@HawkGeminus has just put the finishing touches on the main page for GrowUpAustralia.com.
Saturday 27th February 2010
Tuesday 17th November 2009
Some disturbing news about the state of tertiary education in South Australia being reported by Suzanne Tindal on ZDNet Australia. Flinders University and TAFE SA (similar to a polytechnic for my Singaporean and Malaysian readers) have adopted Microsoft Exchange based Live@Edu for a three year contract. While on the surface the features actually sound cool, the potential ramifications of adopting this expensive system are scary.
Sunday 06th September 2009
I value government integrity and I’m willing to pay for it!
This evening while grabbing a bite to eat I made the mistake of reading the Adelaide Sunday Mail. I know, I know, it was reckless and irresponsible, but sometimes I feel as though with my news sources from around the world on Twitter and predominately from Singapore I forget about more local news. Ah but The Sunday Mail tabloid newspaper has nothing to do with news… touché sir/madam.
What I did read though in the opinion section was a brief letter from someone in Hahndorf (beautiful place in the Adelaide Hills) talking about how having a registry of lobbyists won’t solve any problems. Now right off the bat I don’t have the faintest idea what this proposed lobbyist registry is, but I’m assuming its something lobbyists have to register with before they can pay politicians to do their bidding. Maybe?
Onto the primary issue though: can anyone actually explain to me why lobbyists are tolerated at all? Isn’t the idea of paying off or financially persuading a politician to advance your position in the hopes of legislation in your favour going against everything democracy stands for? Doesn’t lobbying concentrate the power in the hands of the few instead of the many that democracy is supposed to be about?
I’m not a legal student, but I am an economics student (and computer science, but not sure what bearing that has) and all I see of lobbying from my perspective is the means for the rich or powerful in business to institute change or to get around perceived government "problems" in their businesses which may or may not be in place for a reason. For example, not being allowed to dump waste into rivers or allowing people to grill cheese sandwiches in areas where the population is lactose intolerant.
Leaving aside the more sarcastic answers that could be given, why is it that lobbying is legal in most democracies? Do they serve a legitimate function I’m not aware of? Am I being overly simplistic by dismissing them?
Wednesday 10th June 2009
All clear for takeoff!
In part one of my sister’s and my saga to get her a new passport when her current one suffered water damage I talked about our frantic dash to apply for accounts, Medicare, proof of age cards and other such riff raff so we had enough ID for her to satisfy the conditions.
Our efforts were not in vain; after a grueling interview comparing tens of provided documents to the official forms to find a combination that satisfied all the conditions, we finally got one that worked. The women serving us was extremely friendly and understanding, she even saw our last name and started speaking German to us!
Elke will be receiving her passport this Friday.
Unfortunately it wasn’t until after we left that I realised I hadn’t got the women’s name who served us. So many people in banks and government offices treat us like crap on a regular basis that when exchanges like this happen I try to always send positive feedback which I’m sure is ignored most of the time but it’s the least I can do. At least I got to say Haben Sie vielen Dank!
