Tag: Australia

Post and Pre


Kiddo has wanted to do a course at the ANU called the PhB. Philosophy Bachelor is like a junior PhD program and she wants to do it with an eye on an academic career of sorts.

Earlier this morning she found out that someone has received an early offer via email. The usual offers are made mid Jan – 18th in this case – but apparently the PhB program works differently to other courses in ANU.

I sincerely hope she is provided with the option to do this course. It would surely make her very happy.

Sometimes serendipity takes its course and what someone ends up doing with his life really is for the better and what he thought he had missed out on was really for a good reason. Many Christians would say it is providence or special favour and I have no doubt God is in control but it happens to all sorts of people so I guess it is perfectly ok to view the phenomenon as simply a fact of life. One only has to work and do the best he can.

Personally, I would have loved for her to do a course in Melbourne – possibly in Monash University – and continue to live at home with us. I know however that she wants this ANU program. I just hope she either gets an offer eventually. I don’t deal with setbacks too well it pains me to think she might also have to travel the same path. I hope she never has to experience the pain of such setbacks.

Many would not see the alternative of doing a course in Monash University as a setback, especially a BA/LLB. Many have worked hard but missed out on this opportunity. There are some amongst her peers however, who have created a de facto elitist environment which views a Monash University law course as something for the masses. The bourgeoisie of the ANU PhB mob can be negative that way.

It is my sincere hope that if she does end up doing the PhB course in ANU, it would not drag her down that path. I hope she gets the course but even more, I hope she would maintain or acquire a sense of equanimity about it all and be happy and grateful to be given an opportunity to pursue the career she wants and not wear any sense of superiority for opting for and travelling that path.

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ANZ Rewards Card


If you have an ANZ Rewards Card, make sure you don’t get slugged with the $42 annual rewards program fee. Check your statement and if they charged you, ring them up and get them to waive it. I did, but I was prepared to just cancel the card if they didn’t so I guess you have to be ready for that if they don’t budge.

I get annoyed with big corporations like that, who try to sneak in little bits of fees and see if they can get away with it. I don’t know if they deliberately target unsuspecting customers who don’t check up on details and blissfully pay unnecessary charges and fees. I am guilty of that sometimes – paying unnecessarily – but given the vulgarity of senior banking executive remuneration, paying banks fees which are totally unnecessary and unjustifiable has become a lot less unpalatable. Even revolting.

So if you are an ANZ Bank customer, and hold an ANZ Rewards Card, make sure you don’t get slugged unnecessarily. It’s only a 5 -10 minute phone call to get rid of this and save yourself $42.

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Bali Boy Family Cash Grab – What’s Wrong With That?


Family of Bali boy in quick cash grab – headlines to that effect in an online news portal seem to suggest it was a reprehensible act. Somehow, the opportunistic conduct of the family of the teenager arrested for buying drugs in Bali, was thought to be something many would tut-tut about.

It looks like no matter how much the society worships money, it still frowns on conduct which is self serving and opportunistic, especially when the community has backed the family up in providing moral support to the teenager and his family.

I must confess to being apprehensive about this family’s values and conduct. I have been guilty of thinking the parents must have in one way or another been involved in drugs themselves and that the conduct of the 14 year old probably reflects what has been going on in that household. That’s a prejudice one easily slips into, much as I dont want to find any excuse for my thoughts. I’m sure I’m not alone and many would try to rally to this young person’s cause and try and have this boy come home soon, to be spared of the emotional and mental trauma that he must have been going through.

So why then does the news headline imply impudence and invites sneers and even condemnation?

I suspect it is the apparent selfishness of the act – the abandonment of communal values as a price for self advancement and self improvement. Apparent apathy for how that conduct would sit with community expectation is probably what irks many. The world may turn its back on the cross and the selfless interest it represents, but it still wants behaviour which is sacrificial for the sake of upholding common values. I thought that was interesting.

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This was how it used to be


It’s November but it’s still single digit temperature in the morning and I’m still pulling on a jumper. Some old timers tell me this was the Melbourne they knew before. I spend a lot more time with old timers these days so I have had reasonable sampling sizes when I gauge how old timers feel.

Maybe that’s part of my current problems, few as they may be. In my office on a day like today when the population size increases by 33.3%, the average age is on the wrong side of 50’s. On days when there are just 3 this piece of statistic inches ever more to the wrong side and has a closer look-in on 60. I shudder to think what happens when we take into account the other occupants of this building. It wouldn’t do any harm to my sense that I spend a lot of time with old timers these days.  And they all tell me this was what the old Melbourne was like – cool Spring mornings, even in November.

It’s not just the cool mornings – it’s also the wet. It has been raining, in an almost English sense of the word i.e., the rain never truly stops but it doesn’t bucket down like a tropical torrential downpour either.

So November notwithstanding, summer-like conditions are still only a promise. A bit like the here-but-not-yet eschatological kingdom thingy.

I’ve been in this NFP role for 4 months now. My work is a mish-mash of activities. I go through all in-coming mail, check on rental, mortgage, farmstocks and loans programs on the revenue side and distributions and donations on the disbursements side as well as miscellaneous building and tenancy matters. I also have some legal stuff thrown in, although for the most part it was tax stuff and my contribution was muted at best. The Treasury came up with an “in-Australia” raft of amendments to the tax laws concerning charitable tax exempt status, to which organisations like us made annoyed (and worried) submissions. Then there was the new consumer credit licensing laws which we needed to look to, and which incidentally I had to front up to the Board  tonight to discuss a paper I put up recently. These legal stuff sort of made work a little bit more interesting but professional work satisfaction has long taken a remote back seat. I still get tickled into dipping my toes into possible legal work every now and then but it is still a remote back seat.

What my present work has done is to somehow, show up some sides of faith based organisations which tend to confirm some old prejudices. Maybe it is actually an Australian thing or maybe it is just the circle I have been moving in, but lately, I get this feeling that those who work in Christian organisations somehow are more relaxed and less intense in their day-to-day work activities. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we’re old just older and wiser and react less to day-to-day situations and take things more in stride. While this doesn’t explain the frequent absences and travels I notice it sort of show work is taken less seriously and people just want to spend more time on people – family especially – and activities they enjoy.

Maybe I’m getting to know a Melbourne that used to be, just like cool November mornings.

 

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Is Mutuality Unreasonable?


I recently had a conversation which reminded me how challenging life can be for anyone starting out on a new phase in his journey. A new migrant was relating to me how one of his children miss their previous home, and how that child misses the parents’ stations in society. I offered some words of comfort and encouragement but I suspect what was much more needed was simply a listening ear.

Being present, being available was almost as useful if not more useful, than any practical advice I may have had to offer.

This morning we had an in-house sermon from a leader, who gave a warm, touching and challenging message. I believe the message spoke to many hearts and the experience of being in the congregation among whom the message clearly resonated, was palpable although obviously intangible. If only more members were present to listen not just audibly but also with the heart.

Being present amongst the congregation in that sense, was priceless.

I have been brought up to be present in church at every Sunday. In my past life I often missed church on Sunday when I travelled for work, or I was simply too engrossed with the things of this world to think about being there as a member of the community of faith. That was something I regretted badly and while I love to use my Sundays to enjoy the many things this beautiful country has to offer, my upbringing sees me in church on almost every Sunday, safe for the once or twice a year when we are away for one reason or another, usually because we are out of town during a holiday season.

It feels great when I turn up on Sunday morning and see many faces – familiar as well as new ones – being in church. Being present in itself, can be an encouragement to others. It can build others up. I feel deflated when I notice many not there. I tell myself I am in church to worship God but I am also there as a member of the community of faith, which doesnt quite work if we all dont have a mutual commitment to each other as members of that community, that it will be our priority to be there.

In this busy and stressful world we live in, there will always be good reasons to take time off to de-stress and re-charge. If we cant do that however, by coming to the Lord and leave our cares with Him and wait on Him for our souls to be refreshed and revived, we are shortchanging ourselves. If we cant be encouraged by others’ presence and mutual commitment to the body, there is work to be done in refining our understanding and commitment to this body.

Sometimes we absolutely need to be away. Sometimes in a place like Australia when summer sees a lot of people travelling, perhaps on a de facto basis that commitment becomes released and the expectations may then have to be recalibrated. Maybe I am old schooled but I would have thought that is perhaps the only time we can safely be away and where our mutual commitments and obligations to the body may be parked aside, because our presence is no longer expected, where we can expect our fellow sojourners can be refreshed and revived in their travels also.

Maybe I need to calibrate my old schooled expectations to take into account the dynamism and subjectivity of each person or families’ circumstances. Maybe the body of Christ as a whole also need to calibrate that expectation as given the countless permutations of perceptions of what is important and what is beneficial in each person or family’s lives, there can no longer be the expectation that we will all be there on Sunday to renew our relationships and covenants with each other.

Maybe that mutuality is no longer reasonable.

School Year-End Horsing Around


There was a young bloke on radio this morning. His name was Nick Langford. He’s the school captain of Melbourne Grammar, and on muck-up day he rode a horse to school and “parked” it on the school oval. Apparently that was one of 3 entitlements a school captain of Melbourne Grammar has. The other 2 were to grow a beard and bring the wife to a school function. I guess a school which screams establishment continues to frown on facial hair generally but even with this exemption he could not grow a decent one within a short period of time, and it must have been a very old rule to have a married high school student.

So Nick Langford exercised the only right he could and rode a horse to school. He had someone bring a horse down from Bendigo, spoke to the deputy principal and executed his triumphal entry.

Yeah – it’s that time of the year again, when school finishes up and kids celebrate. Last night Tress and I were at Kiddo’s Valedictory Night for the MacRob Class of 2011. It was at the San Remo Ballroom in Carlton North. Nicholson Street is a nightmare on most occasions and last night was no different. The usual administrative genius of MacRob school meant a venue was chosen for a function which started at 5pm, right in the middle of peak hour traffic, where public transport was limited (just the Tram No. 96) and car park were either 1 or 2 hour spots. I zipped in and out of adjoining streets and corners and finally found a 4 hour slot, and got in with about 5 minutes to spare. It all finished close to 9pm and by the time I got home I was too bushed (I had gone to work at 7am that morning to make up for an early finish) and could barely read half a page for my exam preps before deciding to just have a glass of red and go to sleep, before waking up to news of Nick Langford’s exploits.

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Preference on the basis of race and ethnicity


For a long time now, Tress and I have looked at the overwhelming Asian representation in selective schools and wondered if this is something we ought to be thinking about. Kiddo goes to MacRobertson Girls’ High and that school has an overwhelming Asian population. They aren’t all new migrants necessarily although I would not be surprised if migrants make up a large subset.

The issue we were concerned about however, was more with whether Asian parents were shortchanging their kids in other areas other than academic concerns. No doubt academic achievements form the bulwark for university selection panels and job recruiters, especially if one tracks down the skilled professional path to earn a living. I guess that is all this phenomenon shows – that Asian and migrant families are more concerned about arming their kids with the wherewithals to earn a decent living. That is a positive trait surely and instead of being ashamed or apologetic about it, we really should hope that everyone comes along for the ride.

I would be heaps happier if MacRob has heaps more non-Asians because to me that would mean Australia would be even better equipped to compete with the world in areas which matter. The sports and arts may suffer – we may have less olympic medalists or Oscar winners from Australia – but those are from an elite group of performers anyway, who would always be more likely to achieve greatness in their chosen fields, regardless of any traits (or lack of) in the system.

With kiddo we dont have too many concerns about her interaction with non-Asians. Some parents worry about that – also driven by concerns about earning a living – wondering if they will be able to interact with the larger (white dominated) population at work later. Her chosen subjects (all arts and humanities stuff) have meant her friends are mainly white but even if they were Asians, it would not have troubled me too much. It is the system – she is in an Australian government school where the culture and ethnic backgrounds of kids are secondary. Achievements – albeit narrowly defined – are the only things that matter.

Therein I think, lies the important principle. We should like something, or frown on it, not for reasons of race or ethnicity, but the virtue or harm or threat of that something. Preferring or avoiding a practice, trait or value purely on the basis that it is associated with a race or ethnicity, is fundamentally wrong. That is the thin edge of the wedge of segregation and we must avoid it like a plague. Especially in a church.

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Birds at the G


“C Gulls – 0″ sometimes flash across the screen at the MCG, when occasionally, a seagull gets hit by a cricket ball. Out for nought.

Sea Gull have always been a problem at the G. For the AFL Grand Final this year a couple of wedge tailed eagles would be perched at strategic positions. Apparently they’d work to clear the G off seagulls.

I hope that G would not be bereft of magnificent birds of prey on Grand Final day though – let’s hope the Hawthorn beat Collingwood tonight and ensure the Hawks dominate on Grand Final day. Tough ask but who knows…

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Gillard and Najib Again


Did I say Julia Gillard is looking more like Najib Razak everyday? Here’s another example.

The Rural Development Fund of Australia has been funneled overwhelmingly to Labor constituencies. Over 70% of the $200million kitty has gone to Labor areas. Pork barreling is no strange deed in politics I guess and the Howard Government was also know to have done this, but I guess, this thread of parallels between these two governments are all too appalling clear to me.

Somehow I find myself switching off anything with Julia Gillard on. This morning in the gym, I was watching the Today Show on the treadmill as always, and the PM was on for almost 10 minutes. I had to switch to Seven’s Sunrise, much to my chagrin, that entire slot. I kept switching back to Nine’s Today and the PM was going on and on without giving any clear or honest answers.

I think her attempts to pin the asylum seeker farce on the Coalition is just shameless. It was all Rudd’s doing and in this matter, quite frankly the Coalition just cannot be faulted. Scott Morrison has been doing a terrific job and he has been the only politician from either side to point out the appalling record by Malaysian bodies such as RELA and the police, in their treatment of asylum seekers.

Although I haven’t lived in Australia all that long, I have lived through the Prime Ministerships of Bob Hawke, John Howard, Kevin Rudd and the current one. This current one is by far the worst I have seen. Get rid of her already.

 

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Gillard and Media Inquiry – More like Malaysia Everyday


Gillard looks more like Najib Razak every day

Step by step, the Gillard Government is becoming more and more like the UMNO Government in Malaysia. The issue now is control over media. Never mind what Senator Conroy said the inquiry is about – it is about shutting down criticism over the Gillard Government.

See this interview with Bob Brown, PM of Australia – at least he can be credited with honesty in this case. He said it is about controlling the Murdoch Press.

I dont like the Murdoch press myself – things like The Sun paper in the UK may be a lot of fun when you are young or drunk (or both) but it is appalling in all other respects. The way they (News of the World and Murdoch Press) go about getting leads and breaching privacy of the most vulnerable, is really disgraceful. There is no reason however, to think what happened in the UK is also a problem for Australia.

The only problem with the press in Australia is with Julia Gillard and Bob Brown, the Prime Minister of Australia. They dont want criticism. They want to shut down or control their critics. That is very Malaysian. Gillard and Najib Razak are looking more and more alike every day.

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