Tag Archives: Australia

March 20, 2023 · 15:44

Brain in overdrive

That happens and It just happened to me, the reason being this tweet. Now, that does not me the given facts are true, but I am willing to go on faith here and the setting becomes a weirdly unsettling one.

So here we see the setting that 4 out of 5 women had a miscarriage. That’s 80% and that number should scare anyone. Is it true? We want to reject it, just like we want to reject “What was in the water” but in all honesty we cannot dismiss either, unless you can prove that the 80% statement is wrong. One untested source gives me “For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 20 in 100 pregnancies (10 to 20 percent) end in miscarriage. Most miscarriages – 8 out of 10 (80 percent) – happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy”, this is for the USA. Not sure what other nations are and there is no telling how bad it gets, but the statement is there. To take a little trip in my memory lane, I have known hundreds of women and I am aware of only 3 cases. This does not mean that there were only three, I reckon that most women will not talk about things like that other than to another woman and I get that. But from less than 2% to 80% is a jump and that gives validity to “What was in the water?” You see when these numbers add up to 80% something is driving this and the water is an option. We only need to look back to the Erin Brockovich story to see that things end up in the water and that was BEFORE Shale gas drilling became a fact. Now? I have no way of telling, but in the US big business tends to make policy, not the actual policy makers. 

The second statistic comes into play now. I cannot tell if that number is normal, but it wasn’t and now we see “Most miscarriages – 8 out of 10 (80 percent) – happen in the first trimester before the 12th week of pregnancy” this does not seem natural, something drives this and water makes sense, but the environment is a lot bigger than water and as I understand it pregnancy is a setting of checks and balances and the balances is where it is at. So what is causing that level of imbalance? I do not know but the data puzzler in me is going into overdrive. In this age of overpopulation I shouldn’t be, but consider that the next two generations are lost to us, what will we be left with? If 35% is entering the ‘old fart’ stage, and we lost the bulk of 2 generations. This implies that our population will dwindle down to a little over 5 billion before 2070, not a bad setting as the planet could use a breather, but what we neglect is that any environmental impact on us could remain for the next 5 generations, and in this who remains? That is a much larger question and a much larger issue to deal with. So is this over-hyped? Perhaps, but can we afford to ignore this setting? I don’t think so. This planet needs relief and I am not willing to set it up a species that has destroyed its own balance to procreate. I do not have any answers and any answer I uncover only needs to more questions. For one, the ‘official’ number is debatable, but there is nothing countering it. One answer was “Most pregnancy losses are due to factors that the person cannot control”, I understand the answer, I merely refuse to accept it. The environment (and the water) is something we do not control, but someone is allowing it to contain toxins. I also see that several ‘official’ sources have EXACTLY the same text, so there is a common source there. Yet In Australia I saw “One study that tracked women’s hormone levels daily to detect very early pregnancy determined a miscarriage rate of 31 per cent.” 31% is a long way of 80% and that should have led to a lot more questions, but I do not see them, do you?

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March 2, 2023 · 09:55

Every source is useful

This is the actual case, we get information from sources, some we deem essential, some we see useful and some we seem as nice to have. That is the case when you look at it, but it is not always true, sometimes the source is less relevant than the information they bring. They were on the ball, they were in the area and they were connected are three options that come to mind, but in some cases the events just blow you away. As it was with me, I tend to follow a Canadian comedian called Brittlestar. He is funny, he is on point and he comes with local issues that might never have caught my eye. 

So here I was reading the tweets and there he has alerting me to a BBC article called ‘Abortion UK: Women ‘manipulated’ in crisis pregnancy advice centres’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64751800). I tend to look at BBC events, but this one I missed and it was a Canadian comedian, waving their red and white flag proudly on top of a humongous Maple leaf tree alerting me to an event in the UK. Now, it makes sense. From the top of a Maple leaf you can see the UK (on the other side of the Atlantic river), I standing on top of the Centurion (tallest tree in Australia) couldn’t see the UK because India and Africa are hindering my viewpoint. These things happen. 

But it is about the article and it filled me with dread, It starts with “The centres operate outside the NHS and tend to be registered charities. Most say they don’t refer women for abortions, but offer support and counselling for unplanned pregnancies”, which is followed with “Some 21 centres gave misleading medical information and/or unethical advice about abortion” and I wondered, could this be any worse? And then I see “Jo Holmes, of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: “From a professional-standards point of view… they are not there to advise, they are not there to guide, and they are… not there to give their opinion. This language is designed to make the client feel guilty.”” With added mentions of “We visited the Crossroads Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Harrow, north-west London, which opened in 2005 and is based in a Baptist church. The centre’s website says its trained counsellors provide free and accurate information. An undercover reporter told a counsellor she was three weeks pregnant, and asked what an abortion would involve at that stage. The counsellor replied: “The baby is waiting for the pill to kill it and to get rid of it.”” And it is not the weirdest thought that a church is part of deception, they have done so for almost 1,000 years. And there is a much larger stage from this, it will speed up the stage where they are trivialised as christianity is thrown into a corner and ignored after spouting 2,000 years of lies and deceptive conduct, oh and lets not forget about the paedophile priests (which is on the catholics and not the baptists as far as I know). 

Is it so hard to give one group (women) true and unbiased information? Is it that much of an issue with people? These deceptive priests, have no issues handing forgiveness to raping fathers of their children, adulterers and all kind of sex crazed daddies. Is it too much to ask for a true neutral response to women? It is not a hard question, most of these people ignore homelessness, war, famine, big company exploitation, as such can we just give the women the neutral advice so that they can decide on what to do next? The article is a lot more important, there is no need to lace it with comedy and other matters, but the stage is a lot larger that anyone ever imagined. As such, great applause to the BBC Panorama article by Eleanor Layhe & Divya Talwar, they uncovered something sinister and unacceptable and it is time to set those charity people in the limelight and ask them public questions, especially when they hide behind the faceplate of ‘Charity’.

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February 26, 2023 · 20:58

Surprise, surprise

That is how I felt an hour ago when Arab News gave me (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2257936/sport) ‘Saudi Arabia beat Indonesia by 8 wickets at 2023 ACC Men’s Challenger Cup’ I honestly did not know that Saudi Arabia has a Cricket Team. That is not even close to the end of it. 

You see, Saudi Arabia has 11 associations. They are Western Province Cricket Association, Jeddah Cricket Association, Riyadh Cricket Association, Riyadh Cricket League, Eastern Province Cricket Association, Yanbu Al Sinayiah Cricket Association, Aseer Cricket League, Jizan Premier Cricket League, Jizan Region Cricket Association, Madina Cricket League, and the Madina Cricket Association. I will do you one wilder, Saudi Arabia is playing Thailand tomorrow and when you search “Saudi Arabia Cricket” in Google, we see the match come up and in the whole first page of News Nine’s Wide World of Sports is the only one in the entire page who mentions it. The first three pages go back to August 2022, BBC sports never shows up and neither do most of the Australian papers. And Cricket is their bread and butter? How about giving possible opponents in the world a fair mention? You still think that Australian news is about sports and facts? Where were these facts filtered out? The fact that I never knew that Saudi Arabia did not have a Cricket team is on me, but I had help, for the most the sports world of Australia and England went out of their way not to mention it, nothing at all. That part is seen in the top three pages in Google Search. You tell me why the media ignores it, I have no idea.

So what else are we not being told? This is a simple setting, this you can look up and there you see how western newspapers treat other teams, especially the ones that are filtered out. Is this a storm in a teacup? Yes, I will admit that it is, there should not be so much focus on one element, but what is the element that we should ignore, that Saudi and Indonesian cricket events do not make the news, or the fact that neither show up at all? Because a few days ago the news was full of Women Cricket (and I am fine with that), but nothing at all on other events? I honestly cannot tell what the filtering was all about, but when one party comes with the BS excuse that they ran out of space all whilst the BBC app is rehashing news from Feb 4th, I will throw a tantrum. 

That is the news that the west gives us, all unbiased and honest, too bad it does not give us the additional “Filtered for the need of shareholders, stakeholders and advertisers” because I personally reckon that was part of that deal.

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February 20, 2023 · 01:43

The wrong wake up call

Yup that happens, but the way it was done was rather surprising. You see, I wrote about this situation and I did it reflecting on my own experiences. I reckon one of the clearest moments was August 2021 when I wrote ‘As credibility moves to the arctic’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/26/as-credibility-moves-to-the-arctic/) and the most recent was ‘The part we seem to forget’ where I wrote “The media is the bitch of shareholders, stakeholders and advertisers”. This is a stage I have mentioned since 2012, so I have been aware of this stage for 10 years. When it upsets the advertisers it is trivialised (Sony, 2012) and they are not alone. When it is a larger issues the media gets to meet with stakeholders who provide a narrative and that is how it is set, there is more with shareholders, but that is for another day. And now the BBC gives us ‘BFM journalist Rachid M’Barki suspended in scandal linked to disinformation firm’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64677232) where we see “he admits to bypassing BFM’s editorial checks”, yes admitting to incompetence is the way to go, but here it is not enough. I reckon he stepped on the toes of the wrong stakeholder and he is hung out to dry. So when we are given “an investigation by Le Monde newspaper in conjunction with the campaigning organisation Forbidden Stories has revealed more details. According to the investigation, M’Barki ran reports on a variety of subjects – luxury yachts in Monaco, a Sudanese opposition leader, allegations of corruption in Qatar – that had all one thing in common: they were planted by an Israel-based outfit specialising in ‘news for hire’.” We have hundreds of news sources starting at Reuters, but these three gave enough to set the stage to an Israeli firm? I have questions and a lot of them. It is possible that a whole range over a time would give an optional narrative, yet the larger problem with the media is not merely copying one another, it is that there is no vetting of information and I am not talking about editorial checks. The need for news-by-wire is setting a stage where proper vetting of information is surpassed (as I personally see it). And this time around a man named Rachid M’Barki gets the joker served in a not so nice way, he is hung out to dry. Now it is simple to say that something is not possible. I say some things are too highly unlikely and there is a second stage, this is coming to the forefront all whilst these connected stakeholders are massively shy of the limelight. Their value is not being seen. This is why some people have lunch meetings with stakeholders and often in a neutral place. Please do not take my word for this, seek out your own evidence. I woke up when I saw Australian news ignore events surrounding Sony in 2012, a mere week before the PS4 was launched and they ALL ignored it, Sony advertisement money was too powerful, too incentive for words, as such the fact that 30 million gamers were exposed to changes was ignored by pretty much all of them. From that moment on I started to track certain events and the media did not disappoint, they dropped the ball time after time and I started to see patterns (as I would call them)  digital patterns all about the money and infused by below quality reporting as I saw it. I made several mentions from 2012, but the load started to become heavy from 2019 onwards. And now the BBC gives us another wake up call, but it is one they might not want to make, because we are given the guilt of Rachid M’Barki butt that also opens up the an of worms that we get to see with most of the media and that includes BBC, the Guardian, NY Times and a few other players. As I personally see it, all media has its own stakeholders and we are denied the news, we are merely handed filtered information. Information filtered to the needs of share holders, stake holders and advertisers. That is how I personally see it.

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February 18, 2023 · 19:23

A house by any other owner

OK, this is the third time I am raising this. I raised it twice before. The reason is that the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64547396) gives us the event a mere 7 hours ago by Nadine Yousif, BBC Toronto. So are they very late to the party, or is this a lot larger? I honestly cannot tell. The reason is that in the first the article is largely void of dates. In addition we get “A Canadian couple recently learned that their home was sold by fraudsters without their consent while they were out of town. Experts say theft of this nature is rare, but there has been a notable rise of similar cases in the country’s most populous city” the use of ‘recently’.  Really BBC, you could not be precise? Then we are given “The BC Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA) said it is aware of two title fraud attempts since 2020, only one of which was successful. The public corporation added it only knows of one prior case in 2019, and two in 2008 and 2009”, really? The news gives a lot more recently, but here I might be in error as there are two forms and title fraud is seemingly less used. That is fair, but there is a much larger stage here now. So what happens when any act on title transfer or mortgage acquisition, the person acquiring it must get a biometrical scan? That gives us non-repudiation. That person and only that person could have done this. It is not the weirdest idea. A house tends to be over $500K and a house is a setting of ones identity. When we add the actuary as a control setting, we get a massive drop in these activities. The biometrics and photograph give a much larger stage for prosecution and optionally deportation of these criminals. I reckon the LTSA would applaud such a move as it secures and provides safety for those who own their property. There is still a risk that someone uses the stage to quickly get in under the radar, but the use of an actuary might dwindle this risk and those who tried this approach would soon find themselves looking for a place to live outside of any commonwealth nation, because this is happening in the United Kingdom and Australia. As such a stage needs to be set where the people can create a safety setting and keep their own little castle safe from exploitation by criminals. This is not a fool proof system. I get that. The old expression is “In confusion there is profit” an expression which started during WW2. But if we can lower the risk and 4 out of 5 people currently afflicted could avoid this nightmare scenario, it would be a win win situation. Are there better solutions? That is hard to say, all kinds of instances have used IT as a easy grab for all kinds of shortcuts and I am not aware which of these shortcuts apply to Canada, but the rise implies that there are weaknesses in this setting and as such the biometric stage might lower the risks for the Commonwealth. It is just an idea, but it took me less than an hour to think it up, consider that against the stage where we were given “by the time they found out that it had been stolen last June. As of February, the couple is still working through having their title on the home restored” a nightmare of at least 8 months, so I reckon my hour was well spend and if they can sway this as well as the demand for any title change two sets of biometrics are required, the stage becomes a non-option for criminals. You see, in the EU, they have biometrics on their passports. A second biometric could be scanned at the point of sale, which might take 24 hours (optionally less), the transgressor will not get a match, which now also suggests that this transgressor could be prosecuted, but that is merely an idea. The treasure is to keep realestate safe for its rightful owner. 

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February 1, 2023 · 14:02

Insecure Masturbation Fraternisers (IMF)

Yup, that is the slogan and to get there we need to take a little trip down memory lane before we get to the article that jogged my memories. You see, it all started on October 10th 2013 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2013/10/10/economic-management-through-newscasts/) where I gave the readers “The same day I get the news on a diplomatic escalation in the Netherlands, sky News UK comes with an entirely different matter. Two elements seemed to be in play. The IMF suddenly lifted the economic growth for the UK by 1.4% for 2013 and for 1.9% for 2014. Those are numbers that are beyond remarkable. Sky News showed Olivier Blanchard the Chief economist of the IMF to make this statement. It was interesting that the IMF calls on Christine Lagarde to give the bad news and Olivier gets to give the good news. There was a shimmer of hope for realism as Ed Conway, economic Editor at Sky News was happy to not reject the notion that the IMF have been lousy forecasters in the past to say the least”, as well as “‘Suddenly’ there was good news, a week before the debt ceiling needs to be raided, whilst the US is still in shutdown mode. Let us not forget that Greece, who also suddenly had ‘good’ news last week is still beyond broke, in addition France and Italy are still not in good shape. The biggest issue is that the UK forecast, which was +0.6%, which was a pretty good achievement to +1.4%. That boils down to a miscalculation of almost $18 Billion! That is a massive miscalculation. There is no indication that such errors were made. Consider that the IMF had high criticism towards the tactics by Chancellor George Osborne, UK’s faithful exchequer.” Are you clued in at present. There is now an indicator that the IMF is nothing more than a political presentation tool to hand out lollies for others to look away as credit limits are increased. It is one of the reasons I went towards Brexit. After the speech by Marky Mark of the British bank (aka Mark Carney, a Canadian no less), I saw the dangers of staying in the EU. Mario Draghi was using a Credit card for trillions after the first trillion was a miss. Now, that happens, solutions are selected hoping it will set the outcome to another stage. There is no fault there, but then he does it again for another 2 trillion. Wasn’t it Albert Einstein that stated that only a lunatic will do the same thing twice hoping for a different outcome? And it wasn’t just me, others had reservations too. There was no outcry when Mario Draghi was shown to be a member of an exclusive bank group. So how much did his friends end up with catering to that debt. Consider that bank bonds have a registration fee and commission. So how much commission did these two dozen people get over three trillion? I can tell you that is would be up to 2%, implying that two dozen people ended up with $600,000,000, not a bad run. So why should the UK pay for that?

Now that we are all caught up (to some extent) it is time to look at the article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64452995) giving us ‘UK expected to be only major economy to shrink in 2023 – IMF’. Now I am not stating that this is not the case, it could be. Yet when we look to 2013 and later, the IMF has played the wrong spades in this game. So when I see words like ‘expected’ and ‘only major economy’ after it took the IMF and Creepy LaStrange (I think that was her name) a year to admit that they made an error of well over $18,000,000,000 I have issues with anything they claim. And when I see “The IMF said the economy will contract by 0.6% in 2023, rather than grow slightly as previously predicted” without clarity I have issues. The numbers could be true, but with the Russian clambake in the Ukraine, the Covid issues (especially in China), the labour shortages and a few other elements that influences the issues, we merely see  “Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the UK outperformed many forecasts last year. But shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figures showed the UK “lagging behind our peers”” and charts and numbers how bad the UK is doing, but the problem is that the IMF (or Insecure Masturbation Fraternisers) have been too much like a political tool. They proclaim that Russia is getting a positive boost this year but we do not see that it might be mainly woodworkers to create the  126,650 coffins for lost troops, so their economy is up, but who pays that bill? And in the stage of presentation my issue is that these people are all about ‘forcing’ the UK back into the EU so that their GDP can be added to their credit limit. The EU is running out of credit card space, it has been for a year and the UK revenue is essential to turn that about and people need to wake up to the unaccountable overspending the EU is doing. At present the EU debt is well over €12 trillion  with several nations having too much debt. We all know about Greece with over 193% of GDP, Italy surpassed 150% of GDP and Portugal surpassed 125%, Spain is almost at 120%, and France is at almost 115%. The credit limits have been reached and it does not bode well, so all hands on deck forcing the UK back into the EU, but the truth is that once the hardship is passed (which will take some time), the UK will become the power player and the EU will be reduced to a third world nation. So basically at present (a personal view) the German debt of 80% of GDP is the only economy keeping the EU standing. That is not enough and I spoke about that in the past (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/03/17/the-finality-of-french-freedom/) in ‘The finality of French freedom’ on the 7th of March 2017 where I wrote “Which is why France is a big deal, that whilst they represent one of four anchors keeping the Euro in place. With the British anchor removed, the stress on the three is intense, the Euro cannot continue with the remaining two anchors that is the desperate game Draghi is facing now. Weakness and non-decisions from 2012 onwards have caused this mess, and of course he is not done yet. As we see in Reuters, last Monday he stated “If non-high-tech companies adopt more innovative technology, that would provide a boost for European productivity“, speaking as the European Central Bank President last Monday, it that so? With what funds? Innovations requires money, such steps have a cost” here I compared the economy with a floating platform kept in place by 4 anchors. It used to be the UK, France, Germany and Italy. Now that the UK is gone, the platform is now in trouble as only the German anchor has any strength left. The economic sea is in turmoil and I already saw this in 2017. Then we got Covid and that stupid bear named Russia and now the economy is a problem, especially for the EU and when that breaks up, the US (Japan also) have no way to go but down and that is what they all fear, they can prolong this if they can bully the UK, but we have seen enough bullies. We all have had enough and that is why I chose Brexit. I could not predict Covid or Russia, but a next economic disaster is alway just past the horizon, there is always a next fire to put out and now the IMF wants to make matters look worse. As I see it, they need a whole range of better and more descriptive numbers. As it stands, at present I do not trust the IMF. Yes the UK could face another recession, but it will be nowhere as bad as the one the EU faces. In the end the UK is part of a Commonwealth and we all (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) need to united to face the headwinds of the coming storm, we owe it to each other with the acts of irresponsibility we do not owe the EU and we do not owe the US. The US has had over a quarter of a century to overhaul their tax laws. I made mention on this as early as in the age of President George H. W. Bush (1998) now 25 years ago. I say enough is enough and the IMF better give us a lot more and a lot clearer numbers than what we see in the BBC article. That is my personal point of view on the matter.

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January 23, 2023 · 22:04

Drip, drip, drip, bucket

This all started a little over a week ago with ‘Delete their asses’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/14/delete-their-asses/), I quoted the BBC who gave us “Despite our efforts, every year we do register a very small number of fraudulent transactions”. Now CBC gives us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/organized-crime-groups-behind-gta-home-sales-mortgages-without-owners-knowledge-1.6719978) With the headline ‘How organised crime has mortgaged or sold at least 30 GTA homes without owners’ knowledge’ This does not invalidate the quote “we do register a very small number of fraudulent transactions”, yet I believe that they were already aware and at least 30 is not a very small number, as I personally see it, it is the use of the word ‘very’. You see, the issue is a lot larger than they make it out to be. Organised crime is not that intelligent (unless they have Filofaxes, making them very organised crime), what does happen is that some innovative scoundrel with a law degree, or perhaps even an intelligent law student who passed his Real Property is equivalent and a few other parts and then he or she realises that there is a gap, a loophole and whatever happens in Canada, in the UK will also optionally happen in Australia and New Zealand. I stated on the 14th of January that something had to be done yesterday, Now CBC shows us that something is essential to be done and it should have been done last year. 

A larger review of housing and the need to create legal barricades, so that people can go on vacation knowing that they can go on vacation and when they get home their house will still be theirs. I still believe that a step towards mandatory actuary services could become a first step. Banks might add actuaries and add safety services and there could be a chance that when you go to the bank for a mortgage, they will insist on THEIR actuary services reducing the chance that they see their money gone on a false mortgage. I am not stating that this will be the case, but it could be the case. You see, the quote “CBC Toronto has learned that a handful of organised crime groups are behind these real-estate frauds — in which at least 30 homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have either been sold or mortgaged without the real owners’ knowledge” shows these 30 events around Toronto, implying that Canada has a decent amount more of these cases. So how many happened in the UK, how many will Australia have? The people behind it would spread the setting as much as possible getting a much greater amount of profit. What is clear that 30 in Toronto is merely the tip of the iceberg and something needs to be done. 

Because in the end, it will never rain when it pours, the question is will you in the end have a roof to shield you from that?

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December 28, 2022 · 05:10

The wrong stuff

We used to get it, we used to see and then something went wrong. Don’t get me wrong covid changed the equation and at present the grey population is massively abundant. So at present when companies and corporations have a hard time finding people, why are they ghosting? Why do I see job openings that have been open for less than three weeks and well over 250 applications? It seems to me that HR departments and agencies are just unable to do their jobs. The problem is possibly two folded. Companies that do not know how to proceed, with one example showing me that they were looking for an 18 year old with 5 years of experience. Common sense lost much?

One source giving us “Australia’s labour shortage is expected to continue in 2023 with employers not expecting a great shift in available talent in the forthcoming year.” Yet the data I see gives another issue, especially with the ghosting going on. Employers have no handle and no clear vision as to what to do considering ‘talent’. They keep on playing the same game and merely fail more often. So why is that?

In the UK there is another factor. There we see “People opting to retire rather than return to work following the pandemic has led to a tightening of the labour market.” There are loads of people selecting early retirement over work and in some cases it was that the UK pushed for workaholics and now it is costing them. We see the news on how to (bla bla bla) and no one is looking at the number one issue, it is not the workers. There is a massive flaw on what HR departments (and agencies) do and not enough on what they SHOULD be doing and one side is clearly shown. When a company is ghosting with the shortages we see, they have lost the plot.

There is more but the fundamental need to change HR is key to this and they are not catching on. 

And whilst we hear noise like “But we need the best”, the fact that you put that demand with such shortages is nothing close to madness. What HR is setting (optionally by the bosses) of we need the best should have been ‘Whomever is good enough’ for well over 6 months.

Yes, we are in a downward spiral and it is hard to make choices, but that is why these people were given the big bucks. And that is before we get to the false jobs for some agencies ‘just’ to capture resume’s and no one is doing anything about this falsehood, people without jobs should be happy to find a job, but no one considered this day and age. People have had enough with the treatment they are getting and now companies cry. They cry to open immigration, they demand more workers so that they can get them cheap, but that day has passed and the workers are seeking another solution and is where corporations find themselves. Dousing job info with ‘most coveted employer’ or some other basic cry for ‘look, we are the place where you want to be’ and that is before you get to the interview and you are being told a different job than the one you applied for. The stage is that people have had enough for certain jobs, for certain tasks and whilst the company refuses to evolve, they merely set the stage to deceptive conduct. As if that was EVER a good way to get anyone.

So whilst you consider where you want to work consider what those agencies are claiming and those corporations are telling you. A stage that is now becoming increasingly important. That is how I see it, but then, some will claim I am wrong. I will let you decide to see who gets the staff members and who gets to live with shortages all over 2023.

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December 3, 2022 · 11:07

How to destroy an economy

Yes, we wonder at times how this is done. You can influence the game from far, or simply put a hatchet to the bottom of your boat and sink it yourself. It is the second version we will take a look at. To see this, we need to look at facts around the setting. We get “Tourism contributed around US$19.7 billion to GDP in 2019. In 2018, Indonesia received 15.8 million visitors, a growth of 12.5% from last year, and received an average receipt of US$967.” Now Indonesia has a problem, because in 2023 onwards they are about to lose 65% of that. You see Indonesia is wildly popular with Australian students, backpackers and all manner of tourists. With that in mind consider the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63838213) ‘Indonesia set to punish sex before marriage with jail time’ with the added text “Bambang Wuryanto, a politician involved in the draft, said the code could be passed as early as next week. The law, if passed, would apply to Indonesian citizens and foreigners alike.” And do not trust your travel agent, this will be law in a week, so any hormonal driven teenager with a desire for babes, beaches and (the other B word) will be in serious waters. Prison time will be your share and her too. If you are not married, and in some places living together does not count, they will all be in danger of prison time. Anyone stating that this will not happen is lying to themselves. Rolling the dice on a chance in an Indonesian prison is folly to say the least and as such these people need to find a new destination now. Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Thailand. These come to mind initially, but there are other destinations. I do not know what drove Indonesia to set this in law and I am not the party with knowledge to criticise that part, but the impact is clear. Millions need to seek another place to stay now and it will cost Indonesia, it is about to cost them a lot. And 50%-65% of $20 billion is at least $10-$13 billion. Indonesia never had that level of leeway to begin with, as such there will be a much larger impact. 

And the game gets a lot more dicey after that considering “The law also allows the parents of unmarried people to report them for having sex”, there have been (allegedly) events where Americans reported the ‘dangers’ to their daughter, but in Indonesia it will have far stretching consequences. I cannot say why it was such a deal to make this law, and I cannot see why it was such an event, but the impact is clear for the foreseeable future that reaches past 2025, Indonesia as a tourist destination will end and that ends their economy to a much larger degree. And the larger stage is set to three words ‘and foreigners alike’ it only took three words to end two decades of tourist growth to waste it all away. What a loss.

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November 2, 2022 · 17:43

And you still want cake?

A few hours ago I was alerted to an article on the BBC site. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63260648) gives us ‘Cyber-attacks on small firms: The US economy’s ‘Achilles heel’?’ In itself no real surprise, but then I saw “It was a total head-in-the-sand situation. ‘It’s not going to happen to me. I’m too small.’ That was the overwhelming message that I was hearing five years ago,” says Ms Graham, co-founder of CYDEF, which is based in Canada. “But yes, it is happening.” There we see the first instance of utter stupidity, a setting where insurance companies go ‘well, I am sorry to report that it is on your dime that this is happening’ and that is not a speculation, this is about to happen. In addition to that the insurance against cyber attacks will skyrocket unless you have state of the art equipment (something small businesses cannot afford). A stage that is waiting exploitation. There are all kinds of speculations. One of them is “Cyber-crimes are expected to cost the world $10.5tn (£9.3tn) by 2025, according to cyber-security research firm Cyber Ventures”, I do not completely agree, for the most I do, but the big bucks are depending on national 5G, which is not happening in many nations before 2027. You see, one source gives us “For example, in November 2020, one cybersecurity company estimated that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching US$10.5t annually by 2025, up from US$3t in 2015 (Cision 2020)” they are seemingly ALL quoting the same source and that source is Cyber Ventures. That does not make it incorrect, yet I have reservations. That number is completely acceptable under 5G, under other conditions (when big tech do not screw up and hand over the keys to hackers) should not go that fast (yet), but when 5G, a national 5G stage is there this number will increase swimmingly all over the globe, which is why I shouted for law adjustments well over two years ago, but the law is seemingly sitting on their hands, all about ‘letting all parties’ swim in the large all whilst the swimming pool has close to zero protection, so this will get worse a lot faster and the EU will see plenty of drowners (aka floaters) soon enough. My speculative view is that the larger problems are a mere 6 months away. 

Then we are given “The pandemic created a whole new set of challenges and small businesses weren’t prepared,” says Mary Ellen Seale, chief executive of the National Cybersecurity Society, a non-profit that helps small businesses create cyber-security plans. In March 2020, at the cusp of the pandemic, a survey of small businesses by broadcaster CNBC found that only 20% planned to invest in cyber-protection.” This sounds nice, but I wonder what we will see in 2023. I expect that it is then that we will learn that less than 40% of these 20% will have actually done something and that is when a lot of people (insurance especially) realise that this is about to become a sinking ship. There was clear indication in 2010 that setting up cyber security was essential in players a little larger than SBE sized companies. They had issues too, but the revenue was too small. The problem is that clever hackers do not grab the whole enchilada. With “It typically takes 200 days from the moment of the hacking until discovery” we see the pattern. The clever ones will hit places for about 150 days then they go underground. That gives them enough to live like a king for a decade. They stay under the fold, they stay inconspicuous for as long as they can. They book a weekend in Vegas and then they launder what they had going home with $5-$15 million. The caper has worked and they are in the clear. Yet these same clever people can clear $50-$150 million when they get access to a fully deployed 5G network and the BS argument of “We will have a solution before that” does not fly, that excuse is a decade old and they have no adjusted laws, there is no adjusted technology and whatever the NSA has is not shared. So as you can see, the numbers are not entirely in the air (the Cyber Ventures one) but it will rely on a fully deployed 5G network which should be around 2027. 

It is time that ALL businesses take cyber security serious. The moment that there is no insurance for that these Achilles heel companies go under with no options for the owner, that person will have lost everything. So when Kirsten Dunst stated ‘Let them eat cake’ (Marie Antoinette) she stated a good case for Cyber criminals. They are having cake every day and those not using Common Cyber Sense will be paying for that meal day after day after month after month after year (you get the idea). It was essential to properly adjust laws for that. And when we look at the data from April we get “according to industry data only four to five percent of hackers are actually caught, but high-profile cases showcase how even the most skilled can make simple mistakes which lead to them being apprehended” so between one in twenty to one in twenty five gets caught. Do you really want to hope on that statistic? This is not a pun against law enforcement or the FBI, they are in a fight with both hands tied behind their backs. Not a good position to win a fight. And that is before we look at state funded hackers. Lets be clear both Russia and China have every benefit for American and European business to lose way too much, proving that part is close to impossible. These players are almost never caught. The arrest by the FSB of REvil was a rare instance, but not all was lost. At https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransom-cartel-linked-to-notorious-revil-ransomware-operation/ we learn “Researchers have linked the relatively new Ransom Cartel ransomware operation with the notorious REvil gang based on code similarities in both operations’ encryptors” and that was two weeks ago. At present with Russians not being able to wage war against an enemy that is at best 15% of their own army gives rise that the people behind REvil will be out and about soon enough (if they aren’t already). 

So those who want cake, better find a place to enjoy it before the hackers get it all and I will not care. I have been clearly evangelising the essential need for Common Cyber Sense for years now. And if Optus Australia is anything to go by there are plenty of big fish not too interested in that approach.

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