Phil Hughes will remain on 63 not out

This week, the funeral for Australian cricketer will take place, his death at the crease after been struck on the head by a short ball was untimely, he was just short of 26 years of age.

Naturally, there is no good age to lose your life, in the context of his career, he was just about to perform once again on the international stage. Phil was just about to be recalled to the Australian test team to cover for Michael Clarke who was expected to miss the upcoming test against India through injury. He started the bay fighting for a recall to the Australian test side and ended the day fighting for his life - he tragically lost that fight a day later.

In Australia, we are understandably upset, he was, after all, one of ours. What has really struck me was the outpouring of grief and respect from cricketing test nations. We have seen very respectful condolences sent from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and New Zealand to just name a few. These condolences have been very much appreciated.

Now we find out an umpire and former national captain, Hillel Oscar has been struck in the jaw whilst officiating in a game in Israel. He died this week, this is another tragic event in world cricket.

The Schooner

I love the old style schooner, for me, the schooner was a two mast vessel with the aft mast larger than the fore mast. Whilst initially defined as two mast vessels; three mast vessels were introduced around 1800 with multi mast vessels introduced soon after and these vessels remained as schooners.

Whilst maybe not being entirely correct, the gaff rig, topsail, hull shape and bowspit with stay sails define the schooner. Of course, many vessels of the era featured bowsprits, so such a feature alone can not define the vessel, for many, the shorter fore mast is the defining feature of the two mast schooner.

Cutter rigs predominately feature a centrally located mast and a bowspit with multiple fly jibs. There was three and more mast schooner types, the two and three mast schooners were the sleekest with all the sails working together in a complementary fashion optimising airflow and forward drive through the water.

The immense sail area of the schooner with gaff rigs extending the main sail length, topsails filling void between the gaff upper boom and mast and multiple fore stays secured to the bowspit. The schooner is an elegant vessel from a bygone era eventually replaced by bermuda rigs and the ketch rig.

The CIA ice bucket challenge

I was in Subic Bay on a dive trip in the Philippines just recently; interestingly, I overheard a couple of American marines discussing the CIA ice bucket challenge.

As we know, the CIA is not allowed to waterboard anymore so enter the ice bucket challenge; what a novel way of bringing alleged terrorists and their associates into mainstream society and popular culture following contemporary internet trends. I wonder if there were allowed to plank as well, or is that so 2012?

A Pinoy style prescription mask

I have to say, I was impressed, this was the first time I had encountered a Filipino style prescription mask. Full marks for originality, construction and application; this mask worked a treat for a fraction of the cost of commercial prescription lens mask.

Dive guides out in the provinces of the Philippines aren't paid a great deal; what they forgo in salary is repaid by having a great job with good employment conditions, a low stress environment and an excellent lifestyle. The mask worked great.

The origins of the MBA

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) has been taught for barely over a century; Harvard University launched the program and enrolled an inaugural class of 37 candidates in 1908. Initially targeting professionals in non-business related fields, the MBA has now developed into a more mainstream qualification.

Firstly gaining acceptance in the United States before becoming established Europe, the MBA became the preeminent qualification for upper management. Asia and Australia progressively adapted the management program with the University of Melbourne awarding the first Australian MBA in 1965.

It has been argued too many poor quality and over-confident MBA graduates with little actual workplace experience are foisted onto unsuspecting workplaces. As national and international accrediting bodies determine course content somewhat blunting such claims, this may be a little overstated.

A professional such as a doctor, engineer, architect or lawyer generally tends to be entrepreneurial in nature building or purchasing a practice, business or engaging in a partnership.

The advanced degree followed on from the notions of scientific management that were prevalent at the time undergoing revisions from time to time whilst retaining an analytical nature.

Well known management practitioner and McGill University management lecturer, Henry Mitzberg described the MBA as a 1908 program utilising a 1950s strategy, an interesting reference to both the origins and overhaul of MBA curriculum.

Interestingly, MBA curriculum is accredited by United States, European and Australian professional bodies maintaining a consistency in program delivery and graduate outcomes.

Mintzberg maintains the MBA is a business course and not a management course describing management as a practice and not a science - fair enough.

When running a business, the professional requires knowledge of accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, economics, quantitative analysis, leadership, ethics and decision making. Thus, the MBA tended to be technical in nature and is well suited to such professionals trained in technical knowledge and skills.

One could argue the relatively recent European model of Master in Management (MiM) better addresses the soft skills of management whilst the MBA retains the analytical structure required by consultants and technical practitioners.

Generally, MBA programs are centred on an essentially standard curriculum and structured around eight to ten core units with specialist units aligned to specialisation majors. Typically, the majority of MBA courses run twelve to sixteen units that may be considered a generalised MBA.

From there candidates may specialise in areas such as finance, human resource management, operations management, logistics, marketing, economics, information technology or educational leadership - to name just a few.

Usually, the program culminates with initial coursework in business strategy with a dissertation or capstone project as the final examination. The de facto course two years full-time study with a number of worldwide institution running accelerated one year, part-time, online and executive courses.

Top tier universities dominate international MBA ratings with the all-important student networks and alumni giving these programs the edge. It has been said, employers don't hire the graduate, they purchase the prestige of the institution, they are probably right.

The history of social media in 90 seconds

Where is social media taking us? We have seen some huge advances in social media uptake and usage in recent years, will the growth continue unabated?

Who uses Friendster or MySpace now? They pretty much kicked off the social media explosion but have been left behind. Despite the size and reach of Google Inc, will Google+ survive?

Surely news coverage is the obvious answer, maybe we need to ask less about what social media platforms are going to be around and what news services and news papers will be around in 25 years? 

I'm pretty sure AAP and Reuters will still be around, will they be selling news to The Times, The Australian, The Jakarta Post, The Straights Times,The Sydney Morning Herald, The Washington Post or The New York Times in 25 years time? 

Or despite their current size and span, will traditional newsprint become the equivalent of Kodak or Blockbuster Video?

We saw from the Arab spring how quickly young protesters could get organised, this was the democratic uprising that quickly spread, what are the implications of social media for the future? 

Did Abbott front Putin on MH17 at the G20 leaders meeting?

Did Tony Abbott actually front (the political shirt-front) and discuss the issues of Russian involvement with Ukrainian separatists of the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over Ukraine?

Yes he did - Vladimir Putin was told in no uncertain terms to assist with and not hinder the UN investigation into the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17. He was told to pay compensation to families citing American repatriations to Iranian families of the Iranian Air 655 passenger jet shot down by the US Navy in 1988.

Managing your manager

It has been well documented in management circles the difference between leading and managing relates to transactional and transformational principles. Leadership occurs at all levels of an organisation, unfortunately all too often an ineffective manager stifles the work of a subordinate with the worker needing to manage their manager to get the job done efficiently.

This bottom-up approach to leadership is in direct contrast to the top-down approach employed at most organisations, yet it is proving to be more effective in many circumstances. The role of the manager is for you to perform your job efficiently, their role is to allocate resources you require to succeed, to make decisions based on metrics and to secure support to perform the task.

If success was measured exclusively on how well you do your job, there would be no requirement to manage your boss, this unfortunately is rarely the case. This requires you to identify their prime motivations, support their success by understanding their weaknesses and reacting accordingly and finally bring them solutions - not problems.

The manager works for the worker, not the other way around - the manager is a direct cost to the business whereas the worker is a productive resource. With a greater level of training and development the classic roles of management of planning, organising, leading and controlling are known - understood and practiced by workers. There is an old adage, you don't leave jobs, you leave managers - this rings true again.

Will Abbott really shirtfront Putin?

Do people know the difference between a figurative and literal statement? Figurative is described as departing from a literal use of words and metaphorical where literal could be described as taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or exaggeration. Is Abbott going going to physically shirtfront Putin? No, of course not, absolutely not in a literal sense. Lets look in a figurative sense, will Abbott hit up Putin behind closed doors in private discussions? He should and he must, however, he should not have stated that in such a public arena.

Abbott was stupid to make such a public and aggressive statement, yes, he needs to have a frank and open discussion with Putin; a leader of a powerful country who is carefully stage-managed as an outdoor macho man. By using such blatant and aggressive terminology, Abbott has backed himself into a diplomatic corner. As Putin's image is at stake from such colourful language, there won't be much to be gained here and there is plenty to lose - not a great diplomatic move.

Don't call me a feminist

"I'm a female Foreign Minister, yeah, get over it." That was quite a response from Julie Bishop; keeping the theatrics to a minimum when answering press questions.

I like her attitude, it appears she is all about getting on with the job and not pandering to special interest groups or playing the victim with responses like "Don't call me a feminist, it is not in my lexicom."

She is doing an excellent job representing the country and is certainly taken seriously in international diplomacy circles. Bishop is not the first woman to enter politics or hold a high political position such as Prime Minister or Governor General, she does however not want to make gender an issue.

The myth of Gough Whitlam

The government led by Gough Whitlam was a failure - there is no other way to describe it, to spin it, to believe it. Yet, the myth perpetrated by the Labor movement was that he was a great man leading a great government is laughable at best and just plain dangerous at worst.

The left intelligentsia clearly blame Rupert Murdoch, the apparent secret leader of the CIA that conspired against the highly competent Whitlam government - well, nothing could be further from the truth.

Gough Whitlam made Labor electable after 23 years in the political wilderness, after 3 years of government, he then made them unelectable again until Bob Hawke came along almost a decade later.

He promised the world and then failed to deliver, just the manner of his dismissal added to his mythology.

The real kick to the nards of any true believer of socialism was the highly competent Hawke government campaigned on policy that was directly opposite to Whitlam - ouch.

Since WWII, Labor government failures (with the notable exception of the Hawke government) were Chifley, Whitlam, Keating, Rudd, Gillard and Rudd again.

This is no great line up, the Hawke government in the early years was excellent but by the time Keating rolled around, they were well past their use by date.

The inept John Hewson allowed Keating to win the unlosable election allowing John Howard to reemerge as leader.

Whitlam claimed to have ended the White Australia policy, it was the Liberal government led by Harold Holt that ended the policy in March 1966.

Granted, the Whitlam government took further steps in 1973 to further reduce race as a factor in immigration policy, that is highly commendable but the policy had already been rescinded years before. 

Another policy the Whitlam government received credit for was voting rights for aboriginals. The May 1967 referendum was the work of the Holt government.

Harold went missing, presumed drowned in December 1967 but was succeeded by John McEwan for a brief period before William McMahon took leadership. Since 1967 is well before December 1972, this doesn't stand up to scrutiny. 

Bringing the troops home from Vietnam, lets have a more detailed look into this. According to the Australian War Memorial, by late 1970 Australia had begun to wind down military efforts with the 8th Battalion departing in November and not being replaced. 

The withdrawal of all air units continued throughout 1971 with further reduction in troop numbers, the last battalion left Nui Dat on the 7th of November of 1971.

A handful of advisers remained throughout the most of 1972 with the final team returning in December of that year. A platoon of troops guarded the embassy, they returned in 1973. The Whitlam government took office on the 5th of December 1972. 

As one can see, the bulk of the troops had already returned by the time he took government. But why let facts get in the way of popular mythology, the Whitlam government did remove conscription - that was a positive step.

Then there is university education, Gough Whitlam did make university education free, fees were however reinstated in 1989 by John Dawkins as Minister for Employment, Education and Training.

Free university education was not taken away by the Liberals as leftist mythology contends. The real higher education reforms was undertaken by Robert Menzies, it is difficult to argue with figures and facts.

It was Robert Menzies who effectively scrapped university fees by introducing Commonwealth scholarships. Any student regardless of socio-economic status who performed academically could not only attend university for free but could also receive a living allowance to attend.

All Whitlam did was remove the competitive academic aspect to extend a university education to anyone regardless of aptitude effectively allowing dumb rich kids to attend university for free. 

Menzies also increased government spending four-fold in the 1960s, built universities in the process and promoted university scholarships to academically minded students. If you were rich and didn't meet academic standards, you did not receive a funded scholarship. 

In direct contradiction to Labor claims of only rich kids attending university, now the rich dumb kids who previously paid for their university education could idle their days away on the public purse. 

The Whitlam government did recognise China, it has been falsely claimed that the Chinese led boom can be attributed to Whitlam - that is once again clearly false. 

China was staunchly communist, this was at the height of the cold war, the war in Vietnam was considered a proxy war against communism. A socalist government supporting communism, who would have guessed?

The Whitlam government followed the lead of Republican President Richard Nixon to open talks with the Chinese government after suspension of $100 million worth of wheat exports.

That can only mean Australian wheat exports predated the December 1972 election of the Whitlam government - oh.

China was admitted to the World Trade Organisation in 2001; after attempts were initially thwarted due to concerns raised by the United States.

Some European countries and Japan including tariff reductions, opening markets and industrial policies aligned to political reforms in the early 1980s. 

China began to slowly open its economy signing numerous regional trade agreements with China gaining observer status with General Agreements on Tarriff and Trade (GATT) in 1986. 

Malcolm Turnbull once stated, "He will be given credit I imagine for many things that were equally or perhaps even entirely the achievements of others.” That about sums it up.

It has been argued the best outcome for Whitlam was to be dismissed from office. Now, as a Labor martyr, he could never be brought to account for the devastation he wrought on Australia. He did of course attempt two further election campaigns for federal government failing miserably both times.

Whitlam came to power promising big, but ultimately, big promises have to be paid for. He has been described as a silvertail, not from the usual factional union background steeped in socialism but as a middle to upper class and well educated son of a lawyer from Mosman and later Turramurra. 

As Assistant Crown Solicitor, his father's human rights work influenced his son, this is where I believe his agenda was nationalistic in nature, if not somewhat ill-advised and poorly implemented.

Whitlam swept to power in December 1972 and by November 1975, it was all over. I feel Gough's greatest achievement was to transform the Labor party from its traditional working-class roots to include a suburban middle-class base. 

Gough Whitlam held the unofficial title of Australia's worst Prime Minister along with William McMahon, the man he defeated in 1972. A title he looked to carry to his grave until Keven Rudd and Julia Gillard wrestled the crown from him after wrestling with each other in the public arena. 

One could be fairly sure Gough would have been more than happy for the title to change hands within his lifetime.

Censorship on Facebook

A disturbing trend appearing on Facebook is post and newsfeed censorship. For some time now, Facebook has been deciding which posts appear on newsfeeds by screening posts and linked comments. They have rightly received widespread condemnation for manipulating the individual newsfeeds in a pathetic attempt to modify moods of its users.

Now posts including bullying, racism, inciting violence, religious persecution, sexual harassment and other abuse should not be tolerated. In such a case, moderation of posts is not only warranted, it should also be encouraged, there is however a limit.

There needs to be a clear code of conduct that users have the choice of accepting or declining to access the network, criticism of the US government should not encroach on personal liberties. Are Facebook denying people the right to protest?

People have the right to criticise government agencies that are not serving the public interest, my criticism of the American agency, the TSA, that is the Transportation Safety Authority was immediately removed from my Facebook feed as soon as it was posted.

One would suppose Facebook has software that scans for key words such as TSA automatically removing such posts as it was removed almost immediately.

This is akin to censorship on the internet, that is pretty much considered taboo. Consumers are considered competent enough to be able to discern between reliable information and propaganda.

Me, I'm not so sure, although the tenants of free speech must stand contrary to my personal beliefs of good taste and decorum. Personal freedom must be upheld at all costs.

The G20 Summit

The G20 summit will be hosted in Australia in November; concerns of stalled world economic growth will dominate the agenda. Australian treasurer Joe Hockey will put forward an infrastructure investment platform with public and private sector funding. 

It is somewhat convenient for PM Abbott and Treasurer Hockey to outline their global ambitions mirroring domestic political aims. The Abbott government's message to G20 counterparts is to follow the Australian lead.

That is privatisation of inefficient state assets, investing the proceeds of asset sales in new public works infrastructure with public/private partnerships managing risk with commercial operators sharing the risk/return of the project.

I can't say I have ever been much of a fan of Joe Hockey, so far, he has done a lousy job of selling his first budget even though the majority of bills have eventually passed through the senate.

Chomping on cigars created an image problem for the government and ultimately, his first budget should have been tougher, second year budget a little less tough and his third budget an election year budget - let's see how this plays out.

The romance of the passport

As an official document, the passport is the ticket to freedom, there are not too many official government documents that offer such romance, such freedom or such worldly pleasure. Normally an official government document reminds us of bureaucracy, the lack of freedom and the perceived abolishment and erosion of citizen's rights - but not so the passport. 

The stamped pages of your passport are the evidence of the freedom of travel, a confirmation of adventure - they are the record of your trip abroad. I must admit, I have kept my two previous passports and have flicked through the pages on occasions to check when I have visited certain countries when referencing past trips.

Visa stamps may be viewed as a form of travel snobbery detailing exotic locations, cultures and experiences. Anyone can go out and get a passport but you still need to fill the pages full of new and interesting adventures. 

As for me, I love these new smart passports with their electronic chip; no longer do you need to wait in line to return to Australia. I can quickly waltz through immigration at Perth International Airport quickly picking up my bags and be clear of the building in near record time. As we all know, the Perth International Terminal and Perth Domestic for that matter are not the most conductive airports for passenger flows.

A visa at the gate is a further hassle you and cost don't need. I fully understand the requirement for a visa in certain circumstances when you register online ahead of time. This gives the authorities sufficient time to check your credentials to see if you are a risk to their country or listed on Interpol or terrorism watch sites. However, a visa at the gate when you pass through immigration is a blatant rip-off of between $25 - $100 of hard earned cash for something they were already doing.