Race Horse Industry – A Waste of Wealth

One has to be just a little upset with the horse ‘flu which is rampaging through th Australian racing stables at the moment. But only for the sick horses. Not for the industry to which they have been enslaved.

From the Australian Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Coorporation:Wagering on racing is a big industry in Australia. In 1997-98 over $11.6 billion was wagered on thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing, with a net taking of $1.6 billion (ABS 8684).

The Government is very happy that they can retrieve and additional  significant contribution to government revenue. In 1997-98 overnment revenue from betting was $452.1 million from thoroughbred racing and $119.6 million from harness and greyhound racing (ARB 1999).

In my mind this is $11.6 billion (now probably 3 x that amount), of wasted wealth. Do race horses add any real value to society? No. So all the resources coming out of our productive primary industries and manufacturing that are spent on racehorses are resources being thrown away on triviality. At least the government gets some of it and can put some into roads and health. Most of that revenue probably goes on the problem gamblers and the devastation they wreck on their families and communities.

How Good People turn Bad

This is one of the most powerful interviews I have heard. It synched with my current musings on criminality so I thought it worthwhile summarizing the key points.

Philip Zimbardo has recently written a book called the Lucifer Effect, on the Stanford Prison Experiment that he conducted in 1971, because it was recreated in real life in the Iraq, Abu Graihb prison. Here is Philip Zimbardo:

 

“Dehumanisation is really maybe the most basic psychological process that pushes, propels good people to do really bad things. And in a particular situation the humanity of other people is taken away, is deprived. You think of them as less than human; as animals; you think of them as insects, you think of them as vermin. And once inferior, then you can do whatever either gives you pleasure or whatever the top-down command tells you is necessary to do.

 

If I told you, imagine you’re a prisoner, who would you like to have come down on your behalf? You say well, how about a Catholic priest, how about a public defender, how about your mother. I brought all of those people down to that prison, many…several times. The point is what they saw is a scene that we staged, and this is true in virtually every prison when there is a congressional hearing or where there’s a prison task force comes down. So the parents, then being good middle class parents, they too fall into conforming to the power of the situation.

Cognitive dissonance is a very common phenomenon that’s been widely studied. Typically what happens is your attitudes and values change to fit the behaviour rather than the other way around. Talmudic scholars would say get people to pray before you try to get them to believe, once they start praying they’ll come to believe what they are doing. So a lot of evil done by good people is really more from the evil of inaction.

Behaviour is always a product of what people bring into any situation. But what we have all under-estimated is how powerful and subtle situational forces can be to reshape our behaviour. And this is forces in classrooms, in business, in our families — just being aware that you have that vulnerability is the single best protection against it happening.

My book The Lucifer Effect would not have been written (without Abu Ghraib) …you know it was 35 years since the Stanford Prison study, I had never written a book about it, but wrote articles…for me it was over and ended, I’m doing other things. But when I saw those pictures that were flashed around the world…they were shocking, they were abominable but they were not at all surprising because I’d seen those exact images in the Stanford Prison study: prisoners with bags over their heads, prisoners stripped naked, prisoners forced to engage in sexually degrading activities. And so you take young soldiers, the military intelligence, the CIA, all these people are now telling these soldiers winning the war, saving the lives of your buddies outside depends on your helping to soften them up. So that was their seduction to evil.

When we sentence somebody to prison then we have to take into account what were the surrounding situational and systemic forces that made a really good guy do really bad things. You no longer can focus only on individual freedom of will, individual rationality. People are always behaving in a context, in a situation, and those situations are always created and maintained by powerful systems, political systems, cultural, religious ones. And so we have to take a more complex view of human nature because human beings are complex.

I end the book with a call for encouraging, fostering the heroic imagination in our children as the best antidote to evil. So to be a hero doesn’t involve as far as my analysis special attributes, it’s not you’re more conscientious, you’re more altruistic, you are more unselfish –you are an ordinary person who in a particular situation, at a particular time in your life, sees the world the way it really is.

I want to argue that all of us have the potential for evil. But more importantly all of us have the potential to be heroes.”

Criminality

Crime can be defined as that action which causes harm to another human being. Harm can further be defined as the diminution of capacity to reach potential achievements over the rest of the expected lifespan.

The criminal, then, is one whose action can be proven to have harmed another.

The criminal act can be defined in several ways:

1. Determined to harm but has not harmed;
2. Determined to, and caused, harm;
3. Determined to act yet harm occurred without determination to harm;
4. Acted without determination and harm occurred.
5. Determined not to act and harm occurred.

Determination can be defined as the self-initiated establishment of a goal. This implies intellectual competence to be self-determining. Determination must be evident i.e. actions must display the planning of the harmful act. However, when evidence is available, the determined planning is also a criminal act.

A matrix can be drawn to establish the level or degree of the crime, against:

1. The degree of harm;
2. The degree of determination and
3. The degree to which the criminal might act criminally again.

It is valid to ask the question, why does it matter that some people become victimised by others? And the answer is less in how we SHOULD be good to each other for goodness sake, but in that society as a whole benefits from the protecting all of us against harm as much as we can. Society progresses through peace and the continuity of collective intelligent endeavour that arises. It disintegrates under unfettered criminality or war.

So the issue of criminality and justice is about securing a peaceful society. How do we use the matrix mentioned above, in protecting the society from an undermining of its capacity to progress? In otherwords how would it provide the basis of a justice system?

 

Role of Justice

The first role of justice is protection of the victim & the community from harm.

The second role of justice is recompense to the victim to the extent possible.

The third role of justice is to assist the criminal to contrition and recompense / penance, and return to service to the society.

The fourth role of justice is to ensure reward supports the acts that assist the development of human potential and society’s progress.

 

Response of Justice

The first response to the criminal act requires segregation of the criminal from the victims (actual & potential) for the safety of the community.

The second response is recompense for the victim from society’s common wealth for society as a whole is responsible for not protecting the victim.

The third response requires the criminal has avenue to become aware of the effect of their deed, to express contrition, and to aid recompense.

The fourth response requires that the services of the criminal is rewarded at an appropriate degree.

A matrix can be developed to define the management of the criminal by integrating the four responses against the degree of crime matrix.

There is only One God

Came by my mail, a reminder of the nature of monotheism that has coincided with reminders from Christian sources that there is quite some confusion over the nature of God. Over the years I have heard many christians, relating something they have heard in a sermon, speaking about the Christian God as if it where one among many. Thus the distorion that there is a Muhammedan God, a Jewish God, etc. I suspect this distortion is entering sermons so as to keep an arms length from other religions. Yet monotheism has been raised to overcome the destructive tendencies of dualism and polytheism. While many decry the state of inter-religious conflict over recent centuries, it is important to note the far greater imposts held over the citizenship of the pre-monotheistic societies. The most well-know of these is the state of Arab society pre-muhammed in which baby girls where buried alive.

So monotheists should accept the definition found in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible. Note that here God is responsible for evil and good, an issue many people have difficulty, wanting God to only be responsible for good. But that is dualistic. It is to that dualism, as inherent in Zorasterianism (the religion of my father-in-laws ancestors – bless them all.) that Isaiah refers the following to Cyrus, King of Persia under the Zoroastrian religion.

“45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him;…
45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (King James Bible, Isaiah)

Yet monotheism was not only about solving social injustice, it was about moving societies forward. It was never about dominating another society just for the sake of it, but recognising that those polytheistic societies had entered the cul-de-sac of civilisation.

Whether we are theists or atheists, we are all living off the fruits of the monotheistic religious ascendancy. In otherwords, No maths without muslims.

That present day society including religion needs to get itself out of another potential cul-de-sac is the whole purpose of the Baha’i Faith.

On Criminality

I have been pondering on the whole issue of criminality and our social responses, especially since the case of Dr Haneef whom, it seems has become a target of the Australian Federal Police because of the actions of his cousins. It also concerns me that we tend to dwell a lot on whether a person is psychologically responsible for their harmful actions, and therefore should not be punished. 

Which had me thinking about the relationship between harming others and punishment.

From the website ‘Philosphical Pathways” I found a review of the idea of criminality with this conclusion, “So it is not a matter of morality, conditioning, cures, diseases, private or public treason, nonconformity, or arbitrary power or willfulness. Criminal justice defines (in each society) what ‘will happen to them if they do not behave’ (Devlin in Burr, 314) and by behave we mean not doing harm or injustice to others.”

Well, I can live with that.

But what does it mean about the relationship of the individual to society. If we look at society as a contract between the body politic and the individual, what are we offering the individual? A number of things come to mind: equal opportunity to participate in the  social life and economy of the society, the right to any personal activities or activities contracted with other (adults), the right to raise children of our own issue, the right to participate in government. This then is the reward.

Criminal justice, therefore, applies a threat. So, if we act in a way that causes harm to others, we will be deprived of the rewards of society. We shall not be able to participate in society or government, we will be disallowed even to act on a personal wish. Ergo, we will be sent to a prison. And for every type of harm, the time we spend in the prison will be limited, but even to our dying breath.

It does also mean that we (society) contract with each individual that we won’t act to deprive them, unless they have harmed another.

However the anti-terrorist and anti-organised crime movement would suggest that prevention of a very harmful crime, or serial crimes, call for the deprivation of those rewards of some people who, by association, may be involved or know information about a future act. As I cower from the thought of being blown up by a bomb or shot by a gangster, I think, “oh, yes, deprive them.” Until the next thought kicks in, “deprive them so you can terrorise them, beat them, torture them, ruin their lives”. And I realise my reaction for what it i, ‘cowardise’. And cowardise not only for my own skin, but the skin of my family as well.

And further, I wonder, about real prevention of the harmful act?

And of the harm, how do we restore or resolve the injury done?

Speaking Rural Health to Australian Parliamentarians

Now back from Canberra where I met with other board members of Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health SARRAH, and the National Rural Health Alliance NRHA, and took some clear messages to many of the parliamentarians of all persuasions, about improving the funding arrangements for health services in rural and remote communities.

As a federal election looms, our delegations were received by more parliamentarians than ever before. With the Commonwealth budget in a very comfortable surplus, there was a sense from government and shadow ministers that more can, even WILL, be done. There is some concern that that same surplus might be seen as a toybox for political leverage by whoever is in power. So that, rather than an increasingly rational health system in Australia, we have more and more ‘programs’ and spots of spending that are not integrated into a system. Such an approach would lead to an increase of expenditure while still not delivering to the most needy in the nation.

Well, we have made our points on creating a national health policy and exacting rural equity within that policy. We have argued for strategies to encourage more rural youth into health professions through scholarships, and providing vauable rural experience through a undergraduate rural clinical placement scheme available to city and rural students. Both of these are key to increasing the health workforce in rural Australia. We have argued better oral health services. I was astounded to find that there are only .9 oral hygienists per 100,000 popn in rural and remote Australia.

SARRAH was pleased to have our first oral hygienist and aboriginal health worker at our Canberra summit. See my flickr site for photos of the meetings and visit to Parliament house.

The NRHA also organised a half day public seminar on the health of refugees in rural communities. Held at the war memorial lecture theatre it was well attended and included 2 sudanese refugees (“don’t call us refugess after we are settled in”) who now live in a rural town.

Failing to attain victory upon the living; battle the dead

A while ago some fanatics took to destroying the Baha’i cemetery in Yazd, Iran. Here I paraphrase a response to this act.

“Thus, riding upon their bulldozers, they directed their attack towards the Baha’i Cemetery in Yazd. Like onto victorious warriors and brave soldiers, they charged upon the battlefield to fight the dead, so that perchance they may hear the cries of those resting in peace. They must have returned to their homes filled with pride and glory and announced to their families news of their victory! They must have announced as to how none amongst the inhabitants of the cemetery showed anyresistance; and how they annihilated successfully all those residing there and demolished their homes.

Who will they turn against after the dead – I wonder? I recall a learned man saying that “Some imagine that Faith consists of an edifice; and they destroy the edifice thinking that they have also abolished Faith. Some imagine that Faith consists of a book; and they burn the book or turn its pages into some other use thinking that they have destroyed Faith. Some imagine that Faith consists of people; and so they capture the people, kill them and turn them away from their homes thinking that they can annihilate Faith.”

Where is the learned man now to see that there are even those who imagine that Faith consists of a bunch of dead resting in a cemetery;
so they demolish the graves, desecrate the copses, break the tombstones, tear down the mortuary and leave in its place a deep hollow – thinking that by so doing they can wipe out Faith.”

Rural Health

I’m off to Canberra tomorrow morning, a 2:30am start. The council of the National Rural Health Alliance will meet for three days, then spend a day talking to federal politicians at Parliament House. Then, starting next weekend Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health will hold a summit, and also spend a day talking to federal politicians. With federal elections looming I hope we are successul in gaining interest in significant reforms in the Australian Health Industry, especially as effects rural and remote communities.

Health Reform in Australia

It is coming into federal election time in Australia. This weekend I am off to Canberra to meet with two ngo’s in the health industry, and meet with parliamentarians (See my rural health pages). We have been trying to talk to the Commonwealth Government for some year now about major health reform in the nation. The stakes for the communities are high: a growing aged population and a decreasing child population means that by 2020 the health industry will have almost zero workforce entry and massive more work. The indigenous community has a life expectancy some 20 years lower than the average. In rural and remote Australia we can’t recruit professional workforce. Meanwhile the Australian economy has never been in a better situation for spending more on a major health reform policy. So it is despairing to see the government splashing money on marginal electorates while keeping real reform at arms length. It seems a terribly careless attitude. Still, we shall talk our heads off to politicians to try to persuade some movement.

Paranoia

A muslim friend who is fully active in his local community, believes his phone has a tap. Why would he think of it?

What causes paranoia to rise, and what end does it have? It rises from a sense of mistrust.  A criminal act is committed by some people from a particular group. A government becomes paranoid and shows it now doesn’t trust anyone from that group. The members of the group begins to believe the government has targeted them for surveillance and detention over the least thing. The group begins to become secret to avoid the object of its paranoia. The secrecy builds anxiety in the minds of the group’s youth. The anxiety becomes frustration. The frustration becomes anger. The anger desires retribution for something that has never happened to that person. The desire misleads the youth to strangers with malicious intent. The strangers lead the youth to criminal acts.

Government must be welcoming of all the people of the world. The application of justice ensures that criminals are prohibited from harming any of the other people of the world. Harming trustworthy people in an attempt to prohibit harming trustworthy people is ….. well you get the point I’m sure.