132ha property is privately owned and operated by a trust and contains many Grevillea species, bred and cultivated by the Gordon family. They named the best known of these species after their daughters – Robyn, Sandra and Melinda. It’s a wonderful little oasis of native flora and fauna which last year was at risk because of the effects of ongoing drought. Some 300mm of rain in February helped the property bounce back.

On our trek through Moonie, Glenmorgan, Roma, Theodore, Kilkiven, Maleny, Brisbane then home, we were followed in part by three single women of a certain age who decided on a short road trip for much the same reason as we did, ie to ‘get out of the house’. They travelled together in one car, stayed at motels, ate in restaurants or cafes and spotted rare sights like this ‘B-Triple’, on the road. (photo by Sandra Wilson).

Also taking a break from four walls were Brisbane friends we bumped into by serendipity in the small river town of Theodore. Like us, they had decided to get away from the house for a while. Many of their regular activities have been curtailed so as we all know, after a month or two of living under one roof, you get a bit stir crazy. After a spontaneous picnic lunch, and keeping our distance, our friends continued on towards Winton.

In Theodore, where we spent a couple of nights, we spotted four vehicles with Victorian number plates. Theodore has a police station, so you’d have to assume they have been checked.

Nevertheless, anxiety-tainted emotions arose; worries about contagion, proximity and the fear of the unknown. Hypothetical worries maybe, but you never know. Perhaps those with Victorian plates had been in Queensland since March, or earlier.

Some Grey Nomads, particularly those from colder climes, spend a lot of their winter north of the border.

Other travcllers seem to be worming their way into the State and not caring too much about leaving an accurate trail. Last I checked, there were still 185 people ‘missing’ after filling in forms at the NSW/Qld border. They are all supposed to be in quarantine for two weeks, but many still cannot be found. This implies that they used fake registration and/or address and contact details. Police have arrested several people this week, so we will watch the story unfold when they appear in court in September.

Crikey, as we say here in Australia when we really mean WTF. It would only take one contagious person to go into a licensed bar or restaurant and the viral ball would start rolling again.

I wondered if the authorities at border control are scanning drivers’ licences, as routinely happens when you go to licensed clubs. Or would this infringe our civil rights?

On the way to Theodore, we stopped off at the Isla Gorge lookout. If you want to climb down into the sandstone gorge and go exploring in this national park, you need to check in with the ranger, take a detailed map and make sure someone knows what you plan to do.

As it stands, you can pick your way carefully along a steep, unfenced track to a viewing point, but venturing further is only for the brave and thoroughly prepared tramper. You can stay overnight, but you need a permit and must be self-sufficient.

Everyone has their own comfort level when travelling. I spotted a young couple, rugged up and huddled around the camp fire at a Roma farmstay, before retiring to their little dome tent (as temperatures approached 5 degrees. At Wandoan we chatted briefly to an older couple in a little car who were exploring the Showgrounds as a likely place to camp. As we were setting up our caravan (and connecting power), the couple put up a small tent, table and chairs and a portable barbecue. It got to 3 degrees that night, so no, we were not keeping our distance!

If you want to go bush but feel like you need a guided tour with all the creature comforts, refer to Everald Compton’s recent blog). He and his wife Helen recently took time out for a bush holiday. Everald was born in 1931, so those of us who like to go bush with a swag and a nylon tent can excuse him a bit of luxury. They joined an organised tour with Nature bound Australia, a bush touring experience, where guests are ferried around in the operator’s four-wheel drive.

“We chose how many days we wanted to go on tour with them and agreed on an itinerary, after we had interesting advice from them about the many options that rural Australia offers. None of our chosen destinations had yet experienced COVID19.”

“Our itinerary took us on back roads through delightfully small communities and our accommodation was in bed and breakfast homes on farming and grazing properties, with other meals at wineries and quaint cafes in interesting places.”

Everald concluded that the bush adventure proved to be the right antidote for COVID-19 angst.

“A good bush holiday is all about reconnecting to nature and the guiding restorative power it has on our lives,” he wrote.

I’m sure our friends, creating their own versions of a bush adventure, would entirely agree. Just avoid interstate vehicles and, if someone wants to shake your hand, use hand sanitizer before you touch anything else.

Gorgeous gorges revisited

isla-gorgeous-gorge — Isla Gorge photo BW).

This week I promised you one from the archives. The topic of gorges nicely coincides with a visit to Isla Gorge, located in sandstone country between Taroom and Theodore. More about that next week, when we have reliable WiFi.

July 13, 2018: Although I clearly remember rubbishing the concept of a “bucket list”, it appears we may have had one all along, namely a list of famous Australian gorges.

This week’s visit to much-lauded Cobbold Gorge, south-east of Georgetown in Savannah country, turns out to be the 10^th gorge we have visited from a debatable list of 14 “must-do” destinations. Despite its remoteness, privately-owned Cobbold Gorge attracted 11,500 visitors last year and judging by our two days staying in the bush caravan park, they’re on track for another good year.

Most Australian gorges of any merit are enshrined within national parks, with Cobbold Gorge the exception, through an agreement with the Queensland Government where a tourism venture is allowed to exist within a pastoral lease. The Terry family own the 330,000ha Robin Hood station, with 4,720ha set aside as a nature reserve. The family run 4,000 head of Brahman cattle on the property, which they have owned since 1964. They are the second European owners, after the Clark family who owned it since 1900 and the Ewamian, the traditional owners.

Robin Hood station, even today, is accessible only by a partially sealed road from Georgetown to Forsayth and then 41 kms of dirt road. The land in this region is cut off in the wet season (December to March). It’s not difficult to imagine the hard life out here before electricity, before a proper road was formed from an existing bullock track.

Like most gorges, Cobbold was formed millions of years by water scouring out a channel through a basalt cap then down into the sandstone and gravel escarpment. This is a narrow gorge, 2m wide in some places, which gives rise to the theory that it is relatively young.

Last week, we spent a couple of days at Porcupine Gorge, a National Park between Hughenden and The Lynd. Porcupine Gorge is sometimes referred to as Australia’s ‘mini Grand Canyon’ as its canyon walls are wide apart, eroded over millions of years by Porcupine Creek, a tributary of the Flinders River. We took the walk down into the gorge, a mere 1.2 kilometres, except for the 1,800-step uphill return walk. It cost about $25 to stay here two nights – stunning location but a bit short on facilities (hybrid dunnies). You have to come prepared, carrying your own water, food and power source.

By contrast, Cobbold Gorge tours have to be booked and paid for ahead of time and there is no alternative to a guided tour. Now that I’ve seen the infrastructure the Terry family have built there and taken the tour, I have no argument at all with the $92 fee (and $41 a night for a powered site). The facilities (the village also has motel units) and amenities are first-class.

Most of the information here was gleaned from a bit of note-taking and chatting to the guide, Graham, after the tour. The owners invested a lot of money to set up this eco-tour without any security of tenure. It was only recently that the Queensland government came to an agreement that the family would be compensated if at some future point the gorge becomes a National Park. As it stands, the nature reserve, a tract of old growth bush, can also be used for grazing and water can be taken from the Robinson River. No felling is allowed though, so the bush is allowed to regenerate.

We put this landmark on our list when last in the Savannah country circa 2007. We’d bumped into old newspaper contacts at Undara Lava Tubes. They told us they’d just come from Cobbold Gorge and said it was a special place and a must-do experience. It seems this natural gorge became a tourist attraction largely by word of mouth. The first white people to see the gorge were the Terry family’s teenage children who apparently drove a truck far enough in to carry a dinghy to the gorge and go exploring. It wasn’t long before friends and family started asking if they could visit and that led to the establishment of the tourism enterprise in 1994 (200 people visited in the first year).

The tour involves a short journey by four wheel drive bus, a walk up the sandstone escarpment to see the gorge from above then a ride on a flat bottomed boat (powered by whisper-quiet electric motor).

The walls rise up to 30m and at times the gorge is so narrow you can almost touch both sides. Spiders sit patiently waiting by their intricately spun webs. There’s a Jurassic vibe about this gorge, silent and still except for a freshwater crocodile which retreated beneath a rock ledge as we approached.

Last year, Etheridge Shire Council proposed making an application to have 49,000ha of the shire listed by UNESCO as a Geopark. The ABC reported that local graziers were worried what impact this could have on pastoral activities. The proposal caused deep divisions in the shire, but the plan was not progressed.

One could see why Etheridge Shire would want the region to become ever-more attractive to international eco-tourists. The famous Undara Lava Tubes are also within Etheridge Shire, which encompasses an area two-thirds the size of Tasmania. For all its size, the shire has only 1,500 ratepayers and has to rely on grants from State and Federal governments.

Our previous visits to well-known gorges like Carnarvon (Qld), Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge, NT), Wattarka (Kings Canyon, NT) and Karajini and Widjana (both in WA), have mostly involved independent exploration. Hiking in outback gorge country is not without its risks. You can get lost, run out of water, have a fall or be bitten by a venomous snake.

No wonder Cobbold Gorge asks hikers to sign in and out when exploring the bush tracks. They also have a ‘no-selfie’ rule when standing atop the escarpment! It makes you think how the early explorers got by on horseback carrying water in canvas dilly bags, living off damper and bully beef, perpetually in a quest for the next waterhole.

I expect this won’t be the last gorge we visit on our six-week adventure. There’s Barron and Mossman further north and Cania Gorge on the way back home.

When you visit one of Australia’s remote National Parks, with or without gorges, it is hard not to soak up the timeless influence of the First Nations people. Cobbold Gorge was named after the famous Australian pastoralist Francis Cobbold. The Ewamian tribe were the original inhabitants of this land and there is a section on the gorge tour where guides tell visitors the Ewamian have asked them not to interpret the site or allow people to enter and take photographs.

A few months back, Aboriginal journalist Jack Latimore wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian Weekly, noting that two mountains in central Queensland were to revert to their Aboriginal names.

Jack thinks all Australian landmarks and monuments should revert to their first nation names, but he doesn’t stop there. Boring names like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (all named after British Lords and Sirs), should also be given their native monikers. How about Mianjin instead of Brisbane?

Asylum seekers and the seven-year itch

asylum-seekers-seven-years — Asylum seekers and refugee rally – photo by John Englart flickr.com

If Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton ever had a lapse in judgement, it would be thinking that asylum seekers and their supporters have given up. Over a seven-year span, Mr Dutton and his predecessors have exposed asylum seekers to a punitive system (which is outside the UN Convention on Refugees).

As you may hear this weekend, Sunday marks seven years of detention for those who were sent to centres on Manus Island and Nauru. At the time, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that people arriving by boat to seek asylum would be processed offshore and never be allowed to resettle in Australia. #7yearstoolong

Four administrations later (Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison), the unconscionable treatment of people seeking refuge from persecution, torture and ethnic cleansing in their homelands has barely changed.

The now-famous author Behrooz Bouchani chronicled his torturous life on Manus Island in the award-winning book, ‘No friend but the Mountain’. in 2019, Australians became more aware of the effects of despair and mental health issues suffered by asylum seekers in our offshore detention centres. There was a seemingly effective campaign to Get the Kids Off Nauru. All the while, the Australian government continued to be responsible for those much-criticised centres (outsourcing the task to private security firms). Along the way, the government re-opened, closed and then re-opened again the Christmas Island detention centre, Christmas Island being an Australian protectorate.

During the past seven years, the numbers of people who have started or joined an existing asylum seeker support group have grown, to include such organisations as Rural Australians for Refugees.

This national movement started with a campaign by the good folk of Biloela, who took in a Sri Lankan family. You’d know about this saga, where authorities came in the early hours and removed the couple and their two children, taking them into detention. Over time, the family of four ended up being the only detainees in the Christmas Island Detention Centre, at a reported cost to the taxpayer of $27 million a year.

Closer to home, a Kangaroo Point motel has become the focus of the protest movement which wants to see an end to our egregious treatment of people whose only possible mistake was to pay a people smuggler to bring them to Australia – irregular, but not illegal.

Asylum seeker supporters fought long and hard to challenge the government to bring unwell detainees from offshore detention centres. This resulted in a new Act which forced the government’s hand. Even though people needing medical attention were brought to Australia, it seems that few of those brought here under the Medevac Bill have been released from detention. A lot of those people ended up at a motel in the Brisbane inner city suburb of Kangaroo Point.

As Hannah Ryan wrote in The Guardian last month , the Australian government engaged private guards and assigned them to the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel & Apartments, describing it as an “alternative place of detention”. Here, 120 people who had been detained on Manus Island or Nauru and were sent to Australia for medical treatment, are being kept indefinitely. They are not allowed to leave, as Ryan says “not even to visit the KFC across the road”.

Since COVID-19 raised its head in March, they are not allowed visitors either. Over the year or so this has been going on, some detainees took to holding up placards from the motel balconies, when allowed out for fresh air. Support networks got wind of this and a series of rallies began, not without some risks. At a rally on June 29, 40 protesters were arrested for staging a sit-in after the two-hour permit had expired.

Public protests aside, Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton is pressing on with a draft Act designed to crack down on drug dealing and the development of terrorist cells. The draft Act would make it illegal for people in detention to have a mobile phone.

Just think about that for a minute, while realising how crucial your mobile phone has been to you through the COVID-19 lockdown.

Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow made a submission to a Parliamentary committee, saying that the bill should not proceed. Writing in the Canberra Times, Santow said:

“The Commission recommends that risks be considered on a case-by-case basis. If a particular person in detention has used their phone to commit illegal activity or endanger the security of Australia, this would be a reason to prohibit them from having a phone. But it would not justify a ban that applies to other people who haven’t been shown to be a risk.”

The government said when introducing this Bill that it did not plan to introduce a blanket ban on mobile phones, rather to address risks to health, safety, and security.

Those protesting on Sunday have made it clear what they want – an end to indefinite detention. As stated in Green Left Weekly (where you will find a list of rallies and gatherings and their locations): “Free the refugees and bring those still on Manus Island and Nauru to Australia now.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences have pushed this issue onto the media back-burner. The recent closure of some media outlets and the migration of others to online only has further diluted the message.

So emerged the hashtag #7yearstoolong on social media as volunteer groups try to raise awareness of institutionalised inaction.

While the government continues to take a hard line stance, a survey last year showed that attitudes towards refugees are hardening. Part of a global study on attitudes, it shows that 44% of Australians think borders should be closed, up 5% on the 2017 survey.

Globally, 54% of people doubted whether refugees coming into their country were really genuine and not arriving just for economic reasons. Australians’ doubts about people’s motives rated lower, at 49%. About 42% of Australians agree that refugees successfully integrate (a drop of three points since 2017).

Refugee Council of Australia statistics show that at March 31, 2020, there were 1,373 people held in onshore detention centres. Apart from any other consideration, it is costing Australia an estimated $137.34 million a year to keep refugees in domestic detention, based on figures provided by the Kaldor Centre.

And, did you know that 64,000 foreigners have overstayed their Australian work or tourist visas, with up to 12,000 believed to have been here for 20 years or more?

All of the above, I contend, should be seen in the context of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s plan to allow Hong Kong Chinese safe haven in Australia. (Ed: “Probably because they would be well off financially”

Oh, that’s right, we are still in thrall of the ultimate strong leader (John Howard), who said in 2001 his government had an irrevocable view on border protection: “we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.”

Every leader from Kevin Rudd onwards has toed the same Sovereign Borders line. If you are expecting anything different from the Leader of the Opposition, should he ever win an election, do not hold your breath.

Further reading: This Australian Government policy paper sets out the facts and dispels myths about asylum seekers and refugees.

We are travelling in remote western Queensland, so expect one from the archives next Friday.

*Tom Hanks’ companion in Castaway was a volleyball, not a football as I wrote last week (and the Hug Patrol photo was from 2012, not 2019).

Why Human Beings Need a Hug

hug-isolation-love — The Hug Patrol. Photo contributed by Arcadia Love

Forgive me, dear readers, for I have sinned (giving a hug in the privacy of my own home). A friend I had not seen for six months came to visit and the impulse to hug was too strong. We did the right thing to a degree, our heads facing away from each other, so the droplets would disperse in the same room, (where other people freely mingle).

You may have seen examples of people not observing the 1.5m COVID-19 physical distancing rule. Sneaks have taken phone footage in Brisbane nightclubs which show people mingling in close quarters and not sitting down to dance, as the Queensland Premier suggested.

The universal advice to maintain a physical distance of 1.5m from another person outside your immediate family makes sense. But it is hard to do and harder still to keep it up over an extended period.

The main reason is that human beings are just not designed to avoid physical contact with others.

New York Times writer Jane Brody writes that “social interaction is a critically important contributor to good health and longevity”.

Referring to a long-term study by Lisa F. Berkman and S. Leonard Syme, Brody said findings drawn from 7,000 participants concluded that “people who were disconnected from others were roughly three times more likely to die during the nine-year study than people with strong social ties”.

Physical contact can mean hugging, as championed by American folk songwriter Fred Small in his catchy ditty, The Hug Song. This version is by Brisbane musicians Donald McKay and Rebecca Wright, who compiled this video exclusively for FOMM. Warning: it’s an ear worm.

Late last year, we moved from a small village where, for a certain proportion of the community, hugging is the first thing you do on encountering friends, whether or not you saw them yesterday or six months ago. These are not perfunctory hugs either, but warm, tight embraces that last, well, sometimes they last longer than one party would prefer. I have it on good authority that the public hugging habit has abated in the village these past few months.

If you were a regular festival-goer in the first part of the new millennium. you might recall the Hug Patrol, initiated at Woodford in 2001 by actor/comedian Arcadia Love. Street performers roamed in small packs through the dusty byways of Woodford Festival, approaching just about anybody with open arms (asking permission first). The Hug Patrol is still turning up at festivals, carnivals, fetes, shows – anywhere where there is a crowd. Arcadia is understandably frustrated with the hug-less nature of 2020, saying that ‘virtual’ hugs are just not the same. The Patrol’s last live gig was at the Northey Street summer solstice in December 2019. The Hug Patrol’s deeds have touched people deeply, as writer Sandy McCutcheon said in a testimonial:

“This extraordinary group of individuals has probably no idea of just what a positive impact they have. I was fortunate to witness (at Woodford) the effect they had on a large group of refugee women from Afghanistan. For women whose lives are in tatters, families are scattered or dead, the rare moment of physicality was of tremendous importance.”

Meanwhile The Conversation this week asked the most obvious question: “why are we all not wearing masks?”

There’s no doubt masks help stop the spread. A World Health Organisation study showed that face masks reduce the risk of infection with viruses such as COVID-19, by 67%, if a disposable surgical mask is used, and up to 95% if specialist N95 masks are worn.

The mask subject comes up often in community choir circles, where rehearsals are mostly still on hold and actual performances are being deferred to 2021. The theory about singers (and you’d have to ask why is it not the same for footballers who sprint 100m to score a try to be then piled upon by team members), aerosols can be spread up to 8m by singers (who don’t so far as I know, spit on the ground, or on the dressing room floor, or do that disgusting nose clearing thing ).

Plainly, a lot of people in Melbourne have not been maintaining physical distancing; nor, it would seem, have they been adhering to medical advice about social gatherings. The critical issue is, if you are feeling at all under the weather but have not been diagnosed, stay at home.

After the first month of the COVID-19 lock-down, the most common response you would get is, “I’m over it”.

Some of us spent 14 days in isolation, but in fairly comfortable circumstances, apart from not being able to leave home (except to walk the dog or buy groceries). I feel for residents in the public housing towers in North Melbourne, who up until today were not even allowed to do that. (One of the nine towers is still in very restrictive lock-down, the others have moved to ‘stage three’, like the rest of Melbourne.)

A Science Alert article on this subject (isolation and its ill-effects), said researchers based in Antarctica found that loneliness could be the most difficult part of the job.

Israeli adventurer and author Yossi Ghinsberg, who survived weeks alone in the Amazon, suffered loneliness, even creating imaginary friends to keep himself company. Which somehow reminded me of that Tom Hanks movie, where he is stranded on a desert island, alone except for a football called Wilson.

The degree to which isolation bothers you depends on your personality type (extroverts hate it). and your peer group. A report from Byron Bay about a ‘doof’ party that attracted thousands of young dance party goers, is an extreme example of how certain age groups find isolation and government-imposed health advice too inhibiting.

On the other hand, if you are a 70+ introvert with absorbing hobbies that can be performed alone in one room (Ed: who could he be talking about), the COVID-19 lock-down might not bother you at all.

So how much physical and social interaction does one have, in a typical day? If you are a checkout operator or a drive-through bottle shop attendant, quite a lot. Unemployed gamer, maybe not.

An academic study involving 7,290 participants was carried out in 2008 by researchers interested in reducing the spread of flu-like diseases. The first large-scale study of its kind, it found that respondents had on average 13.4 physical and non-physical contacts each day. The researchers recruited 7,290 people from eight European countries. They asked participants to keep a diary documenting their physical and non-physical contacts for a single day. Physical contacts included interactions such as a kiss or a handshake. Non-physical contacts, for example, might included a two-way conversation without skin-to-skin contact. The researchers concluded that the study provided a “deeper understanding of the transmission patterns of a hypothetical respiratory epidemic among a susceptible population”.

If you take this study as a ‘norm’, how do these average interactions compare with 1,000 young people at a dance party or, as happened in Auckland on June 14, 43,000 people attending a rugby game?

We are not out of the woods yet, people, hugs or no hugs.

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