You can’t buy peace of mind in a supermarket December 19, 2009

According to facts and figures published in the Age to coincide with the opening of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which was held in Melbourne from 3-9 December, 2009, 96 per cent of Australians identified themselves as Christians in 1911. Today, that figure is 63.9%. Of those, only 1.5 million, or 7.5 per cent of the population, attend weekly church services.

While it’s true that there has been a steady decline in mainstream religion, there has been a parallel surge in other faiths and spiritual traditions. As materialism, instant gratification and technology have become the new Gods, many of us have renewed our search for some kind of inner peace, a connection to the Earth or to a being or energy force more powerful than ourselves.

The universe is so brilliantly designed – and nature so much cleverer than we planet-wreckers – that I find it hard not to believe in a higher power or higher powers. Last week at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, I was able to dip into all sorts of spiritual traditions – old and new – from paganism and monotheistic traditions to the more esoteric spiritualities.

And I found religion and a belief in God – whatever form he, she or it might take – alive and well. OK, that’s what you would expect at a large, international inter-faith gathering (it takes place every five years and was in Barcelona in 2004), but there was a fair sprinkling of non-believers in the crowd.

When evangelical group (aka happy-clappy) Agape performed their vibrant gospel numbers at the concert of sacred music on the Sunday night, they had everyone rocking in the aisles. The plenary hall became a sea of bopping turbans, saris, skullcaps, Pagan capes, rich African costumes and boring old Western jeans, but boy did they get the place moving. Even I found myself getting up and joining in. Maybe the force was with us and not just the catchy music.

Listening to a few talks delivered by various pagan groups, I learnt about the revival of the European Indigenous tradition and its earth-based spirituality. I began to wonder if many in the environmental movement aren’t at some level tapping back into their Pagan roots. Pagans believe in the sanctity of the earth and that nature – air, fire, water, the seasons, the tides and the moon – is our greatest teacher.

Brought up Anglican, I still enjoy the pomp and ceremony of a church service; the sun shining through stained glass, the ritual, the Psalms and rousing hymns, but find mainstream Christianity too narrow and too focused on sin and grovelling to a patriarchal (and sometimes wrathful) God.

That’s why I find myself drawn to spiritual faiths that have oneness at their core; whether it’s the Sikhs, the Buddhists or the Aboriginal Australians talking about Mother Earth and our connection to all living things. The more materialistic, faster and more robotic our world becomes, the more I seek to give my life meaning and context through spiritual reflection and meditation. As the Dalai Lama said at the closing ceremony of the Parliament, “You can’t get peace of mind from a supermarket. It must come through our own majesty.”

Conservation is not just about the cute and cuddly November 23, 2009

According to Australian Koala Foundation estimates, there are fewer than 100,000 koalas left in Australia. Needless to say, koalas were in abundance when the European settlers first set foot on these shores in the late 1700s.

As with many of our native species, habitat loss is the major problem. As we have chopped down trees and cleared the land for development, koalas have lost their homes and food supply. Under stress, koalas become susceptible to the disease, chlamydia.

It was stress-induced chlamydia (an extremely painful condition that leads to infections in the eyes, urinary, reproductive and respiratory tracts) that led to the demise of bushfire hero and mascot, Sam the koala. No amount of surgery could repair the damage to her organs and she was euthanized.

Sam’s story helped to create awareness of the plight of koalas and there is a move to promote their conservation by adding them to the list of vulnerable species under the Federal EPBC Act (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999). Speaking on the 7PM Project recently, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the government was reviewing its koala conservation strategy.

Most of us love koalas – they are as integral to Aussie culture and heritage as vegemite and Ned Kelly. But what about all the other native species that are disappearing at an alarming rate; species that may not be so attractive and emotive? Because there are lots of them; approximately 1500 plants and animals and close to 3000 ecological communities are threatened with extinction due to inappropriate land-management practices.

In her book, On our Watch, zoologist and conservationist Dr Nicola Markus points out that the restoration of a patch of native eucalypt woodland for koalas would also benefit a large number of birds, mammals, nectar feeders, invertebrates and small reptiles. This is all to the good. Effective conservation is not just about individual species but about repairing whole ecosystems.

Markus highlights some of the inadequacies and inconsistencies in environmental law and the politics surrounding conservation. Vast amounts of money and resources were invested in recovery plans for the orange-bellied parrot as compensation for giving a wind farm the go-ahead. Markus argues that many other threatened species would have resulted in a better return on investment. They just weren’t as high profile.

While I applaud moves to upgrade the protection of koalas, real conservation progress will only come when less sexy creatures – such as the common mistfrog, the Boggomoss Snail, the broad-toothed stag beetle, the Plains Rat, the bog willow herb, the square tassel-fern and the woolly ragwort (all listed as threatened under the EPBC Act) also cause a public outcry.

We can’t just latch onto the cute and cuddly creatures and hope the environment will take care of itself. Every native plant and animal, however large or small, has a part to play in maintaining the health of our natural environment. Now that climate change pressures are adding to the stresses on our brown and arid land, the need for realistic and targeted conservation action becomes all the more urgent. It’s no coincidence that the subtitle to Markus’ book is ‘The Race to Save Australia’s Environment.’

November 16, 2009

At this year’s Melbourne Writers’ Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting author of The Horse Boy, Rupert Isaacson.

Isaacson and his wife Kristin Neff discovered that their son Rowan was autistic when he was two-and-a-half. What started as an endless round of behavioural therapies, conventional and complementary treatments, not to mention high stress levels, eventually turned into a journey of healing and adventure.

As you may guess from the title of the book, animals – particularly horses – have played a vital role in Rowan’s education and path to living a full and meaningful life. Although an ex-professional horse trainer, Isaacson deliberately kept Rowan away from horses considering them too dangerous. But Rowan found his own way to horses by running into a neighbour’s paddock (in Austin, Texas) and prostrating himself at the foot of a bay mare, Betsy. Strangely, the normally feisty mare adopted a stance of voluntary obeisance and merely nuzzled the four-year-old child.

Rowan’s extraordinarily close relationship with the horse and his love of animals – both toy and real – is one of the reasons why Rupert decides to take his family on a healing adventure to Mongolia; birthplace of both horses and traditional shamanic medicine. As well as spending most of the journey on horseback, they encounter deer, ibex, reindeer, goats and other animals that delight Rowan.

Before embarking on their trip, Isaacson visits adult autist and professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University, Dr. Temple Grandin, to learn more about how animals can act as the connecting point between the ‘normal’ human world and the autistic world.

“Because animals think the same way – visually – autistic people often connect well with animals. When they’re young they sometimes communicate what they want to say to their fellow humans through the medium of an animal, especially an animal they are close to,” explains Temple Grandin.

A few months after interviewing Isaacson, I was fascinated to read a newspaper article about a severely autistic Melbourne boy, Simon, who is being helped by a specially trained autistic dog. The golden retriever – Galaxy – provides support, comfort and emotional focus. The dog seems to sense when Simon is on the point of having a tantrum (which in autism terms is all about crossed wires and messages in the brain), and will cuddle him putting his paws around Simon’s neck.

Not everyone with an autistic child can ride across Mongolia on horseback or afford to buy and keep an autistic dog, but it is clear that spending time in the natural world and bonding with animals has great benefit for autistic people.

To read my interview with Rupert Isaacson, go to: http://www.novamagazine.com.au/article_archive/2009/2009-11-ahealingalchemy.htm

Taking a stand against climate change deniers and lobbyists November 10, 2009

Reading an article about Al Gore and his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, it (sadly) came as no surprise that climate change deniers and lobbyists outnumber environmental lobbyists eight to one.

Gore compares the campaign against regulating greenhouse gas emissions with the campaign run by the tobacco industry to stop the regulation of tobacco. Industry-backed lobbyists are nothing new; they are out there and working hard to protect the interests of oil, arms, pharmaceutical, agro-chemical, mining and other companies.

Years ago, I remember watching a documentary about the health benefits of sugar – funded, you guessed it, by UK-based global sugar company, Tate & Lyle plc. With celebrities endorsing sugar-laden drinks as healthy energy-boosters for children (no mention of dental decay) and pictures of sun-kissed fields of sugar cane, I was almost taken in. Today, Tate & Lyle have a slick website advertising themselves as: ‘Consistently first in renewable ingredients’, and there’s a nice, shiny Social Responsibility button too.

A recent article in The Age revealed research showing that about 120 companies potentially affected by climate change laws employ firms with more than 300 lobbyists.

That’s why individual action – People Power – is so vital in the climate change debate. We need to make conscious and informed decisions about the companies we invest in, the goods and services we buy, the politicians we vote for and the community organisations that we support. If we feel powerless to influence change, we sell out to industry and interest groups. Whether we go meatless one day a week, choose renewable energy systems in our homes, recycle our grey water, drive more fuel-efficient cars, sign petitions or write letters to the relevant ministers, we must take action NOW.

One inspiring example of individuals making a stand and doing something to raise awareness about climate change is Run for a Safe Climate. 25 runners drawn from the emergency services – many of them directly or indirectly involved in tackling last summer’s Victorian bushfires – donated annual leave to run the 6000-km relay run down the eastern seaboard during November.

The run started in Cooktown bordering the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area on 2 November and finished on St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne on Sunday 29th November. Along the route, scientists and climate change specialists joined the runners at 30 community events to raise awareness about global warming and take part in discussions with local groups, schools and businesses.

Organised by Safe Climate Australia, an organisation launched by Al Gore in Melbourne earlier this year, Run for a Safe Climate raised funds towards the development of a business model for Australia to rapidly reduce carbon pollution and tackle what Gore refers to as “a planetary emergency”.

Worryingly, the industry-backed lobbyists are having a marked impact on public opinion. Down from 44 per cent in April, only 35 per cent of Americans see global warming as a serious issue today. Initiatives like Run for a Safe Climate raise awareness of the real issues and break through the web of misinformation and complacency.

Why I still give to charity November 3, 2009

I was depressed – or perhaps just bored – to read yet another round of articles and letters in The Age relating to charities and their cost/income ratios. This discussion comes up with tedious regularity; it was a particularly hot topic around the time of the 2004 Asian tsunami, and to a less extent, during last year’s Victorian bushfires.

Is it really worth giving to charity, does our money reach the beneficiaries or do charities squander it all on marketing, operational and administration costs? These are the kind of questions that are asked again and again.

Charities are like any other business. They need to generate money to conduct their core business and meet their objectives – in this case, to fulfil a community need. Charities exist to plug the gaps left by government and welfare systems, and they operate in a highly competitive market place. Not only do charities have to compete with all the other charities for the punter’s dollar (there are over 700,000 charitable organisations in Australia alone) but also with all the for-profit businesses relentlessly chasing our hard-earned dollars.

So it should come as no surprise that charities need to invest money in advertising and marketing across all types of media from Direct Marketing to social networks. They need to constantly update their skills and knowledge and explore new ways of building their donor (customer) base and income. The larger, better-resourced charities may choose to work with marketing and fundraising consultants to do this. And as with most business models, there may be a negative cash flow for the first one or two years until there is a return on the investment or marketing spend.

But before you vent your spleen about how charities misuse your donation, think about what it takes to actually run a charity. There is a common misconception that charities should be run without paid staff and instead by volunteers. Anyone, who like me, has worked on a professional basis for a charity, will tell you that it takes a lot more than enthusiastic volunteers and do-gooding retirees selling cakes and plants at fundraisers to build new aged-care centres, rehabilitate drug addicts, help the homeless, conserve eco-systems – let alone fund development programs overseas.

I have worked for a range of not-for-profits in the UK and Australia over the last 12 years, both as an employee and a freelancer. I have witnessed first-hand the tight cost controls and annual audits (no fancy Christmas parties), not to mention the strict monitoring and evaluation processes in place. But working in the not-for-profit sector is more than that.

It requires great dedication, vision and commitment from staff who are prepared to work for lesser pay but often, for longer hours. During the Boxing Day tsunami crisis, many staff working for overseas aid agencies interrupted their Christmas holidays and returned to work without hesitation.

A colleague, who works for one of the largest overseas development agencies in the world, told me recently what her CEO tells the charity-doubters. It concerns the lifecycle of a donor’s dollar. The gist goes something like this: you mail a dollar to the charity of your choice. When it gets there, someone has to open the envelope, record your details and perhaps generate a thank-you letter (otherwise you may feel aggrieved). Making sure your wishes are respected, this office worker must now earmark your donation for a particular project before putting it in a new envelope, addressing it, taking it to the post office and sending overseas.

Unless said charity has already established networks and best practice standards in the project area, the envelope containing your precious dollar may be intercepted and pocketed by an unscrupulous middleman. It may never reach the beneficiary. Well, you did say you wanted to make a direct donation?

Running a charity is a complex business and requires the same respect and support as any for-profit businesses. Charities rely on our support and donations to survive as do their beneficiaries. Listening to those who trot out the so-called scandals of uneven cost/income ratios make it all too easy for Jo Public to continue his me-me-me existence and avoid helping those in need.

Beware work-from-home ads October 26, 2009

As any freelance writer will attest, dealing with the rollercoaster nature of cash flow is an occupational hazard. Fluctuating between feast and famine, projects come and go, clients come and go, magazines come and go; it’s an uncertain business.

From latte weeks to lentil weeks, survival is an art in itself. But in love with the freedom of the freelance life, the range of projects, people, ideas and opportunities, we hang on in there thrilled not to be caught up in office politics and whiteboard brainstorming.

Feeling challenged by a recent conspiracy of large bills, I decided to explore creative and new ways of diversifying my income. And hey presto, a couple of opportunities presented themselves. Wow, I thought, I’m getting good at this manifesting your own reality thing. Ask and it is given… or is it?

First of all came Dubli.com, a huge online shopping mall that works on reverse auctions where you bid down from the retail price. ‘Imagine if you could go back ten yeas and buy a franchise in ebay’ runs the strap line’. It’s basically a pyramid selling scheme that works on associate marketing and referrals with a tiered system of commission payments. If you’re good at building a customer base and recruiting a team of associates under you, I’m sure you can make a mint, just like the Norwegian in the demonstration video. Tempted for all of a day, I soon realised that it just wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t imagine persuading any of my friends, contacts or networks to buy into it and you’ve got to be able to on-sell it.

What a relief to get back to the real business of writing. But two weeks and a few more hefty bills later, I got distracted by another money making scheme. Scanning the local paper for part-time and casual job ads, I spotted a work-from-home ad promising a handsome hourly rate for anyone with an average typing speed. Presuming it was some kind of data entry job, I filled out my details. Next thing, I receive a call from the customer support department of an American-based affiliate marketing company, Online Home Network (OHN).

Strangely, they weren’t sure how an ad for data entry work got me through to them, but they were quick to spot a cash-hungry writer and move into recruitment mode. Unlike Dubli.com, this one only requires an investment of $200 (Dubli.com was nearer $3000), and all the marketing is done online on the free website they provide. So all you have to do – and there are coaches to help – is build an online business as an associate of Amazon and Yahoo (as per the standard package) and be smart and creative in driving traffic to your site. Oh, and the idea is to include a work-from-home ad on each page – you earn $200 per referral.

And that’s the catch. Not only would you need to invest in the advertising, but you would also need to know what you’re doing and put energy and passion into it. Having noted down all the details, I wriggled free and signed off the conversation saying I would think about it.

Before I had time to do further research – what actually IS affiliate marketing? – Robb (he of the two bs) rang me Saturday morning Australian time. Caught off guard in relaxed pyjama mode, I ignored the alarm bells of my intuition and fell for his seamless sales pitch and promise of easy dollars. Robb assured me OHN was a reputable company – a multimillion-dollar company – and that as soon as he had processed my credit card payment, I would get a confirmation email. Talk about a blind date!

It all turned out to be kosher – no strange Nigerian payments showed up on my credit card – and the company does exist, but my heart dropped into my boots. Forcing myself to try it, I logged on and looked a sample website. ‘Cook with Brian’ – the ONE and ONLY place you need to shop for the very best offers in outdoor BBQ products and accessories – specialises in food and cooking (with a corny (literally) barbecue photo) as the hook with sidebars for everything else from electronics to toys. Desperate to drum up some enthusiasm, I thought that perhaps – YES WE CAN – books or wellbeing products could be my speciality.

First, I decided to read the background notes. Under the bit about including a work-from-home ad was a cautionary note about not falsely representing the scheme as data entry and avoiding giving potential hourly earnings. Because guess what? That kind of false pretence stuff pulls in mugs like me! Hurray, I now had a good excuse – apart from massively cold feet – for pulling out.

Armed with righteous indignation, I called the company at the start of the following week and asked for a refund. Before the customer service rep could finish his Spiel about the 90-day money back guarantee (if in that time you make no money), I told him about the ad discrepancy. Of course, he knew nothing about it – not their fault – maybe it was from a bought list.

Bought, borrowed or stolen, I didn’t care and continued to argue my case. I won, and am looking forward to seeing the $200 credit on my next Mastercard statement.

Meanwhile, this has been a salutary lesson in not selling my soul for money. Never go against your values and always listen to your gut. If you feel hesitant or resistant, think before you leap or hand over your credit card details!

Taking the Con out of Connex October 19, 2009

Melbourne’s Connex train service comes in for a lot of flak but it’s not all bad.

OK, so delays happen, trains get overcrowded and air-con systems can’t take the heat when it hits 40 degrees in the summer.

But compared to the London Underground, travelling on Melbourne’s trains is a picnic. I commuted daily on the Northern Line (also known as the misery line) from South London up to Kentish Town for seven years. No mere hop, it was a 15-stop journey with plenty of opportunities for delays, problems, stoppages, strikes and indecipherable announcements over crackly loud speakers.

On a good day, I would get a seat at some stage on the outward journey and always on the return so I did manage to get a lot of reading done. On a bad day, however, I would arrive at Clapham South Station to find queues of people backed up all the way up the stairs into the ticket hall and out onto the street.

On such spectacular delay days, the only option was to go home and get the car or take the bus, which would involve a slow crawl through the traffic. Either way I arrived late and frazzled at work.

So on moving to Melbourne I was impressed by the regularity of the trains with most delays only involving a maximum of ten minutes. Even when travelling at peak hour, I find the experience pretty easy as the trains are rarely so crowded that I find my nose level with someone else’s armpit. The overcrowding in the London Underground trains redefines the sardine in a can metaphor. It’s amusing that the normally so reserved British have to endure this enforced intimacy with total strangers, fragrant and not so fragrant.

But what I love most about taking the train from my south-eastern Melbourne suburb are the charming hosts who put a smile on everyone’s face. I hadn’t taken the train for a while but when I turned up last Friday morning, I got the warmest welcome from Ralph, one of the hosts. We exchanged news and views; Ralph had been over to Sri Lanka for this mother’s 90th birthday and showed me the photos. I told him about going back to England for my father’s 80th earlier in the year.

These guys (Joseph is normally there too) give you more of a boost than a cup of coffee. They deal in smiles, they known most regular train users by name and make everyone feel special. The platform has its own sense of community and at Christmas Ralph and Joseph rig up lights and play carols as well as collecting food for charity. At other times of year, the cheerful duo writes up special messages wishing us happy holidays or good luck in the Melbourne Cup.

It’s guys like these that keep communities alive and foster a sense of belonging. Give or take a few delays, cancellations and slip-ups, it makes travelling by train a warm and enjoyable experience.

Edwardian Tweets October 9, 2009

Research indicates that tweeting has been going on since the early 1900s. Seemingly compulsive communicators, the Edwardians exchanged almost six billion postcards – an average of 200 per person – between 1901 and 1910.

With an image on one side, the old-fashioned picture postcard only allowed a small space for the written message. In an interesting parallel with contemporary ‘text-speak’, postcard writers sometimes adopted ungrammatical abbreviations causing consternation in liteary circles at the time.

Unlike today, when so much communication is online, there were up to 10 postal deliveries a day in the major cities leading to a flurry of back-and-forth postcard writing. Reseachers at the Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitcan universities believe that the speed and low price of the Edwardian postcard communication represents an early form of micro-blogging.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if amid our busy, screen-based, e-enabled lives we made time to rediscover the joy of the humble postcard, pen, ink and stamp. Now it’s such a lost art, I wish I had hung onto all those picture postcards sent by holidaymaking friends from sunny spots around the globe. All those pictures of bullfighting, jugs of sangria, donkeys in straw hats…

Saving face sans Facebook September 28, 2009

I have so far managed to resist the lure of Facebook, not that friends haven’t tried to co-opt (sorry, I mean invite) me.

Whenever I read about privacy breaches on Facebook, both of the data and dating kind – surely we all read about the girl who emailed everyone, and not just her latest date, about his great kissing techniques – I wonder if I am the smart one by not signing up? Or am I missing out?

Some would argue that I could slim down my international correspondence by sending universal updates and photos on Facebook. Well, maybe, but my friends are individuals and I like to personalise my communication. And if I bombard everyone with my latest travel and holiday snaps, then I will have to reciprocate by wading through their albums. Groan…

But what concerns more is the loss of privacy. I don’t want people with whom I shared the milk queue at school contacting me thirty years later, nor do I want to hear from ex-flames, past boyfriends, ex-colleagues, one-night stands or people I travelled with for a week back in the 90s.

I have a website, a blog, an email address, an embryonic Twitter account, a landline, a mobile, a wad of paper, envelopes and some stamps. These media platforms (to speak the speak) equip me to stay in touch with lots of people and to strike a balance between personal and professional networking.

And that’s the problem with Facebook; it’s basically a free-for-all and you need to be able to address all your various audiences at once. In an article in The Age’s Sunday life (27.9.09) magazine, author Chad Taylor highlighted this one-size-fits-all approach well. He wrote: “How could I say I’d seen Friend A when he was arguing with Friend B? How could I say I’d been out drinking with Friend C when I’d blown off a date with Friend D?

I’m happy to share details about my professional life – after all networking is the name of the game – but in my personal life, I like to keep a bit of mystique. Call me old-fashioned but broadcasting status updates daily, or even weekly, is just a bit too much in your FACE for me!

Slowing down to real life September 22, 2009

Did anyone else read the article about booster broccoli and other so-called superfoods in last weekend’s Sunday Age (20/09/09)?

Surely, describing these enhanced foods as ‘all-natural’ is a contradiction in terms? The more we muck around with and modify our food, the less natural it gets.

If you want super nutritious broccoli then head to the nearest farmers’ market and buy veggies that have been locally grown and recently harvested.

The trouble is that this takes too long for fans of one minute noodles and instant gratifiction. And that’s why these quick-fix superfoods catch on. It’s all about pandering to our multi-tasking, super-fast and driven lifestyles.

I recently attended a Zen Buddhist and Ayurvedic retreat at the Mudita Institute, where the emphasis was on bringing our minds and bodies back into harmony with nature.

In one of his beautifully worded and beautifully delivered lectures, Mudita’s founder and spiritual director Sensei Doko Michael Hatchett talked about our de-natured life. Our quest for cures, quick-fixes and miracle, health-enhancing cures is all part of this departure from nature, its goodness and wisdom.

The more we try and outwit nature and defy the rhythms, seasons and natural processes of life, the more fragile and unreal our existence becomes.

Super-foods, performance-enhancing drugs, cosmetic products and teeth whiteners designed to make us perfect are never going to make us happy, stable, calm or wise.

We are like any other living organism on the planet and need to move in tune with the seasons, the rhythms of the sun and moon, with the earth and in tune with our own bodies.

Why do we try so hard to avoid what nature has gifted us? Another article in the weekend papers talked about sexbots being just three years away from prodution. These are sex dolls with electro-mechanics that presumably have, ahem, moving parts. If we get more pleasure from hanging out with a sexbot than a flesh and blood human, then we really have lost the plot. What is wrong with the real thing?