reflections

Price Increase

Today I filled up the car for less than $1.50 per litre. It was only a few years ago that it was less than half that. What a change. The cost of living is certainly rising rapidly. The rising petrol prices are certainly having a domino effect. Last week we bought rice and paid $20 for the 10kg bag. A couple of months ago, the same bag would have cost us $13 or so.

We are still doing OK in Australia - mostly anyway. The economy is still strong and unemployment is still low. I think that we will get over this crisis relatively unscathed. The rest of the world is suffering though and some Australians are as well.

It is an interesting crisis. The rapidly rising price of petrol is the main source of concern, but it is debatable whether it really is a bad thing. The world hasn't been trying hard enough to find alternative sources of energy. We all know that fossil fuels are bad for the environment. We all know that fossil fuels will not last for ever. We all know that increasing demand coming from developing economies were always going to create a shortage in supply. Despite all this knowledge we didn't do much to find alternatives.

We are trying now, but still not hard enough. Where is the massive investment in public transport? Where are the funds needed to drive much needed research into economically viable alternative energy? Where are the real incentives to switch from our petrol guzzling cars to ecologically friendly alternatives?

There are some positive moves. The municipality of Paris is providing 4000 electric cars that can be used by commuters. The Queensland government has massively reduced the cost of public transport. Unfortunately, there still are only a few examples of governments taking positive action. I hope that we don't have to wait until millions die before we actually make some real changes.

The changes we need to make aren't limited to research or minor lifestyle changes. We need to change our attitudes to realise that we all live in one world, one system. We can no longer continue to make decisions in isolation without thinking of the bigger picture.

Photo originally uploaded by Mornby.

Mr FixIt

Clare had been complaining for a few weeks that her iPod had stopped working. She wanted to take it in to be repaired. Before we headed out I thought I would take a look at it to see if there was an obvious problem that I could easily fix.

She told me that the device worked when it was plugged into the laptop, but otherwise was completely unresponsive. She proceeded to demonstrate how the screen was dark and how the buttons elicited no response. When she finally handed it to me, my first instinct was to check the "on/off" switch at the bottom of the iPod and to toggle it. To my surprise, the screen came alive and everything seemed to work perfectly.

Slightly incredulously I asked Clare if she had tried switching it on. I won't tell you her response, but rest assured that we were spared a trip to Harvey Norman and the iPod is working perfectly.

Martial Arts

Last weekend, Ophalemu had his first grading. He was trying out to become a yellow belt. The grading was held in North Sydney and there were many kids from different dojos there. The hall was packed with students and parents. As we walked in, I was hit by the overpowering smell of Deep Heat and it brought back memories of my own martial arts training.

It was an impressive display by most of the kids. They may lack the power, but already many of them are mastering the techniques quite well. I was very proud to see Ophalemu go through his paces and earn his yellow belt.

Although the grading was for kids, the adults were also put through their paces. There were impressive displays of board breaking. I am tempted to start training again.

Parking Technology

I went to Chatswood Westfield a few days ago. As I was driving into the parking garage I noticed the usual sign telling me that certain levels were full. I did notice that the electronic board was constantly changing, but didn't pay too much attention to it.

When I drove inside, I noticed further signs saying full or telling me that 1 or 2 spots were available. However, I didn't pay any attention at first. However, as I had driven around for a minute or so I noticed that the signs were pointing down various parking aisles and the availability was constantly changing.

Still a little dubious, but with a faint hope I turned into an aisle that had just indicated that there were two spots available. There was a car in front of me and to my great surprise there were two spots available in the aisle. As I got out of the can, I noticed that there was a detector fitted above each parking spot keeping a constant track of availability.

Why hasn't this caught on yet? Apparently, Chatswood Westfield has had the technology for about a year. I haven't seen it anywhere else. What is going on? Is anyone as excited about this as I am? 

Kids

When I was a kid, I always stuck to my own age group. At school, I never played with kids in different years. The younger kids were annoying and the older kids were simply too serious. I do remember that in year 12 we did pay some attention to the cute girls in year 11, but not much, not really. The age barrier didn't disappear until uni days. Then it magically evaporated. 

These days the age barrier seems non-existent even in primary school. Recently Ophalemu had a slumber party. He invited one girl from his year, but the other two (a boy and a girl) were both from year five. His friends at school range from kindergarten kids to year six kids. There is no age divide. I struggle to understand what an year six kid would have in common with him or what he has in common with a kid in kindergarten. But they seem to make it work.

The pace of change

The pace of change in global communication is rather exciting and a little scary. When I compare my life today to 10 or 15 years ago, the differences are pretty amazing.

15 years ago I didn't have a mobile phone. I had a DOS based email account. I had never browsed the internet. I mostly communicated by phone or even snail mail. Today I have two mobile phones and neither of them are ever very far away from me. The internet is a part of my life, whether it is to access emails on my phone, to update my blog, to skype my colleagues or to keep in touch with old friends on Facebook. When a significant event happens on the other side of the globe, I can access information in near real time often with minimal reliance on traditional media.

Technology isn't the only thing that is changing, but it is probably driving the change. Whether we like it or not, the world is coming together at a faster pace and is learning to communicate better. Artificial borders still exist between countries, but they are crumbling fast. I can travel to most countries without a visa. Most of us speak more than one language and almost all of us understand English. We are slowly realising that we are a lot more alike than different.

I am not sure where we will be in another 50 years, but I have little doubt that our world will become even more integrated. Even if some of leaders resist, the people will drag them along kicking and screaming. We are all part of one system. The sooner we acknowledge it, the better we will be able to reap the benefits.

Photo originally uploaded by pingnews.com.

Obama

What an amazing event! A black American is the presidential candidate for one of the two major parties. Well its not official yet, but there is no longer any doubt.

If you had read my previous post about the contest, you will know that my preference was for Hillary Clinton to win the nomination and then to pair up with Obama as the vice-presidential candidate. Despite that, I still got shivers to realise that he had actually won the nomination.

No matter how well he had been doing, I hadn't really expected him to win. I didn't believe that the US or the world was ready for the real possibility of a black American president. I still don't believe he can win it, but simply coming this far is amazing in itself. Think about it. 50 years ago, black Americans couldn't even vote. 150 years ago, most black Americans were still slaves. In a few months, we could have a black American president.

Sure, he is half white. We shouldn't forget that. He is not really a black American in the true sense. He is the son of an African immigrant who came to the US long after slavery was abolished. He grew up with all the rights of full citizen. He didn't really experience the pre-civil rights segregation.

Despite all that he still is a black American and he could, just maybe, become the next president of the most powerful country in the world. We are far from a world without racism, but this could be the most powerful symbol yet that most of us have finally learned to make our decisions without taking race into account. We may soon also learn to look beyond religion, sex and sexual orientation. Maybe ...

Photo originally uploaded by transplanted mountaineer.

The City of Churches

Until recently I had never been further West than Dubbo within the Australian continent. However, over the last few weeks I had the opportunity to visit Adelaide a few times. Its an interesting city with polite friendly people and a certain beauty to it, but I have to say that it doesn't really compare to Sydney.

My main visit was last week to deliver a presentation at a Institute of Chartered Accountants' Business Forum. I was pre-warned not to expect the audience to be responsive, but I think I was able to get them out of their shell.

The Institute generously put me up in the Hyatt. A very nice hotel, but a little too prim and proper for me. I prefer the more casual comforts of the Sofitel or a bed & breakfast. I am not complaining though, and I admire the little thoughtful comforts like proper cotton buds in the bathroom, a soft bathrobe, a dedicated lounge with internet access etc.

The most interesting touch was a pair of stockings that was discretely placed with the laundry items - no doubt a lifesaver for a guest with an unexpected run in the stockings.

Oops - World Peace?

These days beauty pagents are often about a little more than beauty. We no longer accept that all beauty queens aspire for world peace. We expect a more meaningful answer. We have started to look for depth and intelligence in our beauty queens.

I couldn't help but laugh this morning when I saw news reports about the Miss Universe Australia's answer to a question about the environment. She confidently spoke about global warming and the harm caused to the environment by hair sprays - because of the Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used as propellants. I was impressed that she pronounced the word properly - I struggle with it - but someone should tell her that CFCs have been banned from most commercial products like hairsprays and fridges since the mid 1990s. We can now use our hairsprays - well maybe not me  so much - without worrying about the ozone layer. The link to global warming is even fuzzier.

Well, she still won regardless of her gaffe. I cringe a little to think of what some of the other contestants' answers could have been. Hopefully, someone will correct her before she represents Australia on the global stage.

Photo originally uploaded by sunrise.seven.

Broken Hill

My recent travels took me to Broken Hill for the first time. It was my first ever trip to the Australian Outback and I was quite intrigued to see the place.

The flight was quite an experience in itself. Only Rex flies to Broken Hill and there are only a handful of flights in a day. Having an early morning meeting meant that I had to stay in Broken Hill the previous night and hence caught an evening flight into the town. The view from the aircraft was breathtaking. Until the last minutes of the approach, all I could see was red desert. I was begining to wonder if we would be landing into a patch of desert sand, when finally a paved runway became visible.

Since I only had a short overnight trip, I only got a small tast of the town. Some of the highlights were:

• Being stuck at the almost empty airport for 20 minutes because another passenger had stolen my pre-ordered taxi.
• Eating chinese for dinner in an empty restaurant with an Adelaide beer to wash the meal down.
• Keeping an almost straight face when my taxi driver complained to me that because of the mining boom, it was now impossible to buy a decent 3 bedroom house for less than $120,000.
• Peak hour on the main street being quieter than 3am on Sunday night in my Sydney street.
• An American colleague telling everyone that I had gone to visit Brokeback Mountain.

I am looking forward to my next trip. My client promised me a tour of the real Outback.