Friday 29 January 2010

Water Safety

302 Australians drowned in 2009. This is a big number in spite of all the media campaigns and water safety programs that warn people against the dangers of water. Many of the young children who drowned lost their lives in backyard swimming pools. They did not have adult supervision at the time.
It is law in Australia that a swimming pool at the backyard of a home must have a fence. This fence stops very young children from getting too close to the water and put their lives in danger.
At public swimming pools there are life guards who supervise swimmers from all ages. They make sure that young children who can't swim keep away from the deep areas in the pool.
Children in primary schools in Australia learn basic swimming skills every year but more practice is needed to make them more confident. Parents have to pay for these lessons. These swimming programs make children gain confidence in the water with help from qualified swimming instructors. Parents are encouraged to take their children to local swimming pools and talk to them about dangers in the water. Children can start to learn how to swim at a very young age through water familiarisation programs.
The CEO of the Royal Life Saving Society wants parents to learn to provide CPR in case their children are in life-threatening situations.
Major companies in Australia provide money to help the Royal Life Saving Society save more people who are in danger in the water.
On TV there are campaigns to teach swimmers what to do if there is a rip. Rips can happen any time. They are dangerous even to experienced swimmers because they drag people away from the shore. The best thing that people can do is to swim parallel to the beach until it is safe enough for them to get out of the water.
If you swim at a beach and feel that your life is in danger, try to keep your head above the water. Breathe from your mouth and not your nose. Raise your arm and wave until the life guards see you. They will come quickly and take you to safety.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Visiting Australia


Australia has a lot to offer anyone who wants to come on holiday. There are many great cities to see like Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Australia also has thousands of sandy beaches and plenty of sunshine and many national parks. It also has the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland. This is where people enjoy diving, sailing and other activities. Australia is also called the Land Down Under.
The friendly nature of Australians makes even a very short visit by a foreigner a memory that can last a lifetime. It has thousands of hotels to choose from according to price, location and service.
Australia also has a very good education system and that is why hundreds of thousands of international students choose to study here. After finishing their studies, some of them choose not to go home but to stay and start living here.
At the same time, because the Australian dollar is very strong, thousands of Australians prefer to travel overseas and have a holiday there. They get to see other cultures and taste the local food.
There are many activities for children who come with their families to visit Australia. Families can have a ride on a hot air balloon early in the morning and enjoy watching the sunrise. They can visit different beaches, zoos and aquariums in big cities. They can go on a Monorail in Sydney and travel across the city. The Sydney Opera House is the biggest landmark in Australia. Families can take a ferry or a speed boat and have heaps of fun near the Opera House in Sydney.
There are some animals that are native to Australia like kangaroos, koalas and penguins. It is fun for children and families to see these animals and to feed them.
If someone is travelling alone and can not afford to stay at a hotel, he or she can stay at a hostel. There are many hostels to choose from in different cities in Australia. They normally cost less money than hotels but are not suitable for groups and they also lack privacy.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

How to Get Work in Australia


Many people come to Australia as immigrants. They feel shocked when they see that every thing is expensive and realize that they need to get work as soon as they can.
There are several ways to get work in Australia but the first step you must take is to go to the Overseas Qualifications Unit in the city and see if your qualifications are recognized in Australia.
You can get a Job Seeker ID Number from Centrelink and then register your name with an employment agency. At this employment agency they will help you update your resume and tell you about jobs you can apply for.
Many overseas-trained professionals get upset when their qualifications don't get recognized in Australia. This means that they will not be able to do the same sort of work they did in their countries and will have to start from scratch.
Some people get work through friends. Their friends tell them that there is a job opportunity where they work and they apply for the position. This happens quite often.
Sometimes English is a problem for immigrants and that is why they need to enrol in an English class. It may take a long time for someone to improve his or her English but they can do extra work at home to learn how to speak better. At the end of their language course, the students have an interview with the educational councillor to get advice on what to do next.
There are different employment web sites that can help you get a job. All you have to do is to visit these web sites and email the companies that advertise for workers. You also need to have a good resume that gives a good impression about you.
People can apply to work full time or part time. They can work five days a week or just one day. Others have casual work. This means that the boss calls them any time when he or she needs them to work.
Some people choose to study and get an Australian qualification. This can open many doors for them and make it easy to get work. Some courses can take only two weeks like the security guard course. After finishing the course they can apply for work immediately. Sometimes students have to pay for their courses and this can mean a lot of money.

Sunday 24 January 2010

The Australian Open


The Australian Open is one of the biggest four grand slam tennis tournaments in the world. It attracts the best names in the tennis world to compete for two weeks in Melbourne, the sports capital of Australia every year. The matches are attended by tens of thousands of Australian and international tennis fans. They are also broadcast live to many countries all over the world.
The Australian Open is not just one championship. There are matches for tennis players who are under 17 years of age too. The winner of the Australian Open gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. There are a few tennis players who have won the four grand slams and they are called tennis legends. These legends include the Australian Rod Laver. The main events at the tennis championship are played at the Rod Laver Arena which can host nearly 16,000 viewers.
It is not a surprise that some of the finest players lose their matches and go home early while new players that have never been heard of progress to more advanced stages of the tournament. This can happen in any other tennis tournament.
Before the Australian Open starts there are a number of smaller tennis championships played in different cities across the country and most of the players who take part in the Australian Open play in them to get ready for the big one. Some of the tennis matches can last a few hours and end as late as two o'clock in the morning.
Tickets to attend matches at the Australian Open are not cheap. They start at 50 dollars and go as high as 280 dollars to attend the final match. There are other tickets that allow the audience to attend less important matches and enjoy a variety of activities. These tickets cost 30 dollars for an adult and 20 dollars for a child under 16 years of age. Tickets can be bought online or on entry. You are not allowed to bring any food or drinks with you. You can buy them at the venue and they normally cost more. One small water bottle costs six dollars.
Some of the matches at the Australian Open are attended by fifteen thousand people including film stars, politicians and famous athletes from all over the world.
The players who come to play at the Australian Open do their best to represent their countries and win their matches to improve their world rankings. They also get sponsored by major companies to wear certain brands and use certain rackets. They also appear in commercials and get their pictures published in commercials in different newspapers and magazines.
The Australian Open is a great tennis tradition that tennis fans all over the world can follow on TV each year.

Thursday 21 January 2010

Buy Now - Pay Later


In Australia people spend a lot of money on buying new things every year especially at Christmas time. Parents buy new toys and video games for their children and these can cost a lot of money. Nowadays there are a lot of commercials on the radio and on TV telling people how easy it is to buy now and pay later. These commercials use attractive words like “Buy now and pay later”, “Pay nothing for 12 months – Yes you heard it right” or “No interest for 36 months”.
It is very tempting that you can get a new car if you have a small deposit of only $500. All you have to do is to go to the caryard and choose the one you like. Then you sign some papers and pay the deposit and in a few minutes you take the car home. After one month, you start paying monthly instalments for a few years. Many people do this because they can’t afford to pay all the money in one go.
Sometimes some people don’t pay the instalments on time and they start getting nasty letters from finance companies telling them to pay the money at once or they lose the items they bought. They may also get letters from debt collectors warning them to pay off the money at once or terrible things will happen to them like taking them to court and so on. Customers also start getting fines. The interest free period may end before they pay off all the due amounts and they start paying very high interest rates. These interest rates can be as high as 39%. This means that they end up paying more money.
Australians love using plastic money. They spend as if tomorrow will never come. They owe a lot of money to banks every year and they never stop shopping.
It is a good idea to read the sales conditions before you sign any contract. This applies to many things that you commit to, like signing up for a new mobile phone plan, buying a house or a car because it is never as easy as it looks.
One man bought a couch for $1500 and because he didn’t pay the instalments on time, he ended up paying $5000 for it.
The message is clear. Pay the required amount of money off before the instalment period ends or you will end up paying much more.

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Haiti


Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It has a population of over eight million people. It does not have good hospitals or modern factories. The people who live in Haiti have a lower life expectancy and thousands of them suffer from AIDS and other serious illnesses. 80% of the population is Catholic and French is the official language. The country always suffers from floods, earthquakes and severe storms that uproot trees and destroy hundreds of houses.

Haiti was discovered by Columbus in 1492 and later on became a Spanish colony. In the 17th century it became a French colony and became a centre for importing slaves from Africa. Soon after that Haiti became an important centre for the sugar industry and forestry.

The slaves in Haiti struggled for many years to gain their freedom. In 1804 Haiti declared its independence and became the first black republic.

Nowadays most of the people in Haiti live on under a dollar a day and many children die before the age of five.

On 12th January 2010 Haiti was hit by a strong earthquake and thousands of buildings collapsed including hotels, schools, hospitals, the United Nations Headquarters and the presidential palace. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people died and 1.5 million became homeless because of the earthquake. After the quake took place, people in Haiti lost access to drinking water, electricity and gas and thousands of dead bodies were left in the streets and that became a health hazard. More than 70,000 bodies were buried in mass graves and tens of thousands of bodies had to be burnt.

Some survivors were saved from under the rubble after spending a few days there, while thousands of others were still trapped under collapsed buildings. Doctors had to perform amputations in the streets and carry out other life-saving operations in hospitals that lacked basic medical supplies.

The main seaport of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, was severely damaged and international help could not arrive in time. The airport control tower and the main runway were also damaged and that slowed down the delivery of the much needed medical and food supplies.