Global Warming? Why am I so dang cold?

Ok – I’ll admit right up front that:

1. I am not a climatologist, and
2. I am a sceptic – about global warming and many other things.

Some people say that unles I am 1 above and not 2 above I have no right to have an opinion on global warming (hereafter GW). I do not subscribe to that view. I actually criticised  the police for shooting someone shooting up the East Perth Station with a shotgun in front of a cop. He said that until I was in those cops’ position I had no right to criticise. While I am not entirely unsympathetic to that view – by this standard only  ops could judge other cops, only politicians could judge other politicians, only judges could judge other judges (oh, hang on a sec’).

Ok – back to GW. Is the world getting hotter? I am reliably told that it is and I can accept that. Has the earth been both hotter and colder than it is today? Again, I am reliably told yes – and I accept that. Is the current temperature outside the normal range of temperatures over a reasonable period (I would have liked a long term, say the habitable lifespan of the earth)? I don’t know this one – I have heard both yes and no. If the increase in temperature is out of the ordinary, is it caused by humans? Again, this one could go either way. It is only really on the last two questions that I am sceptical. And much of this scepticism comes from my innate distrust of doomsayers and my contrarian nature.

So, about the big GW. What’s my position, I hear you all asking… I don’t really think it matters whether you believe in anthropogenic GW – we all have an obligation to look after our home. I am of the view that we don’t have the right to mess up our planet simply because we can. I believe our planet has been given to us in a sacred trust and we have an obligation to use it with care and not abuse it. I think our occupation of the earth is a form of stewardship where we have it for a short period, then pass it to the next generation in a state hopefully not significantly worse than how we found it and hopefully better.

Of course, we all need to live and that involves consumption etc. But we should be careful to ensure our footprints are smaller rather than bigger and we use resources with care.

Now, I ain’t no greenie, tree-hugger, touchy-feely type – but I try to do my bit. I recycle, I compost food and garden waste, I have a bore and am on septic. I have a dual flush toilet and a low-flow shower head. I use instant gas for my water heating. Ok – sure I could be better, but who couldn’t?

Real estate blues

Ok, I bought my house a few years ago. It is located in an ok suburb not too far from the city. It has glimpses of the river from the front yard and is a stone’s throw from Curtin University here in Perth. It is also on a reasonable sized block.

It quite a nice little house and has been our home for some important years in my young family’s life. Unfortunately, it is only a three bedroom one bathroom and is now clearly too small for my expanding family.

I (like I suppose several other families) thought when I bought my little house that in a few years’ time I would keep that house, use the equity I had built up in it, rent it out, and buy a bigger house slightly further out from the city. I was reasonably confident that, in my chosen suburb, I would see moderate capital growth and would never struggle for renters.

What I experienced instead was massive capital growth – but this growth has been spread across the entire Perth metro area. So, while my house has increased in value by approx 400% so has every other bleeding house in Perth.

This means there is no way I can possibly keep my existing house – no-one I know could afford the repayments on the type of mortgage I would need to take out if I tried. I have to sell my house and use the equity to buy back into the market. Now, I have a good job and my pay certainly isn’t bad – my wife is a stay-at-home mum to our four children (ages 18 months to 7 1/2), but our income would only pay for less than half the borrowings we’d need.

Now I am thinking about moving and have been looking around. For the price I could get for selling my house I simply can’t find anything that I could live in.

I am perfectly prepared to move slightly further out but not to the boondocks and not to a hovel. Why can’t I trade in my small-ish but well situated home for a slightly bigger house further out??? Maybe I’m too fussy. Maybe I need to lower my expectations or move further out or maybe just push the finances and borrow more, or maybe send my wife back to work and let strangers raise my children… Is that what I need to do?

At least we’re in the real estate roundabout. I worry what my children will do – will incomes have caught up (or prices fallen) by the time they’re old enough to worry about it?

Spare the rod?

I think that becoming a parent changes you in more ways than just the obvious.

I used to be a hard-hearted bastard. I still am – but some things really get to me that never used to. For example, I hate reading about abused children. I used to be able to read that stuff but now it really gets to me. The hard thing is that I still have to read it. I can’t just ignore the stories but I know that I’m going to hate it while I’m reading it.

Now, a few days ago there was a story in the newspaper about a guy pleading guilty to the assault of his step-son. He beat this child so hard this kid had bruising all over his back. Did this guy go too far – absolutely. Was this an example of smacking gone wrong? Absolutely not!

This was never about smacking – this was about an adult who could not control themselves taking out their frustrations on a helpless child. What always makes me angry is when abusive parents say they inflicted the beating because the child wouldn’t settle down and/or be quiet! Do they seriously think that inflicting a beating on a child is going to settle them???

Now today I read about another step-father who literally beat his 5 year old step-son to death. The comments out of that man’s mouth made me furious.

A few things spring immediately to mind

1. where were these children’s mothers and why weren’t they protecting their children,
2. why expose these children to abuse males and not leave when they show signs of abuse
3. why are men taking on children that they obviously don’t want
4. why are men committing these horrific crimes on the most innocent members of our community, and
5. what can be done?

To do nothing is unacceptable. What type of society are we living in where this can happen?

Then, two days ago we read of a baby abondoned in a garbage bin and found at a waste recycling facility in Perth. Is this what we’ve come to where a baby can be discarded like trash.

I am almost moved to tears to read these stories. I read the words and cannot understand how this could happen. I look at my children and wonder how anyone could do such things. I listen to the stories and can only think that those adults could have never loved those children.

I think of my own upbringing. I don’t consider that I was smacked – I was beaten.

As a result, I always swore I would never smack my children. Yet here we are, I’m the father of four children and I do smack. I will give my children a count to three to stop their behaviour – then I will give them a smack on the hand or the bum with an open hand. I’m never happy that I have to smack and I often regret it afterwards – but I don’t consider my smacking to be beating… but perhaps my children see it differently?

About « A Piece of My Mind

About « A Piece of My Mind

Ok, so I’ve got opinions, strong, crazy mixed-up opinions. And I don’t mind sharing them. So sue me – no, actually I’d prefer it if you didn’t.

Just another rip-off

Ok, maybe I’m the only person in the world who feels like this but does it seem to be getting harder and harder to get any sort of service out of anyone – particularly large utility companies – without feeling like you’ve just spent the night incarcerated with an enormous guy named ‘Bubba’?

Let me explain further.

A few years ago I went around to each of the major banks to enquire about their transaction accounts. I finally agreed to open an account with a particular institution that offered the following:

1. Unlimited transactions, for
2. A monthly fee of $5.

Now, this wasn’t the cheapest package but I liked the freedom of the unlimited transactions and the certainty of the one fixed monthly fee.

Just a few short months after I opened that account I received a letter in the mail from my new bank. ‘Dear Mr Mill’ it began – turns out my bank had decided to take advantage of the unilateral variation clause in its standard terms and conditions to completely vary my account features. Now I had a limit on the number of my transactions, my fixed monthly fee was to be increased by 60% and additional transactions would incur further charges.

Recently the telecommunications company that I had been with for about 8 years sent me a bill with a whole new fee – a ‘non-direct debit fee’. Turns out that I was to be charged an additional $2 per month (plus GST) for the inconvenience of me not wishing to hand over my bank account details and authorise them to take whatever they wished! Apparently they had sent me a letter about it – they had also decided to use the unilateral variation clause in their contract to substantially alter the terms of our contract (I was, at that time, locked into a contract with them).

What is the deal with these unilateral variation clauses? Why can’t I all of a sudden say to my phone company – ‘oh, I know we have a contract but I’m going to pay you half as much for twice as many calls’. How far do you think I would get with that? And is there any limit to the extent of the variation? Let’s say you enter a 1 year contract with a mobile phone company – the deal is you get 100 calls for $1 per month. Can they then unilaterally change it to be 1 call for $100 per month? At what point is it such a fundamental change that the contract is over?

Finally, I have two credit cards – both of them have limits. If my credit card provider decides to let transactions occur on my account (admittedly by me) in excess of my agreement with them that their is a certain spending limit – why do I have to pay a fee? They were the ones who allowed it to go over the limit! They could have saved both of us the hassle by simply declining the transaction. It seems to me that setting a limit involves keeping to the limit or having transactions declined. In any event – I cannot see how the bank actually incurred $30 of costs as a result of them allowing me to spend more than we’d agreed. And, if it is not a fair estimate of costs – its a penalty and not enforceable!

This actually happened to me a month ago. Turns out I had overspent on my credit card and I was hit with an over-limit fee of $30! (Actually they hit me with two overlimit fees of $30 but I only found out about the second one when I called). So I called them up and told them I wasn’t going to pay it. They seemed a bit non-plussed by that. They explained what it was and why it had been charged – and I stated again very clearly that I didn’t care what it was, I wasn’t going to pay it! At that point they agreed to credit my account for the two fees, but I still had to pay the full amount (I wanted to pay the figure minus the fee) and then I would receive the credits. Now, good that it worked out ok. Good on the bank for seeing reason – but again, how many people are hit with these fees and just pay them? Why are the banks even trying to impose fees that can’t be justified and aren’t enforceable.

Now, where does this story end? As for my phone provider – I left them as soon as my contract ended, I left my bank just after they changed the fees, and I got my refund on my credit card – but I may yet get my revenge. My former phone company sent me a small final bill – I’ll happily pay it once they refund my non-direct debit fees!

Does this drive anyone else crazy?

***UPDATE: I’ve just remembered another one – when I joined my video library I used to have to return the video before midnight the next day. Then it became 10pm, now its 6pm. They didn’t send me anything out letting me know of this change, they didn’t refer to any part of my membership agreement that allowed this – they just changed the ‘please return by’ bit on the videos!***

Dumb-rider

Ok, I’m a commuter in Perth, Western Australia.

Everyday I catch the train to and from work – 1 zone - one stop if I catch the express, 4 stops if I don’t.

I have been catching this same train for about three years now. 

Everything was working pretty smoothly – until one day they announce a wonderful new system that would revolutionise the way we travel on public transport… Smartrider! A new smart-card system where you load credit onto your card, tag onto the system when you travel, tag off the system when you arrive and it automatically calculates your fare and deducts it from your balance.

The old Multi-riders were to be done away with – Smartrider was the way of the future. It would make all our lives sooo much better and easier. So, like a chump, I thought I’d change over (wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t – they eventually forced you to by getting rid of the whole multirider system).

Smartrider is marketed to the public as “new, fast and efficient. So, why wait when you can get on board today?”

Let me tell you – it may be new but it is neither fast nor efficient and waiting is what you will constantly do.

Under the old multirider system I never had to queue at a validating machine, I got my bulk purchase discount for a 40 ride card and could pay for it with a credit card, I never got charged for rides I didn’t take and I never got hit with default fares for failing to tag off the system (more on this later).

Now, with Smartrider, I have to queue every day at a validating machine when I get off my train. The machine is sometimes temperamental so some people have to swipe multiple times. And the system requires double handling – one swipe on the system – one swipe off the system. This must be half as efficient as the old system that just required one swipe.

Now the only way I can get my full discount is to hand over my bank account details to Transperth (and not a credit card either – must be a savings account) and allow them to debit my account whenever my balance falls below a certain point. You used to get a discount for bulk puchasing in advance – now it doesn’t matter if you load $10 or $10 million in advance onto your card – no full discount without handing over your bank account details.

I have been hit twice for default fares – and both times it was an error. When I queried the charge both times I was told it was a mistake caused by a double scan – I got my refund but how many people have been stung and didn’t bother complaining or simply weren’t sure?

I have a friend who tagged onto the system one day – waited 30 mins for a train then caught a ride home with a friend in his car. Tried to tag off the system at the same station – hit with a default fare! How is that right?

The new system is a big step backwards.

Anyone else have any similar problems?