Asians in Monash

Posted to Letters to Editor, Monash Weekly on 2/7/2012 at 9:00 PM (Not yet published by Newspaper)
Title: "Asians in Monash"
http://www.monashweekly.com.au/content/letterstotheeditor/

Some of the 2011 Census data has been released. The make up of Monash leads to my following observation and raise some questions.

Asian population is definitely on the increase in the City of Monash. It is of interest to me to find out what attracts them to come to the City? What is the City going to do about the changing demographics in terms of their needs and wants, promotion of social integration, discouraging Tower of Babel building, etc.

Unfortunately, there is lack of proportional representation of Asians in the Council. I sincerely encourage all Asians to take an active role in Council matters, stand as candidates for the forthcoming Council election and be counted.

With such high Asian background population, predominantly from very competitive ethnic origins such as Chinese and Indian, also explains why City of Monash enjoy high employment rate.

Will ratepayers at City of Monash learn from Queensland state election?

Posted to Letters to Editor, Monash Weekly on 25/3/2012 at 4:50 PM (Not published by Newspaper)
Title: Will ratepayers at City of Monash learn from Queensland state election?

The number of Labor Councillors in the City of Monash is 9 out of the total of 11. I am deeply concerned about local council being used as a training ground of future state and federal politicians for candidates backed by political parties with financial and other resources. This deprives other non-politically aligned candidates the opportunity to contribute towards the good of the City and the ratepayers.

This may sound like the voice of a sour grape, but then this is a statement of fact. It is unlikely for quality and genuine independents to sacrifice their time and livelihood (including money) to campaign for a position, only to find out there is Buckley’s chance to even get back their deposit money, unless there is a level playing field. Those who have burning desire to contribute will likely pack up their boxing gloves after a number of attempts.

Better resourced and influential candidates have running mates; some are even dummies who do not supply contact details to the electoral office. The purpose of having these dummies that are unlikely to win is to preference their votes to their mates to boost the count. Unfortunately, the existing preferential voting system and non-contact disclosure cannot be amended.

Some decisions made by the City executives are just being rubber stamped by the Councillors. The Council meetings can be described as more than courteous. There are insufficient scrutiny and accountability. To name a few, these include annual rate increase, council expenses including Councillors', use of technology and most laughably the curtain at Clayton pool.

While many items seem transparent, nonsensical transparency is worth as much as the nonsense itself. It is important for ratepayers to learn more about the candidates before casting their votes this October council election. The City’s future – rate collection, development, open space, traffic management, business mix, social harmony, community health services, etc. must be discussion topics and subject to more vigorous scrutiny.

Will ratepayers at City of Monash learn from Queensland state election held on 24/3/2012?

Fed up over Monash Uni campus crawl

Posted to Monash Weekly (19/3/2012) on 23/3/2012 at 2:44 PM (Not published by Newspaper)
Commenting on "Fed up over Monash Uni campus crawl"
http://www.monashweekly.com.au/article.aspx?id=2491899

Let' see, public transport services will drop in patronage, no new vehicles required, university campus size will shrink, lectures can be recorded and delivered repeatedly rendering lecturers redundant, no employment in university for future graduates, etc.

The futurist gurus predicted in the 60's have finally realised that with advancement in computer technology we would have more leisure time - playing on iPad, doing nothing constructive.

It's like online shopping, the down side is loss of employment. Unfortunately service industry will prosper if other industries can bring home the bacon.

Chinese New Year Celebration 2012 at Kingsway, City of Monash

Posted to Monash Weekly on 7/2/2012
Title: Chinese New Year Celebration 2012

Compare with previous years, the attendance was much lower. Even close to 1 pm, Kingsway was not packed. Some stalls were not open for business, and the queues at the food stalls were short and not as "deep". Conspicuously missing were the popular DVD stalls, but there were two "traders" selling DVDs in the pavement.

The very hot weather could have turned a lot of the people away. It could possibly due to this being the last Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration around Melbourne - CNY celebration fatigue.

Beads of sweat rolled down my face, and the day was hot! I played safe to have my lunch at a Grand Tofu cafe/restaurant, which I hoped the food hygiene standards were better observed.

The ground outside the Monash Library seemed to be the real cultural hub. Chinese Association of Victoria conducted several activities including lantern painting, origami making, calligraphy demonstration, and the good old tradition of solving the classical riddles written on strips of paper hung from the tent "ceiling". Other Chinese schools and associations were there as well. This patch was a lot more crowded than the food stalls.

I took a few photos of the non-Chinese dance performance on stage. The dancers wore red - the only thing that was close to Chinese tradition!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2834859783541.2123412.1020578094&type=3&l=0f8b69dada

It was very difficult to "shoot" the lion in action because there was hardly any room to move about, let alone trying to get to the front of the crowd to capture the lion's movement close to the ground. I don't have a good camera, and cannot capture the action well at high speed.

The Lion went from shop-to-shop. It moved about on the ground, leapt in the air, lifted high to get the red packet containing money tied together with a complete lettuce to a beam above the pavement. The Lion "drank" a bottle of beer, and was likely exceeded .05. Its tail moved about like a real drunkard; it also rolled on the ground and "laughed" - well it did open its mouth flap wide.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2834912664863.2123414.1020578094&type=3&l=8af6596af4

Suddenly, the Water Dragon arrived in the City of Monash in its true form, brought along buckets of rain. Astrologically speaking, Lunar New Year began on 23/1/2012, but the Year of the Dragon actually started on 4/2/2012. This year is the Year of the Water Dragon, and it is a Black Dragon.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/sin-fong-chan-the-teacher/lesson-on-chinese-new-year-and-the-year-of-dragon/196474710450530

By now, Kingsway was deserted, and one could roll a bowling ball down the street without knocking down any pedestrian. The street was wet, and the Dragon leader asked his team members to stay put in the pavement until the rain stopped.

There were activities in the Century Walk, including the Vietnamese spring roll demonstration. I got in just at the right time; I had the last piece of spring roll from the demonstrator!

Depressed sales drove some of the more “dynamic” stallholders go round taking orders from anyone and everyone they could approach, and delivered them freshly cooked from the stalls. Eat your heart out online ordering, this is human-base customer service.

I had enough for the afternoon, and left at 4:45 pm. The sun was still hiding behind the clouds, and for more than an hour. I wanted to return to Kingsway for more fun and action, but I suffered from CYN celebration constipation! And so, I leave the reporting to someone else who attended the later part of the celebration.

Until next time, have a wonderful year. May the Dragon bring you lots and lots of water or its equivalence – wealth!

After cigarette, is plain packaging of alcohol next?

Posted to Letters to Editor, Monash Weekly (1/6/2011) on 1/6/2011 at 10:41 AM (Not published)
After cigarette, is plain packaging of alcohol next?

I must stress again - I am not a smoker, and do not like the smell of cigarette smoke. Neither I nor anyone I know well has any interest in the industry or related industries.

My protest is about the fundamental right of free speech, and freedom in advertising. It is hypocritical to use cigarettes as a scapegoat, while other harmful products enjoy the freedom of damaging private and public health without governmental interference.

Many smokers do die of cancers and other diseases, but many do not. Similarly, many alcohol drinkers die of some form of cancers or diseases, too.

The effect of excessive consumption of alcohol has more detrimental effects. Once someone gets drunk, all hell breaks loose. They abuse others physically and emotionally. Once they get behind the steering wheel of a car, there is a good chance to discover them in a hospital ICU or death notices in the newspapers.

Until plain packaging comes into force, there are a lot of health warnings and ghastly pictures on the cigarette labels. There are no such warnings or pictures on cans or bottles of alcohol. If the legislators and health do-gooders are serious about saving lives and the health wellbeing of humankind, treatment of alcohol sale and promotion should be no different from that of cigarette.

So, the question is, will we see the day when plain packaging applies to alcohol?

Councillor backs religion education

Posted to Monash Weekly (30/5/2011) on 30/5/2011 at 4:31 PM (Not published)
Commenting on "Councillor backs religion education"
http://www.monashweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/councillor-backs-religion-education/2178527.aspx

For goodness sake, spend the time more productively to teach subjects that are more useful, beneficial, non-controversial and universal, to help build better foundation for our children's future career and life.

Curriculum based around a whole variety of different religions is going to cause more divides, conflicts and bullying at schools.

Australia is running on two-speed economy, but the world is running on two-speed academy. One look at some of the textbooks in our current schools shocks me to no end that no wonder we are falling behind some of our more academically competitive neighbours.

Commonsense tells us that no one in this world can give a balanced view in all religions, or qualified enough in all religions to deliver unbiased lessons.

It's confusing enough for the young and old to work out whether Man was created or evolved, the world was created in 7-days (in what measurement), a religion NOT a religion (Buddhism), a belief becomes a religion (Taoism), a messenger becomes God or son of God.

There will be dispute as to which messenger was the true messenger of God, or my God is powerful than someone else's God.

History can be fudged, so can Religion Education.

China's economy about to overtake US

Posted to Monash Weekly (25/4/2011) on 26/4/2011 at 1:35 PM (Not published)
Resubmited Part 2 of 3 on 15/10/2011 9:23 PM
Commenting on “China's economy about to overtake US”
http://www.monashweekly.com.au/news/world/world/general/chinas-economy-about-to-overtake-us/2143313.aspx

Good on China. This is a great example for many countries to follow! Unfortunately, far too many countries adopt the NATO’s motto - Talk Only No Action!

With a population of 1.3 billion people to support and yet can win the economic race is definitely a modern day fairy tale. Australia has only 23 million people, but keeps whinging about the size of the population – this is just laughable!

While Australia still needs to resolve the NBN rollout, China has already built the highest rail track in the world linking Beijing to Tibet, the fastest bullet train, a modern international airport bigger than London’s Heathrow Airport, thousands of wind turbines, booming automotive industry building electric cars, rockets to send satellites and astronauts to outer space, and the most awesome one is that China is the factory of the world now!

End Part 1 of 3


Is there anything China cannot excel in? China is progressing at lightning speed – thanks to technology transfer, it is rather unstoppable. What is more concerning is that China will soon be the office of the world. With the unprecedented speed of technological advancement, a modern office is no longer an enclosed space with fixed locality - staff can be situated in other parts of the world, and documents filed and backed up in computer servers remote from the source.

Can you imagine the benefit of outsourcing office services to overseas companies? Just compare that with buying goods online from other countries – there is no GST if the value is under $1,000. Outsourcing office work saves on payroll tax, compulsory superannuation guaranteed contribution, office expenses, union interference, etc. What is going to happen to employment?

End Part 2 of 3


2009-2010 $19.1 billion international education industry has become the thing of the past. Australian government move to change the visa and permanent residency policies have led to a drastic decline in international students coming to study in Australia, causing a financial blackhole in our economy. This subject has not been raised openly and treated urgently by both political parties.

With economy of scale and determination, China can train more people in China per week than probably all the Australian learners / trainees trained in one year. It is just a matter of a decade or so, professional trainers in China will lose their accent, and international students from all over the world will be pursuing their qualifications in China. After being an educator / trainer in the industry for about 15 years, I can only say that future learners will probably get higher quality training in China than Australia, and at fraction of the cost.

After all that being said and written, are there no negatives about China especially the way she deals with human rights and social justice? I can only say it is a matter of opinion, and this is not relevant to the subject in discussion.

End Part 3 of 3