Daily Archives: July 11, 2008

Travelling abroad?…remember this…those you meet will judge your country by the way YOU behave

Posted by Wendy on July 11, 2008 No comments

Just recently I wrote about how poorly some British tourists/expats behave when they live/travel abroad. And I also acknowledged that my own fellow countrymen, Australians, can be just as guilty of bad behaviour as those Brits.

Well, in the last 48 hours those words have come to bite me in the *** because I have just played host to four of the rudest young Australians I think I have ever met. And such a shame too as they were four young girls from Manly ( my old home town ) and were graduates of a school I knew well…North Sydney Girls High.

Ha. One of those snobby schools most Sydney-siders would say – and I suppose they are correct. One would expect better manners from young ladies who had attended a school which does not accept just anyone. But then again…you have the combination of well-off parents, ‘Daddy’s girls’ who have always had whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it and a good example of what happens when certain young people lead a relatively spoilt and sheltered life.

When they go out into the big, wide world and come face to face with the harsh realities of life they simply do not know how to cope when Daddy is not there to run to.

These four little maids decided it was okay to place an order for a meal in our establishment and then not bother to leave their rooms to come and eat it; despite the food being prepared and readied for them. They were charged for the ingredients bought ( involving expensive seafood ), the time spent preparing the food and the fact that I had to throw it all in the bin.

They are not aware of the fact that should you order a meal in a restaurant and then get up and leave just as the meal arrives – for no reason other than you just cannot be bothered to sit and eat it - you are expected to pay for it. They seem to be ignorant of the fact that when you are a consumer you pay up for goods and services rendered…

Not these four. Personally, the sight of four over-indulged 19 year old females stamping their spoilt little feet and screaming abuse at being asked to pay for something they owed money for is not just a pathetic sight…it is a damning indictment on how young people are turning out today.

I have two sons in their age group and if I ever found out they had treated a business owner, or any other person, in such a manner I would be furious with them. That’s not how I raised them. Then again, my kids never had anything handed to them on a plate. A good education yes…a European holiday all expenses paid by Daddy - no.

And one last thing. As an Australian, I felt embarrassed by them. Remember this; when you are abroad the locals will judge your country by the way you behave.

Please. Don’t let the side down.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Staying sane while in debt

Posted by Wendy on July 11, 2008 No comments

I was reading a rather sad article just this morning; sad in that the situation is just so common these days and affecting families everywhere who otherwise should be reaping the rewards of having worked and saved hard to offer their kids a decent standard of living.

This lady, a widow with three young kids, documented her heartbreaking quest to sell her family home and just how impossible it was becoming due to the world wide credit crunch. She was heavily in debt, almost unmanageably so, and had made the decision to sell the home and move elsewhere – with even the kids having to change schools. It is not easy and her story is not uncommon. When ordinary folk have to sell their beloved family home just to secure some debt relief they find themselves in a desperate situation and many are also finding themselves being held over a barrel by greedy property buyers and real estate agents aiming to take advantage of their plight.

I think it is very sad and makes you extremely angry that this is the situation today; the fact is that it is the hard working folk who are feeling the pinch most of all. We all need to borrow and use credit at some stage and perhaps it has been too easily obtained in the past. Maybe the lenders need to accept some responsibility for their part in cases like this lady’s; too much borrowing in the past has now seen a huge growth in those seeking other forms of finance in the form of debt consolidation. And the result…? borrowing from Peter to pay Paul…

It also makes me angry that there are always other’s out there to capitalise on these people’s unfortunate situation. Property buyers know that a person is desperate to sell their house so they gradually tighten the screws on them, asking for the price to be dropped again and again…and again. The lady I mentioned above was so in need of getting a sale that she agreed to successive demands to drop the price of her home until she was selling at a price 25% lower than the original asking price.

Then the buyer pulled out at the ‘eleventh hour’. Makes you want to scream eh?

But this is just one story in what must be hundreds of thousands of similar cases – it is happening everywhere. And that people have to sell up and move in order to consolidate debt - knowing they will come out of the transaction with very little equity in the end – is a very sad sign of our times.

We are all told to ‘tighten our belts’ until the economy gets better – but how much tighter can most of us go…?

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

British teenagers – an endangered species…?

Posted by Wendy on July 11, 2008 No comments

As yet another teenager in the United Kingdom has become the latest – the 20th – victim to a stabbing murder you have to wonder just when the hell it is all going to stop. You also have to be realistic and admit that about 15 – 20 years ago a lot of adults spawned a lot of babies who they had no intention of ever raising to be decent, law abiding citizens.

One only wonders yet again at just how badly the standards of parenting in the United Kingdom have fallen.  And a Govt which actively encouraged over the last eleven years people to have litters of kids and live on generous welfare benefits – many people who should never be allowed to own a dog let alone have a baby.

And the result…?

A generation of ferals who have no regard for human  life; whose only qualities – of laziness, lack of regard for the law, lack of regard for other people – are the only qualities instilled in them by those who bore them in the first place.

And society has to deal with this. Thanks to Tony Blair the police have no powers to search and confiscate knives, guns or other weapons, in fact they have hardly any power to do anything other than arrest elderly men who have the gall to chase a mob of foul mouthed yobs away from his front door with a rolled up newspaper in his hand. 

Thanks to Cherie Blair QC these ferals are now above the law; thanks to her talent for ensuring the ferals never have their Human Rights violated by being questioned by police, or stood up to by their victims ( if they are lucky not to be kicked to death ).

How many people in the UK rue the day the Welfare State began in the first place – how many rue the day they ever heard of Tony and Cherie Blair…?

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.