Let’s face it, it’s been a tough week. What we need now is an issue that will unify the nation. Happily we have one at hand, Australia’s pathological obsession with Schapelle Corby.
Corby is set to be deported from Indonesia in the coming days. She will be put on a burner and returned to the only place she would regard as worse than Bali’s Kerobokan Prison — Australia.
Ultimately Corby served nine years in Kerobokan and after being released in February 2014 has served a closely watched period of parole in Bali for the last three years.
Back in March 2005 when Corby was first convicted and sentenced, it was akin to the lunar landing, people crowding around televisions watching the verdict, the media going the full three ring circus routine. While some of the hysteria has subsided, it is set to ratchet up again as Corby prepares to set foot in Australia for the first time in almost 14 years.
Full column here.
I like this, we have already had our Donald Trump and his name was Tony Abbott.
Makes heaps of sense to me.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/what-if-australia-already-had-its-trump-moment-and-it-was-tony-abbott
13 consecutive negative Newspolls now in a row for hapless PM Turnbull, Mr Insider. A real “Barry Crocker” for the Member for Wentworth who fails miserably to connect with the average Aussie voter, as his defender Abbott in the linked article did too. Abbott scored a record 30 in a row but Big Mal now breathing down his neck. Jules Bishop stand by your day may be near, 2IC to OIC.
http://tinyurl.com/y9zzwz9n
A new Right Wing Political Party has sprung up, Mr Insider, and is giving the failing One Nation Party the finger! “Love Australia or Leave” its called mmmmm
http://www.loveaustraliaorleave.com.au/
Judging by their obvious displeasure at the current state of our great multicultural, tolerant and relatively gun-free nation, they should probably take their own advice.
Relatively gun free is not good enough for me JOH.
You’ll be pleased to know, Jack, my copy (used) of Martin Gilbert’s ‘Winston Churchill Vol 7’ landed here today, less than $8 all up. Amazing value. Anything by Gilbert is excellent, I’ve got a few of his.
But look at the thing. 1400pp, with maps!
On reading Vol 1 (‘Finest Hour’) I’ve picked up a new-found respect for Churchill. Eg, for the meeting of the Admiralty Board on 12/9/39 he referred to “… his own failure, in August 1914, to prevent the escape of the German battle cruiser Goeben from the Adriatic to the Dardanelles.” Fancy that, the comms cock-up that resulted in Turkey siding with Germany in WW1, and all the blood & shit that followed. His words in 1939, though, a perfect example of having “moved on” without trying to re-write or ignore history.
Congratulations, HU. That’s a very good buy for the definitive biography of Awibston. William Heinemann the publishers if memory serves me.
Last week I criticised Jennifer Oriel for comparing Tony Abbott to Donald Trump, but her article yesterday made sobering reading, especially in conjunction with Nick Cater’s today. And I say this as someone who many on the other side of the wall would probably regard as a lefty, although I certainly don’t think of myself as such.
Those who would destroy us and our freedoms will have no need to break down our gates, for we have ourselves flung the gates open and invited them in. There is something particularly despicable when a refugee who has come to Australia through our compassion and humanitarianism would repay it with all the gratitude of a funnel web spider.
Out of interest, I recently read Enoch Powell’s notorious ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech from 1968. It made interesting and uncomfortable reading. Uncomfortable because it is laden with neo-fascist racist prejudice about ‘Negroes’ and ‘the black man’, among other terms. Interesting because almost 50 years later, while his predictions have come true, he got the reasons completely wrong. Not once in his speech did the words Muslim or Islam get a mention. He thought the problem was race, rather than religion. Yet the start of his speech, before he descended into a racist rant, should be compulsory reading for all politicians. It’s a bit long, but I have included it below.
‘The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature.
One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary. By the same token, they attract little attention in comparison with current troubles, which are both indisputable and pressing: whence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future.
Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: “If only,” they love to think, “if only people wouldn’t talk about it, it probably wouldn’t happen.”
Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the thing, the name and the object, are identical.
At all events, the discussion of future grave but, with effort now, avoidable evils is the most unpopular and at the same time the most necessary occupation for the politician. Those who knowingly shirk it deserve, and not infrequently receive, the curses of those who come after.’
I don’t pretend to have the answers, but, as others have said, keep calm and carry on simply won’t do any more. I have had enough of giving dodgy people the benefit of the doubt. Indefinite internment perhaps. Much longer periods before refugees and migrants are eligible for Australian citizenship perhaps. No dual citizenship perhaps. No religion based schools perhaps. Providing more humanitarian aid to refugee camps, while steadfastly refusing to accept those who are unlikely to integrate into Australian society perhaps. Definitely less tolerance towards the intolerant.
All useful suggestions will be gratefully accepted, but probably not by the major parties.
“……….. while his predictions have come true…….. “? Rivers of blood? Really?
And I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate.
Many interesting things in your post NFY. Being a dual citizen of the UK and Australia I am particularly interested in the idea that dual citizenship might be something to do away with.
Nobody has yet been able to explain to me why forcing me to abandon my British citizenship (and that would be the one I would relinquish, if forced to) will make Australia a safer place. There seems to be a somewhat naïve assumption that if people are forced to hold only Australian citizenship that will be some kind of proof against violence and idiocy.
Good luck with that.
I remember a joke from years ago about Enoch Powell arriving at the Pearly Gates. He knocked and a voice said, “Who dat out d’ere?”
“Never mind” he said.
Almost hypnotic circuitous blathering with distinct undertones of authentic prevaricating gibberish.
You’ve got your hypotheses bum face about too, facts are actually strangled in a spider web of “truths.”
You do know the difference between facts and truths don’t you?
As for your Nietzsche, someone should have dropped a brick on his head and then challenged his interpretation of the event. “Nein! Nietzsche, I am not dropping a brick on your head, you are just making a judgement based on your own prejudices.”
Straight question for a straight answers please. Do you believe the US landed humans on the moon in 1969?
Or do you think what we have had rammed down our throats is an “interpretation” of events that occurred in a venue right here on earth?
I’ve walked on the moon Carl. Low tech. I built it in my back yard, called it the moon and walked on it.
Cheers. You larrikin.
Hi
circus dont need no bigtop no more….
http://www.fbr.com.au/
https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/869352988791517184
Dear Henry,
Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter what they write anyway.
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/wild-donald-trump-quotes/8/
Leftie twaddle designed to appease the simple minded, Mr Baptiste, POTUS Trump speaks his mind to this very day, unlike career Politicians who feed us horse feathers! Cheers
Yes he does speak his mind every day Enery. That’s the really worrying part!
Dear Henry,
I can only attribute The Donald’s petulant and childish behaviour to his spats with his wife.
The poor fellow has so much of his narcissistic sense of self worth invested in her it is overwhelming all other aspects of his daily life. Exacerbated of course by the dawning realisation that the pragmatic Melania never did love him and now holds him in contempt even at the pinnacle of his life.
Just look at how much weight the fat bastard is stacking on! He’s got it bad Henry, love, especially unrequited love does strange things to a man. Sadly for him the poor lovesick fool’s behaviour will become more and more bizarre before he expires to make room for the scintillatingly witty, effervescent and effusive VP to take the reins.
I hope the press cuts him a bit of slack taking his personal life into consideration.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/donald-trump-trip-abroad-saudi-arabia-europe-nato-climate-change-human-rights-handshakes-a7761036.html
My dear Mr Baptiste, goodness me fellow get used to POTUS Trump he will be with you for 1 or 2 terms. He’s not a Politician and that’s why he was elected as many worldwide are sick of Politician’s. He’s a bit like your hero Kimmie of North Korea, a “‘doing” man. POTUS Trump on his way to becoming the saviour of the USA, a future of which was snuffed out by career Politicians who said a lot and did very little. FLOTUS Trump looking radiant after the OS trip too. Say what cheek that Jeremy Corbyn is giving in the UK, goodness me read my post @10.03am! Cheers good buddy, sleep well.
Pence is the chosen one Henry. The GOP establishment has pulled a fast one and the seat warmer Trump wont get through a single term. Once he starts to wreck the US economy and isolate the nation his goose will be cooked. One hopes there are movers and shakers with a dry sense of humour who will time his demise for Thanksgiving day. That’s one big fat turkey to baste!
Of course the FLOTUS is looking radiant, she is taking Trump to the cleaners, milking the sad old goat for all it is worth. My contact in the White House tells me the goss on the trapline is she is being run by a consortium of Russian private investors? Every time she smiles is an indication she has just squeezed another million out of the porky crown prince of chauvinism.
His bankers are getting nervous.
As odd as it might seem there is a chance Corbyn might pull it off. There are signs that the voters having gotten over their giddy fit of Brit jingoism are getting a serious case of the willies over leaving the union. Ignore the exit polls at the election, Brits never admit to cacking their dacks even when they are looking decidedly sheepish and trailing a miasma of a distinctly suspect nature.
Trump isn’t helping there either! He’s spooking the cattle, there could be a stampede when the whips are crackin’.
Yippie yi yo! Whop it up ’em Henry, make ’em take it.