Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 75, December 2014, Holiday Edition

The Kakadu Draft Plan of Management

The Kakadu Draft Plan of Management has been released. You can download a copy at the Kakadu Draft Management Plan page. If you scroll down the page, you will find information about how to make a comment as well as summary sheets about different parts of the plan.

One thing that some people forget which affects every single thing to do with the park is that Kakadu is Aboriginal land.Even if you read nothing else, please have a look at the Summary of the draft 6^th management plan. It's only six pages and should give you a good feel for some of the issues facing the park.

Please have your say. Not making a comment tells the authorities either that you are happy with everything in the plan or that you don't care.

You can read some of my thoughts about things worth commenting on here.

While bushwalking does get a mention in several places, there will be much more of direct relevance to bushwalkers when the Draft Bushwalking Strategy is finally released. I will have something about that as soon as I can after the release.

Kakadu Fees

Like many, perhaps most, national parks around the world, Kakadu has been starved of funds to the point where the lack of money is affecting the management of the park. For this reason, park fees will rise for most visitors from 1 April 2016.

• Here is the media release describing why the fee increase is needed.
• Here are the new fees.
• The winners. Adults visiting in the off-season, November through March, will not pay an increase. Seniors who book an off-season visit online will save over 30% compared to the existing fee.

These Kakadu Threatened Species Projects are being funded through the current budget. The new fees will make it easier for the park to continue work like this.

Kakadu Visitor Guide

The Kakadu Visitor Guide is available for download from the park website.

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$300 for Six Days in Kakadu!

Two light-pack super specials, never to be repeated. I have found an unoccupied bushwalking niche. I enjoyed the little bit that I did and was inspired to come up with two new trial trips. If they work the way I think they will, they will be in the 2016 program at a much higher price.

• Day walker's special
  While there are no marked overnight walking trails in Kakadu, there are many shorter marked trails ranging from fifteen minutes to a full day. You can find them all described on the official Kakadu Walks page.
  Earlier this month I did one of those walks which I hadn't done for years. It had been so long since I'd done it that I'd forgotten just how good it was. I can't find anyone offering a trip specialising in walks like the one I did so I'm going to offer a trial, either in April or August-September. The $300 will cover all transport and park entry fees, but participants will have to cover the cost of their accommodation and meals.
• Short but sweet
  There are only a few places in Kakadu where you can do a short walk to a base camp followed by a day walk exploring some very scenic country. On this trip I will combine three of them. Walk 2 or 3 km to a base camp next to a pool, next day do a day walk and back to the same camp. Walk out the following day and go to the next walk. Three two-night camps. On this one, you'll get your evening meals as well as transport and park fees. The trip will be offered some time between early June and late September.

Note. If we have to hire a vehicle instead of using our own for either of these trips, all participants, including the guide (probably Russell), will share the cost.

Does either of those sound interesting? If so, please send me an email. If I don't get any expressions of interest, neither trip will happen.

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Too Young to Die, Too Old to Worry

This could have gone into the previous section, but I thought it was worth a section on its own. Definitely food for thought, especially at this time of year. Too Young to Die, Too Old to Worry * suggests that, "at some point, you have to start indulging in the pleasures of the present."

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35 Genius Life Hacks Everyone Should Know

If you can't get at least one good new idea out of 35 Genius Life Hacks Everyone Should Know, your life is far more organised than mine.

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Education

I was a school teacher for 20 years. My education prepared me for the world I would enter as an adult. Today's students are not so lucky. Back in August, two of John Mauldin's free newsletters Go to 'Our Publications' on the top and you'll get a drop down menu listing the free ones.)touched on the subject of education and how it is failing students today. What he wrote about America is just as relevant in Australia.

If you have school-age or pre school-age children or grandchildren, you owe it to them to read the three links below.

• AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs. Here are two quotes.
  "While the country had 50-70+ years to adapt to increasing automation on farms from the 1870s onward, and survived that transition, the radical restructuring of what we think of as work that is going to happen in the next 20 years is going to be far more difficult. Especially when everything is on the news."
  "This report highlights some of the areas where not just the US but other countries are failing. Especially in education, where we still use an 18th-century education model developed to produce factory workers for the British industrialists, putting students into rows and columns and expecting them to learn facts that will somehow help them cope with a technological revolution."
  The main paper (scroll down the Mauldin newsletter to see it) includes a variety of opinions about where we are going. There was, however, one point of agreement: the educational system is doing a poor job of preparing the next generation of workers.
• Employers Aren't Just Whining — the "Skills Gap" Is Real. Again, scroll down to the main report. Here are a few quotes.
  "there are not major shortages of workers with basic reading and math skills or of workers with engineering and technical training; if anything, too many workers may be overeducated. Nevertheless, employers still have real difficulties hiring workers with the skills to deal with new technologies."
  "new technologies frequently require specific new skills that schools don’t teach and that labor markets don’t supply."
  "there is evidence that select groups of workers have had sustained wage growth, implying persistent skill shortages."
• Somewhere in that article was a link to another Harvard Business Review article, How Technology Creates Jobs for Less Educated Workers. That's just as important as the other two above.

To sum it up, "From the perspective of the Long View, our education system is completely broken. We are not training our children to deal with the future, and we are not helping people transition into sustainable independence. Our welfare and disability rolls are growing faster than new jobs are being generated." It may be that becoming something like a plumber will be both more financially rewarding and less stressful than many white collar jobs.

You can’t fix stupid, but you don't have to teach it.

Lost in the Past * talks about the importance of learning history. While the article is about America, I suspect it applies just as well to Australia.
"It's not just students who don't know history. Opinion leaders, corporate titans, politicians, media personalities and educators — dunce caps for all."
"Those who don't understand the past are doomed to repeat it."
"Many Americans can’t even place the Civil War in the right half-century, or think we fought alongside the Germans in World War II."
"Immigrants may know more about history than fifth-generation natives. To pass a citizenship test, they are required to learn things about the glory and infamy, the power and abuses — the operating system — of this democracy. It's not too onerous to ask the same thing of 18-year-olds across the land. You can't fix stupid, as the comic line goes; but you don’t have to teach it."
As an aside, to become an Australian citizen, you must score 75% or better on a set of 20 questions. Why not test yourself and see how you go.

A Few More Interesting Articles

• The American Dream Is Leaving America *
  "Fixing the education system is the civil rights challenge of our era, especially as the United States is being eclipsed in economic and educational mobility."
  It's not yet as bad in Australia but we seem to be moving in that direction.
• Math Under Common Core Has Even Parents Stumbling *
  "Parents feeling helpless when confronted with first-grade math work sheets are adding to the political debate about whether the Common Core is another way in which Washington is taking over people's lives."
  As a former maths teacher, I believe that most people teaching maths (most are primary school teachers) don't really understand it. This article fits with what other stories are saying about skills needed in today's society.
• Grading Teachers, With Data From Class *
  "Panorama Education, aided by prominent tech investors, is refining student feedback through innovative data collection. School systems are embracing the concept."
  Do we have anything similar in Australia?
• The Streamlined Life *
  "The data on how incoming college freshmen perceive themselves and their futures paint a subtle and sobering picture."
  Does anyone know where I can find similar info for Australia?
• Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding *
  "Backed by some of the biggest names in tech, Code.org aims to make computer science part of the curriculum everywhere, and 20,000 teachers have signed on since December.

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Flying — The Next Stage

"Flight crew error has been implicated in about half of all fatal airline accidents." The obvious answer, get rid of the crew.

New Scientist had an interesting article Who's flying this thing? End in sight for pilots. a few months ago. It's not going to happen in the next few years, but unless our whole technological society breaks down, it will happen. The article is well worth a read.

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Our Place in the World

What happens in the rest of the world affects us all.

Geographically, Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. According to Wikipedia, by population, we rank 53^rd with less than one third of one percent of the world's population. We depend on trade for many, perhaps most, of the goods we consume. Our alliances mean that we often follow the lead of the US. Whether or not this is always in our best interests is a matter of debate.

China

Australia sends incredible quantities of coal and iron ore to China. In US dollars, the price of iron ore had dropped by almost 50% in the past year. According to New Scientist "the world could be approaching peak production of coal after Beijing decided to ban coal use in six central districts from 2020." (NS #2982, p 5). This has to affect our entire economy.

• China Versus America *
  "How Chinese 'harmony' and American 'freedom' produce the dangerous clash of two exceptionalisms.
  Australia is allied with America and our biggest export market is China. What happens if there is a clash?
• China's Credit Slowdown Raises Concerns About Overall Economic Health
  What happens to our economy if our exports to China drop still further?
• A Rare Arctic Land Sale Stirs Concerns in Norway *
  "A Chinese businessman with deep pockets is looking to buy land in Norway, creating a frenzy of speculation about moves by China to gain a permanent foothold in the Arctic.
  A Chinese Insurance company recently bought the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for US$1.95 billion.
  In 2012, the Chinese bid won all the new land open for development in the Ord River Irrigation area in the Kimberley.
  How much more of Australia do they own? What happens if they suddenly want to sell?
• Bloomberg Hints at Curb on Articles About China *
  "Comments from the chairman of Bloomberg L.P. represent the starkest acknowledgment yet by a senior Bloomberg executive that the ambitions of the news division should be assessed in the context of the business operation."
  When one of the world's most important financial news services caves in to Chinese demands, it shows just how economically powerful China has become. What might they demand from us?
• The Similarities Between Germany and China
  "Economic viability for both Germany and China depends largely on maintaining exports..... Both countries look at unemployment not only in terms of economics, but also in terms of social stability and governmental survival. Therefore, exports are not simply a number, but the foundation of each country."
  "Another wild card exists in each region. In Europe, it is Russia. In East Asia, it is Japan."
  If you want to understand some of the possibilities that don't make it into the popular press, this is well worth a read.
• The End of Consensus Politics in China
  "Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is the broadest and deepest effort to purge, reorganize and rectify the Communist Party leadership since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the rise of Deng Xiaoping two years later."
  "Stratfor believes this shift involves nothing less than an attempt to rework not only the way the Communist Party operates but also the foundations of its political legitimacy."
  The Australian economy depends to a large extend on exports to China. Understanding what is happening and will happen in China is essential to working out what Australia and its citizens can do to prepare themselves for the inevitable changes.
• Why Beijing's Troubles Could Get a Lot Worse
  "China, for all its talk about economic reform, is in big trouble. The old model of relying on export growth and heavy investment to power the economy isn't working anymore."
  ..."a lot of wealthy Chinese are rushing to cut back on in-country assets and get money offshore."
  Like it or not, the issues raised in this article will affect us all. If you want to get a better picture of the issues facing our number one trading partner, give this a read.

Europe

• Traveling Through Multiple Europes
  "Europe is overcrowded with people and with nations. Six decades ago, the need to suppress the dangerous forces of nationalism led to the unprecedented political, economic and social experiment now known as the European Union. The hundreds of thousands of EU citizens working across the Continent and the lack of border controls between member states show that the experiment has been successful in many ways. However, rising nationalism, pervasively high unemployment and a growing sense of frustration with governing elites also highlight the serious limitations of the European project."
  "The gap between voters and traditional elites keeps widening as people are becoming increasingly tired of the policies designed by Brussels and backed by domestic politicians."
  Europe is changing. Like it or not, those changes will inevitably have some consequences in Australia. This article gives a good overview of what is going on.
• Europe's Malaise: The New Normal?
  "If the economic premise of the European Union — prosperity — is cast into doubt, then what holds Europe together?"
  Euro-skeptic parties are gaining ground in many countries. We cannot take the continued existence of the European Union in its present form for granted.

Russia

Russia is nowhere near as strong as the old Soviet Union, but it is still a major power which has nuclear weapons. The West does not understand Russia and makes assumptions that have little to do with reality. What Russia does may well have worldwide consequences.

• Viewing Russia From the Inside
  Few in the West understand the Russian psyche. Western sanctions have relatively little effect. ".... there was another reason given for the relative calm over the financial situation, and it came not only from government officials but also from private individuals and should be considered very seriously. The Russians pointed out that economic shambles was the norm for Russia, and prosperity the exception. There is always the expectation that prosperity will end and the normal constrictions of Russian poverty return."
  "Russians' strength is that they can endure things that would break other nations. It was also pointed out that they tend to support the government regardless of competence when Russia feels threatened."
  "Ukraine is of fundamental strategic importance to Russia. Even if the east received a degree of autonomy, Russia would remain deeply concerned about the relationship of the rest of Ukraine to the West. As difficult as this is for Westerners to fathom, Russian history is a tale of buffers. Buffer states save Russia from Western invaders. Russia wants an arrangement that leaves Ukraine at least neutral."
  There is a lot in this article. Russians don't really understand America but Americans (and other westerners) understand Russia even less.
• Stuck in the Middle: Polish "Intellectuals Sound the Alarm on Russia
  Poland has long seen itself as stuck between the East and West, resulting in plenty of historical suffering. Russian aggression in Ukraine has many in the country fearing the worst. Leading Polish writers worry that the West isn't doing enough."

The World Economy

Dollar surge endangers global debt edifice, warns BIS
The Aussie dollar has been dropping relative to the US dollar, but other currencies have been dropping faster. In a world which has become so dependent on international trade, this could create a huge problem.

The Revenge of Geography

The Revenge of Geography is few years old but it helps explain many things that have happened since then and many things that will happen in future.
"People and ideas influence events, but geography largely determines them, now more than ever. To understand the coming struggles, it's time to dust off the Victorian thinkers who knew the physical world best. A journalist who has covered the ends of the Earth offers a guide to the relief map — and a primer on the next phase of conflict"

Stratfor

Many of the articles above are from Stratfor's free Geopolitical Weekly. It costs nothing to sign up and you will get insights that you will never see in the popular press. Or, if you don't want to sign up, simply click the link and scroll down to see if there are any articles which interest you. It's worth going back many pages.

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News About This Newsletter

Contents

Before I finish one newsletter, I'm already working on the next. I often find that I've got too many interesting things for a single newsletter. I'm also always looking for other interesting items I can add. I'm particularly interested in environmental issues, especially those which might affect bushwalking and in the technology which is shaping our lives. As I said in the last newsletter, Suggestions welcome.

Sending the newsletter

While I now send most of the newsletters using MailChimp, I still send about 200 newsletters using a program which is hosted on the same server that hosts our website. In both cases, the newsletters are sent from walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au. This is the contact address on our website. If you would like to continue to receive these newsletters, please include this address in your "friends list" so that it isn't blocked.

For some reason, some servers block the newsletters no matter what you try and do. I send these in small groups from my normal email. It's not a simple problem. If anyone thinks they might have an idea how to overcome the problem, I'd love to hear from you.

Emails sent to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au are currently automatically forwarded to rrwillis at internode.on.net. If you want to send an email to that address, replace the word "at" with the symbol @. I am trying not to put that address any place where it can be harvested by spam bots.

We don't want to add to the mass of email spam. If you don't want our newsletter, please send us an email and let us know. We'll then delete your name from our newsletter list.

Our email address is walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au.

Note. Both MailChimp and the other program we use to send some of these newsletters have an automatic delete at the bottom. Clicking that link will delete you from the mailing list on the server but it will not delete you from our main database. One of the programs will not allow the auto delete to send me an email notifying me that a deletion has been made. If you want to be sure that you are removed from all further mailings, please send an email to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au

If you know someone you think would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them. The more people who get it, the more likely it is that I'll be able to run the trips which might interest you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to you all!!
Russell Willis

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