USS Texas BB-35

The USS Texas BB-35 is the second of the two New York class battleships; commissioned in 1914, she was a WWI dreadnought era battleship. The USS Texas saw extensive service during WWII firstly escorting convoys in the Atlantic and later in the Pacific theatre of war.  

The battleship provided in North Africa and the Normandy D-day landings in the European theatre before transference to the Pacific theatre providing naval gunfire support for the Iwo Jima and Okinawa marine landings.

Placed in naval reserve in 1946, the USS Texas was decommissioned and struck from the naval register in 1948; now residing in San Jacinto, Houston, Texas as a museum ship open to the public.  

On my next trip to the United States, I hope to be touring through Texas and will be sure to visiting this floating WWII museum.

Blackwood Bar & Grill - Mandaluyong

I was headed out to dinner in Mandaluyong, an city within the greater Manila area on the north side of the Pasig River. I wandered into the Blackwood Bar & Grill and immediately found out this was a bar targeting expats as their clientele - their prices notified me in no uncertain terms.

Still, I was waiting to meet friends for dinner and and had to hang around for a couple of gin and tonic. I quickly noticed the service wasn't up to the standard of the decor. Maybe because I was an interloper in their area, I wasn't taken seriously - I was just ignored. 

This is apparently a bar where local expats meet for a Sunday afternoon drink, this was early Saturday evening and I just wasn't feeling the love. Regardless, if I wanted a refill I had to chase them down, paying the bill seemed to be an almost impossible request - who would have thought?

Building the learning organisation

Having just racked up 10 years employed as a lecturer at a vocational college, I have a fair knowledge of traditional classroom delivery. The next step becoming more employable outside of the college system is to create the conditions to build a learning organisation within our faculty. That isn't going to be easy as I come up against resistance at every level - this is a fight to the death.

With this in mind, I reckon that is what I was already doing so I wanted to validate the process I was undertaking so my personal assignment over the Christmas holidays was to work my way through this book. That wasn't an outstanding success as it was mid-way through February and I still hadn't completed the book. 

However, in my defense, I have not only been taking notes but I have been writing up key concepts and approaches on my computer. In order to really embed the principles expelled in the publication, I really need to do more than just read a book from cover to cover and place it back on the bookshelf and forget about it. Now it is time to embed the principles in a reluctant organisation. 

2013 Hay Shed Hill Cabernet Sauvignon revisited

I purchased a bottle of 2013 Hay Shed Hill cabernet sauvignon and was must admit I was fairly disappointed. While I am very supportive of this winemaker after having purchased numerous vintages over the years, I thought the 2013 was lacking. 

I have visited the vineyard down at Margaret River and loved the soft smooth notes of the pitchfork cabernet sauvignon range. I was particularly impressed with the 2012 cabernet sauvignon, I suppose I expected a degree of consistency I had not found in the 2013 vintage. 

Were my expectations too high? Had I opened this bottle of wine too early so that it had not developed as hoped? But as I had so many great experiences from Hay Shed Hill, I knew this was probably me on a bad day so I needed to revisit the 2013 cabernet sauvignon to be sure.

I found the 2013 to hold none of the virtues of the complex yet smooth 2012 vintage. I found this vintage to be fairly nondescript and lacking the complexity of this range - that was unexpected. I do ask myself, was this just me? Was I just being overly sensitive? 

Were my expectations too high as I have come to expect a certain standard from a high quality wine producer? What I do know is this won't stop me drinking Hay Shed Hill cabernet sauvignon, I have had too many great experiences over the years to sook too long. As it turned out, I liked the next bottle of 2013, maybe I was just having a bad day. 

The café Americano

I have never much like the watery rubbish that is the café Americano, the growth of American style coffee houses has seen my choices of good black coffee somewhat limited. The café Americano is a style of coffee prepared by brewing a standard espresso shot then adding hot water to the espresso shot allowing a similar strength but somewhat different flavor to drip brewed coffee.

A popular belief that the café Americano origins were born during the second world war when American Soldiers stationed in Italy diluted Italian espresso shots with hot water to brew a coffee to that they were accustomed too. I was once in a pretty good cafe down in Fremantle and I overheard an American tourist explaining to his friends that the United States has the world's best coffee in Seattle coffee chains - I nearly fell over at the thought of that horrible watery rubbish.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf - Philippines

My favourite coffee haunt when visiting the Philippines is the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in the Greenbelt 5 shopping complex in the business district of Makati in greater Manila. What I like about the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is they serve their coffee in proper cups, not those disposable paper cups of other chains - let's get serious here.

This is a great hang, I can set up with my laptop computer and reference book and work from there for hours at a time. There is plenty of activity, but that doesn't seem to distract me and the double espresso they have on offer is some of the best coffee on offer from the large coffee chains.

Scuba Professional

I obtained my copy of Simon Pridmore's latest dive publication, Scuba Professional and started reading the preface. Peter Symes of X Ray magazine began by stating that no dive industry academy existed beyond the standard training agency instructor offerings.

This thought immediately raised alarm bells with me as substantive dive centre and resort training is available by a variety of non-certification agency institutions, this book addresses these and other issues and is an excellent bookshelf companion.

I understand what he is saying though, and yes, becoming an instructor is the most common method to enter the recreational dive industry. The instructor development course is in my opinion woefully inadequate preparation for dive industry management.

It took me a while to actually start reading as I loaned this excellent publication to numerous workmates, such was their interest in this book - it was a fight to get it back.

So actually reading this book began with a number of setbacks. I soon realised that this was not a romantic escapade into dive centre and resort ownership, this tells it as it is. Indeed, Simon asks if moving into the recreational diving industry is really for you - this is an important question.

The attrition rate among instructors is very high, this high attrition rate is beneficial to the dive certification agencies as they have a new cohort of instructors filling the roles vacated by burnt out instructors and dive centre owners.

Simon himself was a dive centre owner, his advice is fundamental to an understanding of the industry as you need to take a business based approach to dive centre ownership and management. The business needs to be viewed through an objective ideal, not a love of diving but through a keen business acumen and strategy.

Naturally, the love of diving is paramount; customer service is the basis of the industry. Sure, as I previously stated, the financials are important and this is brought about by keen observation of customer needs and desires.

Make no mistake, this is a customer centric business with dive centres and resorts displaying high levels of customer service, this book provides you with the blueprint to plan your dive career.

Just wasting my time with your delays

What a waste of time, you get your flight bumped and you end up with a meal ticket that doesn't cover the cost of the food, you are compensated to the value of fifteen Singapore dollars - big deal.

This is lousy service, as a customer of the airline, you may not necessarily be flying business class all the time, that is after all usually reserved for businesses willing to pay a higher ticket price for marginally better service. Changi airport is expensive, $15 doesn't go a long way - it's insulting. What is really annoying is Singapore Airlines is mimicking the low cost airlines a full service airline should be differentiating itself from.

2014 Leeuwin Estate Prelude chardonnay

Heading over to see my old man on a Friday night, I grabbed a bottle of 2014 Leeuwin Estate Prelude chardonnay, the evening was warm and we headed out to a local hawker's hut for a quick Malaysian meal.

Complimenting my beef rendang was the fragrant nose of citrus with lemon and lime overtones, the tasting notes also listed pear but I never picked that up. We were seated right up the back of the restaurant facing the window to avoid the hustle of the Friday night rush.

When the power went out, we had a poor position since we were in the shadows but we had a good view of the goings on outside, we had already been served so we were under no pressure to leave as no one was coming after us now.

The palete offered us notes of jasmine and cashew create lift and combines with cardamom pod and almond meal. The palate has immense purity, with power and persistence.

Lime and lemon pith define the palate, which carries through to a delicately layered middle, threaded with a fine mineral spine. Sesame seed and blanched almonds enhance complexity, finishing with a sparkling acid structure.

How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb?

How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? Well, according to my workplace it is two highly paid people, but like everything in the state government, it is never as simple as it should be.

We have a fixed structure at the college based on the negotiated enterprise bargaining agreement that has a manager, a head of programs that as an assistant is to aid planning and implementation and the lecturing staff aided by technicians and administrative support - a fairly standard hierarchy.

As frontline staff, the lecturers are the ones that generate income for the college, everyone else is a cost. That's not to say the administration or technicians aren't important, they perform an important support role.

Likewise, the manager is a cost to the portfolio as well; naturally, a manager with an entrepreneurial mindset is an asset to a business who more than pays for the cost of administration or the control factor in business parlance - they generate revenue.

But the state government does not work on such a mindset, instead of the flat management structures employed by private enterprise; the unwritten rule of government is to create a hierarchy of people underneath you to increase your empire that you are building.

The manager is to perform the role of manager - that is simple. The head of programs is an academic position enjoying the benefits of the academic role and as such is supposed to be part-time teaching.

The head of programs is a role to assist the manager with planning, implementation and scheduling including staff development and educational support. Actually, scheduling is the first role listed on the job description.

When a head of programs claiming a 5% flexibility allowance offloads the role of scheduling to a subordinate, the subordinate then claims academic delivery time, the 5% flexible hours allowance and then programmed overtime to perform a role the head of programs is paid to do - one suspects a rort is taking place with government funds.

So apparently it only takes two electricians to change a light bulb, one paid to do the job who then offloads the role to a subordinate who is also paid to do the job, both claim 5% flexibility allowances and the one now doing the job is paid overtime at a rate plus an extra loading.

Naturally, the head of programs still doesn't undertake half-time teaching after being freed of the main duties - welcome to the state government and the reason why I need to get out.

So, what is corruption?

Corruption is a deliberate and intentional act of wrongdoing; corruption is neither a mistake, carelessness nor negligence - corruption is carefully planned and executed. Corruption is dishonest and/or fraudulent conduct perpetuated by those holding positions of power within an organisation to acquire a personal benefit. 

Abuse of discretion is the misuse of powers combined with decision-making. Cronyism is the appointment of associates or friends to positions of authority without due process or the proper regard to their qualifications, experience or merit. 

Nepotism is favouring family connections while clientelism involves the exchange of goods or services for support that may be quid-pro-quo, better known as a favour for a favour. Favourism on the other hand is the practice of giving unfair and preferential treatment to an individual or group at the expense of another - once again regardless of merit.

So I am seeing flagrant disregard for proper process, promotions that are not merit based circumnavigating formal structures, employment agreements and ethical boundaries. The question is, how do you report this these acts to the exact people engaging in unethical behaviour without ending your career in an organisation that has proven and ingrained workplace bullying behaviours? A moral and ethical dilemma. 

Cronyism in the workplace - an ethical dilemna

Let's be under no misconceptions - cronyism is corruption. As I am employed in the state government; I see the effects of cronyism in the workplace more than I should after years working in private enterprise - not that corruption doesn't exist in the private sector. Since the state government is funded by taxpayer money, an onus exists to promote people based on competence. In private enterprise, you can promote whoever you want within the framework of employment laws.

Cronyism is the practice of appointing friends or colleagues to positions of authority in an organisation regardless of their qualifications and/or experience in a process lacking transparency. Even when a formal process is in place, the process is corrupted to benefit the pre-selected candidate disregarding the best and most appropriate person for the position. 

Generally cronyism exists when the person or people making the appointment and the beneficiary are in social contact; however, this also extends to appointments based on personal preferences such as age, sex, religious views or cultural issues. 

It is argued the person making the appointment has feelings of inadequately for their own position within the organisation. For this reason, the person with the authority surrounds themselves with people who will not weaken their position or express views contrary to their ideals. That's pretty much how I read the situation in my workplace; the question is, how do I deal with this moral and ethical dilemma? 

Pakistani Easter outrage

I was at our holiday house with my family over the Easter break when I switched the ABC news on. Our only complaint was the number of small children running around making noise as the adults were trying to relax - not a big deal really. I was up late the night before to watch Kohli and Dhoni steer the Indian cricket team home against Australia in the T20 quarter final. 

We were playing because we defeated Pakistan only a few days before; to my way of thinking, cricket is a game that brings nations together. I believe the domestic T20 competitions recruiting international players embeds the notion of diverse player groups as team mates when international matches are played - this can only be a positive.

The news headlines flashed on to inform us a bomb had been detonated in Pakistan, the neighbouring nation to where the T20 world cup was being played. The bomb was detonated in a park targeting the Christian minority celebrating Easter Sunday. I saw the face of a woman who had one small girl killed in the blast, her other young daughter was missing - presumably dead. This was a sickening moment, this poor woman was not alone in her loss, there was 65 dead and the toll was expected to rise.

I have to ask, what type of evil satanic cult would target women and children playing in a park? I constantly ask myself why the world we all inhabit has sunk to such levels of depravity? Why do we so hate people who hold differing religious views that much that we have to murder them? Our world is in a dangerous phase, these fundamental views of religious intolerance and hatred threaten our whole existence.

I don't believe wholesale migration is the answer, large inflows of Muslim immigrants into Christian society only transfers the problem from one continent to another without addressing the underlying issues. I don't try to imply that the Christian world is without its problems in regards to history or the future direction of Christianity. I am saying we are not seeing the proportionate levels of violence directed against diverging views. 

I am fortunate to live in a country where freedom of religion is accepted along with freedom of speech and the freedom to pursue my life as I see fit. At some stage, we have to ask, when are we as Earth's inhabitants going to say - enough.