One of my friends recently complained that he had to take his kids to “The Show”. That’s the Royal Easter Show which has been an institution in Sydney since 1823 and is still the biggest show in Australia. I couldn’t help smiling as I remember when I had to find entertainment every school holiday for mine.

But then I got to thinking that once people were hanging out to go to the show. It was the most important event in the calendar, so what happened?

A number of things have changed our thinking about it. First, there is no doubt, it has lost its purpose. That’s the real killer. Once an event loses its reason for existing and becomes a purely commercial affair, it stands or falls by what other alternatives are available and whether or not, compared to them, it is good value for money.

It was the later that my friend was questioning. Going to the Easter Show can be quite an expensive day and if you don’t think it is value for money or you don’t enjoy it as much as you used to, you won’t rush back. And maybe that’s why the organizers have to work so hard every year to keep the numbers up.

I wrote an article about this for ESTV and I suggested that it would be a shame to see the show die out and to avoid this happening we should rethink what its purpose could be in the 21st century. Unfortunately organisations tend to leave it until the event is on its last legs before they wake up to the fact that there is a problem. I’m hoping this one man campaign will ring some bells.

In the early days the Easter Show was the one time each year when the city folk got to meet their country cousins. Here the country folk showed off the crops they were growing and the animals they were breeding and they in turn got to see what new technology was available – as well as have some fun and possibly find a spouse for the young ‘uns. It was the networking event of the year.

Why would you go to the show today if it wasn’t to keep the kids happy for a couple of hours? Even “The Show” must find its unique selling proposition and prove it is worth the effort and the money.

I have one idea I think is worth pursuing, I think it could be a mini expo – a time to show off what Australian business is up to? Manufacturers could show off their latest products and hair dressers for example could promote their skills with shows and low cost hair does for the visitors (I think I have seen that happen before). Of course it would keep the entertainment precinct but it has to find a way to attract more than just young families. If it became an expo it would attract not only local business people and hordes of interested visitors but also overseas tourists. It could be a tourist bonanza for NSW.

I think the Easter Show could have a resurgence in popularity and play an important role in getting NSW back on its feet, if we only took the time to think about it. What do you think?

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I found Philoagora on the Internet by accident about twelve months ago. I was searching for some information and was directed to their web site by Google. At first I was sure it must be in England or America as I had never heard of any philosophy groups in Sydney. When I saw they met in a cafe in Glebe Point Rd my first thought was, “Boy they have a Glebe Point Rd over there too”. I know, I can be a bit obtuse at times.

But it was (and still is) a Sydney group and I later discovered they are but one of a thriving group of such clubs in Sydney. After years of reading philosophy on my own, in private (almost but not quite “under the blankets”) I can’t tell you how happy I was to discover that there are hundreds of amateur philosophers like me in Sydney. In fact I can heartily recommend if you want a great night out that is stimulating as well as fun, try visitiing one of these philosophy groups.  I’ll be giving a talk at Philoagora in July on Nietzsche but don’t wait until then, they meet fortnightly at the Fair Trade Cafe, 33 Glebe Point Road.

The next meeting is on March 16th 2010, and the topic is Reinvention: A Philosophy for a Second Life.

March 30, Lou Salome (Who was proposed to by Nietzsche) and Rilke (Rainer Maria Rilke) 

April 13th, Toward a Social Ethos

April 27,  A debate: Atheism will never win the battle with Religion

You can see the notes and the schedule of meetings at www.philoagora.com

I’ll put together a list of other philosophy groups later and post it here.

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I think I had the easier side to argue; I put the negative case i.e. that America has Peaked and I think more people agreed with that proposition than the alternative although Stephen put together a very strong case and delivered it well.

I found a lot of good material during my research and if you are interested in world affairs including who’s hot and whose not and where the world is heading politically I think you will enjoy reading it. I will regularly post links to some of the stuff you can find on the Internet or provide references and a brief summary of books that I read.

One paper I highly recommend you should read can be downloaded free from the Lowy Institute. It is an excellent paper entitled “The End of the Vasco Da Gama Era” In it the author, Dr Coral Bell AO, sketches the probable future landscape of the society of states as it emerges from the twilight of US paramountcy. Bell argues that the world is in transition to a multipolar balance of six great powers: the United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia and Japan. You can get it here:

http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=723

By the way according to Bell, the title reflects the thinking of Indian Scholars who have long regarded the voyages of the great navigator Vasco Da Gama along with those of Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus as the beginning of 500 years of ascendancy of the West over Asia.

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This is the kind of talk where I like to use the white board to highlight my points and I was wondering how I would do that for a Chinese speaking audience that doesn’t speak or read English.

The problem was solved when the translator brought along a Chinese student from NSW University. He is studying marketing and was happy to listen to the talk and write up the points I gave him in English on the white board, in Chinese. It certainly added a degree of spontaneity to the talk that I was afraid I could not achieve in this case.

We discussed the problems inherent in traditional media and the fragmented market (i.e. you can’t just buy an advert on TV during prime time these days and know you will get to most of your target market). The surprising thing (for me) was that it seems it is the same in China and they were very interested in finding out how to overcome that issue. I wonder if Seth Godin‘s books are translated into Chinese?

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This was the first time I have ever given a talk to a non English speaking audience that had to be translated as I spoke. I can tell you it is not as easy as it looks.

I did everything I could in advance to make the talk work. I had my PowerPoint presentation translated into Chinese and I sent the translator a copy of my talk in advance so she could read it and prepare.

So what could go wrong?

Well to start with I delivered the talk at Sydney University in one of the lecture theatres. They have a great set up but the computer I was using didn’t have a keyboard. Why? I have no idea maybe the previous speaker stole it or maybe they were worried I would

So while I had access to the Internet I couldn’t use it but luckily what I wanted to use that for wasn’t central to the talk.

I’m so glad I got the PowerPoint translated. They really appreciated that (and you will see why in a moment).

I like to get as close to the audience as possible when I speak so  I found it hard to follow the presentation when I turned to see where I was up to because I couldn’t read it. But I had a printout of the English language version with me so no big drama there but I didn’t like to hold it in my hand so I left it back on the lectern.

I thought the translator might have difficulty with some of the more technical philosophical concepts so wherever I thought a concept might be hard to translate I incorporated in the translators version a couple of alternative descriptions so she could understand what I was trying to say.

When “Being Prepared” is not Prepared Enough

However the translator didn’t read my talk and didn’t bring it with her. I anticipated it might have been lost or forgotten so I brought another copy with me and gave it to her before the talk. I don’t know what she did with it but she didn’t use it.

The translator was very experienced and more than capable of translating spoken English into Chinese but my concern was that she may not have had experience translating Philosophy concepts which is not the same as translating every day English. And this proved to be the problem I had hoped to avoid by sending her my talk in advance.

What saved the day was my PowerPoint Presentation and when she mis-translated I could tell because the room erupted into a babble of excited disputation. Of course the PowerPoint only contained the salient points and I often put flesh on the bones using stories and examples but, for example, she couldn’t translate the names of the Chinese philosophers such as Mencius and Xun Zi whose names I know in English not Chinese.

If she hadn’t been so experienced and therefore so confident about her ability to translate me on the run, she might have read my talk and done some preparation. But I learned a valuable lesson for the future.

The Outcome:

The talk couldn’t have been too bad though as a few days later I received an invitation to go to China and deliver a talk at the local university. I’m afraid I can’t remember the name of the state the principals came from at the moment but if I do go to China on business in the near future I will look forward to visiting their university.

What they found particularly interesting by the way was the way I applied Confucian philosophy to business and I will post some information on this subject on my Chinese Philosophy blog as soon as I get a chance.

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I haven’t even written up my New Year resolutions yet although I have given them a lot of thought this last week or so. I was going to write a post on how to make the exercise worthwhile but I may have missed the boat on that one for this year. What do you think?

I’ve got some interesting speaking engagements coming up over the next few weeks. On the 18th January I am giving a talk to 24 Chinese school principals who are visiting Australia on a study tour. The topic is Confucius / Confucian Philosophy. I hope I pass.

On the 22nd January I am giving a talk to another group from China. These are Chinese CEO’s and I will be wearing my business hat and talking about Internet marketing, Social Media and eSTV.

Finally on Tuesday 2nd of February I’m debating Stephen from Ariel Bookshop at the Philosophy Corner monthly meeting which is held at Ariel Bookshop, 42 Oxford St Paddington. This is our first meeting for 2010 and promises to be a real corker.  The topic is “American Dominance of world affairs is over and it is a Spent Force” or something similar to that.

Stephen, who lived in the States for a while and is a passionate supporter, will speak for America and I am arguing that they are a spent force.  I’ve been boning up on my Noam Chomsky but there is a lot of other historical and economic material that I plan to use in support of my argument but please feel free to leave me any ideas you have as well. Post your comment below.

PS you are welcome to join us at Ariel Bookshop if you are in Sydney on the 2nd February. There is no charge, we start at 7 pm and there will be drinks and canapes afterwards. The topic is open to discussion by all attendees and the networking afterwards is usually a lot of fun.

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As I said in my opening, my task is to look at the development of philosophy in the East and the West over the last 2,500 years in approximately 30 minutes. That’s a minute a century.

Of course the topic was far too huge to do it justice but after 8 or 9 complete revisions I got it down to the allotted time (well it went just over 40 minutes) but question time went on for over two hours and even then the MC had to close the meeting or it would have gone on longer.

I don’t think that was entirely due to my speaking prowess although as you know the right audience makes a big difference and in many ways they contribute to the quality of the “performance”. And on that night I did feel we had a simpatico as my dad used to say.

But in all honesty I think the topic is of great interest to people these days. There is a feeling, one could almost say a hope that Eastern Philosophy can provide answers to some of the pressures we experience these days in our everyday life. And I believe it can.

Bye the way for all you who are screaming out “what’s this Eastern Philosophy, there’s no such thing”. I agree you cannot take the huge body of philosophical texts from all over the orient and lump them together under the title Eastern Philosophy. They are all so individual that that is a blatant misrepresentation. Of course they are not one homogenous body of work so it is silly to label them as though they were. But it is an easy label to fall in to the habit of using and I really mean the diverse philosophies from countries in the Orient as opposed to Europe and North America.

So where does Islamic philosophy fit in? Well from what I can see if someone is using the terms Eastern and Western Philosophy, they generally lump the mediaeval Islamic texts in with the Oriental philosophies. I’m not really sure about modern Islamic philosophy. In fact, I haven’t read any modern Islamic Philosophy or any commentaries on it that didn’t seem to be mainly religious argument rather than pure philosophy. Which funnily enough is a criticism often made about Chinese and Indian texts.

But who is making the criticism? More often than not it will be a western reader, be it an amateur or professional philosopher, but whatever the case their “criticism” is often misplaced I feel. Sure a lot of the great Chinese and Indian Philosophers were religious but from about 800 AD most philosophers in the west were Christian of one type or another and that certainly doesn’t mean that their works are not great philosophy.

The thing that makes me smile is that western philosophers regularly refer to Eastern Philosophy as Mysticism or Religion rather than as philosophy but it is the great mono theistic religions that promise a better life in the next world whereas in China Confucianism and Taoism seem to be happy to teach a philosophy that helps you to live in peace and contentment in this life.

So which one is Mysticism or religious-philosophy and does it really matter?

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