Money, Justice and Electronics

There is a saying that you don't really realize how much you need something until it is gone and I had a very practical instruction in this a short while ago. On Wednesday, I returned home from classes and turned on my computer only to receive the message that Windows had failed to boot. Try as I might to restart the system, nothing I did worked. For one reason or another, my operating system had crashed; the equivalent to my computer having a stroke. It was still under warranty so I managed to get it repaired for free, but at the cost of all the data I had on it. This would normally have been disastrous except that only 12 days before I had backed everything up and I hadn't really created any new files since. Nothing of any significance that I can find was lost. It did mean that I had to reinstall all of my programs and restore all of my settings, but with a few hours work, that was done. I'll now be backing everything up weekly just in case.

Big news in Australia this week was the announcement of the federal budget which calls for spending in some areas and cutbacks in others. For example, the pension age was raised to 67 while the age of independence (for government benefits purposes) was lowered to 22, I believe. All things considered, I think Australia is doing rather well in these economic times. Needless to say, this has caused quite a row in Parliament and I've watched some of the debates with great interest. Naturally, the opposition calls the government's budget ill-advised, the government is defending it and the Speaker is in the middle trying to maintain some semblance of order in this rough country. There is some speculation that Kevin Rudd (the PM) is having a bit of a gamble, another fine Australian tradition (which also happens to keep me employed), and that should the budget fail to pass the Senate where numbers are even, then he will as for a double dissolution precipitating an election. I don't think that's particularly well-founded and I think that the budget will go through, if it hasn't already.

In other money matters, the ACTTAB EBA passed the government authority's "no disadvantage" test. In Australia, whenever a collective agreement is signed by management and a union, it must be sent to the workplace authority for inspection to make sure it complies with all laws and does not contain any provisions which would be otherwise disadvantageous. It was with the authority for about 5 months and we were worried something was wrong. However, now that it's gone through, we go on a new, increased pay scale, backdated to September 1, 2008. Practically, this means I'm getting an extra $1.00/hr on normal days and $2.00/hr on Sundays and public holidays. It also means I'll get about $400 in back pay this paycheque. That's something I'm looking forward to. The EBA, which lasts until 2011, also states that we get raises of 4.2% every year. I'm glad we got this negotiated before the economic downturn. There's no way I'm letting go of this job.

I've been following the story of one Mr. Demjanjuk (dehm-yah-NYOOK), as I'm sure many other Ukrainians have as well. He was recently extradited to Germany to face charges that he assisted in the Holocaust while working at the Sobibor Death Camp in World War Two. Now 89 years old, he was flown from Ohio to a German jail where he will be held pending his trial. this is not the first time Mr. Demjanjuk, a native Ukrainian, has been charged with complicity in the Holocaust. In the 1980s he was stripped of his American citizenship and extradited to Israel to face charges of being Ivan the Terrible, a particularly vicious guard at Sobibor. While originally convicted and sentenced to death, the only other person I can think of other than Eichmann (the architect of the Holocaust) to be so, his conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court after new documentation surfaced putting his identity as Ivan the Terrible in doubt. His American citizenship was restored and he has lived in Ohio until now. I want to see the outcome of this trial and I guess it's comforting to know that no matter how much time has passed, one cannot escape the sword of justice.

There was another story buried amongst the economic news that made me stop. Apparently, due to low fan support, the National Basketball League (NBL) in Australia is folding after the coming season. There just isn't the support base that the managers thought there was and so the league is disappearing. I don't watch basketball, even really know any team names in the NBL or have any association with any of them, but I always fell a bit sad whenever I read that a team is folding, let alone a league. Somehow, it feels wrong.

I've also developed a rather unusual ability or habit. For the last few days, I seem to be able to wake up well before my alarm clock goes off. It doesn't really bother me and I kind of like it because it means that I can just doze off again, but it is a little unusual. I do have the ability of a natural alarm clock, you know, the talent of thinking at what time you wish to wake up and then you do, unassisted. This latest phenomenon is new for me though, but it hasn't caused me any pain so I guess I'll just continue with it.

My parents called me from Toronto this morning and it got me thinking about the telephone being probably one of the rudest inventions in history. Just think about it for a second. If I came over to your house or place of work, started banging on the door and shouting, "Speak to me now! Speak to me now! Speak to me now!", you'd be liable to call the police and yet we tolerate this from an inanimate object. If I went back in time, I don't know if I'd shake Alexander Graham Bell's hand, or punch him very firmly in the spleen. Who actually invented the telephone is a matter or debate but I'll stick by fellow a Canadian, though he was really Scottish. I'd probably shake his hand.