Transgender sports

Transgender athletes have been in the news lately with some authorities arguing that, generally because of their stronger build, males who have undergone procedures leading to female status should not be allowed to participate in female sports events. 

To allow their participation would give them an unfair advantage over other women, whilst to exclude them from participation would be unfair to those athletes seeking inclusion.

There is a way around this that would be fair to both sides. 

Take the 100 metres event in the Olympic Games for example. If a trans woman was included and won the event, she would gain a special Gold Trans medal to acknowledge her achievement, whilst the runner up would be awarded the usual Gold medal acknowledging her place in the event. If the trans woman came second in the event she would gain a special Silver Trans medal whilst the runner coming third would win the usual Silver medal for second place getters....and so on for the bronze medals.

In this way we can acknowledge the excellence in performance of all competitors irrespective of their genetic makeup in a manner which, I feel, would be acceptable to all participants and their supporters, without ruffling too many feathers.

 

Just a footnote about the AFL (Australian Football League):

The women's AFL league has been named the AFLW, whilst the men's teams are still known as the AFL. This gives the impression that the women's teams are some sort of appendage to the AFL and true gender equality demands that this should be corrected by calling the men's teams the AFLM.

 

 Governor General

With the demise of Queen Elizabeth 2, it is inevitable that the push to proclaim Australia as a Republic will re-emerge sometime in the not too distant future, and so too will emerge the problematic process of selecting the Governor General.

The Governing party of the day and indeed, the Opposition as well, would prefer the GG be selected by the Parliament from a field of eminent citizens acceptable to the major parties to maintain the status and integrity of the position. 

However, Australians, not being particularly well disposed toward politicians, would prefer a non-political appointment, and would demand the post be filled by popular plebiscite. Unfortunately the result of such a selection process would counterintuitively lead to just the opposite of what the Australian people would have expected, because each of the political parties would pour finance, advertising and resources into the selection of the candidate whose background best matched their philosophical agenda, and the country would end up with a head of state biased toward one side or other of the political spectrum, just as is the American President beholden to the agenda of the party which supports his candidature.

I suggest that to satisfy both the People and the Politicians, the Governing and Opposition parties draw up a list of candidates acceptable to both sides of Government and follow up with a plebiscite allowing the People to vote for the person on that list whom they find most suited for the position.

Button batteries

Approximately 200 children per year are potentially exposed to button battery injury in Australia, with at least a dozen per year experiencing severe injury. Since 2013, there have been three deaths from oesophageal button battery injury. 
I suggest a possible solution to this problem would be introduction of legislation requiring button batteries to be coated with an unpleasant (bitter?) substance to discourage children from putting them into their mouths.

Wow! Is it really 3 years since I last visited this blog? Well, there's a good reason for my return and it's simply this:

 For most of my career in Construction, my main function was to sort out the problems that invariably arise during erection and commissioning of process plants - in common parlance, I was a trouble shooter.

 I was pretty good at my job for 2 basic reasons - (1) a positive attitude, my belief being there never existed a problem that didn't have a solution, and (2) my quirky brain that, when faced with unusual conundrums, sought solutions by thinking laterally, ie outside the box.

This stood me in good stead throughout my career, but has become a bit of a problem in retirement. After all, there isn't a nightly news program goes by without reporting on at least one of the many problems facing society, be it social, political, technological, scientific, medical or whatever .... and then there's me, staring at the television screen, thinking all the while, "for heavens sake! Why don't they just do so and so and sort out the problem." 

Shouting at the screen doesn't seem to do any good, and enlightening my wife with my solutions to the world's ills might at best gain her approval and give me a momentary warm fuzzy feeling, but most likely will only elicit a "Sshhh - I'm listening to the program", and all my ranting of course, doesn't solve the problems out there in the real world.

Well from now on my wife will watch the news in blissful silence whilst dark clouds swirl about my head, and later on I'll rattle off my frustrations on this blog site so that you, dear reader, if you've followed me so far, can suffer the 'slings and arrows' of my discontent.

Botanic to Bridge fun run

The Botanic to Bridge fun run is an annual event in Gladstone, this year attracting a field of around 4,000 entrants. I decided to use the opportunity to clean up the streets a little along the 8 kilometre course.

Capricorn Writer's Festival

The Capricorn Writer's Festival held on the cusp of May/June 2019 was a great opportunity to meet other authors and writers and get a few hints to improve my writing technique. The event kicked off  with an enjoyable cocktail party on Friday night followed over the next 2 days by workshops given by a group of successful authors and others in the publishing industry, and wound up with a breakfast session where a panel of workshop presenters fielded questions to top off an enjoyable and informative weekend. Author Jenn McCleod (pictured with me at the breakfast panel) presented a great workshop, full of possibilities for my further endeavours.

Covering Hitler's Zeitmaschine

During the process of writing Hitler's Zeitmaschine I set about exploring what I wanted to feature on the book cover. In my mind I had an idea of what I imagined Karl Hartmann might look like. He had to be good looking (to immediately attract the attention of Linde) and of suitably high rank (to be allowed access to Hitler). I searched through the internet sites offering free images and came across this wartime portrait of Helmuth Schreiber. I could hardly believe it! This was the very person I had pictured in my imagination - the face and uniform were a perfect match. I followed up with a little research and gleaned the following short bio of the man.

Helmuth Schreiber was born in Giessen 25 March 1917. He joined the Waffen SS and saw action in the Anschluss of Austria  and the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class in December 1941 and served as the Company commander of the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment  He was also awarded the Knight's Cross in July 1943, and was promoted to Sturmbannführer, assuming command of the Deutschland Regiment where he was awarded the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, in May 1944. Schreiber survived the War and died 6 December 2008.

Of course, one can't go pasting images of real life people on book covers without their (or their family's) permission. So, after a vain attempt to contact the family I abandoned the idea of using this real image but nevertheless sent it to the book cover designer, Wordzworth. They were able to utilise the uniform and modify facial features to yield the character of Hartmann which presently graces the cover.

The background was another adventure. Browsing through free pictures available on the web I was immediately drawn to the image of the 'time angel'. This picture hinted at the inclusion of Linde Engel ('Angel' in German) and of course the receding clock spiral was a perfect depiction of the time-travelling construct in the novel. However, I was not convinced that use of image would be entirely 'free' if used for commercial purposes and so decided to approach the originator for permission. After poking around a bit, I discovered the author was a photographer in Germany (coincidence!) by the name of Stephan Keller. I visited his web site, and with some difficulty, found an email address. However, after a confusing exchange of emails, he advised the image I had chosen was not of his creation. You wouldn't believe - after further research I discovered there was another Stephan Keller (this one without a web page and coincidentally also in Germany) who had indeed produced the sought after image. After a few emails explaining my quest he graciously gave permission to use the time angel on my book cover and I subsequently sent him a copy of the work after publication to show my appreciation.