Counter Mantra to Christmas Credit

The cycle of consumption rears its head as it has done for quite some time. Consumption is neither good, nor bad, it ‘just is’ and right now the majority of media exposed potential consumers are being lured, enticed and occasionally conned into parting with their hard earned money to satisfy needs and whims. Some consumers are smarter than others given what we see with disciplined approaches to spending money many of us don’t have – especially those whom have evolved to embrace the ‘enoughness’ style of thinking. And in the background of this activity play the jingles of ‘jingles’ – the Christmas Carol. So for some counter balance I offer a reworked version of a classic carol…

 

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Your Credit Card bills are killing me

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Each time you come

you seem to say to me:

Forget get those bills, spend your cash away

‘Ignore the chills, you don’t have to pay today’

And now Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree;

Your Credit Card Bills are killing me…’

I have just one thought – yes enjoy the moment, and do so in a way that you neither regret in the future, nor dig yourself into a future you can no longer control – spend wisely, cautiously and with some degree of subduedness – this GFG thing is not over yet

Victorian State Culinary Tourism Conference in Wangaratta

Oct 2, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will be kicking off proceedings at the 2008 Regional Produce Summit in Wangaratta on the 20th of October where he’ll detail some of the emerging issues likely to impact upon the tourism and food sector in the foreseeable future and suggest ways that businesses in the sector might be able to…

Read More >

Eco Industrial Parks & Community Development

Oct 2, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will both key note and act as Master of Ceremonies at the Lockhart Industrial symposium on the 9th of October, in Lockhart NSW. Marcus will discuss the clear business advantages that Eco Industrial parks provide to businesses, the way that symbiotic supply chains work to improve business resilience and the way…

Read More >

Marcus Barber discussing the Future on 774 ABC Melbourne

Sep 20, 2008

Marcus Barber joined host Tim Cox and co-host, author and writer Andrew Peglar on the Conversation hour to muse about the types of futures one might expect to see in coming years.   After Tim asked for clarification between a General, Theoretical and Strategic Futurist, Andrew kicked off with a question over the singularity.  The…

Read More >

Your Future Requires Planning – and so does ours!

Sep 4, 2008

Members of the Futures Foundation and the AFFA will be congregating in Pearl Beach in the coming weeks to consider the state of play in the Australian Futures community. Given the emerging challenges in Australia and around the world, the futures community requires just as much serious contemplation and forethought as does any one  …

Read More >

Robots of the Future

Jul 22, 2008

One of our many Nordic watchers, Are Thorsteinsson, has posted the Future Matters segment looking at the future of robotics, along with marking up full language captions in Danish. Although a couple of years old now, the early signs listed in this segment are only now coming into more mainstream focus Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber…

Read More >

Asking the unaskable question – Do we have a right not to die?

Jun 25, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber has contributed a chapter to Volume Five of the ‘Death and Anti-Death’ Anthology which has just been published by Ria University. With contributors including Aubrey de Grey and Kevin Kelly and edited by Dr. Charles Tandy, Volume Five in the series is dedicated to the memory of Loren Eiseley, the renowned…

Read More >

Biofuels and Global Starvation

Jun 12, 2008

One of the challenges for one aspect of the world is fuel and the price of fuel used for private transportation. I use the word ‘aspect’ quite deliberately because the ‘aspect of the world’ that seems to be making the most noise about rising fuel prices is by and large the ‘westernised’ world – that’s…

Read More >

Marcus Barber to Open Supply Chain and Logistics Conference

May 14, 2008

With the theme ‘Moving Forward, Supply Chains of the Future’, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will open the Australian Supply Chain and Logistics Conference in Brisbane in July on behalf of the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia. Details for the conference can be found below.   The focus on the future of supply chains…

Read More >

Book Recommendation – Gang Leader for a Day

Apr 28, 2008

When it comes to quality strategic futures work as part of making the pragmatic decisions that shifts beyond theoretical futures work, I encourage my clients to question the assumptions they make about the information they have available to them. Which is why I am recommending the book ‘Gang Leader for a day – a rougue…

Read More >

Marcus Barber on 774 ABC Melbourne Conversation Hour discussing Australia 2020 Futurists Summit

Apr 23, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber was well and truly forced to justify the existence of his profession when venturing along to Jon Faine’s Conversation Hour last week. Co-hosted by Cath Pope the discussion looked at the role of Futurists, the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Jon’s scepticism around the role of futurists.. Along with Janoel Liddy,…

Read More >