The Death of Personal Responsibility.

I just read this:

Travellers charged thousands for using mobiles overseas.

and I think you should too, just for lols.

If you can't be bothered, I'll summarise for you. It's about people complaining about two things at a parliamentary level. First, that overseas roaming costs are too high. Second, there should be greater transparency with regards to roaming costs.

I'm all for both things. What I don't like is the shirking of any sense of personal responsibility, which seems to be a trend in society today.

Yes, the costs could afford to be more transparent, if you'll pardon the pun. Insofar as they're not RIGHT IN YOUR FACE EVERY SECOND THAT YOU'RE AWAKE.

I'm fairly certain that when you want to roam overseas from Australia, you have to phone up and everything to get it enabled. I mean, I haven't done it, because I knew right from the off that it's a ridiculous rip-off. $20 for a MB of data or something stupid like that.

I mean, it's not screaming IN YOUR FACE EVERY SECOND THAT YOU'RE AWAKE, like your personal assistant would, but it wouldn't be too far a stretch to know, or at least think about the possibility, that roaming overseas would maybe cost a bit more than using your phone at home.

Then again, maybe it's not as common-sense as I think it is. I thought that it was fairly evident that peanuts would possibly contain traces of nuts, but obviously some people don't realise that, so there you are, warning labels. Telling you that there may be FREAKING TRACES OF NUTS IN PEANUTS.

Like peanuts containing traces of nuts, roaming isn't exactly a really new phenomenon either.

Again, I wouldn't know, because I haven't done it before, but I'm inclined to think that when calling up to enable roaming, the operator or whatever would let you know how much it would cost. Or (here we go with personal responsibility again) you could ask. Yes, I know it's not your responsibility to ask, they should tell you, but I just thought it'd be a logical thing to do to avoid any future disputes or surprises. The article and parliament thing makes it sound like the costs are hidden deep in the bowels of the secret files vault of telephone companies. I'm fairly certain that the information is accessible on most phone company websites.

Senator Conroy says: "One of the most common complaints that I hear is from people who return from overseas and are confronted by a mobile phone bill that runs into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars". That's not really a valid complaint. It's like buying a Ferrari, and then complaining that it costs a lot.

Yes, roaming is a monumental rip-off. Yes, increase transparency by sending messages to people when they're overseas how much it's going to cost them if they're not astute enough to realise that it could cost them a bit. But don't go around blaming all and sundry about your failure to exercise a little bit of personal responsibility.

Word of the Day: Responsibility

Herald Sun Shmerald Sun.

Allow me a moment to be outraged at a Herald Sun headline again.

BONUS HUMBLE PIE

the headline cleverly screams. See how the first letter of each word make up the word BHP?

First issue with this: a CEO forgoing $7 million in profit has nothing to do with being humble.

I'm not going to look in the dictionary, but to me, humble means being understated, not going around telling people you have loads of money or whatever just because you do.

Second issue: if we take the phrase as a whole - that is, 'humble pie' as it's supposed to be used in context - it still makes no sense.

Is not the phrase 'eating humble pie' used when somebody makes an error, and is forced to apologise or atone for such an error? To me, the headline implies that Marius Kloppers has made a grave error in judgement, and is now atoning for it.

They further somehow make the link from his salary and bonus - which is a minute amount, when compared to the profits of BHP - to super funds taking a hit. What.

If anything, the man should be lauded, rather than made out to be in the wrong for making so much money.

I'm not sure whether the Herald Sun is supposed to be left wing or right wing, and it never really struck me as being particularly left or right (not that I ever bothered to really look into it), but I think it's fairly obvious that even if it's not left wing, it's definitely anti-right. Most of their stuff can be summarised as reading:

"How dare he make so much money when so many of us don't? Why don't all of us make millions of dollars? What did he ever do to deserve higher pay than us? It's not like he does anything anyway. Where's our free money?"

I don't really know what my point is, but it just really annoys me.

Word of the Day: Humble

Surely you jest!

What has always amazed me, and continues to amaze me, is how amazed some Australians are at the fact that we pay more for stuff than people overseas. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this article here. 

To summarise, people think that we pay too much for technology in Australia. 

I like cheap stuff too. I mean, I wouldn't complain if things, including technology, were cheaper. That's probably because I don't own a store that sells such things. 

Which is the point exactly.

It costs money to run these stores. If we assume that rent costs are constant between Australia and America, Australia sells far less of pretty much anything than the equivalent American store. Thus, these costs are then covered by selling things for higher prices.

Not exactly a huge leap in logic, but some people seem to struggle with it. 

Economies of scale. Google it. Or something. 

Granted, for things that don't require physical stores, like downloadable software, I think we sometimes do pay too much for. 

However, there is also something called purchasing power parity. A dollar here does not necessarily buy the same amount of stuff as a dollar elsewhere. 

Which is why I find the DVD thing in the article idiotic. Wow, we pay three bucks more for a DVD here than they do in America!

There are a myriad of factors that could cause price discrepancies. Economies of scale, for one. Purchasing power parity, for another. The list goes on. Taxes. Import costs. Domestic demand. Which is why I find it stupid that the article complains about a couple of bucks difference in DVD prices.

I love that this is how I spend my Friday nights. I am beyond help.

Word of the Day: Idiotic

Kony 2012

I don't profess to know a great deal about what's going on in Uganda, or, depending on who you're listening to, what's not going on in Uganda. So I'll give actually talking about Kony a fairly wide berth. 

What I would like to remark upon, purely as an observation, is how astounding this whole thing is. This 30-minute video has people deeply divided, with some jumping straight in and castigating Kony like he's personally wronged them and their entire family and ancestors, and some taking a wholier-than-thou 'educate yourself before you jump to conclusions' stance.

As I say, I don't know a great deal about this - in fact, I know next to nothing about most things in Africa - but I do find it annoying how some people actually think they can save the world from evil by sharing a video. I get that some people actually care, and there's nothing wrong with this video making you caring. I mean, we all have to learn about things from somewhere. But seriously, copying + pasting a letter and sending it to your local MP, sharing a video, or sharing a link, won't do very much if that's all you're going to do. 

It's especially annoying when the same people who think that Africa is a country are the people that start harping on about Kony and Uganda and whatnot. I don't know why, something about that just rankles with me. I guess it's that if you care about something, then care about it. Don't go running impromptu lectures about something that you've only just learned about through a YouTube video. 

I'm not really the saviour of the world either. I give to a few select charities a few times a year, because I believe in the work that they do, but I'm not really the volunteering type. So you could just dismiss all this as hypocritical old me ranting at people that actually care and stuff. 

Also equally annoying are the people that are all like 'fact, fact, fact', contradicting the Kony people. They, too, most likely just learned that Uganda is part of the African continent, and not another planet, and yet, they're teaching people all about the history of the Ugandan conflict. 

It's all just rather annoying. I wish they'd hurry up and sort Kony out. Because he is probably a morally bankrupt person, and also because many people have probably suffered at his hands, but also because then this whole thing will end sooner.

Word of the Day: Kony 

London burns

People, families, and communities have their possessions, their jobs, and their loved ones destroyed and ripped apart by natural disasters. Most of the time, we can't avoid this. We do the best we can to prevent this from happening, but more often than not, we end up directing all of our efforts to recovering from it.

The London riots are similar in their result, but not in their origins. The carnage is completely man-made. I am astounded by the sheer stupidity and thoughtlessness of the people rioting.



Photo from The Australian

I understand that some of them feel oppressed, or hard done by by the government. How is burning down the neighbourhood grocery, or the barber next door, or bakery, or the school, going to improve their plight? They'll wake up from this madness, and realise that they have destroyed the house of their neighbour, the shops that their friends owned, schools that their siblings attended.

Looting shops is not fighting oppression. Burning property is not fighting oppression. Throwing petrol bombs at families, with parents who have come home from a long day of trying to do what's right by their families, that isn't fighting oppression.

There are also idiots that run around setting fire to things, looting shops and assaulting people because they think it's fun. Or something. I have no idea what's going through their minds, to be honest. That's all they are. Idiots, and probably cowards as well, who wouldn't even think of doing something like this if they didn't have a mob behind them.

The saddest part about all this is that it's caused by people. Not a cyclone. Not a tsunami. Not an earthquake. All this carnage is caused by individuals who think they have the right to destroy the livelihood of people who are actually trying to do the right thing, and barely getting by as it is.

I'm not going to tell them to stop in this post, because I know they won't see it. I know that even if they do, they most likely wouldn't care about it anyway. If they did, they wouldn't be doing what they are now. I guess what I'm trying to say is, before doing something destructive, think of the lives that you're destroying. Because life for many people is hard enough as it is, and destroying them isn't going to make it any easier.

Word of the Day: London

Many happy meetings

When I got home, I realised today was a good day, despite me still being a dud in many aspects of life.

I realised that the reason for it being good was that I ran into about a million and one people that I actually liked today. For the first time in a while, I ran into people that I actually wanted to talk to, and not people that I would rather avoid at all costs.

Upon arriving at uni, I ran into Irene on my way to class. After that, I went to aforementioned class, and felt like a dud all over again.

Then, on my way to my next class, while waiting for Yun, I ran into everyone's favourite white man, Orrin. Or, at least, my favourite white man. We had a good old chat about nothing in particular, and went our separate ways.

After our next lecture, I ran into none other than Ken, he of Vietnamese origin. We had a good old moan about uni, and away he went.

Then I ran into Davy. Funnily enough, Yun and I were discussing him about two minutes before, and how she couldn't get through to his mobile.

Then, I ran into Elene and Irene (again!).

Good times all around.

Now the bad.

I think I have a slight cold. Worst time to get it. And to make it worse (not that they're related or anything. At least, I don't think they are), I split off a bit of my fingernail from my finger when I was all gung-ho and opening a cardboard wrapping this morning. So now it hurts like hell when I try to type, so I'm typing like a guy who only has the use of nine fingers. Timing could've been worse. That's not to say I wanted it to happen, but it's not the worst time for it to happen. Should be healed by tomorrow, so don't worry too much. I know you're worried.

So, Osama bin Laden. My views. Yay.

Personally, I don't really feel anything massive at the news. I mean, I've always subscribed to the view that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. American troops kill people, he kills people.

I know, I know, people are going to say, 'You'd feel differently if he'd attacked someone close to you.' And yeah, I know I would. But I'd also contend that you'd feel pretty bad too if an American soldier attacked someone close to you.

I understand why people would be happy that he's dead. Especially people that have been affected. I'm not demeaning the suffering that they've gone through by any means. But I think it's also good to remember that in the process of invading other nations, the USA has also killed a lot of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends. Many of them just as innocent as those that suffered in the terrorist attacks perpetrated by bin Laden.

I don't admire the man, but I do respect the fact that he turned away from a life of exorbitantly comfortable living, for an ideology. For something that he believed in. While I know that the vast majority of what he did was utterly reprehensible, I respect that one part of his character. Let me make it clear that I don't love the guy, or what he did, but I just think that the act of ditching billions of dollars for ideology is quite a feat.

Just so that I don't get abused, verbally or otherwise, let me make it quite clear once again: I have no love for the guy. I'm just not in the "Woooo, yeah, he's dead" camp.

Anyway, that's all. I don't think it changes much in the grand scheme of things, but it's good in the sense that it provides some sense of closure for the victims of his attacks.

Back to uni stuff discussion. It's still pretty hectic, and looks like being so for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and I'm getting panic attacks from doing uni work. And my finger hurts from all that typing.

Word of the Day: Osama