While watching Utopia on ABC
After an interval of a few years, Utopia season 5 has been released. I think this series has become an ABC comedy classic.
Do the bureaucrats have a duty to protect the established ways of doing things against the whims of the elected politicians? Should the politicians be free to sack bureaucrats who do not do their bidding?
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I will write about the Utopia series currently showing on the Australian public television channel. You can download the ABC iView app for free on your smart TV, computer or phone and watch it yourself.
It's about the activities of the 'Nation Building Authority' (NBA), an agency that manages the Australian federal government's infrastructure investments. You don't need to watch the previous four seasons to understand the plot and you can start directly with season 5.
The head of the NBA, Tony, is an engineer. He has a difficult job. On one hand, he is pestered by the political advisors of the government who are only interested in optics; on the other hand, he tries to deal with the normal internal conflicts that can happen in any workplace; and finally, he struggles with feminist, woke, environmentalist, etc. discourses of today's society finding their way into the NBA’s agenda. For example, in the last episode I watched, NBA is organising the tender for a road tunnel. The best offer is from a Chinese company, but the Minister's adviser is trying to push the Chinese contractor out of consideration, fearing that if the offer is given to a Chinese company, the government would be the target of American criticism.
Rob Sitch, one of Australia's best comedians, plays the character of Tony. His assistant, Celia Pacquola, is also a comedian, a female stand-up artist. Jimmy, the minister’s liaison officer, is not worried about getting a job done, but its appearance. Played by Anthony Lehmann, Jimmy's sole interest is perception management; Things like public interest, right or wrong do not concern him.
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You may remember BBC’s 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes Prime Minister' (Yes Prime Minister) from 1980s. There, an innocent well-meaning and a bit clumsy minister (who later became Prime Minister) was being obstructed by bureaucrats while trying to do different and good things in his own way. The prime minister of the time was Thatcher, and it was a series that was in keeping with the political spirit of the time.
It could be watched in two ways: either you would say that lazy bureaucrats fight innovation so that they will not be disturbed; or you would respect expert administrators preventing the confused new minister from harming himself and the country. The masterful writing offered aspects to justify both viewpoints.
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It is not easy to find the right balance in the bureaucrat-politician relationship. If the bureaucracy is too strong, political parties come and go, but they cannot actually exercise power. The actual power is in the hands of the bureaucrats. On the other hand, if the bureaucracy is weak, then the state machinery will degenerate in the hands of political actors whose horizons do not go beyond winning the next election.
With the 1961 Constitution, bureaucracy was strengthened a lot in Turkey. The bureaucrats were not absolute sovereigns, but they were powerful enough to control the actions of the elected government and sometimes make arbitrary interventions. This situation was not ideal, but the populist lawless authoritarianism that gradually replaced it during the AKP governments made the country much worse. Since 2018, when the single rule of governance became “the law, the constitution, the police and the judge should be subject to the elected authority”, all social and economic indicators started to go south.
In Australia, too, the power of politicians increased in the last two decades. At the time I came here, there was a single remuneration system applying to all civil servants and governments could not easily dismiss an officer. At the worst, they would put him in an inactive position. In the late 1990s, the practice of individual employment contracts at the General Manager and Assistant General Manager level was introduced. They brought high salaries to senior bureaucrats but removed their job security. Executive Managers, whose careers may end at minister's discretion, naturally began to avoid practices that the minister would not like. In some cases, even when the orders of the Minister were unlawful, they found ways of executing them. The latest Robodebt scandal is the most prominent example of this, but there have been other examples.
How did did we come to Robodebt from a TV series? In summary, I recommend the Utopia series.
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Short Takes
4 Aug Power News Georgia Power declared Plant Vogtle Unit 3 commercially operational on July 31, 2023 and Vogtle 4 to start soon. These are 1,117-MW Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors. Vogtle 1 and 2 were built in 1987 and 1989, respectively. The cost of Unit 3 was not disclosed but some estimates suggest costs may have doubled from original estimates to more than $30 billion. If these estimates are correct, it translates to over $20/MW and partly explains why there are not many more nuclear power plants being built these days.
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You Tube
My recommended video this week is on IQ. You probably think you know everything knowable on this topic but I bet you will learn new things from this video.
Veriasum is a Sysneysider living in US. I am a regular follower since earlier days. Incidentally, I think he is getting fat. He should watch it.
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Pascal-Hagi
In this week’s Pascal-Hagi picture, Pascal is showing off with his ball skills.
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Diary
Last Wednesday, I went to West End, the Greek grocer Triton, to buy cheese, the kind that you cannot buy in Coles. The entrance to Triton::
The refrigerated shelves on one side of the shop is piled up with cheese.
I bought Dodoni Feta, Kaseri and Peppato (Romano with black pepper corns). Benim alacağım peynir belli. The first two are Greek imports. Dodoni Feta is the best feta cheese you can buy in Australia. Kaseri cheese I bought did not have a brand on it. It is OK but not brilliant. I like Turkish aged kaseri better but you cannot buy it in Australia. The Peppato I bought was made in Australia by Millel. Softer than the Italian imports. Softness may not be a desirable feature in Romano cheese but I like it.
Australia does not import cheese from Turkey. Years ago, a grocery store owner in Melbourne said that the dairy quotas given to countries were very limited and there were no cheese quotas for Turkey. The cheese sold in the Turkish grocery store Country Fresh in Underwood come from Germany: Sütdiyarı, Yayla, etc. I don't like them except for maybe Yayla’s Tulum. I also buy cheese from the supermarket (eg halloumi for stir-fry, Parmesan for pizza or pasta, Mozzarella, Cheddar etc).
The Greek shop Triton doesn't just have cheese. For example, soda imported from Turkey:
Since we only drink water at home, I do not buy such things. But it was interesting that Uludağ was able to export soda from Bursa all the way to here. There are also Eti biscuits manufactured in my hometown in Turkey, Eskişehir.
There are jams on another shelf, again mostly imports from Turkey and Poland. I pass.
It is interesting that there is not much stuff imported from Greece in a Greek grocery shop. I think this is telling me something about the Greek economy but I am not sure what.