tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875027395665847142024-03-13T23:55:43.784+11:00Midlife - A JourneyLozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.comBlogger640125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-71850820313157376572020-06-13T12:33:00.002+10:002020-07-14T13:38:12.072+10:00BLM part 2<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I hear you. How dare they march. How dare they protest about racism. How dare they claim black lives matter more than all lives. “They” as if “they” is something different to “us”. And the mere mention of “them” proves that you do see a difference, a deep abiding bitter enshrinement of a failure to recognise truth and to embrace that truth not as an ideal, but as a right and a debt we owe our ancestors. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Are you not concerned that the division in the country, the disparity in life expectancy, in health outcomes, in incarceration rates are the shame of this country that sees “them” instead of “us”.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">And some of you who read this are saying “you don’t want to get locked up then don’t do crime.” But I ask you to think about whether the innocence of children as they set foot upon the path of life inevitably needs to lead to the bars of prison, the intergenerational poverty and domestic violence or the sad ending of youth suicide, cries in a forest where no one hears.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We claim to be a just society, one of egalitarianism, one which believes in a fair go, in mateship, in the myth of struggle of our ancestors that those of us who live now can never truly know. And all this at a time when so many of “us” complain about “them”.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t expect to change minds. I only hope that some of you will seek the Truth, and you won’t find it in the strident overly loud voices in the Murdoch Press. You may not find it in the speeches of angry people, however justified the anger, at marches and rallies where they are already preaching to the converted. You most assuredly will not find it on the tongues of politicians and others who have a vested interest in promoting division.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Listen to the voices, listen to the stories, hear the truth. Understand that there is only “us”, we should never accept the differences that divide. Should never close our hearts to suffering or the pain that endures through the years and generations.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a link to Stan Grants Lecture at the University of New South Wales in 2016. It is long, far longer than the attention span required for the TikTok or Instagram generation. But if you wish to begin a journey to learn the truth and yearn like I do to get us to a place of us and not them, please listen to what he says.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqnNe-YzGaEI%26t%3D6s%26fbclid%3DIwAR3sfPQCGJsgywbtIPN5fJYsgKtEh1HSeCzG_xpq_ZiBCS0o9turefetrpk&h=AT3WYjqwGTUkX2ajujrzQOMkNY29xskF42f-gpiZHZWboTuJ-bTlNAR4gm_KO3vp0zBQFBisJQ5ba7eqLe73fg7tgl1RGsXjo269WO1A5MVxVIc1JRDGaG8rxPs4ERr6NA&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT2IxnGb-b85HB9Gr-GNyuiXUBVt-dAVFJnY5e5qzkx0KorX28rq5WRCLxK7WBqIsKO0ff5UW_lLOqTFC27pIcpZ24uuw0Ko2FpyM-CFXIIwrjDubioVHUGNObG2_KH16xMWy_KggfiqmYaWTeemRw" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnNe-YzGaEI&t=6s</a></span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">One final thing I will ask is if you get to the end and you spend the 43 minutes listening to this then please just take the time to say “Us” in a comment below. I suspect that there will be little if any response, firstly because it takes a while to read one of my posts and many may not get way down in the weeds here, and secondly, more sadly, I don’t think many will watch the lecture through to the end because Masterchef or Big Brother may be more important to them.</div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-40619477960398499742020-06-11T13:43:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:45:09.210+10:00I hear you<div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="" dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_xf" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--primary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I hear you. How dare they march. How dare they protest about racism. How dare they claim black lives matter more than all lives. “They” as if “they” is something different to “us”. And the mere mention of “them” proves that you do see a difference, a deep abiding bitter enshrinement of a failure to recognise truth and to embrace that truth not as an ideal, but as a right and a debt we owe our ancestors. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Are you not concerned that the division in the country, the disparity in life expectancy, in health outcomes, in incarceration rates are the shame of this country that sees “them” instead of “us”.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">And some of you who read this are saying “you don’t want to get locked up then don’t do crime.” But I ask you to think about whether the innocence of children as they set foot upon the path of life inevitably needs to lead to the bars of prison, the intergenerational poverty and domestic violence or the sad ending of youth suicide, cries in a forest where no one hears.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We claim to be a just society, one of egalitarianism, one which believes in a fair go, in mateship, in the myth of struggle of our ancestors that those of us who live now can never truly know. And all this at a time when so many of “us” complain about “them”.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t expect to change minds. I only hope that some of you will seek the Truth, and you won’t find it in the strident overly loud voices in the Murdoch Press. You may not find it in the speeches of angry people, however justified the anger, at marches and rallies where they are already preaching to the converted. You most assuredly will not find it on the tongues of politicians and others who have a vested interest in promoting division.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Listen to the voices, listen to the stories, hear the truth. Understand that there is only “us”, we should never accept the differences that divide. Should never close our hearts to suffering or the pain that endures through the years and generations.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a link to Stan Grants Lecture at the University of New South Wales in 2016. It is long, far longer than the attention span required for the TikTok or Instagram generation. But if you wish to begin a journey to learn the truth and yearn like I do to get us to a place of us and not them, please listen to what he says.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqnNe-YzGaEI%26t%3D6s%26fbclid%3DIwAR3nObf6zkj-mu-cx2b4qM1rgDis1WmVf58hL-w_PUFBGQWSMqK4hCPmCiU&h=AT3OaX3UNF4sxJTgU18UFfb8ZjM6ftPxcRcZdmym-NdExyl-XZgUnegUlj8ZmHSeQcx4vosFjKXP0UU9bWBilu3OzIkgmGnFeXhwtF0Zc15TEp8pjtOx_FhTYA7rJcLRiQ&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT0YE4xhQLWdgibOINn5kvd6t0OSks6pjOQLIBRmw5S_iCzEbbBj9OCvOxAUcK8pxJjjOrSt-0sEanWDd5H1pvQtKEWF7w2YcBO23ow9VVECaKZAW4Qvfz7U_GbmYbXt_sggSkgUeE5klVrpF1Z_ow" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnNe-YzGaEI&t=6s</a></span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">One final thing I will ask is if you get to the end and you spend the 43 minutes listening to this then please just take the time to say “Us” in a comment below. I suspect that there will be little if any response, firstly because it takes a while to read one of my posts and many may not get way down in the weeds here, and secondly, more sadly, I don’t think many will watch the lecture through to the end because Masterchef or Big Brother may be more important to them.</div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="b3i9ofy5 l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="j83agx80 soycq5t1 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7" style="display: flex; font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 gpro0wi8 datstx6m k4urcfbm" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqnNe-YzGaEI%26t%3D6s%26fbclid%3DIwAR2y9sv5ymiQITNJoYXn8J3LqsGTptBqA4Iqeh2tSPTjN2oUzfcrD7QlURw&h=AT0CjM0HqG81E3uNSPp1azMZhcedW-FF9CiBbQz_mupKUcUniKHVwArAOX9JRsc8CmSNtSMX-gyldPwkw76gafzRrrXydWHW77JJhTnj_WTziR-ERMXprZV4AQ3zJbr4hw&__tn__=H-R&c[0]=AT0YE4xhQLWdgibOINn5kvd6t0OSks6pjOQLIBRmw5S_iCzEbbBj9OCvOxAUcK8pxJjjOrSt-0sEanWDd5H1pvQtKEWF7w2YcBO23ow9VVECaKZAW4Qvfz7U_GbmYbXt_sggSkgUeE5klVrpF1Z_ow" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; height: 261px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; width: 500px;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><div class="k4urcfbm l9j0dhe7 stjgntxs ni8dbmo4 cbu4d94t j83agx80 tqsryivl bp9cbjyn" style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 500px;"><div style="font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 500px; width: calc((100vh + -325px) * 1.91571);"><div class="do00u71z ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 261px; position: relative;"><div class="pmk7jnqg kr520xx4" style="font-family: inherit; height: 261px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 500px;"><img alt="Stan Grant Wallace Wurth Lecture: From Reconciliation to Rights" class="i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 datstx6m pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 k4urcfbm bixrwtb6" height="261" src="https://external-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQDcuXRMViPFEZ1q&w=500&h=261&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FqnNe-YzGaEI%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&cfs=1&sx=0&sy=17&sw=1280&sh=668&ext=jpg&_nc_hash=AQCo1Y3PslI68uOp" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; height: 261px; left: 0px; object-fit: cover; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 500px;" width="500" /></div></div></div></div><div class="i09qtzwb rq0escxv n7fi1qx3 pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 linmgsc8 opwvks06 hzruof5a" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-top: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; left: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px;"></div></a></div></div></div><div class="o0s42vec pmk7jnqg ehxjyohh b4oskaiq" style="bottom: -14px; font-family: inherit; position: absolute; right: 14px; z-index: 3;"><div aria-label="More" class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 gpro0wi8" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="bp9cbjyn cwj9ozl2 opwvks06 hop1g133 linmgsc8 t63ysoy8 cmek9o9a p7f4f6cj c8oo3d72 r15kkdkt oo9gr5id j83agx80 mudddibn taijpn5t ciadx1gn" style="align-items: center; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-left: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-radius: 14px; border-right: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-top: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); color: var(--primary-text); display: flex; font-family: inherit; height: 28px; justify-content: center; width: 28px;"><span class="tojvnm2t a6sixzi8 abs2jz4q a8s20v7p t1p8iaqh k5wvi7nf q3lfd5jv pk4s997a bipmatt0 cebpdrjk qowsmv63 owwhemhu dp1hu0rb dhp61c6y iyyx5f41" style="align-items: inherit; align-self: inherit; display: inherit; flex-direction: inherit; flex: inherit; font-family: inherit; height: inherit; max-height: inherit; max-width: inherit; min-height: inherit; min-width: inherit; place-content: inherit; width: inherit;"><i class="hu5pjgll lzf7d6o1 sp_LGojA4ldSxW sx_434bcc" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v3/yx/r/SInI77aPzMN.png"); background-position: 0px -46px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: inline-block; filter: var(--filter-primary-icon); height: 20px; vertical-align: -0.25em; width: 20px;"></i></span></div></div></div></div><div class="stjgntxs ni8dbmo4" style="font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 p8dawk7l" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqnNe-YzGaEI%26t%3D6s%26fbclid%3DIwAR04k65cF2Rbg0JoMs6De9sY81dstlRXco_rFTlFMgbFSvI9nk7zZK24r2o&h=AT0CjM0HqG81E3uNSPp1azMZhcedW-FF9CiBbQz_mupKUcUniKHVwArAOX9JRsc8CmSNtSMX-gyldPwkw76gafzRrrXydWHW77JJhTnj_WTziR-ERMXprZV4AQ3zJbr4hw&__tn__=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT0YE4xhQLWdgibOINn5kvd6t0OSks6pjOQLIBRmw5S_iCzEbbBj9OCvOxAUcK8pxJjjOrSt-0sEanWDd5H1pvQtKEWF7w2YcBO23ow9VVECaKZAW4Qvfz7U_GbmYbXt_sggSkgUeE5klVrpF1Z_ow" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><div class="b3i9ofy5 s1tcr66n l9j0dhe7 p8dawk7l" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--divider); font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 i1fnvgqd bp9cbjyn owycx6da btwxx1t3 b5q2rw42 lq239pai f10w8fjw hv4rvrfc dati1w0a pybr56ya" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; font-family: inherit; justify-content: space-between; margin-left: -6px; margin-right: -6px; padding: 12px 16px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb d2edcug0 rj1gh0hx buofh1pr g5gj957u hpfvmrgz p8fzw8mz pcp91wgn" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0px; font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="bi6gxh9e sqxagodl" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j hop8lmos enqfppq2 e9vueds3 j5wam9gi knj5qynh m9osqain ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs ltmttdrg g0qnabr5" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--secondary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; line-height: 1.2308; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -2px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: break-word;">YOUTUBE.COM</span></div><div class="enqfppq2 muag1w35 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs e5nlhep0 ecm0bbzt rq0escxv a5q79mjw r9c01rrb" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-height: calc(2.35294em); overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 4px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j s89635nw ew0dbk1b a5q79mjw g1cxx5fr lrazzd5p oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--primary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.1765; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -3px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="l9j0dhe7 stjgntxs ni8dbmo4" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; display: -webkit-box; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Stan Grant Wallace Wurth Lecture: From Reconciliation to Rights</span></div></span></div><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh m9osqain hzawbc8m ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs ltmttdrg g0qnabr5" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--secondary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: break-word;">Dr Stan Grant delivers the Wallace Wurth Lecture at UNSW Sydney, a powerful and emotive speech entitled “From Reconciliation to Rights: Shaping a Bigger Aust...</span></div></div></div></div><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 cbu4d94t d2edcug0 p8fzw8mz pcp91wgn" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"></div></div></div></a></div></div></div></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="stjgntxs ni8dbmo4 l82x9zwi uo3d90p7 h905i5nu monazrh9" data-visualcompletion="ignore-dynamic" style="border-radius: 0px 0px 8px 8px; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="bp9cbjyn m9osqain j83agx80 jq4qci2q bkfpd7mw a3bd9o3v kvgmc6g5 wkznzc2l oygrvhab dhix69tm jktsbyx5 rz4wbd8a osnr6wyh a8nywdso s1tcr66n" style="align-items: center; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--divider); color: var(--secondary-text); display: flex; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; justify-content: flex-end; line-height: 1.3333; margin: 0px 16px; padding: 10px 0px;"><div class="bp9cbjyn j83agx80 buofh1pr ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden;"><span aria-label="See who reacted to this" role="toolbar" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="bp9cbjyn j83agx80 b3onmgus" id="jsc_c_xh" style="align-items: center; display: flex; font-family: inherit; padding-left: 4px;"><span class="np69z8it et4y5ytx j7g94pet b74d5cxt qw6c0r16 kb8x4rkr ed597pkb omcyoz59 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 qxh1up0x qtyiw8t4 tpcyxxvw k0bpgpbk hm271qws rl04r1d5 l9j0dhe7 ov9facns kavbgo14" style="border-bottom-color: var(--card-background); border-left-color: var(--card-background); border-radius: 11px; border-right-color: var(--card-background); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--card-background); border-width: 2px; font-family: inherit; height: 18px; margin-left: -4px; position: relative; width: 18px; z-index: 2;"><br /></span></span></span></div></div></div></div><div class="tvmbv18p cwj9ozl2" style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span class="pmk7jnqg g0aa4cga q45zohi1" data-html2canvas-ignore="true" style="clip-path: polygon(0px 0px, 0px 0px, 0px 0px, 0px 0px); clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; position: absolute;"></span></div></div></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-87953078656764510382020-06-11T12:34:00.003+10:002020-07-14T13:37:44.192+10:00BLM Protest Melbourne<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Today is a day of protest around the country and I hope that our low Covid19 community transmission rates mean that we won’t see a spike in coming weeks as a result but let’s remember why people are gathering. I would like you all to ask yourselves these questions.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Would you be happy for your family, your parents, brothers and sisters, children, grandchildren and friends to have a life expectancy 10 years less than the rest of the population?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">2. Would you be happy for your friends and family to contract, sicken and suffer from easily preventable and curable diseases and underlying health conditions?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Would you be happy for them to be incarcerated at a rate 15 times higher than the rest of the population, not because you are inherently bad people but simply because circumstance means that there are fundamental intergenerational problems that you have inherited from your parents and will pass on to your descendants. And in many cases those problems come simply because of the colour of the skin and the way you are treated by the rest of society.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">If you answer no to any of these questions then you may start to understand why people will be gathering and marching today.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Please read the Uluru Statement from the Heart and whilst reading it place it in the context of the questions I have asked.</div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-9968204052027867502020-06-06T13:46:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:46:50.643+10:00BLM<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Today is a day of protest around the country and I hope that our low Covid19 community transmission rates mean that we won’t see a spike in coming weeks as a result but let’s remember why people are gathering. I would like you all to ask yourselves these questions.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Would you be happy for your family, your parents, brothers and sisters, children, grandchildren and friends to have a life expectancy 10 years less than the rest of the population?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">2. Would you be happy for your friends and family to contract, sicken and suffer from easily preventable and curable diseases and underlying health conditions?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Would you be happy for them to be incarcerated at a rate 15 times higher than the rest of the population, not because you are inherently bad people but simply because circumstance means that there are fundamental intergenerational problems that you have inherited from your parents and will pass on to your descendants. And in many cases those problems come simply because of the colour of the skin and the way you are treated by the rest of society.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">If you answer no to any of these questions then you may start to understand why people will be gathering and marching today.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Please listen to this reading of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and whilst reading it place it in the context of the questions I have asked.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhumanrights.gov.au%2Four-work%2Feducation%2Fface-facts-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3-ojyEwhp_YEHC4leY9Jft8ooEVlTJ7d-NW9JVVgZUuRgnANHLtX3hpio&h=AT1KXNoxqps7ebhoKpaz3j1gJUPuQTNX4JIaqOppoKCuETkNgWDcKtpc2XtgFxEGr91EygfY7V6mA_B5ifBBI7h_odRZ259nYa4O7EH3sfW7atUvEvolPc3HdDLj-sXoJA&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT2iraukcDvAqLmchc1XOWwlhf6EBehemU16iZAhqNvZsBVhRTQ0krtvqOFBNiZ0BfxiducjYz47ui4IMKuMwiyoNmn7bO1LY83H4x2Z7qbBULsu3_UhGXC0gtd-McbJ4zu7Nvn1bS0qa6QHpMcTu7rG_OZoYK5DJBw0ibV6pJ6RmwgLzLggZ_Rz7kYdhPSm9DnwP0K1fh4Y1_VOjQ" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/face-facts-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples</a></span></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-18729659463232944552020-05-02T13:48:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:49:16.743+10:00CovidSafe the App<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Lots of discussion and arguments about the COVIDSafe app. Many people standing on high horses saying there is no way they will download it So here is my take.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">It is not a tracking app. The government will not know where you go or for the most part who you are with because it doesn’t collect GPS information. All it collects is an ID from the phone of someone else who has the app who is in your Bluetooth vicinity for 15 minutes or more. The reason for that is that your risk of catching the virus from someone goes up based upon your proximity to them and the amount of time you spend in their vicinity.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">It does not mean you won’t catch it because there is still a risk at shorter periods of time in certain situations, like people who have it sneezing or touching you that you also need to touch etc. So it’s not a cure and it’s not a prevention.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">If ever I get back to work I spend several hours each day on public transport so I want to know if I am travelling with someone who has it, firstly so I can be tested and secondly so that if I am positive I am not passing it onto others.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The mentality of the argument against downloading it seems to me to be the same as the anti-vaxxer lobby or those lunatics in the states wearing flack jackets and carrying long arms into state government buildings protesting their right to have the lockdown lifted.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We are very lucky to be living on an island and that plus the early imposition of restrictions are the only reasons we are not the basket cases we see in the UK, US and Europe. That doesn’t mean the risk is gone, the virus is still here and still circulating, and will be for a long time yet. A vaccine, if we get one is still a long time away.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The only way we maintain a small degree of control is to have a system that allows us to identify people who may be infected, test and isolate them until the results come back. That way we limit the spread and ensure that our health system doesn’t get overwhelmed. And please remember also that a negative test today doesn’t mean that you won’t test positive tomorrow or next week. People may need multiple tests.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So by all means if you want to be a selfish twat, don’t download the app, but FFS don’t think that gives you a God given right to go about your business like you used to. Stay in your cocoon in lockdown and keep away from the rest of us who have an inkling that sometimes there is such a thing as the greater good please <span class="q9uorilb tbxw36s4 knj5qynh kvgmc6g5 ditlmg2l oygrvhab nvdbi5me fgm26odu gl3lb2sf hhz5lgdu" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;"><img alt="🙏" height="16" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t80/1/16/1f64f.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-22901895141070194482020-04-12T13:50:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:51:08.533+10:00Covidiots<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I can’t believe I’m still seeing gong bangers talk about there being more chance of dying in a car accident than getting coronavirus. So let’s look at that for a minute.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve been driving for 45 years and had a few bingles along the way, most very minor except for the one time I was driving an unmarked police car back to the office after a night shift on witness protection with four other wallopers in the car with me. I entered an intersection on a green light and a country bloke went through a red and t boned us. His excuse was that he didn’t see the light because he was reading his Melways Street Directory which was balanced on his steering wheel at the time. Needless to say he almost dropped dead when he saw 5 uniformed coppers get out of the car he’d just hit. But I digress.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I’m sure most of you reading this will have had a car accident of some sort and like me, many of you may know family, friends or work colleagues who have been seriously injured or even killed. But these are still relatively rare events. Here in Victoria our road toll is around 250 people per year, absolutely devastating for their families without doubt, but a very small percentage when looked at in comparison to the number of trips taken.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Now imagine there is a caraccidentovirus and unknowingly you have it. It means every time you go out on the road you’re gonna have an accident with three other people and infect them. Let’s assume that you don’t go out again but on day 2 those 3 go out and each crash into three others. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">By day 3, there are 9, day 4 there are 27 and by day 5 there are 81. Now if you happen to live in Australia sometime in Day 5 one of those people crashed into will die. If you’re unlucky enough to be in the US then 4 people will die.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Now you might look at the stats and say, well I’m young and I know that there’s more chance that an older person is gonna die than me right, because generally the older you are the more accidents you will have had over your lifetime. Or you might say that I know people who are sick or who might have a disability are more likely to be that one in a hundred because they can’t react as well as I do then so what the hell, I can keep going out.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">With each of those people infected with caraccidentovirus infecting another three each day then by the end of 14 days, 3,053,969 people are infected. With a death rate of 1% that means 30.5 thousand dead in Australia and more than 120 thousand dead in the US. Still like your chances?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Now coronavirus, just like your car trips, won’t necessarily stop at one per day and then keep you home from day two onwards. And even if you have remained free of our mythical caraccidentovirus and haven’t hit anyone, each day more and more infected people are on the road all looking at their Melways instead of watching where they are going. So your chances of being hit, even if you are the best driver on the planet, go up exponentially.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So no, you don’t have more chance of dying in a car accident than of coronavirus. The chances are way higher and if you need further evidence look at our cousins in the US and the UK at the moment and just imagine the disaster that will unfold in places where the health care system is worse.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Moral of this story is that it is far safer for all of us to stay home for a while. And remember that if we allow people to go about their normal business sooner rather than later you will personally know one or more of those 1%. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We are very lucky to live on an island and we can help keep all of our loved ones safe by maintaining our own personal islands for a while longer. Happy Easter everyone and please stay safe <span class="q9uorilb tbxw36s4 knj5qynh kvgmc6g5 ditlmg2l oygrvhab nvdbi5me fgm26odu gl3lb2sf hhz5lgdu" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;"><img alt="🙂" height="16" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t4c/1/16/1f642.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span><span class="q9uorilb tbxw36s4 knj5qynh kvgmc6g5 ditlmg2l oygrvhab nvdbi5me fgm26odu gl3lb2sf hhz5lgdu" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;"><img alt="🙏" height="16" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t80/1/16/1f64f.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-25384498091949786832020-04-05T13:51:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:52:31.963+10:00There will be Great Death<div class="" dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_16k" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--primary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I listened to President Trump’s press conference this morning where he said that this coming week “there will be a lot of death”. And in the back of my mind I’m hearing all the cliches he rolls out day after day.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">There will be great death. Some say this will be the greatest death ever. Who woulda thought that there would be death. The Fake news and the failed New York Times are playing down this death. You can’t believe them. Death is wonderful. We’re working very hard on death. If you’re dead some say that you can’t send in a postal vote and that’s a good thing. Did you know that death is number 1 on Facebook, that must mean something, I don’t know what but it’s a good thing right...and so on and so on ad nauseam (my words using his Trumpisms).</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I think it is sometimes way too easy to get caught up in the numbers. Here in Australia we pat ourselves on the back because we have “only” had thirty deaths. In New York alone yesterday they had almost one thousand.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But apart from the cause, each of these is unique. Each death marks the loss of a soul who loved and was loved, whose passing is mourned by families and friends who will harbour guilt for the rest of their lives because their loved ones passed alone. In the past few days we’ve seen twomothers in their 30’s die in the UK because as nurses they were doing what they trained to do. In Italy the last figure I saw was 40 doctors, in the US two deputies in a small Sheriffs department, here in Australia people who simply returned from the cruise of a lifetime. All of whom lost their lives before their time if not for this virus.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So when you hear someone talk about “great death” remember that it is never great. Remember when you hear numbers glibly roll off the tongues of politicians that each and every one of them marks great tragedy for their families and friends. Sadly there will still be many more to come.</div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; position: relative;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="b3i9ofy5 l9j0dhe7" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="j83agx80 soycq5t1 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7" style="display: flex; font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 gpro0wi8 datstx6m k4urcfbm" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.sky.com%2Fstory%2Fcoronavirus-live-five-london-bus-workers-among-englands-victims-11968562%3Fdcmp%3Dsnt-sf-twitter%26fbclid%3DIwAR2PklIhJkCi6crMmSdXEUdNjnoCHgxN7h3HJTXWh44c_CaAdJGVHkEeVA0&h=AT2FX0vo6k6xBFN9hlo_SkWkPtM6VK9Ux0w89zPvgOfS500NyeyOaSOgbnvrh-N1ZXHsBC105g94sS7m-GXMJzeYT9WeR5Kd308HMY1s6tNTIfwAct0ShA-ZB0N90WgFlA&__tn__=H-R&c[0]=AT3DfW7XUCLR7bZ73Ocq5UCeGTLTFKZeX173Rwp_D6sjKV5M7oJFF_rj_OoPnlPUdKs-Xh-c-znQnEJ_VpaQd_IMgUF4j_AQQsfTkd3M3M7umA-88Pq3SDPWAhP4D5PCjJlXj1gCqRs98-atl-Vesg" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; height: 261px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; width: 500px;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><div class="k4urcfbm l9j0dhe7 stjgntxs ni8dbmo4 cbu4d94t j83agx80 tqsryivl bp9cbjyn" style="align-items: center; background-color: var(--always-black); display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 500px;"><div style="font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 500px; width: calc((100vh + -325px) * 1.91571);"><div class="do00u71z ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 261px; position: relative;"><div class="pmk7jnqg kr520xx4" style="font-family: inherit; height: 261px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 500px;"><img alt="Coronavirus: Donald Trump warns 'there will be a lot of death' in next week of pandemic" class="i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 datstx6m pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 k4urcfbm bixrwtb6" height="261" src="https://external-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQDx2qb2ecWXl0xY&w=500&h=261&url=https%3A%2F%2Fe3.365dm.com%2F20%2F04%2F1600x900%2Fskynews-donald-trump-white_4962520.jpg%3F20200404213005&cfs=1&sx=0&sy=21&sw=1600&sh=835&ext=jpg&_nc_hash=AQB1hnG0H7DShSXH" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; height: 261px; left: 0px; object-fit: cover; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 500px;" width="500" /></div></div></div></div><div class="i09qtzwb rq0escxv n7fi1qx3 pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 linmgsc8 opwvks06 hzruof5a" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-top: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; left: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px;"></div></a></div></div></div><div class="o0s42vec pmk7jnqg ehxjyohh b4oskaiq" style="bottom: -14px; font-family: inherit; position: absolute; right: 14px; z-index: 3;"><div aria-label="More" class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 gpro0wi8" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="bp9cbjyn cwj9ozl2 opwvks06 hop1g133 linmgsc8 t63ysoy8 cmek9o9a p7f4f6cj c8oo3d72 r15kkdkt oo9gr5id j83agx80 mudddibn taijpn5t ciadx1gn" style="align-items: center; background-color: var(--card-background); border-bottom: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-left: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-radius: 14px; border-right: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); border-top: 1px solid var(--media-inner-border); color: var(--primary-text); display: flex; font-family: inherit; height: 28px; justify-content: center; width: 28px;"><span class="tojvnm2t a6sixzi8 abs2jz4q a8s20v7p t1p8iaqh k5wvi7nf q3lfd5jv pk4s997a bipmatt0 cebpdrjk qowsmv63 owwhemhu dp1hu0rb dhp61c6y iyyx5f41" style="align-items: inherit; align-self: inherit; display: inherit; flex-direction: inherit; flex: inherit; font-family: inherit; height: inherit; max-height: inherit; max-width: inherit; min-height: inherit; min-width: inherit; place-content: inherit; width: inherit;"><i class="hu5pjgll lzf7d6o1 sp_LGojA4ldSxW sx_434bcc" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v3/yx/r/SInI77aPzMN.png"); background-position: 0px -46px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: inline-block; filter: var(--filter-primary-icon); height: 20px; vertical-align: -0.25em; width: 20px;"></i></span></div></div></div></div><div class="stjgntxs ni8dbmo4" style="font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gmql0nx0 p8dawk7l" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.sky.com%2Fstory%2Fcoronavirus-live-five-london-bus-workers-among-englands-victims-11968562%3Fdcmp%3Dsnt-sf-twitter%26fbclid%3DIwAR31Brk7w_ilGVM5w7xLOdMCpAvvbh5MZoXcNhPTGbOhDq8LYFuDYUBMCbM&h=AT2FX0vo6k6xBFN9hlo_SkWkPtM6VK9Ux0w89zPvgOfS500NyeyOaSOgbnvrh-N1ZXHsBC105g94sS7m-GXMJzeYT9WeR5Kd308HMY1s6tNTIfwAct0ShA-ZB0N90WgFlA&__tn__=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT3DfW7XUCLR7bZ73Ocq5UCeGTLTFKZeX173Rwp_D6sjKV5M7oJFF_rj_OoPnlPUdKs-Xh-c-znQnEJ_VpaQd_IMgUF4j_AQQsfTkd3M3M7umA-88Pq3SDPWAhP4D5PCjJlXj1gCqRs98-atl-Vesg" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><div class="b3i9ofy5 s1tcr66n l9j0dhe7 p8dawk7l" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); border-bottom: 1px solid var(--divider); font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 i1fnvgqd bp9cbjyn owycx6da btwxx1t3 b5q2rw42 lq239pai f10w8fjw hv4rvrfc dati1w0a pybr56ya" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; font-family: inherit; justify-content: space-between; margin-left: -6px; margin-right: -6px; padding: 12px 16px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb d2edcug0 rj1gh0hx buofh1pr g5gj957u hpfvmrgz p8fzw8mz pcp91wgn" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0px; font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="bi6gxh9e sqxagodl" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j hop8lmos enqfppq2 e9vueds3 j5wam9gi knj5qynh m9osqain ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs ltmttdrg g0qnabr5" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--secondary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; line-height: 1.2308; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -2px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: break-word;">NEWS.SKY.COM</span></div><div class="enqfppq2 muag1w35 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs e5nlhep0 ecm0bbzt rq0escxv a5q79mjw r9c01rrb" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-height: calc(2.35294em); overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 4px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j s89635nw ew0dbk1b a5q79mjw g1cxx5fr lrazzd5p oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--primary-text); display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.1765; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -3px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="l9j0dhe7 stjgntxs ni8dbmo4" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; display: -webkit-box; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Coronavirus: Donald Trump warns 'there will be a lot of death' in next week of pandemic</span></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></a></div></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-55746905836896225742020-04-04T13:55:00.000+11:002020-07-21T13:55:58.791+10:00Visions<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We know the world is different. We know that work will also not be the same in 6 months time as it was 6 months ago. We also know that we will be paying the economic and human cost of this pandemic for a generation so what do we do about it?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We need a new Snowy Mountains type Scheme, or more than one, which can build a lasting legacy for generations to come. We need an aggressive growth in industry that builds onshore capability so that critical services don’t need to be acquired from overseas. And we need to rapidly expand sectors where we can demonstrate global leadership and sell back into global markets.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I am sure there are far smarter people than me working on this stuff and it’s probably fair to say that some things are already underway but we don’t have the luxury of a generation to get things done, we should attack the problem and build the foundations in the next decade.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So what do we need? Here is my list and please feel free to add to it.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">1. The very fast train starting with Melbourne to Canberra and Sydney but expanding over the second decade to Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">2. Establish satellite smart cities an hour out of the State capitals on that line to ease the pressure on the existing cities. There are models now (<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl oo9gr5id gpro0wi8 lrazzd5p" href="https://www.facebook.com/brendan.condon.54?__cft__[0]=AZUrxXp9qqN6Ze2m9Yya_T_D3bpdJ4QtG5wzie14qOF8Up7S2OZ3njHbOpiU9Spkvr-ZLBA04FVaRQJhf15HNVA3VGdxCUkrAuh8TfodqMLrR7s9lEHpkkUpqtcGzShcuV4&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 600; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><div class="nc684nl6" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brendan Condon</span></div></a></span> is one such visionary) which show how those smart cities can easily be self sufficient in production of fruit and vegetables all year round.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Rapid rollout of alternative power sources, solar and wind in particular, but with an adoption of next generation nuclear power for baseload. Let’s develop the technology to transform the world right here and build on what we are already doing.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">4. Support for our already excellent medical research community. Let us become the global powerhouse that attracts talent, expertise and funding from around the world.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">5. To assist that, establish a global bio bank to put us at the forefront of genetic medical research not for profit but for the benefit of humankind.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">6. Drought proof the country so we don’t have to steal water from our stressed southern river systems. Build pipelines to capture the water from the north that currently flows out into the oceans.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">7. Embark on a huge building program of hospitals, schools and universities so that we attract and retain the people who will be critical to the success of the other things I’ve mentioned. Let’s get back to the days when two of the fundamental tenets necessary for our success as a society, free healthcare and education for all, so that we can truly say that the generational disadvantage we still see today in some communities are gone for good.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">8. Identify critical industries and products we don’t want to rely on from overseas. We’ve lost a lot of skills over the past few decades because we’ve allowed globalisation to take them to cheaper labour marketplaces. Maybe the price of retaining them is that we do accept we need to pay a bit more for them because there are other benefits that flow from onshore skills.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Idealistic? Of course. But nothing I have said has not already been talked about. If we are going into debt let’s make sure that there is a lasting legacy to that debt that sees us through the next hundred years. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">And here is another controversial suggestion. It needs to be funded by an increase in the work force, people who will pay taxes, who will consume the services and provide the drive and brainpower to start achieving the program. Let’s increase immigration.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Other ideas, comments and discussion is welcome.</div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-77041800944590015442020-03-31T13:56:00.000+11:002020-07-21T13:57:01.573+10:00Proud Aussie<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I’m actually feeling pretty proud of my country at the moment. Sure, we have some dickheads but for the most part we are responding pretty well to this pandemic. For my non Aussie friends here is what we have done.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">• locked down the country. Unless you’re required to work, have to shop for food, want to exercise, then we are told to stay at home. When out you are limited to a crowd of two people, unless they are in your household.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">• guaranteed through a government payment $1500/person/fortnight distributed by the businesses they work for to keep people on the books until this passes. Expected to cost $160b over the next 6 months. Worth every cent if it allows the economy to rebound quickly and preserves jobs and dignity.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">•. Here in my state in Victoria we’ve prevented evictions for the next 6 months.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">•. everyone coming into the country put into compulsory quarantine in city hotels for 14 days.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Now I’m not saying this is perfect because we still have increasing rates of infection and a relatively small number of deaths compared to others.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But all of this together should see us minimise the deaths and come out the other end with jobs saved. And all from a conservative government prepared to adopt some very radical socialist principles for the greater good.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Amidst the doom and gloom and knowing there are still some grim days to come I’m proud and grateful to be an Aussie. <span class="q9uorilb tbxw36s4 knj5qynh kvgmc6g5 ditlmg2l oygrvhab nvdbi5me fgm26odu gl3lb2sf hhz5lgdu" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;"><img alt="🙏" height="16" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t80/1/16/1f64f.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span></div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-22809297997200328442019-07-21T13:39:00.000+10:002020-07-21T13:41:11.497+10:00I dreamed I was an Astronaut<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I was going to be an astronaut. Not just wanted to be...was going to be!!!</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The late 60's was an exciting time, man was going to the moon, how could it not be possible that I, as an old man of 43 in the year 2000, would not be on Mars. Kicking back watching the trees transform the red planet.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">On that morning 50 years ago we didn't have to go to school but with Mum and Dad both working I was across the road at Aunty Hazel's watching a small black and white TV and scratchy images beamed back to Earth and a coverage that largely came into our loungerooms via the Parkes radiotelescope in New South Wales.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">It's fair to say that this was a pivotal point in human history and one that fed the imaginations and ambitions of a whole generation of young boys and girls who dared to dream. I was going to be an astronaut.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But somewhere along the way real life intervened and the fantastic dreams of exploring alien planets and boldly going was relegated to the forays into science fiction stories I devoured on a daily basis. I found that the Moon was a Harsh Mistress and what it was like to be a Stranger in a Strange Land. I flew on the backs of dragons on Pern and with the Lensmen in the Triplanetary Alliance. I flew faster than light and through portals to places where the constellations were entirely different. I journeyed with Captain Kirk and Spock and a while later thrilled to the exploits of Skywalker even naming my first son Luke.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">No one believed at the time we were watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and feeling a bit sorry for Mike Collins stuck in orbit, that 50 years later we would not still be there. But maybe now is the time again, maybe our Grandchildren will live to see the terraforming of Mars and the colonisation of the Moon and Titan. Maybe the barriers to interstellar travel will be overcome for them, maybe we can all still dare to dream.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I spend a lot of time thinking of the past, it has something to do with my interest in Family History and wondering what it was that I inherited from my ancestors that has made me what I am today, and sometimes I can see why that is not always a productive thing to do. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But I can't help thinking that it is worth celebrating the heroism of people who stepped beyond their front doors to collectively wonder, not only what is down the street, but over the hills and far away. To those who still gaze at the stars and wonder I salute you and will continue to watch with the wonder of a child as the next decades unfold. And I will hope that maybe it's not too late to be an astronaut, if not for me, for those who come after me.</div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-10760556143454113312019-07-14T12:29:00.001+10:002020-07-14T12:35:09.806+10:00Letter to 12 year old me<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks to eveyone who has wished or is wishing me a Happy Birthday. It's a precious time to be able to spend it with family. Today was the first time in many years that I was able to spend it with all of my children. With them were 4 of my 5 grandchildren and I had the 5th say "Happy birthday, I love you Obi" to complete my day. As usual birthdays lead to reflection so I decided to write a letter to my 12 year old self.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Hi Juicey</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I can call you that, the nickname given to you by Mr Walsh our Grade 4 teacher, but you won’t be called that for too much longer. Over the coming years Dad will continue to call you LJ, your mates will progress from Juicey to Joycey and you’ll also wear Truck and BP on a few occasions. Mostly you’ll just be Loz but in the distant future, when your Grandkids arrive you’ll proudly wear the name Obi which will mean absolutely nothing to you way back in 1969.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I don't remember much about that 12th Birthday, maybe because the memory of receiving a bike on our 10th loomed large. That was a big birthday back then, as most of them were, because Mum and Dad thought it important that they were always celebrated with family. That’s going to last for another year for your 13th and you’ll have parties for two more milestones, when you’re 21 and a surprise birthday at 30. But that’ll be it and you’ll be happy to let one slide into another particularly when you realise how quickly the years begin to concertina and rush together as you get older.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">As I sit here now and that 12 year old boy looks out of these 62 year old eyes I can’t help but wonder where time goes. Back where you are now, that first 12 years of life seems to stretch forever back in time, but let me tell you now that it is really just the blink of an eye.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">There are a few things I want to say to you without giving too much away. One day you’ll like a song by a bloke called Garth Brooks called “The Dance” and in it he says –</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">"And now I'm glad I didn't know </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The way it all would end the way it all would go </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">But I'd have to miss the dance"</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So some things are better left unsaid because to know an ending may influence what you do at the beginning and there is way more danger in missing out on love and joy than in dulling pain and heartache.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">You will live an ordinary life and that’s not a bad thing. You will find great mates and lose some of them. Some will die way too young, others will walk with you for a time but then take different paths sometimes at their choice, sometimes from things that you do, but that is no different to anyone else and why I say that it is an ordinary life. You will find great love and passion, unexpectedly and at times when you won’t really be looking for it. You will be a father, sometimes one who doubts that he was a good one, but you will be lucky enough to raise your children to the point when some of them at least will have their own children. I say some because even now so many years in your future the dance still obscures what is beyond this time.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">When you look at that map of the world on the wall of our bedroom much of what is coloured pink will no longer be seen in that way. The Empire, young man, will be long gone and the world will be a far different place. Some of the fears that you pondered, the yellow peril, the reds under beds, that Malthusian population explosion and starvation from famine will not eventuate. Sure there will be new fears but the world largely is a far better place now than where you are. I’m not saying it’s perfect but I am saying that you should learn that it is not worth dwelling on the fear of the unknown when there is far more exciting stuff to come than there are things to be frightened of.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Next week you will see man land on the moon and yearn to do the same, “to boldly go”, but man will abandon those dreams for a while. Instead there will be far greater wonders to come. You won’t have to fight anyone for the use of the telephone at home instead you will carry a telephone in your pocket and be able to watch TV and movies on it. You will generate your own electricity on the roof of your house. Melbourne will have almost 5 million people living in it, the face of Box Hill will change forever as it becomes almost an inner suburb. Butcher shops will no longer have sawdust on the floor and in fact you won’t shop much at a specialist butcher, there will be a thing called a supermarket which is like the corner store gone mad which will sell everything. You won’t need a newspaper to know the news.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Letters and the art of letter writing will disappear, instead people will have instant contact with whoever they wish from anywhere around the world. The postman will no longer come twice a day, bread and milk will now only be bought at the shops instead of delivered each morning by that bloke with the horse and cart clopping down the street.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The world changes young man and you will never lose that sense of wonder because there will always be new things to find. In the next few years you will journey through Middle Earth, CImmeria, Barsoom and Dune. You’ll ride sand worms, sail oceans on planets never dreamt of and read of wonders as yet unimagined. And you will do all of that in the comfort and cocoon of your own bedroom.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">You will love and be loved. You will know some sorrow and some pain but nothing that won’t pass. You will find community and move on from it to new ones, sometimes by choice, other times by the push of others. Throughout all of this you will lead a life that is extraordinary in its ordinariness and you won’t wish it to have been any other way.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Three lessons I offer.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Be yourself</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Enjoy the dance</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Never stop learning</div></div>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-25439325296097406972018-12-02T19:21:00.000+11:002018-12-10T19:38:08.490+11:00Merry ChristmasIt was really important to Mum that after her passing our family continued to get together for Christmas. Though many of us are scattered and geography, work commitments and extended families means it’s impossible to get together on Christmas Day, we’ve made a new tradition that on the first Sunday of December we will meet, catch up on what joys the year has brought and ensure that our family connection renews.
Mum would be pleased that tradition continues and I know she’d be watching and smiling. Next year two more new borns will be added to her and Dad’s descendants
Whilst some were unable to get here today we hope next year will see them<br />
make it.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZmT5QF46-2o/XA4lziZWctI/AAAAAAAAFBM/--aT_UQKMJE3Cj4YFBYXJ1kVajn1vefxgCLcBGAs/s1600/family%2Bchristmas%2B2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="960" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZmT5QF46-2o/XA4lziZWctI/AAAAAAAAFBM/--aT_UQKMJE3Cj4YFBYXJ1kVajn1vefxgCLcBGAs/s320/family%2Bchristmas%2B2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-4706557128331891902018-11-13T19:26:00.000+11:002018-12-10T19:39:33.663+11:00RIP Stan LeeStan Lee is the father of modern pop culture. I grew up reading his stories and learnt great life lessons like heroes can be flawed, but ultimately, good will always triumph over evil; that it was OK to wear a red and blue costumes; that even Gods aren’t always good; that the universe is vast, mysterious and full of wonder; and that it’s OK to shout “It’s clobbering time” when confronted by bad guys. Thanks Stan Lee for giving me a love of reading and story telling. Nuff said Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-78151920614302709832018-11-11T19:27:00.000+11:002018-12-10T19:28:10.783+11:00Dinosaur Poo feels like stone<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We learnt a few things this weekend; that Raels treats faeries, elves and dragons and they pay by gemstones; that if you sniff a pig face flower your nose turns into a snout; that 60 million year old dinosaur poo feels just like stone; watching the television doesn’t count as screen time; coco pops and fruit loops are better than rice bubbles; that the tunnels at Fort Nepean are creepy; and that it’s wonderful spending time with grandkids </span><span class="_5mfr" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 1px;"><span class="_6qdm" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/ta5/1.5/16/1f642.png"); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; color: transparent; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; height: 16px; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;">🙂</span></span>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-90405482091323066002018-09-08T19:33:00.000+10:002018-12-10T19:33:29.989+11:00An Ordinary Life<div class="_1dwg _1w_m _q7o" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_5pbx userContent _3576" data-ad-preview="message" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_a" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 6px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I've had people comment that I should write a book and I've been playing around with the idea for a long time now. Now those comments are a great way of stroking my ego but does it mean what I write is worth reading? And what would I write about?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Here is an introduction and I put it out there as a way of gauging if there is any interest. There is no obligation and I won't be offended if you don't read it or if you think in my writing it that I'm turning into an absolute tosser <span class="_47e3 _5mfr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle;" title="smile emoticon"><img alt="" class="img" height="16" role="presentation" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/ta5/1.5/16/1f642.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: -3px;" width="16" /><span aria-hidden="true" class="_7oe" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0px; width: 0px;">:)</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Someone once said that the past is another country. I wish it had been me because as I sit here and look back on six decades of life the only thing that seems to be a little more truthful than that is that the past in fact, is many countries.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
As a family historian one of my biggest regrets is that I never took the time to sit down and talk with my grandparents and parents about their lives, not in any great depth anyway. When you’re little those people have always been around and it is difficult to imagine a world without them, a time when you can’t walk in a door and smell the fresh scones cooking or hear the laughter as you sit around a kitchen table and play cards on school holidays. So the point of these ramblings is not that I think there are any great revelations to my story nor that there is anything more special about my life compared to anyone else who grew up in that time and place, it is the ego that tells me that maybe one day a descendant of mine may like to know a little bit about what it was like to live in those other countries.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This will also not be a linear progress through time…memory isn’t like that. Rather it will be a series of snapshots triggered by many different things, a photograph, a smell, a song, a question from a grandchild. Sometimes those things take me back to a time and place where the colours seem brighter and the sounds clearer than they likely were at the time. Other times they will loom out of the fog and coalesce into something other than what it may have appeared to be when I first started writing. Always though, that little boy with the crew cut and bony arms, the long haired lanky teenager, the introverted schoolkid and the not so talented sportsman, the son, the grandson and nephew, the husband, the father and grandfather will be there alongside me as the tales unwind.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is my intention to be as truthful as my memory allows me to be with the small caveat that there are some doors best left closed and walls unbroken. Memories are not also necessarily absolute truth. They are coloured by later context and experience and even when events are shared can be described differently by those who shared them. So this is my tale shared with the tales of many others all of whom may have seen things differently at the time.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I like to think that for the most part I’ve been a good man, not always maybe, but I’ve tried my best. I also know that nothing I have done has affected the world on any large scale, I’ve not received valour awards or lived a totally selfless life, or written symphonies or painted great works of art. I’ve not excelled at anything that would ever make me a household name for good or bad. At times I’ve been a good friend, good husband, good son and good father, yet felt at other times that I’ve failed miserably at those things.</div>
<div style="display: inline; font-family: inherit; margin-top: 6px;">
In short this is the tale of a childhood spent at a time when the world was an exciting place, less cynical, less self-focused than we appear to be now. A time when in the early days there was extraordinary stability, where the fears of the larger world failed to intrude and the routine provided comfort. Whilst I always felt like one of the luckiest kids growing up in the luckiest country I am also aware that whilst I may have left footprints, this is very much the tale of an ordinary life.</div>
</div>
<div class="_3x-2" data-ft="{"tn":"H"}" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div data-ft="{"tn":"H"}" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="mtm" style="font-family: inherit; margin-top: 10px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<div class="_1ktf" data-ft="{"tn":"E"}" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: -12px;">
<a ajaxify="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156601257947528&set=a.10151571252022528&type=3&eid=ARCGOYYb_BEjH6W9do3hMzN49x7xQsQmBz-Df5FtLVFT7vjoZrWet7BOJ69yEpUOgehVesNABXHdn97G&size=1332%2C1978&source=13&player_origin=story_view" class="_4-eo _2t9n _50z9" data-ft="{"tn":"E"}" data-ploi="https://scontent.fmel5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41367587_10156601257952528_7834937048543789056_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fmel5-1.fna&oh=52f95116d1916c53f18c2f7f497ef87f&oe=5CAD368B" data-plsi="https://scontent.fmel5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41366338_10156601257957528_3679716658231902208_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=scontent.fmel5-1.fna&oh=02ef30385027fc4f38086531d99651c7&oe=5C68FED8" data-render-location="permalink" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156601257947528&set=a.10151571252022528&type=3&eid=ARCGOYYb_BEjH6W9do3hMzN49x7xQsQmBz-Df5FtLVFT7vjoZrWet7BOJ69yEpUOgehVesNABXHdn97G" rel="theater" saprocessedanchor="true" style="box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) 0px 1px 1px; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: inherit; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; width: 500px;"><div class="uiScaledImageContainer _517g" style="font-family: inherit; height: 743px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 500px;">
<img alt="Image may contain: 3 people, people smiling, people sitting, child and outdoor" class="scaledImageFitHeight img" height="743" src="https://scontent.fmel5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p843x403/41367587_10156601257952528_7834937048543789056_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fmel5-1.fna&oh=5f3d41abe374dde49648c340bd387045&oe=5C67F223" style="border: 0px; height: 743px; left: 0px; min-height: initial; position: relative; width: auto;" width="501" /></div>
</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<form action="https://www.facebook.com/ajax/ufi/modify.php" class="commentable_item" data-ft="{"tn":"]"}" id="u_0_11" method="post" rel="async" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="_4299" style="border-radius: 0px 0px 3px 3px; color: #1c1e21; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; width: 500px;">
<div class="_5vsi" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div class="_78bu" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div class="_68wo" data-testid="fbFeedStoryUFI/feedbackSummary" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<div class="_3vum" style="align-items: center; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(218, 221, 225); color: #606770; display: flex; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 12px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;">
<div class="_66lg" style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden;">
<span aria-label="See who reacted to this" class="_1n9r _66lh" role="toolbar" style="align-items: center; display: flex; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -2px; margin-right: 2px; margin-top: -2px;"><span class="_1n9k" data-hover="tooltip" data-testid="UFI2TopReactions/tooltip_LIKE" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 10px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -2px; outline: none; padding: 2px; position: relative; z-index: 3;" tabindex="-1"><a ajaxify="/ufi/reaction/profile/dialog/?ft_ent_identifier=ZmVlZGJhY2s6MTAxNTY2MDEyNTk3MTI1Mjg%3D&reaction_type=1&av=522497527" aria-label="42 Like" class="_1n9l" href="https://www.facebook.com/ufi/reaction/profile/browser/?ft_ent_identifier=ZmVlZGJhY2s6MTAxNTY2MDEyNTk3MTI1Mjg%3D&av=522497527" rel="dialog" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0"><span class="_9zc _2p7a _1n9q _3uet _4e-m" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 16px;"></span></a></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-22797699499821027012018-09-02T19:42:00.000+10:002018-12-10T19:43:33.643+11:00Absent FathersTo absent fathers. I was lucky to have my Dad until I was 47 and my first grandfather died when I was 17 and the other the year I turned 21. All of that was a blessing. I got to know them, maybe not as well as I would have liked to on reflection, but I loved and was loved by them. So Fathers Day was celebrated and still is with my kids and now as grandkids are added to our extended family with them as well.
But I know people whose lives have been spent absent of their father. For some it is because they have passed too early, or because someone had made a choice that their lives are better without them. Maybe the father has made that choice, maybe the mother, maybe circumstances conspired to estrange the families.
Whatever the reason I hope if you’ve been an absent father that you spare some time to think of your children today because I guarantee they will be thinking of you. Please don’t let them forever wonder who their father is and what he is like.Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-13334021899944674012018-08-21T19:44:00.000+10:002018-12-10T19:45:29.176+11:00LabelsWe are creatures who love labels because they help us make sense of the world. As babies we start with where is your nose or your ears, what’s your name, what does the dog say.
As we get older we learn not only what things are but what they are not; hot or cold, big or little, rough or smooth.
And then we move into the abstract and labels start to define our tribe; i barrack for Carlton, I belong to this school, I am Christian or not. It is then that we learn about friends and enemies, people with whom we share beliefs and those who we vehemently oppose.
It’s a great pity that the state of politics in the world has reached the point where the label you wear is more important than the concept of serving the people and ensuring that the world becomes a better place.
In a world where news is fake, where a person is great one day and a dog the next, where the right are heartless conservatives and the left are lunatics, it’s no wonder that we have no truly great leaders.
I hate it that if you’re labelled a conservative that you can’t also been seen as caring, where if you believe in compassion and the desire to ensure we have a world to pass on to our children that is better than the one you have now that you get pigeonholed as a radical leftist loony.
Party politics has failed us. The adversarial nature of its combat, the name calling and the labelling means that we the people and our best interests are overlooked in the pursuit of power.
A bird can’t fly with one wing. Diversity of opinion that makes a party challenge and question what it does is important. I wish that they would also acknowledge that not every idea that the other side has is bad and every thought bubble that their own rusted on supporters have is good.
Political parties need to learn that there is a fundamental difference between politics and government. The former is all about looking after your mates and paying favours, the latter in doing what’s right for the greater good.
Let’s see what unfolds today.Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-66875300865228213722018-08-13T19:48:00.000+10:002018-12-10T19:49:17.835+11:00Macular Degeneration and ViagraNew reports that viagra can cure macular degeneration. Personally I’d be worried it would turn me cock eyed 🤔
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6049299/Viagra-new-miracle-cure-BLINDNESS-scientists-claim.htmlLozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-82921013271262107692015-11-14T19:25:00.000+11:002018-12-10T19:25:36.915+11:00Tyranny<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
On the 23rd of September 1800, Thomas Jefferson said "I have sworn on the altar of God eternal enmity against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
On a <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">day when tyranny and barbarism are once more on display, this time on the streets of Paris, we should remember this and continue to vow to live our lives free, no matter that terror is designed to cause the kind of fear and paralysis which only ever means that the bad guys win.</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
It dismays me to see how many people are using this tragedy to push agendas that have nothing to do with what happened. This is a fundamental attack on a way of life that encourages people to have opinion and diversity, that does not fear difference but understands that difference is what makes us human. Yes this is likely to have been perpetrated by extremist Islamists it does not mean we paint everyone who holds a different belief to us with the face of Satan. It does not mean that a country with gun controls is any more or less vulnerable than those without.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
I stand with Jefferson and remember that it is any form of extremism that needs to be fought, no matter what flavour it is, and we need to ensure that when it raises it's increasingly ugly head that we do not allow fear to control us and lock down things so far that the very basis of our free society is lost.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Let's remember 911, Bali, Barcelona, London, Boston, Paris, Beirut and the many other places where innocence has been lost as a reason why we should never give in to extremism. Never let the bad guys win.</div>
</div>
Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-64123597620385993292015-08-02T14:28:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:28:59.025+10:00Of Racists and Bullies<font face="arial">We should never assume that we know how other people feel about something that happens to them. We do not walk in their shoes, we do not have their experiences or know how they think. We have no way to understand that what they see is what we see because we are not them.<br /><br />One of the major news stories here in Australia over the past week has been about an Aboriginal footballer named Adam Goodes and the incessant booing he has copped throughout much of the season. It culminated this week in his standing aside from a game and thus the competition was robbed of seeing a sublime athlete, maybe forever.<br /><br />Now Goodes has been a polarising figure, he is seen in some quarters as someone who stages for free kicks (for those not in Australia this is similar to a soccer player taking a dive), a year or so ago after being called an ape he pointed to the culprit in the crowd who later was revealed to be a 13 year old girl, and a couple of months ago he performed a war dance in front of opposition supporters who had been booing him. Each of these things has seen him become a marginalised figure in the sport. One who people have found easy to target for what they all see as legitimate reasons.<br /><br />The debate this week has centred on whether the booing is inherently racist or not and there has been a huge amount of vehemence on both sides of the fence. The two links below are both from Aboriginal men, one of whom states that Adam Goodes does not speak on his behalf and the other explains why Adam Goodes feels that the booing has come to have racist overtones. Across the board there is breast thumping on both sides of the fence, the left wing of politics here likes to paint Australia as a racist country and the right wing shouts loudly about their right to boo.<br /><br />My own view is somewhere in between. I firmly believe that for the most part the booing is not racist and I also believe that for Adam Goodes it is undoubtedly seen as being aimed at him because he is black. I also believe that the booing has now overstepped the line and taken it into the place where it can quite rightly be called pack bullying and the great pity is that many people do not see anything wrong with it because they have “a right to boo”. Anyone who has experienced or seen the results of bullying ought to know that it is unacceptable.<br /><br />I wrote about this on Facebook over the weekend and I prefaced it by stating that I would never presume to call myself Aboriginal but I was very proud of my Aboriginal heritage. My great-great-great Grandmother was an aboriginal woman living in the Ararat area in Victoria and was therefore presumably of the Yorta Yorta tribe, although I may never know for sure. I do know she was aboriginal because that has now been confirmed by DNA testing. <br /><br />She died giving birth to my 2 x great Grandmother Janet Sprake, whose father was as English overseer on a sheep station in the area. I also don’t know what happened to him but his baby daughter was taken by an English missionary couple and raised by them in Melbourne.<br /><br />I am sure that she suffered from racism. Raped by three men when she was just 12 years old, despite the brave testimony of a young doctor her rapists were found not guilty. She went on to marry an Irish farmer, who we believe had been a convict and settled near Bendigo at a little place called Marong. She had 11 children and her descendants now number in the hundreds and it wasn’t all that long ago that the aboriginal heritage in our family was hidden. In a reflection of the racist attitudes of earlier generations it was far better to keep that hidden than to embrace it.<br /><br />When I first started researching my family history and started hearing rumours of “black” blood I asked my grandmother about it and she said “Never ask questions you might not like the answer to.” So even in the 1980’s when she passed away she felt the need to hide that heritage from us out of shame and if she was here now I would love to hug her and tell her that she had nothing to be ashamed of. That our indigenous history is something of which we ought to be very proud.<br /><br />She had a brother who won a Military Medal in World War 1 where he captured 30 Germans alone in an assault of the Western Front, she had another brother who suffered badly with what we now is know is PTSD after returning from the Second World War and killed himself. Those two men, had they been labelled as aboriginal, would not even have been entitled to vote until 1962. She had another sister who, left alone with an older sister in the bark humpy they lived in on the banks of the Murray River whilst my great Grandmother tried to eke out a living cleaning houses, burnt to death when her night gown caught fire whilst she was trying to warm herself in front of an open fire. They were born into poverty and battled their way in the working class suburbs of Melbourne.<br /><br />It fills me with sadness that my family chose to hide their aboriginal heritage but in hiding it they did not suffer the inherent racism that our earlier ancestors had faced. They hid it because they thought they were protecting us<br /><br />And so we come back to Adam Goodes who as an obvious Aboriginal man who has been outspoken about that racism, and to the people who boo him. To them I say that you have no right to say to him that he should understand that you are not being racist, because you cannot possibly understand what it is like to have experienced it first-hand like he has. Until you walk in someone else’s shoes you should not make assumptions about how they are feeling about something they are experiencing. So if you do not consider yourself to be a racist then understand that at the very least you are acting as bullies act. Stop it not because you are racist or because don’t have a right to boo, stop it because that is the right thing to do. Show some balls and don’t follow the pack.<br /><br /> <a href="http://theblacksteamtrain.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/the-wayland-smithers-school-of.html?m=1">http://theblacksteamtrain.blogspot.com.au/.../the-wayland...</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/30/i-can-tell-you-how-adam-goodes-feels-every-indigenous-person-has-felt-it">http://www.theguardian.com/.../i-can-tell-you-how-adam...</a></font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-62426106580303320142015-07-29T14:26:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:26:47.218+10:00When Values Collide<font face="arial">Psychology 101, Monash University, 1976, when I first heard the words cognitive dissonance. It is the state of discomfort that occurs when a person’s behaviour conflicts with their values or beliefs.<br /><br />Have you ever been given an undertaking by a person that was later rescinded? The problem with that is not so much the broken promise, but the fact that all of your decision making was being done in the context of a new set of rules that you were not even aware of. Performance was judged, outcomes assessed, goal posts moved and changes made in the background that may have totally changed the way you operated had you only known.<br /><br />I don’t know many organisations who have a value statement which says we are going to lie to our employees, be dishonest with our stakeholders, and not fulfil our lawful obligations to our constituents, and yet many of us could probably point to instances where we have seen exactly those things happen. I’m sure there have been instances where we question odd decisions particularly when on face value they seem to conflict with previous statements<br /><br />When we slip as an individual the consequences for most of us can be quite severe. We can damage our relationships with family and friends, irretrievably in some cases, and when that happens we’ll often look to justify and rationalise the decisions that lead to the consequence. It’s an uncomfortable feeling to admit that the decisions may have been wrong, so we look at reasons for why they were justified. Just as individuals must live by their values so too must organisations if they are to honour themselves.<br /><br />When the conflict occurs the member of the organisation has several choices, they can remain and ignore the conflicts, they can stay and try and correct the situation, or they can leave. Sometimes though the problem is that bad behaviour can come to be seen as normal and that can be fatal for an organisation.<br /><br />There are two classic examples of this in Australian politics at the moment one relating to an individual and another to a party. Bronwyn Bishop’s attempts to justify a helicopter trip on the basis that it falls within the expense guidelines is a blatant attempt to justify a poor decision. On the other side of politics we have the State Labour government, who despite criticising the previous government for failing to release the business case for the East West Link project, initially stated that they would not release the business case for Western Link prior to signing contracts. Fortunately they seem to have reversed that decision in recognition of the fact that it directly conflicted with their promise of honesty prior to the last election.<br /><br />I was once told by a man I respected that “Reputation is like virginity, once it’s gone, it’s very hard to get back.” And when values are trashed so too can be an organisation’s reputation. The consequences can be a loss of customers, a drop in share value and a loss of good people. Ultimately the clash of values, the conflict between the ideal of the expressed value and the action, can be the start of the decline of an organisation that some never recover from.</font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-67956727761400574902015-07-19T14:24:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:25:10.670+10:00Once Upon a Time<font face="arial">Once upon a time I was a CEO in an industry I loved, at an organisation that was a shining light in its field, even if I do say so myself. We had fun, we were innovative, we were respected and we were leaders in most of the things we were doing, but in the end none of that mattered because I was sacked.<br /><br />Anyone who has been in that position understands how devastating it is, professionally, and personally. It takes a long time to get over it. I was lucky that other people took a punt on me at the time and I can quite honestly say that I fell on my feet but still I've wondered whether I could have, should have, done things differently. And the answer is that it was the behaviour of other people that needed to be questioned, not my own.<br /><br />At the time I was told this had nothing to do with my work performance, that I had done a great job, but that the organisation had decided that its interests were best served by periodically changing its CEO, to bring in new ideas and new enthusiasm. That is always their prerogative. What I objected to and what was ultimately the reason why I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth was that the Chairman of the Board had told me, “as a friend”, that if ever he thought it was time for me to move on he would be open and upfront about it. Not only did they fail to tell me that my future was being discussed and that my contract was to be terminated two years early, they actually told the members that my contract had expired. Needless to say the friendship is a distant memory too.<br /><br />I also once had another boss tell me in my very first one on one with him that his expectations of those meetings was, first and foremost, that we would be honest with each other. He would give me feedback and expected the same from me. A week later my entire section was restructured, two direct reports were retrenched and I was no longer reporting to him. So much for honesty.<br /><br />These two events have one thing in common. Both men failed to be impeccable with their word and therefore lost my respect. Maybe they didn’t care about that, maybe they thought that what they did was in the best interests of their organisations, but in being dishonest with me they were also being dishonest with themselves and betraying the values of their organisations.<br /><br />“Be impeccable with your word” is Don Miguel Ruiz’s First Agreement and it is not an easy concept to grasp. It means that we must understand that what we say, when and how we say it, always has the power to affect not only our own belief system, but the way in which other people see us. There is something incongruous about working for an organisation which espouses a value of honesty and yet acts dishonestly in it's dealings with people.<br /><br />In each of these cases the behaviours were unnecessary. In the first instance the Chairman could have honoured his word by telling me my position was under review. In the second case it would have been better if I'd not been told that honest communication was expected.<br /><br />Your word has great power. You need to understand how much your word means to you, because if you regard it as something of little value by giving it when you know you do not mean to keep it, then you devalue yourself. You can also rest assured that the second consequence is that others will also devalue you.</font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-60800964523367590212015-07-12T14:22:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:23:10.619+10:00Uncle and Brother<font face="arial">Following on from last weeks post about the job I thought that I would republish a letter I wrote to my nephew. A year ago next month he graduated from the Police Academy.<br /><br />Hi Nephew and congratulations on your graduation from the Academy today.<br /><br />You are about to enter a wonderful profession where you will find a great deal of satisfaction and the odd frustration. I am sure that you have heard the TJF term already but don’t ever become so cynical that you believe that.<br /><br />You will be dealing with people in crisis and so will see the full range of human emotion and the full capability of both human depravity and bravery, both the best and the worst of mankind, and through all of that you will be expected to act with professionalism and compassion when needed and to treat everyone without fear or favour.<br /><br />You will see temptation taken and laziness among some colleagues, those who choose the easy way. But you will also see bravery and nobility and the absolute best of most people who choose to serve their community with honesty and integrity.<br /><br />You will stand in that graduation parade today with some colleagues who become lifelong friends and enter a brotherhood where you will always be welcomed as a member whether you serve 5 years or 35, whether you remain a Constable or reach the lofty heights of Commissioner level one day.<br /><br />You will stand in the cold and wet directing traffic after car accidents. You may see, like I did in my first day on the job, an elderly man cradling his equally elderly dead wife, rocking backwards and forwards saying that she was such a young woman. You’ll see kids and women abused, face angry and drug crazed drunks, be spat on by demonstrators, be bored absolutely shitless at times and at others be so full of adrenalin that you’ll wonder if you’ve ever truly lived before. You’ll stand in a violent situation and hear the sirens like the bugles of the cavalry in the distance as your mates come to back you up and I hope you will always be the first to rush and help those same mates when they may be in similar situations.<br /><br />If I had one single piece of advice to give you it would be to communicate. Really listen to people, give them the time they deserve. No matter who they are or what they may have been involved in, you have chosen to swear an oath to Uphold the Right and to protect them. We all sleep better knowing that we can count on the members of VICPOL who are out there doing their jobs. So be the best copper you can be and do it knowing that you are making your family proud every time you step into that uniform.<br /><br />I hope that you will serve with honor and enjoy whatever it is you end up doing. This job changes people and for the most part makes them better but only if you never ever forget the values that the instructors have striven to instil in you over the past months in the Academy. You will know what they are.<br /><br />I am your uncle but today because I too loved “the job” we also become brothers. Good luck and in the words of an old baggy arsed sergeant from a long ago TV show “Be careful out there”. Make us proud.</font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-45411274465257541402015-07-06T14:19:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:20:23.723+10:00TJF<font face="arial">Every new Victoria Police (VICPOL) recruit would hear the acronym within the first week of entering the Academy. TJF…“The Job’s Effed”. <br /><br />That was certainly the case for me when a squad mate filled me in on the meaning in week 1 of my Constable's Course in 1981. He’d been immersed in police culture for a while having a Sergeant as a mate, mentor and father figure and whilst still only an 18 year old had grown up not wanting to be anything else. Me at 24 and almost married was one of the old men of the squad and for me this wasn’t about pursuing a lifelong dream but about finding a career which after around 70 other job applications as a new graduate had seemed a long way off. <br /><br />We called it then and still do now, "The Job", because we all knew that there was nothing else like it, full of satisfaction and frustration, with companions who had your back and who you knew you could rely on no matter what.<br /><br />Now I look back though, the whole TJF mantra was a pretty bad thing to tell young recruits, bright eyed and bushy tailed that we were, who genuinely believed, without exception, that we were embarking on a career that would make a difference. To serve and protect, “Uphold the Right”, make our State a better and safer place to live. And we were told before we’d even donned the official uniform that TJF was normal?<br /><br />I learnt a lot in my 16 years as a copper and even more about what those three letters actually meant and the answer will probably surprise some people. <br /><br />For those cynical crusty old members who grew up in different times it meant that they didn’t like change. That they failed to understand that the Police Force needed to reflect the standards of the society in which it operated. That sometimes made things tougher, the foot up the bum for kids found hanging around late at night or the summary justice dispensed in the good old days was no longer appropriate. Rule bending became harder, rule breaking no longer acceptable.<br /><br />But the very best accepted change and innovation as a new weapon to be embraced and if it wasn’t so easy to give someone a hamburger with the lot, it became a badge of honour to work harder and be smarter which made the victories that much sweeter. For some TJF is a throwaway line that simply means work harder to find a solution. It didn't need to become something that coloured everything we did but it was something that could describe the bits of the job that really weren't worth worrying about. But it's only in hindsight now, having worked in different industries and knowing that whether in the public, private or not-for-profit sector, large or small organisation, that there are elements everywhere that mirror the TJF sentiments.<br /><br />We’ve all been in jobs which we didn’t like at various times for multitudes of reasons. The trick is not to become bitter and twisted, not to become so disenchanted that the TJF mantra becomes a dirge rather than an anthem to embrace change.<br /><br />We all have choices when things don’t go the way we expect them to go, or when it feels like events and people are conspiring against us. We can let things consume us to the point where we become lazy and look at dodging and hiding from the hard work, we can walk away bitter and twisted, or we can choose a third path, to stay and work harder to make a difference, fix the things you can fix, point out the things that are wrong, and then, but only then, if you still feel that the job is effed, then you can walk away with head held high.</font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087502739566584714.post-91287578905821197682015-06-30T14:17:00.000+10:002020-07-14T14:18:53.440+10:00The Sins of the Father<font face="arial">Our imprimatur in the Counter Terrorist Intelligence Section of the Victoria Police during my time there was to monitor, collect information and investigate when necessary those people and organisations who were involved in politically motivated violence (PMV) no matter where they were from. It was a very broad brief but necessary because as a melting pot Australia was subject to the passions and foibles of the people who had come here from many different foreign shores over the previous couple of centuries. And make no mistake that sometimes meant that the hatred and troubles that they were subject to in their homelands also found their way to our own shores.<br /><br />When we spoke about PMV we meant the full gamut from violent demonstrations through to terrorist spectaculars such as bombings and assassinations. There were many times when I told people what I did and was greeted with incredulity. A common response was “But we don’t have terrorists in Australia!!!”<br /><br />I can give many examples of PMV associated with the world’s trouble spots which manifested themselves in Melbourne. That ranged from members of terrorist organisations using Melbourne as a base for rest and recreation, to training camps in remote mountain areas, and many examples of violent demonstrations and major fund raising activities that went towards recruitment and funding of acts of PMV in Australia and overseas. Without giving away any deep secrets let me give two examples by way of illustration.<br /><br />I remember as a young uniform Constable working on crowd control at the Yugoslav Consulate during a demonstration by Croatian community groups against Yugoslav National Day. We were on a line along a driveway keeping the demonstrators away from the predominantly Serbian guests who were attending the celebrations when a thug threw a half brick through the back window of a car shattering it and the teeth of a six year old girl travelling in the back. He was so brave he then ran to the back of the crowd and being badly outnumbered we were not in a position to arrest him on the spot. I can say that he was later identified and charged.<br /><br />On 23rd November 1986 a terrorist of Armenian descent drove a car laden with explosives into the basement of the Turkish Consulate in Melbourne and when he got out shut the door too hard which triggered a tilt switch prematurely setting off the bomb and blowing himself up in the process. Colleagues spent the next few days scraping his remains from the surrounding walls with egg lifters. The most fortunate thing was that in going off early casualties were minimised. Had it exploded at the time it was meant to both the office building and the surrounding shops and roads would have been full of people on their way to work and we would have had mass casualties.<br /><br />The point is that in both these cases and in many, many more, the hatred that lead to the events wasn’t born in this country but in conflicts far away. And not much has changed except for the cause. The challenge the western world faces now is cloaked in the garb of Islamic Extremism but we should never forget that extremism, in any form, is what can tear us apart.<br /><br />Australia is currently debating whether or not the children of Australians who have chosen to fight for ISIS in Syria and Iraq should be allowed back into this country. Despite my own experience in seeing the import of hatred from foreign shores into this country, I would counsel people to remember that our children should not be lumbered with the yoke that comes with the sins of their fathers. It is true that some will grow up to be thugs and probably to continue misguided fights, but it is not guarantee that they will, just as the children of child abusers will not necessarily abuse children themselves, or those of druggies will turn to drugs. Perhaps the chances may be a little higher than the rest of the population but we should never hold children guilty for the sins of their fathers.<br /><br />These kids deserve a chance that they will never get over there and as Australians we also have a duty to protect them as we do for any other child at risk who happens to be living here. So for those who think we should leave them over there may I remind you that we cannot defeat extremism by holding extreme views ourselves.</font>Lozhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10513517402604501840noreply@blogger.com0