It’s interesting –well I think so– how I came to write this blog. I was talking to some random person via MSN who said they went to the drive-in and saw Saw 4 last night. I said how I am not a fan of the genre and he asked what sort of movies I am interested in. I told him that I am a fan of mostly “Art House” stuff and mentioned a few films I have seen and enjoyed: Friends with Money, An Inconvenient Truth, Jindabyne. I then decided to see what Wikipedia had to say about these films and the following excerpt is from the entry on An Inconvenient Truth:

“In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Australian Prime Minister, John Howard said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto because of the movie: “I don’t take policy advice from films.” Former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley joined Gore for a viewing and other MPs attended a special screening at Parliament House earlier in the week”.

So, little Johnny doesn’t take policy advice from films? So does he maybe think this film is the first to mention the content? Or is he afraid that Gore is making the facts on Climate Change more accessible to the masses, so is dismissing it?

I think it’s interesting how Howard positions himself relative to anyone slightly to his left. He makes them out to be completely irrelevant. What would be do if Gore was President of the USA? Would be still upkeep an alliance of similar strength to what it is today? So many questions to pose, too hypothetical to answer.

PJGO

According to SMH (2007) “Toyota has reassured its 4,000 Melbourne workers their jobs are safe, for now, amid fears rising market pressures will force its Australian plant to close”.

The automotive industry of Australia is full of uncertainties so it’s certainly not fresh news to hear about the above speculation. With the strong Australian dollar, it’s cheap for us to import cars and even cheaper with the import tariffs at the level that they are currently. Add to this the high wages that are paid to the workforce in the Australian manufacturing industry and we have a situation that is hard to compare to the cheap, efficient Asian model.

As I recall, the tariff was introduced to encourage innovation and increased competition in the Australian industry. However, the Asian organisations have lead the way with quite a margin.

Commentators have suggested for Australia’s industry to survive, manufacturers have to get innovative and attract market segments away from the current, superior offerings. I suggest this is initiated by chipping away at the “green” segment.

It’s been a long time since I have written a meaningful blog on here. So today is the day that I get back to it.

Currently, I am reading Quarterly Essays #27: Reaction Time: Climate Change and the Nuclear Option, a quarterly publication on various political, social and environmental issue –stuff that concerns us all. Here is an interesting excerpt:

“Fifty years ago, Australia was one of the most equal societies in the World. Today, we are one of the most unequal of all the industrialised nations. Again, the mineral export industries are influential. The industry is capital-intensive and commodity prices have been driven up by demand in China, so mining companies can afford to pay very high wages compared with manufacturing or services. In cities like Perth, the high incomes of mining workers on fly-in fly-out contracts are driving house prices to levels that put the Australian dream beyond the reach of more and more young families. While the good times of the mining boom roll on, we should be using the revenue to invest in a cohesive social future, rather than allowing the windfall gains to widen inequality”

This particular section of the publication focuses on the use of public money to fund things like tax-cuts. Tax-cuts seem great, but really, are they? If we have more discretionary income it leads to increase spending which leads to inflation. As the author, Ian Lowe points out, the resource boom has lead to extravagant lifestyles and spending behaviour for many, at the expense of other people; resource consumption; and pollution. The divide of rich and poor is increasing.

Something I find interesting is the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. When Alberta stumbled upon coal and gas (I think it was?) they set up this fund, simply, for when these resources run out. What does Australian Federal Government do with proceeds of the resource boom? It promotes effluence!

Sure, Australia is a lucky nation but we do over indulge. I agree with Lowe in that we need to live simpler: smaller homes, smaller cars, energy-efficiency. Rather than finding better ways to produce more energy; we should find better ways of using less.

Anyways, those are my views at the moment. I shall move on to something a little lighter: cool links…

Angie’s List:- members submit more than 15,000 reports each month about the companies they’ve hired. They describe their project (including the cost), and grade the company’s response time, prices and quality of work - good or bad. In reading the reviews, you’ll know if a crew was conscious of children and pets, cleaned up after themselves, or just totally botched the job.

Quarterly Essays:- Quarterly Essay 27 Reaction Time by Ian Lowe was one of the bestselling books at the 2007 Brisbane Writers Festival. (The publication I talked about above).

In Rainbows:- You’d have to be living under a rock or in a town that is out of reach of the media to not know the circumstances under which Radiohead released their new album. They’re free of record labels and went it alone by releasing In Rainbows as a download through their website. But that’s not all, the buyer names the price. Any price, every price is a winner.

By the way, the album is a ripper. I have been a fan of theirs for years and it’s in their top three for me. Amnesiac, Kid A, In Rainbows –that’s my ranking.

Over and out.

PJGO

Haven’t I neglected this site muchly? Well, I have decided to contribute some. It won’t be often but when something interesting happens in the internet, business, marketing or technology space I’ll be sure to share my commentary –for what ever it is worth.

Many will be familiar with Google News. It’s a Google interface that searches thousands of sources for news articles. Well, just found a site a little similar to it. The site is called Plugger and it searches various sources for Australian business news.

Check out Plugger here.