When a person reads news stories online, they will invariably come across Chinese trolls, if they comment on social media, especially on news stories related to Chinese indiscretions, then they will no doubt be targeted by state funded Chinese trolls.

Firstly, there is the Great Firewall of China, ordinary Chinese citizens are blocked from a variety of internet sites ranging from Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and all the news media. So if they are commenting, this means they have been given access. They may have been allowed to move outside of China and whilst Chinese dystopia is always a threatening influence, the sphere of influence is frighteningly hostile. The social credit monitoring allows these individuals to amass points.

Chinese citizen’s online options are monitored, and censored by the CCP and whilst offered some Chinese sites such as Alibaba, Weibo and Baidu – their options are limited and highly censored. The xiǎo fěnhóng have been given access to international sites and are reportedly paid 50 cents per post. The Great Firewall of China can keep its citizens under control, the wumao are enlisted to operate outside of this firewall. They are keen to get in an online stoush with you, they get paid for this. This is their modus operandi – so don’t get caught up in this.

You work them out pretty quick, they are abusive and they engage in racially aggressive slander. Never get caught up in this racial abuse, they are baiting you. These trolls are easy to spot, I do like exposing them online, they try to gang up on individuals, you stir them up, not the other way around. The more you argue with them, the more money they get and undoubtedly win more credence with their supervisors. Stir them up, get them to pile on and then sign out of the conversation, block any notifications and then laugh at them.

What the dumbarse politicians from the CCP just don’t get is the transparency that Australia has just displayed in bringing the war crimes to public attention. We all know the CCP is the Corrupt Corona Party who unleashed the virus upon the world through their inaction and incompetence lack any such transparency. Certain members of the SASR went rogue over in Afghanistan, they were reported by their peers and an enquiry was opened to investigate the matter – it hasn’t been covered up. Whilst this was a small element, the nation is working to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

We all know Lijian Zhao is a blowhard, he is trying hard to please his masters in Beijing. He is trying to garnish favours at the CCP – everyone can see that. Even for China, this is a new low in their lack of ability in international diplomacy. Lijian should think himself lucky he even has a Twitter account. Apart from the xiǎo fěnhóng who are paid to regurgitate CCP propaganda on the internet. Average Chinese citizens have no access to Twitter, Facebook, Google or Youtube and are instead locked behind the Great Firewall of China.

What these deadshits in the CCP fail to appreciate is Australia as a sovereign nation won’t bow down to China. Their plan is they will use Australia’s liberal democracy to undermine the elected government. The CCP are dirty Australia has successfully orchestrated an international investigation into the origins of the Coronavirus that we know China is working overtime to cover up. This has embarrassed the CCP internationally, they are currently profiteering from manufacturing safety equipment to fight their virus.

The CCP is anything but democratic, they are stuck with a shithead for life. Winnie the Pooh is leading China down a dangerous line and they can’t pull back without getting rid of this patsy faced despot. I just hope the Biden administration is up to dealing with China and hold them accountable for their indiscretions. The Chinese system is different, the Chinese people are stuck for life with Xi Jinping, they don’t know what a democratic system is with Lijian trying hard to perform favours for him. The CCP needs to be cleaned out, they are a very dangerous regime.

The wumao are masquerading as xiǎo fěnhóng earn very little for their online trolling. Lijian is paid better than the xiǎo fěnhóng who is happy to sell all principles and scruples which were mostly lacking in the first place. He just kowtows to an internal audience intent of keeping Winnie in power and has no international influence whatsoever. We all see through Chinese fake images, they are as fake as the lousy products they produce from their stolen intellectual property. They are just a nation of thieves with no morals, ethics, values or integrity and we see this again and again.

I had just returned from my offshore rotation, I had done ten weeks straight and had a couple of weeks back at home – I really needed it. I really enjoyed this job, you need your breaks too, time to recharge before returning, it was a good break, a short trip to Singapore and a trip down the holiday house. I had some work commitments to perform, some short meetings and then prepare to return to site.

I returned to site and was straight back at work, I had meetings to attend as the area was not running well. There was the flight from Perth to Johannesburg, step off the flight, board the company charter jet and get in to work. I was jet lagged, I did the Saturday shift, fixed my bike up and then headed off at 6 am Sunday morning. It was going to be a 96 km bike ride to the waterfall return trip, this was through tracks and some roads.

Needless to say, the trip to the waterfall is an uphill ride through some pretty unforgiving Congo jungle in the wet season. On a positive note, the return trip was going to be downhill and boy, were some of those slopes steep. It was an excellent ride, sure, it was hard but you never remember the easy trips, there is no challenge in that. Ok, it is true I got a little banged up on the trip home, yes, it could have gone a little better, this was a life experience I won’t forget and I wouldn’t change anything.

I became interested in leadership studies when a friend of mine was undertaking her MBA studies. We met as her son was learning to dive through our dive centre. She would drop him off before racing home to study and write up her assignments.

I was very interested in what she was doing and I was even more interested to learn she was working at the university as a marker. What a great way to gain exposure to both strong and weak academic papers. She has an opportunity to learn from the very students she marked. So when she decided to head back to university to research and write her thesis on leadership, I was acutely interested in following her progress. Leadership is such an interesting and finicky issue, plenty of people write up leadership skills in their CVs yet I wonder how many actually demonstrate actual effective leadership qualities in the workplace?

I see motivational pictures mounted on the wall of an eagle soaring over the mountains looking down over the valley below. This isn’t leadership; a manager, or indeed a director needs to inspire people through a shared vision that empowers team members to create value in the organisation. When I see a leadership poster hanging on a wall all I see is an example of leadership lacking. I am yet to see the workers buying into a culture and vision, this is just token symbolism that fails to create the team-work that leads to outstanding performance.

Koblenz is a quaint little city located on the junction where the Rhine River meets the Mosel River. We were travelling up the Rhine by a combination of train and river boat, Koblenz is a logical short stop before heading down the Mosel river to Trier. For me, just a day was needed to look around, there was the Festung Ehrenbreitstein Fortress to look around after taking the cable car across the Rhine, you can really see the different colours of the Rhine River and Mosel River – amazing.

I was reliably informed it is worth waiting around for cable car #17 as it has a glass floor. That is not entirely correct, it has a glass viewing box to look out the bottom, not bad and worth the wait although there is enough glass in the cable car to view the fantastic scenes. After we got off the cable car we wandered around to the Memorial of German Unity where a band was set up, there were bars and food stalls with decent views of the fortress, Rhine River and the Mosel River. A number of river cruise boats were moored alongside the waterfront, it’s a decent place to spend for an overnight trip.

Tradies are the new class of entrepreneurs in Australia and this is a positive step forward. For the uninitiated, what is a tradie? A trade is defined as a vocational occupation with skills and knowledge developed through a formal apprenticeship. Trades can be divided into market sectors from the engineering sectors employing machinists, fitters, boilermakers and welders, technicians and plant mechanics. There is the building sector requiring bricklayers, tillers, plumbers, carpenters, cabinet makers, plasters and painters.

The automotive industry requires light vehicle (car) mechanics, heavy vehicle (truck and bus) mechanics, motorbike mechanics, spray painters, automotive electricians, panel beaters and auto body finishers. Then there is the hospitality sector with chefs, baristas and wait staff all dedicated to the consumer experience. There is hairdressing and beauticians, sports and recreation, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, mining and retailing.

What we are seeing is entrepreneurial tradies opening plumbing businesses, carpentry shops, contract tilers offering their services business to business (B2B), electrical repairers advertising directly to the public and opening retail premises. Why sit through years of university for a worthless degree with little to no job prospects when you could complete a trade in the same timeframe earning money as you progress and completing your qualification with no student debt.

With the exception of the STEM areas where there is a definite requirement and demand, many tertiary areas do not have sufficient vacancies. I feel that if an individual then wants to progress to university as a mature age entrant then all good – that’s what I did. Tradies are completing apprenticeships, gaining further experience and then engaging in entrepreneurship to ply their trade – fantastic. Their skills and knowledge are in demand and they are employing people adding value to the economy.

I have been to Hong Kong before but I still really like to walk around and see the city, the last time I was in Hong Kong was just as I was completing my university studies, I recall working on my final unit in the hotel room.

There are riots and civil unrest going on, I have been in riots before by accident, this is not something I wasn’t to willingly engage in. For me, the most important issue was making my flight so I didn’t want to get caught up in any disturbances. Besides, the flight left at 3:05 pm so I needed to be back at 1 pm to be safe. With travel time to and from, it is a lot of effort for a couple of hours in the city. Not this time I guess, today just wasn’t worth the effort or the risk.

Apparently we are living in the Information Age, we are now exposed to an unlimited supply of data that even the most astute and educated individuals in the history of the world have never been exposed to before. In not only previous generations but previous cultures, knowledge was power. Only the elite were educated, the masses were dominated by the ruling class left to fend for themselves. Hence, only royalty and nobility were educated; an argument may be put forward that this was to keep the elite in power – it’s hard to deny.

Unfortunately this almost unlimited supply of information has somehow been corrupted with misinformation, conspiracy theories and interference by hostile governments and groups. The internet is the tool to spread misinformation, ironically, this should be the method to share true and correct information. Yet, what I see on forums and online discussions is anything but informed and rational discussion. The lack of knowledge presented when an individual clearly has the ability to research topics and information from reputable sources is reasonably straightforward.

However, this is rarely the case as next to nobody owns encyclopedias anymore, people don’t have reference books or cite published and peer reviewed research, they prefer to reference YouTube, alternative news sites instead of mainstream news. Now, whilst some better known sites have gone tabloid, the genuine news sites are definitely easy to spot. It isn’t difficult to work out what is a genuine news site, yet, many seem incapable to do so from the flat earth society, faked moon landings, the US government staging the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Area 51 other alien stories.

If you have been gifted a position in the government where you have not met merit selection based on addressing formal selection criteria, then you are in a crony position – it is really that easy.

Public sector selection principles require a merit selection process meeting employment standards as set out in public sector standards of human resource management. The merit selection process falls under four equity principles. Merit selection requires a proper assessment of the KSAs, that’s knowledge, skills and abilities that is relevant to the position. The equity principle requires employment decisions to be free from bias, nepotism or patronage.

Patronage is the power to control appointments and deemed a privilege bestowed upon certain persons. Patronage is a form of favouritism that is deemed to be an abuse of power that rewards individuals or groups that is a corrupt process. The interest principle is related to secondment where the employee’s interests are taken into account, in essence, this is to prevent bullying where an employee is not coerced into a position that is detrimental and consents. The transparency principle ensures employment decisions are capable of reviews.

So, where does that leave us? If government departments are promoting people without meeting selection requirements, the opportunities for corruption are increased. This can be the only reason they are bypassing required protocol. Notwithstanding, productivity is decreased because yes men and/or social climbers are the only ones parachuted into the best positions and team motivation decreases. They are the only ones in the organisation who benefit – not the people performing the work.

Mecky and I were out on a pretty dull Saturday night on Mactan Island when she spotted a bar from the back of the public utility vehicle we were travelling in. We jumped out and decided to wander in for a look and it was surprising that for a well stocked bar, this place was empty. The bar staff were nice and friendly so I have to wonder, how a bar can be so empty on a Saturday night.

This is not a big place, the decor and facilities were more than adequate and I guess cost a fair whack to set up. This would be a challenge I would like to take on as a marketing project as a retiree. Mactan is a holiday island so there are holidaymakers interested in an exciting night out. The question I would ask myself is, how could I fill this place? How would a marketer put this place on the map for a good night out?

I would target the young crowd, sure this bar is not in the centre of town but if it is seen as the place to be, people will come. Firstly, I would target the tourist markets of South Koreans and Chinese without neglecting the local Filipinos. Their wine selection wasn’t great, we purchased ourselves a bottle of Medoc, a 2017 vintage that wasn’t great. For 1500 PHP ($29.41 USD) you should be expecting a little more but any frequent traveler to the Philippines would know French wine is a little hit and miss.

As a wine drinker, clearly I rate French wine and I especially like the Bordeaux region. I tend to think the French aren’t exporting their premium wines to the Philippines. A couple of options Ina couple of price points would be interesting. So wine options need to be improved, they had the option of an Argentine Malbec but this didn’t interest me without a tasting. Without crowds and frequent turnover of wine by the glass, a tasting is out of the question.

A wine stock costs money, we all know that so turnover is important and that generally doesn’t attract the young crowd but supplements existing customers. If you are a bar owner, you need to invest in your business and a well stocked bar is paramount. This is the Philippines so labour is cheap, organizing a pick-up service for discerning clients is possible. This should initially target local customers and then expand to the hotels for foreign tourists. Certainly a business case needs to be explored to decide if such a strategy is viable, if not – drop it.