It is now 12  years since we launched, and the Greypath community has grown to be the leading world seniors site. It is, as at February 2013,  in the top 1% of world websites by traffic.   Greypath remains  free to seniors. We welcome suggestions and we hope you enjoy your time with us.

It’s a changing world we live in, where others track us via video as we go about our daily business in any public space.

Apparently every shopping mall and more are already covered, as also major roads, schools, public buildings and more.

We had the Boston Bombers caught on many fixed camera’s and many individual mobile phones.

Every shop robbery also carries (seemingly dodgy) video, and we all get our picture taken coming and going at the airport.

I don’t know what to think of this, are we paying too high a price for security or do the innocent have nothing to fear from such personal invasion of privacy?

I now despair for mannered debate  in Canberra, and appropriate behaviour from those whom we elect to manage this nation for us.

Those dignified, older style Labor MP’s, must be in despair at the infighting that is leading, to what the polls say, is the destruction of their party at the next Federal Election.

It will not serve us well, in this democracy of ours, if Labor, during the next Parliament, is too weakened to be an effective opposition in its own right, and that we perhaps wind up with  a majority, in one house or the other, of various minority parties and independents.

Someone once said, “Two party democracy is no good, but is still the best thing we have come up with so far!”

The seas are rising and it seems they will continue to rise at about 1 cm a year. (Estimates vary)

Whether we cause it, or nature, is irrelevant.

In a council working paper in my area, they state that we will need to plan for an ‘orderly retreat’ from our foreshores, as they and many low lying areas will be progressively inundated.

I’m told too, that many surf clubs and other beachside buildings will be lost, and that any new beachside structures should be planned for a 40 year life only. Generally however, a head in the sand approach seems to be the rule.

As so many of us live along the coastline and close inner urban areas, it’s time to be open and frank about the issues and  to come up with some actions now.

We need to be pro-active.  A fatalistic approach wont cut it!
 

I have just watched a DVD ”The Last Night of the Proms”, and was moved to hear a most splendid mass singing of Rule Britannia by so many very proud  Englishmen. Later this was followed by Old Lang Syne and Land of Hope and Glory.

It brought home to me a feeling that while we are happy with our national song, Advance Australia Fair, we dont really have a really great song.

By that I mean a song that truly and majestically captures the spirit of 50 000 years of human settlement here, the red hills, the pale blue skies that go on forever, our vast ocean surrounds, the heat, the fires and the floods, our resilient open spirit, our unique flora and fauna, our most fortunate isolation here downunder, and todays most substantial achievements in civilisation after only 200 or so years of European settlement.

A song that carries the heart stopping haunting melancholy of the didgeridoo underpinning  the vaulting achievements of our modern world, our mateship, our grand mixed society and our understated patriotism

I may be asking a lot (!), but I hope that one of us  is out there at this very moment, with our future great national lifesong within them.

What would you wish for the year ahead?

Apart from personal and family hopes, my  wish list would include world action on climate change, population control, and the ending of religious extremism.

A pious hope no doubt.

What about you?

Greypath gets asked about once a month by newspapers, radio stations and at times TV, to nominate a senior or two who would be prepared to comment on things like elder abuse, seniors driving, use of the internet, use of mobiles and apps, older driver prejudice, shopping service levels, insurance for travel, and much more.

If you are in the mood to take such on at some time, (and you can always say no to  particular request), please email me your name, sex, rough age, nearest town or city, telephone number and whatever, so that I can follow you up where appropriate.

It's fun to show your grandchildren your picture in the paper! Also everyone has 30 seconds of fame sometime in their lives according to Andy Wahol !

Are forums (a sub set of social media) addictive? Are they a health hazard for seniors? 

Well for some it seems, they might raise the blood pressure!

In terms of addiction, it seems that for many of us they do verge on such, with a daily dose of what everyone is up to, a necessity, and with enforced absence from such, a mildly stressful situation.

From our Greypath experience of some 12 years,  they provide the underpinning of a virtual social world of very similar importance to the real world, for many people.

Generation Y it seems, are totally addicted to their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

What do you think?

My daughter ordered  personalised number plates. They arrived at the local post office who sent her a pick up card. When she got there they couldn't find the plates. There was one set of plates at the PO, but they were addressed to someone else, and they would neither open the package for a peek, or feel through the package to see if they were hers. They would help no further and referred her back to StateRoads. StateRoads advised they had sent the plates, and it was up to the PO to sort things out, not them. Impasse, and her $550 payment in limbo. She is the sole receptionist on a very busy 9 line switch board, and as it takes 19 minutes each time to get through to a second level mechanical reply system at StateRoads and then be referred to another mechanical system for a further 9 minute wait, she is simply unable to stay on line for such time waiting, waiting , waiting. She tried such over 3 days but had to ring off due to incoming call pressures on her switchboard.  Fortunately she has a  grumpy father who managed to push through to supervisory level at the Roads Dept and get things sorted out.

There was a lot more bureaucratic nonsense going on here, but the above gives you the idea.

How do people with limited English, or who are infirm or easily brushed aside, cope with todays bureaucracy?

I am sure this sort of idiocy, is not an isolated instance for so many of us?

I would think that the root cause of most of the worlds ills, is growing population, with its consequent ever increasing demand on ultimately limited natural resources.

World catastrophe is the likely outcome.

We seem to be unable to address this growing problem, diverting ourselves instead with investigations into remedies for famine, global warming, rising seas, land shortages and more.

There is a Chinese fable about a family with 2 sons, one prevented diseases from occurring, and was unknown;  the other cured some of the victims later, and was famous.

While it is always a joy to see new life arrive amongst us, it is way overdue for us to be  thinking very seriously about population diminution and stabilization now.
 
It would be a good thing for us to duly recognise and hear from the number one sons, if there are any out there.