Monday, May 16, 2011

Vale Lionel Rose

"A horse runs with his lungs, preservers with it's heart and wins with it's character" (Federico Tesio)

Lionel Rose wasn't a horse but he was a champion athlete and just like the champions bred by Federico Tesio he prevailed in and out of the ring against obstacles that others might have balked at. 

Sport is a great leveller. The $1000 gelding can beat the million dollar colt if he is good enough and wants to win badly enough, just as the little black kid from Jackson's Track can become a World Champion if he has the courage and the desire to do so.

I'm not surprised they will pack Festival Hall today to see him off.  It's a fitting measure of the character of Lionel Rose, a great boxer and a wonderful human being.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Just who is running this democracy

There are countries where the military has assumed control of the government and imposed itself on the citizenry, in some cases for decades. eg Burma, Libya.
We do things differently here in our democracy called Australia.
Or so I thought till 'Kate' revealed that some of her fellow cadets at a ADF training facility had videotaped her having sex and broadcast it. That's not a violation of democracy; just Kate and maybe women in general, but the Defence Force's subsequent actions were. They apparently tried to keep the Minister (that's our representative in the Parliament by the way) in the dark and said no law had been broken, there was nothing could be done, apart from giving the men involved a couple of days off their leave and making Kate front up to trial on an unrelated minor matter the next day.
The Minister rightly saw red and told them they were somewhere between "insensitive" and "stupid". Restrained of him in my opinion. They were both at least.
The ADF seems to think that because Ministers come and go with governments they can thumb their noses at any attempt to pry into their archaic procedures and practices.
But they fail to see that the constant factor here is we, the citizens of this democracy, who resent a bunch of boys with toys telling us that we have no place in interferring with what they do and how they do it.
If the Generals and Admirals and other cowboys of the ADF can't get the message that Australia is a modern democracy with modern values then maybe it's time for some early retirements.
Or maybe they'd like to take over the running of the country entirely. What’s their position on a Carbon Tax?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Feeling Exhausted after last Saturday

Finally we are rid of possibly the worst NSW government in living memory. As a former Labor member and a dedicated 'leftie' you will appreciate that it must have been bad for me to wish for a Liberal government. Truth is, they are, unfortunately, the only alternative.......... at the moment. The time will come when The Greens will overtake Labor as THE party of the left. But not while they continue to display the political naivety we saw on Saturday.
I was handing out How to Votes for the Greens at Kangaroo Valley. Their Lower House HTV recommended a '1' for the Greens candidate, Ben, and a '2' for Independent (former Labor member and Kiama Mayor) Sandra McCarthy then nothing. The fine print said you may number more squares if you wish but dedicated Greens supporters were more likely to follow the card and go 1,2 as suggested. Unfortunately all these ended in the 'exhausted' pile and played no part in the result.
It's unfortunate that not many people understand the workings of the preferential voting system. Most either can't be bothered or have an erroneous understanding but either way the OPTIONAL preferential system we have in NSW leads to many votes being wasted. The Federal system is to number AL:L squares thereby forcing voters to put one of the major parties (most common scenario) above the other. In most electorates this reults in being forced to choose between the Labor or Liberal candidate. If you can't do that stay home.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bring it on

The member for Gilmore has called for a debate as to whether Australia should embrace a nuclear future. Great idea. But first I think she should go on a fact-finding mission to Japan, a country with a history of involvement in nuclear power dating back to before the end of WWII.

While there she should immerse herself in the culture, eat plenty of the local produce, partake of the waters and generally soak up the atmosphere of the country. In this way she will pick up the vibe of the place and see what makes it tick.....tick, tick, tick.

I'm sure she'll come back highly energized by her experience and be able to illuminate us with a glowing report on the current state of the nuclear industry in Japan.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Just for you, Tony

My last entry on this blog was Nov 21, 2010. Not that there has been a shortage of topics to get excited, alarmed or furious about. It's just that I've been very busy and nothing has really got my goat.............until now.

Today Tony Abbott spoke at a rally against a Carbon Tax. He spoke to a group of people, including Pauline Hanson, best described as Bogans. ie the ugly Australians most often seen at anti-Muslim school rallies and anti-asylum seeker protests. They have a right to protest; this is not Libya. But today they, and Tony Abbott, crossed the line of respectability. Amongst the posters were "Ditch the Bitch", the 'bitch' being the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Tony Abbott spoke standing in front of a very large banner which proclaimed "JULIAR,  BOB BROWN'S BITCH".
Even if he or the Liberal Party didn't provide the banner, a potential Prime Minister should have had the acumen and common decency to insist that the banner be taken down before speaking. By not doing so he has effectively eschewed any right to the top job.  Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey were notable absentees from the rally. Wise indeed.

In 1993 John Hewson was a shoo-in in the polls to win the Federal election for the Liberals. Then he made a fateful decision to indulge himself in a series of shopping centre carpark rallies. The party faithful and political groupies in attendance shouted and screamed on cue. The TV news reported these rallies and showed footage of JH leading the chanting.

The public's reaction to this hoopla? Well, my dear old Mum looked on and sagely commented than she saw shades of Nazi rallies in those Aussie carparks and that it made her feel very apprehensive about John Hewson's bona fides as PM.

Come election day, the polls were proved disastrously wrong. There had been an unexpected turnaround in public sentiment in the last few days of the campaign. John Hewson was a political dead duck. Who knows what it was that caused this unexpected reversal but I like to think that my Mum was right, yet again.