I TOLD THEM SO,YEARS AGO.

Years ago, when the Sydney  Morning Herald used to publish my letters, I commented several times on the absurd situation when the taxpayers had to pay for the training of hundreds if not thousands of sports stars for nothing , while academic “stars” had to enter into a hex scheme so that they could pay for their courses  later.  It struck me as being unfair that many, if not most, of our sporting heroes finished up  living overseas, making enormous sums of money, contributing  nothing, (not even taxes) back to Australia.
Meanwhile our science, medicine, arts, etc graduates, who had to pay for their courses, contributed a great deal of their skills to Australians’, as well as the world’s health and welfare.At last, it appears that the Government has woken up to the fact that most of our sportspersons contribute nothing  except to the needs of the couch potatoes who seem to regard themselves as “sportsmen.”
Sports Minister Kate Ellis has said that “There are questions in the community whether the very top bracket should be contributing back to their sport.”
Good question, Minister, but why only the top bracket? After all, even those who don’t top their university courses, still have to pay for them . The taxpayers spend millions on sport. What do the non participants get back for their money?
After what’s going on within the ranks of some of the Athletes and RL players, they can’t even claim to be “ambassadors” for Australia!

OH GOD! NOT THIS AGAIN!

Well, as they say, what comes around, goes around.  Here comes the Coalition campaign against the wicked Moslems all over again. Remember? They’re all terrorists, they never wash, they wear funny clothes, the women all look as they’re going to a funeral, the young ones are all multiple rapists or pedophiles and they shout from the roof of their mosque at five o’clock in the morning  when the decent members of the community are still sleeping off last night’s hangovers.
Howard and Ruddock were right.  Let ‘em drown, the lot of  ‘em!
Of course, all those lies and all that cruelty got Howard re-elected, and it’ll surely do the same for big bold Malcolm.

So far I’ve only heard one member of the Coalition criticise the Howard policy.   That was a courageous back bencher who got so little coverage that his name escapes me.
Apart from him, it was all being recited from the same script:
“We told you so; they’ll do anything. they’ll even chuck their kids overboard. We’ve got pictures to prove it. They’re going to come down here by the thousands. We’ll be swamped by filthy Moslems in filthy boats.  They’ll steal our belongings  rape our daughters or wives, or sons for that matter,  and it’ll all be Kevin’s  fault! “
I can hear  David Oldfield on Sydney Radio2GB spewing out  poison into the night for all his receptive insomaniacs to pass onto their kids and neighbours.

Of course they’ll never mention the fact that there are wars in Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Afghanistan which have hundreds  of thousands of pathetic, innocent people whose lives are in constant danger who are willing to go anywhere to save their own lives and those of their children. Thousands of them are going all over the world. 30,000 to Italy, 30,000 to Spain, wherever a seaboard they’ll go.  Australia has a very large seaboard, but one very dangerous to get to by old, leaking tubs run by unscrupulous crooks who don’t care how many refugees get to their destination as long as they pay.
The present Government is doing whatever is humanely possible to prevent them from coming.  They are patrolling our borders and processing any refugees that make it to see if they are acceptable ans migrants.  That is what the Howard Government basically set out to do.
It became a shameful  system of deterrence by brutality gave Australia a  reputation all over the world which will take us years to live down.

Does the Coalition really want a return to the Howard, Ruddock  system in which the asylum seekers (not “illegals” as the Coalition called them) were either allowed to drown, or incarcerated  in Detention Centers in  which children attempted to commit suicide or saw such dreadful things being done to their parents that they’ll be traumatised for the rest of their lives ; where the  inmates were brutally beaten by the guards in the remoter centers far away from the public gaze.
And that was the Australia to which Turnbull & Co wish to return.
Nice one, Malcolm. Is there anything you wouldn’t stoop to to become Prime Minister?

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IT WORKED IN THE PAST.

It would appear that, since the banks have chosen to ignore the Reserve Bank’s recommendations for lower interest rates,  and since Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity is fast approaching negative figures, and while Peter Costello would love to be leader but his ticker is advising against it, it would be an ideal opportunity  for the Government to Nationalise the Commonwealth Bank, so that it would give the rest some meaningful competition.  It should be pointed out that the Commonwealth Bank was originally founded by a Labor Government in the 1930′ to protect those unfortunates who had lost their jobs, against the private banks repossessing their houses when they were unable to meet their mortgage repayments.
Of course the Nationalisation of the Commonwealth Bank would elicit the usual howls of  “socialism” from Turnbull and co;   in fact, Malcolm is beginning to slip the word in whenever he can now, but it doesn’t seem to scare the pants of the electorate.  Malcolm has become so negative that he’s lost the electorate.  The PM has the trust of the people despite the efforts of the Australian whose cartoons are becoming more and more offensive, as are the caricatures of Rudd which accompany its articles.
One wonders if the Chifley Government had succeeded in nationalising all the banks as they tried to do in 1949, what the state of the economy would be now.

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AT LEAST HE DIDN’T SAY “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM ?!!!”

There’s no doubt about it,  the Opposition sure is getting desperate!  So the PM did his block when he didn’t get the meal he ordered.  Big deal!  The poor bugger’s been working 24-7 running from one meeting to another.  He finally gets on his plane looking forward to a meal and a rest, and along comes the wrong dinner.  And tired as he was, he was rude to the young lady who brought it to him.  Pretty silly, but hardly important enough for the Opposition to make a ten course dinner out of it, especially since the PM apologized almost immediately and gracefully.

Julie Bishop is hardly a multi-mega brain, but on this morning’s ABC INSIDERS  she excelled herself. By the time she’d finished, she’d made such a goose of herself  thayt  she’d probably increased Rudd’s popularity by another couple of points.  She tried to picture him some sort of as a  Chinese spy and every other type of villain she could think of. It was a pathetic performance which excelled even Malcolm Turnbull’s efforts.
When will the Libs ever realise that the minute they come on the air the public turns off.
Even the talkback crownd on 2GB are beginning to give up!

DID THE COPS REALLY HAVE THE TIME TO WATCH 4 CORNERS?

The case of  Judge Marcus Einfeld seems to have brought out the worst of the “tall poppy syndrome” in the community.
Sure the judge told some awful porkies to evade a few trivial speeding fines.  Sure he compiled an eight page booklet of lies about dead people being at the wheel of his car at the time of the offences, but no one was in any way hurt by all this except Einfeld himself.  In fact the behaviour of the judge was so dumb, that one must ask oneself why a man of such achievements and intelligence should do something so unbelievably stupid.  The obvious answer is that, like so many other public figures, he saw himself as being above the law.  In this he is certainly not alone.  Remember all the  “”DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?”, incidents involving politicians trying to stand over lesser beings? The case in a Central Coast restaurant and all the lies that were told by the local MP trying to wriggle out of a nasty insight into her character is one. And then there’s the Federal MP trying to pull rank in the same way over an air hostess trying to persuade her to turn off her mobile while in flight.
No one of those personages  finished up in court.  Yet Einfeld, despite his impressive record in the human rights field and many other good works was sentenced to two years in prison, stripped of his OA and his QC status, and various eager beavers even tried to strip him of his pension!
And now, in an unprecedented piece of sheer maliciousness, the police noticed that, in the ABC’s Four Corners interview on 21st March, Einfeld wasn’t wearing a seat belt while in the backseat of a car. Now they’re looking for another charge to hang on him!
No wonder there was only one copper at Mascot when the bikies were murdering  each other, the rest were watching Four Corners.

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AND THE WINNER IS………….!?

You know, there’s something awfully embarrassing about Malcolm Turnbull’s hurry to become P.M.
Safe in his  position as the moderate leader of a reformed Liberal Party, Malcolm used to even agree with some of the Government’s policies, even its proposed new IR laws , on the grounds that the public gave the Government a clear mandate to ditch the mean Howard Costello efforts.
But that all changed  when Peter Costello began to have shorter lunches, play less golf, and appear in the House now and again.  Now we have the tough, no nonsense Malcolm who’ll show these Socialists a thing or two.  Where he was going to pass the new IR Bills  Malcolm,now taking a leaf out of Peter’s book, decided that there wasn’t a mandate at all. So his Party found all kinds of nits to pick, and it was left to the Greens and Senators Fielding and Xenophon to reap the glory leaving Malcolm to reap the facial eggs.
Funnily Peter was nowhere to be seen in Parliament House. He had an urgent speaking engagement in Melbourne and was no doubt carving another little picture of a top hat next to the others on his desk.
Oddly enough, although he’s now topping Malcolm in the opinion polls, one can’t help feeling, going on his past record, Peter would make a lousy leader.  Imagine him now if he were PM facing the hard decisions PM Rudd has to make on a daily basis?  And don’t forget he hasn’t got Geo. Dubya’s coat tails to hang onto. No man of steel, now.  Just a ham faced, spoiler without his smirk and no ticker to speak of.
Maybe ‘honest John’ was really being being honest for a change.

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AH, THE GOOD OLD DAYS!

Probably most people have forgotten the hanging of Ronald Ryan in Victoria in the 1950’s.  He was the last man hanged in Australia.  It is an event which I will never forget.  How could anyone at the time. In the weeks leading up to it, the media went into a feeding frenzy the like of which is seldom seen. There were endless items about wretches, unable to walk to the gallows because of their terror, being dragged there by a couple of burly warders; about death watches by warders, The last meal, the procession to the place of execution lead by a priest reading extracts from the bible (always omitting the bit about “thou shalt not kill), the springing of the trap, and the twitching body being examined by a doctor.
There were photos of the relatives involved being chased by eager paparazzi, and members of the public, some of the “he had it coming-ites”, some expressing disgust, and some old dears quoting “appropriate” passages from the good book.
The reason the memory still sticks in mine, is that the night before the hanging I had a dream, probably one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had.  I dreamed I was in the death cell, waiting to be hanged the next morning.  I dreamed it all, from the fat, friendly guard trying to cheer me up by telling my weak jokes, and the last meal of Wiener schnitzel and potato salad being wheeled in on a tray. I remember that I couldn’t eat any of it, and gave it to the guard who ate it with gusto. I tried to sleep but the light was on so I buried myself in my blankets. Then the head warder came in with a priest and asked me if I was ready.  I stood up and suddenly it hit me. I was about to die. I remember the cold terror that came over me a I staggered along the corridor accompanied by a banging  of tin mugs and people shouting things like, ” keep your chin up, they’ll do it for you soon!!) Then we went through an open door and there were the gallows—– and I woke up, bathed in sweat, shivering, terrified and ALIVE!
From that moment on, I have been a firm opponent of the death penalty.  I wouldn’t even support executing Eichman, or Hitler, or Genghis Khan for that matter.

So imagine my surprise when in the Sydney Morning Herald of  March 14, I came across an item headed “FEDERAL LAW AIMS TO STOP DEATH PENALTY.” aimed at stopping the states from reintroducing capital punishment. It appears that, while capital punishment was no longer legal Federally, it was still on State Statute books although no further hangings took place in Australia after Ryan’s. The last state to abolish it was NSW in 1985.
After, and the Bali bombing in 2002 and the 9/11 bombing in the US, John Howard, ever the political opportunist, suggested the Liberal  opposition parties should make the reintroduction of the death penalty an election issue.

There always seems to have been an almost sadistic streak in the minds of the Conservative side of Australian politics.  This is perhaps best brought out in a book by David Marr and Marian Wilkinson. Titled”DARK VICTORY”
it describes the almost insane measures by which the Howard Government, helped by some of their thoroughly politicisation public servants, attempted to keep out asylumn seekers arriving in Australia by boat.
Beginning with the story of the TAMPA, it tells of some of the SIEV boats, and how their unfortunate passengers were treated, on Government orders, by a reluctant navy and army.

The refugees, having committed no crime, were labelled “illegals” and were towed back into Indonesian waters with their ancient, leaking boats sinking beneath them.  Terrified of being sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan, they sabotaged their boats’ engines so eventuallythe navy had to pick them up.  According to DARK VICTORY some of the sailors were crying during these operations.
Get DARK VICTORY, It’s a bloody good read, and it’ll give you some idea of the monsters that we sometimes elect to govern us!
Oh! In case you were wondering, despite what Peter Reith said, there never were any “kids thrown overboard”.

Doesn’t anyone else ever get bored?

Another day, another issue of a weekend magazine devoted too sportsmen. This time its the one in our Australian which celebrates the 20th anniversary from a predictable selection of these muscle benders and hitters or kickers of balls of all shapes and sizes.  The main muscles these worthies exercise is the buttock muscles of the couch potato brigade, who watch their exploits on ever increasing sizes of television sets which dominate their living rooms until there’s hardly anywhere to sit. One wonders if there’s anyone else doing anything worth while in Australia.  Writers, scientists, medical researchers, stage actors, writers, painters and a dozen other categories don’t seem to exist in these magazines.
One wonders if anyone reads them anymore and if so why?.

Bugger the hospitals, what about thse really in need!!!

The other day I gave a donation to Hornsby Hospital towards a new anesthetic machine which it badly needed.  Recently I spent two weeks in the hospital and got some idea of what a tremendous job its staff was doing on a chronic shortage of funds.
Hornsby isn’t the only state hospital in the same plight. They are all short of funds.That’s why you read about babies being born in toilets, and overworked nurses and doctors making mistakes.  But not to worry.  When there’s a need, the State Government has the cash.  Take the badly needed Catholic Youth Week which cost us $140m.  Now there’s an organisation which needed help.  It must be terribly short staffed, what with a lot of the clergy in goal, and all the compensation the church has to pay for their peccadilloes.
And now the Government is about to show more of its generosity to another vital cause. When  all the lobbyists came knocking on its door, the Premier took a look at all their torn jeans and scuffed sandshoes and gave them a tiny $30m towards a racetrack for  some V8 races at Homebush Bay.  Sure there’ll have to be a lot of trees taken out, and the people living nearby will need new eardrums, but hell, think of the money it’ll make Channel 7!  And think of the donations, not to speak of the jobs we’ll get!

What was that about the light on the hill?
Dunno, I was still on a garbage run when it was all going on.

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IF YOU WANNABE PM,FOR GOD’S SAKE STAY AT HOME!

Of all the nonsense that’s going on in our political scene at the moment, surely the silliest campaign is the one which is leveled at the PM’s trips overseas. Loudest amongst his critics is our shiny new leader of the Opposition.  Fresh from a nice holiday in the Venetian sun, and totally devoid of any ideas (except that he’s desperate to be PM), Malcolm Turnbull has joined the fray.
Naturally the loudest and most irrational of Rudd’s critics, is the talk back herd.  A typical example of this mob of air-heads, is Sydney 2GB’s midnight to dawn host, David Oldfield, the ex adviser and friend of Pauline Hansen and ex Member of the NSW Upper House,  where he seemed to represent nobody except himself.
As with virtually all 2GB “hosts”, Oldfield seems to be dedicated to getting rid of our present Federal Government by foul means or foul.  Amongst his other targets are Moslems, Sudanese and any other races which annoy some of his mob of adoring bigots.  He usually opens his remarks with a run down of whatever happens to have been in today’s Daily Telegraph, which seems to be his main source of information, and any dirt from any other source he can lay his mouth on.
What preoccupies me, is why these windbags think that Australia’s Prime Minister shouldn’t travel overseas to meet with other world leaders to discuss these difficult times, and the problems arrising therefrom. Or is it just Labor PMs who are supposed to stay at home.  Is the PM supposed to deal with these matter on the phone, or by emails. It appears that our national inferiority is still alive and well on talk-back radio.
Probably the most significant thing about this, is that all these complaints are aimed at a Labor Prime Minister.  Nobody complained when the saintly Bob Menzies sat around at Lords watching a test match or two on the Australian tax payer, or when John Howard went to Washington on numerous occasions to brown nose the intellectually challenged Geo W Bush, and agree to send Aussie troops to a war founded on a lie, and which was none of our business, anyway.  And, of course, as with Saint Bob of the Pig Iron, John the Man of Steel, had to have  the mandatory visit to  Lords.

Which brings me to the subject of talk-back radio.  This medium wasn’t around when I was a kid.  Commercial radio at that time put on some decent programs.  They weren’t all highbrow stuff.  That was left to the ABC and some on 2GB.  The commercial stations put on some serials, both before and after dinner, some classical music – and 2GB and 2UW put on a weekly live, hour long play, which was performed in front of a studio  audience. On 2CH, good old Bob Rogers played the kind of music he still plays. At that time the station belonged to the Anglican Church, and 2SM belonged to the Catholic Church. 2KY belonged to the trade unions and, as far as I can remember, broadcast a mix of music and other non offensive, non ear splitting music or 24 hour a day horse races. I particularly remember 2UE because their popular breakfast announcer, Gary O’Callaghan  spent time talking to Sammy Sparrow, a character he invented and which the public loved. Gary lived next door to us and every now and then I got a friendly roast from his bird.  It was all good fun.The ABC consisted of Stations 2BL, which  was the highbrow station broadcasting a great deal of classical music, and 2FC which catered for a more general audience. The ABC didn’t broadcast any advertising material.
2FC had a children’s session with an “Argonaut’s club” to which children contributed items.
It was the ABC which taught me English.  Having arrived here in 1939 as refugees from Nazi Germany, we had no radio, so every afternoon I went to a kindly neighbour who encouraged me to participate with contributions.

I know I seem to have digressed, but I wanted to give some idea of what was on offer then, and the commercial loaded crap which is al that’s available on commercial radio now.  The most obnoxious of all that is talk-back.
Alan Jones, 2GB’s breakfast announcer is the most influential talk-back host.  He is also by far the most intelligent of them.  He is, in my view, also the most dangerous since he seems to wield a great deal of political influence which, having had close ties with the Liberal Party, he uses accordingly.  However, 2GB appears to have only right wing talk back announcers ranging from Jones to the pathetically transparent  Oldfield.
There are several problems with this format.

* Firstly, the announcer controls the content.  When one calls, one is usually (but not always) asked what one wants to say.  This is put on the announcer’s computer.  If the views you express are not favoured by the announcer, he can cut you off, and answer you once you can’t reply.  This is particularly undesirable  at election time, since anything political put to air  by an anonymous caller does not have to authorized by any Party

* Secondly, because the callers only have to give their christian name, they can slander anyone they wish or say what they want about any racial or religious group and any group wishing to reply can only do so if the announcer allows their call to go to air.

All in all, it seems that  some sort of Legislative control on talk back radio is long overdue.  Most of it lowers  discussion to the level of the lowest common denominator of society, and is entirely controlled by the talk-back gatekeeper who has the power to skew any discussion in any direction he wishes.

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