Parisblog

There are other choices

This story in the SMH angers me, as such stories always do. It concerns a proposed national curriculum in Australia for sexual health education of children and teenagers. Like a reflex, the Catholic Church objects that children may be encouraged to use condoms and have abortions.

"Sydney's Catholic schools head Dan White is warning against the planned national curriculum being used as a ''how-to guide'' for children to gain access to contraception and abortion clinics."

Indeed, such a curriculum is likely to increase the use of contraception and for those for whom contraception fails, to educate them that the option of an abortion exists. That would be a successful outcome.

News flash, Dr White: Australia has a constitutional separation of Church and State so, you know, your opinion about what is important for Roman Catholics is one to which you are entitled but as an Australian tax payer, I have no more interest in funding education that supports your religious beliefs than I do that of any other religion. We're a secular, not a Catholic, society.

"The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth."

Secondly, in all of the good studies ever done on the subject, the overwhelming evidence is that educating children and teenagers about sexual health delays, and does not encourage, intercourse. That when they do have intercourse they use contraception. And that condoms, properly used, reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and reduce rates of conception. In other words, education leads to improved personal and social health outcomes. The converse is also true - uneducated, ill-informed teenagers have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies, unwanted children and abortions.

Thirdly, I'm never quite sure how celibate men are qualified to advise on the subject of sex and sexuality to anyone of any age, and certainly the involvement of priests (and nuns) in the care and education of children over many years has been clearly documented to have lead to widespread, systematic and appalling abuse - physical, emotional and sexual - which was proactively covered up by the leadership of the Church, so your credibility is poor. The Irish commission to inquire into child abuse illuminates the life of some members of your order very clearly. For some members of your clergy, their aspirations were noble but their actions were despicable. So you know, your qualifications for advising Australians how to educate our children are reputationally damaged by this.

Finally, if the Church seriously objects to having Catholic children forced into a national curriculum, the best single option for the Church is to self-fund and not to ask for my secular tax dollars.

In other words, Dr White - your opinion is of interest and we thank you for it, but if you want my money, then you should be advocating a curriculum that is based on evidence and a good return on investment for our society. Anything else is really just superstition and dogma. You are entitled, and absolutely within your rights to preach as you wish from your pulpit, so pass the plate to the faithful and go for it. If you want money from my plate, then please let evidence do the talking. 

Solar Fail?

Good piece from Thomas Friedman in NYT today. He says he is embarassed that none of the solar panel fabs referred to in the piece are not in America. None in Australia, either - apparently a sunny country. But heck, we're great at digging out coal and uranium.

www.flightcaster.com

Great app. Thanks Rick for the heads up. Tomorrow's flight looking good.

Google OS

This is really interesting. The NYT covers the tech story du jour, and what Microsoft had long feared, one suspects, is formally happening. It's war!

The Times writes:

"But while Google has deep pockets and a vast reach, it is in for a difficult battle when it comes to challenging Microsoft in the operating system market. Many companies have tried this over the years, with little success."

Hmm. That was then, right? What about now? Didn't the world change?

If you want to really understand how the ecosytem has shape-shifted, then figure out over the past, say, 5 years in absolute and trending terms:

- what percentage of overall OS share does Apple have? 

- what percentage of notebook OS share has Apple gained?

- what is the OS penetration on Smartphones? Where's Windows Mobile in all this? Android?

- what percentage of market share has Firefox gained, and which online brand is Firefox's preferred partner? - what about Chrome itself?

But then ponder this, too:

- what an amazing job Microsoft did in turning around their OS share in Netbooks, against what at first appeared to be a Linux tide.

- the investment that Microsoft is making in brand advertising

- the early word on Windows 7 (that runs great on netbooks) is very positive.

This is going to be quite a fight.

Whingeing Poms

The term is sooooooo unfair. Or, is it?

War of words before BA and unions hold talks - Times Online 

BA work practices

British Airways faces significant hurdles if it wants to change work practices, as it found this year when it wanted to start a hot-towel service in premium economy.

Bassa, the union that represents cabin crew, said that negotiation was required.

It wanted the number of crew on a Boeing 747 increased from 15 to 16 — at a cost of tens of millions of pounds — in return for distributing the hot towels.

BA refused, claiming that hot towel service did not constitute a significant change in working practices.

The service has been introduced, but BA cabin crew told The Times that many staff still refuse to give out the hot towels because it is not a union-sanctioned activity.

Our Father, which art in heaven ...

Reading the Times today and they are reviewing, along with many other media outlets, the report from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. It's a sign of openness that the entire report is now published online, which is a good thing. It's not fun reading but even a brief scan is informative. Though, it is depressing that:

"The report’s publication had been delayed for several years after the Christian Brothers religious community sued successfully in 2004 to withhold from the report the names of all its members, dead or alive."

Society, on the assumption of inherent respect for these men because of their religious order, entrusted to their care some of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society. A meaningful number of these men (along with laypeople and including a small number of women and others who worked in these institutions run by the priests) completely breached this trust. It also seems as though some of the children were "loaned" to outsiders for day trips where the children were abused. One wonders at the nature of these transactions. Were the children pimped by priests? The report notes that it was the orphans and kids without families or who had no other home to go to who were most at risk for all forms of abuse. After all, to whom were they going to complain?

You name the form of abuse, these institutions run by the Catholic Church seem to have perfected it over many decades and across many countries. Has the same thing happened in religious institutions run by other faiths? Or at least, has it happened as widely and apparently as systemically? The answer seems to be no, so one must wonder why the Roman Catholic church in particular has fostered so many abusers. In my view enforced celibacy must be part of the answer. It goes against the nature of men and if all that happened was that priests became sexually neutered and cared for their congregations and did charitable work for their communities, it would be wonderful. Unfortunately it seems that a meaningful number of men so "hobbled" by their faith became violent child rapists. Men whose identities their organizing body has successfully suppressed.

I do feel genuinely sorry for the many, many members of the Church who never participated in the abuse. As individuals, none of this was their fault. But the institution itself must be accountable and platitudes from the Pope don't cut it. One appropriate penalty would be for the Church to lose its tax exempt status. This alone would have a very powerful negative impact on the institution and the monies raised could be used to fund education, health care and other tasks carried out by the church, but in a secular manner.

One might also argue that any educational or other institution administered by Catholic priests, especially those involved in the care of minors, should be subject to a very high degree of independent supervision and regular audit to prevent further abuses taking place because clearly in many of these cases, self-governance failed. These are  sorts of punishment we mete out to banks that breach our trust, or to Members of Parliament who make dodgy expense claims. We make them pay a price, we deprive them of prior liberty, we audit and inspect and manage. There should be no exceptions for religious organizations.

 

Brands you learn to love, and those you learn to hate

A trip to Seattle for me isn't really complete without Virgin America, Avis, and the Bellevue Club Hotel.

Virgin America gets better and better with each usage: now, as I just updated, they have inflight WiFi which meant that I was able to be online for almost 1:15 of a 1:30 flight. It was fast, it was easy to use and it was useful. I continue to fly Virgin here to Seattle because they are cheap, they fly from the the international terminal at SFO (no lines in the morning) and because I get a comfortable seat and good amenities. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to friends.

The Bellevue Club is also cheaper than the Westin and many other local hotels: it is a member's only high end recreational facility with a hotel attached - so if you like to work out, there's really no better place. Parking and internet are free. It's also somewhere I recommend.

Avis, however, are completely, totally, fucking useless. Unutterable morons. They couldn't arrange a fuck in a Vegas brothel for a group of drunk college guys with pocketfuls of cash.  If Avis was a cup of coffee, it would be cold instant coffee, made weak and improperly stirred. If Avis were a country, it would be somewhere in the 3rd world where the water was unsafe to drink and there was a high chance of being robbed at gunpoint. If Avis was a disease, it wouldn't be fatal but you'd be permanently incapacitated with a really bad facial rash, chronic diarrhoea and impotence. If Avis suddenly said they were starting an airline, I'd never ever fly out of fear that the plane wouldn't go where it was supposed to, or worse. 

If I had a choice - and working for a large company where Avis is the service provider, I don't - I would always use one of their competitors. I really encourage all of you to do the same.

Today, when I got to the parking garage (having been through all the loops with customer service that I described here and here, I was welcomed by the following message on the Preferred Board:

   

Once again, even though I had been assured by their customer service representative that all was well, it wasn't true. First of all at the desk they told me I was early (which was true,so I settled down momentarily.)

But then they told me that ... wait for it ... my Australian Drivers Licence number was still in the system. As I had to delete my Australian profile and start from scratch with my US address, my US credit card and my California Drivers licence, I know I didn't enter it. Of course, their system doesn't empower employees to amend the data at the terminal. The woman at the desk told me to call the 1-800 number on the back of my preferred card. She's lucky I am not a violent man.

I have now gone online to update my drivers licence information to be rewarded with the system message that my information was successfully updated. We'll see. I completely lack any confidence in their service, systems and brand.

The only satisfaction arising from my interactions with Avis is thatI am able to blog about it to do what I can to alert others to my dreadful customer experience, and encourage capitalism and market forces to take their course.

Avis following through

I posted a while back about my bad experience with Avis. Last night, I received the following email (my email to them was around 3 weeks ago.) It was good that they replied and apologised and assisted.

Except that the password reset she did for me didn't work: at least, when I went to log back in to update my password from the generic one she had given me, it failed and the service locked me out. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

Thank you for contacting Avis Mr. Wayn.

I apologize for the delay in my response to your email and the issues 
you have endured with your wizard number.

Reports such as yours are most appreciated, since they help us target 
and correct areas of service which might be improved.

Any difficulties or problems encountered  are a concern to us, and we 
apologize most sincerely for the inconvenience you were caused.  Please 
be assured the responsible manager has been contacted to prevent any 
recurrence.

When making a profile online there is an additional step required to 
attach the preferred service to the wizard number it is not added 
automatically.

When logging into your profile it is note right on the first page about 
the status with the offer to add preferred service.

I have added it for you so you are now preferred service.  To do this I 
was required to change your password to a XXXXXX you will need to go in 
and reset it.

The first time Preferred Service is used all renters are required to 
stop by the counter to have their information verified by a counter 
agent, there after you would be able to go directly to your vehicle.

Although we realize that we cannot make up for the disappointing 
experience, we do appreciate your contacting us.  

If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.

Thank you for choosing Avis and we hope to see you at one of our rental 
counters very soon.

Warm regards,

XXXXXXX
Avis Customer Service Representative
custserv@avis.com

I always knew Auckland was better than Sydney

I spent some time in Auckland in 2006. Never lived there. Now, the Mercer survey proves what I always suspected. Auckland is right up there with the best that Switzerland and Canada have to offer.

Of course, this is the same survey reported in the SMH yesterday which, according to the Herald, concluded that "Sydney's public transport network is "comprehensive and well-integrated" and the availability of housing is perfect."

What drugs do these people take? At least they were right about the food in Sydney. It's not perfect (no city is) but it's damn good.

I wonder if broadband connectivity is measured in the survey and what weighting it is accorded?

10 Best Cities:

1. Vienna (Austria)
2. Zurich (Switzerland)
3. Geneva (Switzerland)
4. Auckland (New Zealand) and Vancouver (Canada)
6. Dusseldorf (Germany)
7. Munich (Germany
8. Frankfurt (Germany)
9. Bern (Switzerland)
10. Sydney (Australia)

Viral marketing of viral epidemics

As the Swine flu outbreak hits Mexico and the United States, so too does it hit Twitter.

The CDC Emergency feed bought to my attention by Pierre Omidyar, who also noted the ability to follow a specialist reporter whose Twitter handle is Diseasegeek. Oh, and there's Effect Measure. Which I also found through Twitter.