Those pesky plastic bags

I wonder what's going on with the plastic bag debate. In Australia, many citizens think plastic shopping bags -- which have been cited as a cause of environmental damage to marine life, not to mention littering and just plain unsightly rubbish -- should be phased out of retail businesses. And some businesses are working towards that, with shopping bag levies, or simply not offering them. But Environment Minister Peter Garrett has experienced some level of difficulty in stating plainly exactly why bags can't actually be banned. So I wonder: exactly what's going on? Is there a problem with getting rid of these bags? Is there no alternative? Or is banning them going to cause some kind of commercial/business snag? Take a look at this search engine which lists prominent manufacturers and distributors of plastic shopping bags: and then note the countries of origin. Looks like a trading bloc, no? Is Australia afraid of upsetting someone here?

The business of writing

Most people in my profession (publishing and journalism) place more value in the commercial transaction of selling the written work than they do in the process of creating and then writing down. I have come to think that there just might be greater value in the working through and working out of a novel, or even a non-fiction title, than in the work of printing, distributing and selling. What do you think?

Journalism in the future

Here's how British journalist Roy Greenslade covered my contribution to the Future of Journalism conference in Sydney last week ... and my comments on his coverage ...

The mission to space

I'd be surprised if anyone in the literary community was involved in planning future space flights and space communities ... but if you're out there, join in because that's our flightpath too ...

The first thought

G'day from Strictly Literary Australia:

It's time for some of the big thoughts about the literary way of life to be posted and that's exactly what's going to engage this blog ... plus some random stuff about science, the universe and what's going on in our world ... so fasten your seat belts ...!