Endless bleating

I was struck on a recent visit to two Asian cities how generic shopping in department stores around the world has become . I may as well have been in Adelaide as in Bangkok or Singapore.
I doubt that people visit Adelaide for the shopping experience of a lifetime, so, couldn't we have a public holiday for once without the big stores and their lackey bleating that millions of dollars will be lost because they can’t open?

Shabbat shalom and learner drivers

Having spent a good part of last week(and indeed some of the week before) straightening things out in anticipation of wanderers returning (and needing to be able to get through the front door) and my taking some leave....and being so prepared, I got to the end of last week and thought I just have to keep plugging on.

I was rather flattened by the thought of the fact that it never seems to end.

I reflected on Saturday that I should pay attention to this feeling, and so decided that on Sunday I would do none of it. Even though much still remained to be done! I would have a sabbath. A deliberate rest. And I struggled a little, but I was glad that I did.

It has always concerned me that we have lost any real sense of deliberate rest. In almost every aspect of our lives, work, school, house work...we think it OK (at least for some of us) just to keep plugging on as though it doesn't matter, and as though we can.

And at what cost? In a society riddled with depression, family breakdown and all manner of things, do we at least ask the question as to whether some of the things that have gone by the bye in the name of progress or freedom of choice (this is after all how the retail world justifies opening shops 7 days a week) should be questioned.

Do we as people understand that we need to build in deliberate rest, and that it is not necessarily good to just keep 'plugging on'?

This is NOT ( in my mind) an attempt by a minor religious functionary (myself) to sermonise about the Sabbath, but to suggest that maybe there is something profoundly human (as opposed to religious) about the idea of sabbath. The periodic and deliberate rest built into the regular rhythm of life. About one day in seven seems sort of right.

7 day trading to my mind, is not about breaching religious rules but about forgetting that everyone has the right to human rest. Not only the right but the need. As with all these things, the people at the top of the chain are probably OK, the people at the other end probably need to be protected.

...by way of conclusion J & I were discussing the other day teaching our youngest children to drive..."Of course", he said, "when we learnt to drive you could go to Marion or some other large shopping centre on a Sunday afternoon and there were no cars around. Nowadays with 7 day trading there is never a time when these carparks are not pretty busy."

Another unintended loss of facility.

Treat yourself kindly!

Shopping spin

I tire of the drivel that passes for genuine comment by those who constantly bemoan that Adelaide shuts down for public holidays. The usual comment is that "Travellers think we are a backwater".

With two daughters having traversed three continents in the last 3 - 6 months, and they have just spent Christmas in London I make the following observations:

You cannot surely call Rome, Turin, Florence, Paris, or London "backwaters". Yet in all of those places there have been times when touristy stuff and/or shops have been closed. Indeed the transport system in London seems to almost shut down for 48 hours over Christmas. My prospective son-in-law traipsed all the way out to Greenwich to find it closed, and Regents Park Zoo closed early on the particular day he wanted to go. In Italy, and often in France, the great museums and galleries are almost always closed on Mondays. The department stores are not open 24 hours a day.

I observe, too, that though the supermarkets were open on Sunday, at Blackwood it was almost dead

I always think when these chamber of retailers whiners (or who ever they are) go on about this it is clear that they are not going to be the ones who are going to have their festive season broken into by having to staff endless unregulated shopping. It will be people like my niece E who works for Myers and who has a young son who delights to have his mother round. She's not complaining, but sometimes we all seem a bit tired from too much opening.!

Boom go the strings of my heart

Westfield at West Lakes suggests that it should start charging for people to use its suburban shopping centre car park. This is almost as serious to the Australian psyche as charging for parking at the beach.

The whole pretext of the consumer's preference for suburban shopping rather than city centre is not having to pay for parking!

I want to ask, on one level, on what basis does Westfield occupy the West Lakes site (I imagine for example they may not be the owner but rather the lessee). For example at Marion the car park has parking control signs. These would seem to be operated by the local council! (ie. fines (usually only bothered about during the Christmas season...'tis after all the season to be jolly!!) are issued by the council). So let not the local council try to blame shift.

Personally I think Westfield are about to create one helluva local hullaballoo!!!

Shopping till you're dropping

It is our privilege and our joy to have Iain Evans as our local member. He works hard at his job, is well-liked. He has to be the Leader of the Opposition, and on top of that he is a nice chap (which is not something you can say about all pollies n'est-ce pas?....forgive me if I lapse into foreign tongues in the next few weeks in trying to bone up for Europe I am falling into a melee of confusion about quelle langue est laquelle...which language is which I mean.. any way back to the Honourable Iain)

He kindly sends out his monthly bulletin to those who ask, and this months is about shopping hours. I personally am a bit surprised that he is advocating a seeming deregulation apart from certain sacred days..Anzac, Easter, Christmas, Good Friday...

Shops he says should be allowed to open when they like. By and large I am in agreement with this but I think there is a lot to be said for having an agreed time when shops do not open. I am totally unconvinced that tourists will think Adelaide is a bigger backwater than Hickory Hoontown simply because they arrive on closing day (or half day closing).

The argument, for me, is not in any way religious. It is about shared time. How are we supposed to promote family and community cohesion when we can't actually get a time when most of us are free. I tire, in fact, of trying to arrange meeting times with groups of people and finding that there is simply no time when everyone is free.....there I go wanting to fill free time with meetings...
Can we not, say, have Saturday afternoon off.Or closing all day Sunday?
By and large Sunday opening is good for big shops and bad for small shops who have little flexibility because their staff is small. Which is why I am surprised that the Liberal champion of small business is so keen on this.
Maybe I don't understand this, but there are other, better things to do in your free time than shop!!
If you click the e-bulletin below it will open in more readable form

Last chance to shop

Yesterday's Advertiser phone poll asked the question of whether or not the shops in SA should remain closed on Boxing Day. 75% of those who bothered to contact the poll said that shops should be closed.
While there is an argument to be had about whether these sort of phone-in polls are in any way statistically valid (probably not...only 108 callers of people who chose to ring in of their own volition... no randomness and no standard interviewing technique). It might at least add some further weight to the suggestion that some proper research be done about thi emotive sort of area.
Personally I have never been swayed by the argument that visitors will think we are a backwater unless shops ar open absolutely all the time.
I notice that some areas are too sensitive, no one at all suggests that sacred Christmas Day, hangover New Years' Day or the morning of ANZAC Day should be so freed up as to allow shopping. The unremitting logic of the 'backwater argument' would see everything be a potential target for unfettered shopping.
Already the walls around Good Friday are tumbling, and (as I say) the second half of ANZAC Day is probably gone...what of Australia Day and Easter Monday and any of the other public holidays.
The issue is not about the sacredness of such days, in my opinion, the issue is about how we as a community might encourage shared community life. If we do not engineer times when most people are free how on earth do we all get together. I readily recognise that most people do not want or need religious holidays....but we all should be encouraged to celebrate family and community links.
The commercial dollar will always demand, and falsely I believe, that everything be sacrificed to it lest we become a "backwater".
It's just rubbish, and we should start to articulate the positive ideas and concepts that we want to put in place...surely a couple of days when families can get together, a period when there is a more extended break and a couple of nominated days of particular import.....is not too much to ask.