Even in Europe people know about the Brumbies!

Regardless of where you travel if you take a sticker with you then you too can advertise. 

Idyllic!

Whenever I want to relax my mind wanders to places I have seen that conjure up a moment of total relaxation and a picture of an idyllic location.

This is one such location seen on my recent wanderings.

For those with a troubled spirit in these times of stress and worry - take a copy and relax! 

Summer is coming

I was reflecting on my recent trip overseas and came across this shot of a restaurant in Peschiera on Lake Garda in Italy.

I wonder whether the restaurant owners in Canberra will take note and consider doing something similar on Lake Tuggeranong or one of the other water ways in this city?

Dining 'al fresco' would get a different meaning. 

A timeless restaurant

I have been going back regularly to Hungary since 1979 and am constantly amazed that this place is still there.

The name of the restaurant is "Százéves" which when translated means "Hundred Years". The food is (apparently) still good.

The prices, unlike the name, have NOT withstood the test of time. They are now on par with some of the more expensive restaurants in the world.

I have to say that I am glad that I was able to sample the fare when I could actually afford it!

When you look at the picture you will also note how narrow the path near the entrance. The roads have been changed to make way for new investments and for new shopping arcades and all that is left of the old is like this an almost hidden doorway.

For those going to Hungary on their next trip I would sincerely suggest that they try and find some restaurants in local suburbs OUT of the main tourist areas like Váci Utca.

Ask a local where he or she eats and chances are that you will get at least as good a meal (possibly better) at a more reasonable price.

Oh, and by the way if you do NOT speak Hungarian (why some people find this language difficult is beyond me) many of the younger people these days are multilingual and speak some English. 

Coimbra Library

When you visit Portugal you could do worse than to pay a visit to Coimbra, one of the first university towns in Europe. As you can see from the picture which is attached - the library is exquisite and literally filled with antique books from floor to ceiling.

The real question is - would you prefer to work in this sort of atmosphere or at your student desk in front of a computer screen? 

Ever had one of THOSE days?

When I first saw this figure in Pompeii I automatically thought it would present me with an opportunity at some point to run a caption competition.

Anyone with suggestions?

Some examples to get you thinking!

"I was just sitting here minding my own business . . ."

"Geez, I said I wanted peace and quiet but this is ridiculous!"

"My mother always told me I would end up making a public display of myself."

Something that was sent to me

I simply love some of the things that have been sent to me over time. I wonder if this was intended as a form of criticism? 

Hungary unveils human vaccine against Avian Flu - More on this breaking story

Indiadaily.com - Hungary unveils human vaccine against Avian Flu: "Hungary unveils human vaccine against Avian Flu
Purna Sen
Oct. 21, 2005

It may be an early breakthrough again coming bird flu catastrophe.

Hungary's vaccine against the H5N1 strain of avian flu is effective for humans, Hungarian Health Commissioner Mihaly Kokeny said Oct. 21. Hungary initially will manufacture 3.5 million doses of the vaccine to supply the Hungarian population, later producing more for export. Hungarian Health Minister Jeno Racz said the vaccine can be altered within eight weeks if the virus were to mutate, and the rights to the vaccine are shared by the Hungarian government and vaccine company Omnivest Kft. Omnivest can currently produce up to 500,000 doses a week."

Hungary Invents New Bird Flu Vaccine

All Headline News - Hungary Invents New Bird Flue Vaccine - October 23, 2005: "Hungary Invents New Bird Flue Vaccine

October 22, 2005 11:59 p.m. EST

Niladri Sekhar Nath - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent

Budapest, Hungary (AHN) – A Hungarian vaccine against the deadly bird strain of bird flue proves to be effective, reports Reuters.

Hungary’s health minister Jeno Racz says that the final results from tests have shown its effectiveness.

“Now it’s definitely proved that the vaccine is 100 percent effective on humans,” Reuters quoted Racz as saying."

Pete's Points:

Has anyone checked this out? It's a bit of a worry when they can't even spell FLU!

If it's true then why is everyone buying TAMIFLU which is helpful but NOT a cure against this form of flu?

OptusNet News

OptusNet News: "Blood test could detect rare cancer
6:04 PM October 21

A rare form of cancer could soon be detected with a simple blood test, after a key discovery by Western Australian researchers.

Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas are an extremely aggressive form of cancer and difficult to diagnose.

Scientists have identified a gene, usually found in the skin, which exists in the cancerous blood cells at extremely high levels.

That means such tumours could be detected much earlier and eventually a cure could be developed.

Professor Lawrence Abraham says while in the short-term the discovery will lead to earlier diagnosis, it is hoped a cure will follow.

'If we can understand what the gene product does and we can design drugs that moderate or stop that activity, then we may have a cure for this particular tumour,' he said.

Professor Abraham says the next step is identifying what the gene actually does.

'Because these T-cell lymphomas are so hard to treat and so hard to diagnose, our discovery impacts on both of those,' he said.

'The most immediate benefit is going to be diagnosis.'
Source: ABC"

If pigs had wings . . .

Jo Revill and Anushka Asthana
Sunday October 23, 2005
The Observer

China will shut its borders if there is a single case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in the country, its deputy health minister has said.

Pete's Points:

I am a believer in the the ability of governments to do virtually anything provided the motivation is high enough however THIS is ridiculous!

Is there anyone out there who could actually believe that in the event of a bird flu panic, "closing the border" would be effective?

Making money on the side

How to make home a powerhouse

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday October 23, 2005
The Observer

Monthly bills for hot water, central heating and lighting no longer trouble Geoff Welton and his wife Judith since they installed a wind generator on their smallholding.

In fact, they have been making money. 'We have generated more than 7,000 kilowatt hours of power, but used only 2,500 hours - even though we have electric central heating and electric cookers,' says Mr Welton. 'We have sold the rest to the power company.'

Pete's Points:

I am of the view that if various government levels decided to purchase and deploy power generation of this kind for their own operations then the cost of the equipment would tend to fall and thus most of us could start to afford it for our own homes then, as a country we could perhaps reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and create the sustainable environment that we all want to live in. If we cannot use our abundant sunshine, wind and tidal power in this country then who can?

An interesting discussion about IT

The Management Issues site states:

By 2011 at least three-quarters of IT organisations will have changed their role, one in 10 will cease to exist and a similar proportion will be reduced to commodity status, industry experts have predicted.

According to IT analysts Gartner, the maturing of traditional technology applications, the growing role of outsourcing and the greater penetration of technology into all aspects of business will all drive radical change in the IT sector.

"A new organisation type is emerging - one that will take the lead on information and process," said John Mahoney, chief of research for IT Services & Management at Gartner.

"While it will grow from an IT base, the primary focus of the new organisation will be business transformation and strategic assets of information and process. When mature, it may no longer be identified as an IT organisation."

As technology becomes more pervasive and more critical to the routine operations and strategic goals of most business, its contribution will come under greater scrutiny, whether it produces good results or bad. Businesses that master technology will recognise that success, but those that fail will blame technology accordingly.

By 2011, IT contribution will be cited in the top three success factors by at least half of the top performing businesses

As a result, Gartner analysts predict that by 2011, IT contribution will be cited in the top three success factors by at least half of the top performing businesses, while IT barriers will be cited in the top three failure factors by at least half of the lowest performers.

This trend will have a major influence on the role and organisation of IT and on IT leaders.

Gartner predicts that IT organisations in 2011 will have 20 per cent less people, 40 per cent less in-house technology roles and double the number of information, process and business roles compared to 2005.

This change will go hand-in-hand with the changing nature of IT leadership which will see the strategic leadership role will split into business technology and business network leaders.

IT could also be embedded in business as a pervasive commodity that is managed by business executives as part of their regular roles, Gartner argues. In this case, IT would typically be sourced as part of a broader business process.

"There remains controversy about the extent to which IT can, should or will take and be trusted with leadership of business processes and information," John Mahoney said.

"In some cases, those roles will arise from outside the IT organisation and the entity will then be obliged to absorb many of the strategic and architectural roles formerly played by the IT organisation."

However, the evolution is not all in one direction. Some businesses are even starting to disband their IT organisations and to embed IT throughout the business. This approach could cause a disruptive backlash among some business leaders who may resist the rise of process and information architectures.

What IT delivers in the future will also be tangibly different than what was delivered in the past. Simply improving the productivity of administrative processes will remain important and necessary, but will no longer be sufficient on its own.

"In order to energise IT management to deal with the new challenges to deliver rapid results, it needs a vision that says, 'We are going to be delivering a different type of information technology in the future which is about supporting the decision makers in the organisation with non-routine, cognitive work," said Andy Kyte, Gartner's research vice president.

"IT professionals that remain fixated on the data and transaction paradigm will be relegated to a minor role in business support."

The IT industry is no longer arranged into specific categories, he added, and is being redefined to a level that has not been seen before.

"Whatever the outcome, IT executives must identify and monitor the key external trends that will affect business technology in their enterprises," John Mahoney said.

Andy Kyte, meanwhile, said that tomorrow's IT managers need to focus on three basic objectives: Eliminate, Consolidate and Focus.

"Deliver rapid results by eliminating clutter," he said.

"Consolidate and simplify your infrastructure and applications, and focus on the one project that can make a real difference to the business. That will make business leaders sit up, take notice and understand that IT really is delivering value."

Pete's Points:

Phew! That is quite a mouthful!

Let's look at some of the predictions:

"20% less people and 40% less in house technology." A nice idea especially when most of the people in the current work force are heading towards retirement and when the whole notion of outsourcing services is one that is on the up and up these days.

However SOMEONE will have to develop the systems that are being used and SOMEONE will have to maintain them. Regardless of where this will be people will need to be employed to make it all happen.

What is even more interesting to speculate about is whether the current outsourcing trends will remain viable? For example how many of us have had the joyous experience of dialing in to a service centre and having to spend at least ten minutes of our time pushing phone keys to connect with that part of the service we are looking for? How many of us have then had the next level of frustration in connecting with a disembodied voice that tells us that the centre is busy and our problem will be added to a queue and that it will be attended to at the earliest opportunity - oh and by the way the current delay is X-y minutes.

How many of us have then finally waited for the set time and reach someone who is not actually in the country, but somewhere else in the world, can not understand what it is that we are asking for or gives us an answer which is NOT helpful or says they have no idea and will have to ask someone and then BEFORE we can say DO NOT PUT ME ON HOLD we hear music that is supposed to be soothing and settle in for another long wait?

The reality for me is that whenever organisations grow too large they may well become economically more viable but their service delivery and customer service go to pot. At this time some other organisation comes along that offers us high tech with high touch and manages to win our custom.

If Gartner is right then the organisations may well benefit but as consumers will we?

Anyone for early retirement?

Early retirement can actually shorten one's life, according to new research published in the British Medical Journal.

A 26-year study of more than 3,500 former employees of Shell in Texas has found that men and women who retired at 55 were nearly twice as likely to die within the following 10 years as those who retired at 60 or 65.

The research by Shan Tsai of Shell Health Services in Houston, explodes the myth that early retirement leads to a longer life expectancy.

"Although some workers retired at 55 because of failing health, these results clearly show that early retirement is not associated with increased survival," Tsai said in the study.

"On the contrary, mortality improved with increasing age at retirement for people from both high and low socio-economic groups."

Pete's Points:

If I was going to consider early retirement this would give me pause.

Or would it?

When you have been offered the 'joy' of either retiring and perhaps living for a further few years without work so that you can enjoy what time you have left when you have been diagnosed with a terminal disease would you seriously opt for work so that you can go out working in the trenches? Would you opt to enjoy what time you have left?

What would YOU do?

PS I REALLY want to hear from those among you who have either retired young or are about to do so!

Comments on BBC report from Pakistan

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Musharraf says aid 'inadequate': "Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf says the amount of foreign reconstruction aid pledged after the South Asia quake is 'totally inadequate'.

Gen Musharraf told the BBC that about $620m had been promised but that Pakistan needed about $5bn to rebuild devastated areas.

An estimated three million people in Pakistan lack adequate shelter."

Pete's Points:

What fascinates me about this story is how people seem to react to disasters. When the Tsunami disaster first struck everyone went out of their way to provide assistance and governments as well as individuals seemed to compete with each other for being the best 'givers'. The media issued story after story which seemed to want to shame people, organisations and countries into giving more and more.

This time I am seeing less of this form of endeavour. Rather I see the need being portrayed on our media but this time the portrayal is NOT accompanied by the same level of aggressive demand that was present at the last disaster.

Why is this so?

1. Has the increasing cost of fuel inhibited giving because we need more money just to pay our bills?
2. Have we simply given our 'share' for the financial year?
3. Do we care less about people in Kashmir than we do about our near neighbours in Indonesia?
4. Does the advertising by the Howard government in respect of both the IR and Anti Terrorist legislation make us so fearful for our own future that we want to hoard?

I don't know the answer but I do see the difference. I would welcome comments from others with their views.

Whatever next?

"China has asked the federal government if it can conduct uranium exploration and mining operations in Australia.

Confidential diplomatic cables obtained by The Age newspaper show the Chinese told Australian officials of their interest in uranium mining and exploration in Australia at a meeting in Beijing in February, Fairfax newspapers said.

The deputy director-general of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Wang Jun, had asked Australian officials: "Would Australia permit Chinese involvement?"

The director-general of the Australian Nuclear Safeguards Office, John Carlson, told Mr Wang there would be no restrictions at the federal level, but warned that state and territory governments - responsible for licensing mining and exploration - opposed further uranium mining and exploration." see http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=61801 for the full article

Pete's Points:

Say NO! Uranium is better buried in the ground and unrefined so that it cannot be turned either into nuclear weapons or into potential death traps in the way that the accident at Chernobyl signifies.

Two years down and time to move on

Two years down and time to move on: "Most workers in Britain stay in one job for less than two and-a-half years, with the average bill to employers of unwanted departures now hitting 600,000 a year.

According to a study by consultancy Reed Consulting, more than a third of employees now leave within their first year of employment and more than three quarters leave within three years.

The research highlights the growing phenomena of 'job shopping', where employees move frequently between roles and organisations before committing themselves long-term, it added.

The cost of this to business is greater than anticipated, even when excluding intangible costs such as loss of expertise, business relationships and the impact on morale, said Reed.

There are also significant differences between what employers believe are the key causes of turnover and the actual reasons that employees leave, it added.

Employers largely failed to take into account the importance of providing opportunities for development, focusing instead on salary and benefits, which they often believed to be the largest cause of attrition.

In fact development opportunities were rated more important than any other factor by employees when it came to what made them decide to change jobs.

The top three causes of attrition as identified by employees were lack of opportunities for personal and career development, issues with the working environment and, only then, salary and benefits.

Intriguingly, these factors were consistent across all industry sectors, although the average tenure rates varied, said Reed.

Employees from the utilities sector stayed with their organisation the shortest amount of time (on average one year ten months), while manufacturers had the highest tenure, at three years three months.

The size of an organisation also significantly affected job tenure.

Employees in organisations with more than 5,000 employees stayed on average 11 months longer than employees in the smallest organisations (fewer than 50 employees).

Laura Frith, managing director of Reed Consulting, said: 'With more than three quarters of employees leaving an organisation within three years and escalating costs associated with attrition, employee retention is one of the key issues for our profession to address.'

Author: Nic Paton"

Pete's Points:

I wonder how closely these findings in Britain accord with what is happening in Australia? In the Australian Public Service organisations have gone from a single wage and conditions structure across all Commonwealth Public Service departments and agencies to largely different arrangements based on either agency wide agreements or individual agreements. What this seems to have accomplished is to have different rates of pay, conditions of work for relatively the same level of classification and for very similar work types across agencies. What this has also managed to achieve is to increase the extent to which people move from agency to agency and position to position seeking to maximise their own well being with better conditions and/or rates of pay. Hardly surprising you note? True. But at what cost to the tax payer? Why should two different people both in receipt of income from the Australian Taxpayer, undertaking virtually the same kind of work get different conditions and different pay? What has it meant for the movement of expertise from one sector to another and what has it meant in recruitment and training costs for each agency and for the government and hence taxpayers as a whole. To what extent is this likely to be the forerunner of similar questions and situations under the new IR legislation that is proposed by the Commonwealth government?

I guess we will only know the answers when we have to pay for them.

Good Communications

Good Communications that Block Learning by Chris Argyris originally published in 1994, predicted the following:

“Twenty-First-Century corporations will find it hard to survive, let alone flourish, unless they get better work from their employees. This does not necessarily mean harder work or more work. What it does necessarily mean is employees, who've learned to take active responsibility for their own behaviour, develop and share first-rate information about their jobs, and make good use of genuine empowerment to shape lasting solutions to fundamental problems.”

Eleven years later, how is this panning out?

I have not seen a willingness by people to share information which could result in ‘lasting solutions to fundamental problems’. Indeed I have not seen information and knowledge sharing at all unless individuals are paid handsomely first for their contribution. Information and knowledge is something that is currently obtainable at a premium price and human nature being what it is, people will not give this away unless there is a degree of personal gain.

I have seen the advent of opportunistic exploitation of intellectual property with the development of companies whose entire business consists of ‘buying’ patents and then ‘leasing’ them to others. Cost cutting, with a view to maximising profits for investors and increasing exploitation of all forms of resources and increasing evidence of the consequences of policies of short term gains being favoured over longer term solutions.

I see people who are forced by the official destruction of collective bargaining opportunities through legislation or the lack of legislation to agree to terms and conditions of employment that are heading us back to an era that is redolent of the worst excesses of the early industrial revolution.

In recent years I have also seen the following:

1. a greater number of household in which both adults are required by economic circumstances to engage in the work force with consequences for the welfare and development of children;


2. an increase in the number of people who are classified as the ‘working poor’ where individuals work all day and are still classified as being in poverty;


3. a widening of the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’;


4. an increase in the price of basic goods that are essential for the maintenance of life;


5. an increase in the capability and willingness of organisations to make use of the cheap and plentiful labour forces that exist in China, India, South East Asia and the former East European countries;


6. an increase in the use of ‘risk management’ techniques in and by management rather than a more expensive form of regular maintenance, a policy with enormous consequences and costs when the risk is realised;

Argyris also suggested that:

“The new, but now familiar techniques of corporate communication-focus groups, surveys, management by- walking-around-can block organizational learning even as they help solve certain kinds of problems. These techniques do help gather simple, single-loop information. But they also promote defensive reasoning by encouraging employees to believe that their proper role is to criticize management while the proper role of management is to take action and fix whatever is wrong. Worse yet, they discourage double-loop learning, which is the process of asking questions not only about objective facts but also about the reasons and motives behind those facts. Double-loop learning encourages people to examine their own behaviour, take personal responsibility for their own action and inaction, and surface the kind of potentially threatening or embarrassing information that can produce real change.”

Have we seen changes in the methods of communication? Indeed we have. More and more use is being made of emails and less and less use is made of paper. Where organisations do not keep an accurate record of the communications in appropriate records management repositories the evidence of corporate or individual behaviour is as transient or non existent as the records which could provide some forms of accountability. The situation described by Argyris in 1994 may have changed in that communications have been ‘enhanced’ by electronic means, but the techniques which lead to single loop communications are still around and widely in use. Thus they are still counterproductive.

Will it change in the next ten years?

Let’s just hope that we are alive and there is a work force to participate in so that we can find out.

A Starter Kit for Business Ethics

A Starter Kit for Business Ethics: "A Starter Kit for Business Ethics

Corporate cheating won't be stopped by regulation or legislation. That's why whistle-blowing is everybody's job."

Pete's Points:

Ms Zuboff has a lot of interesting points to make about the difficulties of the individual trying to prevail against the might of large corporations. She notes and advises about collective action and of course exposing irregularities to the sunlight of discussion and public exposure.

One reality that has always been present in our world however is the measure of the risk to the individual and his or her family arising from such action.

In a few years time, we are told, there will be underemployment as baby boomers reach their old age and leave the work force. At present however there is no underemployment that appears to be visible. Thus the risk is high, equally there are people in other parts of the world where there is also a high level of unemployment and where costs are far lower than in more developed countries. With the advent of modern technology and a developing tradition of outsourcing the risks are higher then ever. On the other hand simply conniving with unethical practices is also likely to lead to a bad outcome.

This is really the moral dilemma of our time.

Favourite Links of interest to Social Workers

• WEB SITES OF INTEREST TO SWs
• International Social Work Discussions YOU can take part in
• Irish Social Work Association
• Canadian Association of Social Workers
• British Association of Social Workers
  
• National Association of Social Workers (USA)
• European Social Welfare Information Network
• Research Web
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation On Line
• Social Science Information Gateway

ISPs and Customer Service

People tell me all the time that the world is a small place. I know from experience that this is so as I am able to travel from one side of the world to another in the space of under 24 hours. However I find that it is also possible to spend around the same time waiting for a response from an ISP to a formal request for assistance and a considerable portion of that time waiting to actually speak to a REAL person - even if it is in a call centre somewhere in the world - with most of my time being told that my call is in a queue and that I will be answered as soon as possible or that my call is important to them and they will answer as soon as possible or my call is important to them and since they are busy could I please avail myself of their canned music while I wait. Recently however I also received a message to the effect that there were so many people complaining that they could not handle the calls and that as a result I would have to call back later. 24 hours later I called back to get the same message.

THIS is a service we are paying for?

I can tell you that when I finally managed to get on to someone after being told that the call was being monitored for 'quality control" I am afraid I apologised to the person coming on line and for the benefit of the recording I told the agency what I thought of their service and their recorded messages.

Geez, we actually have to pay for the privilege of being insulted these days!

Does Anyone Really Fall for This sign?

Where on earth can you find a sign like this and what does it MEAN?

Send your answers as a response to this BLOG and in due course we will select the most ambitious answer, the most ridiculous answer and even the correct answer.

I am BACK!

For those of you who have missed my seemingly daily musings on the Internet all I can say is "too bad, so sad" all of us have to take a holiday sometime and mine just take a little longer so that I can linger and savour the fact that I do NOT have to touch a key board for some time.

I have not as yet had the opportunity to catch up on the news except of course to report to you all that I had a really BAD time in France - especially at the lovely spot called Castillon le Battaile. Why this name? Well it is the place where the English suffered their final defeat in the 100 years war at the hands of the French. So when flying an Australian flag outside the camper van all people could do was to look at the portion that contained the union jack and laugh! That was the French.

The English visitors (and insultingly some of the Welsh!) would saunter over, grin a cheeky grin and tell us that the Australians were getting slaughtered in the cricket.

Not feeling very well disposed to these braggarts I am afraid that I suggested to them with a considerable degree of conviction in my voice and tone that the owner of the series had been having a really bad return on investment following 17 YEARS of defeat of the English by the Australians and so had decided to create some interest and regain some profitability by having the lads throw the match (for a bonus of course) so that he could make some more money!

None of this is true of course but at least those of the English fans who could see that I was flying an Australian and not a New Zealand flag got what they deserved! I mean fancy getting all hot and bothered about ONE win in 18 years AND at the spot where they lost the final battle of the 100 years war!