Re: [Paddlewise] Australian state (even more) severely restricts kayaking

Here is what I think is happening.

Bureaucrats and politicians live for the ability to point to a problem and
say, "See... I did this or that to address this or that problem... so
re-elect me (or re-appoint me)." It doesn't matter if the "solution"
actually doesn't solve anything. What matters is that it appears to do
something. I've called this the "paper solution" for a long time now; ever
since I was a new airplane pilot watching the rules invented by bureaucrats
and politicians to keep small plans away from large ones. It has been a
long, hard struggle and, from some of the accident reports, the solution is
still not at hand. Simply because pilot error still rears its ugly head and
bureaucrats keep coming up with more technology to "solve" it.

This was also driven home to me when I worked for a U.S. Government agency
that has, itself, managed to cross the line between legal and illegal (at
least on a world-stage level) several times. There were rule books (they
liked to call them "policies" and "tradecraft" but they were rules, plain
and simple) that boiled down to the fact that no matter what you did, if it
went wrong they could find a rule to hang you with.

Apparently lying to Congress was inexplicably left out. Go figure.

It's like the doctor who sees a patient who presents with an arm broken in
two places. "Stay out of those places!" is the obvious solution. Bureaucrats
and politicians see nothing funny in this.

What I find especially interesting are two factors:

1. The nearshore waters are generally more dangerous than the outer waters
from the standpoint of hard pointy things hidden in the water, confused
waves, etc. There are exceptions, of course, but I would prefer to be 2nm
out than .25nm out from the standpoint of avoiding dangers. So forcing
kayaks to stay inside 2nm might actually put them in more danger than simply
ignoring them.

2. The 3nm limit was historically the "national border" for a long time. In
the 60s this was more-or-less unofficially extended to 12nm and then several
countries (including the USA) declared 200nm to be the limit of its "legal
authority". Difficult to enforce ths when International Law still recognizes
3nm (when an ocean-going ship gets to within 3nm they have to assume they
have entered into a country and must abide by the applicable rules of that
country). International treaties mean little to petty bureaucrats. At any
rate, one could make a case that once you get beyond 3nm (or 12nm) out then
the country you left has no more authority over you. This, of course, is
unlikely to work.

The deep-seated urge to "do something" is impossible to control. As a case
in point, the state of Washington in the USA has an "iniative" system
whereby a citizen may come up with an idea for a law, go out and collect
enough valid signatures, and then get it included on the state-wide ballot.
Inevitably someone learns how to do this well enough so that they become the
"go to" person for getting them done. Sooner or later they change from a
public watchdog to a bureaucrat and run amok with power.

I have instituted the "Craig Jungers system of term limits". This system is
simplicity itself: if they are in office, vote against them. If everyone did
this we would eventually get politicians who would no longer focus on simply
being re-elected and actually do something (gasp!) useful.

Craig Jungers
Moses Lake,  WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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