Category: Social Commentary

Being there


Cover of "Being There (Deluxe Edition)"
Being There

I had a meeting last Friday arvo from 3pm and when I got back to my desk at 4pm, I couldn’t believe what I saw on the screen – England had crumbled and had lost something like 6 wickets for 9 runs. After checking I had no urgent calls or emails to respond to, I quickly went to the tea room and joined a few other blokes who have been watching the game.

The day ended with Australia well on top so the unpleasant scenes of Australia’s first innings were well and truly erased.

As usual, I was very tired on Friday night and when we met up for dinner at the Enrik café with Jason and Mel, I was just happy to be in a busy but pleasant restaurant so close to home with Tress and some very dear friends. Dinner was very good and we just stayed on and chatted for a bit before leaving.

It was raining on Sat – the weekend forecast had been a wet one – so I couldn’t work on the garden. After the usual dry cleaning run, I said to Tress the wet morning would mean less congestion at the new fruit and veg market on Canterbury Road at Forest Hill (Strawberry Point) so we quickly went over and got our green grocery for the week, and then we drove to Mount Waverley and met Simon, Tress’ hairdresser. A hair cut had been long overdue for me and much as I was sure Simon had barely woken up when he worked on my mop top, I was glad I had it done.

After lunch (at Madam Kwong’s Kitchen of course) and a quick visit to a property auction, we (or I) spent the rest of the arvo just vegging out in front of the telly, watching the cricket. My right Achilles had caused me grief anyway so it was a perfect excuse to just spend a cool and wet Sat arvo doing nothing except watch Michael Clarke and David Warner chalk up satisfying tons.

The rain continued pouring on Sunday. There was an AGM after the service and Tress and I decided to stay for that meeting, to get a soak in of some of the issues the church had faced in the past year. It ended close to 2pm. We went to Madam Kwong’s Kitchen again after that and since it continued to pour, we just decided to go to a shopping place and walked around.

The service was a thanksgiving one and numerous people publicly gave thanks for a whole range of matters. A familiar pattern emerged very quickly – that of life’s many challenges. Often, these challenges require solutions. A way forward to resolve the matter at hand would always bring relief and pave a way towards a brighter future.

What’s become crystal clear however is that other than solution or a way forward, often those facing life’s challenges just need someone at their side. This person need not have any answers – just being there to provide support and perhaps add strength, clarity of mind to deal with the issues or challengers and the assurance that no matter what happens, there is someone who would be there for them. That someone would certainly help countervail any tendency to over-internalise the challenges one faces.

Facing challenges is probably another one of life’s certainty. In recent weeks, we have seen a cancer patient succeeding, heard about another patient failing, seen a young man battling depression, been with a couple who lost their first born infant child, and been touched by other departures of others who have spent considerably more years.

In all of these experiences, the presence of another as they navigate their paths in dealing with the challenges, has always been what’s deeply treasured. Being there for someone matters. Praying for someone is often a throwaway line used in such circumstances and prayers may or may not happen. The Lord may or may not intervene. But as members of the community we find ourselves in, being there for one who is faced with these challenges, is often what we can and ought to do. Sometimes, like Peter Sellers, “Being there” is what matters. I need to think about responding to this more meaningfully.

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Still Submitting?


The following entry was over 3 1/2 years ago, and I wonder what my friends and relatives in Malaysia feel now about not speaking out strongly against the Malaysian government today:

http://godsmustardseed.com/2007/09/05/submitting-to-authority/

The recent independent day celebrations in Malaysia have, as one may expect, stirred a number of publications into putting out pieces on challenges facing Malaysia today. I sent one of these (from The Economist) to a number of people and it generated a little heat. That has lead to the creation of a new blog for certain family members to further talk about this and other issues. It also lead to the discussion of that age-old issue of what do we do with a government we don’t agree with?

This latter issue was raised in conjunction with obedience to Romans 13. That chapter started with a call to submit to the authority of the existing government. Of course, in a modern democracy, you fight like crazy to have your preferred candidate making the laws and no matter what the outcome of your fight, you have to remain law abiding citizens. That is an obvious starting point. Our natural instinct tells us however, that it is a relative and malleable principle. It doesn’t take much to respond, at the very next breath, with a yes-but. The holocaust jumps out in a flash in a topic like this. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, modern Serbia, Rwanda and most recently, Zimbabwe are regimes which scream out against an unqualified plain reading of Roman 13.

The problem with qualifying any part of the scriptures is it invites analyses and second guessing, based on our values which are subjective by definition. When that happens it becomes a free for all and you might as well throw away the bible. On the other hand, you have references such as Acts 5:29 in which Peter clearly qualifies Romans 13. Is that the answer then? I guess it must be. You can and must only submit to the authority of a government which has not clearly violated God’s standards. Peter himself has echoed Paul’s advice – see 1 Peter 2:17. Yet Peter in Acts 5:29 clearly said obedience to God must take precedence.

 I have made numerous entries on my feelings on the deeds (or more accurately, misdeeds) of the rulers of Malaysia. I don’t know they are clear violations against God’s laws – I suspect so but have not clearly pinned it down. I have not openly rebelled against any particular law of Malaysia. I have merely spoken up against many of its policies and practices. I guess instead of staying and chancing deterioration and prospects of actually violating Romans 13, I opted instead to avoid the issue. I simply thought it wasn’t worth it. Maybe it isn’t the issue of not being law abiding citizens so much as an issue of opting out of an unsatisfactory regime

 

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If Will Steffen is right, will $100 a tonne cut it?


Will Steffen heads up the Climate Commission. He – the Commission – has issued a report demanding urgent action to deal with the human caused climate change. Or else – sea level would rise and we’d all have to live like Kevin Costner in water world.

Julia Gillard has pointed to the report and sort of said – I told you so. But if that were the case, and given the urgency to bring emission down straight away or else, the carbon price she touted – $20 a tonne – would be like introducing Norhafiz Zamani into the Birmingham City attack to solve the Blues’ woes in front of goal. It would be toothless, a complete waste of time and may well be counter-productive. [I confess I have just only googled the current Malaysian football team striker. I also confess this is the first time in God knows how long I took an interest in NEP infected football in Malaysia]

To be responding to Will Steffen’s Climate Commission doomsday report, the carbon tax should be so prohibitive – say $100 a tonne just like the Greens said – to be of any effect unless of course, Julia is lying again.

If Julia Gillard could not be trusted and lied in saying there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads, why would we trust her to keep carbon tax to $20 a tonne, especially if she endorses the Will Steffen Climate Commission – we must act now or perish – report? The Greens are looking at a minimum of $100 per tonne and they will want to include petrol in their target. If Will Steffen and his Climate Commission report is to be taken seriously that is the bare minimum step. But that would send most of us back to the caves, wouldn’t it?

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Is Perkasa the Malaysian Monty Python in disguise?


Is Perkasa the Malaysian Monty Python in disguise? Maybe Malaysians have been missing the point all along. Maybe the bigotry of race and religion is really like the dead parrot and Perkasa is nothing but the Palin styled pet shop owner. Certainly the way Perkasa geniuses respond to issues and statements has been very Pythonesque,  Can someone please tell the likes of Syed Hassan Syed Ali and Ibrahim Ali – why are they all Ali’s – that racism and bigotry should be dead. Expired. Ceased to be. It was a Norwegian Blue Parrot to start with, or the Arctic Grey one. It should be creatures which exists only in the world of Monty Python. Perhaps is we just picture the likes of Ibrahim Ali as a lumberjack singing the Lumberjack Song we can all have a laugh instead, except this circus isn’t merely poking fun for a laugh, it is spoiling for a fight. The audience is perhaps more likely to walk out than remembering lines and laughing along.

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3AW – Talking Melbourne (but Reporting to Sydney?)


One of my favourite radio stations is 3AW. I know that tends to betray my age. I was on a site visit a few weeks ago with a colleague, who frowned on 3AW when I turned on the car radio. He is of course, a younger man so I acknowledged the folly of my age and switched to a more mod station – some FM rock rumblings (like Triple M) to rob the journey off its peace and serenity.

The only other talk radio offering here in Melbourne is MTR, a recent venture spearheaded by Steve Price, once a program director of 3AW and who was responsible in bringing Ross Stevenson (of the Ross and John Breakfast Show fame – oh what blazingly quick with) to 3AW.  MTR is part owned by Macquarie Radio Network, which also owns 2GB, a station I used to listen to when I was a student in Sydney and first learned to like talk radio. It was the likes of John Laws and Mike Carlton who ruled the airwaves then, both on 2GB. I believe Laws moved to 2UE later, but I’m not sure. Or maybe it was Alan Jones I was listening to on 2UE.

Anyway, there was a smallish news article this morning about Fairfax Media Ltd (owners of 3AW) commissioning KPMG to look into the possibility of selling 3AW, and one of the interested buyers is Macquarie Radio. I guess the ACCC would have a say in this transaction.

3AW is an institution in Melbourne. I have been listening to it since the day I arrived in Melbourne and other than the occasional foray into ABC Classical music or Light FM stuff 3AW has the main chunk of airtime in my home and car. I’d have Ross and John on weekdays and Darren on weekends (Buy, Swap or Sell – or something like that – and the gardening show with a lady whose name I forget). When I have the day off, I’d have Neil Mitchell on too. Darren Hinch is in the kitchen on most evenings as well.

As an institution, 3AW has a place like no other media platform. It has probably the most captive audiences across all forms of media. I believe whatever residual market there is after 3AW, falls onto MTR’s plate.

If Macquarie Radio succeeds in acquiring 3AW, not only would it provide the company with control over the only 2 talk radio stations in Melbourne, it would also provide a Sydney-centric company with direct control over Melbourne’s most iconic media hub. I mean – take a look at the Board of Macquarie Radio. It is filled with the establishment of Sydney’s financial and advertising personalities. Guys like Mark Carnegie (of Carnegie, Wylie and Company the investment bank), Steve Chapman (Founder Chair of Baron Partners, another investment bank), Max Donnelly (of Ferrier Hodgson) and Richard Freemantle (Mr Cisco system) as well as personalities like Maureen Plavsic, an ex Channel Seven advertising powerhouse. How does a Melbourne institution like 3AW contemplate being controlled by this mob?

Not that it matters to me as a relatively new Melbournian who grew up on 2GB – but surely the rest of Melbourne wouldn’t like this and isn’t Grant Samuel from Melbourne?

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Man Changed, God Hasnt


Some interesting thoughts from the Business Spectator offshoot, Technology Spectator website:

  1. The world is becoming more crowded, older and lonelier. The crowding will mainly be in sub-Saharan Africa (contributing 20% or population growth) and China and the Sub-Continent (contributing 50%).
  2. China has more than 20% of world population but less than 2% of world oil. Oil will continue to be more expensive as will most other stuff. The world will have to cope with living with less.
  3. Mobile technology and communication is the moving force for the world today. This changes traditional allocation of roles such as between producers and consumers and between the collective formal structure and individuals. Mobile communication machines such as smart phones will outsell PCs by next year.
  4. Technological and knowledge developments have been expansive and pervasive, and costs of manufacturing machines which connect technology, people and data in smarter and more sophisticated ways are facilitating a connection (connectedness) and exchange which make learning and adapting a rapid process.
  5. The world economy is being driven by a different engine now. China, India, Russia and Brazil have become the dominant and dynamic forces and the bulk of world money, trade, and production will move towards these countries.

On one level, this looks like a very ripe harvest where evangelism is concerned. This however is only from the perspective of demographics and infrastructure. The soft side – how and whether these developments and changes have any impact or effect on the human perception of his need for God – would probably not change very much.

I wonder if the unbelievable rate of change we have seen in recent years have taken man nearer or further from a sense of their need for God. I mean, the bulk of the stuff we use regularly today, was probably non-existent not too long ago. In my back pack to and from work every day, the umbrella, lunch box and security tag to my office building are probably stuff familiar to someone in say, the year 2000. Maybe my car keys as well.

But those are items I don’t use very much. The umbrella has been used more often this week but other than that it is seldom touched. The lunch box is opened and sandwich fished and that was it. The box is not even looked at till I got home. The security tag and car keys, ditto – only the start and end of the working day.

The remainder 2 items in my back pack used many times throughout the day are: the phone and the computer. 10 years ago, my Treo 280 was state of the art but it has probably just a fraction of the functions and capacity of the iPhone today. I now use my iPhone 20-30 times a day. Other than calls and text messages, I use it for web browsing (several times a day) emailing (every hour or so) book reading (15-20 minutes to and from work), weather checking (2-3 times a day), scheduling (2-3 times a day), listening to radio and music (15-20 minutes to and from work). I use the other item – an iPad – very much in the same way, except when I need to do some additional work such as make notes on my readings or write an email longer than a sentence or two or work on an essay or stuff like that. All of these activities are probably alien to someone (in the way they are carried out) commuting to and from work on the public transport system in the year 2000.

Back then, the external factors are different too. George W Bush was a first term President in a world contemplating energy challenges and peak oil was an emerging concern. Clinton had sealed some important victories in Eastern Europe and pushed middle-east peace process in a promising direction. China was an energetic adolescent fast becoming a virile young man and seeking to rule the roost. John Howard was also riding high and fast becoming quite a figure in world political leadership. With the dotcom bust dust settled, emerging technology entities like Google are promising a second nirvana. Exotic new financial instruments like ABSs and CDOs were starting to promise the rainbow’s end and were making home ownership every American’s dream come true.

I don’t know – can’t recall – what other external factors were there making and shaping thoughts and aspirations then but 10 or so years hence I’m not sure if any or all of these changes have made any difference in man’s perception of his need for God.  If anything, I get a sense that we are nearer than ever to a Babel incident and man seems to think we’re doing ok and we’ll plot our own route and end, without any regard for our Creator.

We ought to engage the world – especially the youth – at a level which is more intense and robust as it has ever been. In many ways, new channels and new methods have come up for the gospel to be communicated in new, refreshing and more effective ways than ever before. The platform to present a cogent, orthodox and biblically true gospel is there and we need to provide the content and widen the reach in these media.  The immutability of God – He is the same yesterday, today and forever – should mean the modern mobile man can come to know the God incarnate of first century Palestine and who remains the God who loves just as much today.  

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Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan – Opinion – Al Jazeera English


Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.

What good old school tie power yields…

Sony Web Attack – Apple Safe?


The web attack on Sony’s online gaming site and theft of customer data of millions of online gamers, was worrying only in the sense that it is raising the question of whether Apple would also be susceptible.  

I would not be surprised if someone tells me that iTunes accounts are many times that of Sony online gaming accounts. What if iTunes were to be similarly attacked and iTunes customer data were also stolen? Has there been any Apple statement saying theirs is a different system and therefore would not be open to Sony styled attacks?

If I cancelled my iTunes account, would my data continue to be held? Chances are it would. Does that mean the only way I could safeguard myself is to cancel my credit card registered with iTunes?

But would that mean my Apple TV would not work? Or that I would not be able to synchronise my iPhone with my laptop?

Just less than 10 years ago, I could lose my wallet, cancel my credit card and still enjoy my CD collection or go home and watch TV without any concerns.

10 years hence, Palm Treo irretrievably discarded and iPhone firmly in hand, my credit card is tied up with my music collection database and access to internet TV.

Who could have foreseen the comingling of financial services and entertainment like so? For someone of my vintage, it is a very different world we live in, to that which we grew up in. Maybe retro is the way to go. Now where’s my Discman and my Motorola Microtac?

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Poll re Carbon Tax


I was having a breather from some work and saw a news article saying most Aussies dont like the carbon tax. Ho hum? Maybe, but the latest Newspoll survey on whether Australians are in favour of the carbon tax conducted by The Australian has this result:

Against: 60%

In favour: 30%

Uncommitted: 10%

Of those who were against the tax, 39% were strongly against.

Of those who were in favour, 12% were strongly so.

Maybe another poll or two should make us all demand another trip to the polling booth?

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Apple – Bread Lode


Apple is juicy – loads of moolah. It has a cash reserve of USD66billion. That is half of what Google is worth as a whole – the enterprise value, in fact. It is also more than the entire combined market cap of Nokia, RIM (Blackberry) and Motorola Mobility. It is also larger than any hedge fund in the world.  Technically with that kind of cash reserves, Apple could stop selling tomorrow and run for the next 7 years. So really, why not just give out free iPad 2 to some poor students especially in some third world countries? If it uses just a fraction of that reserve for charity, it would have Bill Gates’ charity foundation pale into comparison. You’ve got to love Apple.

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