The Korean War: The Long March to Liberty

Nuclear Missile Deterrents, Korean War Museum [Michael de Percy CC BY-ND 4.0]

I visited the Korean War Memorial on 22 September 2022. I have never seen a B-52 in the flesh. I will let these photos speak for themselves for now.

T-LOG2022 Technical Visits: Incheon National University

Gyeongin Ara Waterway Logistics Complex, 21 September 2022.

I attended the 9th International Conferences on Transport and Logistics (T-LOG2022) at the Graduate School of Logistics at the Incheon National University. I chaired the panel on the Shipping and Port Industry and then participated in a day of technical site visits.

Entrance to Incheon National University.

The site visits commenced with an introduction to the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

Korean Air Cargo Terminal, Incheon International Airport, 21 September 2022.

The logistics solution to the free trade zone's transfer of air freight in the Korean Air Cargo Terminal was interesting and hectic!

Inside the Korean Air Cargo Terminal, 21 September 2022.

We then went from the airport to the entrance to the canal that connects Incheon International Airport to Gimpo International Airport. The canal doubles as a way to drain the nearby flood plain.

Gyeongin Ara Waterway.

Connecting the Han River to the Yellow Sea had been planned hundreds of years before Korea had the earthmoving technology to make it a reality. The result was the Gyeongin Ara Waterway, completed in 2012.

Looking toward the Yellow Sea.

Lunch was a traditional Korean affair. Thank you, Incheon National University and T-LOG! That was an excellent event!

Traditional Korean Meal. A bit tough on the old knees!

We also visited the Ara Skywalk which juts out over the canal.

Looking down while standing on the Ara Skywalk.

The weather was great!

View from the Ara Skywalk.

The technical site visits finished at the Ara Marina Gimpo.

Briefing at the Ara Marina Gimpo.

Goodbye Twitter! On finding my audience

Bozo the Clown and Friends [CC BY 2.0 - Boston City Archives]

I've decided that Twitter does nothing for my personal or professional development. A colleague once referred to the attitude of early mini-blog social media platforms like Yammer and Twitter as 'snark chic'. I was guilty of this back in 2007 when the platforms were first becoming established because they provided a voice to those who otherwise had none, and the 'powers that be' didn't know what to do with the new trend of citizen journalism.

But Twitter has become a cesspool of anti-Australian sentiment masquerading as the moral high ground of Australian politics. The authoritarian nature of performative rituals is divisive while pretending to represent diversity. But in this space, only trendy opinions are valid, despite their obvious political implications.

The Greens, in particular, have infiltrated Australia's political system and are outwardly challenging the sovereignty of parliament, and therefore the people, while at the same time receiving taxpayer funds for their role in representing the very Australians they appear to despise.

Two recent posts from the Greens' leadership I have found to be appalling, and I decided to respond to Bozo and friends in kind.

Above is a tweet from Greens' leader Adam Bandt on the day we discovered Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died at age 96. I swore an oath to serve Her Majesty, and her heirs and successors, when I became an Australian soldier in 1990 and then when I received my commission as an officer in 1992. King Charles III by default receives my fealty, even though the idea may seem rather quaint and outdated.

Previously, Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe made a mockery of the oath to serve in Australia's Parliament by referring to Her Majesty as a coloniser. I do not understand how she is allowed to sit in the chamber given that she still has not sworn the oath or affirmation properly.

  

And while arguing against the National Day of Mourning public holiday in honour of the Queen, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi raved on about how sessional academic staff would lose their casual wages because of the holiday. This claim is completely out of step with standard practice at universities and smacks of mockery toward our centuries-old Westminster tradition. If it wasn't for the experience I gained through sessional academic work, I could not have put myself through my postgraduate university courses.

Again, I decided to respond.

But the most recent episode uncovers a trend I am noticing in the academy that seems to support green-left ideology: the mockery of our system of government. Representatives who refuse to swear an oath or affirmation have no place in our formal political system, and they represent a minority who think they have superior ideas to those that came before them.

The bottom line for me is that I will leave Twitter to be the green-left echo chamber it has become. Instead, I intend to write for an audience that aligns with my nature. And it sure isn't the green-left.

Goodbye Twitter!

Farewell to my best good little man, Pablo

Pablo de Percy. Rest in peace, my little man.

Today, my best friend died in my arms. He was suffering from a distended liver. On 14th April 2022, I took him to the veterinarian at Gundaroo, and the X-rays showed that his lung capacity was severely diminished and that he did not have long to go. Remarkably, he survived the weekend and responded well to the diuretics and the cortisone. He was with us for another 58 days, and for that time I am eternally grateful.

I always had a soft spot for mini fox terriers. At about age seven, we lived in Kingswood, near Penrith in NSW. Growing up there was rough. I routinely had to fight with other kids in the street, and usually it was a pack of them against me. 

One day, while engaged in a bloody fist fight with some kid who was visiting the neighbourhood, and amid the chants from the parents telling the other kid to "knock my head in", the horrid woman who was the host of the visitors had two mini fox terriers. They were barking and I noticed them mid-bout and thought "wow those dogs are awesome!" - I loved the tri-colours and their shape, black, white, and tan.

Pablo in 2011, aka "Marble Joe"

In 2011, I was living in medium-density housing in Palmerston, Canberra, and after returning from Jordan after a six-month sabbatical, I was caught up in the enthusiasm to create a "home" with cats, chickens, and dogs.  I really wanted a male and a female mini fox terrier. One was available from Cooma, coming to Canberra where I could select one from the litter. The other was a rescue from Hay.

Frida, arriving in a B-Double truck. Tiny the Truckie delivered Frida (aka Tiny) to the Yass Service Centre at about 1am the morning after I picked up Pablo in Canberra.

The male, known by the children of the breeder as Marble Joe because of the shape of his head, I named Pablo after Picasso. The female was known as Tiny because she was, well, tiny. She was named Frida after Frida Khalo.

Pablo with Frida, 2011

When I arrived in Watson to choose from the litter, the breeder suggested I just hang out with the pups and the mother and see what happened. I squatted down among the litter. Pablo walked straight up to me and sat between my legs as I squatted, a position he would assume right up until his last day today.

It was pretty straightforward after that, and I brought Pablo home with me. I picked up Frida that night and for the next four and a bit years the two of them walked with me every day. At one stage, Pablo would walk 16km each day with me, until his feet hurt and then he walked with me every other day. But he was fit and strong and always by my side.

Pablo had some issues though, and he spent some time under observation at the vet in Fyshwick, which cost me a fortune to tell me nothing. 

I had some experiences with greedy vets who appeared to be interested in upselling based on my moral gullibility until I met Jan Spate at Hall. Jan was incredible and charged prices that everyone could afford. The way she was treated by her colleagues was abysmal.

Frankie in 2015

After moving to Gunning in late 2015, I first met Joseph from Gundaroo South Veterinary Clinic when I needed to have my Tenterfield Terrier-Jack Russell cross, Frankie, vaccinated. We didn't hit it off at first but Joseph came to be a friend and I miss him now he has retired and moved away. Thankfully Alex, our new vet, has been a godsend and the local vet continues to be affordable.

After years of friendship, companionship, and counselling, on 14th April 2022, Pablo was short of breath and not in good shape. X-rays revealed that his liver was distended and he had less than 20% of his lung capacity remaining. The prognosis was not good, and I was told that if he survived the weekend, he might stay with us for a little while longer.

Pablo with Desi during his final days.

During the next 58 days, Pablo responded well to the diuretics and cortisone until the evening of 9th June when he was short of breath and lethargic. He survived the night but he did not eat in the morning and even had trouble taking his medications with cheese, his favourite treat. By midday, he was unable to walk and I made the call to the vet. Pablo's life was set to end at 5.30pm.

I am no stranger to sobering moments with pets. My cat, Desi, has skin fragility syndrome and should have been put down when he was 12 months old. He is now four, and although he suffers superficial wounds and an inoperable case of cherry eye, he is still kicking on.

After much research, and working with Joseph the Good Vet, we worked out what the condition was and also that Desi was allergic to beef. Giving him beef collagen to help with his skin condition was counterproductive. After a few months he no longer needed the cortisone, so now he has his own room and pretty much does whatever he wants.

Pablo loved to go for walks. In his prime, he would do 16 km per day with me.

Frankie, the Tenterfield Terrier-Jack Russell cross, one day was shaking and lethargic. After tests, she was found to have high levels of ammonia poisoning. I thought she must have been eating the fertiliser, but after much research and discussion with Joseph, we discovered that she had Addison's disease. She now has a relatively normal life with daily medication and occasional doses of Prednisone when she is having a bad day.

We have four cats, two dogs (as of today), and eight chickens, so our pets are a major part of our life. Just before 2pm today, I was fretting about Pablo having to sit in the front of the car for the trip to Gundaroo. Rather than sit around for hours, I thought I would take the dogs to the nearby Riparian Walk and I would carry Pablo while the other two frolicked as they normally do. Pablo gave his tail a wag after I put him in the back of the car.

Pablo had trouble walking so after we finished the walk, I left him standing while I put Frida and Frankie in the car. I then carried Pablo to the car and put him in front of the passenger seat. I drove home and let Frida and Frankie in the back gate, and drove around to the front of the house to bring Pablo back inside.

Me and Pablo, 2022

As we drove off, Pablo turned to face the front of the car, then put his head down in a face-plant position. He looked so cute and at peace but I knew it was the end. When I arrived at the front of the house, I picked him up and he gasped once. I knocked on the door and my partner answered. Pablo gasped once more and died in my arms.

I buried him in the backyard in the place he liked to sit in the sun while I watched him from the kitchen window. 

We sent him off in the little woollen jumper he adored, covered in roses from the back garden. We shared a Guinness with him and covered him over. 

Frankie, Pablo, and Frida at the Gunning Golf Course in 2019

I can't believe he is gone. I am so sad.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. — Will Rogers.

 

We must align our university research with Australia’s strategic intent

 

Publish or Perish? (Photo: Whiskey Monday via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Academics often have lofty ideals about passion-driven curiosity in designing research projects. But these ideals are rarely practical. Changing times demand a changing focus in our approach to publicly funded research.

The ‘publish or perish’ metric drives many researchers to trendy topics that have little consequence in terms of Australia’s place in the world. In fact, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program has had the opposite effect, with Australian research journals rarely meeting the desired first quartile rankings that are essential for promotion in the academy.

The Prime Minister recently stated that the ‘publish or perish’ metric must give way to the commercialisation imperative. While this may be possible in some disciplines like the industrial sciences, this too is a flawed metric. And the potential for commercialisation in our current public-funded research system is a nightmare of bureaucratic red tape that will take more than good intentions to overcome.

Take the national Science and Research Priorities administered by the Department of Industry as a case in point. Third on the list is transport, which includes policy and other areas that are related to the social rather than the industrial or natural sciences. 

Health is the ninth priority. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the science is fine. But the social and political issues have caused more problems than the natural sciences can explain in any meaningful way.

To be sure, energy and other policies are underpinned by science, but the practical approaches to deploying the science are beset by politics to ‘satisfice’ rather than deliver the most efficient or effective solution.

To take the national research priorities seriously, universities need to be incentivised to align research centres that establish collaborative networks focused on publishing research not only in the best journals but in Australian journals that are open access and available for anyone to use for free. It is rather strange that publicly funded Australian research outputs are hidden behind a commercial paywall and often in overseas journals.

When I was in Canada in 2007 a Harvard professor suggested that the best way to commercialise research is for companies to hire the best PhD graduates in the relevant field and to pay them to develop the company’s own intellectual property. Partnering with universities is such a barrier to commercialisation that it is hardly worth the effort.

Australia’s track record with commercialising our own competitive advantages leaves much to be desired. Take for instance the native macadamia nut. The US produced the most of this native crop until Australia gained ground up until 2015, only to lose the title to South Africa recently.

Consider also the CSIRO’s development of ‘fast wifi’ technology. Our world-leading research organisation had to fight its way through US courts to claim fees from their 1996 patent. If a government research agency has problems commercialising, what hope have our lumbering universities?

We are entering a stage in our strategic situation that will rely heavily on the higher education system if we are to address the challenges of the future. Our submariners need PhDs in nuclear engineering or physics. We need social and political approaches to effectively deploy scientific solutions. We need a cadre of educators sympathetic to our national priorities. And we need to provide incentives to keep the best educators in the sector.

Changing trade and security relations in the post-pandemic world order stress the importance of commercialising research. But so too is the necessity for language skills in Japanese, Hindi, Chinese, and Indonesian. Australians are notoriously monolingual, and this remains a barrier to commercialisation in the region.

There is scope for passion-driven research and academic freedom, and such ideals do not have to be at odds with the national research priorities. But if we are to ensure our future prosperity and security, commercialisation is one of many approaches to address the end of free market globalisation.

Rather than force all academic disciplines to commercialise, the key to integrating our research outputs is to align universities with our national research priorities. Such research must also prioritise open access publication in Australian journals if the outputs are to be useful.

Webinars and wonders: A running sheet of interesting events during s2, 2021

Photo by Pkdowling313 [CC BY SA 4.0] 

 

I am listing the webinars I have attended this semester so I can keep track of those I wish to return to or to write up later. I will improve this page over the rest of the semester and add links where available.

24th August 2021, 3pm: NATSEM online workshop on electric vehicle policy.

26th August 2021, 11am: ANU SPIR, Revisiting the Baconian Method, Professor John Ure.

31st August 2021, 5pm: ANZSOG@ANU Online Book Launch. Politics, Policy and Public Administration in Theory and in Practice: Essays in honour of Professor John Wanna.

31st August 2021, 5pm: Sydney Institute, Twenty Years after 9/11 – The Hon John Howard AC.

3rd September 2021, 10am: CEDA Roundtable: Rapid antigen testing for Covid-19

3rd September 2021, 3pm: CEDA  Duty of care: meeting the aged care workforce challenge

6th September 2021, 12pm: CEDA Building trust in technology

13th September 2021, 12pm: CEDA Pandemic to endemic - beyond the jab. Speakers: Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC, Melinda Cilento, Chief Executive, CEDA, Professor Raina MacIntyre, Head, Biosecurity Research Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW.

13th September 2021, 5pm: Sydney Institute Christianity and Australian Jurists – Chris Merritt, Justice Geoff Lindsay, Professor Wayne Hudson & Anne Henderson.

20th-22nd September 2021: Australian Political Studies Conference, Macquarie University.

23rd September 2021, 3.10pm: University of Canberra Human Research Ethics Committee, Ethical by Design: The Principles of the National Statement, Ian Pieper, Anesh Nair, Matt Muskat.

23rd September 2021, 5pm: Lowy Institute Australia's submarines: The world reacts.

27th September 2021, 6pm: United States Study Centre NATO Expert Talk Series: NATO's arms-control agenda.

29th September 2021, 12.30pm: Centre for Independent Studies, On Liberty EP70 | Peter Jennings | Did Australia buy the right boat? AUKUS, AUSMIN, and the "forever" alliance.

29th September 2021, 5pm: Lowy Institute Aiding the Pacific’s economic recovery.

30th September 2021, 10am: Sydney Institute, China, the United States and All That – Thomas Friedman.

30th September 2021, 6pm: Centre for Independent Studies Is Populism A Threat To Liberal Democracy? Professor Joe Forgas

5th October 2021, 3.30pm: CEDA Improving Australia's digital competitiveness

6th October 2021, 11am: Sydney Institute India and Pakistan after the Return of the Taliban – Sadanand Dhume.

6th October 2021, 12pm: The Australian Plus event, What Really Happened in Wuhan. Sharri Markson.

7th October 2021, 11am: United States Study Centre, The future of US politics: A conversation with The Brookings Institution's Sarah Binder and Thomas Mann.

12th October 2021, 6pm: CILTA, Intelligent Docks - Reducing congestion, demurrage, overtime and emissions. Adam Welch, Practice Manager, Assurance at Bestrane. https://ciltinternational.org/events/intelligent-docks-reducing-congestion-demurrage-overtime-and-emissions/.

13th October 2021, 9am: Centre for Independent Studies, The New Cold War. Professor John Mearsheimer.

14th October 2021, 4pm: Lowy Institute, In Conversation with Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.

18th October 2021, 12pm: Lowy Institute, 2021 Lowy Institute Media Lecture. Yalda Hakim.

21st October 2021, recorded: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Papua New Guinea and the Belt and Road Initiative: the road to ruins or riches, Sarah O'Dowd.

26th October 2021, 5pm: The Sydney Institute, Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe and the Hunter/Gatherer Controversy – Geoffrey Blainey & Warren Mundine.

11th November 2021, 6pm: Lowy Institute, 2021 Lowy Lecture — Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser.

11th-12th November 2021, 10am to 4pm: ACSPRI, Questionnaire Design Online. Dr Gordon Emmerson.

Professional Orientation: The Journey Continues

The journey of a modern hero, to the island of Elba [Public Domain]

 Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is a University of Canberra philosopher in democracy studies. As a senior lecturer in the School of Politics, Economics, and Society he delivers subjects, with colleagues, on politics, public policy, philosophy and professional orientation. E: jean-paul.gagnon@canberra.edu.au. 

In this podcast, Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon and Dr Michael de Percy discuss their approach to teaching Professional Orientation, a first-year professional development unit in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, and its relationship to Professional Evidence, the capstone unit for professional development for third-year students.

Professional Orientation: The Journey

Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Canberra

Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon is a University of Canberra philosopher in democracy studies. As a senior lecturer in the School of Politics, Economics, and Society he delivers subjects, with colleagues, on politics, public policy, philosophy and professional orientation. E: jean-paul.gagnon@canberra.edu.au. 

In this podcast, Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon and Dr Michael de Percy discuss their approach to teaching Professional Orientation, a first-year professional development unit in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society.

(Re)Learning How to Journal

My old and my new: Benjamin Franklin versus Kindle Paperwhite.

Journalling remains the most useful way to keep myself centred, and whenever I feel out of sorts, it is usually because I have let my journalling slip. But sometimes it slips because the process of journalling is no longer helping me, and I have to reset. Here is my current process of resetting my journalling habit.

I have written about my journalling process twice before. Beginning as a morning and evening routine in December 2016, my journalling habit has, since COVID-19 has allowed me to work from home more often, become a once-a-day habit.

The first thing I noticed was that the morning and evening routine I established while on long service leave was relatively easy to maintain, but it became difficult as my workload progressively increased. But the necessity of journalling has not diminished. But the process is no longer providing me with the relief from my monkey mind. Tim Ferriss says it best:

I’m just caging my monkey mind on paper so I can get on with my fucking day.

That's me.

My earlier process, documented in March 2018, included the Daily Stoic, the Daily Stoic Journal, Benjamin Franklin's Virtues Journal, and also La Rochefoucauld's Maxims and James Allen's meditations from As a Man Thinketh.

My second attempt at a major revamp of my journalling process was documented in February 2021. I had had some EMDR sessions that were extremely helpful and I wanted to try to do my own version of EMDR with some "self-tapping" to see if I could "speak" with my various parts (known as "parts therapy"). 

I also included a section where I recorded a "quote of the day". In recent times, I have drawn upon Ecclesiastes as my main source of inspiration. The final part was free-form writing to clear the monkey mind.

My idea was to leave the free-form writing until the end, so that I could get through the major exercises each day. When I was free-writing first, I ended up doing too much of this and not getting to the part where I looked to the Stoics or to my "virtues".  When I "flipped" this approach, I never got to finish my free-writing and I noticed my journal was more of a record of my Stoic and other exercises. I didn't get to clear my monkey mind, and I didn't have a record of my day.

It is clear that the Daily Stoic and the Daily Stoic Journal remain important, as does Franklin's Virtues Journal. I put the first two together in one section but now I use the Kindle version (it is much easier to carry when I travel). But I still use the hardcopy version of the Virtues Journal. It is small enough to carry around and I also like the other records I keep in the daily assessment of my behaviours.

But the free writing needs to be the first thing I do. If my journal does not keep a record of what I do nor clear my monkey mind, then what is the point of it? And I simply have to complete my daily Stoic exercises because that is essential to sticking to the logic (external events are neither good nor bad but my reactions to these are either virtuous or not).

So today I have been contemplating, among other things, how I will re-arrange my daily journalling regimen. It will look something like this:

1. Free writing: What I did, what I thought/dreamt/contemplated, what I will do, what is bothering me and so on.
2. Daily Stoic: Reflect on Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic and the Daily Stoic Journal as I have done for years now.
3. Record my behaviours and responses against the Virtues Journal as I have done for years.
4. Ask myself a series of questions from a laminated page. The questions might include:

• Drawing on Bryan Collins:
• What’s on my mind?
• How should I have reacted in hindsight?
• How are things different now?
• What would I say to a younger version of myself?
• What am I grateful for?
• What do I value?
• Who helped me?
• What did I do?
• What should I stop doing?
• What should I do less?
• What should I continue doing?
• What should I do more?
• What should I start doing?
• And drawing on Dean Bokhari:
• Write down your goals every day.
• Keep a daily log.
• Journal three things you’re grateful for every day.
• Journal your problems.
• Journal your stresses.
• Journal your answer to “What’s the best thing that happened today?” every night before bed.
  

The above reorganises the first three essential parts of my journalling and reduces the number of things I write about. The daily quote was an interesting idea but I think it is better to record quotes I find rather than go looking for one each day - although interesting, the latter approach leads to procrastination.

There is some obvious repetition in the fourth part, and I will need to clarify the approach once I have given it a go. But for now, this is my latest approach to journalling.

Buddha and the Path to Happiness

Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Buddha by Karen Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was given to me by a friend in Shanghai who, like me, is interested in theology and philosophy. It is a rare person who can see the value in both ways of trying to live a good life, and my return gift was Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic. Little did I know how similar Buddhism and Stoicism are in their sense of logic, and, most importantly, managing our impressions or perceptions. Self-reliance is achieved by "meditation, concentration, mindfulness and a disciplined detachment from the world", through which each of us (p. 175):

...must make himself his island, make himself and no one else his refuge.

The sense of peace that can be achieved in this "world of pain" is not, however, the lonely ascetic existence of the proverbial hermit on the mountaintop. Rather, it is through

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On Finding One's Tribe

Percy Family Coat of Arms, circa 1067.

Twice now I have entered a random question into Google. And twice now Wanderlust has produced the result I needed. Last time I was searching to reset my inner compass. This time it was about finding my tribe.

It isn't so much about finding a group of people to hang out with, but rather to feel that my work is valued and not subjected to unwarranted criticism from people who live by their ideology.

I am talking about writing an article for a journal where the topic is controversial. The point of such articles is to stimulate debate. But only if that debate is in the "correct" direction as stipulated by the ideologues, it seems.

I had a similar situation in the examination of my PhD, where one examiner suggested that I resubmit my thesis that compared the impact of the institutional frameworks that govern communications technologies (the independent variable) with the outcomes in terms of penetration (the dependent variable) in Canada and Australia. My examiner suggested that my "new" thesis should be on why the NBN was the most innovative thing ever. My findings disagreed.

Then I had my other examiner who took my major finding, modified it, and published it before my thesis had even been accepted. At least it was acknowledged but WTAF? These people are not scholars. They are the same people who give my students 5/10 with feedback like: "A bit bland". I am getting sick of it.

And then to have two reviewers who obviously disagreed so much with my controversial ideas that instead of allowing the article to stand as a controversy, decided that they would write their own responses to my controversial article as part of my rejection feedback. 

I know that being rejected is par for the course but in this case it was so clearly a case of ideological difference that I won't bother submitting to this journal ever again.

So where to from here?

I have asked for some guidance from my mentors, and this has led me to reflect a little more on where I want to go. I realise that I want my work to matter in a practical sense and to contribute to my sense of a "virtue proposition", along the lines of my teaching practice, which has become more focused on developing my students' social capital. 

To do so, I will have to rethink where I associate. To find my own tribe, so to speak.

The first thing is to realise that where I get my ideas from does not have to conform to traditional left-leaning sources. Indeed, I am finding more and more solace in the great books of the western world the more I read for myself. Much like Harold Bloom, I am no longer interested in apologising for this approach.

Seneca would take it where he could get it. Here is his approach in Letters from a Stoic, Letter II:

My thought for today is something which I found in Epicurus (yes, I actually make a practice going over to the enemy’s camp – by way of reconnaissance, not as a deserter!). ‘A cheerful poverty,’ he says, ‘is an honourable state.’

I have often followed Seneca's approach subconsciously but there is a point where we either back ourselves, or continue to bend in the wind of others' stuff. I've had a long run of not trusting myself for whatever reason, at least intellectually, while at the same time stubbornly backing myself subconsciously and only realising afterwards I was reaping the rewards for sticking to my guns.

It is interesting that these issues have arisen at a time when I am encouraging my students to make their subconscious habits more conscious so they may live the Socratic ideal; or, the examined life. I tend to learn the most from teaching and this time is no exception.

As I approach the end of the semester where I will finish by encouraging my students to become "reflective practitioners", I find myself (yet again) learning my own lessons.

What strikes me about the advice on finding one's tribe presented on Wanderlust is that "trying new things" doesn't have to mean yoga or tree-hugging; it can mean trying a free market think tank. It can mean returning to my conservative roots challenged long ago and now but a distant memory. 

It doesn't have  to be politically correct and it can even mean listening to Jordan Peterson if I choose to.

While it may be a case of coming full circle, I realise that I have only one life. And the purpose of that life is to live it. I've tried the unicorns and lollipops way, and it is not for me. It pretends to do good while doing nothing. 

I've listened to others' views about how certain politicians are "the hope for our children" while these same politicians do nothing but complain. I've also seen politicians working themselves into the ground while keyboard warriors sit in the stands and troll and critique.

From now on, I am the man in the arena. And I will choose the arena. If the audience doesn't like it, that is none of my business.

 

On Writer's Courage: Perplexing Reflection

Sunset over Lake Pejar, NSW. Photo by Dr Michael de Percy

 

No Matter Our Wreckage by Gemma Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've met the author a couple of times and we follow each other on twitter. I bought this memoire on Kindle recently and once I started, I couldn’t stop. I usually write notes on my blog about every book I read but this one made me double-check. It was only yesterday when talking to my students about developing a professional online presence and I mentioned how Gemma Carey had gone against the academic grain with her book that I realised how courageous she is in publishing this story. While it was far less courageous, B.F. Skinner took a similar approach decades ago and was admonished for writing a novel (Walden Two), despite its own type of brilliance.

I think the book is very courageous and has challenged my thinking on multiple levels. I don’t know where to go from here, but I suppose that is the importance of the book. After days of reflection, I am still at a loss as to “where to from here?” But I hope my perplexity honours the work sufficiently for now.

View all my reviews

On Narrative and Momentum; or, I just needed to write something about something right now

Mushrooms at the Gunning Golf Club [Photo © 2021 Eliza Markert]

Sometimes I just have to write something. If there is a single thing I love to do, so much so that I just have to do it, then that thing is writing. It is my world; my raison d'être. I make no apologies for it.

I've been trying to get myself back on track after a couple of years of alternately healthy and not-so-healthy distractions. I've been blogging for so long now it is part of my identity, but my reading and other scholarly pursuits have taken a back seat. Or so it seemed. 

It was merely a blip on my reading/writing radar. That is not to say that my life hasn't been better than ever before. It certainly has! But my scholarly life needed a revival.

The idea of momentum comes up time and again in my research into technologies such as transport and telecommunications. I find these topics interesting because - well - I found out that as an Aquarius I am interested in all things related to time and space. So logistics is key. And I do whatever I like as much as I can justify it! Anyway, I digress.

As a former artillery and later pay corps army officer, and having completed the Logistics Officers Intermediate Course at Bandiana (another lifetime ago), and more recently becoming a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, it all makes some sort of serendipitous sense.

My research focuses on the topics of these things: transport and telecommunications. But that is not key to my narrative, and I have become entangled in the "subject matter expert" divide before. But why is it that if I focus on multilateralism and foreign aid or refugees, for example, that I am outside of my expertise? Well, please let me explain.

The key theoretical thing I am interested in is how institutions change or don't change, and how policy instruments help or hinder the outcomes of policy goals as they relate to institutions. Effectively, I am interested in how governments can achieve what that want to achieve, and why they don't do these things. It is pretty straight forward!

But my approach is also relevant to international institutions such as the Word Trade Organisation and the World Bank. If I were to be asked, at a pinch my specialisation is government-business relations from a regulatory, industry policy, and an international political economy (IPE) perspective. None of these perspectives disrupt my personal narrative. They are related to subject; not specifically to theory.

So therein lies my narrative. What is my purpose? To understand what institutional factors help or hinder, from a policy perspective, governments' achievement of desired policy goals.

That's it for now. So what is your narrative?

Why won't my link previews work on Twitter?

 

Twitter Card Validator

Ever noticed how previews fail to materialise when sharing links on Twitter? It's because your website doesn't have "Twitter Cards" enabled.

I did what I always do and searched Google for "why won't my blogger links preview on twitter" and eventually found the "Twitter Card Validator" (pictured above).

Enter the link in the validator, and if it comes up with image above, then your website needs some code added to it.

I found the code for Blogger sites here.

<!--Twitter Card-->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'> <!--homepage-->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" />
<meta name="twitter:description" expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' />
<meta name="twitter:title" expr:content="data:blog.pageTitle" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@username" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="YOUR_LOGO_URL" />
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@username" />
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "static_page"'> <!--page-->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" />
<meta name="twitter:description" expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' />
<meta name="twitter:title" expr:content="data:blog.pageTitle" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@username" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="YOUR_LOGO_URL" />
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@username" />
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'> <!--blog post-->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:description" expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' />
<meta name="twitter:title" expr:content="data:blog.pageName" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@username" />
<meta name="twitter:image" expr:content="data:blog.postImageUrl" />
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@username" />
</b:if>

<!--End Twitter Card-->  

Paste it immediately before the </head> tag. Replace all instances of @username with your Twitter username and all instances of YOUR_LOGO_URL with your actual URL. 

Although my Blogger site is actually at madepercy.blogspot.com, I used my alias address of politicalscience.com.au and it worked just fine.

I hope this is useful. All credit to https://jumiaafrica.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-to-add-twitter-cards-to-blogger-and.html - thanks for this, its been bugging me for years!