Exploring the Hood

Despite moving in to my apartment several months ago, I haven’t really had the time to explore what my neighbourhood had to offer and now I am on holiday I have the time to explore the area.

My not so new neighbourhood is commonly associated with car yards, funeral parlours and little weatherboard houses, not to mention being a culturally diverse area.

Apart from the cute but plain little houses (although, the area has gone through a long period of gentrification where some more up market places have gone up) that are everywhere, being an inner city suburb it is full of places to entertain and to hang out, even if they are cheap and cheerful.

Many of the places are along the main drag which is quite spread out but thanks to the many buses that go along this bit of highway, it doesn't take long to get around.

One of my favourite places is The Imp and this cool little cafe is always packed. What is so great is this place is the coffee and the very decadent deserts.  The rest of food is ok but the vibe makes up for it.

Another cafe that is worth visiting is Cafe Gelato. This place doubles up as a photo processing shop which sounds a little cheesy but with its cool décor it does have a funky and relaxed feeling about it. The coffee is average (maybe I am just getting picky in my old age) but the Italian Ice cream is amazing.

Being close to Curtin University who attracts lots of students in the Asian Region, there are lots of places to eat and grocery shops that reflect the diversity of cuisine in that region. Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Nepalese - it is all there.

Of course being Australia, there is also a heavy Italian influence as well as many pubs.   Cafe Zucchero is another venue that is always packed on the weekend and has a great food menu but the coffee is ok. This cafe is totally worth a visit with friends on any fine weekend.

I am loving living here and look forward to exploring the many other places that are here.  

    

Parking Tax protest shows how good we have it

Recently, the WA Branch of the Australian Nursing Federation felt that it was necessary to start protesting about the rise of parking costs in many of Perth’s hospitals and this got me thinking about our health system and standard of living.

The ANF and those it represents feel that the increases in what it costs to park your car in a privately run car park at work is completely outrageous and a total abomination.

While it is annoying having to add another mundane item in your weekly budget, I feel that this campaign shows how lucky we are in Western Australia, where the price of parking is all a trade union can campaign about.

In other parts of the world they are not so lucky to have even the most basic equipment, medicine or trained staff. In many places access to cars to drive to work or medicines or employees to sit with patients who are confused and elderly (to ensure their safety) are simply not available.

I am sure that many nurses and doctors from developing countries would love to have nothing to protest about except what it costs to park their car.

In Ghana for example, one story was told of a lady being left to give birth in the open and without professional nursing assistance. It is common in Ghana for there not to be any permanent medical and nursing staff at healthcare posts and limited access to the most basic of medicines and laboratory services.  

The Democratic Republic of Congo is another country where funding the recent civil war has replaced maintaining the health system and ensuring that its citizens are healthy enough to lead productive lives.  

An article in Britain’s Financial Times (September 15, 2009) reports that 2006-2007 alone, children accounted for 47% of all those who died, although they only constitute only 19% of the total population.

I could go on and write about every country who  is unable able, for whatever reason, to provide a functional healthcare system but I am sure you get the picture.  

It’s just a little disappointing that those who take part in the protests (and Australian society in general) don’t take a moment to step back and look at the bigger picture.

In same way that when I overheard a visitor tell a patient in hospital where I work that he thought the WA health system was Third World. I wanted to ask them if they had actually been to any developing country and on what evidence where they basing their comparison.

How could anyone say that a large government owned and operated (for now) hospital in Western Australia is of “third world standards"?

With 900 million people not having enough money to access to clean drinking water, let alone access to basic medical care (J Braithwaite, date unknown) such as GPs and midwives shows how people in the developing world have to struggle to visit a doctor or vaccinate their children.

The price of medication doesn't help either. Many of the medications available to these people are patented by for-profit companies in the West which makes them more expensive and out of reach for most people living under 2.8 million living under two dollars a day and the millions more living just above that.

I think those in Western Australia are incredibly fortunate to be able to access a hospital system where so much is provided for.

For example, three meals a day are guaranteed to be served; there is a ready supply of clean bed linen; rooms get cleaned everyday; there are physios, occupational therapists, social workers all trying to get patents ready to go home.

There are even welfare assistants to help patients and their families access government benefits (unheard of in developing countries) if you need it as well as contact utility companies if you are in hospital for longer than expected and need help to rearrange payment

You want to see a Chaplain for spiritual support? One will come to see you without questions, fees or charges.

Hardly sounds like a third world system to me but one that we have access to. Working in a hospital in a large Australian city after travelling in developing countries, I guess that I am more aware of how lucky we are.

Here in Australia we have such a great healthcare system and while it may not be perfect 100% of the time, we are so lucky that it is so much better than much of the developing world. The proof of standard of the Australian hospital system is this campaign by the Australian Nurses’ Federation against a parking tax and it is a shame that it is not more appreciated.

Links.

Anthony Kwaku Amoah. 16 April 2012. The plight of Ghana’s health posts. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=235997. Accessed 15 September 2012

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite. Date Unknown. Health Care Systems http://www.7billion.unsw.edu.au/health-systems.html. Accessed 20 September 2012.

Emma Pearson. September 15 2009. Congo’s crippled healthcare. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e376ef0e-a1f3-11de-81a6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz26X0i4ADu. Accessed 15 September 2012.

http://www.2dollars.org/faq.html

Should your barista be scared?

Over time, there have been inventions that have led some to argue that these new devices will change the way we have consumed things like movies, music and food.

For example videos were touted by some as the end of the cinema and cassette tapes (later CDs) were said to signal the end of people seeing live music. Even the microwave was promoted as the oven’s replacement.

Although as time has gone on we have seen that while all these items have not replaced the movie cinema, the live performance venue or the conventional oven but merely complimented the way we view films, listen to music and how we cook our meals.

What has this got to do with coffee?

With the rise of the home espresso machine see the end of the cafe and the barista who is skilled at pulling the perfect espresso shot that so many of us enjoy every day?

No, I don’t think so!!! Like everything else, our love of cafes will not stop because of the improvements in domestic coffee machines.

 

Having recently been given a wonderful Lavazza Modo Mido I have been thinking a little about how this lovely gift could affect my coffee consumption.

But I will always have a soft spot for my Bodum French Press as it has served me well over the years not to mention that it is easy enough to use at 5 am.  

However, I love my new Coffee machine with its retro style and lime green exterior. It also gives a great little espresso thanks to the easy to use pods. This swanky Lavazza (favourite coffee) machine and its little pods are actually not too bad and better than others on the market.

These pods are the new kids on the block; it is espresso coffee made easy.

This pod idea was made famous by George Cloony and the Nespresso Machine.  However, I fail to understand why people seem so excited by this product especially when it is average at best.

In Perth, a bag of Nespresso pods has become the “must have” accessory item. But for all the hard core coffee fans there is nothing that will get the eyes rolling more than a West Australian carrying a bag of Nespresso Pods like they are the epitome of coolness.       

Some might consider it cheating (in many ways it is) and for this reason that all the true baristas shouldn’t not be scared because while these pod things produce a visually great coffee nothing can replicate human skill.

While it is great that good coffee has been more accessible to domestic coffee drinkers, I don’t think drinking coffee at a cafe with your mates and dates will stop being popular.  

It's ok Mr Barista, we still love your work 

What do EU institutions want from interest groups?

Individuals lobbying their leaders have always been part of the political process and the European Union is no different. There are several reasons why the EU is reliant on interest groups such as access to expertise and legitimacy. 

Lobbying has always been part of public life and the European Union has been no exception. All parties are pursuing their agenda through influencing the EU’s legislative progress as well as initiating legal action (Coen and Richardson, 2009). Most EU officials do accommodate lobby groups and see them as an effective part of the policy process.  Since carrying out research is expensive and the EU not always in a position to pay for this, access to technical information via interests groups is one solution to this problem. 

As Watson and Skacleton argue ‘organised interest provide a wealth of information to EU policymakers and contribute a diverse range of views a legislative process that, on paper, features only the formal EU institutions’ (2008, p. 93). The increasing range of EU policies has meant that it attracts an increasing number of Interest and business groups (that represent a diverse range of views and opinions) and by including them in the policy process then the EU benefits by gaining more legitimacy.

This key to understanding why the EU allows interest groups to lobby officials is that they are two interdependent entities (Bouwen, 2002). In reality, the interest and business groups have what the EU needs (information) and in return, these groups are able to push their agenda. The groups get access to the EU and, in return, the EU gets legitimacy and expert knowledge (Hix, 1999). 

As Rainer Eising argues, ‘interest groups have a particularly important role in connecting European-level institutions to the citizens of the European Union’ (2006, p. 203).   

Legitimacy is an important factor in why the EU allows interest groups. Without expert knowledge and good quality research, the EU does not have the authority to govern.

List of References 

Bouwen, P (2002) Corporate Lobbying in the European Union: The Logic of Access. Journal of European Public Policy, 9, number 3: 365-90.

Coen, D and Richardson, J (2009) “Learning to Lobby the European Union: 20 Years of Change” in Coen, D and Richardon, J. (eds) Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors and Issues. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)  

Eising, R “Interest Groups in the European Union” in Cini, M (2007). European Union Politics (2 edition). (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Hix, S (1999) “Interest Representation” in Hix, S (eds) The Political System of the European Union (Basingstoke: Macmillan)     

Shackelton M and Watson R (2008) “Organized Interests and Lobbying”, in Bomberg E, Peterson J and Stubb A, The European Union: How does it Work?, (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 

The serenity of being the queen of my own bachelorette pad

Everyone needs a sanctuary. Some find it within their work, some find it with organised religion, and others find it in sport, music or nature. But I have found it within my cute little apartment with a view.

Here, I am the Queen Bee and totally happy.

Having survived some horror shared houses, my dream opportunity arrived where could live alone in my own place.

What I love about living alone is the peace and quiet. With work being a very noisy and full-on experience, it is so nice to come at the end to a tranquil piece of real estate which is my sanctuary.

In this sanctuary, there are no patients wanting anything, no nurses giving marching orders – just me, myself and I. I don’t have to come home pretending to love my job. I just have a cup of tea, regroup and take control of the time outside of work that is really my own.

 Often this means singing to my heart’s content without worrying about what people think and enjoying some random music without having to justify my choices.

As opposed to sharing with others, it is also nice to be able to potter around without feeling like you’re not intruding on the space of those whose house you’re living in. I can cook food without feeling I’m upsetting someone's delicate equilibrium or have to put up with psycho, eco-criminal landlords who just want the rent money but can’t stand anyone living in their house.   

But then again, the process of living alone can be seen as a rite of passage and a sign of having the financial security to afford your own place. No longer being a student or being in casual and insecure employment, I am now in control enough to be entrusted with a rent and bills; not to mention, my piece of paradise.      

So far there have been many wonderful Sunday afternoons reading a good book in the sun as well as a steady stream of friends around for dinner and cups of tea.   

Another thing I really enjoyed is what my Mum calls “nesting”. It has been great fun choosing things for the wall and making the apartment your own.  Deciding on photos and art work has been great fun and my little space seems to be a work in progress.

A bit of light reading from Noveltea Vintage

I can be at peace, let my guard down, read and think. Just me, myself and I. And Chloe.

Chloe is a new addition to the cute apartment with a view. While I grew up with her being in my parents’ bedroom when we lived in England, we have been separated since we came out to Australia.

It now that I discovered that she has a long, dark and mysterious past. My Dad picked her up when he was a student at Cambridge from a friend who had saved her from an old manor house that was being demolished. If only she could talk because I think she would have a few stories to tell.        

A common question is “are you lonely?” and the answer is no, not at all. It is not like I don’t have a life, friends or never go out. But because life can get so busy coming home to the peace and quiet is makes living alone so great.

While life is far from straightforward, the serenity of the bachelorette pad is what gets me through.  

Don’t you love a good book?

Jane Austin in Bath

When I first started reading Death Comes to Pemberley (P.D James) I wasn't sure if I would like it since it is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice which one of my favourite stories ever. This means that you could either love it or hate any squeal, regardless on how well it is written. Thanks to James’ understanding of the story and the characters she actually pulls it off and offers up a story that even a complete fan of the 1996 BBC version like me could really enjoy. It does get a little wordy at times but on the whole it James’ writing is a fair extension of Austin’s style and storyline. If you fan of Pride and Prejudice like me, give it a go and see what you think.  

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) I loved this wonderful story of this American family that is grappling with the xenophobic attitudes of their time. I loved the wise father Atticus and how he tried to bring up his two boys to see past the status quo and to see Negros (as they referred to then) as the same as everyone else. The conversations between father and his children were an honest attempt to help them understand the subtleties and complexities of the injustice in their society. I thought that it challenged prejudice that is part of human nature and reminder to understand people from their point of view.         

The Book Thief (Markus Zasak) On the back of my copy of this book, the blurb describes the story being about the power of words to make worlds. How spot on this was!!

So many times during this story I felt so completely part of the story that I wasn’t in sunny Australia any more but in Nazi Germany. Plus a few occasions the story became so moving that I found myself holding the book and stroking it while being in complete awe. Some of the images of the story will stay with you for ages.  

I loved how death narrated the story and how it sounded like a bored bureaucrat who hated his job. It is defiantly one story you can't put down!!  

The Spare Room (Helen Gardener) This is quite a depressing story which is cantered around two characters – Nicole and Helen. Sydney Sider Nicole has terminal cancer and comes down to Melbourne to stay with Helen in order to attend an alternative treatment facility that charges a fortune but is largely ineffective.   

As the story progresses, we see the pressure that Nicole’s inability to accept her own mortality has on the friendship. With Helen having to take on quasi-nursing duties, she begs Nicole to contact the local Palliative Care team but Nicole is desperate to maintain hope in her recovery.

Despite the depressing nature of the story, The Spare Room is a relatively easy read which can be finished in a couple of hours. 

A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth) starts and ends with a wedding and in between is a story of an extended family in 1950s India and their lives in this newly formed country. While the ultimate aim of the story is to find a suitable boy for young Leta (who struggles with her own choices of whom to marry) by her overbearing mother, you follow the characters as they engage with politics, campaign for re-election, get into mischief, start a career within a university while starting a family and struggling with health problems. It is about family dynamics as much as it is about finding a suitable boy and what it was like in India during that period.

At 1475 pages long, it’s a large book but it is easy to read. Seth’s vivid writing sometimes makes you feel like you’re there in the story. For example, at the curriculum meeting at the university and the party at Mr Justice Chatterjis’s house with its snippets of conversations that makes you feel like you’re mingling with the guests.  I also loved the description of the Performance by Saeeda Bai at Holi (a Hindi (?) religious day) and her relationship with the audience as well as the streets of old Brahmpur.

 Don’t get daunted by the size, it is well worth it!!  

Winter reading invites tales of politics and the lifestyles of the Rich and Tasteful

The Media Pack at the ALP National Conference

Suddenly, Last Winter (Bob Ellis) Apart from the name dropping and minute by minute account of Bob’s life, the point of this book remains unclear. In a few places I wondered why we needed to know, for example, that he ate a hamburger and two lattes or what time he went to bed. But it is a good account of the game that they call politics despite it being a little vague and lacking substance. This would be good summer reading for those who love books about Australia’s strangest election (of which there are not many) as well as “Political Hacks” and “Game Players” of which there are hundreds. 

Campaign Ruby (Jessica Rudd) is a story of a political novice on her first election campaign. I must admit that I am not a great fan of the “Chick Lit” genre but I did find this book entertaining not only because it is about a favorite topic but it was fast paced enough to keep my interest. It was a little predictable at times (eg Ruby falling for journalist who later turns out to be a rat) but on the whole it was great if you needed light reading or a distraction from everyday life.            

Kevin 07

Inside Kevin 07 (Christine Jackman) This book reads like a text book for political campaigns and well researched, detailed and well written. It describes how the Kevin07 team understood Australia’s political psyche.  For the first time in many years the ALP were able to offer up a strong and discipline campaign that used successful communication and social media techniques. It is a book that highlights that their campaign was so successful that removed one of Australia’s longest and popular Prime Ministers not only from the top political job but also took his seat. I thought it was prophetic when writer Christine Jackman asks “But what if winning in 2007 was really the easy part?” History shows that it probably was.

Andrew West had his finger on the pulse when he wrote "Inside the Lifestyles of the Rich and Tasteful". I found this book to be an accurate portrayal an aspect of Australia's Class System (opps, there I said it) and part of our society that Australians deny exist. I kept of giggling while I read the book as I recognised myself and others in his look at contemporary Australian inner-city life. It is short, to-the-point and well worth the read.  

This is a laugh out loud book on the last 50 years or so in politics. You might be forgiven to think that Phillip is one of the "faceless men" of Australian politics but in reality he's more of an astute observer and commentator. It's the humorous insight on the personalities that have come and gone over the past 50 years and what happens behind the scenes that makes this book so enjoyable.   

Dostoevsky identifies health risk in working a dead end job

Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote that ‘deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark raving mad’.  I have to admit that I totally agree with Dostoevsky’s argument because meaning, along with fulfilment and satisfaction, gives value to your life and make it worth living.

While work is not the “be all or end all” of human existence, most of us have to spend enough time at it to make a positive or negative impact on our wellbeing.  

If you are unlucky enough to be working a job just to pay the rent and to stay off welfare, you know how draining it is to operate in a role and environment that fails to bring you very little satisfaction or adds meaning to your life.

Linda R. Hirshman in her book entitled “Get to Work.... and get a life before its too late” (2009) argues that Western civilisation has been based on the idea that life’s ultimate goal is to be all that you can be by using your talents and capabilities to the fullest and being rewarded for it.

But some jobs are not designed to be fulfilling or use an individual's skills and abilities but are still needed for our society to function, for example Nursing Assistants, Garbage Collectors and Hotel/Office Cleaners.

Having spent a year as a Nursing Assistant, I am struggling to with find meaning from it. 

Part of the role of an Assistant in Nursing is to sit there and watch patients who have dementia, delirium or some kind of alcohol or drug related “episode” which means that they are no longer grounded in reality. So Assistants have to sit there and make sure that they get to the toilet ok, don’t abscond or pull at their IV drips and/or catheter.

Being “on surveillance” as it is called, staff regularly feel the same mind numbing boredom that you get on a long haul flight except they are going nowhere fast. They often feel like a nagging mother repeating themselves again and again for 8 hours in a row.

How can just sitting there looking after the mad, bad and the sad be using people’s talents and capabilities to the fullest or can be defined as being satisfying or that it brings meaning to life?

Philosopher Alain du Britton, when writing about what people do all day, argues that meaning derives from helping people and seeing your work contributes to society. He writes ‘When does a job feel meaningful? Whenever it allows us to generate delight or reduce suffering in others’ (2010, 78). This should make working in a nursing related job more meaningful but somehow, in reality and from my humble experience, it is the opposite. This shows how the very concept of what constitutes “meaningful employment” is very difficult to define.

 As a role, Nursing Assistants have no autonomy or control of what they do or when they do it - their existence is micromanaged. It is like being a pack horse in scrubs whose job it is to literally bring up the rear.

This notion of autonomy has a direct link to how satisfied you are with your job. There are countless articles and books that show how having an element of autonomy and accountability in your work can raise the levels of satisfaction as well as productivity.

Rick Nauert, for example, writes “Experts say that workers who believe they are free to make choices in the workplace — and be accountable for their decisions — are happier and more productive” (2011). So when looking for a role that would be remotely satisfying, (regardless what it would be) an element of autonomy would be what would make it meaningful and not something that would make you go stark raving mad. 

While my current position as a Nursing Assistant satisfies my primordial work ethic, it lacks intellectual stimulation that adds to a satisfying position. Or maybe I am just burnt out!!

Maybe being an over qualified arts grad with no experience of economic value means that I'm destined for underemployment. Perhaps I'm one of those over-educated, hyper-opinionated Nursing Assistants who wiz around the ward trying to discuss Chinese diplomacy in Africa with patients, who keep on wishing I'd just shut up and clean up their faecal accident.

When the dementia and faecal accidents all get too much I just think of the money and that it pays the bills as well as that while its uncomfortable being in purgatory, it won’t last forever. It can’t!

List of References

De Botton, A. (2009) The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (London, Hamish Hamelton)

Hirshman, L.R. (2006) Get to work and a life before it is too late. (London, Pengin Books)

Nauert, R. Worker Autonomy Can Lead to Greater Productivity, Satisfaction. January 25, 2011.http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/01/25/worker-autonomy-can-lead-to-greater-productivity-satisfaction/22885.html Accessed 18 June 2012