The Melbourne Cup - "The Race That Stops the Nation"
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race and is regarded as one of the most popular sporting events on this side of the hemisphere. The event takes place every year at 3 PM on the first Tuesday of November with an estimated 700 million people around the world stopping to watch the spectacle. It's no wonder its called "The Race That Stops the Nation"
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| Fashion is a big part of the event |
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| You might usually say a horse won by a nose but this race was won by more like a whisker. Maybe trainers should teach the horses to stick their tongues out? |
QANTAS (Queensland And Northern Territory Aeriel Services) is the largest airline in Australia. It is an iconic image to Australia and has even been nicknamed the "The Flying Kangaroo." The company started in Queensland in 1920 and is known as 'the oldest continuous airline in the world and the second oldest in the overall world.' This year the company was ranked as the 8th best airline in the world.
I blog about QANTAS today to share with you a little about this Australian icon but also to inform you of what happened last week. On October 29, CEO Alan Joyce, announced that QANTAS would be grounding all of its domestic and international flights. The government as well as the rest of the country was caught off guard by this risky and bold move. The grounding took place due to a long struggle with three different unions over various issues such as wages, job security and an announcement made in early January that the company would be focusing a large portion of its operations on Asia and that there would be 1000 jobs cut. This resulted in many pilots, engineers and baggage handlers organizing strikes and was causing great hardship on the airline as many customers flights were being canceled due to this result. Alan Joyce announced last week that he was left with no other choice but to ground the entire fleet in hopes that the unions would drop their claims against the company. The Melbourne Cup may be known as the 'race that stops the nation' but this move by QANTAS seemed to stop the nation in more ways than one.
As a result of the grounding, various government officials asked that Fair Work Australia put an end to the industrial action and get flights back in the air as soon as possible. Two days later, on October 31 this happened. If this dispute lasted any longer than two days it would have been disastrous. It is estimated that QANTAS lost $20 million for eacg day the fleet was grounded. Can you imagine if this thing lasted a week? Anyway, its good things were worked out quickly as QANTAS plays a big part in Australian's tourism industry.
Kangaroo Meat
I ate my first kangaroo last week. Wait, let me say that again. I had kangaroo for the first time last week. That sounds better. For a long time in Australia's history, Kangaroo was not eaten. It was only in 1993 that it became legal. It's not the most popular meat in Australia as a 2008 survey found that only 14.8% of Aussies said they had eaten it four or more times in a year.
Funny tidbit: Australians eat the national symbols on their Coat of Arms. That wouldn't work in America as I would be in a lot of trouble if I ate an Eagle.
ShelterBox
Two weeks ago I participated in another service project with ShelterBox and this time we displayed it in the Central Business District. The display was beautifully set up and received a lot of attention from many passersby. Our main objective with this ShelterBox display was to get people to sign up for monthly giving if they so inclined. To my knowledge, no one submitted to doing this on the day of but many people took information home with them and seemed very eager to contribute. You never know what will come of events such as these but the most important thing is that we try.
"The proper aim of giving is to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs our gift. We feed children in order that they may soon be able to feed themselves; we teach them in order that they may soon not need our teaching. The hour when we can say “They need me no longer” shall be our reward." - C.S.Lewis
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| The lady below was very interested in ShelterBox as she is living in a bit of a crisis herself. She lost her grandson and her home during the Queensland floods and is currently living in a hostel with college aged backpackers. I asked if I could help her out but she said she would be all right. It's people like her that are still struggling from natural disasters and is the reason why ShelterBox exists. To help people rebuild their lives and give them Shelter, Comfort and Dignity until, as C.S.Lewis states "they need our help no longer." |
Rotary
I have given 20 Rotary speeches and have a few more left before I leave Australia on December 16. This weekend I will be going to Bundaberg (four hours North of Brisbane) with a Rotaract club to help at a powerboat event. Rotaract is basically Rotary for 18-30 year old men and women. I am looking forward to this and will let you know how the trip goes.
School
I have one test left in Strategic Human Resource management for this semester and then I am finished. My other two course finals were papers and I submitted those last week. Though I will be finished with school in Australia, I will still have five more classes to complete to earn my MBA back home.
I hope you have a good week and stay tuned for a few more blog posts.
Cheers,
Morgan
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