If it is Flooded - Forget It

‘If it is flooded, forget it!’ - This very successful advertising campaign is conducted every summer with the onset of the wet season. This campaign tells us to never assume anything. Do not assume the depth of the water. Do not assume the height and power of your car. Do not assume the strength of current. Do not assume your level of intelligence.

This is certainly fair comment. We should not assume that conditions at any one time will be the same as the last time we visited.  It’s also a fair assumption that we should take care, that we should be mindful, even if we feel it is ok, that we could put others in danger. This campaign targets all drivers, both experienced and the not so experienced, as no one sector has the mortgage on stupidity. 

Other media campaigns have targeted many worthwhile causes and prove that these are very powerful tools to change the mindset of society.  We have seen campaigns targeting the use of mobile phones while driving; targeting drivers not leaving children and animals in the car while parked; targeting having each and every passenger, including animals, buckled up and safe. The iconic campaign - ‘Drink and drive, and you’re a bloody idiot’ has been a major success, with drink driving now being socially unacceptable, and truly changing the behavior of a nation.   

 

The government has targeted many areas over the years, from obesity, lifestyle, alcohol, drugs, etc etc.  Cigarette advertising has ceased.  In shops tobacco products are now stored behind closed doors so they are not visible or attractive to the young.  No-one under eighteen is able to buy tobacco or alcohol products. All of these campaigns are valid and, even though tobacco is still glorified along with alcohol in Hollywood movies, the use of tobacco products has certainly declined majorly in recent years. I am not so sure the alcohol consumption message is getting through yet! As people seem to think that someone else is responsible for our behavior these days, these government campaigns will become more intense and attempt to change the way we live our lives. The government will attempt to become our moral compass and change our behavior through media campaigns, rules and regulations, and fees and fines. Is this a good thing? I do not know and I will let you be the judge.

 

However, if you doubt the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, just drive your modest little sedan between the hours of 7 and 9 in the mornings and, again in the hours of 2 and 4 in the afternoon and you will find the media campaigns for 4WDriving has encouraged these drivers to believe that they can do anything. These drivers know all the conditions of the road, whether its flooding or fine weather.  One could say they are bullet proof, and their 4WD’s are designed for the rough conditions that we call school zones. The lady that whips off her belt and beats the snake to death is alive and well, with the 4x4’s, butt whipping those in smaller cars in the school zones. 

Quite often you see them mounting curbs, nosing their way in to lanes, parking wherever they want, intimidating the small cars, and why?  Because the advertising campaigns that the major car manufacturers run, show the captive audience, that these creatures of the off road can do anything. They are big and robus,t and appear to be able to go anywhere. Do we see those manufacturers tagged with the slogan ‘Drive moderately’ as you do with liquor shop advertising.  I don't think so! 

 

How many times do you have to hear your rear cameras going off  to tell you that this off road creature is up your tail and they mean business with that 10 tonne bull bar. I am sure the beeps of the camera are sounding out a warning that I am about to be violated in my derriere. Or, is it screaming, ‘Get over! This bull bar means business!’ After all it can climb mountains, drive through rivers, run along our sandy beaches, and my car is a mere pebble in its way.  

 

Yes, advertising is a great tool and it shows us to be aware, to take care, but it also works on the other side of the pendulum building up an image of self importance and invincibility. God knows how many of these drivers believe these campaigns that they can do anything and don't have to think. This vehicle climbs cliffs, crawls across boulders and flies across the outback so my anxiety level has increased. The tools I have taken from those campaigns shows me there are a few tools behind the giant wheels around me.  

 

I am not jealous of these creatures of the outback but, while in the cities, do they think that they own the roads as well.  Do you see people like me driving across the great outback in my sedan or driving along our pristine beaches?  The answer is, ‘No’. Because the manufacturer of my car did not advertise my car was bullet proof.  Even my parking assist tells me to proceed with care.  When I start it, an ‘accept ‘ sign makes me press, to say I am aware of the navigation system.  Maybe the 4WD’s should have an ‘accept’ that they share  the road with others that are smaller than they are and proceed with care. 

 

These two sides of the pendulum demonstrate just how effective advertising is! Maybe it is time the invincibility of the tool behind the wheel of the 4 wheel drive was tempered, and a few responsibilities of courteous and safe driving practices were highlighted for the owners of these vehicles. The present media representation is delivering the wrong message. I’m sure that if I owned a vehicle like this, treated it the way the advertisements say, my insurance company may have something to say or not pay out. If the manufacturers of these vehicles are not prepared to temper the invincibility of the owners, maybe the government should help to take these fuel guzzling monsters off off the road by taxing them out of existence. Exempt our farmers, mining, and true campers and off roaders but the suburban terrorists need to some incentive to change their behaviour. It has worked with smokers!!!!!!

 

These are my thoughts and I would sure like to have your views on the matter so drop me a line.  Another campaign that is dear to my heart is stopping bullying. However bullying takes on a whole new meaning in school time driving. 

Cheers.

Hearing with your Heart

I have lived with full hearing my whole life, and for most part, I have shared my life with hearing people, partners and friends.  My question is do we, as hearing people actually hear or, do we only hear what we want to?  I have heard the expression 'Oh he/she has selective hearing!'  But, is this just a way of blocking out what we don't want to hear;  an I'll deal with that in my own time; an explanation why we don't say what we are thinking; or just plain ignorance?
 
A few times I have had the bad experience of texting a message to a fully hearing, fully seeing person (usually a family member) and they take offense as to what is written. Though they have all their senses in tact, they find it too difficult to clarify the message, instead, going off the deep end and not discovering the true meaning of the text. Then they, after you have had to put everything apart from your toenail clippings in a bag to explain the context of the message, say - 'Why didn't you say that in the first place?'  Or worse - 'You know I hate texting, people shortcut these things and you don't get the meaning.'  My question to that is - Why did you, as the receiver of the text, not ask for an explanation? Why did you let it get out of hand?  Why did you text ten people afterwards telling them I was a scum bag for what I text?  The very thing I text was innocent, the meaning non-intentional and was merely a grammatical mistake! But, that one flippant remark was broadcast to (not the original text I might add) friends, family and anyone who happened to be calling that day, with the inclusion of some very emotional extrapolations to boot.  And, this misunderstanding devoured a whole night, trying to explain as to why you said, or in this case, didn't say those damning comments.  Therefore, I believe those same hearing, seeing people also suffer from a complaint that I call 'selective textness' - a lack of taking time to re-read the text, putting what is said into perspective or, as a political 'has been' once said bothering to ask 'Please explain!'  Instead they create a storm in a teacup that escalates the situation so far out of hand that the only way to solve it is to book a one way ticket to a country without telecommunications or, call in the national guard and welfare agencies to fix the demons that escape unknowingly from my cell phone. Basically, none of this would be needed if they take the time to actually communicate directly with me as to what I might, or might not, have said!

Having wafted on about this, my main reason is to explain how I think communication is often taken  lightly. In this time of fast food, fast cars and internet dating, people don't take the time to listen to, or worse to actually understand, what the other person is trying to say.

My life partner is profoundly deaf and, only in the last few months has been equipped with a cochlear implant.  Might I just add his first language is not English which has complications in itself. Developing communication with each other does take time and effort on both our parts. The doctors say that in time the brain will accept and identify of the new found sounds that he hears, and owing to his ethnicity he hears English as a bit of a gabble.  You see he lost his hearing at the age of 9 and, until now he has lip read those of his native tongue, making it a tad difficult to understand what we, the English, are saying. Might I say it is also exciting to introduce him to sounds he has never heard before - to explain its a bird, a door bell or rain on the roof.  It has the magic of teaching a child new experiences and the sharing of these first experiences together. Yes, there are misunderstandings but, for the most part, we do take time to try to let the other person understand our point of view.  This is why I beg you to try to communicate more, try to give someone your time, try to feel it from their side instead of just believing its all about you. It is in fact, much smoother sailing if you join and care about someone instead of just yourself.  You are not the unlucky one here, you are given the gifts of full communication and should help others who may not of heard that beautiful sound of a bird singing or the wonderful sound of rain falling on a tin roof.

We, as a couple, have found that one of the greatest assets we have is a whiteboard and the use of our phones to text an explanation of something that somehow defies us. Yes, it takes a little more time but, it is worth spending the time and letting each other know what it is we are feeling or want to convey. By returning the writings or the text, we keep the communication open, rather than closing down and taking the misinterpretation to a higher level, let alone bringing unsuspecting others into what should, or could, have been so simple without the need of the national guard.

Therefore, I ask you to open up and talk more! If you can't verbalise it, then write it down and get others to understand what you really wanted. Writing can also be quite cathartic as well, and bring peace to others minds as well as your own.

Take care, open your hearts as well as your ears and eyes and the world will be a better place!

Bitchescoz!

Keeping Abreast of Education

As the education revolution (or is that evolution) continues to roll forward it becomes increasingly difficult to balance time and resources - firstly, to ensure that education is relevant, secondly, that education is interesting and thirdly, that there is actually time to fit in all the competing subject matter.

How many times do we hear people complaining about the standard of today's education and demanding a return to the 'good old days' of the three R's, rote learning, and learning a lot about a little. Today kids learn a little about a lot as our knowledge as a world grows exponentially. I would love to see how we try to go backwards. Can you imagine in a world where kids embrace technology in the womb, how they go back to boring, unimaginative, regimented learning. Yes, I personally think the world is a little out of kilter, where technology is used as a babysitter and our children are wrapped in a cocoon of over-protectiveness. These issues however, are ones that should be dealt with at home and not in the haloed halls of eduction.

Schools have enough troubles keeping kids focused with the competition of smart phones opening up the mine field of social media, the time sink of Candy Crush, and the general concept of the internet in general. You should try getting them to refer to a text book when researching!!!!! Thank God the content of Wikapedia is actually improving and as for those answer sites - OMG! Why on earth would you ask anything of importance on a site where everyone else is of the same standard?? The answers roll into assignments and the cringe factor is only surpassed by the standard of grammar. So how do we fix this? How do we get parents to spend more time with their children's learning when they themselves are so time poor? Does it even need fixing? Do we need to be as pedantic  about maths and spelling and grammar? After all, we have all these tools that do, and fix, all that for us now!

Technology alone changes at a rate never seen before. It changes and challenges our lives in every way as we struggle to accept change and keep up with the concepts that the bright young minds of today keep exploring. Five years ago, no-one would ever have dreamed that the 3D Printer would be on the cusp of printing prosthetic limbs, houses, electrical circuitry for the heart and even organs. Yet, now we talk very matter of factly about one of the most exciting and life changing phenomenon since the discovery of antibiotics. Let's hope we don't bugger this one up, like we have the antibiotic scenario. This rate of change shows us that the clever young minds are out there, willing to explore concepts that the majority never dream of.  Many of these geeks are the ones who 'fail' miserably with conventional education. They are the ones who are often the worst behaved at school as we fail to keep them interested or stimulated. Yet, they go on to change the world in ways we never think possible.

So the challenge for those responsible for educating our children is not only to provide the basics for all, not only to somehow pacify the parents out there who refuse to take any responsibility while demanding more and more, but to somehow embrace and stimulate these brightest minds who at the moment succeed in spite of us. We need to think outside the square. I work in Science and our challenge every day is to deliver the content yet stimulate the curiosity and, most of all have fun.One Institution rising to the challenge is Dr Claudia Diaz at the Melbourne Institute of Technology where her students in Human Anatomy paint muscles onto the body of another student. The end result is amazing and I am sure that none of the students involved will ever forget the name or location of one single muscle in the human body :)

Photos: Simon O’Dwyer | The Age

These are the type of learning tools we need to embrace. If only we had enough time! Maybe, in our exploration of the education revolution (or is that evolution) we need to throw out our preconceived ideas of text is best and embrace the visual, the technology, and let our brightest minds learn at their own pace.

I believe there is a place in society for each and every one of us. There is also a job for each and every one of us. We need our truck drivers as much as we need our brain surgeons. We need our cleaners as much as we need our engineers. Our education system is slowly tailoring itself to such a concept with TAFE based training becoming the 'norm' in schools but we still fail our brightest. We need to stimulate them, let them run their own race and not be impeded by the shackles of 'one size fits all'. 

At a time when education is well and truly in the spotlight with the brawling over funding, of public versus private, of who should pay and who should not, let us also debate not only the use of  this funding but the quality of education of all young Australians. Australia has always been a leader in invention and innovation so let us keep the ball rolling and keep our enquiring young minds excited. 

Give us your thoughts and ideas!

Photos: Simon O’Dwyer | The Age