HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS?

On the BBC there is an article from America that is likely to make hospital administrators in Australia sit up and take notice.

It may also start a devastating slide in the performance of soap and detergent companies on the stock market

Lately there has been a campaign in Australia to remind staff and patients and indeed visitors alike to WASH YOUR HANDS when you are in the hospital to ensure that the spread of bacteria and viruses is minimized and hygiene preserved.

I am taking the liberty of reproducing some parts of this article to try and assist all those who may have some habits that they need to change to live in hope that maybe, just for once, there really IS a technological solution that does NOT involved them once again having to change their behaviour.

Adding a special "spiky" coating to surfaces can kill bacteria and viruses, research suggests.

US scientists found painting on spike-like structures kept the surfaces infection-free.

The spikes, they believe, rupture bacteria and virus particles on contact, inactivating them.

The team, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest their findings could help to fight the spread of diseases.

The researchers painted glass with long chains of molecules, called polymers, which anchored to the surface to form tentacle-like spikes.

When the team then applied the surfaces with E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus (both common disease-causing forms of bacteria) and the influenza virus, they found the coating killed them with 100% efficiency within minutes

Of course an English kill joy:-

Professor Ian Jones, a microbiologist from Reading University, said: "This is an interesting paper, from the point of view that it is a new and simple approach to fighting infection that seems to be effective against both bacteria and viruses."

However, he said he was less convinced the spikes were piercing the particles and thought another, more chemical, mechanism could be at play.

"The other thing that is important to find out is the longevity of the effect. If a toilet door handle, for example, is coated with this material, would it last for days, hours, weeks? It would be vital to know how often it needs to be applied."

So, while we wait - it is important to keep asking - HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS?

Social work in the naughties!

I am afraid that I cannot attribute this little story either, as it was sent to me in memory of the place I used to work and a profession I once practised.

A guy walks into the local welfare office for his fortnightly cheque. (The computer system having failed - AGAIN!)

He marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi, you know, I just HATE coming in here drawing welfare month after month. I'd really much rather have a job."

The social worker (who just happened to be) behind the counter says, "Your timing is excellent.

We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur cum bodyguard for his nymphomaniac daughter.

You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, but he'll supply all of your clothes.

Because of the long hours, meals will be provided.

You'll be expected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips.

You'll have a two-bedroom apartment above the garage.

The starting salary is $200,000 a year."

The guy says, "You're bullshitting me!"

The social worker says, "Yeah, well, you started it."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

S. H. I. T.

I have no idea where I saw or heard this item so I am afraid that attribution is simply not possible - for this I apologise. However since it is the end of the year I thought that a "history lesson" would be good for all of us.

Subject: History lesson

Manure:  In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large
shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the
process of fermentation began again, a by product being methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and
did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just
what was happening

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship
High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high
Enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would
not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come
Down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

I had always thought it was a golf term

Vale 2006 - well, not quite!

As the year winds on to a close so too do the lives of some people who have actually had a major impact on the world as well as those who are there merely to make up the numbers

The death of former President Gerald Ford of the USA was announced today - he was 90+ years old.

Some will remember him as:

• the only president never to have been elected;
  
• the person who granted Tricky Dicky Nixon an unconditional pardon;
• the person who finally ended the Vietnam war;
  
• the person who tried to restore some dignity to the Presidency;
  
• someone who used to be a good athlete and yet had a history of stumbles when he was in office
  

Whatever the memories, another of the living US presidents is no more.

This day was also the day when the situation in Somalia got some action happening. In the past I have written about this disaster area where some of the Islamic Militia have been waging a war against the established government and creating a flood of refugees. Nothing seems to have been done in the past to either support the government in this country or to abandon them. Now the Ethiopian troops have taken a hand and the militia has fled abandoning all of the conquests that they have achieved to date.

Will this be the end of the situation? I suspect not. Indeed what is more likely is that Eritrea which is a neighbour and has reputedly been arming the militia will react, the African Union will probably want to take a hand now that things are happening and with any luck someone will notice that Ethiopia has a strong background to do with Christianity and so the conflict will be painted as a war of ideologies again.

It is interesting to speculate what finally tipped the Ethiopians into this conflict in a full scale assault and no doubt there will be speculation about the hand that was played in the conflict by one power or another.

Another major event of the day was the fact that the USA finally recognised the Polar Bear as being endangered by the melting of the polar ice cap, its native habitat. In doing so the USA has opened the floodgates for those ecologists who will use this small opening to wax lyrical about the USA's excessive use of energy, its lack of concern about the environment and create the thin edge of the wedge in moving their political agendas forward.

One item that has not yet surfaced in this discussion is what sort of effect the melting ice caps will have on the rest of the world. I wonder for example whether the massive increase in the amount of fresh water being injected into the world's oceans will have an impact on marine life, whether the rising water levels will mean doom for many low lying communities (those islands in the Pacific that are barely above water level now come to mind as well as a lot of coastlines around the world including those of England and the Netherlands and Bangladesh). I also wonder whether the fact that massive shifts in mass from the poles to the oceans combined with the earth's rotation and spin effect will create some issues for that rotation and if so what impact this will have in terms of earthquakes, tidal waves etc.?

2007 promises to be yet another interesting year and one in which yet another subject will absorb some of the interest of the world - this being the larger than 100% increase in top executive salaries while the rest of humanity is becoming more and more divided into the very rich and the very poor. I suspect that yet another 'correction' will be taking place.

Whinging Poms?

This just in from "Management Issues"

It may seem like only yesterday that you hired them, but six months down the line nearly half of workers think they deserve to be promoted. What's more, many will jump ship if they don't move up the ladder.

I have been putting my ear out (see image) and listening to the comments and groans of frustration coming from friends and colleagues about exactly the same issue that seems to be besetting people in the UK.

Why is this happening?

Maybe because the Poms, having lost the Ashes to Australia (again!), have nothing better to do than complain about their lot in life.

Maybe this is because the UK is socked in with fog and people can't even leave the place if they want to.

Maybe this is because there is a natural (read evolutionary outcome) tendency within the UK to nothing else but bitch all day!

Maybe . . . . well let's not speculate further - let's just DEAL with the issue.

I think I have a cure which can be classified as educational and may even be capable of being funded by your work place.

Go for a long trip to a third world country and spend a little time in a battle zone or in an area that has been subject to health and/or environmental issues to boot.

Examine in detail the plight of the folks there. Note those who not only do not have enough to eat or drink, but if they have a 'job' there is no way that they can pursue it. Note that they have been reduced to basic survival mode.

With millions of people (perhaps even billions) out there just trying to survive, ask yourself whether in comparison, you are fortunate in just being alive, having a job, a place to live, and enough food and water to drink and enough time, energy and good health to actually enjoy some of your time in pursuing recreational pursuits without any fear that someone near you will explode or have fun using you for target practice.

When you realise how (relatively) well off you are, then get back into your box, stop being a complete ass and knuckle down to work instead of spending most of your day contemplating your navel and moaning about how badly off you are!

Promotion?

After less than six months? No way Jose!

Learn what you are doing, get good at it and work for a couple of years so that you can pay back the investment that your employer has made in your future.

A new meaning for "Wishing you a Merry Christmas"

Speaking of Christmas - there comes a time in everyone's life when you receive glad tidings from overseas which contain some funny messages.

I received this little gem (sans words) from a family friend who is English and currently living and working in South America.

Soon to head home to England and no doubt thinking of home (wherever that is these days) she sent this under the cover note which said something about enjoying a vegetarian Christmas.

I wonder what title you would assign to this picture.

Here are some suggestions:

"Don't hide your light in a bushell - try a turkey instead!"

"I've heard of a 'swan necked' vase, but this is ridiculous!

"Who is the real turkey here! Fancy thinking I could fit under a kitchen cupboard"

"The man does not know what he is doing. As if I would answer to 'Here chickie chickie!"

"G-d I hope he doesn't try to turn me on!"

"Global warming (not to mention the oven) gave me the idea of hiding in the shade!"

"This gives a whole new meaning to sticking your neck out!"

Out with the Old and in with the New

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Hanukkah!

Here is a quick greeting and best wishes to you all. I hope that Santa brings you what you wish for, although some recent correspondence (thanks George) would have me believe that if he was answering his correspondence himself rather than having it done via the propaganda machine, it might, just might, result in some more interesting messages.
For example:

Dear Santa,
I wood like a cool toy space ranjur fer Xmas. Iv ben a gud boy all yeer
yer Frend, BiLLy

Dear Billy,
Nice spelling. You're on your way to a career in lawn care. How about I send you a book so you can learn to read and write? I'm giving your older brother the space ranger. At least HE can spell!
Santa

Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl all year, and the only thing I ask for is peace and joy in the world for everybody!
Love, Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Your parents smoked pot when they had you, didn't they?
Santa

Dear Santa,
What do you do the other 364 days of the year? Are you busy making toys?
Your friend,
Thomas

Dear Thomas,
Are you kidding? All the toys are made in China. I outsourced and got a life. Hey, you wanted to know.
Santa

Dear Santa,
Do you see us when we're sleeping, do you really know when we're awake, like in the song?
Love, Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Are you really that gullible or are you just blond? Good luck in whatever you do. I'm skipping your house this year.
Santa

Dear Santa,
I really really want a puppy this year. Please please please PLEASE PLEASE could I have one?
Timmy

Timmy,
That whiny begging stuff may work with your parents, but it doesn't work with me. You're getting a sweater again.
Santa

Passing times - A reality check!

As December 2006 winds itself towards the end of another year I thought it timely to take a reality check! The first thing that I noted was that maybe it's time for me to get a new image.

This one has some deficits that may not be obvious to anyone else, so let me try and explain my reasoning.

In the first place I no longer have either the required amount of hair that would justify keeping this picture, nor is it all one colour, nor indeed all there, these days.

Alas, the sands in the hour-glass have shifted and as another 'age' (I simply hate to use the word birthday) creeps up on me, so the figurative autumn leaves are changing colour and falling (out, in this case).

Then there is the beard.

Following various operations, it remains a mere shell of its former self, having been reduced from its previous glory, to a mere Van Dyk.

As for the shirt with the rolled up sleeves, the tie and the large console phone, all are reminiscent of a former life, when I was employed full time and actually trying to demonstrate some sort of adherence to a corporate wardrobe without actually getting to the stage of having to buy and wear those tax deductible items.

In short folks the picture no longer represents who I am or indeed what I really look like not even in my own mind.

One not so wonderful component about my growing older, appears to be the persistent habit I have retained to try to minimise the effects and the impact of change.

If there must be change, I say, then let it come at the time of MY choosing and at a pace that I can absorb without any undue negative psychological effects. If that is not possible then let me at least CONTROL the change!

Alas, the world is neither kind nor necessarily subject to my wishes.

The changes in my persona, have come about almost without being noticed.

It appears that no amount of facing the mirror while brushing my teeth, combing my hair (or what's left of it), etc. have actually helped me to achieve any form of recognition of the changes.

It was only when, in a moment of madness, I started to work on updating a web site, by actually reviewing the contents, especially the photographs, that a hint of the discrepancies started to make an appearance and an impact.

At first, it was nothing, a feeling of incongruence, something that was missing or something that was different.

Then, the realisation hit. It was not something missing, but rather something that was present in the photos or drawings that was missing in real life.

Depression struck!

It was with a heavy heart that I started to adjust my web sites to reflect the new (or should I say new/older) me.

I had no idea how to represent the caricature of my current self. Then inspiration struck!

Just look at the little cartoon at the top of this article.

It shows a man presumably more or less in the prime of his life, who used to resemble me. Note that it is in black and white to represent the past.

He wears his watch on the left hand, he uses the phone in a left handed manner, he wears glasses, he has a beard that is like mine used to be, he wears his shirt with a tie and habitually rolls up his sleeves to get the job done. In short someone who fancies himself to be, well, if not an executive, someone at least with some level of responsibility and someone who appears to be a hard worker, someone who likes to talk and someone who obviously has some affinity with technology.

Compare that image please with this cartoon. Note the differences.

Here the picture is in colour, the hairline has receded considerably, the beard has been diminished, the ears have grown larger, the glasses are thicker as a result of deteriorating eyesight, and finally the shirt and tie are gone, replaced by a T shirt worn with a grin, outside of an office environment where nature is obviously taking its course. Note the drooping shoulders, the arms that indicate hands in the pockets, that casual, "could care less" quality.

That is closer to my reality these days.

Ironically enough - from the BBC

France launches world TV channel

President Chirac has given his personal backing to the project

France's first international news channel has been launched into competition with BBC World and CNN.

France 24 was unveiled on the internet at on Wednesday evening, and will launch on satellite and cable TV 24 hours later.

The channel has the backing of French President Jacques
Chirac, who despaired at the lack of an outlet for French views in the
run up to war in Iraq.

Pete's Points
So at last it has come to this!
Now we have

1. A channel in UK English (BBC)
2. A channel in American English (CNN)
   
3. A Channel in German and German English (Deutsche Welle)
4. A Channel in Arabic
5. A channel in French

The tower of Babel is returning just when we have returned to where Babel was in the first place.
How much more news (I mean propaganda) can we stand?

Note please dear readers that the French President has helped this to happen because he wants FRENCH views on air.

Look forward to new world wide 24 hour NEWS channels from China, India and other budding superpowers who also want to share their messages with the world

The Vagaries of Petrol Prices

Yesterday I was happily driving to the mall and in passing the petrol station with discount fuel I noticed that the price was set at $1.12 per litre provided you had a shopping voucher. With this at home I resolved to get the fuel the next day - namely today.

Lo and behold when I went out less than a half day later the fuel had suddenly risen in price to $1.20 per litre. Thus in the space of less than half a day the price of this fuel has risen by 8 cents per litre.

I checked with the oil market figures and I found to my surprise and horror that the actual cost of the stuff that we import has gone DOWN in price.

So what is the difference between Wednesday and Thursday? Why nothing much - it's just that this Thursday is a PAY DAY for most people, so the gas stations have decided to cash in and make as much money as possible!

Personally I think that is not only disgusting it is exploitation of the very worst kind.

I will still have to have fuel in my car but I can assure my readers that I will make some more interesting decisions about WHEN I buy my fuel in the future - It will always be on a Wednesday that is just in front of a pay day.

The more people who read this and check out whether what I am saying is repeated in their neighbourhoods as well the more who are likely to stop being exploited by the greedy service station owners.

Let's all get together and learn to play the game OUR way and not give in to the games that are being played with our finances by what I believe to be unscrupulous operators.

In the UK apparently it is not whether, but wither Social Work

Here are some excerpts from an Article in the Guardian dated 27th November 2006

"For some time now there has been concern that social work is a "demographic time bomb" in terms of the nature of the qualified workforce. The influx of recruitment into social work in the 1970s is now nearing retirement and some departments are concerned about losing significant proportions of their qualified and experienced workforce over the next decade.

Recent government recruitment campaigns have targeted social work and social care in an attempt to encourage people to consider this as a worthwhile career.

However, alongside adverts promoting social work are the negative images portrayed by the media both about social workers and the service users they work with. This is highlighted by current government initiatives and media attention regarding young people, "problem families" and refugees and asylum seekers.

Given the lack of respect afforded to such groups themselves, is it any wonder that the social workers trying to support and empower them are likewise undervalued? . . . .

Improving recruitment into social work needs a genuine commitment to enhancing the status of the profession, which in turn requires that government policies reflect an ethical and positive approach to the sections of our society with whom social workers engage. This does not occur in the context of campaigns and policies that marginalise and criminalise those in need of guidance, support and the resources to enable them to lead worthwhile, valued and independent lives. . . . .

Good staff development and a sense of being valued by their employers is crucial to providing an environment in which social workers feel able to manage their work and enhance the knowledge and skills needed to keep up with the ever-changing legal, policy and research context of practice. Management training and development is also key to retention, with good supportive management cited as a significant factor in determining whether they felt positive and valued in their work and organisation."

It would be interesting to speculate about the situation in Australia. I wonder if like the British we undervalue people with the social work skills and their clients? I wonder if all of the workers who were recruited in the 1970s are now really heading into retirement and if so what is the situation with their replacements?

If anyone has some data they would like to share post me a link or some of the information.

Sun, sand, water and safe energy, what more could you want?

Peter's Pen.

Seen as a part of the Guardian's contribution to the debate on global warming and the need to provide the worlds with increasing supplies of energy while causing as little damage as possible here is the following:

Ashley Seager
Monday November 27, 2006
The Guardian

In the desert, just across the Mediterranean sea, is a vast source of energy that holds the promise of a carbon-free, nuclear-free electrical future for the whole of Europe, if not the world.

We are not talking about the vast oil and gas deposits underneath Algeria and Libya, or uranium for nuclear plants, but something far simpler - the sun. And in vast quantities: every year it pours down the equivalent of 1.5m barrels of oil of energy for every square kilometre.

Article continues

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---

Most people in Britain think of solar power as a few panels on the roof of a house producing hot water or a bit of electricity. But according to two reports prepared for the German government, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa should be building vast solar farms in North Africa's deserts using a simple technology that more resembles using a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a piece of paper than any space age technology.

Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world's hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world's entire electricity needs, with the technology also providing desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable byproduct, as well as air conditioning for nearby cities.

Focusing on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, they say, Europe should build a new high-voltage direct current electricity grid to allow the easy, efficient transport of electricity from a variety of alternative sources. Britain could put in wind power, Norway hydro, and central Europe biomass and geo-thermal. Together the region could provide all its electricity needs by 2050 with barely any fossil fuels and no nuclear power. This would allow a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production over the period.

CSP technology is not new. There has been a plant in the Mojave desert in California for the past 15 years. Others are being built in Nevada, southern Spain and Australia. There are different forms of CSP but all share in common the use of mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays on a pipe or vessel containing some sort of gas or liquid that heats up to around 400C (752F) and is used to power conventional steam turbines.

The mirrors are very large and create shaded areas underneath which can be used for horticulture irrigated by desalinated water generated by the plants. The cold water that can also be produced for air conditioning means there are three benefits. "It is this triple use of the energy which really boost the overall energy efficiency of these kinds of plants up to 80% to 90%," says Dr Knies.

This form of solar power is also attractive because the hot liquid can be stored in large vessels which can keep the turbines running for hours after the sun has gone down, avoiding the problems association with other forms of solar power.

Competitive with oil

The German reports put an approximate cost on power derived from CSP. This is now around $50 per barrel of oil equivalent for the cost of building a plant. That cost is likely to fall sharply, to about $20, as the production of the mirrors reaches industrial levels. It is about half the equivalent cost of using the photovoltaic cells that people have on their roofs. So CSP is competitive with oil, currently priced around $60 a barrel.

Dr Knies says CSP is not yet competitive with natural gas for producing electricity alone. But if desalination and air conditioning are added CSP undercuts gas and that is without taking into account the cost of the carbon emissions from fossil fuels. The researchers say a relatively small amount of the world's hot deserts -only about half a percent - would need to be covered in solar collectors to provide the entire world's electrical needs (see map).

The desert land is plentiful and cheap but, more importantly, there is roughly three times as much sunlight in hot deserts as in northern Europe. This is why the reports recommend a collaboration between countries of Europe, the Middle East and Africa to construct a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) grid for the sharing of carbon-free energy. Alternating current cables, which now form the main electricity grids in Europe, are not suitable for long distance transport of electricity because too much is lost on the way. Dr Trieb, of the German Air and Space Agency, says the advantage of DC cables is that the loss in transport is only about 3% per 1,000 kilometres, meaning losses between North Africa and Britain of about 10%.

"Contrary to what is commonly supposed it is entirely feasible, and cost-effective, to transmit solar electricity over long distances. Solar electricity imported to Europe would be amongst the cheapest source of electricity and that includes transporting it," he says. "CSP imports would be much less vulnerable to interruption than are current imports of gas, oil and uranium."

Algeria already exports huge quantities of oil and gas to Europe via pipelines but has a vast potential resource in sunlight that could make it a complete energy supplier to Europe. Many members of the Opec oil cartel, which have worried that alternative energies would kill demand for their oil, are blessed with hot, sunny deserts that could become a further source of energy income.

The two reports make it clear that an HVDC grid around Europe and North Africa could provide enough electricity by 2050 to make it possible to phase out nuclear power and hugely reduce use of fossil fuels.

An umbrella group of scientists has been formed across the region called the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (Trec) but the idea has yet to excite the imagination of the British government in spite of the recent Stern review on climate change.

Neil Crumpton, renewables specialist at Friends of the Earth, said: "Most politicians on the world stage, particularly Tony Blair and George Bush, appear to have little or no awareness of CSP's potential let alone a strategic vision for using it to help build global energy and climate security."

European commission president José Manuel Barroso said recently that he wanted to see the European Union develop a common energy strategy based on low carbon emissions. The Trec scientists hope German chancellor Angela Merkel will use next year's joint presidency of the EU and Group of Eight leading economies to push for an agreement on a European DC grid and the launch of a widespread CSP programme.

The outlook is not promising. More than 30 countries last week agreed to spend £7bn on an experimental fusion reactor in France which critics say will not produce any electricity for 50 years, if at all.

That amount of money would provide a lot of CSP power, a proven, working and simple technology that would work now, not in 2056.

Safer and cheaper

Dan Lewis, energy expert at the Economic Research Council, calculates that CSP costs $3-5m per installed megawatt, one-fifth the cost of fusion. "Fusion is basically a job creation scheme for plasma physicists."

Mr Crumpton agreed: "Nuclear power accounts for just 3.1% of global energy supply and would be hard pushed to provide more. Yet CSP could supply 30% or 300% of future energy demand far more simply, safely and cost effectively. In the wake of the Stern report the enlightened investment is on hot deserts, not uranium mines or oil wells."

Of course of considerable interest to Australians is the fact that one of the largest and driest continents in the world is not mentioned in the article.

Australia has one of the largest desert environments in the world and given that we also hold one third of the world's uranium, huge deposits of coal and some other energy resources it is distinctly possible that using the same technology that is being suggested by the German scientists Australia could enter a cooperative arrangement with say the Chinese who also have vast tracts of desert in the Gobi and of course anyone else who wants to play and start to stake a monopoly on the provision of energy that is environmentally friendly, completely renewable and will NOT contribute to greenhouse gasses, but instead help Australia to reduce its own emissions and at the same time offer to other countries a trade commodity that does not depend on mining and does not depend on the creation of nuclear fuels that are so incredibly dangerous and waste that is so difficult to get rid of.

Let's hear some real support for this form of energy "mining" and let's use some of the stuff we also have in abundance to create the salt water conversion projects that can help to make our arid land wetter and so exploit the fertility that is currently locked up in land that is either marginal or not farmable because of the lack of water.

That sounds like something I would want to invest in while the Liberals idea of multiple nuclear power plants is something I will try and avoid.

Leading and Managing People

Leading people includes gaining the respect and acceptance of others and inspiring them to follow a certain direction.

Managing people involves achieving results through the work of others

Measures

1. Ability to identify appropriate direction and purpose for self and others;
2. Communicate direction and purpose to inspire commitment of others;
3. Develop plans to ensure that the right people are in the right jobs at the right time;
4. Identify and provide appropriate learning and development opportunities;
5. Design work participatively to meet job and people requirements;
6. Give feedback and manage individual performance;
7. Use open two way communication and involve others in decisions and problem solving;
8. Motivate staff and foster innovation, creativity and excellence;
9. Develop and maintain team harmony and resolve conflict;
10. Delegate responsibility appropriately;
11. Manage staff in accordance with organisational regulatory requirements as specified and intended;
12. Model shared behaviours in the work place.

Learning and Development

The Learning and Development function must be judged primarily by the same criteria as any other kind of management activity, namely its contribution to the efficiency, productivity, profitability and cost effectiveness of the organisation.

Assessment of learning and development must include a measurement of value as well as an identification of results.

Validation of a learning and development program.
A series of tests carried out on the subjects of a learning and development program designed to ascertain whether it has achieved its aim - ie. has it been successful in teaching what it sets out to teach (internal validation) and judged on the basis of its effectiveness, measured against specific yardsticks (such as improvement in quality or quantity of production or reduction in errors) whether the aim itself was realistically based on Learning and Development needs (external validation)

Evaluation
The measurement of the total value of some learning and development program in social as well as financial terms. Evaluation differs from validation in that it attempts to measure the overall cost benefit of the program or course and not just the achievement of its laid down objectives.

Investment Appraisal
If people are "our most valuable assets" then the provision of learning and development could be considered to be an 'investment' in the maintenance and enhancement of those assets. Thus, the money spent on the provision of learning and development should be appraised in a similar way to that used in the appraisal of a physical capital investment.

Value to Whom?

• to the individual (increased job satisfaction, increased earnings, less stress associated with work performance requirements)
• to the organisation - increased productivity, morale, prestige
• to the business as a whole - as against competition from other organisations in a similar business
• to the nation - eg. as a component of national productivity, higher standards of living etc.

Value against what?
Evaluation must involve some kind of comparison to assess the value of the Learning and Development provided compared with other possibilities.
For example:

• other learning and development activity or methods
• no learning and development
• recruitment of experienced (already fully developed) people
• spending money elsewhere (for example on new technology to replace some functions)

A process outline

Problem Area or Need

Level 1 Determine what has to be achieved in organisational terms Assess achievement towards organisational objectives
Level 2 Determine what changes of behaviour are therefore required Assess what changes of behaviour have been achieved
Level 3 Determine what has to be learned to bring about changed behaviour Assess what has been learned
Level 4 Design learning situation Assess reaction to learning situation

Mentoring - Understanding the Choices

One of the difficulties new mentors have is the feeling that they need a "road map". One of the features of mentor induction most appreciated is the prersentation by a mentor or a mentor and mentee about "how we did it". I recommend such presentations, but there is also a risk that new mentors think they have the road map.

Mentoring Dimensions

Formal Informal
e.g. Fixed roles - "mentor" is always the mentor,
Note and review agreements/action points at end of meeting
e.g. Roles swap at times, No sharing of notes or no notes taken

Structured Unstructured
e.g. Work to an agenda for a meeting, work to a plan over time
e.g. Begin meeting with what is on mind of mentee and take it from there

Fixed Term Open Ended
Mentor and mentee know when mentoring will end
Mentoring has no defined end date

Advice Giver Facilitator
e.g. Shares expertise, telling e.g. Assists mentee to draw own conclusions from reviewing what they know and how they feel, questioning

Only Resource Finder
Mentor is the only resource made available Mentor puts mentee in touch with others who can assist development and aspirations

Presenting Problems Wider Issues
e.g. Focus is on seeking solutions to presenting problems, determining actions, making decisions, "Discussion" e.g. Exploring how mentee's values and other beliefs relate to the issues they bring, Working to develop self-insight, "Dialogue"

Disclosing Own Experiences Non-disclosing
e.g. Readily share relevant examples of how you succeeded or failed and lessons learned.
e.g. No references to own experiences.
Focus on what mentee experiences and how mentee deals with this.

Personal Focus Professional Focus
e.g. Work with mentee to check her / his aspirations or actions against personal values. Consider how pursuit of one thing may impact on other areas of life, including private life.
e.g. Discuss issues without reference to their relationship to mentee's personal values.

Work Venues Social Venues
e.g. Always meet in work environment. e.g. Some or all meetings in social environments - café / bar / home

Friendship Working Relationship
e.g. Enjoy deep friendship as well as being a mentoring pair and feel comfortable with this level of intimacy.
e.g. The relationship stops short of intimate friendship but both feel it is human, warm and useful.

These choices are not right or wrong. There are intermediate positions on the dimensions. One side is not better or more preferable than the other is. An interesting exercise is to go to one side of a dimension and ask in what situation would this choice be more appropriate. Then to go to the other side and ask the same question.

Whether a choice is useful depends on both the mentor and mentee, the context or scheme in which they meet, how their relationship develops and their needs at the time of a particular meeting.

A key role for mentors is to use judgement and instinct as to how best to meet the needs of the mentee while recognising their own unique qualities.

Factors Impacting On Choices In Mentoring
· Degree of trust
· Personalities
· Access to other relevant resources
· Quality of communication / understanding
· Degree of self-awareness / readiness to examine self
· Values beliefs
. Life experience
· Expectations
· Time available
· Courage
· Skills
· Confidence

Will this resolve the conflict over who owns Jerusalem?

4,000-Year-Old Tombs Found Near Jerusalem Mall
Mati Milstein
for National Geographic News
November 21, 2006

"Not far from Jerusalem, Israel's biggest shopping mall, builders accidentally uncovered a 4,000-year-old cemetery last summer. This month the ancient site began yielding jewelry, armaments, and ritual offerings.

The cemetery find suggests that the Canaanites—a Semitic people who inhabited ancient Palestine and Phoenicia beginning about 5,000 years ago—had a much more extensive settlement in the city than previously thought."

Pete's Points:

I like this news. It should assist well meaning Israelis and Palestinians to resolve one of the major issues that have burdened discussions and negotiations between the parties about ownership of the land in Jerusalem.

Neither side owns it. It belongs to the descendants of the Canaanites who lived there - unless of course anyone is prepared to admit that it belongs to the group of people who conquered it last.

If this reality is admitted then those who are there NOW have the final claim to ownership unless they themselves are ousted.

CAPTION CONTEST

When I was in Germany I saw this sign and simply HAD to stop and take a photo!

In case the word is not clear it is sozialwerk or social work - the stop sign is universal.

I can just imagine how it got there - a council worker who was in a divorce case was assessed by a social worker and as a consequence of his/her report had to pay out more maintenance to his departing spouse than he thought reasonable.

The sign is his comment on that outcome.

That's MY version of the reason for the sign - anyone else want to have a guess at what it means?

The new message for workers?

If you are an employer of staff and you want to motivate them to achieve greater per capita productivity there is nothing like this T Shirt message to motivate your people.

To add insult to injury of course, you could always consider adding a sub-text which reads

"If you don't, you may become one of them"

Musings on Migration

From the ABC:

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has welcomed yesterday's High Court ruling that makes it easier for the Federal Government to return temporary protection visa (TPV) holders to their countries of origin.

The High Court decided that the Government is under no obligation to let people on TPVs remain in Australia once the situation in their home country has improved.

Pete's Points:

I was a refugee (albeit some 50 years ago).

My parents feared for their lives and ran with me in tow.

I can understand what it is like to run from a country when you are in fear of your life.

Equally, I understand what it is like to apply for migration to a country as a refugee and to be faced with rejection on grounds that appear meaningless at the time.

In the case of my family, the place of birth of my father enabled him to gain approval from the USA to migrate there and settle as a refugee, but the country of my birth and that of my mother precluded us from the same privilege. Why? Our circumstances were the same, at least from our perspective.

The country concerned had a policy of permitting only a certain number of people who were born in different countries to migrate and because of the large numbers involved my mother and I missed out on their quota system.

Unfair? Possibly from some perspectives.

The reality is that each country must have the right to decide its own immigration policies regardless of whether potential applicants for residence welcome that policy or not.

It was of course possible for my father to have migrated to the USA and then when he had settled there to send for my mother and myself some time down the track. He chose a different option. He decided not to split the family and risk something happening to us in a refugee camp.

When Australia offered to take us all in we migrated here. A then strange land where we did not know the language or the culture and which was a world away from where we expected to end up.

Personally I think my dad made a great decision, if not for himself, then certainly for his family.

I can understand why it is that the government has fought so hard to ensure that people to whom they give TEMPORARY protection can be returned to their home countries when the conditions there change for the better and it is felt that they are no longer likely to suffer harm.

If and when Australia affords someone the opportunity to migrate to this country as a refugee and were then to withdraw their privilege to settle here, I would be up in arms alog side the Greens and the Democrats.

However when it is made clear to someone that he or she is being given TEMPORARY protection only and there is no intention at any time to admit them to Australia under any other condition then the individual concerned has to make a choice, just like my father had to make a choice, about what to do.

Once the choice is made there are consequences that follow the choice, one of these being, in the case of a temporary residence visa, that if the country from which you have fled returns to a state where you no longer have to fear for your life you are returned there.

There are other choices for people out there when they are in danger. They need simply to be careful about the course of action that they choose. In the case of the people who were the subject of the case before the High Court they clearly did not choose the correct option for themselves.

Are you for ONE side or the other?

I find it continually interesting to read or listen to the media report items from the middle east.

Whenever there is a rocket launched at an Israeli town or settlement and people are killed they are very rarely described in the media as 'innocent civilians'. Nor does there seem to be any reporting about the Palestinian government's views (whether it is the Fatah or the Hamas faction) on the tragic loss of life and property brought about by the actions of some of their followers.

On the other hand whenever there is an attack by Israeli troops on targets in the Gaza strip or indeed elsewhere in what have become known as 'the occupied territories' and people are killed or wounded, these attacks are condemned and held up to be a violation of human rights, the involvement of the UN is sought etc.

In other words there is a huge media beat up.

Similarly whenever there is a weapon that explodes in Iraq killing dozens of people at a time it is reported in a sort of routine way that another x number of people have been killed in location "a" or "b" by either Shiite or Sunni insurgents. There is no real outcry about a violation of human rights, a demand for action by the UN, a screaming and crying in the streets for vengeance against the perpetrators and so on.

Let the killing be the fault or responsibility of the "occupiers" (pick any group of soldiers from any country that is in Iraq) and all of a sudden you have media headline plastered all over every type of medium crying in bold print about the 'outrage' perpetrated by the military of (insert the name of the country concerned) .

I have to say that I am impressed with both the gullibility of the media and the extent to which propagandists on the side of Islamic terrorist groups have learned to manipulate the channels of communication.

At what point are people going to wake up to the fact that death and destruction are brutal and seemingly unavoidable facts of life, whenever there are uncontrolled weapons in the hands of militants anywhere in the world. Militants who have a political agenda that is contrary to the interests and the agenda of others who live side by side with them?

I know that unfair reporting sells papers and advertising because people hungry for news will read the most sensational reportage they can lay their hands on.

That said, there are some bigger issues for people to consider. One being, whether or not we are going to continue to believe either side's propaganda or actually ask some deeper questions about what is really going on.

The next step?

One of the more interesting questions that arises as a result of the success of the Democrats in the US Congress is how the Defense Secretary was finally assisted with his "career development."

It seems that 'falling on his own sword,' the colourful quote attributed to Donald Rumsfeld by the media on at least one Australian TV channel is less likely than a more truthful version of this reality namely that he resigned rather than face the beating that he would be given had he stayed in office. This Defense Secretary holds the record at present for having been both the youngest and the oldest person ever to have occupied this office. No doubt it will be the feature article in his memoirs.

Then there is the new question before the house namely: what on earth prompted the former CIA director to offer to put his head in the noose and replace him?

I await with bated breath the revelations about this story as it no doubt will emerge from the press. The story I have heard to date, namely that he is a man devoted to public service and has stepped in to do his duty rings about as hollow as any story I have heard to date.

I mean, a former CIA director with a conscience and a devotion to public service?

I guess stranger things have happened - but not in my lifetime!

Mission Impossible 4?

· Cruise to take control of legendary United Artists · Comeback for actor who's career was written off Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Friday November 3, 2006 The Guardian In a move that had Hollywood insiders scratching their heads in bemusement, it was announced yesterday that the actor Tom Cruise is to take over the dormant United Artists film studio. United Artists was started in 1919 by four of the biggest figures in film: Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and DW Griffith. As the name suggests, it was an attempt to wrest creative control of film-making from the financiers and deliver it to the artists themselves.

An Own Goal? Stupidity or a Come on?

I have seen a lot of own goals when I look at soccer matches but never before have I seen one this good:

"The US Government posted Iraqi documents on the Internet that explain how to build a nuclear bomb, The New York Times reported on its website on Friday.

The Times said that officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency had complained to US officials last week about the postings of "roughly a dozen" documents from Iraq's pre-1991 nuclear research that contained diagrams, equations and other details for making a nuclear bomb.

The newspaper cited experts who said the documents "constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb".

The US Government posted the bomb-related documents on a website set up last March to make available to the public a huge archive of Iraqi Government papers, hoping that the public would help sift through the archive for useful information that Government translators did not have time to search for."

If true, then it's time that some US officials actually lost their jobs for stuff like this. Talk about making it easy for your friendly neighbourhood terrorists.

Then again I have to remember that the US government has a whole department given over to psychological operations. I wonder if this is a scam?

Let's hand the terrorists some plans that will help them to blow themselves up and take a few of their mates with them when they do.

Interesting question.

I find it hard to believe that the US government that spends trillions of dollars on all sorts of trivia does not have enough translators or cannot hire enough translators to get through their paperwork and have to rely on public help for something like this.

What an opportunity.

This in from Papua New Guinea:

"The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government says it can survive without the $300 million aid package it receives from Australia."

Pete's Points:

If this is how the PNG government wants to play, I say let them lose our aid.

The taxpayers of Australia have better things to do with $300 million a year than pay it over to ungrateful recipients.

Let's spend it on getting some desalination plants into existence near our major population centers so that all the water we have surrounding this island does not go to waste! Alternately let's spend it on increasing the number of renewable energy initiatives we have in train.

If and when the PNG government does get bogged down in its own corruption or has more riots and lawlessness resulting in more death and an increase in poverty, then the population there may wish to have a change of government or even a change of attitude towards its neighbour in the south.

Why I have been "off line"

Have you ever had one of those days when you are somewhat off colour? When the world no longer seems shiny and bright and new?

If not then you will have no idea what I am talking about. If you have then you will appreciate that for the last few days I have had no real desire to find, much less hit the keys on the computer with any news.

A little rain yesterday has not changed things. Perhaps next week.

However seeing Joe Hockey the Minister for DHS on the Channel 7 early morning program today talking about the efforts that his department was taking to reduce greenhouse emissions by building another monster headquarters building for Centrelink caught my attention. He has actually invited Channel 7 staff to come and visit the building before it is even finished being built.

I will be interested to hear from readers when the building opens how wonderful (or not) it is.

I certainly hope that they will enjoy the 49.5 million dollars of furbishing that Parliament voted for the building and I hope that the windows are double glazed so that the heat of the sun can be captured and used to power either the cooling or the heating systems that are usually required in Canberra to handle the extremes of the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter.

I look forward to seeing the Channel 7 crew being given the "Hockey" tour of the building in the next few weeks. I also wonder how much it will cost to brief the Minister and his entourage as well as the media that will no doubt be invited to attend.

Knowledge Management that would appeal to Librarians

found this little gem on another BLOG called "Geek and Poke" and simply could not resist adding it to my commentary.

For all those I have worked with in the KM sphere who are current or former librarians - let this be a lesson to you - what goes around comes around!

Worth thinking about

From Management Issues

Failing to discuss five key issues before embarking on a new business initiative, project or programme almost guarantees that it will end in failure.

What are the five undiscussable issues that do so much damage?

1. The first and most fundamental is fact-free planning – that all-too familiar scenario that sees a project set up to fail with deadlines or resource limits that are set with no consideration for reality.
2. Second, is absent without leave (AWOL) sponsors who fail to provide the leadership, political clout, time or energy to see a project through to completion.
   
3. Then there is skirting, when people work around the priority-setting process and are not held accountable for doing so.
4. Another common issue is the "project chicken" scenario, when team leaders and members don't admit when there are problems with a project but wait for someone else to speak up.
5. Finally, team members perpetuate dysfunction when they are unwilling or unable to support the project, and team leaders are reluctant to discuss their failures with them candidly.

Article worth reading

"Empowering leadership not always the answer."

"Empowering leaders who give their employees room to think and behave independently are often perceived as more effective than the traditional directive leader who issues specific orders. But according to U.S. researchers, this isn't necessarily so.

In certain types of environments - including fast-moving entrepreneurial businesses – command-style leadership can be more effective, argue Dr. Keith M. Hmieleski and Dr. Michael D. Ensley."

"Directive leaders – those who instruct people to carry out designated tasks and reprimand those who stray - are seen as old-fashioned and possibly downright stifling."

Most striking among the findings is that the empowering style of leadership, commonly thought to be most effective with heterogeneous teams in environments of rapid change, was clearly shown to be less effective under those very conditions.

"Fast-moving environments demand fast decisions," said Dr Hmieleski. "That's where directive leadership comes in. A directive leader can rapidly clarify what work needs to be done in the moment and by whom."

As a result, Hmieleski argues that the benefits of directive leadership and the drawbacks of empowering leadership have been downplayed."

So bring back the boss who can tell you what to do instead of the wimp who tells you he has NO IDEA and wants you to flounder around on your own so he has someone to blame when things go wrong!

Get the last laugh - be prepared!

"Seven out of 10 workers aged more than 45 in the U.S and UK are worried about not having enough money to fund their retirement, a new survey has suggested. The study by Hartford Financial Services Group found one in three older workers in the U.S and UK was either "extremely" or "very" concerned." (from Management.Issues)

I seem to remember that when I first started work in my so called 'permanent position' I noted that I was actually receiving fewer dollars in salary than I had been making on commission doing the work of a sales representative. Soon after I met people who were getting older and who had not taken care to save for their old age who were continually getting about seeking aid from anyone who would care to listen and help to support them.

Somewhere between the two experiences I got to the point where I realised that doing the work I had trained for and spent years at university becoming qualified to do, did NOT mean I was going to be well off.

I don't know what the rest of you do when confronted by such a stark realisation. In my case I wanted to make sure that I would not end up like the poor guys who had been left on their own to pay the bills with less and less money coming in. I also wanted to make sure that even if one or another form of insurance for the future did not pay off there would be some residual reserves in place to take their place.

In short, I started to plan for my retirement at the very beginning of my career.

I suspect that for nine out of ten people this would be considered to be the most foolish waste of time and money that they could think of. After all most people need their funds when they are young and still able to DO things with it. Let time worry about the future.

Perhaps that is something that is there to challenge each and every generation. In my case, now that I am retired, I know that I am grateful for my foresight so many years ago.

Medical bills for example which could break the heart (and hip pocket nerves) of most people are being taken care of (mostly) by medical insurance. For all those who do NOT have such insurance and complain when they cannot get a service or have to wait for what public services exist - my only advice is plan for the future and not just for the present, when you are healthy.

Illness can come without warning and by then it is far too late to have 20/20 vision

I suspect that most people will read this note and laugh and point it out to their friends with a comment about this aging idiot who spent his time worrying about the future.

Wait thirty years people and THEN see who has the last laugh!

An Invasion Not Found in the History Books

I was sent a piece of information I had not seen before concerning some archival documentation arising from WW II.

The story concerns plans for an invasion of Japan stored in the American Archives since they were made.

Apparently this information has been around since 1987.

I wonder how many others out there have heard of this and or read the resume?

I was fascinated to think about what COULD have happened had the two atomic bombs NOT been used on Japan at the end of the war.

What if the invasion planned by the military of the time had gone ahead?

It all makes fascinating reading and people can read an exerpt for themselves at:

http://www.waszak.com/japanww2.htm

On the same site at a slightly different location there are more fascinating bits of reading that can be found:

try for example:

http://www.waszak.com/giangreco_bibliography.htm

Salt and Water

What an interesting place is The Forum

In one of the latest posts there is some interesting discussion about water.

We have been seeing more and more water entering our seas from the melting of the polar ice caps. At the same time we have been noticing the lack of water that has been falling from the skies and filling up our dams and our reservoirs and hence we seem to have a problem. Being on an island we are surrounded by water that contains salt while we restrict our use of fresh water and complain that as our aquifers dry up we have an increase in salt.

Well let's just think about this. Saline water is purified in lots of countries going from saline to drinking water. So why not here?

Yes I hear you all saying but it takes a heap of electricity to enable the change and then what the hell do you do with the salt that is left?

One commentator on the forum has provided an interesting response to this quandry:

The concentrated brines that can be a by-product of desalination of seawater or saline groundwater have a value all their own.

One such value resides in their usefulness as a component of solar ponds. Solar ponds are amongst the most cost-effective solar heat collection and storage devices. A layer of dense highly saline water is insulated by a layer of less dense fresh water separated by a membrane. Solar radiation is trapped within the saline layer, which heats up.

This heat is used to generate electricity in a conventional closed-cycle thermal power plant using a low poiling point working fluid. (A facility like this supplies electricity for Birdsville in SW Queensland; the only difference being that the source of the heat is hot artesian water, water heated by the natural nuclear fission occurring in subterranean granite masses.)

Relative scarcity of dependable fresh water supply for even domestic purposes is frequently a feature of life in Australia. I can only wonder that this convergence of availability of resource and demand for both product (fresh water) and by-product (in the ultimate, electricity) both in near coastal and remote inland locations is not recognised as an ideal opportunity for the application and development of natural (or, to use the buzz-word, sustainable) energy sources.

Not only is the brine by-product useful in its own right, it is easy to handle and transport. It can be piped to a usage point, it can be piped back out to sea, or it can be piped and re-injected into an already saline aquifer. Given, with respect to seawater particularly, the absolutely miniscule quantities of water removed as fresh water in relation to the source, the return of relatively more concentrated salt water to the sea need not be an environmental impact problem: it is so inherently controllable on both the small scale and the large that I can only marvel at the seemingly uninformed objections being thrown up against desalination on this ground. Is there some other agenda or community perception at work producing such negativity?

What about that analysis? I am not well enough versed in either chemistry or power generation to offer a comment about the feasibility of what is being suggested - however I would like to hear from people who know a lot more than I do what they think.

In the so called 'sunburnt country' this sound almost too good to be true - is it?

From knowledge management to knowledge acquisition

This photo of Kate Muir, appeared in the October 2006 edition of the "Public Sector Informant".

Kate is stated as being a student at the University of Canberra's Master of Business Informatics course. The photo is published in what is referred to as an "Advertising Feature" on Training and Development Solutions in a section entitled "Growing Demand for Business Analysts"

Kate is quoted as saying: "I believed that the Masters of Business Informatics would give me . . . the academic background to areas I had worked in."

For those of us who knew Kate when she was "just a manager," it is delightful to read that she has put herself back in the traces to obtain yet another degree and this time, a post graduate qualification.

Onya Kate!

The article in context comes at a time when Sandra Rossi stated on 06/09/2006 10:34:38 in an article entitled "Accreditation introduced for business analysts" published on Computerworld.com.au that:

"The growing industry trend toward accreditation has reached the business analyst community which is introducing its own formal certification process.

The Australian Business Analyst Association (ABAA) today announced the introduction of a baseline accreditation for business analysts."

Of course the competency based movement has had competency standards for business analysis for some time. Readers interested in these standards should look at: http://www.ntis.gov.au/ for information

The upside of Global Warming

There is an upside to climate change.

As sea levels rise so those people who were unable to obtain the funds for a seaside resort home and were forced to buy a cheaper property away from the current sea shore are on a winner - if only they can stick around long enough.

Soon their properties will be seaside resort properties while those who were foolish enough to buy coastal land will suffer the fate of Atlanteans - they will be underwater.

Of course there is an alternative that is already the rage in the Netherlands - build houses that are on floats and moor them to sturdy posts that are driven into the soil. As the tide (or water level) rises so too does your house.

A recent article in the Guardian discusses the situation facing Britain at present:

"Britain's coastline has remained more or less intact since the end of the last ice age. But as sea levels rise, erosion is accelerating and more than a million homes are now under threat. Is the only solution for us to abandon the shore?"

In my view do not abandon the shore - make plans for a new type of property the floating home.

You think I am joking? I am NOT try these URLs to see what I mean:

http://www.ecoboot.nl/artikelen/floating_houses.php

Liberals just following British Labour?

All this fuss in Australia about migrants, refugees and citizenship. Oh what short memories we all seem to have.

We already know that the British Prime Minister and John Howard are allies in the "coalition of the willing" and we know that in spite of their supposedly very different outlooks politically they seem to be able to agree about everything.

Sometimes Australia is ahead of the UK and sometimes it is behind.

On this occasion it would be good to remember that in 2004 the following article was published in the Guardian:

Sarah Left Wednesday December 15, 2004 The Guardian
"The Home Office today published a 145-page handbook intended to familiarise prospective citizens with British culture, history, traditions and government, which will serve as the core text for new citizenship tests. . . . . "We want to encourage people who are settling here to acquire a basic knowledge of English and of British society. This is fundamental if we are to help them contribute fully to our national way of life," a Home Office spokesman said.

Now of course we have Mr Robb, that famous adherent for the promotion of Liberal values, who is trying to convince us about the need for similar items for people living in Australia.

Remember where you read this first - I expect that very soon there will be a similar issue of publications perhaps even multi media formatted set of options that will enable Australia to go in the same direction as the UK went two years ago.

Oh and by the way did I mention that since 2004 there have been lots of disgruntled migrants in the UK? Some of whom have been naughty enough to actually bomb railway stations and in other ways express their frustration with what is happening over there.

While I support people in Australia learning English I think we need to learn how to help people integrate a little more usefully than seems to have been the case in the UK
.

You have to be kidding!

From the BBC

Mau Mau to sue British government

Mau Mau war veterans claim they were tortured

Victims of Kenya's independence war with Britain 50 years ago are to start proceedings to claim compensation from the British government.

Veterans of the Mau Mau - who fought a guerrilla war with their colonial masters - are demanding an apology and an out-of-court financial settlement."

Pete's Points:

Keep your eyes on this story!

For those old enough to recall this story about Jomo Kenyata the leader of the Mau Mau who finally became the country's first leader, there was a lot of horrific murder to go round.

The Mau Mau were not called "guerrillas" or "freedom fighters" when all of this took place. They were appropriately called terrorists and terror is what they spread throughout Kenya.

People died horrific deaths on all sides and there was no quarter given by either side. For the relatives of these terrorists to come fifty years later and ask for compensation is, at least in my view, simply unbelievable.

Who do the families of their victims sue?

I suspect that if this situation gets to court and is heard then there will be relatives of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Centre who will be seeking compensation for the loss of their 'loved ones' who were no doubt forced to martyr themselves in their "struggle".

Soon there will be relatives of the people who hijacked jet airliners and killed the passengers, caused millions of dollars damage and put fear into international travel who will claim compensation for mental anguish or some other bullshit!

I am really afraid that I have no time for claims like this.

These people were not victims - they were perpetrators!

New hand dryer to reduce cross contamination?

Washroom air, contains harmful fecal germs and is laden with bacteria, is heated and blown onto people's shoes, clothes and freshly-washed hands by normal air dryers that currently operate. What's more they take a long time (over 35 seconds) to work, so people generally try and help the process along by wringing their hands and so adding more germs to the mix from their skin and from under their finger nails.

Paper towels are the only other option offered in washrooms. They are of course expensive and environmentally unfriendly. In the US, for example, 2% of total landfill consists of paper towels.

So who should come to the rescue (again) but James Dyson, the design guru who pioneered the bagless vacuum cleaner - that boon to the office cleaners and of course house wives and house husbands.

His new invention, currently being trialed in two hospitals in England manages the job of drying hands in ten seconds.

The new hand dryer, developed in Wiltshire, will be built in Nanjin at a relatively hi-tech factory that currently makes radar for the Chinese military.

I guess the only question that remains is whether the Chinese will actually develop a form of radar that can determine whether there are any germs left on people's hands after the drying process - just to be sure!

Who will they blame for THIS contract?

My readers should note the PRICE tag (nearly 6 billion Australian dollars for this contract and a staggering total of around 36 BILLION Aussie Dollars) for this innovative outsourcing project and then should ask the following question:

"Did anyone put a penalty clause into the contract?"

Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
Sunday October 1, 2006
The Observer

The company charged with rescuing the NHS's troubled IT system has consistently failed to meet its deadlines for introducing the project across the health service, The Observer can reveal.

Last week Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was awarded a £2bn contract to take on a bigger role in overseeing the implementation of the Connecting for Health system, the biggest civilian computer project in history which is supposed to electronically link all doctors' surgeries and hospitals. But government hopes that CSC will prove the £12.4bn project's salvation have been hit by news that the company has itself experienced huge problems in implementing even the most basic parts of the project.

Another

It seems to be the day for them.

Once again from Management-Issues.com this little gem indicates a suicidal tendency by employers. If we have a worker shortage and firms do NOT want to take the business off shore and there are in fact qualified, trained and experienced workers available who just happen to be older, then why does this attitude persist?

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the new bosses are petrified that the older workers could actually run the shop better than they currently can?

Maybe that is why senior executives are looking for such high pay packets - they know something we don't?

Perhaps it is that they will retire on their ill gotten gains before the world catches up with them and the devastation they will leave behind or ??

"Almost half of workers across Europe believe their workplaces discriminate against older workers, a new survey has suggested.

As Britain gears up for arrival of age anti-discrimination laws this weekend, the poll by recruitment firm Monster found that Spanish and German workers most felt older workers were discriminated against, but Norwegians were the most tolerant towards older workers.

The survey of asked 8,277 European workers "do you feel your company is ageist when it comes to employing new recruits?"

A total of 46 per cent across Europe believed their employers discriminated against older workers when it came to hiring new recruits, although nearly a quarter felt their organisation took a balanced approach."

Is this a "Crocodile Dundee" joke?

I want everyone to note that usually when Management-Issues.com speaks I am happy to listen. However on this occasion even though it is NOT April 1st I do worry about the fact that the organisation which undertook the research is called "Hogan Assessment Systems"

Of course I suppose not everyone who has seen Crocodile Dundee knows that Paul Hogan is the real person that personified this Australian larrikin.

From Management-issues.com the following

"As if to confirm popular stereotypes, a new study comparing Australian CEOs with their counterparts in the U.S. has found that the Americans are more conservative and buttoned down, while the Australians are more fun-loving and risk-taking.

The findings are based on results of three personality assessments administered by U.S.-based Hogan Assessment Systems (HAS) to 55 Australian CEOs running organisations with annual revenues ranging from $2 million to $450 million and employing between 10 and 8,500 employees. Almost a quarter of these were women."

I was amazed and perversely delighted by the following excerpt from The Guardian web site.

As you read the story below please note that the camps are held at Devil's Lake. How appropriate is THAT?

If course you can make up your own mind by checking out this site:
http://kidsinministry.com/

"A documentary on evangelical Christian children's camps has caused uproar in the US

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Friday September 29, 2006

Burning with a cause ... American children at the Kids on Fire Pentecostal summer camp pray before chanting for 'righteous judges' in the documentary film Jesus Camp, which has created a furore in the US. Photograph: Magnolia Pictures

The children at the Kids on Fire summer camp are intent as they pray over a cardboard cutout of President George Bush. They raise their hands in the air and sway, eyes closed, as they join the chant for "righteous judges". Tears stream down their faces as they are told that they are "phonies" and "hypocrites" and must wash their hands in bottled water to drive out the devil.

The documentary film Jesus Camp follows three children at the Kids on Fire Pentecostal summer camp in the small city of Devil's Lake, North Dakota.