If you believe the hype about finding jobs, the economy improving, tra la la la la, personally I think you need to think again. The economy has been poked for a long time, if you hadn't noticed, and is just about as poked as it could ever be right now.
I'm no economist, hence the technical terminology, but what I do know for sure is that jobs as we know them will just get harder and harder to find. I told the NZ Welfare Working Group that according to the Zeitgeist Movement, it's likely the US unemployment rate will be 62% by 2030. They didn't include that in their report.
Technology, that thing we've been investing millions of hours and trillions of dollars in improving (particularly in the last hundred years, but actually since we realised we could smash stuff with rocks), is taking our jobs. Machines and computers, articulated vehicles, 3D printers. These marvellous inventions that we've deliberately created to make our lives easier are making our lives easier. Now.
At a meeting I attended today, a lot of discussion centred on a process for planning a consultation hui, which those at the meeting thought was excluding of their perspective.
It was, but more than 50% of the two hour meeting was spent talking about how bad, unfair, hurtful, wrong, etc, etc the exclusion was.
Maybe I'm getting too long in the tooth but I can't see the point of getting swamped in "should haves" and "shouldn't haves" in the past.
This morning I posted this quote on my Facebook page:
”Your feelings are your response to what you are being, but your being is not a response to anything. It is a choice." – Neale Donald Walsch.
It created a great conversation with Sam and Sharon within an hour, early even though it was. I thought I’d summarise it as a blog as I think it brings up interesting about the nature of choice and whether the belief that we lack choice is the cause or the result of hurtful circumstances.
In our family we have a No shushing rule. Many people wonder how we manage this and why I would set myself up in this situation. I would like to share the reasons for this in the interests of promoting the value of every child’s contribution, no matter how unique.
I have three sons. They are each unique individuals who I hope will grow up with self confidence, a positive self image, a sense of belonging and feel valued within their family, community and other roles. I intend to provide my parenting support with these goals in mind.
This is the address I made to a forum on the Review of Special Education. The first story is an old legend of the Sioux Nation; the continuation is my own, inspired by the first.
The Creator gathered all of Creation and said, “I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realisation that they create their own reality.”
Was Perth filmmaker Simon Barker trying to be terribly clever trying to "create an awareness of the issues faced by Aboriginals" by showing white Australians dressed as Aborigines, drinking and engaging in criminal activity?
Perhaps he was too clever, ending up proving he was at best, naive and at worst, stupid to think he could fight racism with racism.
Or was he being blatantly racist?
It's Leadership Week! So, in celebration, let's ponder whether banning smoking in prisons an example of the Nats falling prey to political correctness and explore a potential trend away from young people wanting to learn from their elders...
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Remember when Wayne Mapp was National's “Political Correctness Eradicator”?
Creating inclusive environments is a key part of allowing diversity to add richness and value to everything we do in our organisations and businesses. But inclusion - or ensuring equal opportunities for people to access environments, services and networks - alone is not enough.
Yes it's important to notice when people are not present on our boards and staff, in our audiences and programmes. And we must identify and address barriers that disadvantage, marginalise or exclude people.
But, according to "Social Inclusion and Participation: A Guide for Policy and Planning" published by the NZ Ministry of Social Development in 2007 (download it as a Word doc), there are four other key dimensions of social inclusion: belonging, participation, recognition and legitimacy.
In his Venus Project lecture last week, Jacque Fresco questioned society's values, assumptions, beliefs, even language. Why do we get upset about swear words, when we don't even mean what the words mean (bullshit has nothing to do with shit from bulls)? Laws are made when humans don't know how to fix a problem. Politicians were relevant 100 years ago, but now they do what machines could do more efficiently.
This kind of thinking has changed what I do in my work on a day to day basis. I used to run training workshops; now I find myself mainly facilitating exploratory conversations. I can't honestly say to a client, "I know exactly what your staff need to know about diversity," because what they need to know is changing so quickly.
All people really need to know now is how to work out what changed since they left work last night. And that may be as simple or complex as a conversation about what people who change their gender have in common with conjoined twins.
Written for 3news.co.nz | 14 April 2010
Last night I caught up with a friend who is back for a week between travels to Vancouver and London. It reminded me how great it is to live in Auckland. There have been times that I’ve returned from a trip abroad and felt decidedly dissatisfied with the place, itching to be off again. But these days I’m very pleased to call LA home.
