Look, I know this is kind of weird if you're not one for pets, but our Superb Parrot passed away. She was very old. well over 25years, so it wasn't surprising. She was very frail towards the end so it was even less surprising, but grief is grief. It's knocked me around for the last few days.
We got this parrot at a specialist shop out in Smithfield. She was already well mature and never really tame. God only knows how long she had been in the small cage because she really was freaked out about our larger cage when she moved in. I never thought I'd end up being in the caged bird thing, but things happen in your life, and suddenly that's where you find yourself - looking after an animal that is safer in a cage. At the moment an animal needs your help, the ideological thing tends to take a back seat. It's not a good excuse, but it is what happens.
I don't know who's idea it was to name Polytelis Swainsonii the 'Superb Parrot', but they really are wonderful company. Torrie was a funny thing. She was haughty and shy, regal and proud to the end. She had so may expressions that would keep you watching, and she would watch you right back, ever observant. I remember the one time she made the 'happy face' of excitement. It was the time I took her outside in the big cage for the first time, early one morning. The sun light hit her face directly and she lit up with elation - her pupils constricted and her head feathers stood on end. Majestic, she spread her wings and stood tall on her perch for a moment. Then the moment passed and she went back to being her cool self.
Anyway, having Torrie made me think of a lot of issues surrounding the species and the environment in which they live. That you can't just hope to save the species if you don't look after the whole habitat. You can't just save an animal here and there or a tree or even a river. You have to save the whole damn lot; The bush, the waters, the land, the oceans, the atmosphere, the Great Barrier Reef, all of it connected. In an anthropocentric civilisation it's easy to think of it as being about us. But for many a moment I sat and pondered the depth of the whole connection centred around the Superb Parrot.
I'm really going to miss the old bird. She was unique and profound as any sentient soul I'd ever met. Anyway, I share this because I don't know what to do with the grief today.
Of Course They Can Sort It Out (If They Wanted To)
Speaking of things climate change, here's this article. The Grattan Institute thinks that there is a workable bipartisan position on Global Warming and Climate Change by developing existing mechanisms.
A bipartisan approach to tackling climate change is still possible if Labor and the Coalition can get past their "policy bonfire" and develop existing mechanisms to curb carbon emissions, a Grattan Institute report finds.
While an economy-wide carbon price remains "the ideal preferred future climate policy", the political reality excludes that prospect winning bipartisan support for now. Still, sufficient flexibility exists within the major parties' platforms that a "sustainable policy phoenix can yet arise", the report argues.
The longer big parties threaten to dismantle their opponent's policy once in office, the less likely companies will have the confidence to fund long-term investments in low-emissions technology, making it harder for Australia to meet its carbon goals.
"We know we'll all pay eventually, whether it comes from the left pocket or the right pocket," Tony Wood, the report's lead author and director of Grattan's energy program, said.
Common ground to build on includes the remaining bipartisan goal to meet a 5 per cent reduction on 2000 levels by 2020. That target is likely to be reached in part because of favourable accounting but also because of some success in the government's purchase of emissions reductions, cheaper than the carbon tax, he said.
God, would it were so. It's hard to imagine the LNP even admitting to itself that there is an issue that needs to be dealt with. The way they carry on about what a positive thing it was to dismantle the carbon tax merely emphasises the point that deep down they don't believe it's going on or that anything really needs to be done. The mining sector is in denial about it because a big chunk of the mining sector is into fossil fuels so turning away from fossil fuel is literally about losing their meal ticket. The energy sector is equally into it up to their eyeballs but they too just want prolong things before they have to shell out on the capital investment to switch out of fossil fuels and - unsurprisingly - their present is still tied up with the fossil fuel companies that are fighting to keep their meal ticket going as long as possible. The banks are tepid and feigning neutrality, but they too have too much money and derivatives exposure to the mining companies.
It's all too easy to keep denying and putting off doing things, whether it be the corporate chiefs or the governments. It's what happens when you let the major parties play politics with the important policy areas.
Unaoil AND Panama Papers
Here's a Doozy.
It was only a matter of time before the Panama Papers controversy and the Unaoil bribery scandal overlapped.
Leaked emails obtained by Fairfax Media show the owners of oil industry bribe master Unaoil, the Ahsani family, used the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca – just like thousands of other super-rich around the world – to establish companies in tax haven locations.
As the fallout from 2016's two biggest international finance stories continues to reverberate, Fairfax Media can also reveal that one of the biggest donors of Britain's ruling Tory party, property tycoon Javad Marandi, was involved in Unaoil's Azerbaijan affairs and also a Mossack Fonseca client.
In 2008 and 2009, Unaoil's finance unit exchanged a series of emails with Mossack Fonseca's Panama office regarding the power of attorney arrangements between Unaoil founder Ata Ahsani and the company's two top executives, his sons Cyrus and Saman Ahsani.
The emails related to Unaoil companies established in the Caribbean tax haven of the British Virgin Islands. It is not illegal to use tax havens to create companies or hold accounts.That's unsurprising, isn't it? That people capable of bribes around the world would use Mossack and Fonseca to move bribe money around and with it avoid paying taxes? Really, lots of heads should roll. David Cameron really should lose his job as PM. The ATO should be jumping all over these things. I could rant on about it tonight, but I won't. You'd think this should end with more resignations and admissions of culpability.
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