Tuesday - Sunday, November 1 - 6 2011 (diary, Australian politics)

The Parliamentary hearing on the QANTAS industrial dispute this week was an unmitigated Public Relations disaster for the Australian Labour Government and a resounding win for the brave CEO of QANTAS Airlines, Alan Joyce.

The inferiority of the three questioning Members of Parliament (revealed both by their narrow minded views and lack of appreciation of the reality of the world today and their abusive attitude and lack of respect for one the worlds most skilled and passionate CEOs) compared to Joyce's cool unflustered professionalism was just mind boggling to watch (and commented upon in numerous letters to Australian newspapers this weekend).

It reflects, once again, the total lack of competence of the present Government to run this wonderful country.
If another reminder was needed it was provided by the new CEO of Rio Tinto (one of the giant resources companies), who visited Australia this week.
He warned that Australia was placing itself on a "slippery slide" downwards from its "lucky country" image because of grave complacency. The outside world's perspective on Australia as a place to invest and do business has changed (for the worse) considerably these past couple of years.
The lack of skilled labour (and great difficulty to import them from overseas), the Government's regressive industrial relations laws, its increase in taxes (mining tax, carbon tax) and its hostile attitude towards companies great and small, all contribute to this increasingly negative view.

Sadly, as many ordinary Australians reflect, it will take another 2 years before they can get rid of this disaster Government. Even committed former Labour Government leaders from the past (such as Paul Keating) lament that today's Labour party (and Government) is going backwards in time and has totally lost the plot.

Monday - Thursday, November 7 - 10 2011 (diary)

My mind is still very much involved with bridge, reading, writing new material and preparing for new courses. So my Blog writing has slowed down for the time being.
Our mango season is finally over. During a storm a few nights ago most of the remaining fruit has fallen off the trees and the mango geese have just about cleaned up the lot. We are gradually getting more welcome rain which is great.

The situation in Europe looks very dire indeed. It is becoming ever more doubtful whether the Euro zone can remain intact. I can very much appreciate Germany's reluctance (and up to now refusal) to pay for the irresponsible past fiscal behaviour of the Southern countries, but this prolonged period of indecisiveness is making the situation only worse.

The English writer Oscar Wilde is famous mainly for two of his works : the comedy play (which I saw several times) "The Importance of being Ernest" and his novel "The picture of Dorian Gray".
Only a few weeks ago did I finally pick up this novel from the Library, but frankly am not sure what to think of it.

Wilde is undoubtedly a good and intelligent writer, but after reading 30 odd pages I simply lost interest to read on. And I wonder : "At what point does genuine literature become smothered by mannerism ?" Wilde's dialogues are so saturated with "witticisms", that after reading through it for a while they become almost annoying mannerisms, regardless of their intellectual merit. In other words they distract from, and in consequence become the style of the writer.

I experienced something similar with the novels of Annie Proulx. I very much enjoyed reading her novel The Shipping News. But starting on a few of her other books I encountered the same caricature type characters and over the top language. It was like a gramophone needle being stuck on the same track and repeating itself over and over again.
I never get such impression when reading novels by the likes of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Steinbeck, Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway. These writers's styles are genuine through and through.
But perhaps I am too critical here. I am reading a Jane Austen again and after completion may have another crack at Dorian Gray.