PERSONAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Archive for the ‘Social Commentary’ Category

On Wednesday night a leader and mentor of mine, Dr Greg Nazvanov, invited me to speak at the Honeybee Leadership Dinner at the Apprentice Restaurant in Ultimo. The assembly of some 100 or so business people and academics were treated to a presentation about Honeybee Leadership from Dr Harry Bergstein of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and the Institute for Sustainable Leadership. I spoke about my death in 2009 and the leadership shown by the surgical and nursing teams of St Vincent’s Hospital, as well as how that led to my becoming a full time writer, doing what I love for a living.

Dr Greg Nazvanov is a leading financial adviser here in Sydney and someone worth listening to when he has something to say. In fact, all the people I met at this high powered even, organised by Greg, were worth listening to. He included a representative from the Army Reserve to educate employers as to how fortunate they really are to have Reservists working for them. Apart from the $1200 a week the Army Reserve pays the employer while their employee is away serving their country and developing priceless leadership skills, there are the skills themselves they bring back to the workplace. Sgt Amanda, I forget her surname and I do apologize, made a very definite impact on this audience and I am confident many went away keen to hire a Reservist for their next vacancy! I served in the Ares in 1977 aged 15 (lied about my age) and again when I left the Regular Army in 1985 and I have to say they are every bit as good as the regulars and I would have one beside me in business or battle any day.

We also heard from Mario Frapiccini who is a personal trainer and had recently returned from trekking in Nepal. He looked so fit I reckon he ran back from Kathmandu! Then Tony Morris took the floor and he engaged the audience with his craft, that of interpreting body language. All in all it was a terrific event and a great opportunity to network. I have met some top people through it and am already teeing up more work and making some great connections.

As for honeybee leadership, suffice to say I am a convert. Visit the web site and read up on the concept. It is how it should be here in Australia. One day, perhaps it will be.

A man who stabbed his girlfriend 26 times has been jailed for at least 11 years today. Read the article at the link then read on. Basically there are people out there who are mentally unstable. How else can you explain this kind of behaviour?  I was young once and I had loves and lost a few and never once did I think stabbing her 26 times then stabbing myself would sort things out.

Mental illness is the only rational explanation, otherwise we have to acknowledge that some people aren’t as good as others. By good I mean balanced, stable, smart, thinking whatever. I am so glad this nutter is Anglo-Celtic or whatever. A white, non-muslim, male heterosexual. If he were anything else the loonies on one side would scream, see, told you they were all bad while the loonies on the other side would be screaming about how its not his fault because he is a minority and so on.

Bad has no colour bar, it cares not your orientation or religious beliefs. Bad is bad. Period. It is easier to hold views that say he is bad because all (insert personal bias) are bad and it is not so comfortable or easy to accept that this is not the case in reality. That not all (insert personal bias) are bad nor are all (your own ‘type’) good.

The lesson to be earned is that we need to teach our children survival skills. Skills such as the ability to pick up on body language signs that signal the potential to cause harm. Word signals that should ring alarm bells. Just as we don’t teach them how to really handle money and what life is really about, we need to teach them to disregard the gonads and go with the hairs on the back of the neck.

We also need to acknowledge that the brain is susceptible to malfunction just as any other organ is (although technically the brain is not an organ).  let’s try and stop judging people as being less than ourselves for having mental health issues and feel some compassion for them and their loved ones. At the same time, let’s not excuse their behaviour. They may not be responsible but if only for the sake of their victim’s closure they should be punished for their actions, or else let us change completely how we as a society think about crime, punishment, health and society. Hmmm, maybe that is the answer after all.

This woman in New Jersey, USA (where else) is accused of endangering her 5 year old daughter by taking her into a tanning booth. She denies the charge and of course, despite the fact she looks like Al Jolson’s sister, she is entitled to the presumption of innocence. But really, take a look at this woman. She says she loves tanning. OK, but why the aversion to mirrors? I mean has she seen herself lately? I know, I am being judgmental, but we all are. We discriminate, too. Every time we choose coffee over tea or chicken instead of the beef we discriminate. We can’t choose everything and the fact we are offered choices only perpetuates the discrimination we exercise. Yet isn’t discrimination a bad thing?

Perhaps it is, at least when we discriminate for the wrong reasons. But who decides which reasons are good and which are bad? Keep in mind we make our choices based on a number of things, one of which is our culture and societal programming. To some people in our community it is OK to treat women like goods or providers of services, to have them wear clothing that positions them in the hierarchy of their social group and so on. Then we have those who want to be brown and brown people who want to be white, like the late Michael Jackson and millions of women in the Philippines and India. Skin whitening cream is the biggest seller in pharmacies in both countries. Some kind of insecurity throwback to colonial days, I guess and not something I think they need. Especially not now, in the 21st Century, the time of the emergence of BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. A move away from the Anglo-centric world of previous centuries.

I think the face of Australia has changed, but many still expect to see an Anglo-Celtic face on billboards and in ads on TV or in magazines, despite a quick peak at the platform of any railway station at peak hour, at least in Sydney or Melbourne, will show we have a lot more brown faces standing next to the white ones. We have some ‘yellow’ faces for want of a more PC hue for those Asiatic people not quite white and not quite brown, with some very black ones here and there, too. Of course there will be some teething problems and adjustments to be made on all sides but we have always done that From adjusting to having white people landing on shores owned by aboriginal people, to free settlers among our convict originals to those from Europe before and after the World Wars to later waves from South East Asia and lately, from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa and everywhere else. We adjust, they adjust and eventually we change and grow. But not everyone.

Yesterday some of our nation’s finest used a chainsaw to defend their decision to annoy everyone else in the street with their loud music and dangerous driving. When questioned their attitude was typically bogan, or yobbo or whatever term you wish to use. On the other hand, there was a tragic murder suicide involving a migrant family. The point is, you can’t paint everyone with the same brush. There is good and bad in every ethnic community, religion, racial group or however you want to divide us up and analyse us. None of this excuses the Trifecta of Stupid. The scary thing about these people, no matter who they are, where they live, where they came from or what colour their skin is…. they can vote, breed and drive on the roads. You can’t stop them doing any of the three, so the best thing is to not be a part of the problem. Open your mind, think outside the envelope and accept that we live in a society made up of very different people from very different origins and that is our strength.  So ask yourself a few simple questions. Who did you vote for? How are your kids being brought up? How good a driver are you, really? Ignorance is based on fear, usually of the unknown. Knowledge dispels fear so educate yourself. Think about that, then find someone with a different skin tone and say G’Day! Find out that behind that skin tone there is a human being, more alike than different to you. You never know, you might make a friend.

The shooting of two criminals in Sydney’s Kings Cross over the weekend has given the media the feeding frenzy they need to sell ads and maintain ratings. A stolen car full of teenagers attempted to escape from the police and the driver drove the car onto a crowded footpath and allegedly struck a female pedestrian. The police shot at the driver to stop him, hitting him and the front seat passenger. Then they removed them from the vehicle and attempted to handcuff them, however at least one criminal was passively resisting or at least refusing to allow the officer to handcuff him and so he was punched to gain compliance. All of this was filmed, as is usual nowadays, on a mobile phone camera. The police acted decisively in a very tense and rapidly changing situation… now the arm chair experts chip in, safe from their upscale suburban homes and tax payer funded parliamentary offices.

First of all the criminals were minors. The father of the 17 year old front passenger moans how his son was treated as an adult, not a minor. I’m sorry, but a 17 year old doesn’t have a sign on him saying he is not 18 yet. He looked pretty adult and full grown to me and never forget, he was in a stolen car that was being driven on a crowded footpath. The driver was 14 and those in the back included a 13 year old. So? Old enough to do the crime, old enough to be dealt with the same as anyone else. They refused police directions to stop like adults, they stole a car like adults, they drove it on the footpath like adults and they weren’t behaving like my 13 year old does. If age is so relevant in this situation, how old was the car? Old enough to be stolen and driven into innocent pedestrians on a footpath.

The next issue is those teenage criminals were indigenous. so now the Police have to liaise with the indigenous community to keep things calm. Why? Criminals are criminals regardless, surely? Why do they get special treatment? It is the same with any ethnic community other than Anglo-Europeans. How racist is that? And we keep pandering to them so it is no wonder they feel special.

Worst of all is the Greens MP who says the Police should have shot at the tyres. Mr David Shoebridge… get real. Get real. This is not the movies. Apart from having seen bullets bounce off tyres (used as a backstop at a pistol range) tyres don’t matter when the driver still has the intent to drive the car on its rims and run over more people. Shoebridge, these officers have to make split second life or death decisions and then stand by them months later in calm, quiet courtrooms while people like you who know nothing, have never done anything and probably don’t have the guts to ever do anything have to clean up the mess made all too often by do-gooding people like you and your political party. Stay in parliament, Shoebridge because I can’t think of a single serving officer who would want you one of your ilk beside them in such a situation. Back-up? I think the only compound word with back in it politicians understand is back-stab, but I digress.

To all of you living in that perfect world in your heads, the criminals stole a car and refused to stop, drove onto a footpath and risked the lives of law abiding citizens. When stopped in the only sensible and immediately effective manner available to the officers on the scene the criminals continued to refuse police direction. As for comments of being ‘forced to lie face first in a pool of his own blood’, the footage shows him lying there and his neck is bleeding. Punched? Yes because it is obvious the criminal is refusing to be handcuffed. Dragged? Yes, away from the car where officers have three other criminals to manage and to be searched for weapons. As for the fact these criminals are Aboriginal…so what? If they were all left handed would it rate a mention? Let’s not give the media and the midget minded fuel. The sooner we treat everyone equally the better.

If that were my 17 year old son I would be grateful the Police bullets didn’t kill him. It would hurt to watch the footage but as the father admits, his son is ‘known to police’. I would hazard he has been ‘known’ as a little criminal mongrel since he was in primary school. Don’t blame the police for dealing effectively with a lethal situation. Ask that father why his 17 year old boy was running loose in a stolen car trying to run down pedestrians and police. Where was he when the boy was growing up and needed a solid role model?

I am the first to hammer the police when I think they have over stepped the mark but I am not going to stand back and allow these officers to be hung out to dry for doing a very tough job in very dangerous circumstances simply because the world is getting soft and swallowing the line that so long as we keep spending and especially with credit cards all will be well. But that’s another blog for another time.

This couple in Aceh, Sumatra Indonesia have been caned for being caught having pre-marital sex in public. They are described as ‘punks’ and were part of a crackdown on punk groups in this populous Islamic Asian state. So on the surface this looks pretty damning of Sharia Law and what it means as far as we Westerners are concerned. First of all the punishment, caning and then of course the ‘crime’. It is an offence to have sex in public in my country, albeit the punishment is usually a fine, community service or a slap on the wrist. If they were ugly or inept they might get jail time to improve their partner prospects…. I’m joking. It is a joke in bad taste, not an offensive utterance but let’s leave society’s softening for another blog.

So should we get all upset about this? After all, the punished pair live in a place where they know what they do is illegal. We can argue over the legality of caning, sex in public and whether the government has the right to harass people for looking a certain way like punks do, but that isn’t the issue. How do we know if they were in public view? If someone trespassed on their land to sight them it should not be ‘in public’. Yet in my city there are cases where people have been seen naked or engaging in sex in the privacy of their own homes but because of a curtain malfunction someone outside on the street or in a neighbouring house saw them. Consequently it was indecent exposure or what have you. Surely this is not the same as someone purposely engaging in a public demonstration of nakedness or sex with the aim of shocking and offending?

Caning is barbaric to some but I was caned at school in the 1970s. What is the difference? Because we no longer engage in a certain behaviour everyone who still does is wrong? Yet were we wrong when we did it? At the time no, now yes you say? But you can’t apply current standards to long past practices and attitudes. We never want another Hiroshima or Nagasaki but at the time it was a very different zeitgeist, especially among those in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, Nanking and wherever else the Japanese Emperor had sent his minions. Hirohito was happy to let hundreds of thousands burn in the Tokyo fire raids of April 1945 with no intention to give up his privileged position.

Let’s think about the report and the photo for a moment and ask yourself if you are being manipulated by the media. Note the angle of the photo, taken from below to emphasise the power and authority of the taller figure and the submission of the lower one. Note it is a male figure caning a female, yet her partner was also caned so why not show him copping it? Note the ‘theater’ of the costume worn by the caner. Is this report aimed at passing on news of an event or is it designed to create a reaction among the readers?

I don’t want Sharia Law in Australia and I would never willingly live in a country that had it. I accept these people probably have little choice but to remain in Aceh although I am sure they are free to move around within Indonesia and most of the country is not extreme when it comes to Islam. We also have to accept that our way isn’t the only way. There are plenty of problems in our own culture and community without worrying about people in other cultures and how they are suffering; at least in the context of it being our job to save them. The world is, always has been and always will be a pretty cruel place. You can soften it in your own mind with your own beliefs but that doesn’t change someone else’s reality. Sometimes you have to simply accept life isn’t as fair as you might want it to be and move on. Charity begins at home so above all else, ensure you are if not a part of the solution, at least you are not a part of the problem. And get a room.

This $300 million yacht belongs to a Russian billionaire. How can one person amass such wealth while so many billions of people suffer poverty, war, disease and whatever else? Would I want his wealth and this yacht? No. I can admit it is tempting but on reflection, no. I would rather enjoy a comfortable but more modest lifestyle and not have to worry about kidnappers and thieves. I’m sure he can afford the best protection available but while his security staff have to be lucky all the time, the kidnapper only has to get lucky once.

Read this, then shake your head in wonder. How can anyone treat anyone like this, let alone a sibling? Some might say that these people are African and Africans are still pretty savage and primitive and in many ways there is still a lot of primitive and savage behaviour found in Africa… but that isn’t the answer. This is a human thing. All of our ancestors believed in witchcraft and similar supernatural concepts. Many in our so called civilized western world still do. There are many people who do cruel things to people, even their own children and they don’t try to blame witchcraft, so let’s not point the finger, or the bone, at any race. Like I said, this is a human thing.

Run a search using words like ‘boy+tortured+parents’ and see how many articles there are. Just this past week I read two reports of parents torturing their little children. Why? The only reason I can think of is that they are psychotic, brought about by substance abuse or circumstance. By circumstance I mean they were brought up that way and know no different. The cycle of poverty, low IQ, lack of education and abuse creates a class of human who can still create life, they just have no idea how to nurture it.

How we treat each other is a major issue for us all, at grass roots level. It is not confined to any social class but it is more prevalent in low socioeconomic classes. It is not confined to any one race but it is more prevalent in some than others, but not because that race is genetically inferior, so don’t go down that path. That race is that way because of other factors, not genetics. Given a fair run anyone from any race can achieve anything. The reality is that for many, there is no fair run. Even for those where society attempts to level the playing field, too often they or someone influential near them sabotages any chance they have of making worthwhile change.

Like I always say; if you can’t be a part of the solution, don’t be a part of the problem. How do you treat other people? Start with your loved ones, then move to your friends and work outwards to neighbours and colleagues and then consider strangers and people of other classes and races. Do you give them all a fair go or lump them all into the same pile because of the actions of some? If we are going to change the way we as a society think and interact, then we need to start with the person we have the most influence and control over. Ourselves.

Perhaps the longest title I have ever had, while not recommended as good SEO, it just might get some attention. I was sent an email from Causes.org today focusing on this despicable habit of murdering girls simply because the culture they are born into has beliefs that boys are more important. How does one communicate one’s opinion without judging, condemning, abusing and basically running the all too ever present risk of being labelled ‘racist’? Frankly, I don’t care what people think of me. Here is what I think of this misogyny.

There is no place in our world in 2012 for any culture or society that believes boys are more important than girls. People who will terminate the pregnancy because the foetus is a girl when they want a boy are not civilized people. They are murderers. While I support a woman’s right to choose abortion over giving birth, I do so reservedly. If the woman was raped, has no fair chance of supporting the child and giving it a fair chance at life within its community or there is a risk to the life of the mother or child should the pregnancy go ahead, then let the mother decide. It doesn’t change the fact the foetus has been terminated or killed as you prefer, but I don’t see that as murder. Terminating the foetus because you want a boy is malicious and thus, murder. Where does this go on?

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are three countries well known for this practise, as is China thanks to the ‘one child’ policy implemented to keep the population growth in step with resources and so on. Many Asian societies place boys over girls and so too, African, American and European societies. Until fairly recently women in the USA, UK and elsewhere were chattels, property of their fathers, husbands and brothers. They had no voting rights and personal property rights were limited also, as was their movements, associations and other basic human rights. But these societies have changed. The ones where women are so horribly treated just for being women haven’t. They have remained in the past and many claim their religion permits these beliefs, even sanctions them and some claim their god told them to do it.

It’s not right. I don’t care why or who or how. It is not right. There is plenty of information on this disgusting behaviour all over the web, just look at stories about women being set on fire so the husband can remarry and get another wife with another dowry. Read how these societies make it hugely expensive to find a husband for their daughter so she can give the husband an heir, yet if she only produces girls they die, she dies and her family is disgraced.

I know, this is their way and it has been that way for eons and who am I to say anything about it. Well I am one man and I say it is wrong. These people who no doubt in many ways, if not every other way, are good people, extinguish all the good in their lives by this one thing. That is my belief. That is my opinion. I have friends from these countries who have all daughters and no sons, just like myself and they abhor the practise also. They are educated, intelligent and kind people. One can only hope the practitioners of this cultural aberration are ignorant peasants but sadly that is not so. There is an argument that this is a beat up and a hoax, read the other side of the topic, here.

Speak out, take a stand, discuss this amongst your friends and family; don’t sweep it under the carpet and ignore it because you are not one of these people. We need to make it known that we don’t approve. If these people migrate to Australia they need to know we do not tolerate medieval misogynistic mindsets. We do not accept their attitudes to women, often expressed in how we ‘allow’ our women to parade like ‘hoori’s’ (virgins or prostitutes, depends on the context and dialect) because we don’t hide them under hijabs, niquabs and burkas. No, we control our impulses and our lust because we are civilized men who respect the 50% of our community called women and girls.

Women are half of the population. They are half of the procreation and creation of future humans. It is the male, I believe, who is responsible for the gender of the foetus as we carry the X and Y chromosomes, women only have Y. All these men who torture and kill their wives for failing to give them boys should get an education and realise they are as much ‘at fault’ in the Life Lottery as the female, if not more so. And if their god made them that way as they claim, then why? If he is all powerful and perfect then there is a reason why and that is not the fault of the women. But none of this will make any sense to these bigots and misogynists, will it?

We can change the status quo, even if it is simply more of us saying no, we don’t accept this. No, if you want to live here with us then you must change your thinking. No, we don’t want to spend our money visiting your country on vacation or business because we do not want to support your society while it continues to do this. When the governments of these countries take action, then by all means vacation there and show your support for their efforts. This post is not about inciting racial hatred but addressing a very serious issue of human rights. Whatever you do, don’t gang up on some poor individual just because you think they are from one of these societies and that maybe they also think boys are better than girls.  You just might be beating up my mate, and I won’t like that.

There has been a lot of discussion over this video clip posted to YouTube showing the father of a North Carolina teenage girl shooting a laptop. What makes me laugh is how the article makes a point of how he wears a ‘cowboy hat’ and smokes a cigarette. OK, so he wears a broad brimmed hat and he smokes? Does that make him ….what? A bad dad?

Then some comments on You Tube include bleeding hearts whining how he is setting a bad example of how to manage your anger and how the gun is inappropriate etc. If he drove over the laptop would that have sent the wrong message for teen drivers? If he threw it out of a fourth floor window what would that encourage those teens to do? He seemed like a reasonable, intelligent, educated and above all else caring parent.He has made his point and millions of people around the world have seen this. I would say the majority support the message, if not the method. I don’t have a problem with him shooting the laptop. He has a licensed firearm and he is using it safely on private property. He bought and paid for the laptop, it is not something the daughter needs to sustain life (although she might see things differently).

I like to think this has sent a positive message to my 13 year old daughter, and in time, her four sisters who will be following her into teenage over the next decade. What was it that guy Voltaire said? Something about shoot one… to encourage the others…

In Florida a rich man has adopted his 42 year old girlfriend to avoid losing his inherited fortune in a court case. The case was brought against him by the parents of a young man he caused the death of due to driving under the influence. Basically a court had previously ruled that the part of his fortune willed to his two biological children could not be touched by anyone sueing him or his estate. So now he has made his girlfriend just seven years his junior his adopted daughter. In most jurisdictions adopted children are considered to have the same legal standing as naturally born children. Surely such abuse of the law could only happen in America? In Australia it is rare that adoption is approved for non-minors as it is considered unnecessary for the good of the child. But this is America and it is about the good of the rich man and how he has the clout to flout the law and common decency, let alone morality.

So no doubt he has continued a sexual relationship with his girlfriend/daughter. Surely that is incest? This is a deliberate abuse of the law, the spirit if not the letter, to deny another party their due compensation or to avoid punitive action. But then what’s new? The rich are not like the rest of us, as F.Scott Fitzgerald pointed out to Ernest Hemingway many years ago. They are indeed different and they think differently and they think of us as being here to make their lives easier. We are still serfs in their minds.

I would be so bold as to say I think this rich bloke drove drunk because he arrogantly believed the law doesn’t apply to his class. He took a life or caused the loss of one and he will use his money and power to avoid paying for his mistakes. If you or I had done this we would be in jail still, and probably staying there.

What galls me the most about this is not that he has deliberately abused the laws of adoption to serve his own ends but that he probably has no inkling of how wrong this is. It will never occur to him that what he did was wrong just as no doubt his only regret about the death of the man he caused is because of all the bother it has put him and his lawyers too. I mean, why can’t these peasants just go away and be grateful we are no longer made to wear pigtails or hand over our brides on our wedding night to the lord of the manor.