Xi Jinping became the president of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2012 ushering a new era of Chinese authoritarianism and assertiveness. This has not been a positive interaction for both the region or the world.

Xi Jinping joined the communist party back in 1974, he is the son of one of the party’s founders who was expelled from the party in the 1962 purge. Xi Jinping was then sent to the country for some hard labour and re-education while his father was imprisoned. Xi Jinping is no stranger to political purges, launching a series of actions to expel members and shore up his support base. But what Jinping is unable to do is free the party from corruption, nepotism and incompetence instead reinforcing such behaviours.

The Coronavirus pandemic unleashed on the world is very much of Jinping’s actions. His rule has created both distrust and disorganisation in the CCP, the inability of the CCP to contain Covid-19 within Chinese borders is on Xi Jinping. During Chinese new years celebrations the CCP allowed their citizens to roam the world taking the Chinavirus with them. There were fears this would be the catalyst that this would spread the virus around the globe and this is unfortunately what happened.

The Chinese new year is the largest movement of people in the world and the concerns that the spread of the virus would be accelerated across both the region and continents has been realised. Now we all face restrictions, loss of incomes and devaluation of our wealth and retirement savings all while Xi Jinping consolidates his position within the CCP. The incompetence of the CCP and their failure to maintain control in their country has had negative worldwide effects and we all pay.

China has to clean up its act, this pandemic that it has unleashed upon the world is a direct result of their inability to manage their own country. Instead, their attempts to implicate the actions of other countries are a feeble attempt to divert worldwide scrutiny from their failures.

Their wet markets are not the first time pandemics have been unleashed upon the world. Their recklessness has cost people their jobs, their livelihoods and people’s lives. The hotspots are Europe and the United States, pretty much the developed world. What happens when the Chinavirus gains a foothold in developing nations in Africa, South-East Asia, Central Asia and South America? They don’t have the medical systems of the developed world, people don’t have access to ventilators and sophisticated medical supplies.

They live in close quarters, they live in squalid conditions and a conventional lock-down doesn’t work. Their governments don’t have the resources to tackle the problems apart from maintaining power. I think we might escape the worst of it in Australia but I fear for those living in developing countries. As it turns out, the developed world was hit the hardest with Europe and the United States leading infections and deaths. Brazil, India and Russia lead developing world infections with the Philippines and Indonesia leading Southeast Asian nations.

Singapore started well for a developed nation before succumbing to infections stemming from immigrant housing. This damaged their reputation, Hong Kong was going fantastic until China saw the opportunity to shut them down and Taiwan stared China down. China has once again screwed over the world and their arrogance is breathtaking. They are using this pandemic to further their national interests in an unethical manner. The world needs to decouple from China so their only allies are Russia and North Korea.

Microlearning is a modern approach to learning based on short concise lessons delivered to learners at a convenient time. Microlearning predominantly deals with relatively small learning chunks aligned to short-term learning activities.

Microlearning is a holistic approach utilising short-term strategies seeking skills based training solutions. Whilst microlearning was pioneered as computer based training, the acceptance of smartphones and tablets allowed microlearning that are generally based around short videos of the two to five minute duration.

Microlearning is considered an agile method of delivering short bursts of training content that is self-paced. Active learning allows learners to engage with content instead of passively attending lectures, methodologies such as problem-based learning allows learners to actively engage with action learning projects increasing knowledge retention.

This Covid-19 pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for me, I had just completed an international assignment and was looking to the next placement. Well, the worldwide pandemic killed that, the work offers dried up pretty quick.

I first came into contact with Masa Takashima not that long after completing my instructor examination, I had done some courses already so wasn’t far off my Master Scuba Diver Trainer certification.

Masa was a Japanese fellow who had lived in Perth a fair amount of time, he came to Australia from Japan, loved the place and decided to move here permanently. He had worked for a fairly high profile dive operation in Fremantle before deciding to branch out on his own – an astute decision in my view.

This was about the time the Japanese tourism market was expanding, Perth was a must-see destination for the Japanese back then. Masa was able to capitalise on this growing market, it is fair to say he was the right guy in the right place. Masa was a big picture guy, he didn’t care much for the details – that’s where I came in. I am an operational guy, or I was back then anyway. I was the operations manager of his business, Masa came up with the ideas and I implemented the plans.

That’s not to say I didn’t have any input; however, the general trend was Masa was the ideas man and I was the operations guy. Masa gave me pretty much a free reign, if the courses and tours we were running were making money then he was happy. I had calculated the break-even points so I was well aware of minimum numbers so the courses and tours we run spilled into the next program so those people filled the next program with new-comers joining and creating extra profit.

Masa had his limitations, but was that a problem? Well no, as long as you identified them, then there is no issues, you just work around them. Some of his ideas were really bizarre and I had to shut them down. Some of his ideas were brilliant, even if I didn’t see it at the time, I soon worked it out. This was a good time in my life, I was really enjoying my life, my dog was alive and my world couldn’t be better, my time working with Masa coincided with significant life milestones. Life was good, it could always get better, but I was pretty happy working together with Masa.

In what might be a return to Reds under the Bed, Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has been raided by ASIO officers and the Australian Federal Police. Whilst he had his NSW Labor Party membership suspended during the Federal Police investigation, he has had his membership reinstated at the completion of the Federal Police investigation although the Corruption Commission investigation is ongoing. Whilst this isn’t concerning, he has been very vocal in support for the Chinese handling of the coronavirus. At time of writing, there was a confirmed 21 million infections worldwide with 750,000 deaths, at the very least, this guy should be arrested for being a fuckhead.

How the fuck could that be considered successfully containing the virus? What, this is a good outcome, it could have been much worse, China has tanked the world economy, infected millions and it isn’t anywhere near finished yet. Moselmane has openly praised China, he has also received free trips to China whilst selling Australian interests down the toilet. As he is an elected official, this guy is dangerous and his actions are counter to Australian interests – he needs a lengthy term of imprisonment.

China cannot be allowed to financially benefit from the worldwide disaster they created. Worldwide governments, not just the Australian government, need to ensure Chinese companies flush with cash from the Chinese government do not swoop in and purchase distressed companies in Australia and around the world.

The economies of the world have been compromised from the actions of China, their unsanitary conditions, their lack of regulation and their lack of ability to contain the coronavirus in Wuhan was the cause of this disaster occurring in the first place. The last thing the world needs is Chinese companies flush with cash from the CCP purchase companies and distort capital markets. China has distorted manufacturing and supply chains fed by Western nations intent on offshoring manufacturing.

The opportunity for Western companies was access to the vast Chinese market that never eventuated and this experiment needs to end. The Western world along with central Asian and Asian-Pacific countries now needs to form trading partnerships with nations to isolate Chinese influence and create a level playing field.

I hope that nations with democratic governments can come together and decouple from China, they need to relocate supply chains away from China. The Japanese government is offering tax incentives for their companies to return to Japan, other democratic governments should be looking at their model.

I deal with haters every day, this is a prerequisite of working in the government. The haters work against you, this is the government way; they don’t assist, they don’t create value and they certainly don’t serve the business.

I have been advised the term haters stands for having anger towards everyone reaching success, this isn’t a bad analogy and I cannot claim it as my creation. My attitude of haters is they are jealous of success, but this is really based on their failures. I have also been told that “I have never seen a hater doing better than me” and once again, this isn’t my creation and sums it up well. Based on my years in the government and their cultural voids, bullying type behaviour is rampant so a high performing individual requires strategies to counter the haters.

My view is never get involved in a direct confrontation with a hater, this is the situation they crave, you need to out maneuver them and not accommodate them. Firstly, ignoring them is easy, only speak to them if they initiate a direct conversation where an answer is required. Always be polite to them, they try to bait you and the more restraint you display, the more it irritates them. Naturally, never initiate a conversation, they are not your friend although they may attempt to be exactly that. They will try to take credit for your accomplishments so be on guard, be ready to act and call them out and embarrass them in group situations.

This is about them, this isn’t about you and one suspects their life is miserable, hence – their actions. You have two choices, you either reach out to them or ignore them, but since they are the ones who are attacking you, the better option is to neutralise their influence by mocking them subversively. Still, never let these fools get to you, their main role is to motivate you, you out-perform them, you receive the promotions they never earn. Despite stealing your work, they don’t have much to offer and despite their noise, informed people see straight through them. If they don’t – then they are idiots.

I love European train trips, the train ride from Warsaw to Krakow was no exception. On this particular trip on the IC train, we were afforded the luxury of empty compartments in second class – it was great.

Some train journeys we have undertaken were on Pullman seats, these are not uncomfortable for sure, but the opportunity to spread out and relax in your own compartment can’t be beaten. Whilst most of Western Europe is fairly expensive by Australian standards, spending some time in Poland is a welcome relief to the budget.

The  two and a half hour train  journey was scenic, there was plenty of stops along the way pulling into stations and there was even a change of direction with the electric loco shunted around. I was having some difficulty tracking progress with Google Maps initially as I don\’t have a phone plan instead relying on satellite positioning that took longer to load than expected.

I purchased my TAG Heuer Aquaracer after a fair amount of research. I had viewed an older model at Changi Airport on an earlier trip and he informed me this watch had sat around for a while. As I knew I was returning a month or so later, I had planned to pick up this excellent example of an older 2016 model Aquaracer, I had seen it a number of times so I felt pretty safe.. Those hopes were dashed on my next trip to find the watch had already been sold – I was too late.

So a plan B was required, so I was making enquiries in Mazzucchelli’s Jewellers in Karrinyup Shopping Centre when I was able to negotiate a decent price. We had a plan where I placed a deposit on the timepiece as I had my Bali Christmas trip organised but was outside the 60 days time frame for receiving a GST refund via duty free allowances. My plan was simple, make my purchase just before my overseas trip and receive the GST rebate as allowed. Making an expensive purchase isn’t an issue with me, I am happy enough for the watch to sit in their retail outlet until I was ready to travel.

The last thing I wasted mg this timepiece getting too much wrist time gaining scratches and dents. That would make it difficult for me to state my case as I cleared customs, this wasn’t an issue as they didn’t even request to see the merchandise as I completed the necessary forms. I didn’t need to even carry the box with me although that wasn’t really a hassle as I was just travelling to Bali and back for a week. I later learned that they want to see the packaging but only when they are on duty, evening or late night flights only require the filling of forms.