Rain, Rain, Go Away???

Joy Ingram

It’s still raining here….…. which is certainly better than an eight-year drought, but even the locals seem to be getting tired of the cold, windy, wet days.  As we have seen in Florida, once a drought is over, people seem to forget that it can (and will) happen again.  I suspect that much of the success the Australians have had in water conservation over the past decade has been, at least in part, due to the major drought they faced.  I hope that during this period of water availability (at least in this part of the country), the public will not lose sight of the appreciation they have gained for conserving water.

My Doctor, Peter Sellers…or Was He the Janitor?

He was a bit disheveled, but then, so was I…but I was sick, and had an excuse for looking like I had slept in my clothes….Perhaps it was just let’s-see-how-bad-we-can-dress-without-resorting-to-spandex “Extreme Casual Day” at the clinic.  The doctor I saw the first time was not at the clinic this time, and I agreed to see a “different” doctor in order to avoid waiting until the next day (note to self:  head for the exit the next time a medical receptionist emphasizes the word “different” when referring to the doctor).

I waited for an over-the-top comedic French accent (since I was sure that I had fallen into an old Peter Sellers movie with Inspector Clouseau pretending to be a doctor), but he didn’t say very much at all.  It seemed that he was a mirror, reflecting what I said….Perhaps I need a second course of antibiotics?  Hmmm…Perhaps.  When I lamented about this in an email to my friend Jan, she suggested that perhaps this was the psychotherapy approach to medicine…”What do YOU think is wrong with you?”  Patient, heal thyself, because it is doubtful that thy Physician will do it without an assist….He did at least listen to me breathe with the stethoscope (I was comforted that he at least had one and appeared to be familiar with it) and wrote out a prescription for another week of amoxicilin.

So far my experience with nationalized medicine is less than stellar.  When I talk to people here about healthcare, the reactions are mixed.  Some seem very satisfied, although I think in some cases it’s because they have private insurance to supplement the public insurance.  The biggest concern seems to be waiting lists for seeing specialists or having surgical procedures, but I really haven’t learned enough about this system to either praise or criticize it.  I am hoping that my field research in this area is over – I want no more experience with healthcare here!

Eating Out…Alone…By Myself…Solo…A cappella…

Sans the “Shannee Singapore Syndrome”

If you know me, you know that I’m not overly shy, I don’t like to cook (but I like to eat good food), and I have my own personal chef, a.k.a. Tom, back at home.  So, you might think that I’ve been breezing into a myriad of different restaurants, sampling my way through Sydney cuisine, writing restaurant reviews in my spare time.  Au contraire!  I hate to eat out alone and I suppose being sick has not helped.  I did have a short revival after reading Shannee’s experience about having dinner with the Hotmail founder.  I kept thinking that I would be sitting in a small café somewhere, grudgingly sipping a flat white (see Week 1 for my original coffee rant), when a famous environmentalist, technology expert, or other well-known, fascinating person would walk in and sit at the next table.  I would effortlessly engage them in scintillating conversation, and at the end of the evening, they would give me their personal phone number and tell me not to hesitate to call if there was anything they could do to help in my struggle to “save the world”.  Forever after I would be a shameless name dropper….Okay, so my thinking may have been affected by fever and chills.

“Cheating the Coffee Culture” or “The Alternative to Grief Counseling”

No twelve-step program for me!  There are times when it is better just to give in and admit that you have a problem you’re not willing to overcome.  This was my conclusion when a package of U.S. origin arrived at the AWA office with my name on it.  The contents are precious, although the shipping costs were more than the declared value of those contents!  Of course you’re ahead of me, and you’ve figured out that it just had to be coffee-related.  Tom shipped me (fair trade) coffee and coffee paraphernalia that included 2 manual drip coffee makers – one that fits on its own travel cup and the other that makes a 6-cup pot (which means 3 cups unless you’re a very dainty coffee sipper).  Oh, bless his heart!  These are VERY long-term brownie points as far as I’m concerned!

I’m getting closer to being able to smell and taste the coffee, but the aroma has not been lost on my neighbors in the AWA office!  Several have commented on the wonderful smell – that instant coffee they keep in the break room leaves a lot to be desired and the nearest “decent coffee shop” is across the street in the rain!  However, they don’t seem very anxious to actually use a manual brew coffee maker, and one person commented that it “looks like an American contraption”.  For once, that is actually TRUE because these manual drip coffee makers were made in the U.S. by Melitta, a company in Clearwater, Florida!

Do I think I am cheating myself out of an opportunity to fully immerse myself in Australian coffee culture on the GROUNDS that I am clinging so desperately to my American ways?  Not for an INSTANT!

This Week’s Water Issue

Debate over the controversial Murray-Darling Basin Plan is continuing here.  The preliminary draft released by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority  in 2010 included plans for buy-back of substantial amounts of water for environmental flows, i.e., in stream use.  Since then, there has been much debate, as you can imagine, because the waters are already over-allocated, so there is no way to do this without someone being affected.

Hopefully this will not be “all about the money”, but the Wentworth Group (group of scientists who had been working with the Basin Authority on the plan) divorced themselves from the project in May, fearing that the outcomes would not support the environment as originally planned (and still cost the taxpayers billions of dollars):   http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/21/3223272.htm.  Even this was controversial, with other groups such as the National Farmers Federation accusing the scientists of becoming lobbyists by resigning:  http://www.accidentallyoutback.com.au/news/737-nff-questions-motive-behind-independent-science.

There just is no easy way to work out environmental issues, even in Australia, where there is more of a “lean to green”.   Implementation of the final Plan is supposed to start in 2012, so it will be interesting to see if what that final plan contains or if it is delayed.  In the meantime, it underscores the importance, or actually the dire necessity, of SOMEHOW getting all stakeholders to work together and finding a way to implement the triple bottom line.  There will be no shortage of challenges for the torchbearers of sustainability.

Sustainability Thoughts from Surprising Sources

Thanks for reading, and here is your parting sustainability gift, drawn once again from song lyrics, since I can never think of original ways to sign off:

“Twice as much ain’t twice as good,

and can’t sustain like one half could.

It’s wanting more that’s gonna bring me to my knees…”

–John Mayer (from the song “Gravity” on the “Continuum” album, worth checking out if you haven’t heard it)