Author: liligans

Myer plans to improve its service. About time!

liligans What Pisses me off

During the past two weeks I have been to three different Myer department stores and they all have one thing in common. Lack of service.

There was simply no staff around. We scrounged around the stock, of which there is also very little. We wandered up and down the menswear department in search of help. But there was none.

I suspect that if I picked up a few items and walked out with them I wouldn’t even be stopped. Unfortunately, there was nothing worth stealing. At one stage we were so busy rummaging through some items that a customer mistook us for staff and asked us for help.

We shook our heads in sympathy with the fellow sufferer. “Sorry, mate” we shouted in the wilderness. “You have to fend for yourself!” Not many people are keen to do that, however, so it’s not surprising that sales in department stores are down by 5.8% in the year to May.

So when the CEO of Myer, Bernie Brookes, announced in the Weekend Australian newspaper that Myer was going to increase its staff by 10% I was nonplussed. 10% of nothing is not very much, is it?

Nor are things much better in “David Jones” department stores, but at least the Melbourne city store had more stock to choose from. There was no service either. Nevertheless, we put in the effort, found an item ourselves and took it to the cashier.

Oh how I miss the old days when someone would greet you as you walked into a department store and ask if you needed any help. From what I can see the only place that has service in a department store is the cosmetics and perfume section and I suspect that’s because the cosmetics companies supply their own staff.

Shopping has become a very daunting experience. Even when you really, really, need to buy something, and you stand there looking desperate, you often go home without a catch. Oh well, you did try to give the economy a bit of stimulus, but if they ain’t doin’ the sellin’ you can’t do the buyin’.

The Joke’s on us at ToysRUs

liligans totally absurd

All we wanted to do was to purchase a toy for our little granddaughter who is currently living in the USA. “Anything from Toy Story 3 would be great” according to her dad, our son.

What better store than ToysRUs for a gift to be sent from that American store to an American address? Simple? Not exactly.

We looked up the website and selected a doll for her. Then we proceeded to order it online. Easy? Not exactly.

ToysRUs would not accept our credit card because we live overseas in Australia. Understandable? Perhaps. Amazon can do it but apparently ToysRUs can’t.

So credit card was out of the question.

How about money then? A cash transaction online?

The following is the reply we received from this company:-

Thank you for contacting RUs.com regarding transferring money to one of our bank accounts. I am sorry, but ethically we cannot do that. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

If you need any further assistance, please feel free to call us at either of the numbers listed below or just respond to this email. Thank you again for contacting RUs.com. We value your business and look forward to serving you in the future!

Sincerely,

Melissa Green
Guest Service Team
http://www.ToysRUs.com (800) ToysRUs / (800) 869-7787
http://www.BabiesRUs.com (888) BabyRUs / (888) 222-9787
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!!

Yes, you read it correctly. ETHICALLY is the word Melissa Green used.

It’s comforting to know that ToysRUs value our business and look forward to serving us in the future. I wonder, though, in what capacity they intend to serve us 24 HOURS A DAY. 7 DAYS A WEEK if they won’t accept our money?

Perhaps we should offer some Dutch beads, buttons and other trinkets to Melissa and the Guest Service Team at ToysRUs.

Why be offended by the “I will survive” Holocaust video?

liligans Politics, totally absurd

When I watched the video of a Jewish family from Australia dancing at various death camp sites in which Hitler and the Nazis tried to exterminate the Jews, I wept.

I only heard about this video tonight on the Channel Nine TV news. Some people are offended by it. Some Holocaust survivors don’t approve of Jews dancing at Auschwitz, but I take a different view.

I say “Hitler tried to kill us all, but he is dead and we are still here. Let us rejoice.”

As a person who is involved in The Jewish Holocaust Centre I am well aware of sensitivities. We should respect and mourn what happened. We should never forget and personally I will never forgive.

But be damned if I don’t glory in the fact that all those Empires and civilisations which tried to destroy the Jews are dust.

So if 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, Adolek Kohn wants to dance at Auschwitz with his daughter and three grandchildren, good luck to him!

I’m sure he has shed enough tears in his lifetime and I would encourage him to celebrate to his heart’s content.

If you have not seen the video, here is the link:-

Grandpa Kohn’s words at the end of it are what made me cry.

Looks as if the video has actually been removed from Youtube.

Now it’s back again. I strongly recommend that you view Parts 2 and 3 of the video too. We’ll see how long this one lasts but just in case I’d better explain what I meant by “Grandpa Kohn’s words at the end of it made me cry.”

The family did some very simple unchoreographed dance steps at the various sites with their aged grandpa.

And then the mood changed and Mr Kohn reflected on his life to the music of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance me to the end of Love.”

“If you had told me 63 years ago,” Kohn says, ” that I would be here dancing with my family, I would have said what you talking about?…what you talking about?

Had Hilter achieved his aim then none of that delightful family would have been born. No wonder he marvels at being back where he could have perished. He considers himself blessed.

So many people did not survive, including many members of my family. I wept for them but I also wept with joy that Mr Kohn is alive.

More passport forgeries but this time it’s okay, isn’t it?

liligans What Pisses me off

When Israel was accused of forging passports you would have thought that the world was about to explode. So much indignation! How could Israel commit such an outrage? Ireland was annoyed, the UK was annoyed, France was annoyed. And ex Prime Minister Rudd was annoyed.

Well, well, well, now that the spy saga in the U.S and Russia has come to light and spies have been returned to their state of origin, we discover that these spies held forged passports.

Dear me, they used Irish, British and Canadian false passports. So what’s the reaction of the world? Apparently, the rest of the world is amused. Joe Biden makes jokes on the Jay Leno Show. Not a whisper of outrage at the use of forged passports and spying that’s been going between two so-called friends.

It seems that it’s okay to forge identities and passports, but not if you are Israeli.

Talk about hypocrites!!!

Why the double standard is a compliment to Israel

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

Imagine you are sitting at prayers in your local mosque on a Friday when suddenly thirty of your fellow worshippers are shredded to bits by a bomb. This is a frequent occurrence in Pakistan and Iraq. The murderers are Muslims themselves and we in the rest of the world no longer bat an eyelid on hearing of such an event. Why is that? Continue reading →

The Two Faces of The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

liligans So you think you're cultured?, totally absurd

I am astounded by the declaration this morning that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is proud of the actions of activist Peter Bethune. In fact, they will give him a hero’s welcome back home when he returns from Japan.

How can one believe anything that this organisation says when in June this is what they said?

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has cut its links with anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune after he carried a bow and arrows during confrontations with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.

Below is what they wrote on the Society’s website, according to the ABC report on June 9 of this year

The bow and arrows revealed to be on the Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil, and in the possession of Captain Bethune on that ship, are absolutely not in line with Sea Shepherd’s policy,” the statement reads.

This morning on the ABC the spokesman for the Society revealed his forked tongue, when he admitted that the above statements were a ploy to get Bethune off. I can’t quite understand how that would work but they obviously are still trying to pretend that they are a peaceful organisation. What a bunch of hypocrites!

Suddenly they are proud to align themselves with a man who behaved like a pirate and threatened the crew of a boat he boarded illegally.

What sort of friends are these activists who are ready to distance themselves from one of their heroes when he’s in trouble? And yet when he gets off with a very lenient judgement, a suspended sentence, they pretend that they support him totally?

All better now?

I don’t think so. This organisation has blotted its reputation by admitting to lying.

It is thanks to the Japanese that Bethune is not in jail. No thanks to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, though, for abandoning him.

My losing battle with technology

liligans totally absurd, What Pisses me off

I am proud to announce that recently I got rid of my electric toothbrush. Now that may not signify as one of the world’s greatest protests, but for me, it meant a lot.

I got sick of charging the blasted thing. I got sick of having another gadget to be plugged in. I got sick of the brush telling me how long I have to brush my teeth and allotting to me the requisite two minutes which the gadget manufacturer said I have to do.

It made me feel as if I wasn’t in charge at all. Let’s face it, if you’re at the mercy of an electric toothbrush how autonomous are you?

There are people out there who bid their gadgets goodnight and then charge them ready for the next day’s onslaught.

All this dependency on electric gadgets has been getting on my nerves.

Which brings me to why my web site was down over the weekend. I use a web host as do a few other people and apparently a very selfish or ignorant company which monopolised all the available space on the host’s internet. This company was told not to do this again and I have been assured that said company will not be so greedy in future.

I wish I could believe it, but all sorts of things get screwed up on the internet. If it’s not the internet provider then it’s the connection somewhere on the line. Or else it’s because the rotten schoolkids are on holiday and they sit at their computers all day shooting demons or whatever or taking photos of their private parts and putting them on Youtube to impress the world.

Then there’s the twits or the twats and Facebook. I’m uncomfortable with all that and do not take part.

Nowadays, even the politicians twitter away, just to be with it. Do we really need more soundbites from the politicians? Still, even Julia Gillard has somebody twittering away for her. Some junior member of her staff with the gelled ridge of hair is doing the deed so that she can appear trendy.

I seriously doubt that her busy schedule allows her the time to twit. Not should it.

I would rather she concentrate on policies and leave the silly bits to some nerd who is already afflicted with a sore and arthritic thumb at the venerable age of 20.

You may well argue that I too have joined the ranks of internet afficionado since I have a web site. That’s not quite true, though. It’s a love/hate relationship that I have with my computer. I like the word processing part and I enjoy surfing the net for information.

But I am well aware of the dangers of the World Wide Web as a disseminator of falsehoods, a tool for propaganda more invasive than any newspaper by its speed and unaccountability.

I must confess I fear it.

On the other hand, I can’t think of anything in this world that is totally good. And so I endure the frustration of technology when I have to, while feebly protesting against it when it doesn’t really matter, as in the case of the electric toothbrush. T’is but a rather lukewarm attempt at aligning myself with the Luddites.

So there! I showed them, all right. lol

My web site was down

liligans So you think you're cultured?

Last Friday afternoon my web site was down and I felt very frustrated that nobody could do anything to help me until Monday. It is now Sunday evening and the site is up again. Very strange…

I have no idea why this happened and why it mysteriously came back. Am looking forward to finding out why tomorrow morning.

Anyhow, Happy Fourth of July to my American reader!!!!

The anti-semitic bigots have come out of the woodwork to accuse Gillard

liligans Politics

It didn’t take long before the usual bigots brought up the subject of Israel after Julia Gillard’s defeat of Kevin Rudd. So what is the gripe this time? A former ambassador to Israel, Mr Ross Burns, has written a letter to The Age newspaper accusing Gillard of being soft on Israel. This opinion was repeated by another reviled former ambassador to Israel, a Mr Rodgers who is notorious for being anti-Israel.

What these two bigots are really saying is that unless you are vehemently anti-Israel then you are soft on Israel.

Prime Minister Gillard has denied this accusation. All this happened because Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, works in real estate for an Israel supporter. Apparently, that’s a crime according to Burns and Rodgers.

Which brings me to the topic of our former Prime Minister. I first met Kevin Rudd a few years ago in Queensland. He attended a Jewish function, praised the Jewish community and generally sucked up to everyone there assuring the Jewish community of his true and genuine admiration and loyalty.

When he became Prime Minister, however, Rudd revealed his true colours. He took hasty actions against a member of the Israeli embassy long before other nations in the alleged passport affair. He also directed his representative at the United Nations to vote against Israel.

He did this because he was sucking up to the Arabs in the U.N. Rudd’s ambition is so rapacious that he would be prepared to court anyone who can support his aim of becoming a bigshot at the U.N. And that is why he joined the enemies of Israel.

But then Rudd’s popularity polls went south and he suddenly remembered that he had betrayed an ally and that he had wounded the Jewish community in Australia. So just a few short weeks ago he tried to win over the Jewish community once again by meeting with some leaders and assuring them that he was “a friend of Israel.”

We all know the saying “With friends like these who needs…”