Aunty Netta explains what every society whatever end of the world, up there or down here, relies on in common – technology. As long as you know how to use it.
There are many differences between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres – time, languages, seasons, traditions, and politics.
We inhabit different worlds on the same planet. Except when it comes to technology, engineering, and all things mechanical, which everyone from both hemispheres engage like a kid with a Mecano/Lego set. And we share and improve that mechanical technology, translating our technologies from Dutchinese to Papiamento, and all for the one purpose … to mine the earth, and reshape it to build our, now ‘carbon’ neutral, cities.
That technology is the foundation of all our societies, and their well-being (think welfare) and mission statements. To the person reading this column, either you have shit taste in reading material (steady on Netta – Ed) or you make a dollar out of this industry. You might use it, or sell, rent, service, paint, insure, cart, chastise this technology, or even just write about it.
Yes technology is amazing and the world is consuming it fast and, trust me, there is no recession off-shore unless your devices algorithm is delivering you what you are looking for.
Ask your bank manager. Recently, I commented we are only plateauing to pre-pandemic levels. I can actually get a builder to turn up now.
Then, bugger me, three weeks later I heard my own words repeated back to me verbatim, by a client’s bank manager. And, we don’t have to work six days a week at the moment and the latest technology can even allow you to take a day off, if you know how to use it properly.
I heard a stat a few years ago that nine tonnes of agg/person is consumed here, which is about the only thing I reckoned I needed to know about this industry.
If we consume that much PP it’s obvious our extractive industries are far more important to the country than it obviously thinks! Wake up Wellington!
When I said technology makes life easier when it is used properly, I meant it from personal experience.
I used some Airpoints, clocked up through all those trips to Japan, for a quick four day weekend in Fiji with my friend Jane. New technology allows us to do shit while on holiday, or mine would, if my phone had charged.
After two different chargers, and trying every socket in our bure (lodgings) and a USB charger – nothing. My phone was as dead as a maggot.
The ‘problem solver’ in me talks to the hotel concierge, who arranges for my idle phone to be taken to Nadi early in the morning, where a store will either supply a new charger or a new phone. I was naively hopeful I’d get change from a $1000 bill.
Satisfied with the morrows plans, Jane and I get ready for dinner. Jane plugs in some sort of hair utensil…and it won’t work either? She flicks the switch a couple of times and realises the switch is upside down.
We stare at each other sighing “OFFS”. And, I don’t believe I am the only person ever to book into a hotel in the Southern Hemisphere and be tricked by Northern Hemisphere switches.
Anywho (Netta speak for anyhow – Ed), I will say it again. Technology is great, as long as you know how to use it. Otherwise it is as useless as a chocolate teapot, a wet fart in a paper bag, a handbrake on a waka, or an ashtray on a motorbike. Just saying …
Meantime – you lot – have a great conference next month in Rotorua. I’ll have been back to Japan buying your next lot of technology by the time you read this.
Bula Vinaka
