This dispatch first appeared on 9 September 2012\
Are you being served?
- Administrative service
- Civil service
- Community service
- Customer service- reminds me of a sign I saw in a spare parts shop ‘Price and service subject to customer attitude…’
- Table service
- Domestic service
- Military service
- Public service: services carried out with the aim of providing a public good, such as Closing the Gap and Income Management
- Selfless service: a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award, such as writing Musical Dispatches.
- Service of process
- Church service
…..but you gotta serve somebody….
http://youtu.be/nwkOdv443_o
Aeons ago, when television was in its infancy, I watched an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ http://youtu.be/XVSRm80WzZk :
Extra-terrestrials landed on Earth. They were guided by a book ‘To Serve Man’, and through consummate diplomatic skill put an end to war and famine. They hadClosed the Gap of ignorance and selfishness. They had brought Stronger Futures to the blue planet. The end of the episode saw long queues of contented well fed earthlings going on interplanetary holidays. They were embarking huge spaceships welcomed on board by smiling aliens. As they boarded the earthlings were being weighed. It was only then that a group of linguists succeeded in deciphering ‘To Serve Man’. It was a recipe book.
The Canberra Times’ Jack Waterford has once again given Jenny Macklin a well deserved serve. Serves her right I say. According to Jack, since Julia Gillard was elected the head of a minority government, la Macklin has managed to increase government spending on Aboriginal Australia by 10%, a truly magnificent achievement. Yes folks, Australian government spending on Aborigines is now $250,000 per Aboriginal family per annum!
Before you start pontificating about those good for nothing, depraved, dysfunctional, discontented, derelict Aborigines (especially men) being showered with such undeserved munificence, please note that according to Jack only $30,000 of the quarter of a million p.a. falls into the hands of the average Aboriginal family. The remaining $220,000 is self-servingly soaked up by the Aboriginal Service Industry. Jack also estimates there are two public servants servicing each Aboriginal family. These public servants are busy serving-up Stronger Futures to a society that if at all let in is usually only allowed to use the service entrance.http://youtu.be/FGrbYiczbzQ (We wish to acknowledge the hard work of the world’s public servants. Please do not be offended by the seemingly satirical nature of this video clip. We are thankful for public servants…..)… The thought that this may be satirical never occurred to me.
Wendy pointed out one of the latest developments in Yuendumu. There are at least seven organisations/schemes/initiatives that service early childhood development in Yuendumu.
Increasingly ‘organisations’ are being replaced by ‘agencies’, or even better ‘service delivery agencies’ or plain ‘services’ or ‘service providers’ and ‘local residents’ have metamorphosed into ‘clients’ and ‘stakeholders’. Competition to service these clients has intensified as various agencies try to engage with community members that seem reluctant or disinterested in serving the community that is no longer theirs.
But not all is lost. From the minutes of the last Yuendumu Training Network Meeting:
- Has been suggested to have a career expo at Yuendumu early next year; the career expo would:
- Be a great opportunity to showcase any existing VET around the community.
- Give an appropriate platform for training providers to tell community members about training.
- Be a great opportunity for external potential employers/trainers to come to Yuendumu to try and engage local community members.
- Be a celebration of the whole community coming together to talk about its future(Stronger Futures?). It should be a fun event with all the little perks offered in career expos (BBQ, engaging activities with ‘freebies’ in employer ‘booth/desk’, music etc.).
I’m not aware of any Warlpiri person that is aware of this brilliant suggestion. I’m not sure if it would make any difference to Warlpiri people should such minutes have been written by extra-terrestials.
When bulls and stallions do what they are wont to do, it is said they are servicing the cows and mares.
Every now and then you discover something exceedingly clever. As an antidote to the idiocy that is the Intervention I share this with you:
Stop this song at 0:49 to 0:53
http://youtu.be/CvwQmxLaknc
Your humble servant
Su seguro servidór
Franklin
PS a nice song….
http://youtu.be/3z-GwdaKrn8