Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Is this True? - Apparently NOT!

It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration. There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning! He was being drilled by a senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?" Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir." The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?" "No, sir," continued Ollie. "No? And why not?" the senator asked. "Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir." "Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned. "By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered. "Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?" "His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied. At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked. "Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered. "And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator. "Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth." The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip. By the way, that senator was Al Gore!





I was sent this information by a friend. I understand that it is part of a chain mail letter that has been making the rounds for some time. I was interested to find out if this was true or not.

I have found one location on the web where this information is exposed as an "Urban Legend" have a look at it and make up your own mind.

Similarly the following item was also sent around.
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners." However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released. Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the US from all later reports.
This is yet another article in the same vein. Once again it is interesting to ask if the article is true.

I asked and found another refutation of the story once again at Urban Legend

A different location of course.

Let's assume for a moment that the articles are NOT true and based on the refutation this at least is a reasonable doubt.

Circulating them is tantamount to spreading lies and should be stopped by anyone and everyone who receives such mail.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Iran warns of missile strike

Jason Burke, chief Europe correspondent
Sunday January 29, 2006
The Observer
"Senior Iranian officials further raised tensions with the West yesterday, implicitly warning that Tehran would use missiles to strike Israel or Western forces stationed in the Gulf if attacked."






Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of the people who work for certain governments.

Why threaten a missle strike on a country that has not threatened you?

Israel is currently involved in a few issues of its own, a leadership vacuum combined with the fact that an Iranian backed terrorist group (Hamas) has achieved political power in Palestine.

However when you add to this mix, the volatile threats of the new Iranian President who announces just before the anniversary of the Holocaust that it did not exist and that Israel should be wiped from the face of the planet you have a situation that is just ripe for action.

I have not heard any threats from Israel towards Iran.

I have however heard threats from Iran against Israel.

Is there a sincere desire from the Iranian leadership to threaten other nations?

If so, then those nations would be foolish indeed if they were to wait until Iran acquired the capacity to place a nuclear warhead on the missles with which they now threaten them.

At what point is there a right to self defense?

After you have been assaulted?

Planning to buy a fridge?

Much is made these days of planning your life and planning for the future. Many organisations are trying very hard to move towards project, program and portfolio management. There is an enormous amount of emphasis on the development of integrated products, on things working together and on the reduction of costs.

When was the last time you had to buy a new refrigerator because your old one packed it in?

This is my second time. I learned from the first time that to wander around the shops looking at refrigerators is a waste of time.

Why? Simple, the space that is available for your new refrigerator and the location of the space will determine what you can buy and how the door will have to open.

People who design kitchens and make up and install all of those wonderful built in furtniture that can hold the dishes and pots and pans and the drawers that can hold all of the cutlery also design the spaces into which things like the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher sinks etc can fit. There is absolutely no guarantee that the original appliances around which the kitchen built in furtniture was modeled will be anything like the appliances that will replace them.

So when your appliance packs it in spend a lot of time measuring the space that is available to hold the next iteration of the appliance and then explore how the appliance will be used. This will determine things like which direction doors should open on your fridge.

Then when you have managed to get the sizing written down and decided in which direction your doors should open get on to the Internet or into the catalogues and find the one or more refrigerators that can meet your requirements and then and only then approach appliance stores and find out whether they have what you want and if so at what price.

Doing a deal on the phone is really the cheapest alternative you have – otherwise you will find the costs in shoe leather or petrol and wear and tear on your car increase the price of the item you are trying to buy considerably.

I wonder how much easier things would be, not to mention how much cheaper things would be if there were standard sizes for refrigerators and standard space sizes for such items to be agreed. Kitchen appliances should really be like clothes, built to standard sizes at a cheap price and then, if some people want to have a made to measure set of appliances they should have to pay for the privilege. Alas this will not happen until we also have standards for buildings and rooms within buildings and THAT is unlikely to happen for some time.

So much for planning. Then again there is something to be said for diversity.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Keep your cool this summer!

Installation of a new air-conditioning system is fraught with risk. Think about it, people wandering around in your roof cavity and then walking on your roof, taking up tiles and installing large mechanical thinggies together with ducting and electrical wiring all designed to make your life easier and more expensive.

Still what can you do in Australia. With global warming becoming a painful reality it is necessary to keep that sack of bones cool so that it can continue to function.

Education in the 21st Century

In 1972 the Whitlam government declared that education should be free. With that announcement it changed the way in which education was provided in Australia. Governments in the past had provided funding for tertiary education in this country and wealthy patrons had subsidised education through grants, bursaries, scholarships and other means. But never before in the history of this country had government taken the step of enabling people from every strata of society to have equal access to education.

In 1975 with the dismissal of the Whitlam government, all the innovation which had commenced in 1972 faced extinction.

In 2005 we have, it seems come more than full circle. Government funding largely withdrawn from tertiary education. Students are required to invest in their education to the extent that they become indebted to the state for many years after their graduation trying to repay their education debts. Those elements that made tertiary education truly a global learning experience, student unions, sports unions and the facilities that they provide are no longer funded as a default, the facilities that used to be available to students to round out their education have almost completely disappeared.

It was a shock to come back to the University in the late 1990s and find that instead of a refectory in which one could spend time eating and chatting most students snatched a meal from a dispenser and then disappeared back into the library to cram some more knowledge into the their heads. Their behaviour regulated almost like the workers in a factory. Standard hours, standard ways of learning and standard approaches to ascertaining what had been learned. Welcome to the era of competency based learning.

Today we have managed to 'learn' from the failure of our governments to provide public services and have spread the business ethic to education as well. Instead of concentrating on the provision of education, our learning institutions have become yet another arm of the corporatisation of this country – a corporatisation that has reduced the standards and quality of education, that has released graduates into the economy with so little understanding of what it is that they are expected to do with their education that they end up trying to become an economic success rather than good at what they do. They have to do this because of the debts they have incurred, the cost of everything including the basics of food, housing, clothing, transportation and any other basic element of life.

Their goals in life is to succeed and to make money and whether this is at the expense of other human beings or not seems to be becoming irrelevant, whether it is at the risk of demolishing existing social systems seems to be irrelevant, and whether there is an overall reduction in the quality of life for most others is also largely irrelevant.

In one small town in Northern NSW there is currently a game afoot to demolish the a whole Department – probably because it is not making money for the institution. When a department is not 'profitable' it needs to be pruned or cut completely. To hell with the fact that it provides world class education and to hell with the people who have helped that institution become recognised around the world as a place where such learning is to be found. It's no longer profitable so it has to go.

The lives of the people and the lives of the students seem to be irrelevant to those who have their management hats on. What is education coming to in the 21st century?

Friday, January 27, 2006

A sign of the times, a celebration of Multiculturalism

I wrote briefly about the Australian of the Year awards, but failed to mention the most important aspects of these awards.

Throughout the presentations you have to be aware that the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs had a leading role in making the arrangements. As part of the success of these events it was obvious that VIPs would be given (while the hoi polloi would have to purchase) symbols of Australiana so that the 'true blue' patriotic nature of one of our cultural events of the year - the selection and celebration of the Australian of the Year would be surrounded by the symbols of what it means to be an Australian.

So what was in the 'show bags' which were carefully laid out on the seats of those privileged enough to be VIP guests on the occasion?

First and foremost of course were the Australian flags and the hats bearing the Australian flag.

I suspect that almost none of those present actually looked at the little tags which decorate these symbols of Australia. Unfortunately, I did. They were made in China!


Prior to the occasion's commencement all of the VIPs were herded to an enclosure surrounded by security in which they were served - what else, lamb chops which were cooked on a bar-b-que. For those in the know while this is an 'Australian' tradition the BBQ is actually something that comes and is named after a way of cooking that originated in the Caribbean where the Carib Indians, cooked their meals in this fashion.

There were of course also prawns, but they resembled the 'shrimps on the barbie' made famous by one of our Australian legends when inviting Americans to visit our shores and spend their money.

When you also managed to get your laughing gear around the sausages you did not have traditional tomato sauce to dip them in, but instead there was a delicious sweet chili sauce which was available.

The canapes comprised some Italian cheeses surrounded by olives and of course a pancake in which was a form of Peking duck held together with seaweed.

As for the drinks, well there was some form of drink which has been based on the coca plant (a south American import) as well as the more traditional red and white wines and of course orange juice, lemonade and the occasional bottle of bubbly (which we are not allowed to call Champagne).

Guests were welcomed to the event by a traditional owner of the land and at least one of the recipients of an award was of indigenous origin while at least another was a relatively recent immigrant.

All in all a very Australian, multicultural and indigenous experience.

There was in fact just one thing missing!

No one served up a Pavlova!

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Australia Day

Well, what a rush!

On a day which celebrates an anniversary of mine I was privileged to attend the Australia Day Awards as a guest of one of the recipients of an honour.

I would also like to add my personal congratulations to Toni Hoffmann

Good on ya Toni!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Another Day Another Year

For those of us who have spent the last year wondering if there would be another year ahead of us it comes as a relief to reach the magical day when that no longer is an issue.

Then again, there is a problem with that logic - as soon as the day arrives we are set once again to wonder if another year will be granted to us or whether this will be the last. In short, the crisis starts once again.

The mind however is a wonderful thing. Faced with a crisis we will often spend hours, days and possibly weeks of our brief lives worrying about its end and then as suddenly as the worrying started we are left seemingly without a care until the next crisis hits us.

I have had my crisis moment in writing this note - I hope I will be able to spend the next year worrying about something other than whether or not I will be able to keep breathing until January 25th next year!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Giving Gaming a new meaning

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Covers come off UK spy plane: "Images of the UK's first prototype stealth surveillance aircraft have been unveiled.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which has been built by BAE Systems, is known as the Corax, or as the Raven.

The Corax bears some resemblances to a cancelled US military spy plane called DarkStar, analysts have said.

Jane's International Defence Review said the unmanned aircraft 'indicated a new direction in combat vehicles for the UK's armed forces'.

Bill Sweetman, the magazine's aerospace and technology editor, said Corax could represent one member of a family of stealthy aircraft based around a similar central body but using different outer wings optimised for different missions.

'If you look at that Corax shape, it's very reminiscent of something that's designed to fly fairly high, fairly slow and have quite a long endurance. It looks rather typical for a surveillance aircraft,' he told the BBC News website.

'But if you take those long outer wings off and put on shorter swept wings, you have a somewhat faster aircraft that would be more of a penetrating strike platform.'

Future plans

The UK has reportedly terminated plans for a future manned combat aircraft and is working closely with the US on 'Project Churchill'.

This effort is focused on the joint, airborne command and control of pilotless combat air vehicles from 2015 onwards.

The Corax prototype has been built to investigate the stability, control and performance of the design, which is said to maximise all-round stealth.

Stealth technology refers to a variety of techniques used to render aircraft, ships and missiles less visible - and ideally invisible - to radar.

The prototype Corax was first flown in 2004 after a 10-month development programme."
Pete's Points

Only yesterday we heard about the attempt on the life of someone in Pakistan using a remote controlled aircraft. Today we see the covers come off the UK's pilotless aircraft.

If you think about it we have been spending a lot of money in the past 20 years building computer equipment that is really fast and really powerful. Equipment that helps people learn to play high resolution games from a very early age.

At the same time as this has been going on we have had the defence establishments around the world developing the technology to enable using satellite technology virtual real time displays that enable a pilot to see what is ahead of him and to use the electronic capabilities in the aircraft to deal with a threat or a target without having to be there. Take this one step further and you could actually start to mount an argument that in the future we will be able to use the children who are the very best at playing computer games as our pilots of the future where the horror of killing and maiming people is reduced because it all seems like an extended computer game. A computer game where the characters are not computer generated, but real people.

We saw a science fiction movie which had this underlying theme some years ago - I think it was called "Starfighter".

Is what is happening in the sphere of remote controlled aircraft all that removed from that sci fi scenario?

I hope I am wrong about what I am about to suggest next - but it seems to me that the instant that any government starts down the path towards fighting wars at a distance is the instant that someone can make a case that wars are an acceptable way of settling disputes because they are 'clean' and represent a way of damaging the 'enemy' while reducing the risk for 'the good guys'.

Or is all this just too far fetched to be even in the ball park of being true?

Monday, January 16, 2006

Hungarian Etymology

I am continually amazed at the stuff I find in the literature on the web.

Whenever I am in Hungary on a visit I have often asked myself about the origin of the greeting "szervusz" which is of course being rapidly being replaced by the ubiquitous "Szia".

Being the nervous type I have refrained from asking anyone about whether the first greeting was borrowed from Austria during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (or the Hapsburg period) because it is also used there a lot. Of course I also wondered whether it had a more ancient meaning - perhaps from an even earlier time.

Well - without having to embarrass myself in my ignorance here are some answers:

The Hungarian "szervusz" is the same as the Austrian and South German Servus, and it really should read : "Servus Humillimus" the Latin for "I am your most humble servant".

Once you have this information it is impossible not to see at a glance that the expression was also in use in English and other languages for quite some time - albeit only in its translated form.

As for "Szia" would anyone care to make a small wager that it is a unique Hungarian derivation of an English expression that we use every day and which no doubt has been transmuted through TV and other media and corrupted by usage from its original "See you later" to "See you" to See ya" to "Szia" in the Hungarian phonetic script?

Friday, January 13, 2006

Saw the value of planning versus trying to do things on the run again yesterday.

All of the journals and the training courses around the world keep telling people that what they have to do to make things work properly is to plan their work and then monitor the extent to which they can meet their plans and then adjust the plan and so on.

For most people, being able to express in their assignments at school what they have learnt gets them good marks and then when they get into the work force they discover that some things have changed.

Once upon a time people were able to rely on a diverse workforce that compartmentalised expertise. So you had dedicated personnel people who knew what they were doing, did it every day, gained expertise and so were able to do things quickly and efficiently. Then there were dedicated finance staff or dedicated training staff or dedicated (pick an area of speciality and stick it in here). What this meant was the staff who were undertaking other tasks were able to rely on doing their jobs and not having to worry about doing other people's work as well.

When you increase the amount that anyone has to cover, and NOT extend the time available to do it in the following happens:

On the one hand you will reduce your costs because you have managed to get rid of a lot of staff
On the other hand you will either increase your level of inefficiency and hence increase your costs or you will force people to work harder and harder and for longer and longer and thus also increase your inefficiency over time and hence your costs.

If people would only look at the reality of what is really happening in the world today, they would find that there are many people in the work force who are literally carrying others who have given up the struggle and can no longer put in the hours and do the work expected and there are CEO's who make their living causing a mess by firing people and decentralising work places and flattening structures and getting the hell out of town between the time they get their bonuses for reducing costs and the time that the organisation either falls apart or has to take its operations overseas to attract cheaper labour.

So when do people have to time to PLAN and to MONITOR their plans? Probably in retirement!

All of this arises from the most distressing news I have heard in years.

It was bad enough when an American giant corporation took over the manufacturing of a genuinely Australian product - I am talking about KRAFT Foods.

NOW they want to take the operation to CHINA.

We clothe ourselves with goods from China, we send our raw materials to China only have then to buy it back as value added produced goods, now we will have to eat Chinese yeast products?

Not this little black duck!

Where is Dick Smith when you need him?

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Ukraine government in crisis? Hell the world could be coming in for a crisis!

I have no idea if people make associations between things that on the surface do not seem to have connections - however . . .
The president of Ukraine has condemned a move by parliament to dismiss the government as "unconstitutional". . . .

The no-confidence vote was backed by 250 of the assembly's 450 deputies, but President Yushchenko plans to challenge the vote in the Constitutional Court.

It was the second time in six months that a Ukrainian government had been sacked."
Then on another site:
"A lethal form of bird flu that has swept across Turkey infecting 15 people, of whom two have died, may become entrenched and now menaces nearby countries, United Nations (UN) experts warn as the global death toll rises."
Er. . . is it just me or does anyone else realise that the Ukraine is just across the border, and is it just me or does anyone else realise that another country with bird flu is Romania which is next door to the Ukraine as well?

Does political instability that leads to an inability to respond quickly in a crisis augur well for a country surrounded by what may well be the beginning of a pandemic?

Er . . is it just me that realises that for the last twenty years people in MANY countries in that area of the world have learnt to rely on poultry as their main source of protein and so are highly unlikely to give up their birds without a major fight.

It's ironic in a way that the competition between fear of hunger and poverty and the fear of dying from a disease is likely to be the next most interesting exercise in human choice.

On the one hand people have first hand knowledge of what it is like to be poor and hungry on the other hand many have no memory of the devastation that was caused by the last flu epidemic at the end of the first world war

So what will win? Hunger and greed or fear of death from disease? Will the need to maintain power in politics over ride the need to save oneself from something even worse than being powerless?

Watch the next exciting episode in human frailty and stupidity play out on the world stage over the next few months.

Oh and by the way - in case you are really silly enough to believe that you are able to remain an armchair analyst at some distance from these matters because you live in Australia I have some bad news - migratory birds fly to Australia from the northern hemisphere for R&R during their winter and can carry all of the diseases we are talking about with them.

Last but by no means least, do people realise that in the past when a species grew too numerous and threatened the planet and its stability Mother nature seems to have done something to stabilise things.

Yeah .. let's get really conspiratorial here - maybe the religious extremists are right if the end of the world IS coming then we might as well go out with a bang rathern than a whimper or . . .

The twilight zone may no longer be an old TV series - we may be living in it!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Young people in Australia

australian policy online: "Posted: 24-11-2005

John Spierings discusses the main findings of the How Young People are Faring 2005 report

LIVING in a buoyant economy, with strong jobs growth and unprecedented wealth connected to home ownership, are Australians comfortable with their lot?

The evidence is mixed. Widespread optimism about economic prospects is generally tempered by anxiety about levels of household debt and concerns about terrorism. Rising levels of clinical depression, popular longing for a personal sea-change, and a profound incidence of family breakdown also tend to counter-balance the sense of economic good times.

As you might expect, young people share the national optimism.

Recent longitudinal research shows that in general young people have high levels of life satisfaction consistent with previous generations of young Australians. But their satisfaction in life is intimately related to what they are doing as students or workers, to whether they have a full-time job or not, or a course or a career plan that provides direction. To whether they are part of Australia’s economic ‘insiders’ or ‘outsiders’.

It may surprise but there are currently more than 560,000 young Australians not in full-time work or study, people who are predominantly on the ‘outside’ of the Australian economic success story. Most of them – about 330,000 – are women."
Pete's Points

Another interesting article to read in full. I came back across this information after reading about the number of women who graduate from University versus the number of men. In some recent research in the USA the ratios are really odd with over 200:1 in favour of women.

It seems to provide an interesting counterpoint does it not?

More on the Public Service

australian policy online: "Posted: 14-12-2005

Jack Waterford reviews the Commonwealth Public Service Commissioner’s latest State of the Service report

FOR AN organisation which has talked so much and spent so much on leadership and improved management, the Australian Public Service has nothing much to write home about in terms of results – at least if the views of public servants themselves mean anything. A good many public servants find their leaders significantly wanting in leadership qualities and in ideas. Many leaders talk too little about ethics and values, and all too often do not provide good examples of them in action. Many public servants think their bosses poor managers of their fellows and have little confidence in their promotion decisions, or in the allocation of rewards or bonuses for good work." . . . . .
As the wheel turns, it emerges that the best results come from people who know what they are doing and why, and who are inspired by people who lead by example, who are seen as well as read, and whose own styles in managing people, in setting the moral and ethical standards, and in inspiring confidence in their fairness, set the models for their agencies. Alas, all too often, the modern leadership generation, and the one being cultivated below, is less distinguished for its leadership than for its capacity to manage processes rather than people.
Pete's Points

This is an article worth reading - in full!

On the one hand Jack talks about the one problem that is becoming gradually more and more insoluble. As the ageing bubble really begins to bite the brain drain from the Public Service becomes an increasingly bigger issue. Having people in organisations who 'know what they are doing and why' is becoming problematic as most public servants at least in the last 10 years or so are driven by the need to flit from job to job in a search for promotion or a better pay packet within a grade as different organisations have different pay levels for the same levels of responsibility. As these people flit from organisation to organisation they neither learn organisational policy nor good people management skills. As for being well read . . . well . .

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Is Australia heading towards a fascist state?

We were all no doubt shocked by the riots at certain beach side suburbs in Sydney late last year.

How many of us have been following the aftermath with a view to the future?

One example was a story in the Sydney Morning Herald which had within it the following:
Jane, from Coogee, was surprised to find three police on her bus asking to inspect mobile phones. Each took a phone at random and scrolled through messages for five or ten minutes. Everyone obeyed. "The people were perfectly friendly about it," she said. "I thought it was a bit weird and a breach of privacy. But I didn't say anything. Nobody did."
[Australians are an obedient people - but for how long?, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 2005]
Is this, along with the increase in Police powers that have been passed in NSW the beginning of something new and ugly in our community?

There are now stories emerging from Dubbo of police "locking down" a community to ensure that there is peace and quiet.

What will come next?

I have no problem with reasonable laws being promulgated and applied and people being asked to be law abiding citizens, but if we in Australia are to avoid the race riots that have plagued other countries, if we are to avoid outcomes that finally erupted into full blown fascism in Europe during the Nazi era or the horrors of 'ethnic cleansing' more recently, then we have to understand that the loss of even the simplest of liberties, once accepted, can start the downhill slide to the acceptance of yet another loss and then another until no liberties are left and we get to a state of chaos where every person is in fear of every other person.

If this is NOT what we want then we need to fight to preserve civil rights and liberties and find a new way to control behaviour that find offensive and inappropriate.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Sites of Interest to Social Workers

An interesting site if you want to be hired in the UK
http://www.socialworkassociates.co.uk/index.php

Western Australian Social Work Newsletters

http://www.aasw.asn.au/about/branches/wa.htm

Northern Territory Social Workers including their news-letters

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~aaswnt/

National Association of Social Workers
(USA)
http://www.naswdc.org/

The New Social Worker On Line
http://www.socialworker.com/home/index.php

Overheard from America

Did you know that when people in New Hampshire attend an ice hockey match a fish is thrown onto the ice?

I have heard of ‘ice breakers’ before two teams get to work, but this is ridiculous!

Then there is the quaint custom of making a rude gesture and hurling a single syllable noise at the person in the goal of the opposite team when he/she lets the puck slip through to create a goal for the side being supported by the rude gesturers and noise makers.

What is all this about?

I welcome comments and clarification!

SWIFT A most inappropriate name.

The latest (December 2005) edition of “SWIFT” the newsletter of the NSW Branch of the Association of Social Workers represents one of the most inappropriate names for a newsletter.

It contains within its pages some of the latest set of communications between the Board of the Australian Association of Social Workers and the NSW Branch. Suffice it to say that matters that were on the table over a year ago have still not been resolved and indeed the matters are at a worse stage now than they were back then. Hardly what anyone would or could call ‘swift’

I suspect that the Association is now the laughing stock of professional associations not only in this country, but around the world. For a bunch of people who pride themselves on being able to assist others to solve their issues and problems, who claim to have expertise in mediation, counselling and conflict resolution, the leadership of this organisation now seem to demonstrate a complete inability to resolve a fundamental issue within its own ranks.

What’s the problem?

Apart from issues which may have arisen among personalities within the Association the issues seem to revolve around money and power and the problem of incorporation.


As a corporation, the AASW has a number of Directors on its Board each of whom is elected by the membership of the different Branches around the country. Each Branch gets to elect a Director regardless of the number of members in a Branch. Thus the two most numerous Branches in the country, NSW and Victoria get to have the same level of representation as say the tiny number of members in the Northern Territory and the ACT. There are thousands of members in the first two states and perhaps dozens of members in the two territories.

In short there is a considerable level of inequality in power.
  1. How is money raised for the activities of the Association – through membership fees and activities during the year?

  2. How is money distributed across the Association – at the discretion and by decision of the Board?

  3. Is there a distribution of funds that provides the facilities and services sought and paid for by members across the country? Well no, not really, the people who raise the most funds do not get value for money while other parts of the organisation that either cannot or will not raise funds because of their low membership numbers manage to get the lion’s share of the spoils.
To ask a social work like question, how does this ‘feel’ for those who do most of the work?

“Bloody unfair”, would be their most likely response.

Unless the AASW manages to resolve its internecine war it is not in a position to adequately represent social work as a profession or its members in professional quarters.

I would like to point interested parties to the solution that has been found to this problem in Western Australia where a group of the most senior executives of the then Branch of the AASW resigned en masse and formed a rival social work organisation to represent the social workers in WA who become their members.

People should have a look at their organisation and their success and then adopt perhaps a “monkey see, monkey do” approach. Instead of wasting time and lives on the internal war within the Association perhaps it’s time to look at a solution that is from “outside the box” – let the current Association die from lack of membership and start again with something new and something that more adequately represents the interests of the professional people who want an organisation that represents them and their interests rather than an organisation that appears to be representing other interests.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Talking on the phone

One of the joys of being on the phone and having only one phone line, is that unless there is a broadband capability being used within the household it is simply not possible to go on to the net as well. So if you have a husband and wife combination in which the wife is a serious phone conversationalist and the husband is a serious computer user then the stage is set for a confrontation OR the acquisition of broadband.

For those among us who remember the days of yore when having a computer was a big thing and actually being able to get on line was considered to be extraordinarily geeky when there were no modems only acoustic couplers when speeds of 300 baud were considered to be the most that was achievable being able to send messages virtually in real time is already spectacular. Being able to actually download a one hour movie with full stereo sound and music to a hard drive was not even something that could be contemplated.

Yet here we are in 2006 waiting for the first terabyte drives with memory in a machine already exceeding any rational expectations and disk speeds being something that was not even in the minds of people who used to dream up science fiction. Next we are coming into the era of the nanobots which in less than twenty years will be able to undertake surgery on a micro scale from inside the body without the patient ever having to go into an operating theatre or being opened up. The possibility of having microscopic watchdogs inside our bodies taking care of our cancers, our hardened arteries and preventing strokes is not longer fantasy or science fiction, but something that is merely not available just yet as the technology catches up with what is being realistically required.

7 January 2006

One of the most interesting news stories of the day was the Woolworths the “Fresh Food People” have been selling fruit that tests have revealed to be a number of months old, fruit that has been kept in cold storage containers in which the oxygen is turned off to ensure that the fruit stays as free as possible from rotting.

Nice one Woollies!

In the last few days I have to admit to being a little concerned when I have been taking some fruit purchased by my partner and taking off the skin and grating it into the base for a “Bircher Muesli” only to discover that the core of the fruit was brown and rotting and that the pulp started to turn brown almost as soon as the apples were peeled.

When the news item came on to the air waves and I saw the tests I have to admit being shocked.

What was even more damning was the claim by a representative of the chain that all of this was designed to:

  • minimise the need to get overseas produce and

  • to ensure that customer requirements to obtain fresh fruit and vegetables even out of season could be met
Whatever happened to the global economy? In Europe when it is winter and it is impossible to obtain fresh produce that is normally only grown in the spring, summer or autumn seasons, the companies import from areas overseas where the seasons are reversed. What is stopping Australia from doing the same things? Are we not able to increase our exports overseas to meet the demand of those countries that are experiencing winter with our fresh foods and then expect that they will meet our requirements when it is our winter?

A form of quid pro quo would seem to be indicated.



Monday, January 02, 2006

A New Job - Part 2

One of the techniques that I have found useful in my life is the technique of 'knocking on doors'.

It is almost inevitable that someone has been employed in the position before you arrive and you need to find out how they did the job and what people around them working with them, for them or above them in the hierarchy thought of that work.

If you get the impression that they were successful and were well thought of then you can not afford to ignore the good vibes that they left behind. The chances are they they had systems and processes and procedures in place which are appreciated by those in the work environment and you can do yourself a lot of good by finding out quickly how they did the job and what tools and techniques they used. In many instances once you tell work colleagues that you are really glad to be following in the footsteps of someone who is regarded as so efficient and effective they will fall over themselves to show you where things are and how things work and you can settle in quite easily permitting people to continue to do things as they have been doing them and learning what actually works and what does not.

If however you get the impression that the person who undertook the work before you was not well thought of then you can present yourself as someone who will become the 'saviour' of the work place and ask to be shown all of the processes and procedures that the previous person had used and elicit feedback from the people you work with why this did not work. Similarly you can ask all of those people to whom this individual reported why they were not favourably considered and then make notes on what people expect and what difference you need to make in the way you present so that you will be better appreciated.

Once again the people in your work environment are the key to learning how to not only survive but thrive in the new job and in the new work environment.

The New Job - Part 1

Arriving at work for the first time is a scary business. Arriving at a new job with people you do not know and work with which you are unfamiliar in a setting that is new is not only scary it is simply downright frightening.

Most people will tell you that they approach their first day in a new job with a considerable amount of confidence. “After all”, they will tell you, “I was successful at the job interview and beat all the other candidates for the position. So why not be confident?”

What you are hearing is bravado AFTER the fact.

In reality all of us are frightened when we approach anything new and all of our previous experiences have shown us that there really is something to be afraid of.

  • Do you remember the first day at primary school?

  • Do you remember the first day at high school?

Yes, we were all told by our parents there was nothing to be afraid of on the first day at primary and we all know how well that went. Then when we finally thought we knew about school we went from being the oldest and most experienced class in the school to newbies again in high school.

I am sure that this experience has happened to almost everyone. I am equally sure that each and every one of us has worked out some strategy or other to survive the first few days of something new.

There is really nothing different about a new job. It's just a bigger playground with bigger children all playing a different set of games.

Ears

Did you know that your ears keep on growing as you get older?

I did not until recently.

Someone made this comment to me the other day and I sat around in shock. Why did they tell me? Are my ears now becoming elephantine? Have I started to get so old that my ears are more apparent than some of my other features? Are my ears UGLY?

I checked it out and have to say that I am surprised by the results of my findings.
  1. In the first place it's true - ears DO keep growing.
  2. In the second place, my ears are no longer the delectable little morsels that I am certain brought endearments from my mother.
  3. I have ear hairs that are quite unsightly.
  4. No one wants to nibble my ear lobes any more.
  5. My face is shrinking.
  6. As my hearing deteriorates my body compensates by creating a better receiver?
There may well be other parts of the body that also keep growing but as has been found by many people they are not necessarily those parts of the body that anyone really wants to keep on growing. Anyone with warts will certainly agree and of course those of us who have experienced cancer will definitely state and quite categorically that they do NOT want these cells to keep growing.

I wonder if there is something that can be learned from those parts of the body that keep growing versus those parts of the body that do not. Perhaps one of the secrets of controlling cancer lies in finding the differences between those cells that know how to turn off and those that keep growing. If we find out how to turn cell growth off then we might just find how to turn uncontrolled cell growth off and then - so much for cancer.

Now back to those ears!