Thesis editing ... sorted
Join our community
  • EduPreneur Services International
    • Mentoring & coaching
  • Index of services
    • Tutoring
    • Entrepreneur? >
      • Go Digital
      • Online consultancy
      • Just Managing Blog
    • Education services
  • Shop Your Way to Success Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy

Time to end the great building arms race

12/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
The 8th century Great Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba in southern Spain rubs shoulders with a 21st century commercial market, taverns, bars, souvenirs and grocery shops and the city’s eponymous Jewish Quarter.
​
It’s nearly twice the size of the currently controversial Hagia Sofia in Istanbul almost 3000km to the east but not quite as old: what’s two centuries among friends?
But it’s this question of “who are friends?” which is exercising politicians and church leaders right now (July 2020) and it’s been an ongoing dispute between Christians and Muslims since the “great building competition” started between the Middle Eastern faith groups in the 6th century. 

This competition can be seen as what business ethicist Professor Robert Phillips describes as “the movement of social power across time”: “the oldest of the large elaborate buildings are religious in nature … the second oldest of the large elaborate buildings are governmental (and) the newest of the large elaborate buildings are corporate headquarters and facilities.”*

Occupying someone else’s elaborate religious building is tantamount to posting a placard on the door that “this is ours now”, as the Christian Spanish Ferdinand III did in 1236 at Córdoba and as more modern Catholics tried to re-emphasise in 2005 by temporarily removing the term “Mosque of Córdoba” from Google Maps. It was reinstated a few weeks later and is now again known as the “Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba”.

​That’s what Turkey’s President Erdogan has done this month and it’s what Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar did in March 2001 when he ordered the destruction of the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. More in 2015 when Islamic State blew up the 2000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin at the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria; and, according to UK Professor Peter Stone, the destruction by mining company Rio Tinto just months ago of two 46,000-year-old Aboriginal cultural sites in the Pilbara (for which the Rio Tinto CEO later apologised).
When we visited the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba and its surrounds in April 2019, we found an appalling muddle of crass superimposed Catholicism and achingly beautiful original Moorish-Muslim architecture and design.
There is plenty to wonder and be amazed about in Spanish cathedrals – the excessive use of real (but often plundered) gold, the ornamental and over-the-top piety of superstitious medieval rituals – but how the Church reconquered Córdoba is not among them.
​
We prefer to wonder at the exquisite Moorish originals but reflecting on the more recent is still important, even if only as a lesson in futility. 
*Footnote: 
Phillips, R. (2003). Stakeholder theory and organizational ethics. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, p.1
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Nova bar in Portugal looks forward to reopening

18/6/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s quiet these days at the Nova wine bar and bottle shop in downtown Lisbon, Portugal, until the virus pandemic calms down.

But it was humming when we visited in mid-April 2019 and chatted and ate and drank with our friend, Danish academic Janne Aagaard Jensen, 48, while her boyfriend and Nova co-founder and co-owner Miguel Branco, 62 (together, above), kept up the supply of tapas and local wines.

It’s a snug joint, 16 seats in all, lined on two sides from floor to ceiling with bottled wine stock, with a bistro kitchen at the back.

Branco is a former advertising executive who launched Nova in 2017 with fellow Portuguese graphic designer Pedro Caixado.

They opened Nova on March 8 that year (“it was International Women´s Day, by coincidence,” notes Branco) and closed because of the pandemic on March 13, 2020, a whisker more than three years in business.
​
But they have solid plans for a relaunch, probably early 2021. 
Picture
Picture
The relaunch will also be an expansion, says Branco.

“Inside the bar it will be very close to what it was when we closed: 16 seats, maybe 22 with a few out the back.

“The main difference will be that there is a plan (by the city) this summer to prevent cars from going downtown so most of the streets will be just for pedestrians.
​
“Our street will be a little tiny lane for cars to access parking so we’re going to have larger boardwalks, and if that happens when we open we’ll have room outside for al fresco. That’s our expectation.” 

In typical style of the “advertising people start a wine bar”, Branco and Caixado scouted the location for their dream bar while hosting lunches for clients.

“We had an office in the same building on the second floor,” says Branco. “It was our last office in the advertising business. On Fridays, just the two of us, we’d organise dinners for groups of 12 people, and we’d do the whole thing: We’d cook, we’d get the wines and whatever.

“So the meeting room turned into a dining room. I think everything started there with the food and the wine. Then the place below became vacant and we asked the landlord ‘Can we take the place?’ and he says ‘of course you can’. That’s how Nova started and we decided to make a wine bar.”

“Not a restaurant,” he quickly notes.

“There’s a lot of work in that, a lot of logistics and it’s a nightmare.

“Our concept was very easy. The initial idea was to make just a wine bar. You know, a little tapas and some wine.
​
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, we had a lot of wine to choose from. When we decided how to decorate the wine bar, we liked the industrial look of it, and we put all those bottles around the walls, and we thought if we’re going to have all those bottles around the walls, why not work as a shop also? The bottles are already there, so why not?”
Years before, both Branco and Caixado worked in the commercial advertising and television industry.

“I started working in communications a long time ago in an independent production company,” says Branco.

“We used to produce TV shows and commercials for advertising agencies.

“One day a guy just came to me – we were just shooting a commercial when I was a producer – and he asked me ‘Why don’t you join us and work with us at the advertising agency?’

“I said I had no experience … I thought you had to have these ‘techniques’ to work in advertising.

“But the guy says: ‘No, it’s just common sense. You just want the right people to work with you and I think you are the right guy.’

“I was very honoured with that compliment and I said: ‘why not I think I can learn.’ So I went there to work in a very small agency. We were around 20 people. That was it.

“Then I kept moving, from one to another. I started at a small one then I went to work for a bigger one, Ogilvy & Mather, (now Ogilvy) which is still a big player, and McCann Erickson, (now McCann), which is an even bigger player.

“Then I moved to another American company, TBWA. And this was very important because at TBWA I met Pedro (Caixado). I was an account executive, a little bit higher on the ranking, and Pedro was an art director.

“We met there about 20 years ago and we became friends especially because of the same common interest in wine … and food.”

Branco smiles, remembering. “We used to drive 400km to go to the Spanish border just to buy cigars because they had a lot of them there and at a quarter of the price than in Portugal.

“On our way we’d stop and have a nice lunch. After we worked together for maybe four or five years, I left the company and after a little while he left the company and we said: ‘Why don’t we make our own business?’ Just the two of us … actually there we three of us at the time. We said: ‘Why not, we’ll give it a try.’

So 15 years ago we started a new agency, just by ourselves, just for six months. Then it was just two of us.”

It was also during that time that the pair conducted some market research on the sly.

“We were working in an office above Café Principe Real and we watched their clientele to see the kind of people we wanted to attract.”

For her part, Jensen says she moved to Lisbon from Copenhagen for a couple of reasons.

“It’s a lot cheaper to live, for a start,” she says.

“And the people here are a true global village: since many people from former colonies in Africa and Asia have easy access to migrate here (known locally as “retornados”).

“We have a plethora of colours, languages, and ideas.

“Even though the country still struggles after many hard years since the financial crises, there was a growing sense of optimism and many international companies have found Portugal, and especially Lisbon, a good place to set up branches.”

​Now she and Branco are working on an idea to ship Portuguese wines back to Denmark, starting with the new trend of “green wines” (Vinhos Verdes). But that’s another story.

We had (and enjoyed) for €108.50 (AU$182.92):
Two glasses of Adega Reserva Do Comendador White, a generously flavoured white wine from the Campo Maior region on the Spanish-Portuguese border east of Lisbon, €9 per glass.

One glass of Avesso, a green wine from the Casa Santa Eulalia in far northern Portugal, north-east of Porto, €6.

A round of tapas, including a serve of petingas, small sardines €6.50, one of espardate fumado, smoked swordfish €9, another of polvo, octopus €10, one of lascas de bacalhau, slices of cod €10, and another of queijo com marmalade, goat cheese with quad marmalade €6.50.

We went back for two more glasses of Adega Reserva Do Comendador White.

One of Paula Larureno Vinhas Velhas Tinto, a yummy red wine from Portugal’s central southern region €6.50, and  

We wound up with a glass each of Blandy’s medium sweet wine from Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean south-west of Portugal and west of Morocco, at €9 per glass.

​Where and how to contact:
https://www.facebook.com/Nova-1856662644576493/
Rua Nova do Almada nº 20 Lisbon, Portugal
+351 21 346 0956

0 Comments

Let's mark the day

23/12/2018

0 Comments

 
It's 50 years today since humans first circled the Moon and sent back this picture. Worth remembering ...
Picture
0 Comments

Jump into Bribie arts

16/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Bribie Island arts scoop Julie Thomson says there is a week of free "come and try" art, craft, and creative events at the Bribie Community Arts Centre studios in the second week of December (from December 9-15) starting with their special Christmas market on Saturday December 8.

Bribie Island is just a short 1hr drive north from Brisbane and a favourite weekend hangout for south-east Queensland residents.

We'll try to catch what Julie calls the "literary/music event" Wisdom Tree, in the Matthew Flinders Gallery on Sunday December 9 at 6pm.

Newly created PhD Dr Nick Earls and Chanel Lucas (from Women in Docs) will be on stage. Tickets for this event cost $20 and can be booked here.

Julie says the Arts Centre will have $10 nibbles platters on sale and it's a BYO drinks occasion.

One thing to remember when you're planning this trip: Bribie is a "one-road-in-and-out" location so traffic jams are possible (if not to be expected). So it's a good idea to arrive early to beat the traffic.

Here's a copy of the full program for the week.

0 Comments

Helping hearts and heads

1/11/2018

1 Comment

 
Another friend (and this time, Sunshine Coast hinterland resident) Sarah Walker has launched her new online counselling and mental health space, registered with the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). It's called Luminous Steps and looks like this (click here or on the image below to visit her business page; this is not a paid advertisement). Through my own work (and academic research) I know how important it is for businesses and individuals to form and join online communities and now Sarah is doing it too in the mental health sector. Imagine the benefits of an online service that, as Sarah says, "offers a unique alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings by allowing participants to come together and do meaningful work from the privacy of their own home". It can cut down social isolation and allow participants to form new friendships they might otherwise avoid. And as an NDIS approved service provider of "Specialist Positive Behaviour Support, Improved Relationships", their rates are government assessed ... Luminous Steps can even invoice the NDIS directly for approved clients. I'll be watching keenly to see how this service goes and wish Sarah all the best.
Picture
1 Comment

Sustainability at the source

28/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our dear friend in Victoria, Liz O'Dwyer, is already getting fantastic feedback from her new book Switch on Sustainability, launched earlier this year. [Hint ... click on the image to find where you can buy a copy ...]

She has passed on some reader comments for our blog, including:
  • I’ve highlighted so many pages in the book – I can’t wait to get started!!
  • I now have my gorgeous sustainable reusable mug after reading Liz’s book, stainless steel interior, no spill lid - love it. Now go to coffee shops and proudly present it, the sense of virtue is wonderful!!! Thank you Liz  - Norah -
  • The Switch on Sustainability book you gifted me is fantastic. So much encouraging and useful information to get us going and follow her lead. We so need people like Liz.  – Michael -
  • It’s an awesome book, some great photos and tips in there – Sarah -
  • Great book Liz O'Dwyer. So many great ideas
Liz has promised us a behind-the-scenes look at how an ordinary woman (ha! is there such a thing??!) became a sustainability superhero. Coming soon ...
0 Comments

A nudge of tiny amazement ...

9/7/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Everything and nothing amazes me when it comes to what people will buy. Here's a new website which specialises in the new craze for Tiny Homes. Would love to hear your comments on whether you would buy one, live in one, or ask your granny to live in one, hmmmmm? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts ...

0 Comments

A plastic anniversary ...

20/6/2018

1 Comment

 
PicturePeter Garrett in 2008. Picture: John Cokley
The Chinese love auspicious occasions and today is one of them for Queensland (and for me, it turns out). Today the supermarket giant Woolworths stopped offering single-use plastic bags in our Sunshine State, and 10 years ago (in just over a month) I was lodged in a media scrum photographing then-Environment Minister Peter Garrett (left, now Midnight Oil frontman 2.0) and writing down his words that Australia probably wouldn't be banning single use plastic bags anytime soon. He was absolutely correct ... while bans filtered in gradually around the country, it's taken supermarkets in our state (where Garrett was on the day) 10 years to make the move. You can read my story here, on the then-citizen journalism site Oh My News.

Here's some of that report:

Minister Garrett is on record as urging a total phase-out of the bags by January 2009 but based on what he said today, achieving this looks extremely unlikely.

"It is within the power of the Commonwealth to do that [impose a ban] but that's not the policy position at the moment," former Midnight Oil rock singer Garrett told a packed lunch crowd in Brisbane at noon local time on Monday.

Instead, the government has opted for what it calls collaborative federalism, where it seeks to obtain a joint decision with the six states and two self-governing territories about the issue.


But the overwhelming position of the states and territories is away from a ban on the plastic shopping bags.

"Ministers from state and federal levels met in April to discuss the issue of plastic bags," Garrett said before the lunch.

"There was a range of positions put but only South Australia proposed a ban on plastic shopping bags."

Victoria proposed a trial 10 cent per bag levy to see whether this would reduce public use of the micro-thin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags.

Garrett said the trial would be evaluated when the country's environment ministers meet again on the issue in November.

At the current rate of reduction in Australia (two billion bags every three years), a total "phase-out" could not happen until 2011. 

​It turns out that in 2018, it's still a little way off.

1 Comment

Quick! School ... books ... sale ... on ... now ... until 29/6/18

19/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Our friends at XYZ Books in Brisbane are changing from "just selling" to "making and selling" books ... fabulous. And to help make space for the new enterprise, (Enlighten Press) they're having a sale ... a 35%-45% discount sale, which in bookselling is as close to "cost price" as you get. It's happening right now -- from today until Friday next week. Just call (07) 3878 7120 or email enquiries@xyzbooks.com.au ... (PS, they're at Kenmore in Brisbane but if you're out of town they still want to talk to you.) I've seen their collection and it would suit primary and secondary school libraries ... especially with progressive tastes but a restricted budget. 
Picture
0 Comments

Inside the Great British Cheese Festival

17/5/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
Cornish pastie makers were very particular indeed about their offerings when I attended the Great British Cheese Festival. That was in 2010 but it runs every year.

A genuine Cornish pasty like this one (above) has a distinctive ‘D’ shape and is crimped on one side, never on top. The texture of the filling for the pasty is chunky, made up of uncooked minced or roughly cut chunks of beef (not less than 12.5%), Swede or turnip, potato and onion and a light peppery seasoning.

Texture was integral to all exhibits at the festival. Of the dozens of cheeses I tasted, texture contributed at least as much to the overall flavour as did the aroma, probably because the tasting portions were small cubes or dollops which retained their texture but aroma tended to be muted, especially in the huge tasting tent. Even pictures of most of the farmhouse, artisan cheeses accentuated the rough, hand-made texture of the cheese wheels, enough to make a visitor drool. 

The people there who were devoted to Protecting the Authentic Taste of Cheddar (the Avengers-like acronym "Patch") seemed to acknowledge this: "the texture is firm with rinded cheese being slightly crumbly".

Montgomery’s Cheddar boasts of its "brittle, broken texture"; Keen’s notes that the process of "cheddaring" is itself texture-laden, meaning "texturing the curd by hand, cutting it into blocks, layering and turning it". ​
PictureHe's the guy who shoots "reject" cheeses with a hunting rifle ... http://www.stichelton.co.uk/
Even in the other, non-cheese tents, texture dominated, mostly in what foodies call "mouth feel", being the feeling you get when you chew a solid food or swish a drink around inside your mouth before you swallow.

Such was the case with (pictured above) the Olive Oil & Truffles exhibit, with Pen-Lon Cottage Brewer and with the other ciders and ales I tried at 11.30am (whew, early!). Texture especially applied to the balsamic dressing made by Lorna for Gilly’s Foods of Great Coxwell, because I tasted the dressing on crusty bread.

More shopping next week ...

1 Comment
<<Previous
    Picture

    Authors

    Australian-born photojournalists John Cokley and Pip Hanrick toured Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Singapore and some of their collected notes, advice, new stories and original images appear here, our food and wine feature Far Flung Food and in other travel publications (see links as they're published). Contact John and Pip by email through their publisher, Small Batch Books.

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly