Grow – Prosper – Connect – Sustain – Live

Yesterday I listened to a TED talk from economist Yanis Varoufakis, who was the former Minister of Finance for Greece. What he said certainly grabbed me: “Capitalism will eat democracy — unless we speak up.” This talk was at TED Geneva in December 2015, and he talked about the whole world and how we could be destroyed by capitalism. Oh yes, I certainly know this!!

Looking elsewhere, I'd found newDemocracy Foundation in a comment in an article on Facebook. I read through their website and became (further) intrigued. nDF is a democratic group which says on their website: “We innovate in how we do democracy”. It was founded by the Transfield Managing Director, Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, who is also part of “many of its subsidiary companies, as well as a Director of Sydney Harbour Tunnel Ltd and non-executive director of Perisher Blue Pty Ltd”.

In this sort of corporate environment, I would never have thought he was democratic. I looked up the other board, executive, research committee and supporters, and found that many in nDF said they were ALP, others said they were LNP, and some were even different political parties: Greens, for instance. No political base, but certainly a democracy base.

In February of 2009 newDemocracy was a supporter for the convention called the Citizen Parliament, along with the Australian National University, the University of Sydney and the Curtin University of Technology. Back in 2009 I didn't really have anything in Aus politics which I could blog about (I wasn't a citizen back then but I certainly did write about some policies), but this year it started winding me up. I became a citizen in January, became more and more frustrated with how this government was treating people like me on DSP (as well as any other person who received any sort of Centrelink income), almost cried when LNP crawled into government again when I'd been waiting for them to just disappear, and very recently I became more frustrated with how this government and their supporters don't seem to have any awareness of how anyone on a Centrelink income has to live in poverty.

I started to find other democratics, even in Australia! (Yes, that certainly gave me a shock... democratic people who just worked so well in this country!) I found examples of Citizen Jury sittings which had happened in NSW, ACT, Vic and SA, and similar in Qld, WA, NT or TAS. It seemed they are springing up all over Aussie:

• democracyCo started in 2014 and runs the Deliberative Collective who operates in SA
• Arts Queensland printed a pdf which gives “Tips for identifying community need and demand”
• Infrastructure Victoria was reported as the watchdog on iseekplant website
• Tasmania Government's Department of Health and Human Services has engaged Citizen Juries for the decision-making process
• Your Say in SA talks about Citizen Juries
• The People's Panel acts in Melbourne, and
• Queensland government has a website called Get Involved, which lists consultations which you can have you say if you want to.

I am sure that there are more than these throughout Australia, but am I the only one who didn't know about them? Can I blame my stroke?

I registered with newDemocracy because, even though they seem too engaged to involve me, I want to watch. This sort of involvement, albeit not democratic, has happened for me for years (have a look through my five-year-old Whacksworks), but I had a long break from it from my stroke. Maybe now I'm behind, but I think I definitely can catch up!

There are two consultations which I will respond to in Queensland: Adapting to climate change: have your say which closes 14 December this year, and Help shape South East Queensland's future which is open until 3 March 2017. I read, in nDF, how to prepare myself for a “sitting”, which is a bit different than these issues, but I still have a lot of words inside my head which I need to get out onto paper to get back to them.

I am a “Baby boomer”, not a “Gen X” or a “Millenial”, but I reckon I still have 10-20-30 years to still live and still watch politics... and still get damned frustrated when I see a government who doesn't follow the public. “Democracy” is listed by dictionary.com as “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” That sounds very good... so why isn't it?

The government in Australia right now isn't democratic.The public in Australia should look at how they can fix this issue.

Personality and intelligence

Very recently I enrolled with AIB to do an MBA. Three years ago this would have been easy to complete, but on enrolling I felt a nervousness which seemed to take over me. After my stroke I knew I'd lost a lot of memories (many which are coming back!) and I had no idea whether or not I could actually do this degree. My first course is Leadership. I've read so much, listened to audio files, written notes, searched for information which I could include in my assignment, and worried about the exam at the end of this four week course.

This morning I was reading about the OCEAN 'model of personality', the dark side of personality traits, the 'Triarchic theory of intelligence and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Three of the four of these areas seem very good. If you don't know about them, read on.

OCEAN is Open to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. While I can see myself in many of the descriptions in these areas, I felt definitely at home with Neuroticism. It is, apparently, 'concerned with how people react to stress, change, failure or personal criticism'. People in higher neuroticism are 'passionate, intense, thin-skinned, moody, and anxious and lose their temper when stressed or criticised'.*

Triarchic theory of intelligence looks at analytical, practical and creative intelligence. Psychologists have, apparently, looked at where intelligence fits in and the implications it offers. I believed I 'discovered' intelligence 40 years ago, but perhaps I should just brush that off and think how these psychologists think!

The dark side of personality was bad/destructive leadership, managerial incompetence and managerial derailment. I used to work with someone like that.

The Myers-Briggs MBTI intrigued me. Many years ago, when I'd been made redundant from NZSC in New Zealand, I'd completed a typology from the Drake Omega System. My profile said I was Low Dominance Cooperative (temperate, humble, hesitant, deferring, timid, apprehensive, soft-hearted, 2 of 7), flexible Introversion Reserved (private, earnest, reserved, contemplative, quiet, selective communicator, creative, 3 of 7), Patience Paced (patient, mild, steady, dependable, paced, calm, accommodating (5 of 7) and Conformity Systematic (detailed, disciplined, dedicated, sensitive, conscientious, admirable, methodical, 6 of 7).

I looked up the Myers-Briggs 16 MBTI types, and found these two which seem definitive of me:

ENFJ: Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.

INFJ: Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision.

The 16 MBTI types are available on the Myers-Briggs website: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.htm

I've probably read information which I don't need to fit into, and lots more about things that affect me. I may be feeling nervous, but I am telling myself to get into it and do well. This is finalising my recovery. Wish me luck!

*Hughes, R, Ginnett, R & Curphy, G 2015, Leadership: enhancing the lessons of experience, 8^th edn, McGraw-Hill Education, New York

Our own business?

Q&A last night had set up live on Docklands in Melbourne. There was a six-person panel which included economist Judith Sloane, the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Ged Kearney, Greens politician Richard di Natale, industrial relations consultant Grace Collier, Labour politician Tim Watts, and the Executive Director of the IPA John Roskam. The audience was 35% ALP, 41% LNP, 15% Greens and the last 9% could have been unidentified or just mixed. Probably, like most of the audience, I just settled in to watch.

I enjoyed Q&A and the responses I would find on Twitter. Hundreds – thousands - of Twitter followers would pick on whatever question that got to them, and put in their comment of up to 140 spaces. Some comments, in the past, have been very good – just fit into 140, but still saying a definitive message.  

Last night I found myself looking at the panel and putting them in their own left-or-right area. I supported Kearney because the people she supports are workers. Employed or unemployed. I supported di Natale because he spoke about 3 million people in Australia living in poverty. I supported Tim Watts who spoke about how unions make lives better.

Sloan was an enigma. I couldn’t work out, from her very short/small comments on Q&A, what she was commenting about! Roskam was definitely right-wing. The IPA should be centre. Unfortunate.

And Collier is a journalist with The Australian newspaper. I definitely couldn’t have worked out where she sat. In the introduction in The Australian website they said she used to be part of the “Labour movement”. The political party is Labor. I would like to know what “Labour” she had been part of. Was it “work”?

I had a look through the list of stories by Collier and found these which take a pot at unions.

Unions able to make mugs of us: Cosy deals make Australia the most expensive construction site on the planet.

Unions not alone in thuggery: The Australian Building and Construction Commission can only do so much while companies exploit loopholes.

ALP leaders and the dodgy union: The IR club and the way business is done between big business and unions in this country is rotten to the core.

Fear and hatred become fair game People are angry, sure, but they can see through Bill Shorten’s phony union routine.

A matter of officials’ business: The core pursuit of some unions is political power, not protecting members.

And more, and more.

Last night Kearney answered a question by a person who had been a CUB worker, who was now unemployed. CUB had pretty much fired many workers and had offered them similar work for a lot less than they had already been earning. CFMEU had taken this to the streets Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else where public might see it. I supported them. Collier, it seems, didn’t. Collier’s belief about what the ABCC had been set up just made me scratch my head. She had said that anti-corruption was against corporations, not unions, and yet I have seen some videos recently which showed how union workers have been dragged into ABCC court cases and strung out when they were not even criminals.

PM Turnbull has said that the government is anti-union. Senator Brandis said the same thing. Many LNP politicians said the same thing. Anti-union is anti-workers. Workers fired, made unemployed, new on Newstart, have to fight whatever they get because Newstart and Centrelink and this government don’t care about unemployed people.

And neither, it seems, does Collier. At the end of Q&A last night Collier said that unemployment shouldn’t exist, that unemployed people should “start their own business”.

Excuse me??

Who would pay for that, Ms Collier? Do you really know how much an unemployed person gets? Or, for that matter, how much a person on DSP gets? Who would support them if they would/could open their own business? How could they pay anyone who would/could be employed by them? What would it cost someone… unemployed… starting their own business… to purchase any equipment they might need? Or would they be expected to just start with whatever they already own? Do you know what they own? Do you have any idea how much money anyone on Newstart would have?

Do you know that there are laws about that???

Ms Collier, I enjoyed Q&A, but you ruined what I watched. You know nothing about people in this country who are on Newstart, DSP, carers, family benefit, pension or any of those – which are far too low. For any person on any Centrelink income, the future is pretty much uncontrollable.

Maybe a few months ago… or a few years ago… they might have gone out, just like you would, to dinner in a nice restaurant, with a nice drink, dessert, never mind how much it costs. They might have walked into clothes shops and looked at lovely clothes which they could/should/would wear, never mind how much they cost. They might have gone on holiday at least once every year to somewhere overseas where they could just be tourists taking photographs before they came home again, never mind how much that would cost.

And they would have walked back into wherever they worked and kept doing it and kept enjoying it.

But if they are now unemployed? Did they walk out of their job? Did they decide that being unemployed was fun? Did they decide that they didn’t need much money for food, petrol, groceries, bills, dentists, doctors, insurance, car registration, car repairs, costs for their kids at school, clothes, shoes, hair, teeth? And toilet paper??

For pity’s sake, Grace Collier, do not tell anyone how you feel about unemployed people. Do not tell anyone that they should be in their own business. Do not just love what you do and dislike what too many people are involved in.

Because unemployment is not asked for. It is not what most people would do. It is not a route to their own business.

Please, Grace Collier, just think.

Normal!

What’s the difference between Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?

Even 3 years ago I had no idea – except that I knew LinkedIn was a work-based social place where I hung out a lot. But I still, this day, didn’t know the real difference between them. I found a blog written by a woman, Karisa Egan, in a design company. It was dated 19 May 2016 and was marketing, but it interested me what she said about the 3 social platforms I use.

About Facebook:

With about 1.65 billion [yes, a billion! – ed.] monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most popular platforms, not only for personal use but business as well. For businesses, Facebook is a place to share photos, updates, and general news with those who follow or “like” you. Fans of your business come to your Facebook page to find out what’s going on with your company, see pictures of what’s going on, or explore events.

I sort of knew this, but didn’t really look on it as a business platform, unless, of course, businesses were small, home-based, markets, cafes, clothing, travel… okay okay, I’m getting what “business” on FB is. But my FB was just for me to contact my own friends. In the last year that had been cut down to I think around 49 now. Yes, I had cut out many people I hadn’t seen for the last 3 years, and many of them didn’t mean anything to me any more.

So what about Twitter?

Twitter is fast-paced, concise, and easy way to connect with your audience. With over 310 million registered users (and growing), Twitter is a sea of information of 140 character or less content waiting to be read, clicked, followed, and re-tweeted.

I used to use that a lot, 3 years ago, and I have only really gotten back into it in the last 6 months, as I started feeling close to “normal”. As at today I have 767 followers, which I think is pretty good! Some things take me closer to Twitter, especially the program Q&A on ABC on a Monday night. It’s funny, after posting to Twitter after (or even during) Q&A I had started to realise that just about everyone in my followers thought similarly to what I did… especially politically.

And LinkedIn? Karisa had written:

LinkedIn is different from the rest of the social media outlets because it’s specifically designed for business and professionals. Users mainly go to LinkedIn to showcase their job experience and professional thoughts, making it one of the more important platforms to use for those in B2B. LinkedIn is a valuable tool for not only driving traffic, but prospecting, establishing thought leadership, as well as recruiting.

That last bit above was italicised by me. No numbers of who is involved within LinkedIn, and I haven’t found those numbers on other sites which compared the three I have been looking at, but Forbes lists LinkedIn as #1867 of 2000 on their list, and #148 of USA’s best employers! It certainly sounds like a valuable tool.

I’d had a 3 year break from that, and I feel I’m getting back into it with my head down and my feet twitching! I (now) have 254 connections on Linked, mostly from Australia. I had a coffee meet-up with a friend from LinkedIn last week, and I now feel like I’m getting back into work socialising. I’ve connected with a few more in the last couple of weeks, and I’ve started reading what they do and how they work. I’ve contacted more people either through LinkedIn posts or on my mobile. It won’t just happen, but the way it is helping me makes me feel good.

I don’t expect that I’ll stay happy every day – something I don’t count on can drag me down immediately, but I’m now recovering a lot faster from anything like that. I have normal stuff to do: walk Jordie, do my (latest) study, write my blogs. And keep looking for work. So far I feel … normal.

Normal. 

Snuggling up

This morning I got up early – quarter to 5. I was feeling, this morning, as close to ‘normal’ as I had felt for the last 3 years. Or, maybe, the last four and a half years since my grandchildren moved back to New Zealand. I sat outside and listened to the aggressive traffic noises from route 94, M1 and M6 which all circumnavigate where I live. I listened to the hundreds of birds which had woken up, like me, and sat in their trees and sang, some wonderful and others simply noisy.  I thought about my mum and dad, and how they had raised me. And I thought about books.

Dad used to read paperback or hard covers. I remembered the shelves of books in Tawa Street, most of which were packed into hallway cupboards when we moved to Normandy Ave. Dad used to read a lot of western novels, including Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour, and any Reader’s Digest condensed books. Mum used to read to me and my siblings, but my dad and my Poppa were the people who got me into books.

I read Enid Blyton, and fell in love firstly with The Children of the Cherry Farm and on to The Magic Faraway Tree and The Enchanted Wood. My sister and I would share the Famous Five books – there were 21 of them! Our Gran would buy them for us. Poppa used to give each of us books for our birthdays or Christmas. The only one I really remember was Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter, first published in 1913 and the latest publication given to me sometime in the 1960s. Stratton-Porter is a woman, and wrote 22 books including nature books, columns in her local magazines and her own poetry.

At high school I spent a lot of time in the library, and the one I read which stuck in my mind was The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw. This told a story of personal relationships between three enemies in WW2 and a movie was made of it in 1958, starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. I’ve never seen that movie… perhaps I should.

In the coming years I snuggled up with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, David Eddings’ five-book The Belgariad, the ongoing series of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern and moved on to novels by writers like Nelson deMille, Wilbur Smith, Bryce Courtenay, Leon Uris and Alistair MacLean. I began to collect books which I still have, including the trilogy of J R Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings. I moved to non-fiction novels, many which still sit on my shelf. My home is the home for The Holocaust: the Jewish Tragedy by Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies by Martin Gilbert, Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, The Exodus Enigma by Ian Wilson and David and Goliath: the Bain family murders by Joe Karam. I look through many of them occasionally. They mean something to me.

Children’s authors intrigued me, and I saved a biography about Maurice Sendak called The Art of Maurice Sendak, published in 1980. It included tales and artwork about many of the Sendak children’s books I had purchased for my own children.

In that same shelf is a large book, Jerusalem: Song of Songs written by Jill and Leon Uris – for many years I had dreamed about going there. Still haven’t. I was also into nature, and Wade Doak’s Dolphin Dolphin is there too.

When I moved over here I couldn’t bring all my books, so boxes in mum and dad’s Normandy Ave were full with old books. I have no idea what happened to them after mum died. I just wish I’d brought Laddie with me.

Listening to music my whole life was also important to me. Recently - a few years ago - I bought some books which gave history of some groups I had spent my youth with, including Rolling Stones, U2 and, still my absolute favourite, Pink Floyd.  Actually, I’ve only got three or four books about Pink Floyd… maybe I should buy more.

Many years ago I had been involved in protests, even while I was at school (the first one was a march against the VietNam war). I said, in the intro on this blog, that four and a half years ago my grandchildren moved back to New Zealand. I went into depression over the next few months, and I wrote my first website, www.itsokaytobeangry.com, and got involved in the latest protests which meant a lot to me, including climate change, mining, animal welfare, LGBT and violence against women and families. My books now reflect what I have read about any of this sort of thing, including the Griffith Review #40 Women & Power edited by Julianne Schultz, Destroying the Joint edited by Jane Caro, The Stalking of Julia Gillard by Kerry-Anne Walsh, Climate Change: Turning up the heat by A. Barrie Pittock and Marley & Me, a story about “life and love with the world’s worst dog” by John Grogan, and very few fictions such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood even though she’s an environmentalist. My shelf still contains non-fictions which I bought when I was studying for my Grad Dip WHS – perhaps I should read them again… or occasionally… they’ll still be there.

There’s only one case of shelves and around 200 books on it now. Back in 2013 I had to separate my marriage property, so I had sold one set of book shelves and got rid of many books which, if I could remember them, I don’t think they were so important to me as what’s now on my shelf – including my first novel, First Person Singular. I’ve been to the Red Cross book sale at BCEC for the last three or four years, book events at Avid Reader book shop in West End, bought books online, bought them in malls. I know that, as I can afford to, in the future I will still be buying books.

This morning I was feeling as close to ‘normal’ as I had felt for the last 3 years. That’s a great feeling: normality… and my memory. Now, back to reading…