You learn pretty quick, you don’t go online and say anything negative against the CCP, that is the Chinese Communist Party otherwise a plethora of abuse is headed your way – that much is for sure.

The xiǎo fěnhóng or little pink in English is the online army of CCP trolls who shout down anyone who dares say anything negative about China. The propaganda wing of the CCP is there to manipulate public opinion and are paid per comment. The 50 cent army known as the wǔmáo dǎng is allegedly paid fifty cents per comment, or should I say favourable comments. Some are reasonably argumentative coming up with original comments although they mostly don’t. They mostly cut and paste and what is well known, they have no internet etiquette, they just abuse people engaging in slander and abuse. What is clear is they are not free thinkers and forget about any critical thinking abilities – they are just mindless trolls.

Earlier in the day I dived off a banca, a local Filipino outrigger style boat atop of a wall starting at 40 metres viewing a couple of white tip sharks, a school of Tuna following the sharks and naturally the schools they are chasing.

As we were diving nitrox to extend our bottom times, we had plenty of time to enjoy the action on the wall before ascending to a shallower reef to extend our time. As we had ascended to the top of the reef to begin our decompression we saw a largish banded sea snake swimming down from the surface after taking a breath.

The sea snake was fossicking around in the coral before launching at a Moray eel landing a lethal bite on its back before quickly moving into position and grabbing the Moray by the head with what I guess was a further series of bites. As the sea snake wrestled with the Moray, it hyper extended its jaw attempting to swallow the eel whole. This just wasn’t happening although the sea snake was having none of this, I have to respect its perseverance before finally giving up and heading to the surface to breathe again.

The guys in our group went to view the lifeless Moray eel on the reef while I sat on point ready to inform our group of the return of the sea snake who was a tad aggressive and I certainly didn’t want a bite from this reptile. As they were checking out the incapacitated moray, a large sweetlips took an interest into the commotion before a school of 100+ baby Barracuda engaged in what could be described as a stampede racing past our group before being broken up by the presence of the sweetlips. So that was our dive, Boracay isn’t well known for its diving, this particular dive changed my mind about the decision to dive at Boracay again.

Having a look at what Rich Lesser, CEO of BGC Consulting has to say about making the most of your MBA experience is very interesting. He tells candidates to challenge yourself; I have to admit, I haven’t challenged myself nearly enough during my online MBA experience. Could I have pushed myself more?

I maintained my full-time working status taking both Accounting for Leaders and Economics for Leaders as my first two units concurrently. That was just too much so I decided to take only one unit per trimester and by concentrating on just one unit at a time, I hoped to gain a far greater in-depth knowledge of the material, I would like to say this is indeed the case.

That didn’t work out too well during the Operations Management unit, I was sent away to site on assignment before falling ill in dire need of hospitalisation. The next month saw me do very poorly in an assignment as I was in and out of hospital before the medical professionals worked out what was wrong with me.

Had I been doing two units, I would never had gotten through. I would have been indebted big time as I would have to take the unit again and I would have trashed my GPA. As it turns out, we did very well during the group assignment and I ended up with a credit but still I think about what could have been instead of what actually was.

The opportunity to gain experience working with high calibre candidates from diverse professional fields cannot be underestimated whether it is vis-a-vis with teams on case studies or in virtual teams. I really enjoyed working with diverse people, I hoped to tap into their differing viewpoints and perspectives.

Design thinking is currently the new concept underpinning management training programs offered at progressive business schools. The purpose of self-reflection is important, a critical analysis of personal performance with a particular emphasis on team-work and developing leadership abilities is a key outcome.

Honing research abilities supplemented with presentation skills ensures candidates are skilled at small group and large group meetings. In that respect, as a college lecturer I have had plenty of experience presenting material to mid size groups of people so I’m thankful of this exposure as it makes a huge difference to your confidence.

I am fast becoming interested Nomos Glashütte, a reasonably small, but highly respected watchmaker from the village of Glashütte in Germany’s Saxony region. Whilst not impossible, it is not easy to purchase a Nomos Glashütte in Australia, they don’t have a distribution network, with the right marketing, I would expect Nomos Glashütte to be popular in Australia.

I like the clean dials, the uncomplicated bauhaus design principles, the in-house movements really top off the uncluttered design of the Nomos range as previously stated, they offer some pretty decent in-house movements. The Glashütte design principle of the three quarter plate is interesting. The three quarter plate is apparently stronger than a standard plate, this is a Glashütte design principle, the German style plate brings strength without added weight. I had the chance to purchase a Nomos Glashütte when I was in the Philippines, I passed the opportunity up as I was indecisive at the time. Now I regret my decision but at the time I really didn’t know their range well enough – a missed opportunity.

I read American comments on social media in regards to personal freedom in the times of covid. The American ideal of personal freedom at the expense of other peoples freedom is a flawed ideology.

Freedom doesn’t have to occur at the detriment to others, I choose the freedom to not contract the covid virus and then infect other people. If that requires me to stay home, wear a mask when out, not engage in international travel and social distance – then so be it. This bullshit notion of Trumpism fake news is an irresponsible flawed argument. He has single-handedly reduced the US economy to taters, made a mockery of government agencies and programs as well as produced the highest death toll in the world.

In Western Australia we lived 10 months through the height of the covid pandemic with 0 community transmission. We had a single case of community transmission, this occurred with a security guard who ensured returning travelers maintained hotel requirements. We went into a snap one week lock-down to ensure the virus wasn’t passed on. There wasn’t too many complaints, we knew what had to be done. We were then required to wear masks in public, I was yet to don a mask. 

This changed in February 2021, we then had a week of wearing masks in public and then with zero cases, we returned to the 2 square metre rule and life as normal. With a little inconvenience, our life returned to normal again after two weeks. Nobody died, nobody was hospitalised, so there was no ventilation required. This is freedom, the freedom to not infect the community and to kill people. Anti-maskers are selfish idiots, Trumpism spurned fake news and not wearing a mask as a political statement – morons. 

When nitrox burst onto the diving community in the early 1990s, it was considered a technical course promoted by the diving cowboys at these strange IANTD, TDI and ANDI certification agencies.

Whilst nitrox dive computers were available back then, it was the equivalent of purchasing the first car phone, flat screen television or laptop computer. Compared to today’s technology, they were expensive and lacking functionality. To be an early adapter, you had better ensure you had a good credit rating and deep pockets. Back then, I had graduated from dive tables to a dive computer – an air computer. Nowadays, all dive computers allow nitrox use as standard.

It was like owning an old mobile phone that are now referred to as bricks. The new dive computers are compared to a smartphone; indeed, the new OLED screen technology is adapted from smartphones. Needless to say, when diving nitrox, my air diver computer was left back at the dive centre and a depth gauge and dive accompanied my dive slate with a full hand calculated dive plan neatly written out complete with turn-points, CNS%, OTUs and gas usage for each depth in runtime.

Geez, I wasn’t even going into deco, this was just a three-level dive with standard scuba equipment. After a while I started to get smart and kept copies of old dive plans so I could redive certain profiles without the need to recalculate the whole dive. What you gained from exposure to these calculations and dive planning is a through knowledge of nitrox whilst you developed the discipline to execute your dive plan to the exact depth and time.

My plans were always to the no-decompression limits for each depth on a multi-level dive, you had to display personal discipline, a trait I maintain to this day even though I have graduated to a dive computer. Even with current risk adverse dive computer profiles, they still allow more bottom time than the old tables and multilevel profiles.

Within watch circles, the Omega Seamaster Diver 300 Professional is known as the Seamaster Professional, or more simply as the SMP. I will start with a negative, the index marks on the ceramic bezel look great in photographs. However, the lack of white enamel in the index marks makes them a little hard to read on the wrist, this is especially so underwater – this is a dive timepiece after all.

Whilst a new model has now superseded the SMP, the 212.30.41.20.03.001 may well become the collector’s model with the deep lacquered dial and unobtrusive Helium valve. The 2500 automatic movement has the co-axial escapement and whilst not entirely an in-house METAS certified movement – it goes ok.

The Co-axial 8800 is undoubtedly a better movement, that is true, but the 2500C is based on the base ETA 2824-2 with Omega refinements and the George Daniels designed co-axial escapement. The base movement is certified to Omega certifications, that will be the highest specifications available, although the movement isn’t METAS certified, I have no issues with that.

I prefer the deep blue lacquered dial of the older model, this is when Omega decided the waves were to be replaced for a plain and uncluttered dial. The steel-on-steel 210.30.42.20.03.001 returned to the waves on the dial making the blue lacquered dial of the 212.30.41.20.03.001 somewhat of an abnormality that could well make it more collectable in the future.

My primary retirement planning considerations are always going to be financial; however, secondary considerations are going to be where I retire. Sure money is important, what money buys is a decent lifestyle, no point working all your life then not enjoying your time off, work hard then retire early, the plan is to retire early enough to enjoy the time.

I live in Perth and enjoy living in such a remote capital city of about 2 million people. Summertime is fantastic, late spring and autumn and also great time. Winter sucks, Perth is an awful dreary place in winter, the only redeeming feature is going and watching the Fremantle football team play at home every second weekend – hopefully they will be competitive then.

My plan is to spend at least winter living overseas, that’s at least three months of the year. I think that could easily be extended to four, five or six months very easily. I own my private residence outright and have done so for a number of years, I don’t owe any money and have no net debt. During the summer season, I am happy to be back in Perth to enjoy summer, water sports including diving and sailing are what enjoy life is about for me.

So now the question is where? I have spent plenty of time in South East Asia over the years, the region is well priced and affordable. From Perth, flights are reasonable and frequent to most destinations. Sure, I will likely have to transit through a hub such as Singapore, Bangkok or even Hong Kong, but I don’t mind.

I looking a little further away, the European summer is my first choice with the Mediterranean countries of Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece my primary destinations. There is nothing stopping me from moving around from year to year although I want to remain close to my primary accommodation for the European summer.

The Chinese are getting into mining, their arrogance and lack of ability are hindering the industry in ways you could only imagine. What they should be doing is acquiring projects then recruit and select the best talent to manage these projects based on competency and not misplaced nationalism.

They don’t know what they are doing, everyone knows that and one of the first moves they make is to get rid of the expats on the job. Whilst they believe they are superior in every way, I am enjoying watching them bumble their way through like an Inspector Cousteau clone. They do not start up greenfields projects, they purchase (usually with government assistance) existing projects, mouth off about superior management then turn the projects around. I love meetings with them, they will only trust the word of a Chinese expert (who is usually anything but) and disregard what any non-Chinese person says.

When I request the qualifications and experience of these so-called experts I find that they are nowhere as qualified or experienced as the personnel they replace. They are cheap, that is true – really, really cheap but one has to look at the value they generate for the firm on a cost per unit basis. All of a sudden, this low cost labour input may have worked in the low value added manufacturing industry. This is not replicating well in the higher technology mining business where you need to analyse outcomes based on cost v output.

Now when I say turn the projects around, I mean they turn a profitable project into a loss-making business venture. They then have two options, they either realise their mistake and rehire western expats to make the project profitable again, sell the project for a loss and there is a third option. They can close the project down and write the whole project off as a loss.

While a decent business enterprise is follow Chinese mining companies around and purchase their operations cheaply, it doesn’t necessarily work like that. They run the plant and equipment down so poorly that it isn’t worthwhile to repair, enormous capex is required, the supply chain is degraded and non-operational, supplies are wary and businesses damaged.

Community engagement, the environment, safety and sustainability issues; well, you can forget about that. This fixation with driving costs down at every opportunity is the heart of the problem. This short-term term thinking is damaging the long-term prospects of the business. Sure, all businesses must control costs but investigate the internal environment, map the value chain for efficiencies and derive a sustainable competitive advantage based on core competence. In short, learn and replicate established business practices, create a lean organisation and reduce waste.

Founded in 1876, Sapporo is Japan’s oldest brewery and produces a pretty decent beer. Sapporo is available throughout Asia and available at most decent outlets in Australia both in bottle and can form. I see it less on tap, I am sure it is available at the better establishments though.

Whilst this was not my favourite Japanese beer to start with, this is pretty much the most popular beer in Japan so I decided to look at it again and changed my mind. I reckon Sapporo is a decent beer, this is now my favourite Japanese beer. Not that I purchase much beer, but if I do I am generally in the international section of the bottleshop either looking at European beer or the Japanese options. This is worth looking into on a hot summer afternoon when I have friends around, a pretty popular choice.

Brewed by Seibei Nakagawa, he was originally trained in Germany after leaving Japan at age 17 becoming Japan’s first brewmaster. The brewery is in the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, the largest city on Hokkaido. The city of Sapporo is in the south west of Hokkaido, the most northern of the main islands. The city of Sapporo was somewhat famous for hosting the 1972 winter Olympics, the first nation in Asia to host an Olympic games, it would be fair to say Sapporo beer would have been the beer of the Olympic games.