political culture

gaping void

me culture

gaping void

company culture

gaping void

the difference between reputation and character

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are, while your reputation is merely who others think you are.

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Mad world #3. Sydney under siege.

mad world #2. APEC

The first week of September is APEC week in Sydney. Bush will be in town; and so will everyone else. And the city has been preparing itself this week for the visiting 21 heads of state ...

... with water cannons; riot police buses; 3 meter high walls erected around the Opera House and vacinity; massive road closures; random police security checks on any person walking in certain areas of the city; military jet planes swooping overhead; soldiers wandering through shopping malls brandishing pretty serous military equipment; ads on TV asking everyone to be "alert"; and the city has been declared a virtual out-of-bounds this coming Friday-Sunday [by declaring Friday a NSW State Holiday].

I know most of this because I work in the city. Right in the middle of the city, on Barrack Street. And when, as per usual, i parked my ute [pick-up] on Barrack Street on Thursday afternoon, I did what I always do; i dropped my car keys in the back of my ute, under the cover [thus hidden from view]. When i returned to my ute 90 minutes later, the keys had been swapped with a note written on 'official' police paper; "report immediately to The Rocks Police Station."

The constable behind the counter knew who i was when i walked in, because i fitted the description. "Middle aged. Shaven head. Olive skin. Blue backpack on your back." And then he said to me, "You fit the description". No shit Sherlock.

Apparently some alert person had spotted me suspiciously park my ute, leave my keys in a suspicious place, walk off suspiciously in a suspicious direction, with a suspicious blue backpack on my back. I also had suspiciously dark skin colour and, as if all this weren't enough, I had two anti-American stickers on my rear window. He called the police, they strip searched my car, and took off with my keys.

I had to make account of myself to the constable on a number of key points 1. what is your name? 2. do you have proof of your ID? 3. is this your correct address? 4. why were you in the city at that time ? 5. what type of work do you do? 6. why did you leave your car keys in such a strange place 7. why do you carry a backpack? 8. why do you have a knife on your key ring? [a tiny, silver 3cm Swiss Army knife]. My answers were recorded in his little black book.

By the end of my interrogation I had been reduced to green alert - of the lowest possible threat to security - and the constable handed me back my car keys. But he had one final word for me before i could walk away a free man. "You DO know it's illegal to carry a knife, sir?" he said. And I, like a scolded little schoolboy, said "Yes", and took the Swiss Army off my key ring.

mad world

-- Tears for Fears

nibbled to death by ducks

In our world there is an agreed-upon reality of values. More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. And modern technology will achieve all three of these desirable goals.

Slowly but surely, we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes.

In other words, we are being ‘nibbled to death by ducks’.

[click to enlarge]

i was born itleiigennt

education spoiled me

he's a material boy living in a material world

comedy of the absurd #3.

Copy from one, and it's called plagiarism. Copy from many, and it's called research.

comedy of the absurd #2.

comedy of the absurd #1.

the dice man

the axis of mediocrity

The great affliction of our age is not the axis of evil –
it is the axis of mediocrity.
We’re far more likely to die from a lack of passion
than from some great evil.

What do I believe in?
What do we stand for?
Take on these questions
and you will start to transform the age,
as well as your life.

walking the line

In our quest for proof, evidence, and ‘the facts’, we have lost our trust in our own experience as the basis for living our lives.

powder for modern, busy people

[click to enlarge]

i've seen a praying mantis loose faith

how america really took over the world

Economic hit men [EHMs] are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID], and other foreign "aid" organisations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalisation. I should know: I was an EHM.

My job was to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire - to satisfy our political, economic or military needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. The owners of U.S. engineering/ construction companies become fabulously wealthy.

The recipient country is required to pay it all back, principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, we demand our pound of flesh. This typically includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor country still owes us the money. In this way another country is added to our global empire.

[John Perkins]

status anxiety

gotta get me a pair of three hundred dollar shoes
made for twenty seven cents in a child labour sweatshop
so i can impress people i don't even know

Shane L Koyczan

it's all about OIL

a brief essay on american healthcare

[click to read]

how much more can one person be worth?

Source: United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2005, based on annual CEO pay studies conducted by Business Week (1990-2004) and the Wall Street Journal (2005).

death of the individual

[click to enlarge]
Serious, important decisions are made not through democratic discussion or participation, but through negotiation between the relevant groups based on expertise, interest and the ability to exercise power. I would argue that the Western individual acts first as a group member. As a result, they, we, exist primarily as a function, not as an individual. We are rewarded in our hierarchical meritocracies for our success as an integrated function. We know that real expressions of individualism are not only discouraged but punished. The active, outspoken citizen is unlikely to have a successful professional career.

[John Ralston Saul; The Unconscious Civilization]

war is dangerously contagious

death by a 1000 ducks

In our world there is an agreed-upon reality of values. More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. And modern technology will achieve all three of these desirable goals. All the while we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes. All the while we are being nibbled to death by ducks.

i live in a vacuum

[click to elnarge]
I live in a vacumn, no air
I'm stuck in back room, somewhere
But it don't bother me amyway cos I know
Go'in to get out soon, I got places to go
Theres a big world waiting for me
I just need a break, someone to believe
But right now I'm just try'in to survive
Liv'in rough, shack'in up, hang'in tough, shapin' up
- Supertramp [It's A Hard World]

FEAR: the glass house of all glass houses

Today we live in a climate of fear. Fear of dying. Fear of losing. Fear of failing. Fear of not having. Fear of looking bad. Fear of not looking good.

Fear surrounds each of us as a glass house. Invisible to the conscious mind. Constraining our thoughts and our actions. Containing our deepest dreams and aspirations.

what we are

[click on pic to watch the video]

The Jocks vs. The Nerds

[click to enlarge]
Michael Jordan having "retired," with $40 million in endorsements, makes $178,100 a day, working or not. If he sleeps 7 hours a night, he makes $52,000 every night while visions of sugarplums dance in his head. If he goes to see a movie, it'll cost him $7.00, but he'll make $18,550 while he's there. If he decides to have a 5-minute egg, he'll make $618 while boiling it. He'll make $3,710 while watching each episode of Friends. He makes $7,415/hr more than minimum wage. If you were given a penny for every 10 dollars he made, you'd be living comfortably at $65,000 a year. This year, he'll make more than twice as much as all U.S. past presidents for all of their terms combined. Amazing isn't it?
However...
If Jordan saves 100% of his income for the next 450 years, he'll still have less than Bill Gates has today. Game over. Nerd wins.

bless technology, for it is on our side [i think]

The PC lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.

it's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day just exactly fits in the newspaper

smile ... it's Mother's Day

do trees bleed and feel pain?

GOLD AWARD. PR Campaign of the Decade.

THE TRUTH: "We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games[…]We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities." Zhou Yongkang, Minister of Public Security [21st March 2007].

there's a whole heap of shit going on in our heads that we never talk about

[click to see full details of the shit going on in his head]

Ode to Overchoice

Over-choice is a form of bondage. We become addicted to it. Over-choice drives our dissatisfaction with what we have. Over-choice always leaves us wanting more and better. Over-choice always leaves us wondering whether or not we’ve made the right choice – given that there are so many other choices that could be more right. Over-choice makes life complicated, and stressful.

A conscience does not prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it.

we fight for religion ... not for democracy

and still we war ?

taking warning signs to a new level

have another durrey, bro'

lady of the slum

[click to enlarge]
Bangkok.

only in the US of A

the mental game of survival

[click to enlarge]

My company sells an image. It's part of my job to live that image.

in search of the alien from inner space