Choice

Two blue jackets – size small and medium; one pink jumper; a sparkly cinnamon tank; a pair of yellow jeans; one Peter Pan-collar top; the turquoise cami; the nude blouse; a grey off-the-shoulder knit. Oh, and an orange skirt, which is what I went shopping for in the first place.

I carted these ten items into the Zara changing rooms expecting I’d have to leave half on the rack. But, no, you can try on a wardrobe’s worth of clothes and the army of shop assistants will happily grab more.

Let’s deconstruct this: I don’t need a blue jacket; I already have a pink jumper; cinnamon looks best on apples; yellow skinnies scream 2012 – and may well make me look that old; you need a bob to rock a dainty collar; the turquoise was in fact icky jade; nude – particularly when worn on TV – makes me look naked; jumpers that fall off your shoulders are as pointless as a bikini in Thredbo. The orange skirt I needed – OK, wanted.

Continue reading "Analysis paralysis: I’m spoiled by choice" »

Campaigning for better banking is a bit like the start of the footy season. We begin as optimists, trying to forget the disappointments of last year, the unfair penalties and questionable free kicks, hoping instead for some healthy competition.

That is where the similarities end. While other national sports have salary caps and at least the semblance of a level playing field, our big four banks have spent the pre-season again demonstrating why they are about as popular as a tram of drunk Collingwood supporters.

Recent weeks brought interest rate rises outside of the Reserve Bank cycle and more record profits, set against a backdrop of outsourcing, job losses and tales of high-seas parties that could put “mad Monday” to shame. Even the most hardened optimist would admit there seems more chance of Russell Crowe’s Rabbitohs claiming the NRL trophy than our major banks putting customers first.

Continue reading "Move your money, don’t bank with the losing team" »

Chocolate is the latest product in our foodie, got-to-have-it, made-to-order craze.

Arno Backes, a Melbourne based chocolatier says there’s growing popularity and interest in the way chocolate is made, with more and more us demanding fine European couverture and a specific cocoa content.

“We’ve ended up with a real chocolate culture,” Backes told The Age.

Continue reading "We’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re real foodies" »

NSW is on the brink of introducing ethics teaching into classrooms across the country, but no-one, not even the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, has any notion as to what we will be teaching our children.

The problem with modern day ethics is the lack of unified standards for deciding what is right or wrong.

Worse than this, many educators seek to frame the debate in terms of relativism, which provides the perfect platform for communities and countries to sacrifice basic human rights in the name of concepts such as religion, culture and philosophy.

Continue reading "If we’re going to teach ethics in schools, let’s do it properly" »

One of the Rudd government’s appealing election commitments two years ago was to act on supermarket prices.

Once in power they asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to examine competition in the supermarket sector and promised to establish a web site to provide price information to consumers so they could better choose where to shop.

As then Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen said in the first few months of office: “One of the things we’re trying to do, is give consumers much more information, and when you’ve got more information you’re back in charge. When you’re driving around trying to work out where the cheapest supermarket is, then really, you’re not in charge.”

Continue reading "Shoppers getting little value from the government" »