Kindly Yours

In a world of increased mobility, do you feel if your country is the same as your culture, if your goverment synchronises with your personal values, if your religion or language remains part of the national tapestry and if your citizenship is your ethnicity? There are still homogenous demographics remaining within several nations, despite the rise of multi-cultural diversity in Western societies and the historical mixing of different races within countries formed from the legacy of colonialism. Thailand, Japan, China, both North and South Korea, Russia and Latin American nations have a high degree of having a shared spoken and written language, which further strengthens their sense of cultural heritage. Thailand is perhaps the only non European country in the world to be not subject to colonialism. In terms of having less diverse populations, Japan does stand out due to their de-emphasis on accepting migrants and their geographical nature of being a string of islands....

The water supply to my neighbourhood was cut off unexpectedly last night. This unplanned event had several of my neighbours talking to each other. Not that they do not in otherwise normal circumstances. There was a Sydney Water website live update on this supply interruption, but it was more fulfiling with chat amongst the neighbours. Have you ever written a letter to your Prime Minister? When was the most recent time you gathered with family or friends just to talk of ha ppy things? Do you have a chill out from screen time regularly to admire Nature, smell the roses or dabble in some artistic pursuit? Does it really matter if you did not know about significant happening in news from the media? How did you stay in touch with your mates before apps like Facebook? When was the last time you walked with your pet to the beach? What is the most impressionable thing that gives a glow in your heart, despite the clutter and rush of contemporary routine? How ...

Selective reasoning.... My cause is more important than yours. I hurt more as a victim than other clamaints. The masses cannot do this due to breach of institutional and constititional laws, but the most powerful in the land can do anything. We have to accept collateral damage for the greater good of our nation. Read: We can sacrifice the small fry to protect the big man, me, the one in power. What happens in state election outcomes does not apply to the national level, due to state issues. What happens in state election outcomes will be echoed at national level elections, it is a warning sign. Research can produce engineered outcomes, as long as we do not detail the sample size, pre-existing conditions, test limitations and who really sponsors the activity. I shall dish out my advice which is good for you, but I will not in practice follow what I say to you when I face the same situation. To distract the masses within your own disrupted nation, make negative accusations o...

CHRISTMAS   2018 Reflecting beside the lapping waves of a remote bay……. It has been a year different from others, but yet rewarding and eye opening. I have had an opportunity, albeit unexpected, to look more into my inner self, clear the decks of past practices, letting go of temporal distractions and enhance my appreciation of life. The mind and the heart synchronized better, like the stars in an alignment to reaffirm and learn more important things. Time is relative and the passing of time by itself, a man made concept.    I got more in tune with my biological clock.   I realized how much more our body can heal itself, how our potential is much unutilized, to avoid inflammation (in the widest meaning of the word) and to savour oxidation   ( in all implications of the word). Some things are never done and seem repetitive in a cyclic process, but it does add to the transformation.    Other things are done once and we m...

There are single origins and blends. Is the Australian retail coffee sector waiting for a shake up, more innovation and a less fragmented industry framework? It is reported there are at least 650 micro coffee roasters for a nation with a population less than that for the greater Tokyo region. The retail coffee business is said to be only growing at 5 per cent per annum. More players are entering an already crowded field that is crying out from a possible bubble. Some apply social media to enhance marketing and presence in a competitive field. If you are a barista cafe owner, do you still depend on early morning turnover and the brunch margins? Labour costs make you think twice of offering cuppas at midnight, like they do in Asia. The multi business model of having a licensed bar on your rented premises is attracting customers, but it depends on which market you are operating in. Coffee beans are a commodity in world trade and are subject to the vagaries and volatili...

It is scary. The three apps I most often use are Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. They are all owned by the same business entity, which has more customers than many corporates, more users than populations of many nations and more followers than some religions. I ask myself, what happened to the pleasure of speaking on the phone? Increasingly we can use our fingers more than our vocal chords.  Our life routines and special moments are punctuated by electronic images and words that can be disposed as fast as they are created, or so we think. The huge number of records of every human being having access to wi-fi grows exponentially and are not just kept by the person who created them. Data is over analysed but not necesarily for benign and progressive purposes. Data is not just kept on an aggregate basis, but details can be sliced and detailed.  The addiction to using apps can be experienced akin to the pleasure of drug induced states, gambling thrills and...

In view of the greater risks to privacy, security and integrity when posting on Facebook, I emphasise my policy when using this facility. 1. Not everything that happens in my life are posted on Facebook - when scanning my FB postings, you do not know all my friends, relatives and positive people in my life - many choose not to be seen, photographed or mentioned in Facebook. Several of my friends have asked me not to post them or their activities with me in real life on Face book. You do not see all events I am involved in, and most of the time if a photograph appears, thay are not on line real time. 2. I shall use Facebook to share positive, significant, inspiring matters - and topics which need thoughtfulness, decision making and action to follow up with. I shall try my best not to post speculative, rabble rousing and false news from external websites. Facebook users must think more for themselves and not accept that news feed on Facebook is necesarily true, just like we ...

The passage of time can be relative. There are exactly six full blooming deep red roses in my garden right now, a delightful salute to life, as I move over from another another significant past twelve months.   They are especially captivating, with many elegant folds in each rose, an usually bright countenance and a magical moment about them. The extreme dry conditions for most of the past several months, apart from a recent spate of persistent rain, have devastated the lawn.   Some individuals whom I am close to have had a variety of life's issues, but they still wake up each morning with a gusto to face the new day.   Some of them have created new opportunity for themselves despite the challenge, hassle and personal devastation.  Yet some others are in the prime of life, planting as much for the unpredictable future as much as they can and relentlessly moving forward, as if impregnable. Just like the weather may do to us, each of us can be kept on our toe...

Ten Differences Between Wollongong and Sydney 1. Going to the Beach. On the Illawarra Coast, it does not involve a major pre-planned exercise just to get to the sand to soak in your toes, have a surf and get back home in under 15 minutes. In Sydney, you over plan your route and time yourself to find vehicle parking. Then you sit on the sand to watch over your belongings, pay top prices for snacks and get stressed just trying to get home. 2. Utilising Public Transport. No prizes awarded to guessing which place has more regular trains or buses. You have to know your time table well to make the most taking the Illawarra line of the railway network. You overwork your smart phone or watch at least two down loaded movies while sitting on your bum to get home. Even worse, you may have to stand all the way on trains fron Martin Place or Central in Sydney CBD to Sutherland, Thirroul, North Gong or Wollongong stations. 3. The Intensity of Road Traffic, if you are driving. The Il...

Clearing clutter makes us reflect, forces us to drop persistent habits and frees up capacity for change. Society makes us develop a regime and it is embedded in educational approaches, cultural norms and economic reward systems. So it is not surprising that change requires purpose, a determined effort and a re-questioning of our past rationale. There was a logical reason why we purchased that shirt, that can of produce and the gadget that lies around. Was it on an act of i mpulse, a gesture of self reward, a true need that so many years ago or an echo of sentimentality? Whatever the reason it was, it does not matter now that I realise I have not used it in the past 3 months. There can be that work office momento. It can be that sensational cooking aid. There can be an accumulation of household stuff that once was utilised happily by more occupants. The reckoning comes with a limitation of storage space, less users and experiencing a different stage of life. In our throw aw...

Landline is on the way out. I am told the NBN infrastructure in Australia does not optimally support fixed line telephones as well as the previous arrangements we have had since the invention and installation of the house phone. Retro phones are sold in decreasing prices and are destined to go the way of the compact disc, television set and analogue media. At least, however, to replace them involves paying less than buying a new smart mobile phone. The old fashioned phone does not need to be recharged regularly in order to function. It even has a back up battery until the day the NBN contractors arrived at your abode - now you have to cough up replacing with a new battery as the NBN has disenabled the previous back up battery that was working fine. Both landline and mobile phones are subject to nuisance calls, hacking, fraud and pesty commercial sales. Every human communication opportunity is utilised by the so called slick oily sales person, the threatener, th...