Shire bashing?

What is shire bashing?

Trying to get an answer to questions you feel it necessary to ask?

Complaining about something that you believe to be wrong?

Cognitive dissonance?

Dissonance is aroused when people are confronted with information that is inconsistent with their beliefs, with their view of reality. In Rory Sutherland’s TED we see a classic piece of marketing that demonstrates how easily we can be convinced that the diamond is a square. Or are you much smarter than those in the focus group? Even if you are smart you might learn a few things from Rory.

Argyle and Bute have a lesson for AMRSC

When Argyle and Bute Council tried to suppress criticism they were receiving from a 9 year old girl, Martha Payne, they learnt very quickly that it just wasn’t going to work. In this TED Clay gives us a few pointers as to why new media might assist the spread of democracy.

Clay Shirky

Missing clause?

Are we all comfortable that after our shire have invited us all to comment on a plan or proposal they can change the supporting documents? Alter the records after we have commented. Do any of us spot a flaw with such a dynamic system? It does leave a gaping hole in our controls, an opportunity for a mischievous weasel to get to work perhaps?

Karridale priest missing!

The shire have expunged from the records all trace of our Karridale priest ever attending a workshop at the Karridale Hall. There is no longer a shred of evidence that he was there to witness the strange mob the planners rustled up to represent the Karridale community.

Not a shred of evidence?

We all read the CEO’s explanation in the local press last week, about how someone has lost their job because they were critical of the CEO and possibly suggested all was not as it should be in Wallcliffe House. 

What if?

Just a little cartoon to remind us all that whenever we invest some of our precious resources in trying to make improvements, as we travel along in life, it's never going to be time wasted. Whatever happens as regards elections, and Council budgets, etc. we are learning and sharing the experience of building the AMRCV community via Facebook. 

Atheism 2.0

What does Sunday mean to you? Those of you who know me will know that I am a Christian, and that my family has an abundance of clergy within its ranks. For us the rhythm of the week will always be punctuated by a Sunday pause, and whatever style of service we might enjoy it will always provide the space in our lives for the forgiveness of sins.

Apathetic ?

It has been suggested that as a community we are apathetic  in Augusta Margaret River Shire? I disagree. I diagnose our condition not as apathy, but merely a bad case of 'learned helplessness' which can keep people living in circumstances that are unsatisfactory even when they do have the power and resources to make changes. 

Are We Idiots?

Those of you following this blog will have read about the wisdom of the psychopath but George Papandreou touches on the wisdom of the crowd and urges us to not be idiots. He is a man who is willing to share his experience, what he has learnt from failure, and in 20 minutes he could provoke some deep thinking about democracy.

Can we have "Sure and Certain"?

A resident listening to a developer telling the community of the benefits that might come when the development was approved protested, “We don’t want possibly, we want sure and certain.”

Can we ever have sure and certain? Not in this life, except for death and taxes. But we can certainly reduce our exposure to risk by making sure that we have good research behind any decision making. If our shire is reluctant to reference the research, ask why?

Group Think and Risky Shift

Whenever we have a decision making situation we need to beware of the influence of group think, and risky shift, also known as group polarisation, because these can result in seriously flawed outcomes. The web can provide adequate overviews of group think, and risky shift and group polarization for anyone curious about the meaning of these terms. Once we understand and recognise that such psychological effects occur we need to do some deep thinking about examples in our own shire, and how might we develop strategies to improve.

Letter from Julia

A few decades ago if a friend such as Linda Burch left our community then we might rarely hear from her. But just as I was finishing up writing about the community being more connected today than ever before I received this post from Linda, via FB.
It isn't a political statement, just an example of the generosity of the human spirit.
It isn't about AMRShire and so you might wonder why I've linked it here.
Because it demonstrates our connectedness yes, but also because it shows the amazing things that ordinary people can do. Every great human endevour springs from one individual's thoughts and ideas. Along the way others will join in shaping that idea but someone has to have the passion and determination to make a start.
It also shows that powerful people do not have to be dismissive or disdainful of the masses, there are many instances of very powerful men and women treating their fellow citizens with respect and care. For that we can be grateful.
Letter from Julia

Brian Burke

Back a few years we had a report in our local newspaper about a visit to the shire CEO by Brian Burke and Julian Grill. This visit did happen. It is a matter of record, a question was asked in Council by Councillor Bob Wyburn.

Residential or Resort?

Gary Bennett wrote a couple of good letters recently, he was asking why the shire councillors would over-rule the professional planning staff we employ to give expert advice. Good question Gary.

Can anyone understand why we need more residential houses when we have no strategies for economic development?

The Locust and the Bee

“If you want to make money, you can choose between two fundamentally different strategies. One is to create genuinely new value by bringing resources together in ways that serve people’s wants and needs. The other is to seize value through predation, taking resources, money, or time from others, whether they like it or not. Your choice, in short, is whether to be a bee or a locust.”

End Feudal System?

The CSIRO reports from the $500,000 "Sustainable Futures" project were completed in 2005, and have never been referred to by the Augusta Margaret River Shire. Ask why?

Shire Squeaks?

When the shire wants to engage the community does it shriek or squeak? If the planners have some grand scheme in mind that will drop a few hundred homes into your neighbourhood does it really want to know what you think?

The Collection Charge

My comments yesterday on rubbish were wrong, and the explanation in the AMRTimes made everything clear............... well, almost everything. I'm not a Deep Thinker, although trying my best I still have a few issues that need a little more explanation.

Roads and Rubbish

We all know the shire have failed us on roads, just take a look at the AMRMail to see how little respect the farmers of Warner Glen are receiving. So how are they doing on rubbish?

Why do we sleep?

Anyone reading my previous post on the bed police and thinking I sounded too alarmist should listen to Russell Foster on the neuro science of sleep. During the late 1990s I undertook research into the health issues of those who work night shift, and many of their issues are common across any of the population who regularly experience less than good quality sleeping patterns.
Sleep is not a trivial issue.

The Bed Police

How many people slept under your roof last night?

Will the spy in the sky have reported any extra visitors you accommodated to the shire? Do you even know how many you’re allowed to have tucked up under your roof? And who cares how many people you choose to cram into your house anyway?

In Praise of Genius - Olé!

Recently a negative comment has been made against my suggestion that Belinda might be a good candidate for council.

“god, haven’t you got enough on your plate.”

The Story of Stuff

For anyone thinking about rubbish, and many might suggest that all my thoughts are in that category ;-)

Annie Leonard is one woman, but she gathered a team and over the years their work has been inspirational and very effective.

Our local waste problem needs a few radical thoughts about the source of all the rubbish and so maybe Annie can spark off a little energy to provoke discussion.

The Story of Stuff

Lessons with LOL Cats

This post is dedicated to George, a much loved cat.

Do we all understand how much power the community has?

Secrets

As I wrote on the 19th August "Cost of Information" it seemed to some of us in Karridale that when the WAPC planning officer visited us he told us that development would not proceed in Karridale until there was a need for houses. He later confirmed, “Any revised plan should be predicated on a demonstrated demand for lots in this location.”

Lurkers and Sneezers

Back in the day.... as Jack Reacher might say.
When I was researching the use of new technologies for communication and the formation of virtual communities we classified one group as "lurkers."  These people visit a virtual space, stay around awhile, and make no comment. This is normal human behaviour in any group whether computer mediated communication(CMC) or Face-to-Face.
Often the lurkers will turn out to be "sneezers," this is a term that is used in marketing to describe the people who pass messages on, they are often the people who are more likely to be in jobs where they interface with the community. Jobs such as hairdresser, nurse, check-out assistant, etc.
The important thing to remember is that communication may be natural and necessary for all human beings but the way we choose to perform this activity will differ.

Revolving Door Problems?

The term “revolving door problem” is applied to the issue of poachers who turn gamekeepers, and vice versa. This usually relates to people employed by private corporations who then go to work for regulatory bodies or public institutions, and maybe even flip back out into the private sector from time to time. Some even have the chance to act as a free-lance consultant while holding a salaried role within a public institution.

Say, for example, working with the WAPC to define the requirements for a “liveable neighbourhood” and then working for a developer to push plans for a liveable neighbourhood through Council.

Are we all comfortable with that?

Or do some of us see how it just might create a bias towards possibly framing the requirements in a way that the development corporation would like them, rather than how the members of the community, who haven’t been asked at all, would actually like to live?

Does this really matter?

It certainly seemed to matter in the case of ENRON, and Lehmann Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and many other examples. All major financial frauds involve some failure of implementation of adequate controls. In some cases this is more blatant than in others, but somewhere along the line the regulator has cut a little slack for the corporation, to the detriment of the society as a whole.

ENRON had a corporate motto – “Ask Why?”

But obviously not enough of their employees actually did ask why? Or possibly when they received an answer written in weasel they were too shy, or too lacking in confidence, or too bullied, or too whatever, to demand a more sensible answer.

But it was an excellent motto, Ask Why?

We should all be encouraged to ask why?

And in the case of statutory planning we are entitled to ask why there is apparently no quarantine period for urban planning professionals wishing to move between public and private sector?

This is important, not because we are accusing anyone of wrongdoing, or we lack the capacity to trust, but because we know that intellectual property and insider knowledge are business assets that must be ring fenced. If decisions are to be made fairly and in accordance with the spirit of the legislative framework then there cannot be any doubt about who the decision makers are representing.

Without the clear boundaries that should exist between public and private interests in land development there is a presumption that the “little people” will lose out to the corporate bullies. We need to have confidence that when our shire planning staff make recommendations they are clearly working for us. 

Currently we have no confidence that the plans being approved for Karridale will benefit anyone but the two development corporations involved.

Ask Why?

Dependency Ratios

Do dependency ratios matter to you?

Wilful Blindness

Does it matter whether we get involved with the big issues or just get on with earning our living, having fun, and let the other guys make all the tough decisions?

The Wisdom of Psychopaths

The Wisdom of psychopaths is the title of a book by Kevin Dutton which is well worth dipping into when the frustrations of life appear too challenging, and you’re left wondering why?

Suspects or Citizens?

I’ll say up front that I like Barry House. He’s always seemed a very amiable and pleasant man, but unfortunately his views on the planning activities of the Augusta Margaret River Shire do not accord with my own. Neither his experience of the planning “process”, nor his assessment of the results of that process, match with my own experience as a resident of this shire.

Alannah MacTiernan ?

A short extract from Hansard, 24th May 2000 the whole episode can be read on-line.

Why quote Alannah? Just to assure those readers who think that this old cluck from Karridale is the only person who believes that community consultation is not working too great in this shire, in this state. This was 13 years ago, and still we have the same problems...... 

Externalities

A significant proportion of our very high rate charges can be categorised as “externalities”.

We must all understand what an externality is, and learn to recognise them, before we can begin to address the issue of the shire costs. Unless we do this we run the risk of trimming our budget in ways that reduce the quality of life for residents while allowing the corporate profit takers to avoid their responsibilities and leave us with a whole range of externality costs. An externality is a cost of business activity that is not borne by the person or corporation undertaking that business.

James Lundy?

James Lundy, who is he?

He will be recorded in the history of Karridale. Future generations will learn of his influence alongside MCDavies and other worthy gentlemen.

Plus ça change, .....

Aren’t search engines wonderful?

The tourism trap was with us in 1999

The rate hike that nobody anticipated, or welcomed ...