My Samsung e3310 phone post is the most popular post on my blog. By God this phone's become a headache.

1 was so chuffed with this $150 pre-paid phone that I posted this photo when I bought it almost six months ago. 
Perhaps it's nothing but the smug trainees and salesperson who served me today that have me set against it now.
I think people should know that the support for this phone is totally unreliable - and perhaps this phone is not reliable.
It's broke and not six months old. It went flat a month ago and I couldn't charge it up. 
I took it in to Optus. They sent it away (for 3 weeks).
What really got me wild is I got a call from a chirpy girl from Samsung asking me if I got my phone back.
Unlike other sales reps who ring you at home she had no time to take a complaint - the phone still doesn't work it needs a new charger.
"That's not our problem" - or words to that effect - was her response. I need to see Optus.
Purple - no there's not colour in existence to describe my response.
WORSE this morning when I went back to Optus with a flat battery! 
A snotty-nosed boy who wears a "trainee" tag stood by watching as I complained to a salesgirl - he served me last week.
 
This sales girl lingered with another customer to try to avoid serving me - the longer she took the more upset I became.
 
I explained the problem - it's been sent away, I picked it up last week, the charger still doesn't work, the trainee got it wrong, I had to make another trip, I've brought the charger back.
She tests the charger.
I complain that trainees should be supervised a little closer.
The snotty-nosed trainee and this galling salesperson exchange smirks.
She looks down on me and, with amusement, tells me that my charger needs replacing.
DER! Darling! (That's not what I said to her)
 
What I did say is: "Are you laughing at me?"
She barely refuted the assertion at first. The trainee stood by defiantly. 
I asked to see her boss - then she realised she had made a mistake.
 
Her boss is one of the more competent managers I've encountered, a young man named Michael. Polite and helpful - faultless.
So was the young woman who sold me the phone.
She patiently waited for me to decide whether I'd buy this phone.
 
Last week, it took two trainees and a sales person longer to do the paperwork for a $50 refund than it took the sales girl who sold me the phone to take all the ID and stuff needed to buy a new phone.
This snotty-nosed trainee would have let me walk away without the refund had I not asked for it. They take a $50 deposit to send the phone away to be fixed.
After they got through the trauma of the refund - without any apologies or politeness - it was as if it was all my fault - they sent me on my way knowing that my problem had not been fixed.
These trainees sent me home with the advice that it's probably my charger because the techs could not replicate the fault - they told me that I may need to buy a new charger. 
They didn't want to test it. They weren't interested at all in helping me and I didn't want to spend a moment longer with these "little darlings".
I hate to be a whinger but there's no excuse for this kind of service - I'd call it bad behaviour not service. 
I feel like some innocent by-stander in Yes Minister.
 
 
I've been an Optus customer for over a decade I'd say but I'm on the verge of changing to another provider.
They got it wrong and until I asked for the manager I got no apology or no satisfactory help. 
They failed to inform me that I could borrow a replacement phone while my phone was being fixed.
They failed to correctly diagnose the problem.
They failed to address the problem when the phone was returned.
I think that's called giving them enough rope to hang themselves.
OH and best all all - they failed to tell me that Samsung will replace the charger for nothing because it's less than six months old!

Tabled report rates new Queensland Health payroll system a dud and recommends re-design asap - flawed testing.

Who ignored this report last year before deciding to go live with the system?

 Full Report via @johnstonec

Queensland Health apology

Doctors threaten to walk over payroll bungle

Quote from 4.5.2 Integration within the solution: "Given current stage of the project it is too late to re-architect the solution. However, it should be considered during the next opportunity (new project release, solution upgrade)."

Social media profile transposed to explain the failure of accountability in representative government.

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidarity to pure wind" _ George Orwell.

We are in big trouble with politicians discarding the truth - AGAIN - in order to be re-elected. I'm outraged that we have to choose between Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd - the choices just seem to get worse and worse and worse as the elections roll by.

It took the ABC's Four Corners to prompt Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology for the deaths of people in the botched insulation program.

He actually met the parents Four Corners interviewed and didn't even offer condolences for the death of their son - that's what they told Four Corners. What kind of behaviour is this? I don't think Tony Abbott is better either. These "men" are not caring for their constituency they are caring about their personal/political goals. Wrong priorities.

Rudd apologised but significantly failed to release those letters Environment Minister Peter Garrett sent him during those months when bureaucrats, electricians and parents were trying to get the Rudd Government to provide life-saving checks and balances and training. 

It's representative government - they represent us - do they represent our values? Do we get what we deserve?

I examined a slideshow about the results of a social media study conducted by InSite Consulting today. (released March 2010)

It shows social media as a pyramid of activity with content creators at the top and inactive users at the bottom.

The breakdown goes like this: 24 percent of social media users are content creators, 33 percent are conversationalists, 37 percent are critics, 20 percent are collectors, 59 percent are joiners, 70 percent are spectators (I guess most of us are spectators most of the time), and 17 percent are inactive.

If a democracy profile is similar to this break down with politicians at the top making laws, the conversationalists are people who bother to keep up with current affairs, the critics are the media, the joiners are sheep or maybe swinging voters and we're all spectators - perhaps this is why we're in trouble? I don't know what the overlap is in this study: I'm sure that some critics are conversationalists etc....

The point is that the people able to hold politicians and political parties (their interests are not necessarily the interests of the community) make up only half the population - if we're lucky.

Sure everyone over 18 votes in Australia - that may be one of the problems! Compulsory voting. If people don't care should they be forced to vote?

Participation is key - people need to care before politicians will give a damn. It only works when people are held accountable. It seems that what's more important to everyone is "what you can get away with".

We're in trouble. It is an "act of political cowardice" - to use the prime minister's words in regard to failing to do anything about climate change - to let THEM "get away with this".

Where does power reside in a democracy? 

The slideshow: 

<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyNzI*NTAwMzY2NTUmcHQ9MTI3MjQ1MDA*NTUyOCZwPTEwMTkxJmQ9c3NfZW1iZWQmZz*yJm89OTNlNWM3MzIwY2Nm/NGNmZGIyYmI1NmE2NzM4YTUwMWImb2Y9MA==.gif" /><div style="width:425px" id="__ss_3435531"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px">Social networks around the world 2010</strong> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more presentations from stevenvanbelleghem.</div></div>

If Portugal and Spain fall, if there's a second wave to the GFC, who do we prosecute?

People don't pay attention. Big epiphany!

We don't pay attention to people, to the road, to our health - we don't want to know, we've got to rush to get things done. Things must be done and now! How well they get done is another thing and whether they are the things which should get done is another question again. 
People who want to know ask questions and seek information. They are often called troublemakers, activists, lunatics, anarchists, alternatives, dreamers, Greens!
Most of us only ask questions when we're stung by strong emotion - we don't want to think until our comfort is affected. That's why really annoying advertisements work - they elicit hatred.
 
People don't pay attention - we're always looking for things to distract us so we don't pay attention even MORE! Saw someone driving to work at 6.30am half asleep, one hand on the wheel, coffee in the other, phone under the ear and food in the mouth. Did this guy have his mind on the road do you think? Well, he cut in front of me and there was no one else on the road at the time. Lack of attention or disregard?
This is how the water crisis snuck up.
This is how the economic collapse of US markets and European countries snuck up.
This is how Climate Change snuck up.
It seems too late to learn to swim once you're in deep water - but that's the way we live.
Things like water rate rises, electricity rate rises, traffic snarls, hospital stuff ups make national and international problems personal - suddenly we wonder and we start complaining and blaming. But were you saving money in fat times? Are you saving now?

Some people pay attention.
They clean up when markets fall buying blue chip bargains and sell when the prices go up - arbitrage. Love that word.
Banks find ways to introduce new fees so that their profit line keeps going up - did Australian banks take a GFC hit? No. 
Didn't Kevin Rudd guarantee banks - and isn't that partly why retirees who put their money in banks rather than superannuation funds are now borderline?
Who's asleep at the wheel? If Spain and Portugal crash, if there's a second wave, if we crash who do we sue? Who do we prosecute? It's not a joke. 
 
We expect others to look after our welfare but even parents don't care - often.
Often parents put their needs before the needs of their children - sometimes it's the only way they can survive, sometimes it's selfishness.
Children grow up thinking that's the way it is for everyone - and they don't question it either.
We know that politicians, priests, banks, businesses, teachers, parents aren't saints and yet we expect them to do the right thing - deep down, don't we?
Advertising and marketing are necessary to get through to people - spin is necessary because we're NOT listening.

Or is it because of spin that we're not listening?
So I suppose then it really is about trust - not attention.

Will Australia end up like DJs or Big W - people waiting to be served? Stagnation is our enemy

"One needs a fast flowing river to avoid the corrupt air produced by stagnation." _ Leonardo da Vinci

Perhaps the Murray-Darling River slow death is a fit icon for our times - stagnation is a killjoy.

The poor old river system which "flows" through four states and feeds the food bowl of Australia has suffered from salination, been choked by algae blooms, almost stopped flowing entirely until the recent rains and now this issue of humanity releasing its grip enough to let the river flow is a HUGE, huge issue in Australia.

We should be thankful that we do not have economic stagnation - zero growth - just like the United States. Or worse face bankruptcy like Greece, Portugal and Spain.

But what about cultural stagnation? I think we can honestly say that we do not have political stagnation given recent election results.

Still, there is much fear and fear is a big reason for cultural stagnation - institutional culture, school culture, artistic culture ... you add your twist if you want...

I seem to go through my life at the moment flabbergasted by the stagnation of culture at all levels of society - but this blog is inspired particularly by the stagnation (no, failure) of service culture.

It's a radical really: low service standards existing beside a rampaging consumer culture.

Consumer culture rages down the canyon of our lives like water in a gutter in storm season. Can you see the billowing purple-green clouds containing hail?

People talk about a two-speed economy - the mining states booming versus stagnation in the non-mining states. Supposedly mining states like Queensland have an unfair advantage.

It certainly doesn't feel like it in Brisbane where the streets are clogged with traffic, the bills go up and multiply while the jobs don't really seem to be flowing freely any more.

I found government statistics predict hail season in the mining states which have drawn labour away from the non-mining states but have had a significant cost of living or CPI rise as a result of prosperity. 

Yes, it creates employment but eventually when you can't find people to fill positions in mining and non-mining states ( there are labour shortages everywhere ).

Big department stores like David Jones and Big W are like ghost towns - the staff are like ghosts you can't find them anywhere. 

I stood at Big W's "service" station for 15 minutes and pressed the red button several times before giving up on the weekend. 

Today, I tried to get my motor mower repaired. The local guy is booked to January. There's a 10-day turnaround at the place in nearby Springwood.

And if you want to set your graduating child up in a surefire business - have them train as a pooch groomer because they are booked up a month in advance. HUGE shortage: never mind nurses, plumbers, doctors, electricians ...  

In David Jones I was told by a retail assistant contractor at one of the only manned cash registers on an entire floor that contractors keep DJs going.

Sure there's a 4.7 per cent difference in gross domestic income benefiting mining states but the Consumer Price Index (cost of living) is 0.7pc higher in mining states - according to this Economic Roundup paper.

Looks like the only time of the year there isn't a sale is at Christmas time. So is the mining boom a real advantage to mining states? This Federal Economic Roundup paper says Australia has always been a two speed economy - it's nothing new. 

In this context, the skills shortage is just another example of poor planning (stagnation) just like the infrastructure crisis (stagnation) and the dire condition of the poor old Murray-Darling River. (stagnation)

Australia's other hoary issue is population policy - to grow (via migration) or not to grow.
 
Prime Minister Julia Gillard played a winning card to win the hearts and minds of fearful Australians before the election - scarcity thinking in prosperous times? Bizarre.
 
She rejected a "Big Australia" policy for a "sustainable population growth" policy - just a euphemism for "we don't want foreigners taking food out of our mouths".

Is a fearful, closed-door policy for a small Australia sustainable? Reading these stats, it seems not. Sure this report isn't the latest but I defy you to argue that a stagnation in innovative thinking and action will not lead to "sustainable growth". It'll be like Brisbane the capital city of a mining state which is now choked by traffic, formerly known as Australia's "most livable city".

Is Australia going to like Big W and David Jones stores in future? People standing around waiting...

Oh there are so many ways to slice this sticky Pavlova but perhaps we need a Lamington instead, huh?

Thank God Jamie Oliver is in town!

Hero's journey: making decisions in the face of terror.

This old John Wayne movie reminded me that Hollywood changed its mind (around the 1960s) about portraying "the Indians" as bad savages. 

So we got "Revisionist Westerns". Australia has no Hollywood. Australian stories are disappearing from our screens as we speak.

Frankly, our film & TV producers are girding their loins to battle for stronger Australian Content Standards and Quotas on subscriber, free-to-air and "somehow, some day, somewhere" online services.

It is the culture war! They will die with their boots on. It feels like an episode of Minscule in the big, wide world. 

So it is uncertain if revisions of our treatment of refugees will make it to the tickertape news that runs across the bottom of our screens - considering that in the political and social spectrum culture comes somewhere behind carbon pricing, refugee processing, jobs and the Australian dollar, not to mention the mining tax.

Still, Australians aren't taking to leaky boats yet.

This John Wayne movie made me think how times change but history doesn't.

I mean the systematic removal of the "redskin" (the now-outlawed Hollywood Western turn-of-phrase) from their homelands condemned them to live as refugees. 

Here's proof of prisoners (including the famous Geronimo) from the National Archives of the USA  - or maybe it was just staged, right?

Had "the Indians" fled, they would call themselves citizens of another land not "Native Americans" - do we think less of people who flee?

Today's decision to redraft refugee laws is a defining moment, just like 1975's dismissal - just like the Howard Government's decision to bring in off-shore processing in Naru or turn back the Tampa.

This is a blog. This is opinion. This is a democracy. Comprende?

 Heroes define us. I guess that's why Australians stick to sporting heroes - there's a scoreboard.

Leave it to elected representatives to define our character - just as long as they don't interfere with the real game.

Politics is history. You can't separate civilians from "party wars" - even civilians who switch off the TV, even citizens who cast a donkey vote or don't vote or can't vote.

Who is the hero of our story today, and who will be the hero tomorrow? 

Happy baby elephant versus cranky cat - the fight for evolution

"Is that final-FINAL, Minister?" Bernard asks, testing the patience of his Minister who already insisted that "Indeed, that is final!" 
This clever satire proves the existence of "prickly finality" - PF. Mostly exists in situations where things are PFU : pretty f....d up. It keeps everyone on their toes - as Sir Humphrey Appleby might smirk in the iconic British sitcom, Yes Minister. It even benefits some people to keep things just the way they are.
But is it just coincidence that We, Citizens of Australia, et al, elected to live through the Year of the Prickly Pear in 2011?  It was rather tiresome, all that PF about the election result of 2010. So much social turmoil around the globe. So much unrest. 
We got off lucky as compared to Britain where people turned to pillaging and rioting. And what about the "Arab Spring"?
What about the price of bananas and gridlock! Never mind the Euro debt or the "amnesty" in Syria.

Anyone for a Rage Jar? Those for...

The temperature's up and I'm not talking Global Warming in the ecological sense - it's societal, it's global and it's still manmade!
And I have the solution! Tax hot air. No not CO2. Rage! Behaviour management equals a new tax - doesn't it?
Instead of a swear jar, put a rage jar in every parliament, in every office, classroom, on all public transport, on iTunes ... Whoa! Bonanza!
Why not? It seems to me that half the hot air in the world is due to government regulation of some sort. 
What if instead of rage jar we reviewed all government regulations and repeal a few socially repressive and antiquated laws which get our goat - anti-smoking, anti-littering, anti-pollution, anti-siphoning... they all offend someone!
Therefore, we are ALL offended - I think I've offended a lot of people here proving one thing: we all have a little thorn in our paw. 
Why is it that we can't have an "honesty is best" policy and start trusting people to do the right thing - instead of making them miserable and forcing them to "do the right thing". 
What if we had a little give and take going? Cause I have to say that I don't know that this current policy of "regulate and be damned" works - we ain't authoritarian, YET! 
Sure we aren't exactly Tunisa, Egypt or Libya or, dare I say Syria - we don't need "amnesties" here, do we? 
But this issue of "government regulation" versus promoting good behaviour and respect - like a "slip, slop, slap" campaign.
It is like comparing Chinese medicine's raison d'etre of preserving health, as opposed to Western medicine method of addressing the disease - or inducing hypochondria coupled to a Medi-scheme that doubles as a Medi-bank for GPs & allied health professionals.
All those "Grumpy Guide to..." programs that Britain made over the past few years just justified all the grumpi-bums. I like to spell grumpi-bums my way - so THERE! SUE ME! 
Totally uncalled for it was. Those shows were more like a wildlife doco set in a den of lions all sitting their with prickles in their paws roaring their woes is me's... me this... me that!

Law of the Jungle versus A Regulated Lot

You know what growling and snarling leads to when the Law of the Jungle is in play, don't you?
Someone gets eaten! And it's never the glutton who gets eaten - usually... 
Cranky cats have extended their habitat across the globe in a gridlock pattern on the highways, in Space Invaders formation on a footpaths and in angry mobs in the Middle East - they at least have a right to complain. 
My theory is that too much regulation causes this behaviour - people are just plain fed up. That's why people loved John Howard - he knew they were fed up so he fed them more! More bonuses, more ... it starts with B......
I wonder what happened to the people who were fed up a decade ago? Popping pills?
"It is NOT a laughing matter!" - as Sir Humphrey Appleby so often reminds the Minister, when he is not amused.
It really is a case of "rage against the machine" - whether it's Europe, Syria or Australia. It's regulation that is the thorn.
Call it silly prattles rattling on their random rambles through my cranial closet. You might never dream of such things - I do.
Imagine driving off a cliff to float peacefully down and park quietly outside a building to take a stroll with a happy, baby elephant beside a lake. Dreamt it the other night.
Possible? Ah, if only we might find a park as easy. If only we might be as happy with our lot as that baby elephant! 
Its lot is not regulated - I bet! Though I did see a WWF video online yesterday flying blindfolded black rhinos out to reserves while hanging upside down from helicopters - true! Sometimes love hurts.

Antiquarians prevail

Have we reached the point where it is necessary to do the equivalent of allowing Sunday trading?
My parents owned a petrol station in the 1970s. Back then it was illegal to sell - and BUY it therefore follows - petrol on Sundays. Imagine it!
So when some blighter begged my father to open the bowser guess what a Government inspector would do? Slap him with a fine that would amount to thousands of dollars today.
Can you imagine what would happen today if the government tried to shut down the bowsers on Sundays? 
Regulations are put in place - so we think - to keep the peace. But what keeps the peace changes over time - don't it Gov?
How many other redundant ways does the government raise money? What if there was a review?
What if we started replacing antiquated regulations with regulations that will make the world a better place - like taxing hot air (CO2).
But rather than imposing CO2 emission taxes on top of existing regulations - why not do the right thing?
Less hot air - same amount of taxes. Hello? 
Then we can all get back to minding our own business and be happy elephants.
I'd call that evolution. 

Charles Dickens and the worthwhile moment. Does Success= Worthwhile?

I often feel like a character out of a Jane Austen novel - rarely the heroine these days.

I know my character flaws and over the years I have tried very hard to be the "good", do the "right". If I were a character in a Charles Dickens' novel I would be the one who never got away with anything and was always required to "be good".

My belief is that life is not about actual "right". It's not about actual "good" because these are relative - you can be right all the time if you hang out with people who think like you do. You can all be wrong together. Just think of the climate change debate. Just look at the political reporting about the Labor leadership and Prime Ministership of Julia Gillard.

All the fuss over who said and who did what to whom boils down to nothing but hot air. I guess if you want to be remembered do something worthwhile, say something worthwhile. 

Do you think that Alexander The Great should be considered "great" just because he conquered the "known" world? Maybe. But it didn't last long - well, he died so he didn't have time to do anything, so I guess he's great. Does anyone know what benefits flowed from this "great" acheivement? So he used elephants! But he did add to the sum total of knowledge at the time and probably opened up new trade routes. You probably can find Greek pottery in India thanks to Alexander. Many a mere ordinary mouse appears to think themselves an Alexander these days.

I fear that today we don't examine this idea of "worthwhile" too much unless it applies to us personally. I won't be around when the Torres Strait Islands sink beneath the waves and the stars go black so I don't care. How many times have I heard a similar refrain? 

For some people, worthwhile is bringing up a family, for others it is cooking food for others, or teaching. It's all cool and awesome in my book. It's "great"! 

Maybe worthwhile is as simple as peace of mind, the ability to turn the other cheek and show compassion. That's not easy. The ABC recently screened a series by Jimmy McGovern called The Accused - you should catch it if you can. It is crazy amazing and awesome!

There's a norm and you've got to find it and conform otherwise ... I think this is the part in the Bible which refers to "the meek". The meek shall inherit the Earth, not the powerful, because it takes immense (great) strength to be meek.

Try not exploding over dinner with someone you have known forever who obviously has an axe to grind but does not say a word in order to apply the pressure - there's Dickensian bile.

If you manage to show compassion, or do something worthwhile,  six out of 10 times (that is a passing mark) people still tend to only count the four times you didn't turn the other cheek. Fat people must walk the plank along with old people, poor people, people of different races ... the list could go on depending on who you meet. 

Legislate all you like to stamp out discrimination but the Dickensian Truth of Humanity and the Darwinian Theories will prevail. 

Sydney University's Professor Paul Griffiths spoke at last year's Happiness Conference in Brisbane about Darwin's theory of Group Selection - he tried to explain how altruism flourishes in society.

Google this topic and all you get are academic/scientific abstracts - no wonder this kind of thinking does not pass into general knowledge. I can't think that a busy teacher would have time to read this stuff in a world saturated with information.

Prof Griffiths told the 2011 conference that Darwin's theory of Group Selection had been discredited but was again gaining credibility. A successful society co-operates. FACT.

So even though it appears that selfishness prevails in our society there are enough altruistic individuals in our midst to dissipate the selfishness. As altruism flourishes in one group, individuals break away to move to another group to seed the process again. Eventually, selfish groups should become extinct because they fail. See Libya, Syria... despotic regimes. 

The more I blog, the more I write, the more I am in awe of great writers like Charles Dickens who build the truth of the world in words. If I could have dinner with anyone alive or dead it would be Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.

 

If only Charles Dickens were alive to provide the commentary on our rapidly transforming world today! Recognizing a Dickensian moment is possible but putting it down on paper with panache - that's something else.

Define "good", "worthwhile", "great", "awesome". Define "right". Then take your self-interest out of the equation and redefine it. Who says there is nothing left to explore?