Hamarana

I made a post back in May after really listening to John Williamson singing True Blue…

That post has turned up in searches I guess, after last night’s memorial service for Steve Irwin, and has generated quite a bit of discussion…

Join the discussion here

I’ve been around long enough now to remember what life was like before television came to this country, and when pubs didnt open until the afternoon, and closed at 10pm, and when you could mostly understand what people were saying, and when terms in common use stemmed from the UK, not America. I remember the family sitting down to dinner at the same time every night, with no members missing, and the meal being cooked in the kitchen, not bought at a drivethrough. I remember when it was the parents who made decisions in the family and the kids accepted thats how things were, and it was no big deal. I remember when swearing was unusual, so if a swearword was used you knew that whatever had prompted it must have been pretty bad. I remember when I was in school, having to conform to a set of behavioural standards which were not difficult to maintain because they embodied respect for everyone. What the hell happened??

The Pope put his foot where his mouth should have been… and managed to offend millions of Muslims, worldwide. The issue was regarding the propensity of Muslims for violence.

The Muslim world has responded by: demanding an apology, burning effigies, issuing death threats and in some cases going on rampages… I would say that this is violence.

Things that make you go “hmmmmmmmmm”

Can anyone explain to me the fascination that teen females (usually sub-15) have with ringing doorbells and then running away?

I seem to recall when coparenting a teen female that this was highly amusing to her, as well. But it was something she did occasionally, not daily, as has become the habit in my neighbourhood.

I left my former abode to come out to the burbs to escape ferals… They seem to have followed me: my street is now full of renters, rather than the owner/occupiers who were here 6 years ago when I first started looking… and they aren’t what you’d call “quality” renters.

Am I being precious? You betcha! I want a quiet life, I work in a people industry and I do not want it following me into my own environment. These budding antisocial PDs banging on my door and ringing the bell are just what I need to galvanise me into shaping up and shipping out.

Well, either that, or build a 6 foot brick fence. There are many advantages to fences. One of those is being able to keep people OUT and stop the vexatious opportunistic rubbish behaviours one sees so much of.

*GRUMBLE*

I don’t normally post about political/social issues in this blog, but its about to change. I am not often moved sufficiently, these days, but our government’s recent activity has caused my anger to surface once more.

Yesterday, right across Australia, between 8.30am and 10.30 am, there were stop-work meetings and protests about the Australian Federal Government’s new legislation which is going to see workers rights completely decimated.

These rights, which have been worked hard for by various Unions and their memberships over the years are about to be demolished. There has been almost no debate in parliament, and there has been no invitation from the Government to anyone except employer groups to comment publicly about the new laws. The government has spent millions and millions of dollars on propaganda (taxpayer dollars of course) to persuade us that its best for us to take pay cuts and fewer holidays blah blah blah (oh no, they dont *say* that in the adverts, but if you read between the lines, its pretty obvious)

The government tells us things will be better. The reality is that our current rights to paid sick leave, annual leave and so on are going to be eroded. Employers will have the right to offer employees anything they like, good or bad, and the employees will have no choice but to take whats offered or be jobless. The government promises that people on current awards will not be affected, but we know how they lie and lie and lie about any issue thats so touchy, and so we also know that once this legislation is passed, the rest will follow.

We have had it pretty good over here. We get decent amounts of annual leave, public holidays and a 38 hour working week. Thats changing. We get decent (not fabulous, but decent) wages. Thats going to change. Under the new legislation, employers will be able to force people to work on public holidays like Christmas Day, they will be able to make people work over weekends, and they will be able to do all this without paying overtime or penalty rates, because the new legislation will allow it. “Enterprise bargaining” is the new watchphrase for this government. Which is fine if you have something to bargain with… I was initially not fazed, and can see some advantages for some people. I, for example, am quite marketable in my field of employment, I probably won’t be affected by the changes… but what about the poor kids just starting out, what about those who havent been about for long in the workforce and what about those in unskilled laboring jobs… they are so much at risk now, its frightening.

Yesterday’s meetings and protest brought people out in the hundreds of thousands, all over the country. John Howard doesnt give a shit. He was in our city a couple of days ago, there have been some Boeing workers on strike (and I confess that I cannot recall why), he spent 15 minutes with them, but hours and hours at the private home of one of the biggest developers in the Newcastle – Lake Macquarie region. That should give some idea of where his priorities lie.

This legislation should not be allowed to go ahead. But it will, because we all know that with the Government in control of both Houses of Parliament, there is no effective way to stop it.

I do hope those people who voted for the Liberal Party for both houses at the last election are giving pause to think about the consequences of their decisions…

Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.