The State of the Commonwealth - Australia

It was not long ago......in the hundred years after Federation, a freshly minted nation thrived on discovery of resources, development of its unique character, defence against intrusive forces, dedication to family, disengagement from old ideas and dedication to lifestyle.

Yet at the same time, underlying dark currents persisted which continue to this day. There is the debacle of not sufficiently and positively engaging with the people of mankind's oldest surviving culture. The land and what else Nature provides has been incessantly exploited with mineral and other resource extraction, without a significant degree of human value add. Small scale farming face challenges to survive. Vast spacious interiors, mostly empty, have been cited as to why we cannot do this or that to compete or compare with more dynamic overseas initiatives. Costs remain high in labour, things get done slower and there is a distinct lack of will to achieve better. Why stress when the waters of the blue ocean bid you to slow down?

Yet music and sports leapt in talent to define Australia ahead of most other countries per capita. Dilution of Anglo culture was inevitable after World War 2 - and this is also a nation located geographically closer to Asia and the South Seas than to Europe. This denial bubble did indeed burst with the rise in economic power of Japan, India and China. Opening the country to more Asians and Middle Easterners in the 21st century has changed the character of capital cities.

Demonstration of union rights in the past has transformed into actions for political correctness, in giving a fairer go for many selective groups oppressed in the past. The devolution of the past in Australian society arrangements, structures and conventions means heading into an transitional environment which can spell discomfort and delusion for some and yet determination and distinguished opportunity for others.

Yet disdain for political behaviour and poor leadership has increased. While a whole diversity of culinary delights are made available by multi-culturism, there has been a rising debacle in the inadequacy of infrastructure and pricing to meet the rising demands of bigger populations. The myth of affordable housing has been debunked for many young couples, along with a reasonable cost of living for everyone. The deescalation of standards in consumer service, privacy protections and compliance practice can make policy and regulation seem ignored. The spectre of a widespread gambling mindset and addiction amongst the population does rear its ugly head.

Depersonalisation has increased in many aspects of Aussie life. Personal drug dependency, electronic screen obsession, domestic violence at home and destabilising driver behaviour on the roads has disturbingly increased - just watch and hear the media. Fitness levels have decreased with the rise of obesity, sitting for too long and the decluttering of good nutrition habits.

Corruption has been escalated by older adults at the same time that quality learning by youngsters has not been maintained. The volume of passengers on aircraft and cruise ships descending on to Australian borders can be described as both delightful for business and disturbing for border controls. More narcotics come in with greater impunity.

Religious practices in Australia are observed in a more variety of beliefs but there is also a marked increase in the numbers belonging to the atheist denomination. There is also a widening divide between the very rich and the middle class. Getting a university degree does not differentiate a young person much anymore, as universities churn out increasing numbers of graduates whilst key innovative skills for the future have not been invested in. Baby boomers live longer with new implications for this demographic. Social support structures that are no longer viable need to be reviewed. 

There has been a lack of positive and unifying matters for Australians of various backgrounds to be passionate about. We are figuratively still paddling our national canoe perhaps a bit drifting between our actual past and potential future.

Despite the disparate variety of challenges, Australia continues to drive on. If you believe the official statistics, its economy has not stopped growing since 1992. The blue sky over this continental island is an envy for most populations in the Northern Hemisphere.

There is this opportunity to still make the most of Australia's unique position, assets and advantage in a changing world - as long as it does not continue to selll its family heirlooms, rest on its laurels and allow personal greed deemphasise its national advantage. As a society, it can stop too much distracting chatter and just carry out more actions to resolve key issues.

Australia is called to redefine, be more determined and get less distracted.

#yongkevthoughts

Most Busy Air Flight Sectors

The most busy air routes in 2017 have been identified.

One may reckon it can be the route from Beijing to Shanghai , or that from LA to Frisco, as holding the top honours. No, they are only ranked No 10 busy and No. 7 busy, respectively.

What attracts passengers to frequent specific air routes? Is it the lack of alternative and viable options? Air travel can be fraught with possible disadvantages like long wait times, pushy airport officers and personal security risks. Some routes can be short enough to travel by road faster and with more passenger independence when air flights are delayed. Other routes fly over ocean and so have air travel as most optimal in time spent, changes in mode of transport and transfers.

The top ten busy air routes last year were non stop flights. Half of them were between Asian cities, with only one each for Africa, North America and South America. They also reflect busy traffic in commerce, populations with purchasing power and societies with a higher level of infrastructure. Half of the top ten busy routes involve capital cities.

The Cape Town to Johannesburg flight route was ranked at no.9, with 31914 flights last year. The most number of flights in Japan was from Fukuoka to Tokyo Haneda, at no.4 chalking up 42835 flights. In Australia, the sector from Melbourne to Sydney ranked at no.2 with 54519 flights. The air flight from Brisbane to Sydney ranked at no.8 - it can be a hassle to drive or train up taking over ten hours one way.

In Brazil, flights from Rio de Janerio to Sao Paulo Congonhas had 39325 flights at ranking no.5.

The increase in the number of airline providers has also upped the number of flights, especially from subsidiary and budget players. Lowering of ticket prices, the economies of scale in getting more passengers and the increasing links between airlines and cruise businesses add to growth. Decreased customer service, aircraft pick up delays and crowding in cabins have not deterred many passengers in many instances.

Train services that charge more than airlines and take longer to complete journeys have not helped their own interests. Exceptions are high speed trains that are efficiently run in nations such as France, Japan, China and Germany. Why take a flight when a HSR can deliver you or your goods as quickly as the air travel time itself?

So what was the busiest air flight corridor in 2017? Having 64991 flights, it was from the holiday isle of Jeju to Seoul in South Korea.

#yongkevnews

Rules, Roads and Reality

You can witness double parking of vehicles with their drivers not having a care in the world. Less people would dare to park or stop in stipulated bus zones, especially in built up areas of capital cities, for the rights and power of bus drivers are never to be under estimated. Interesting enough, the above behaviours do not attract driver demerit zones in New South Wales, unless they are committed within a school operating zone.

What attracts the most number of driver penalty points in NSW?  Nine points that is, for driving a vehicle with no one wearing seat belts, with two or more unrestrained passengers aboard. 

If you drive in the dark without a head light, it is amazing you are penalised for one point. This compares the risks of creating carnage and damage on the roads.  A failure to dip headlights also costs only a single driver demerit point.

Driving on the wrong side of a dividing line only involves three demerit points.  Crossing a continous line separating marked lanes incurs two points, just as failure to give proper signal when drawing out from the side of road.  These call for a review to increase the demerit points.

There is an interesting situation for a driver to be fined three penalty points - driving with part of body outside the vehicle.  Where do we stand with doggie pets jutting out their paws, head or tongue to enjoy the passing breeze?

In some foreign countries, it is easy to observe drivers make illegal U turns - if caught, such driver action costs only 2 demerit points and 3 in a school operating zone.

The following have shown increased incidence on NSW roads:

a) Use of mobile phone when not permitted - 4 points

b) Turn or stop without signalling - 2 points

c) Drive behind other vehicle too closely to stop safely - 3 points

d) Increase speed while being overtaken - 3 points

e) Drive in right hand lane when speed limit is over 80 km per hour.

All these rules have a purpose but sadly are often breached due to lack of resources in monitoring.    Driver behaviour is often an outcome of other issues in society - personal stress, reduced ethics, over crowding, depersonalisation, individualism and more.

Three points penalty are imposed for episodes of burnout, having someone alive but travelling in your car boot and starting or driving a vehicle with unnecessary noise or smoke.   I  do not like the use of subjective phrases like unnecessary - but I reckon that was necessary to cover the range of vehicles and scenarios, countryside or urban.

#yongkevthoughts

Excessive Spending on Fireworks - A Re-Think?

It can be both interesting and disappointing to hear from news media about cities vying to have the most impressive fireworks on New Year’s Eve. When you reflect quickly about it, the end of a calendar year is just an administrative measure, a daily turn of the Earth as a planet and an excuse for crowding up again.

A lot of taxpayer money is literally burned up in oversized sparkles in the sky that seriously remind both humans and animals of the excesses of warfare, with the added thunderous boom, flashes of aggression and the competitive passion of who and what can come up with the largest, the most spectacular, the highest and the most colourful. The huge effort to maintain personal and public security, optimal logistical processes and executing clean up matters is often not recognised enough, compared to the brief consumption and gratification fulfilled from fleeting and temporal burn up of chemicals in the surrounding environment. 

A great city’s reputation, character and viability does not depend upon a single night of exploding lights. The long term attractiveness of a city is more significantly determined by other long term values and features.

Public funds spent in this manner can encourage the over charging of commercial rates for accommodation, food and transport. The hype of churned up excitement waiting for huge fireworks displays can quickly turn into the reality of not being able to go home efficiently after midnight, of falling into the stupor of excesses in drinking and unruly behaviour, or of a further determination of the real costs of attending such events.

Still, every individual at least one point in life, feels the urge of attending, such tribal gatherings of sharing wonder with and marvelling at such celebrations.

If we think for ourselves - and not get caught up in such annual literally fiery outbursts - why is it not possible to utilise the effort, funding and passion for organising community fireworks instead to enable more positive aspects and outcomes of our human intellect and potential?

Every New Year’s Eve, the new world ahead for us can consider festivities of other kinds.

Instead of polluting the immediate environment with smoke and smell, we can infuse that special evening with mass gatherings to share other things. Instead of burning chemicals, we can celebrate mass efforts in reaffirming our core values of helping each other, of showing practical steps to further help our disadvantaged in society and to emphasise the features of a more vibrant city or national lifestyle in improving education, health and wealth. 

Watching huge firework displays can be so passive on the part of a viewer - it can be boring when repeated year after year. We need to get the public involved with personal participation with a purpose, beyond the temporary Yays, shouts and group cheers occurring during spectacular fireworks. 

Fireworks thrive on the short term visual, instant gratification and consumption of what does not last. We as individuals, community and as a shared culture deserve better than this. Do firework displays help resolve long standing issues for a community - they do not, but make us momentarily forget about them, like drugs and alcohol. In the clear vivid reality of the next morning, nothing has really changed.

#yongkevthoughts

#NYEfireworks

Publications Come and Go, Change or Disappear

Below are several cover issues from a magazine that is still publishing after so many years. 
My eldest Brother inculcated in me a love of interest in world affairs. It all started with reading Newsweek seated in a balcony at home. 
There have been other memorable publishing ventures like Readers Digest, Asisweek, Time, Australian Who, Forbes, Fortune, New Yorker and Bloomberg Businessweek. The character and purpose of some of these publications have possibly changed over the years. I note with disdain and amazement how many of the English language news publications specialising on covering Asian affairs have ceased publication. 
One reads media output with caution these days especially in an intense age of so called fake news, but all along there have been powerful vested political and financial interests behind the editorials and content of all published output. These days, paper based publications are thinner in content than those in cyberspace and on line. In these transitionary times, is it still more rewarding to hold paper in your hands than read from wifi powered sources?
The increasing integration of diverse media delivery and the blurring of ownership behind what we are told or read points to a further lack of choice in being exposed to a healthy spectrum of views. The utilisation of Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and news sources alternate to conventional channels like TV and news sites is an illustration of the changing game in the provision of information. 
Governments, politicians, businesses and financial players, more than most, understand more effectively the significance and power of controlling the media. Reflect on the use of such controls in various communities, nations and cultures. What unworthy issues keep getting escalated? In contrast, what important matters are deescalated by the media? This has resulted in some individuals I know avoiding reading specific websites and publications. This choice may make these mates more entrenched in their original views.
Technology has enabled more interactivity, spontaneity and feedback in one finger click. This illustration of faster communication scenarios can discourage more thoughtful reckoning of a matter before sounding them out. It can be used negatively in rabble rousing, group speculation and engineered political moves by hidden powers. 
There is no time to still hold the paper in your hands,so to speak, and give some wise thoughts to an issue before unnecessarily jumping to quick conclusions - something I could do on the balcony in those good old days.
#yongkevthoughts

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