To GPS or not to GPS, that is the question!

To GPS or not to GPS – that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the myriad folds and tiny text of the printed map, or to take arms and listen to the directions of a disembodied voice.

I have been trying to decide whether or not to get myself a GPS. I’m not that great with maps because I tend to forget the directions and constantly have to pull over to remind myself of where I’m supposed to be going. I also have a lot of trouble reading maps when I’m a passenger because doing it while the car is moving makes me feel nauseous. These seem like perfect reasons to get a GPS but I’m a bit wary because of a rather bad experience that could have been avoided if I’d been using a road map.

Constitution Hill is located in Johannesburg, South Africa and is (as you can probably tell from the name) the seat of the Constitutional Court of the country. It’s an interesting place to visit because it used to be a prison during the years of the apartheid government. It has now been turned into a tourist attraction where you are shown what life was like for the prisoners during that time. The only problem is that, because it was a prison, Constitution Hill is located right next to the rather dangerous suburb of Joville. It is not exactly a place you’d want to wander into by accident—which is of course what happened.

My brother and I had just finished visiting the prison and were heading out to meet some of our friends when our GPS decided to play up. A new bypass had just been built but the GPS didn’t recognise where we were in time for us to use it. So we followed the instructions to turn into the next road on the right and repeat that twice to get us back to where we started. Big mistake. You see, we didn’t know anything about Joville at the time (and of course neither did the GPS – although it would have been a nice addition to the software for it to warn us about it) and so we innocently drove into the seedy underbelly of Johannesburg.

To cut a long story short we ended up being pulled over by a very angry black police officer who proceeded to verbally abuse us and then ended up giving my brother a pat-down search. I was shaking like crazy when we drove out and was even more upset when we were told that we had had a narrow escape for someone who had driven into the wrong part of town.

So can you blame me for being a bit worried about trusting a GPS?

Image created from: Hamlet and GPS

Defensible secrets—what is the DOD keeping from us?

Let me tell you a story about Australian troops in Afghanistan. It involves a successful mission by the Special Forces who manage to kill or capture Afghani insurgents, evacuate over three dozen women and children from a compound, and finish up with no civilian casualties. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this happened? Well it did­--on October 18 2010 in the Shah Wali Kot region. There was even helmet-cam footage of the event! So why didn’t I hear about this until I watched this week’s episode of Hungry Beast?

The fact is that the video was never aired. What’s even more disturbing though is that no information about this operation was released by the Department of Defence (DOD) until a week after the event – and when it was, the media was given this headline: ‘Four Special Forces Soldiers Wounded During Operations’.

Is it just me or does this sound a bit wrong? Firstly, the delay. I understand the need for security, but the video was approved for release by the ground commanders and Australian Defence Force (ADF) – the people making the strategic decisions. And if the information was so sensitive, why was it published by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) within 24 hours of the event?

Secondly, why do we get only the bad news from Afghanistan? When our soldiers complete a task with a positive outcome, they aren’t getting our support or recognition. Even the media is getting the wool pulled over its eyes by the DOD, and they’re generally the ones responsible for manipulating information.

If this is happening when the Defence Minister Stephen Smith has assured us that the Defence Force and the Australian Government are being transparent as possible about the Afghanistan situation, what else are we missing out on?

Source: Hungry Beast – Episode 21 2011, television program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney. Defense Secrecy report by Kirsten Drysdale, 23 March 2011.

Image source: Defence Secrecy