Tag: Oceania

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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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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Costello on Carbon Tax and National Income


For the first time that I can remember, an Australian government is introducing a policy – the carbon tax – which is consciously designed to cut national income rather than boost it.

Sometimes I think that this government needs a responsible adult – someone who can walk into the cabinet much like a parent would walk into a child’s bedroom and say: ”Enough is enough. It is time to clean up the mess. And there will be no more nonsense until that is done.”

– Peter Costello

See the rest of this  including the AWU rubbish Paul Howe manages to dish out.

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5 Deg (feels like 2 deg)


Beginning of St Kilda Road, Melbourne, on Prin...
Image via Wikipedia

That’s what my weather app is saying about Forest Hill now. No wonder I’m freezing my watuzi off. Why is it so cold? Or have I just become old?

I was just at Kiddo’s school for an info/briefing session for her trip to the old world. It’s now just over 2 weeks before they leave and everyone is excited now. I had to trek into the city and in this weather, it wasnt fun. The traffic was bad, it was cold and, I’m not the one going to Europe in 2 weeks.A 6pm meeting meant I had to cut across the city circa 5.30pm – the worst possible time to be in the St Kilda Road area. Thankfully a cold night meant there was plenty of parking available so that took some of the pain away. I was a little late and when I approached the theaterette where the talk was being held, the crowd was already there and it had started.

Kiddo reserved a seat just next to her and I sat down and tried to get into the mood of things. Thankfully I managed that.

Apparently it will be hot in Italy this northern summer. What a treat it’d be for kiddo, if even to just get away from this cold and wet winter in Melbourne. It would be a trip she will enjoy and remember very fondly I’m sure. I’m really happy for her. If nothing else, she’d get away from this cold for a few weeks. Why is it so cold? Or am I just old?