Colin Pearce says...

I admit it. I like eating. I don't like Master Chef.

2010-07-23T18:33:00.000+09:30

Hey, look. The people are nice, the judges are clever but the whole thing bores me to itchiness.

I know I am the only person in the entire country who doesn't like it.

I just don't get it the way the rest of you do.

I don't know how you can sit through so many close ups of nice people trying so hard to make nice things to eat in such a faked short space of time and the predictable line "and the winner is... we'll tell you after the break" and the utter seriousness of it all.

It's like waiting to see whether the prison warden will get a call from the Governor of Texas to forestall the condemned man's trip to the electric chair. It's like waiting for the chooks to lay. It's like waiting for the birth of a baby elephant. It's like watching your toenails grow. It's like losing weight over Christmas.

It's just food, people! Food. You get it in a bag at the deli!

I know. I am out of step. I am so alone.

The roosters think we are jackasses

2010-06-25T11:26:00.002+09:30

Do you remember when the front bench of the old Labor Party in opposition was referred to as Roosters? They're now in government.

Don't want to blow on about politics. It's not my specialty. I do know about people though and how self interested we all are, even the good people of the political parties that represent us.
Just can't help wondering...
How come none of these highly educated, highly sensitive, highly principled, highly affirmative-action oriented, very experienced union leaders and high-end negotiators could not walk into K.Rudd's office and say, "Mate. Things aren't going well. You have to change your ways. Pull the mining ads. Use velvet paws and settle down and have a slice of umble pie. You're too pompous and too hard to work with. 6 months ago you were more popular than beer and now you are on the nose. If we put anyone else from the gang of four in your chair the people will know it's another salesperson flogging the same dud product, so off you go, it's up to you."
I mean he is just a bloke. One bloke. Not a despot. Headstrong, rigid, demanding, self directed, yes, but not Idi Amin. Not Sadam Who-Sucks. Not Adolf the Austrian.
Do they who failed to persuade one bloke of their policies and preferences, now expect all 22 million of us to be so persuaded?
I think they actually do.

Lesson? Don't get so high on your roost that the only way to get you off it is to chop you off it.

For the full meaning of Roosters and Jackasses: http://bit.ly/acaV65

The dancer

2010-06-22T14:48:00.000+09:30

She is wearing white tap shoes, striped orange and purple leggings, a purple ballet skirt, a green top and pink butterfly wings.

She is dancing in my study to the accompaniment of the Wiggles singing "Here come the Chicken".

She sits Miss Mousie in my bookshelves and keeps dancing.

She says, "I dancing, Pubba. Miss Mousie watching."

She is two.

I am in heaven and I am not even dead.

Ban the Vuvuzela. Soccer is hard enough to watch as it is.

2010-06-16T20:29:00.000+09:30

Puzzling.

I won't give you the URL of the blog because it offended my sensibilities. I was however looking up something today about the 'orrible noise coming from the crowd at the FIFA World Cup Crowd.

I read the article in the London Telegraph in which the writer, Xabi Alonso commented: "There is serious dispute as to how traditional it is for South African fans to blow on their vuvuzelas. Some link it back to the traditional kudu horn. Others say it only dates back to the late 90s when the Chinese-made horns were promoted by breweries in the domestic game."

The blog entries that followed – now closed – were full of atrocious racist, bigoted, foul language and I couldn't help wondering which was worse—the supposed insensitivities of the locals for foisting their noise on visitors or the written insults of the blog posters.

We're a funny lot aren't we?

Be Nice. It's cheaper in the long run.

2010-06-15T20:34:00.001+09:30

Mark McCormack wrote, in his book Things They Do Not Teach You At Harvard Business College - "All things being equal people prefer to do business with people they like. And when all things are not equal - people still prefer to do business with people they like. "

So, you had better learn to be likable!

I'm trying. And thanks to Max Hitchins' newsletter for the reminder.

How's this for Gen Y handwriting?

2010-06-11T15:12:00.005+09:30

They are the most switched on generation, tech-wise, but they do the weirdest un-techie things.

I snapped this 28 year old's hand at coffee this morning. She works for an ad agency specialising in social media. She has an iPhone. She still writes her shopping list on the back of her hand like she did with her home-work in Year 9.

If you look closely you'll also see she can't spell spinach – she's got it as spinnich. Yet like all her Gen Y peers she is lovable nevertheless.

Mr Saggy Suit vs. Jolibee

2010-06-10T13:55:00.005+09:30

I was having coffee in a mall yesterday and a "figure" or character walked by.

I had to ask myself, Is the target market for the product the figure is promoting a child market? Does the figure actually do anything apart from walk around awkwardly like a saggy parachute that hasn't opened properly? Is the bloke with the character dressed in a way as to enhance the image of the product?

Then I thought of Jollibee from the Philippines. He's the most endearing character I've ever seen. There were 25 of him at the Jollibee 25th anniversary convention where I spoke and the actors inside him had been trained for 6 months by Disney personnel, all knew Jollibee's personality, actions, can-dos and can't dos, and I must confess they induced a tear of joy from my eye, whereas Mr Saggy Suit and his keeper yesterday left me feeling sorry for both of them.

Someone in head office had said, "I've got an idea! Let's get a suit figure to create a dashing image in the shopping centres." And several thousand bucks later they got Mr Saggy Suit. He attracts attention but does he do anything for the brand or sales?

No Parking! Huh?

2010-06-04T23:25:00.002+09:30

So if this bit of hospital garden is reserved for emergency vehicles, where are the patients and doctors and nurses and admin staff supposed to park?

In the gas meter?

Ya gotta give Steve Jobs credit.

2010-05-27T14:20:00.002+09:30

I just can't help admire Steve Jobs.

He's driven Apple to the forefront of innovation so that now every competitor – and every end user for that matter – has to keep their eyes peeled to see what Apple's doing next so they don't get left behind for two years.

How about this for a reputation statement in technology: "Apple killed the floppy disk, the trackball, the stylus and the Walkman. Flash will be dead within a year." (May 9th)

Volcanic Cloud to equal Islamic Closure of Silk Road?

2010-05-22T17:46:00.001+09:30

The Golden Age of Discovery from 1492 for the next hundred years saw European adventurers discovering sea routes to Cuba, the Americas, the head waters of the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Pacific, the East Indies, Southern Africa, East Africa, and the Northwest Passage.

What brought it on?

A big volcanic cloud called the closure of the Silk Road at Istanbul changed the world forever. When the great Islamic Caliphate flexed its muscle against Western Europe and conquered Constantinople in the 14th Century, no-one had any idea how far the effects would reach.

European traders and markets lost camel and mule access to their Indian and Chinese trading partners for carpets, silks, saffron and all kinds of other spices, arts, treasures, finely handcrafted tools, weapons, and jewellery. The world stopped. The merchants drove royalty to find other ways to access their goods.

So what would happen if Iceland continued to belch anti-air-travel fumes for 100 years?

Someone, somehow would invent another way to bring the world to Europe faster than conventional planes.

What about that?

ANZ reels over drug trafficking allegations

2010-05-14T18:23:00.004+09:30

Makes you wonder if the dodgy ones are the arrested employees or the people who set the culture and tone.

I was this close to installing the CharacterWorks program in the said bank when the Head of Training and Development advised me that the powers above wanted the development team to concentrate on getting all the employees to take a course in increasing account take ups.

The walls were festooned with the predictable values statements and motherhood vows but the follow-through just wasn't there. Still isn't apparently.

Now they are 'reeling'.

Really? Reeling! If you don't do anything about stopping foxes getting into the chook house please don't cry crocodile tears by 'reeling' when your chooks get bitten and your chook house gets condemned.

Australia's Population Target 36 Million

2010-04-29T18:44:00.000+09:30

It's OK with me if we get to 36,000,000 people, so long as while we are doing it,

– we teach parenting skills in high school,
– take personal responsibility for our lot in life
– honour the aged
– help indigenous Australians to rise from poverty and ill-health
– restore fidelity in marriage
– stop laughing about drunkenness
– take family and life-long relationships seriously
– ban smoking
– get as outraged about road deaths as we would about war deaths

And a few other things I might mention another time.

Anzac Day 2010

2010-04-23T18:26:00.000+09:30

Waste

Written by Rev. G.A. Studdert-Kennedy during World War I

Waste of Muscle, waste of Brain,
Waste of Patience, waste of Pain,
Waste of Manhood, waste of Health,
Waste of Beauty, waste of Wealth,

Waste of Blood, waste of Tears,
Waste of Youth's most precious years,
Waste of ways the Saints have trod,
Waste of Glory, waste of God, —
War!

The fat toad who wanted to rise

2009-06-11T11:37:00.007+09:30

The fat toad who wanted to rise
Adapted from a tale in Hans Bemann’s, “The Stone and the Flute”.

There was once a large fat toad with beautiful golden eyes who had grown fat eating swamp flies. When not eating flies he dreamed of eating flies and amidst his dreams he would say, "One day I shall have so many flies and I shall rise above all of this.”

His dreams became so real that eventually he stopped catching and eating flies, thinking only of the myriad flies he would have one day when he would rise above his circumstances. He stopped eating flies. He became thinner.His beautiful golden eyes lost their lustre.

A stork pecked him up, swallowed him and flew high in the air to share him with her chicks.

Fortunately he was so bony he stuck in her throat and she coughed him out. As he came falling and floating back to the swamp, he said, “I don’t think I wanted to rise quite that high.”
He took that as a lesson. He stopped dreaming of things that might one day be as if they were guaranteed just by having been dreamed, and started catching and eating his daily feed of flies once more.

My Kick in the Pants for You:
Yes. Dare to dream. Dream big dreams for small dreams have no magic. But don’t forget to catch and eat your flies today.

Recommendation

There’s a lot of hooey going around about Work-Life Balance. The general blah goes, join a gym, leave work early, meditate, eat more vegetables and fish, ride bikes with your children, turn off the TV, and my favourite; “take time for you” (Sigh!!) It’s all good advice, but for most busy leaders it might as well be, “Wear flowers in your hair, fray your bell-bottoms, paint your Kombi Van in psychedelic colours and go around saying, “Heavy, Man”." It doesn’t touch responsible leaders whose heads are in another universe entirely. This book does. It’s by my favourite author so I recommend it strongly to frazzled leaders or partners of leaders whose dreams have developed middle aged droop.
Get it here.

Cheers
Colin Pearce
Raconteur

Who really cares if the President's approval ratings go up or down?

2009-06-04T16:57:00.001+09:30

The world has gone mad about approval ratings. Prime Ministers, Presidents, Princes, Town Mayors, NRL and AFL coaches——everyone is getting rated except the people taking polls and the people publishing them.

"O-o-o-o-o-o-h-h! President Obama's approval ratings are down. Flames, earthquakes, agues and boils will break out and the world will end at midnight."

How it started
Feedback forms and polls became a trend that started when suggestion boxes lay empty for years and photocopiers became ubiquitous and phones got buttons. Today you wouldn't bother with feedback forms if you had to get your "seccatry" to cut a wax Gestetner stencil and run the paper through a stinky inky noisy printer. Phone pollsters wouldn't ring you if they had to dial your number using the circular clickety clack reverse-wind dial.

Who's counting?
People have come to believe feedback is the ‘"correct" thing to do. It's the sort of exercise driven by try-hard training managers because they read about it in a magazine or by bean counters who like doing cost analyses. ‘You have to measure your outcomes,' they say. But how come no-one analyses the cost of doing the cost analysis?

Dopey
When I started speaking professionally it was the done thing to "elicit feedback" but I woke up pretty quickly that this was dopey. Research Statistics #101 taught me:

Belly-achers
10% of any audience will hate any presenter for any reason. So if there are 200 people in the audience there's 20 negative responses you can be guaranteed to get. These are usually the keenest to respond too. Taking a survey just tells you who your whiners are. Why would I want to know? Tell me you acted on it by sacking the mongrels and that would be news.

Poll Dancers
Another 10%—also keen to express their opinion—will respond negatively to a poll just because they were asked to take part in a poll and they think that's what is required in polls. I think it's called Polling Syndrome. There's another 20 negative responses you can guarantee. Any one of any of these is enough to quell one's desire to live.

Unpredictables
The middle 40% may or may not respond at all but if they do it will be with a mix of positive and negative responses, depending on a number of factors:
the wording of the questions,
> who is asking,
> how they normally respond to polls,
> their mood at the time of responding,
> how "intellectual" they want you to believe they are,
> whether they want to be noticed
> what they think you want to hear
> what they think you are too stupid to work out for yourself
> whether or not they like the pollster,
> the time of day
> whether or not they want your job and
> their level of annoyance or happiness at being asked.

Undependables
The last 40% will be a mixed bunch of ‘"happy enough" ranging to ‘"delighted" but still few of these will give you any response worth banking. The speaker could have appealed to them physically——I've had to adjust the ratings down many times because of this factor in my case——or might have smiled at them twice or let them have the last cookie at morning tea.

I saw a speaker's website blurb that read, "Over the past 15 years she has averaged 97% audience approval ratings." Yeah, right! Some silly people will say anything and expect other silly people to believe it.

So no doubt you'll have an opinion on this and you'll probably feel the need to share it with me, —for my own good, of course. Yes I know. You have to give me a little bit of feedback.
Ahhh, dear!
Go on then.
I'll just lie back and think of England.

I bought a car

2009-05-29T18:46:00.003+09:30

A good friend connected me to the right dealer, with the right car.
The young man who demonstrated the first car to me was a perfect gentleman. His product knowledge was excellent. I just couldn't help wondering though if I had not been a referred and locked-in buyer would I have endured the rigours of the presentation.

You see he didn't talk about the only thing I wanted to hear about. And if you've known me for a while you can guess what I wanted to hear about.

Yep...

Me - the nicest guy in the world, the centre of the universe, the only person I think about from dawn till dusk. Same as you. Same as your customers.

How many more times do I have to shout this? Don't talk about what it is. Don't talk about what it does. Talk about what it does for me!

Ask, Ask, Ask
And before you start, ask me if I want to know what you are about to tell me. And as you are telling me ask me if you're telling me what I thought I'd hear. The fine young man started telling me I could fit two travel cases in the boot and my tennis balls in one of the boot pockets and my golf balls in the other but didn't ask me if I played tennis or golf. If he had he would have found out I developed tendonitis playing golf and can barely lift a double gelato cone let alone my travel cases. He told me about how easy the boot was to pack but didn't ask me if I was the packer. In fact he didn't ask me anything. He just waddled up to the boot and started quacking as if I really wanted to know everything about a car's boot. As if!! In the end I turned that car down because of the road noise-nothing to do with the boot.

It's not enough!
I could go on. It's not enough to be well-groomed, well mannered and knowledgeable - although that would be a nice start for most salespeople. Please dear reader... ask me questions. I am your customer. I want you to notice me, pander to me, love me, and sell me what I want and the only way you'll win my heart (and my money) is if you ask me questions about my favourite topic. Me!

Thought
Are you sure you couldn't do with a one day seminar brush up on your sales skills? Call me or leave a response here.

My Kick in the Pants for You:
Ask. Ask, ask ask, ask, ask and when you're done asking, ask if there's anything you haven't asked.

Cheers
Colin Pearce

Trying to buy a car

2009-05-14T12:16:00.004+09:30

Today's Saga: Trying to buy a car. But first, an advert

Advert
Please read the message on this site. It's about you.
In New Zealand last week the all-day seminar featured one session about the phone. I've been teaching this stuff for 25 years and am still amazed that audiences tell me it is so worthwhile. I KNOW from listening to thousands of mystery shopping calls for clients that you can confidently count on increasing your sales by 10% to 30% if you do your phonework right. I KNOW you are losing that much right now. Read the feisty opinionated article and you will see what I mean.
Get the Great Phone Skills pack with its e-Book and 4 free MP3s.

Anyway...

Trying to buy a car
See if you can get the picture:

The economy is all gloom and misery.

The car industry is in tatters.

Car yards are closing quicker than window shutters during a Taliban hunt for girls with school books.

You'd think every car salesperson would therefore be over the moon at the sight of a nice man like me whose opening remark is, "Hi. Wife and teenagers over 15 years have driven her car into the ground — it won't even start — so we need a new one now."

You'd think — over the moon. You'd think they would use some of my pet phrases from Balancing the Sale. Something like. "Thanks for coming in. Can I ask you a couple of questions to see how I can help you best. First of all, what kind of car is the one you want to replace? Have you been happy with it? Is there anything about it you'd like to change? etc..."

You'd be dead wrong.

All I can find are oxygen thieves. God's beloved and hugely nice people everyone of them, but fair dinkum! It's 2009 and they're still acting like they're selling donkeys and wooden wheeled wagons to Bedouins in Basra.

"How much ya wanna spend?" (How in blazes would I know? What is there to buy?)

"Watcharfta?" (If I knew that I would have bought it off the internet)

"Yeah. Seen anythink ya like?" (Errrr!)

"The ‘XYZ' is a good car." (Whee!)

Home truth time"
So, are your people any better? You'd think so but then you are the person who thought I'd be getting treated like royalty by members of the desperate car industry. What about checking again. Even ask yourself how your own selling skills are faring.

Thought
If I held a public seminar in your capital city would you come? Would you host it and invite your circle of friends, distributors or suppliers to buy a table of tickets. That's what the Doveys at Exceed Maintenance did in Auckland last week. It cost them less and they got megas out of it. Here's what they said afterwards.

Karen: "We had a fantastic day. The big learning point for me was the telephone session, about not interrogating people but using the techniques to open up the conversation."
David: "Your message was strong and you challenged us. I wrote pages and pages of notes. Once we start believing we are as you say, ten times better, we will be totally different."

So email me and tell me you are interested in discussing the public seminar idea. It's colin at colinpearce.com.

My Kick in the Pants for You:
My "K.I.S.S." principle. "Keep Improving Sales Skills."

Cheers
Colin Pearce
Raconteur

Easter Long Week End – From the Weekly Kick in the Pants Newsletter

2009-04-09T10:51:00.006+09:30

First, an advert
Advert
I can't believe how many firms and schools are still getting complaining to me about their receptionists. Most receptionists are well-meaning people who haven't been given any help by the boss, apart from how to work the buttons on the phone. It's a stressful job. Do them and yourself a favour and get my Receptionist Training CDs and e-Book.

Anyway...

Isn't the Easter Long Week End Just Perfect?
Especially when it falls in April. As a kid you went on a church camp or a Scout or a Guides camp or a family camping trip or to the same holiday house the family went to every year since Federation. You went ‘down to the shack', ‘over to the island', ‘up the river', or ‘to the beach'. You'd made it through a couple of months of school or work after Christmas. It was good to forget about it.

Same
You had the same food from the same old bowls and tangy cutlery. Same routine too. Meals and snacks all on the same day at the same time as last year: Barbecue Friday, fish and chips Saturday, sandwiches, peaches from a can, just enough of Grandma's cake and biscuits in those good old cake tins to last till last cuppa on Monday. If you were lucky you dodged washing for four days.

Jobs
If you stayed home you painted the house, re-did the garden, built a cubby, cleaned out the shed, went on a picnic, probably went to church, if Pesach co-incided, you went to a Seder, you went to the pictures or the footy, had friends over, caught up with rellies, played a big game of Monopoly or did a jigsaw. If you were lucky you dodged changing your clothes for four days.

Bliss
Four days were too short but you still got everything done; the routines though slower all fitted into the days. You got into it and wished it would last forever. The days were clear but cooler, the nights were cold and crystal clear under the biggest moon of the year. At Easter the girls were prettier, the boys were more appealing, the fun was funnier. It was a reminder of the Christmas holidays, only shorter so you intensified the joy.

Buns
And the hot cross buns. Weren't they bigger back then? Did you know that 100% fat butter was invented purely for the purpose of being laid a 1/4 of an inch thick on hot cross buns? So was blackberry jam.

Why?
I still love the Easter break. I still love to recall that we get it because of its being the perfect reminder of love in the face suffering, forgiveness in the face of humiliation, anticipation of life in the face of death.

Enjoy it.

PS Why not write to me about your best memories of Easter?

My Kick in the Pants for You:
Life is for living. You only get one run at it. Make the most of every wonderful minute.

The Bradman Myth

2009-01-04T20:56:00.003+10:30

A manager in a client's business gave me this book to read to change my thinking about having chosen Sir Donald Bradman as the "flagship" in the Character Works navy. See Character Works Hero Gallery. He was suggesting I had chosen poorly and that the book would prove to me that Bradman wasn't the man of good character I portrayed him as being.

The book is no ground breaker, often repetitive and doesn't seem to say much about what I already knew. Basically it's a study, not of Bradman, but of the times and culture in which he lived and the social forces that caused writers, commentators and the common bloke and blokess to regard Bradman in such glowing terms as "the Don", "the boy from the bush" and "the simple country lad who is bringing down the house".

Brett Hutchins the author is at pains to say the book is not really about Bradman nor does he set out to take anything from his character. It's about how mythology is created.

I therefore can't change my position. Bradman's still my flagship.

Aren't you tired of frauds and fakes and finaglers?

2008-10-29T00:01:00.004+10:30

Aren't you tired of frauds and fakes and finaglers?

I am. I am just tired of people pretending to be one thing and actually being nothing like it.

There's "keeping up appearances" and a "healthy air of confidence" and then there's a slight turn off the track which leads to momentary fields of pleasure but which end at the hidden precipice of destruction.

Can a Mufti muff It?

2008-07-04T17:27:00.007+09:30

Bruce Loudon in Pakistan reports, "Islamic clerics have issued a fatwa against Pakistan's Tourism Minister after she was photographed hugging a Frenchman.

Clerics of Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, said Nilofar Bakhtiar had acted in an "obscene manner" and brought "disgrace" to Pakistan and all Muslims.

"She has committed a great sin," said the fatwa, issued on Sunday by two clerics at the mosque's department of edicts.

In the first such fatwa issued by a new shariah court set up at the mosque, the clerics demanded that she be sacked and punished and that her family "force her to ask for forgiveness".

Photographs appearing in Urdu-language newspapers showed Ms Bakhtiar hugging the Frenchman at a tourist resort in Normandy, France, after the pair jumped from an aircraft together.

"I hugged an over-aged man who is even older than my father," she said yesterday."

So you are probably wondering what a Fatwa is: A Fatwa is a ruling on law issued by a mufti. And of course you are now asking what a Mufti is:

Wikkipedia tells me "a Mufti will generally go through an Iftaa course and the person should fulfill the following conditions set by scholars in order that he may be able to issue verdicts (fataawa). They are five:

First: He must be a Muslim.

Second: He must be sane and have reached the age of puberty.

Third: He must be just and trustworthy.

The scholars have unanimously agreed upon these first three.

Fourth: Ijtihaad. This is the opinion of a majority of the scholars.

Fifth: He must have the qualities of intellect and be of a good mind. So the verdict of a stupid and simple-minded person is not correct, nor that of one who makes too many mistakes."

So now if you meditate on the fact that this was the first fatwa from this mosque and therefore by nature (one supposes) a decision of landmark proportions, and consider that there is a long parade of murders, beheadings, bombings, and uprisings going on in the region at the same time as this hug went on and that these common behaviours were overlooked in the light of this "great sin" you will only fully comprehend the magnitude of the fatwa if you consider it in light of the above rules –giving attention particularly to rules two and five.

2020 Summit - Yawn!

2008-04-22T09:13:00.007+09:30

What a farce.

1000 of the brightest people in Australia gathered for 2 days to suggest a vision for our way forward. The Prime Minister hoped it would "...unleash the national imagination from beyond the ranks of politics and the public service". He called it a "new form of governance" to which he said he was passionately committed. It would "help fashion a national consensus around a common vision for the nation". By 2020, he said, he hoped Australians could look back and say 2008 was something of a turning point, when the nation seized its future and began long-term planning." I had hopes for it too. I really did.

And the only idea they all got excited about – “best idea” – “most concensus” – was the only idea that means absolutely nothing: Make Australia a republic within 5 years. Well , oh gosh Grandpaw. Strum that banjo and fan my whiskers. Put the clock out and wind up the cat. We’re in for a big night!

Making Australia a republic won’t create more jobs, won’t strengthen families, won’t stop binge drinking, curb obesity, create more aged care, stop nincompoops breeding, create more hospitals, improve character, increase foreign aid, make poverty history, bring electricity to Africa, wipe out AIDS, get "our new friend" China to stop being the worst polluter, worst child killer, worst religious persecutor on the planet, get our "old friend" USA to clean up its own parlour, ban cars over 10 years old, increase public transport, get Iraq to heal itself, get Israel and Palestine to kiss and make up, speed up the proliferation of green power, save the aborigines, or do anything useful at all. Sure they all got on the lists of ideas one way or another but as the one idea that excited them all was the republic issue, then I can only keep hoping for better days ahead.

Bullying - What can you expect?

2008-04-17T15:00:00.005+09:30

Binge Drinking, bullying, brawling... Now it's resulting in deaths on the streets.

A recent survey of Year 11 students found more than 70 per cent considered bullying a problem in their schools.

60 Minutes ran a piece on Sunday 13th April 2008 about cyber bullying. The news is peppered week by week with stories of injury and death resulting from brawling and bullying.

So what can you expect in a society where for 50 years it has been more important to look good than be good, to be trained rather than transformed, to be entertained rather than educated. There’s clearly a diminished respect for the character qualities of respect, self control, benevolence and generosity.

Hello-o-o-o-o. Is anyone listening?

It can be fixed by educating all of us in the 24 Core Character Qualities

Protecting the Little Kids

2008-04-17T14:55:00.003+09:30

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) announced changes to the Advertising to Children Code today. Advertisements for kids' products must not include sexual imagery or imply that children are sexual beings under changes to the national advertising code of conduct.

And... A broadening of the definition of alcohol also was included in today's rule changes, to prevent any products associated with alcohol being advertised to children.

Nice move. See? They can move when nudged. So it must likewise be possible to get them to ban broadcasters from allowing DJs, commenttors and interviewers to make light of getting drunk and binge drinking.

Boycotting the Olympics

2008-03-26T16:49:00.002+10:30

The Times March 26:
The Australian reports: FRANCE'S Nicolas Sarkozy became the first world leader to suggest that he might boycott the Beijing Olympics as Britain and France increased the pressure on China over Tibet.

Hmmm. Latest flavour of the month.

What's happening in Tibet is horrible. So is what is happening in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, the North if India and in China itself. They all need protest and boycots and people getting hopping mad.

90 Years since ANZACS seized the Wells of Beersheba

2007-10-31T23:05:00.000+10:30

Exactly 90 years ago today in a sudden dash in the heat of battle, 800 Australian light horse charged Turkish lines around Jerusalem and seized the Wells of Beersheba. It has been called the last great successful cavalry charge in history even though the soldiers were actually infantrymen on horses.

It ended the Ottoman Empire's hold on Jerusalem and sounded the death knell for the great Ottoman Caliphate. Mustafa Kemal officially abolished the last Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, and founded the Republic of Turkey, in 1924.

You can read the story at Wikkipedia

Osama Bib Laden is pretty keen to re-etablish the Caliphate, even today broadcasting from Iraq in "The Voice of the Caliphate."

You can read about Caliphates in Wikkipedia too.

... what's different 40 years after the referendum?

2007-05-28T09:53:00.000+09:30

40 years ago this week 90.8% of Australians voted 'Yes', in a referendum to include Aboriginals in the census.

Bizarre really.

It's incomprehensible to moderners that they were ever left out of it.

Paul Kelly writing the Australian today says, "There are, however, two truths embedded in the 1967 message that are more pertinent than before: Most Aborigines will find their livelihood within the mainstream economy and, like other citizens, Aborigines must accept responsibility for their own future."

He missed a bit. The other 19,500,000 of us who are not aboriginal have to get behind those aboriginals who are leading the way in accepting responsibillity for their future and their people – politically, financially, morally. We need to applaud and support their intiatives for dry communities, 100% school attendance for the kids, safety of women and children, fighting petrol sniffing, encouragement of personal and racial dignity.

Interesting note to this is the statistic related on the weekend by the AFL that 20% of the draftees this year were aboriginal. Although it's a stat about young and mostly urban/semi rural men, the fact can't hurt.

Indigenous Australia has super heroes.

... is David Hicks home?

2007-05-25T16:44:00.000+09:30

Is David Hicks really home?

Where is home?

Yes, for now he's 'at home' in Australia but you wouldn't want to call Yatala Prison home would you?

So where is home for Mr Hicks?
Is it with his estranged wife and deserted children?
Is it with the childhood mates he turned his back on when he went off to play cowboys and indians in the Albanian woods?
Is it with his dad to whom he gave the flick but who has done the great Dad thing?
Is it with his old fellow-worshippers at the mosque to whom he also gave the flick?
Is it in a little flat and catching the bus to an Adult learning centre every day and washing trays at Maccas till he earns entrance to higher education?

If home is where the heart is, it'd be interesting to know where his heart actually is.

Reports say that he's given up the former life and when he gets out just wants to meld into the community and make a contribution in a worthwhile way.

I hope he makes it a reality. I really do. If he's dinkum, he'll get my vote. It's going to be a long hard ride though.

If he's not, he'll just be going around the same old hirdy girdy again.

But then that is true for you and me too isn't it?

... West Coast Eagles Face the Music.

2007-04-30T19:19:00.001+09:30

Quotes from the statement by Mike Fitzpatrick, Chairman of the AFL Commission after meeting with the senior executives of the West Coast Eagles Football Club.

'Everybody associated with the AFL – clubs, players, administrators all have an enormous responsibility to the community.'

'There have been a number of examples of poor player behaviour in recent years. And we recognise that our supporters have been disappointed with many of those incidents.'

'We want to tell the football community and the wider Australian community that the AFL takes very seriously its role as a community leader.'

The only thing missing is the requirement that all AFL clubs undertake a course in character development. Getting the 'Weagles' onto CharacterWorks wouldn't hurt them.

... Ahhh America. (Again)

2007-04-20T20:00:00.000+09:30

Dear America.

A mixed message.

Part of me wants to smack you upside the head for your insidious gun manufacturing industry, your anachronistic laws about gun ownership, your general social superficiality, your shallow cheap commercial approach to Christianity, your penchant for talking non-stop, your violent movie industry, your wanton materialism, your impending failure as a morally bankrupt country...

... but the main part of me is offering you my love and deep sympathy for the kids and the families and the other members of the Virgina Tech Community. It is a horrid thing. If I could put my arms around you and hold you all tight I would. Thankfully there is Someone who will.

Quoting from the NBC website: 'NBC News anchor Brian Williams told viewers: "We are sensitive to how all of this will be seen by those affected, and we know we are, in effect, airing the words of a murderer here tonight. . . . So much of it is so profane, so downright gross and incomprehensible..."'

... Now I am a grandfather

2007-04-16T21:10:00.000+09:30

I have quite a distaste for the photographic postings of other doting grand parent friends.

Now I get it.

I just have to make a post about my new Grand Baby

His name is Dion Jesse Coleopy and he is delicious... no more delicious that any other grand child ... but very delicious to me.

... David Hicks gagged but still damp.

2007-04-04T11:10:00.000+09:30

An ancient truism: Man who play on bank of creek soon fall in.

David Hicks played. He dabbled. He paddled. He fell. He got soaked.

Don't we all?

Just as for the rest of us, it's going to take an act of grace by God Himself for David Hicks to ever find renewal, meaning, peace and happiness.

I pray it happens, because coming home to Australia won't do it. Yatala won't do it. Public concern won't do it. Being released won't do it. Getting a job won't do it. Meeting up with his family won't do it.

... 'The Secret' ain't really a secret!

2007-03-19T18:06:00.000+10:30

If you haven’t had someone try to get you onto “The Secret”, you will. It’s bigger than the Yo-Yo craze.

Sorry to burst your bubble baby, but the real secret is that "The Secret" ain't no secret. A few folks have just found a snazzy way to wrap a * mish mash of this and that religion, a bit of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, and a bit of Counselling 101, a bit of smoke and mirrors, thrown in some common sense and they've mystified it by calling it 'The Secret', called the email newsletter 'The Secret Scrolls' and –of course – popped up on Oprah.

Oh and one more thing... they use the hippest phrases like 'The Universe rushes to meet you', 'vibratory fields', 'life force', and 'energy rhythms' and you can't argue with anyone who has an esoteric language like that, now can you? It’s gotta be right.

They used to call this kind of thing Snake Oil and it came in bottles and you drank it or rubbed it on and it cured everything. Now it comes in a DVD and a book and it goes in through your eyes and ears and - yep - it is still claimed to cure everything. It is peddled by a different kind of snake oil salesmen and saleswomen – all apparently well meaning folks, gurus, Mums and Dads and those who've become devotees.

Does it do any good? How could anyone qualify or quantify an answer to a dumb question like that? Ask a better question.

Does it do any harm? There's another nothing question. In fact it's what I call 'a Californian' – all about feelings and faff. Ask a better question.

Ask a question like this:
What's its authority base?
What's its foundation?
Who does it attract as its gurus and what in turn is their authority base?

All that glistens is not gold. Glug! Glug! Glug!

WHY 'THE SECRET' RESONATES
Seriously, the reason "The Secret" resonates with people is that somewhere in the depths of our DNA there is an unanswered telegram from our primeval parents telling us we were born for better, deserve more and shouldn't be so mediocre. The answer has never been a secret and still isn't. It's just not palatable and doesn't appear on Oprah.

It's called Character. It does come on DVD though. I'd love to tell you more about it. Let me know how to get in touch.

Look here. And then if you would like to know more, call me.

By *mish mash I mean it sounds like grabs from the Bible, Shintoism, Shamanism, Bahai, Buddhism, Hindu, Boohoo, Voodoo and Hoodoo.

... 'Hillsong gets another bashing from the Bulletin.'

2007-03-12T13:21:00.000+10:30

Hillsong gets it in the neck again from a likely source!

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

The magazine lets fly at Hillsong for such dastardly deeds as receiving 10% of volunteers' money (voluntarily given), for hosting the Prime Minister, for the Senior Pastor having a father guilty of sex indiscretions and crimes (openly acknowledged by the Senoir Pastor), for making and selling CDs (with no anti-parent, no anti-society, no pro-drug, no pro-promiscuity messages by the way), for having branches in other countries!! and for the occasional foibles of over zealous officials.

Then it publishes letters to the editor many of which are full of – you can't call it anything else– ignorant bigotry against the church.

With 19,000 attendees there are bound to be irritations.

But here's the irony. The Bulletin's owners have a bit to answer for themselves and I suggest it is a lot more dastardly than making a few million bucks from selling CDs and giving it to the service arm of the church, tax free. They have significant shares in casinos which are known to induce gambling addiction, bankruptcy, greed greed and greed, family break up and even gaol terms and suicide. Where's the big expose on that?

The Bulletin 'has a go' at the Hillsong volunteers doing their bit to help the people of Redfern – yet I'll assert (and I'm open to enlightenment) not one of the magazine's editorial staff or ownership has ever set foot in Redfern to do equal or better.

I wonder if this is not a case like that of Herod and John the Baptist. Herod had to cut off JB's head because JB was telling him he shouldn't be in an adulterous relationship with his sister in law.

It's drawing a long bow I know but I wouldn't be surprised if the Bulletin's owners know the casinos will be in trouble if Hillsong and its kind continue to have social impact, so they take any chance to apply blade to neck. Makes me wonder...

... 'The David Hicks Problem is a real problem'

2007-02-06T21:57:00.000+10:30

Normally a person whose activities are deemed illegal has a reasonable expectation of being charged, undergoing a fair trial to face his or her accusers and receive a judgement based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Some of the worst criminals of the last 75 years got such a hearing: Joachim von Ribbentrop, Herman Goering, Martin Boorman, Rudolf Hess all had a their day in court. So did Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, Nikola Sainovic, ex-army chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic and three former generals. Even recently Sadam Hussein got a trial in a public court in spite of the fact that he was a known horror merchant.

Their crimes fell under standard black and white laws. In a Judaeo/Christian legal system (such as the US's), normally no matter what a person is supposed to have done, the person is normally charged, tried, then sentenced or freed, not imprisoned and tormented for ever-so-long because it feels OK to someone in charge.

David Hicks' case however is a real problem. As I understand it, it's like this: When American forces caught Hicks, the U.S. had no law about even so much as being caught in the company of a terrorist group so there was nothing to charge him with according to law but there was enough belief in his culpability for him to be rounded up with others. Some of these have proved to be inoocent. Maybe that was the problem right there that day. Maybe the soldiers on duty should have held up their fingers and yelled, 'Barleys!' while they asked everyone if they were sorry for being there and would they like to go back home or back to the hills and practice making bombs some more, or whether they would like to be locked up in Guantanimo Bay for five years. Make it really democratic and nice. Maybe.

Because Hicks was not a member or citizen of an enemy 'state' he couldn't be a prisoner of war under military court rulings. What was he then? Innocent or guilty? And if either, then innocent or guilty of what and according to whom and how could it be determined? Should he have been freed to roam the world again? Nice thought but according to whose ruling could that have come about?

Australian courts would be in the same dilemma if the 'Bring Hicks Home' campaign were to prevail. Which court could try him and under what charge? If nothing could be drummed up would that mean he should be freed? Big call. I wouldn't want to be making that one. Would you?

It's a tricky one. The emotions have nothing to do with it. He is apparently in poor health or at least a poor state of mind. All we can ask on his behalf is that he be treated humanely while incarcerated and I join with all the campaigners in harmony with that part of it. And if he was just a tourist in the wrong spot like the Tipton Three were (the young Englishmen whose story is told in the movie 'Road to Guantanimo') he should be freed and compensated. Then again Hicks was hardly caught in his wedding suit with a nicely wrapped cake tray under his arm as a gift was he?

This is unlikely to have a happy ending though. Wishing won't make it so. David Hicks made a clear choice to run with the terrorists at whatevr level, which has caught him up in drastic circumstances and like all of us, he's going to have to endure the consequences of his choices.

Hicks' father has my sympathy and drumming up media and public support is an understandable response from a Dad but overlooks the reality that his son wasn't actually trying to save the rain forests. Nor does his blaming the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister for his son's lot in life diminish the reality that his son made a choice to turn his back on said Prime Minister, Foreign Minister kith, kin and countrymen. David Hicks' life is going to be unhappy for a long long long time.

...'I agree with John Howard this Australia Day 2007.'

2007-01-27T19:26:00.000+10:30

In his speech at the Citizenship Ceremony on Australia day 2007 Prime Minister John Howard outlined his views on Australia's set of values.

He said 'the essence of Australian society was under pinned by democracy, the Rule Of Law, an independent judiciary and free press, the equality of men and women and a "fair go".' The Prime Minister also added that there was 'No one absolutely immovable, unalterable "set in stone" set of values.'

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd embraced a similar set of values in his Australia Day speech in Queensland saying that we need to 'allow ourselves to dream... about what we might become.'

... 'Dwight D Eisenhower was right about weapons and war.'

2007-01-16T19:01:00.000+10:30

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
President Eisenhower - From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

Who would want to stop a war that earns billions for the likes of the US, the UK, China and Russia?

Data compiled by the Federation of American Scientists shows that since1992, the U.S. alone exported well over $150 billion worth of weapons to states around the world.

While corporations live off the deaths of others through the manufacture of armaments we will not have peace ever. Get used to it. It's going to be a long time.

... 'Well done Ricky Ponting and the team'

2007-01-06T23:36:00.001+10:30

This summer Cricket fans have been treated to some stunning and soul stirring stuff.
My favourites were in order...
Matty Hayden kissing Justin Langer's head in an emotional farewell to his record breaking partner of 105 matches together.
Langer's tears
Winning five nil
Winning the Ashes
Roy's ton in Melbourne
Warnie's 700
McGrath and Warnie getting 1000 wickets between them
McGrath getting the wicket with his last ball
Ponting's double
Roy's big last day throw-down
The coverage of the finale by Nine's crew
The intelligent interview questions by all the former stars - journalists could take a few tips

... Australia has its share of dummies too!

2006-10-12T13:46:00.000+09:30

Last week it was America asking ‘Why?’ about School shootings.

Today Australia wonders about a 3,000 kid brawl in Sydney.

How could a thing like that happen?

Ummmm .... er... gee let me think... could it be anything to do with well.... how do I put it? ... Really dumb parents letting their kids go to a really dopey event - a dance party for 3,000 hormone-atomically-charged teenagers and expecting them to come home as innocent and unscathed as if they’d just been to a Maccas party for six and seven year olds AND not to come under the influence of bad eggs.

Bit harsh? Nope! Realism! If only 5% of the population is damaged socially, emotionally and psychologically, at an event for 3000 kids you are going to get 150 (at least) very disturbed kids plus a minimum extra 450 influenced by them in their ‘gangs’ PLUS their hangers-on and admirers. Do the maths Mum! Why would you send your darlings to a place where 1/3 of the people are naturally inclined to make trouble?

Duh-uh! It’s 2006 in a mad and angry world.

And yet you wouldn’t take your kids to church or to a church youth group in case they came under the influence of too many do-gooders and moralisers! Yeah, like that’d be really bad.

How CAN you be that dumb and still breathe?

... Beautifully put, Sam!

2006-10-05T11:14:00.000+09:30

... Beautifully put, Sam!

Sam Hine writes some wonderful articles. I decided to republish with his permission

NO HIDING PLACE
Will the Amish School Shootings Change Anything?

Sam Hine
October 4, 2006

I'm not Amish, but my children attend a small rural school that until this week seemed safely removed from the violence plaguing most of our world.

The truth is, we're not safe anywhere. The recent shooting at an Amish school here in Pennsylvania, only days after similar crimes in rural Colorado and Wisconsin, makes it clear that there is nowhere we can hide from the violence, and no one who can't be touched by it.

We need to pray for the grieving families, for the children who survived, and for the wife and children of the killer. And we certainly can and must act to make guns less available. But in the end, no amount of metal detectors or school police or other security measures will be enough to prevent another attack. No federal school violence summit will save us.

We need to look squarely at the root causes of such violence, at the evils we tolerate daily in this violent and sick culture. I could start at the top: The official justification of torture and sexual humiliation at Abu Graib and Guantanamo. The clear message from our military in Iraq ("We don't do body counts.") that the lives of people who believe and dress differently don't count as much. The congressman preying on teenage boys on Capitol Hill, while the leaders of the "moral majority" stand by.

Then there are the obvious culprits: The glorification of violence and sexual predators in film. Violent video games simulating everything from Columbine to Fallujah. The unabashed exploitation of women and young girls as sex objects in advertising, using their bodies to sell everything from cars to beer. The news media that love nothing better than a horrible crime--the more sadistic the better. They wallow for days in the most salacious details, making criminals into instant celebrities with little thought to the copycats they might inspire.

Even more importantly, though, we each need to look in the mirror. What can I do about all this?

The media tell us the killer was angry at life and angry at God. This illustrates in a horrible way where festering resentment can lead. We can't do much to make our schools safer. But we can and must look at any grudges we have in our own lives and free ourselves from them by forgiving. We can't prevent the excesses of Hollywood or the Internet. But we can, though confession, bring to light the secret darkness in our own hearts, breaking the power of evil thoughts before they grow into evil deeds.

The Amish, in their quiet way, are showing us the most fitting response to such a horrible act. They can't find words to describe their pain, but they won't be seeking revenge. Instead they will be turning to their faith to carry them through. The rest of us Americans have a lot to learn from them. Their conscious choices to eschew television, to refuse military service, to dress modestly, and to live simply are among the sanest, most progressive, and most hopeful responses to an insane culture that I've seen so far.

... good question, America.

2006-10-05T10:06:00.000+09:30

In the light of even more school killings, America is asking, 'Why?'

Well umm... let me think... ermmm...could it be something to do with all the guns and ammo?

You love your precious 4th Amendment about the right to bear arms. I've got news for you: The Red Coats went home 200 years ago. They ain't coming back. You won. The towsfolk can go back to defending themselves with sticks and garden rakes.

I had to laugh when an anti gun lobbyist suggested a solution might be limiting the purchase of guns to one a month per person. Yeah. That'll fix it!

...how flexible are you?

2006-10-03T08:53:00.000+09:30

I CAN DO THAT!
Friends and I were out for a Sunday coffee and popped into Ninos Cafe but although the decor was swish the music was a bit thumpy for a sunny Sunday. A young woman there named Kim asked if we were staying and when I said the noise was a bit much she said, “I’ll turn it down for you. Come and sit in and I’ll get your order straight away. Are you in for coffee or a meal?”

Ka-Ching Ka-Ching!!

BUT I CAN'T DO THAT
Contrast that with a hotel where I used to stay in Sydney (only because the client found it convenient to his work to book me into the horrible place) where the breakfast radio was full-on four talking heads going hammer and tongs at a raucous level. I asked if it could be turned down as it was a bit much to put up with in the restaurant but the response was: “The chef likes it!” As if the whole hotel was built for the pleasure of the wally flipping the eggs!

Avoid Avoid!!

...'quick recoveries cover a multitude of sins.'

2006-09-13T23:02:00.000+09:30

A mate, Graham Chilman likes to eat breakfast at Chianti Classico in Hutt Street Adelaide so he invited me to join him today.
http://www.chianticlassico.com.au/
We ordered a juice, some tea and the food. The juices and teas came. His meal came. He was half way through it but mine hadn't arrived. I got up and asked the coffee machine assistant if they had forgotten my brekkie. She assured me they wouldn't have. They had. She apologised with many apologies when they brought my breakfast but... you guessed it ... it was the wrong order. So back they came a few minutes later with the right order.

I was just tucking in [it was delicious and well prepared] when the head waited came over and knelt down and straight up said, 'Gentlemen, I can't apologise enough for the mess-up and there will be no charge for your food and drinks.'

I said, 'Top recovery!' I'll make you famous for that!

I recalled that down the road at a competitor a few years back my brother had found a Band Aid in his salad and the waiter had laughed and said, 'I wonder how that got there!' No recovery at all. I've never been back.

But Chianti Classico? You've won me!

...'little girls don't need big girls' undies'

2006-09-12T08:44:00.000+09:30

I saw the TV report on Target marketing padded bras for 6 year olds.

Not surprising really

We have been telling people for the last 50 years that it is more important to LOOK good rather than BE good so you'd have to expect the myth to descend all the way to this.