Election time!

In a bid to try and stay politically impartial I would like to direct you to an article in Idealog magazine titled ‘The First 3000 days’

Brilliantly points out how little was acheived since Labour stormed into government in 1999. They started well with a hiss and a roar riding the New Economy and Knowledge Waves- In a promising move they introduced the Growth and Innovation Framework which strategised on how to bring NZ back into the top half of OECD by 2011.

However unfortunately all this good work eventually led to the all too familiar empty promises when it came to action time. In my research the GIF for growing Biotech was very well researched and realistic however the resources and actions have fizzled out over the last 3-4 years.

In addition, the article astutely points out that at least the Labour government of 1999 came in with bright ideas and a vision! Whereas the current National party seems to me to be riding the wave ‘we are disappointed with how things have gone so we need a change’ wave which will spell disaster for our dear country. I say let the reigns off Mr Key and go with the bold policies that we can at least draw an opinion on.

On another note whats with the Greens clever campaign? “Vote for me” alluding to children and our future. That is a great marketing ploy! I wonder who they have ‘borrowed’ that concept from? Its just a shame they dont have any focus on growing our economy (and the other benefits that will have for our future citizens) otherwise they would be a good vote.

Oh and I can’t leave out the ever-charismatic Winston from a rant on the ever-boring/childish/disapointing NZ politics scene. He is our version of Sarah Palin – Charms with a great smile and rallies up the hicks, oldies and ultra-conservatives, who would only ever vote for him no matter what BS actually comes out of his mouth. If anyone makes a deal with him and offers him any portfolio in the next government I can imagine the brain-drain will soon be joined by the sane-drain.

The next 10 years will be crucial for our trajectory and bid to remain a first world country. Join me in becoming another apathetic kiwi as we sit in hope for a leader with balls, who will say they will do something…then actually do it…then live and die by their actions safe in the knowledge that at least they gave it a go.

So much for a fair and impartial post on politics.

Thoughts on Jenning’s warnings

 

One of NZs richest men, Stephen Jennings, has come out of hermithood to try influence NZs direction so that the nation does not fall further behind. You can see the whole article here

When are we as a nation going to embrace the change that is happening? Jennings is just one of many successful people that have spoken up as we get closer to election time. Its right wing but I reckon its time we started to swing back that way.

Heres some interesting thoughts of his (wise man I say):

“We’ve had a lot of government involvement in many aspects of our lives. We have a very comprehensive and very generous and in my view, excessive, welfare system. That is an obvious place to start.”

 

“If we don’t change, the future is quite predictable. It is really more of the same: a continued downward slide in our relative income standards relative to the rest of the world and every other indicator going with that: social indicators, health indicators, cultural indicators, sporting indicators.”

Jennings says New Zealand’s Polynesian explorers had the values needed for the modern economic world – adventure, exploring, risk, pushing into the unknown – and that heritage is still there.

“I believe if you scrape a few layers of the top, and, to be colloquial, with a little bit of boot in the bum, we can reinvigorate those values.

Only Africans can save Africa

You have probably heard of the inspirational TED talks website. If you haven’t you MUST visit www.ted.com or you can click here. I must warn you that it will probably suck up a lot of time but it is well worth it if you need to restore your faith in humanity.

Every year TED offers 3 prizes worth $100,000 to people to implement their TED wish to change the world. This year Neil Turok won one of the awards. In his speech he showcases some amasing data from worldmapper.com that makes it obvious that all the trillions of aid money sent to Africa has done NOTHING in long term solutions. Being a respected mathematical physicist at Cambridge University Neil has started a new type of University in Africa focussed on applied science. Here he hopes to provide the hugely talented African kids an opportunity to begin to help themselves! See the full speech here

I have never been to Africa. But for some reason I am a beleiver in the philosophy that as developed countries, the only thing we can and should do is attempt to raise the competency of people in developing regions such as Africa. They are the only ones that will be able to turn things around for their own people.

Lets hope that the next Einstein, Brin, Page, Jobs and Gates are African (and South Asian) as it is the only way 9 billion people are going to live on this earth in 50 years.

An inspirational interview

Stumbled across a great interview that made me feel like a chump for thinking I have obstacles to overcome.

Paul Orfalea was a D minus student with ADHD and dyslexia. He overcame this and founded Kinko’s which is the most successful copy store chain in the US. Click here for the full interview

Some gems:

“If you’re going to enjoy the picnic that life really is, you’d better learn to like yourself not despite your flaws and so-called deficits, but because of them.”

“Whenever I felt down, whenever I started wondering what homeless shelter I would die in, [my mother] would buck me up by telling me: you know, Paul, the A students work for the B students, the C students run the companies, and the D students dedicate the buildings.“

And on the topic of inspiration check out the Acumen Fund Fellowship programme. Some amasing young people doing some amasing things in areas of the world that really need it. Click here for the Funds website. and here for a list of 2008 fellows

Where are you now?

Related to my last post about goal setting I had an intriguing conversation with someone today.

When goal setting you need two pieces of information; where do you want to go? AND where are you now?

It is amasing how often people spend a lot of effort on the first question but completely ignore the second (myself included). But how will you get where you want to go if you don’t know where you are starting from. 

A good analysis of these two questions will probably make your path very much clearer and easier to follow.

Arrogant or a Winner?

I’ve had many conversations about the ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ in New Zealand so I thought I would bring that to the www

This train of thought was inspired by reading an article of Donald Trumps 8 tips to make it big. If anyone in NZ took on this advice and behaved in the way The Don suggests they would be thought of as arrogant. You can see his tips in full here.

Heres a snippet “When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough, Just go get them. You can’t be scared. You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens.” What would you think if someone acted like this here? I actually dont know the answer to that but I guess its the stuff that makes winners??

On another note heres a cool piece of research I came across that will encourage you to set yourself some goals.

Researchers at Yale University asked the graduating class of 1953 how many of them had clearly defined written career goals. Only three percent actually did have written goals.

When the researchers returned 20 years later, they interviewed the same people to find out how they fared since graduating in 1953. The results were astonishing. The researchers found that the three percent of people who had written goal were worth more in financial terms than the entire 97 percent of people combined! And on other measures such as happiness and quality of life, the three percent with written goals also scored a higher average.

Things I wish I knew before starting university

Over the weekend I was at a Courses and careers day at The University of Auckland as part of the team that was promoting Spark. A slightly nostalgic feeling overtook me as we were talking to a bright-eyed young girl about our thoughts on uni. I realised this is valuable information for people that are thinking of going to uni or have recently started.

Remember this applies to me and may only be relevant if you are going to get into similar fields following your study.

1) The students that get the best jobs don’t spend their Friday/Saturday nights studying

2) You learn just as much, if not more, outside the classroom than in it. So get involved with as much as possible to expand your mind

3) Grades do matter! Yes Cs get degrees but As get ‘All’ the good jobs (weak alliteration I know). Even if you don’t want to work in big corporate grad programmes you need to prove that you are intelligent and that you have high standards for yourself.

4) Lecturers are there to be talked to. Don’t wait till your final year or post-grad level to form friendships with them.

5) It doesnt matter what you study in the end; so make sure you enjoy it and the lecturer is interesting.

6) ‘Management’ Consultants prefer engineers to ‘management trained students’.

7) Internships and part-time jobs are critical to your uniqueness come job time

8 Always have a current, snazzy, short CV on hand.

9) Foreign exchange trips should be planned and built into your degree from the out-set

10) No one ever buys text books. Use the internet, library and short loan libraries.

Like a virgin, blog for the very 1st time

“Let me tell you what the song ‘Like a virgin’ is about. It’s about a girl, who likes a guy, with a big…”- Mr Brown.  Bonus points if you know what movie that line is from!

G’day and welcome to the beginning of a very interesting journey. This journey will be about self discovery, brain farts, opinions, kudos and blatant attacks on a variety of things.

So why should anyone other than myself tune in to find out the exciting times of Duane Fernandes? Well I am at a stage of life that promises to be very exciting, full of change and great discoveries!

1st a bit about me; I don’t want to bore you with too much of my history and will let out those secrets when relevant. Currently I have interests in (not in any particular order) :

- Education - specifically the role the education system plays in developing the essence of a nation, and thus the tremendous responsibility on the shoulders of our underpaid educators. Future leaders in this field have some serious thinking to do; see any talks by Sir Ken Robinson to find out what I’m talking about. I wish I was encouraged to do art, music and dance at school, while sport is prominent in NZ it will also fall into the aforementioned group for many nations.

- Sustainability - I sincerely believe that for our planet to sustain 9Bn people by 2050 (a conservative projection) there must be some incredible paradigm shifts in our lifestyles/mind-sets/social structures and technology! Or else we are heading towards a period of mass loss of life

- Technology - I think that while we are still seeing tremendous growth and opportunities in the IT space the future of paradigm shifting technology will come out of the biotech sector. Or more accurately at the intersect of these fields. I also believe The Terminator was a visionary movie cautioning us against a real possibility.

- Corporate Social Responsibility – I think Governments are too slow and shortsighted. Hence it is up to private sector to drive the change towards ‘better’ futures. The next 50 years, while exciting, will be tremendously challenging due to the rate of change in absolutely everything. Bureaucracies are designed to maintain status quo and incremental change; this is simply not good enough anymore. Governments can help this process by making it economicaly viable to implement CSR practices.

- Travel - for obvious reasons of stepping into the unfamiliar to learn about yourself, and to experience other cultures from which we can learn a lot.

I will attempt to post something at least weekly. I hope it is interesting; at the very least it will be opinionated.

Enjoy!