I am writing now from the airport in Malaysia, waiting for a connecting flight to New Delhi, following a fantastic week of meetings, dinners, and bit of sightseeing in Sydney, Australia for the Liberated Learning consortium annual meeting. (For those that do not know about this passion of mine…see liberatedlearning.com. It’s a project spawned out of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, initially to provide access to university lectures for deaf and hard of hearing students, using speech recognition technologies. It now includes about 20 universities worldwide, and “access” has broadened to include students with a range of disabilities - - e.g., students with learning disabilities that have problems notetaking are particularly enthusiastic supporters of this initiative.) The meetings this week on the topic were stimulating and exciting…a lot of like-minded people affiliated with universities, pushing these technologies for the public good. While you “live” the process, it often feels like the steps are too small and the movement is too slow. But since I have been involved in inception (10 years or so), I can also take the long view of where we were then and where we are now, and the progress has been impressive.
Another week in a developed country, where again there are marked differences with India, and even the US.
Jordan asked me on the phone how I liked spending time in the “west.” I told him that I don’t think Australia qualifies as “west.” He replied that any country where stray animals weren’t pooping on the streets qualifies as “west.” A new geographical definition…
There were the usual contrasts that I have already noted following my trip to California and New York. Paved streets, no (or little) visible homelessness, no animals on the street, no people peeing on the street. All of the toilets are “western style” – no “squat pots” as we often see in India (and even here, at the airport in Malaysia.) No stifling crowds, and the residents were relaxed and friendly. Every taxi used a meter, without special requests or haranguing on my part.
Something that Australia seems to have over the US (and also India) is their tipping policy. They don’t do it. Australians have said to me, “In Australia, we PAY our people.” Wait staff, taxi drivers, etc. are all sufficiently salaried where the tips are not a critical component of their pay. How lovely, and what a relief. I hate doing the math at the end of a meal or a trip, and making decisions based on how much cash I have in my pocket, the level of service, the needs of the worker (who might have told me that she is a part time student, for example.) (And in India, I hate the fact that LOTS and LOTS of people are awaiting some tip….the lady that gives you a paper towel in the women’s bathroom, a tout that volunteers to find you the place you are looking for, etc. etc…) My gut reaction was American-influenced….”what incentives do the waiters have to serve you well, when there is not tip?” But of course, MOST of us do our jobs as well as we can, without the expectation of “dog treats” after each round of service. Has anyone done a study of whether waiters work more efficiently under an “immediate reinforcement” model? In the end, someone pays for these things…in the US case, we are responsible for “covering” a significant portion of a waiter’s or taxi driver’s expense through the tipping system. In the Australia case, that is built into the individual’s salary, and then ultimately built into the price of the food or the cost of the ride. I vote the Australian model.
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