Reflections for the New Year (tick tock)

Reflections for the New Year (tick tock)

Somebody once told me that time is the distance traveled between two points, simplistic but profound!

Time is important to us because we do not have much of it compared to God who is eternal and who is adversely affected by the passing of time. We however, have the side effects of aging. Luckily for us God has granted us all eternal life, the presence of Jesus in you life as Lord will determine whether your eternity will rock or suck ... it's that simple! But you will live in eternity somewhere, the choice is up to you. (tick tock)

In our present age, there lies a whole industry that is trying to keep us young and wrinkle free and it turns over billions every year. There are creams and lotions, tonics and potions, fashions and fads, pills and diets, you name it is there.

Recently I read about some of big name celebs who are popping placenta pills and puffing on oxygen in order to stay young! All this array of "stuff" is to make us look and feel younger, to give us the perception that for us, time is standing still. Because we look young therefore we are young! Bzzzzt thank you for playing! (tick tock)

But time marches on and it seems that for some much of the 86,400 seconds of one day is spent trying to look younger for the 84,600 seconds of the next! But no matter what we do, our bodies continue to age, and we just have to get over it, we will age and show signs of age util such time as Jesus returns, then we see Him face to face, we will be change to be like Him. (1 John 3:2)

And so the New Year approaches and we have been duly warned the coming year could be a doozy! 

Already we are looking at possible world wide financial disaster courtesy of US politicians whose failure to reach agreement by December 31 may put the US back into recession. Which will have world wide effects.

There is the ongoing gun debate in the US, this will get nasty as the NRA positions itself to take on all who stand in its way.

The Chinese economy is showing signs of growth which is good for Australia's mining industry and the Government's mining tax.

North Korea has a missile and Iran may yet have a bomb, and the war in Afghanistan just seems to roll on.

So what are you going to do in 2013? Get fit? Lose weight? Be a nicer person? Or is it time to put aside any obsession we have of trying not to age, and to pray and change the world instead of bodies? (tick tock)

The Tragedy in Newtown Ct gives us much to think about

The Tragedy in Newtown Ct gives us much to think about

The murder of young children and teachers in their school is an unjustifiable wrong. School is supposed to be safe place, we have started to weed out the pedophiles and now the mass murderers enter the fray. School is meant to be a safe place let's make it a top priority to make it such.

The Newtown incident has bought on the debate America has to have, how do we regulate guns and gun ownership. To the non American it may seem that the US has a love affair with weaponry, but this view is over simplistic, America has strong historical roots that guarantee the right to bear arms. The English colonial masters denied them this right in the lead up to the American Revolution. It was England's way to to suppress and oppress and there were serious penalties involved if you were caught with a gun in your hands.

The right to bear arms was enshrined in the American Constitution as the second amendment to the document; and fir some in the US this right is a guarantee of their freedom form any potentially corrupt government. But I have a problem here. Lincoln called America one country under God  and the Declaration of Independence talks about the unalienable rights God has given (to America and others) on which America is founded - so if the US is one country under God why do you need the bearing of arms to guarantee your freedom? God is in control, is He not?!

I think that this debate on gun control needs to center on who is in control of the nation that was set up to be one nation under God. If God is in control then gun control is possible without taking away freedoms if God is not in control then why is He not and what has happened to the one country under God?

The second issue raised by Newtown is that of respect. The shooter it seems had his problems and had been bullied. I think from memory the Columbine shooters were of a similar ilk. Bullying is an arrogant lack of respect for others and if we are going to solve these kinds of issues we need not only to control the guns but also to look at the way we treat others.

What may well be the case is that bullying at a secondary level brought about the events that saw children in an elementary school slaughtered. We have to change the values that are exhibited in our school grounds. School culture needs to change so that the brand being worn is not as important as the relationships to other students.

If Adam Lanza had felt more connected and accepted by his peers in the community would he have done what he did? We will never know; but we can say that a one sided debate that only looks at gun control without addressing issues of school peer culture and bullying will not begin to fix the problem.

I love carnivorous plants.

I love carnivorous plants!

Yes I have to admit it, I am not your ordinary gardener, I like growing carnivorous plants. They represent to me the quirky side of God's creation. Plants that hunt insects, now that appeals to me!

There are many kinds of carnivorous plants, the most famous is perhaps the Venus Fly Trap (dionaea muscipula) which closes its trap on its prey and they are no more. There are are plants that produce a sticky honey like substance that attracts insects, these are called sundews (drosera) and have many different forms.

There are other carnivorous plants that form pitchers into which the insets fall and cannot get out, (sarracinia) some of these plants give off an odor that is undetectable to humans but insects love it and they come running when they smell it only end up staying for dinner!

Perhaps my favorite carnivorous plant is a bladderwort - (utricularia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrR9e99pic4 This plant lives in water and forms bladder traps. These bladders are empty and have a trap door that is activated by touching the very fine hair attached to it. A mosquito larvae or other water bug brushes up against the hair the door opens water rushes into the bladder as does the bug, the door shuts and the bug is digested.

I thank God for these types of plants, I get tremendous enjoyment our of growing them.

Sex Slaves - Part Two

Recently I had some feedback about the original blog I wrote on Sex Slaves. The writer fed back and said “I don't believe that poverty drives the sex industry.”

Now the aim of this second post is to explain how I came to that conclusion, not to disagree with someone publicly, we are all entitled to have a contrary opinion; but on rereading the post I felt that perhaps I was  a little remiss and unclear in what I was trying to communicate. I am not going to answer every comment on my blog but as I hold the commenter in high esteem I will, on this occasion, respond.

So does poverty drive the sex industry?

The market economy relies on several principles in order to be successful. One of those principles is that markets are driven by demand. So a market will not be a good investment if there is no demand for the item / service being sold.

Principle One - Markets
I believe that there are three types of market demand;

Opportunistic markets
Optional markets
Essential markets

Opportunistic markets exist where a person sells an item or service in order to profit from short or long circumstances that may have appeared in the market place. A marketer may find out that hundreds of Scottish tourists are coming to their town and may change to their labeling to include tartan patterns in order to sell extra wares to those tourists. Or a person may perceive an opportunity exists because the seller does not know the true value of their wares, and so the buyer buys the wares for resale or for themselves based on the opportunity that is presented to them.

Optional markets exist where people can buy an item or service which is non essential to their existence, tourists do this all the time buying  pencils and pens with flags and logos on them to remember a trip, or place.

Essential markets are things we cannot do without.  These may include things like groceries and telecommunications. Here multiple sellers try to win bigger market shares by emphasizing why their essential product is the best available.

Prostitution can viewed as either one of these markets. One man may see a prostitute on the street and use the opportunity to use her services.

Another man may be rejected by his wife and go to the prostitute as a second option. (In some cultures it is acceptable for the man to go to a prostitute if his wife says no to sex.)

Other men would see the sex trade as an essential service that feeds their selfish lust for sexual gratification. Indeed in parts of Thailand some 15 year old boys are taken to a prostitute as a rite of passage so that they don’t enter manhood as virgins. This view would see prostitution as an essential service.

The sex trade makes sure that there is an abundant supply of women to meet all types of services needed.

Principle Two - Returns
A second principle of the market economy is that the best place to invest your money is in places where there is low risk and high return. 

Sex slavery provides such an opportunity particularly if the women are cheap to obtain, and are not paid for their services. By employing poor men to make sure that the women are trafficked “safely” over borders costs are kept to a minimum. A businessman with no morals could easily invest in the sex trade because the returns are so high and the overheads low.

Principle Three – Maximize Profits
A third principle is to purchase your basic components / commodities as cheaply as you can so you can maximize profits. I feel sick referring to women as components or commodities but for the sake I example I will. (Please forgive me ladies.) Women are cheaper to source from poor villages than from the affluent cites of the west.

Another principle is this (although I am not sure if I can attribute it to the market economy); desperate people are more likely to take risks. Whether it is risks with money, as in the gambling addict who is trying to win back the money they have lost on the pokies, the person who is coming off one bad relationship and is entering into another risky relationship because they are desperate for affirmation and love, or the young girl who although she may know that there is a risk of sex trafficking, she will believe the stranger that promises her a high paying factory job in another country because she is desperate to help her family which is in poverty.

With sex trafficking we see all three of these circumstances come into play. We see markets established. It does not matter if is rich tourists, or local village men, or whether it is viewed as an opportunity, an option or essential service, the market is there.

The proliferation of the availability of cheap labor (prostitutes) caused by sex slavery makes it easy for this market to expand at a rapid rate and for more men to say yes to it.

We also see that the business investors are willing to invest in the sex slavery and reap the return and we see that there is a large population of available women who can be duped and tricked into this industry.

Take away the presence of the cheap components (the women) and your market is in crisis, take away the cheap labor that trafficks the women and your costs will rise and profit will be reduced. So we can safely say that poverty is a major force in what drives this industry? Yes we can, but for the sake of my commenter I will change the original blog to say that.

Is the economy failing?

Is the economy failing?

Gerry Harvey says retailers are in for a hard time and some traders will go broke after the Christmas sales. (http://www.smh.com.au/business/harvey-warns-of-more-failures-in-store-20121127-2a5pg.html)  I am not sure about this we hear news like this every year as if it is a goad that gets us to buy more stuff and save a retailer!

Yes the economy is slow and yes people are not spending as much as they normally do but does that mean the end is coming?

Responsible people who have solid business plans make room for slow years and unexpected changes in economic conditions. Like Harvey Norman they build in other income streams that help them get over the line. (In Harvey Norman's case a large real estate portfolio.)

I once saw a sign advertising a fictitious accounting firm called Grabbit and Runn! This does describe some people's business plans, sell make a profit and get out. Such companies will fail and are clearly not designed for the long term

So are we seeing and economic disaster or is the economic wheel turning and whilst some fall off a new generation of players waiting in the wings with improved business plans take over and so the cycle continues.

Me?! I think this is the Christmas goad to buy more stuff, (sorry Gerry) and I think that new ideas and products and stores will come into the market in 2013. What do you think?