The majority of them are usually oblivious to anyone or anything but themselves, and thus behave in a way that makes you shudder with embarrassment.

A classic example is someone who sends you naked pictures of themselves without asking, or giving any indication that’s what they’re going to do, first.

Another example is someone who bugs you for your personal contact details even after you have already declined.

There are literally millions of gay men and women online daters out there - you can easily afford to be picky.

If you have a bad feeling about someone, trust it!

However, be aware that there are some other, more malevolent trolls, who will try to bait you and lure you in to talking with them or meeting them.

So how can you tell if they’re a troll?

When I first began using online dating I had no idea, I was completely naive.

Resultingly, I fell victim to a troll on more than one occasion – thankfully I have never been physically bashed but:

•I’ve been homo-bashed in a chat room by an obvious gay-person hater. In fact, I think it was a 2 or 3 of them having a good laugh.

•I’ve gone on dates with troll’s, more than once. Shortly after we met it became very obvious they were nothing like they described.

•I had to change my phone number because I foolishly gave it out to a desperate troll who wouldn’t take 'no' for an answer.

I’m not trying to showcase my stupidity! I am just giving reasons why I had to, out of necessity, develop some kind of early detection system.

After a lot of trial-and-error, for both myself and my clients, I developed a check-list of yellow-flags'. Here are atwo of them:

1.Move-Out Ya Bum!

If you get any hints that they still live with their mom and dad, that’s a sign of a troll.

If they are young then it’s probably OK, but most gay online daters are mid-20’s and upwards.

From my experience, a grown gay man or woman still living at home is cause for concern.

If a relationship did start, you would have to always use your place. Additionally, you have to wonder if his or her parents even know your date is gay.

The tragic events resulting from recent Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 serve to again highlight fragile nature of many of world’s communities. In each of these locations key tasks of treating sick and injured, ensuring clean water was available, or made available, providing food, accommodation and so on was critically important as a first step on way to rebuilding these communities.

What further serves to highlight magnitude of challenges facing world as a whole, is fact that many other activities along development continuum continue to be in operation, or needed. In many cases these are needed in same countries affected by this tragedy.

Adam Gilchrist of Australian cricket team, during telecast of Tsunami relief match, commented with interest that within a very short period following disaster, hundreds of millions of dollars became available to support needs of affected communities. Yet he commented further that 15,000 people each day die unnecessarily in Africa from disease. His point was not to devalue Tsunami relief contribution, but rather to highlight need for ongoing commitment from those who are more fortunate in assisting those most in need.

So much more is needed.

As was seen in early stages of relief effort, citizens of world are incredibly generous and compassionate and recognise that we all can do something - sum of all parts can make a difference.

While each of us has different personal circumstances, which define type of support or involvement we can offer, there are plenty of options. These options can be as simple as a donation or sponsoring involvement, to volunteering internationally or domestically, or making long-term career decisions to be involved in development.

The Australian Government has shown a great lead through activities such as Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program (AYAD) (www.ausaid.gov.au/youtham). The program places young Australians on short- to medium-term assignments through which they have opportunity to employ their skills, as well as develop a greater understanding of development needs of our neighbours.

Similarly, organisations such as Australian Volunteers International (www.australianvolunteer.com) support recruitment, placement, preparation and management of volunteers for purpose of working towards sustainable development of communities. (It should be noted here that Australian government, through AusAID, is a major fund source for these programs).

Of course, volunteering for either short- or long-term assignments is not possible for everyone, which is fine. The astounding statistics relating to level of donation for Tsunami relief effort suggests that clearly there are many of us who have done other things, in whatever way we could, to offer support. Similarly, many of us sponsor children through organisations such as Plan (www.plan.org.au) and World Vision (www.worldvision.com.au).

All of this helps.

What about link between commercial aspects of development industry and benefits it is meant to deliver?

So often in conversations I hear statements such as “consultants are getting paid too much”, “firms are making too much profit” and so on.

Are these statements fair?

First of all I would think it a unique situation in any industry if there were not a difference in earnings between certain individuals and different organisations. So at some point in all industries, “they are making too much” is going to be heard. Just because it is said does not mean it is valid.