Rookwood Necropolis

For some reason I found myself once again in the Catholic section of Rookwood Necropolis. It's the largest cemetery in Australia and for whatever reason I find some sort of peace there.

I had my camera in the car and the sun was just beginning to set so I took a few pics.

These two are my favourites. the one above has an IHS on it supposedly the first three letters in Greek for Iησους (Iēsous)...... don't see that spelling in the King James. It's also said to stand for the latin phrase in hoc signo, short for in hoc signo vinces (in this sign you shall conquer).....or Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus saviour of men).

Like most things Catholic the real meaning seems to be have lost in time.

The below is a nice image with the background out of focus.

The little guy bites back.

Major bookchain sent out the following letter:

Angus & Robertson

30th July 2007

Michael Rakusin
TOWER BOOKS
Unit 2 / 17 Rodborough Road
Frenches Forrest
NSW 2086

Dear Michael

I am writing to inform you of some of the changes to the way we manage our business.

We have recently completed a piece of work to rank our suppliers in terms of the net profit they generate for our business. We have concluded that we have far too many suppliers, and over 40% of our supplier agreements fall below our requirements in terms of profit earned. At a time when the cost of doing business continues to rise, I’m sure you can understand that this is an unpalatable set of circumstances for us, and as such we have no option but to act quickly to remedy the situation.

Accordingly, we will be rationalising our supplier numbers and setting a minimum earnigs ration of income to trade purchases that we expect to achieve from our suppliers.

I am writing to you because TOWER BOOKS falls into this category of unacceptable profitability.

As a consequence we would invite you to pay the attached invoice by Aug 17th 2007. The payment represents the gap fro your your business, and moves it from an unacceptable level of profitability, to above our minimum threshold.

If we fail to receive your payment by this time we will have no option but to remove you from our list of authorised suppliers, and you will be unable to complete any further transactions with us until such time as the payment is made.

I have also attached a proforma for you to complete wand return to me, with your proposed terms of trade for our financial year commencing Sept 1st 2007. We have the following expectations:

• All agreements contain a standard rebate, a growth rebate and a minimum co-op commitment to enable participation in our marketing activity.

• Growth rebates activate as soon as our purchases with you increase by $1 on the previous year.

• All rebates are paid quarterly for the previous quarter’s performance, you must make sure that your remittance, with calculations, is received by us by the 7th of the month following the preceding quarter. Any remittances not received by this date will attract a daily 5% interest charge.

I am also including a copy of our ratecard, and our marketing calendar, to enable you to begin planning your promotional participation now.

If you would like to discuss this with me in more detail, I am delighted to confirm an appointment with you at 1.00pm on Friday 17th August for 10 minutes at my offices at 379 Collins St, Melbourne.

Best Regards

[signed]

Charlie Rimmer
ARW Group Commercial Manager

Enc: A&R Ratecard
A&R Marketing calendar
Trading Terms Proforma
Invoice

Small publisher replied:

6 August 2007

Mr Charlie Rimmer
ARW Group Commercial Manager
14th Floor, 379 Collins Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000

Dear Mr Rimmer

We are in receipt of your letter of 30 July 2007 terminating our further supply to Angus & Robertson. As you have requested, we will cancel all Angus & Robertson Company orders on 17 August and will desist from any further supply to your stores.

I have to say that my initial response on reading your letter as to how you propose to "manage" your business in the future was one of voluble hilarity, I literally burst out laughing aloud. My second response was to note the unmitigated arrogance of your communication, I could not actually believe I was reading an official letter from Angus & Robertson on an Angus & Robertson letterhead.

My reply to you will perforce be a lengthy one. I hope you will take the trouble to read it, you may learn something. Then again, when I look at the level of real response we have had from Angus & Robertson over the past six or so years, I somehow doubt it.

The first thing I would say to you is that arrogance of the kind penned by you in your letter of 30 July is an unenviable trait in any officer of any company, no matter how important that individual thinks himself or his company, no matter how dominant that company may be in its market sector. Business has a strange habit of moving in cycles: today's villain may be tomorrow's hero. It is quite possible to part from a business relationship in a pleasant way leaving the door open for future engagement. Sadly, in this case, you have slammed and bolted it.

More to the point, however, we have watched our business with Angus & Robertson dwindle year upon year since 2000. We had to wear the cost of sub-economic ordering from you through ownership changes, SAP installation, new management, and stock overhang. In summary our business with you has dropped from over $1.2 million at the end of 2000 to less than $600,000 in 2007.

You would be quite correct to question whether our offering to the market had changed in any way. The answer can be derived from the fact that during the same period our business with Dymocks, Book City, QBD and Borders continued to grow in double digits, our business with your own franchise stores has grown healthily, and our overall business during the same period has grown by more than 50%.

Six years ago we were allowed to send reps to your company stores and do stock checks. Then these were "uninvited" and we had to rely on monthly rep calls to your Buying Office. Subsequently even that was too much trouble; your Buying Office was too busy to see us, so we were asked to make new title submissions electronically. Every few months the new submission template became more and more complex. This year, we have been allowed quarterly visits to your Buying Office at which we were to be given the opportunity to sell to all your Category Managers. At the first, we did indeed see all of the Category Managers - but they didn't buy any of the titles offered. At the second, one Category manager was available, and again no purchases resulted. At the last (only last week), two Category managers attended. Through all of this, your overworked and under resourced Buying Department never got to see, let alone read, an actual book. While one may be forgiven for believing that Angus & Robertson is actually a company purveying "Sale" signs, I do believe you are still in the book business?

That Angus & Robertson is struggling for margin does not surprise me. It amazes me that the message has not become clear to your "management": there are only so many costs you can cut, there is only so much destiny you can put in the hands of a computer system, there are only so many sweetheart deals you can do with large suppliers. After that, in order to prosper one actually has to know one's product and have an appropriately staffed buying department. Most importantly, one has to train sales people of competence. You will never beat the DDSs at their cost cutting game, you will only prosper by putting "books" back into Angus & Robertson. And it would seem to me paramount to stop blaming suppliers for your misfortunes, trying ever harder to squeeze them to death, and actually focus on your core incompetencies in order to redress them.

How a business that calls itself a book business is going to do without titles such as the Miles Franklin Prize winning book or titles like Rich Dad Poor Dad (according to this week's Sydney Morning Herald it is still the fifth best selling business title in Australia nine years after publication) is beyond me. And how in good conscience Australia's self-purported largest chain of book shops proposes to exclude emerging Australian writers who are represented by the smaller distributors, is an equal mystery.

We too have expectations Mr Rimmer. We have had the same expectations for many years, none of which Angus & Robertson have been willing to deliver:

•That we are treated with equal respect to the larger publishers within the obvious parameters of commercial reality;
•That your Buying Department is able and willing to assess our books with equal seriousness to those of the big publishers and buy them appropriately;
•That you recognise the fundamental differences between the smaller distributors and the larger publishers and stop demanding of us terms that we are unable to deliver;
•That you would support and help develop Australian literature.

Had you made any effort to meet these expectations you would have found the niche we should have occupied in your business, as have all other book shops, and you would have found our contribution to the profitability of your business would have been dramatically different.

In summary, we reject out of hand this notion that somehow, even giving you 45% discount on a Sale or Return basis, with free freight to each of your individual stores, where we make less than half of that on the same book, puts us in the "category of unacceptable profitability". We have seen Angus & Robertson try this tactic before - about 12 years ago Angus & Robertson decided that unless we gave them a 50% discount, they would not buy from us any longer. We refused. Angus & Robertson desisted from buying from us for seven months. We survived, Angus & Robertson came back cap in hand.

We have seen Myer effectively eliminate smaller suppliers. We survived and prospered but look at the Myer Book Departments today.

We have seen David Jones decide that it had too many publishers to deal with and to exclude the smaller suppliers. We survived and prospered but look at the David Jones Book Departments today.

David Jones and Myer sell other goods; Angus & Robertson does not.

That the contents of your letter of 30 July are both immoral and unethical, I have no doubt. That they probably contravene the Trade Practices Act, I shall leave to the ACCC to determine. (Five percent interest PER DAY !!!)

If you wish to discuss any of the contents hereof you may call my secretary for an appointment at my office in Frenchs Forest. I shall be marginally more generous than you and at least allow you to pick a convenient time.

Michael Rakusin
Director
Tower Books Pty Ltd
Carpentaria, Alexis Wright : Winner of 50th Anniversary Miles Franklin Literary Prize, 2007


Copy: Graeme Samuel, Chairman, ACCC
Rod Walker, Chairman, ARW Group
Ian Draper, ARW Group Managing Director
Rickard Gardell, Managing Director, Pacific Equity Partners
Simon Pillar, Managing Director, Pacific Equity Partners
Barbara Cullen, CEO, ABA
Maree McCaskill, CEO, APA

Note: The ACCC is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a guvmint trade practices organization. The ABA is the Australian Bookseller Association.

The reply is worthy of a Miles Franklin award itself!

World Clock

Poodwaddle.com

AnimaMundi Series I: Le moine et le poisson

Paranoia or how to Effectively shut down a city.

Sydney is holding the APEC(Asia-Pacific Economic Forum) from September 8-9 2007. I was thinking of going down to get some photos but there seems to be a general feeling of "STAY AWAY" in big red letters.

Nevertheless, there will be people going for a sticky beak and protests and all other types of things they normally wouldn't be doing if the spotlight wasn't on Sydney for those couple of days. Sunday that would normally be spent in a cafe, browsing a bookshop, nursing a hangover, making love, or mowing the lawn....... seems to hold a certain attraction to some of getting arrested singing Kumba Yah. I think I'll stay away.

Anyway, I did a quick round up to see what I could find on the security measures to look after those leaders in the free world; the word "paradox" comes to mind.

• SOME of Sydney's biggest hospitals will postpone or cut elective surgery for five days during the Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in a health disaster plan being implemented under a veil of secrecy.

• The presence of heavily armed SAS (Specal Air Service) troops could complement unprecedented powers for police to manage security at September's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney. HEAVILY-armed SAS troops could be ordered on to Sydney's streets to maintain control during the APEC summit later this year, a military law expert has warned. This move, which includes orders for the troopers to shoot to kill..........
  

• More than 300 high definition CCTV cameras have been placed in potential terrorist targets in the lead-up to Sydney's APEC Summit, acting Premier John Watkins says. The new cameras bring to 6,400 the total number of cameras watching people using buses, trains and ferries. The cameras, 200 of which use cutting-edge facial recognition technology, have been installed across the city in buses, ferry and train stations

• Three Sydney train stations and sections of the CBD will be shut down for three days in September during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.Three city circle train stations - St James, Museum and Circular Quay - will all be closed for the three days.

• Holiday packages with special deals for various attractions will be used to lure Sydneysiders away from the city during the APEC long weekend.

• Last year the NSW and federal governments declared Friday, September 7, 2007, would be a public holiday for employees who work in the Sydney metropolitan area, to help minimise disruption during the APEC summit.

• Mobile phone calls in Sydney's CBD will be blocked by a sophisticated counter-terrorism measure to prevent bomb attacks during US President George W Bush's September APEC visit.

• Concrete barriers to be set up in Sydney's CBD during next month's APEC meeting are intended to protect world leaders and divert traffic, says the head of the summit's police security command.

• State Transit buses have been converted into "mobile holding cells" to be used during the summit in September.The buses have a regular capacity of about 70 sitting and standing passengers. The conversion has involved placing a panel over the back window, replacing passenger windows with wire mesh and installing what amounts to a mini-prison inside each bus.

• High performance jet skis and rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBS) have been provided by the Howard Government to NSW Police to enhance marine security arrangements for APEC, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced today. (There's a harbour exclusion zone apparently)
  

• In a decision branded "pedantic" and "overkill" by recreational flyers, all aircraft - including remote control planes and model helicopters - will be banned within 80km of the Sydney CBD.

• The Australian Defence Force has said it will deploy Black Hawk helicopters, F/A-18 Hornet fighters and naval ships to intercept any aerial and seaborne threats during the conference. The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said a force of 1500 full-time and reserve troops would assist the security operation, which is being overseen by NSW police.

THE SPP from Moff

Moff muses. Same stuff is being tried in Sydney during the Apec Summit. Closing down the whole damn city.
I dunno the paranoia in the "free world" seems to be catching.

Concrete fence to encircle Sydney for APEC
Thursday Aug 2 06:00 AEST

By ninemsn staff

A huge concrete wall will be built around Sydney's CBD in a bid to protect potential targets from terrorists and protestors during next month's APEC meetings.

Dubbed the "ring of steel", the 2.8m high concrete-reinforced fence will shield well-known businesses such as McDonald's and Starbucks amid fears they could be attacked by demonstrators.

Cranes will begin installing the fence around the Hotel Inter-Continental at the corner of Bridge and Macquarie Sts over five days from August 31. The wall will surround much of the city's center, according to the Daily Telegraph.

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The idea of dividing a city with concrete is reminiscent of the Berlin Wall, an iconic symbol of the Cold War which split the European city for 28 years.

The wall is just one of several radical security measures being taken ahead of US President George W Bush's arrival in Sydney on September 5 for the annual summit.

As Bush's presidential motorcade makes its way through the city, a helicopter equipped with signal-jamming equipment will shut down mobile phone calls in the area to cut down the risk of a remote control bomb.

Forty permanent loudspeakers are being installed around the city to inform residents what to do in the event of a terrorist attack.

Police have bought a $600,000 water cannon for use if protests get violent and more than 30 buses will serve as mobile detention cells.

Chief executive officer of the NSW Business Chamber Kevin MacDonald said the decision to build the wall is understandable.

"Given the experience of other major meetings of world leaders in recent years, I can understand why the police have decided to erect a temporary fence," Mr MacDonald said.

"The fence is temporary and hopefully will not be needed."