"He saved others, let him save Himself!"

Yeah, go on Jesus, show us what you can do. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Yeah, way to go Jesus, can't do it can you? Taunting fellow human beings has a long history. In mediaeval times we used to put people in stocks where they could not defend themselves and we would throw whatever we could at them to taunt them. We would throw stones at cripples. Gun fighters in the wild west with a pistol in their hand would oh so bravely make a defenceless pastor jump up and down to avoid the bullets. We would pull the wings off flies. We would throw stones at a mangy dog on a chain knowing we were safe. We would poke fun at a distance at anyone who could not fight back. We would stir up an ants nest with a stick. We leave David Hicks in prison half a world away where he can't defend himself. We call him names - traitor, enemy of our good friend America, suffer you dog, serve you right you Taliban lover, hope you die there, rot in gaol, we don't want you back here. It's easy to be brave and to feel you have right on your side when someone else has their hands and feet nailed to a cross. Hey Jesus, come and get me! Naa naa na na naa.

take this morning's poll for instance

"Should convicted child molesters be executed?" Given the audience, take out those who are too busy to reply, take out those on the way out the door to catch a train, take out families whose children are watching Play school on another channel, then what demographic are you left with to respond to the poll? I can tell you now the response is going to be nearly 100% in favour of execution. So why ask the poll? Replying "Yes" is easy. To this question, the answer is a feel good answer. Subliminally the respondent thinks "Good on you Ch 9 for making me feel good!" Long term the answer is not so easy. This society is falling apart with many loners and losers and psychological problems. The problems are not going to go away just by making a certain demographic feel good. We are losing our way as a community. We don't relate to each other. We don't know who our neighbour is. We have become solitary. Depression is on the increase. Each of us is supposed to talk with at least 3 I think it is people per day. If society is building enclosing structures whereby someone does not have to leave the house, then you can go days without talking to anyone. This is not to excuse criminals but we should wonder what we can do to reinvent community.

the bold and the beautiful

used to be a programme on Ch10 before the early news a couple years ago. I am sure the cast must have been paid Dignity Money because no self-respecting actor would lower themselves to do, say or act as this production required them. Maybe it was meant to be satire on soaps but I did not read it that way. If it wasn't satire or even parody, then the writer must have been paid a fortune because he is never going to find work again. Imagine going for an interview as a script writer:
Interviewer: Can you tell us about your experience in TV script writing?
Hopeful: Yes, I wrote the script for the successful Bold and the Beautiful.
Interviewer: You wrote that? Who let this person through the selection process? Get outer here. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Why haven't you had your membership of the Screen Writer's Guild revoked? That script is an insult to the intelligence of our members. Out! Out I say! Begone! Do not darken my threshold ever. Ours in an honourable profession and you have set it back to the pre-talkie days. Go! Get ye out!

David Hicks and butterfly courage

So the military commissions are illegal, well big deal. It doesn't help AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN MR David Hicks though does it? This piss bloody weak australian government and the 52% of people who have the hide to think of themselves as PATRIOTIC because they can treat a scared loner loser attention seeker like the olden day people used to treat someone in the stocks are disgraces to everything Australia used to stand for. Convicts who were taunted and teased and had the flesh flogged off their backs, WW1 diggers who were scorned by upper class British Generals, Swaggies who were taunted as riff-raff, new settlers who were scorned by the old hands, wogs, dagos and slopeheads who have made it. This is who Australians are and MR David Hicks is one of us not like you mouse shit 52% aussies who trespass on our good name and who love to pretend you are AUSTRALIAN. You are not an AUSTRALIAN's arsehole for what you are doing to MR David Hicks. Once upon a time Australians prided themselves as sticking up for the underdog. MR Hicks might be a weirdo but he is an AUSTRALIAN weirdo. Love him or hate him, he is one of us. If you 52% think otherwise then piss off until you can learn to respect what once were traditional Australian values.

dumbing down

It is still raining this morning after having rained all night following a respite of about 4 hours yesterday afternoon. I don't know if this has anything to do with the speed of the computer but I logged on at 8.05 and it is now 8.45 before I am in a position to write. I have been trying to upload one 275kb picture but it will not take it.
Anyway, what I was going to say about dumbing down. Why does Australia spend billions of dollars on formal education on the one hand and on the other, TV spends billions to dumb us back down. Sure we don't have to watch TV but for the masses who can't afford live theatre and who live too far away from it for its to be a regular entertainment, TV is is affordable and convenient.
But it keeps the masses ignorant through feel good touchy-feely chitter-chat morning breakfast shows and the empty headed hosts and reporters. I'm sure they can't be as inane as they come across but as the hosts of the programme, they are used by the producer to appeal to the lowest common denominator rather than their trying to average up the audience. Radio Australia is spasmodic in its reception and it is often drowned out by Asian programmes which is why I turn to the TV for news. EMTV, the PNG station, gets a lot of its programming from Ch9 Australia.

job application: poll writer

Dear Sir,
With reference to the position of Poll Writer for your TV station's teletext.
I wish to apply for this position and I address the Selection Criteria as hereunder.
1. Mundane Life.
I left school 2o years ago. I live at home with my wife and 2.2 children. I drive to work. I jog at lunch time. I suck on bottled water. I have been in the one job at the same level for the past two years. I watch TV every night. I copy any craze such as sodoku. I have a huge mortgage which my grandchildren will pay off before they die.
2. Ability to think inanely.
I vote conservative unless my mother and father tell me to vote otherwise. I listen to Alan Jones and Steve Price regularly and I always read Piers Ackerman. I follow the crowd at any race riot in Redfern or Cronulla.
3. Community Service.
I am good friends with the man who lives next door to the Club President and sometimes I help him sell chook raffles. I drop my kids off at sport to help make the do gooder Junior Sports officials feel better about themselves.
Yours sincerely,

interactive television

Dave. Good morning Mabel dear. Would you like a cuppa?
Mabel. You know I would Dave. And while you're at it, see what the poll question is for today.
Dave. There you are love. And they want to know who we should support in the soccer now.
Mabel. Ooh, I dunno Dave. Not Italy after what they did to us.
Dave. Well what about England then?
Mabel. Ooh I dunno Dave. Do you think they're good enough? This poll is too hard. See what the poll is on the other station.
Dave. Well Seven wants to know will Brazil win and Ten wants to know whether we should watch the final.
Mabel. Ooh, they're all pretty important questions Dave. D'ya reckon our opinion will count?
Dave. Ooh well of course Mabel. Remember when they asked us if David Hicks was guilty and Michelle Corby? Of course they were. See here's one on the internet. Should drug addicts be banned from certain towns and suburbs. Well of course they should. See what happens when they ask the right people? We don't want them in our suburb now do we. By the way, why is our phone bill so high?

enemy of the state

Who is the real enemy of the State? "Who should we support in the World Cup now?" was the poll question on the Ch 9 news teletext this morning. You're joking right? Who should WE support now? Most people probably couldn't give a rat's arse if Australia isn't playing. Point 2. Since when has following sport become corporatised? I thought PM Howard and the conservative agenda was pro-individual. Stuff anyone else, as long as I am alright. We? Mate, there's no such thing as we any more. You're broke, down on your luck, got yourself into trouble with a baby hanging on, the team is out of the World Cup? Nothin' to do with me. You shoulda thunk of that before. As for JOINT CORPORATE getting behind another team, what sort of rubbish is this? I can't believe I read the poll questions myself and as if that is not bad enough, I wonder how much they PAY the genius who writes the crap. I'd like his job. And as if that is not bad enough, can you believe PEOPLE actually ring up or text in to respond to the poll? OK, they call it interactive TV but with people like me reading the poll questions and with people like those who actually RESPOND to the poll, is it any wonder we have the government we do? I am part of a nation of morons.

oh dear oh dear oh deary me

The wet season has arrived apparently a month late. Rain which has been threatening since Sunday set in at mid-day yesterday and has continued for 24 hours and we get to have another four months of it. Would that we could share some with the NSW farmers. My understanding is that this rain ends up in the sub artesian basin which is about 3km down in places like Moree.
So if continuous rain is not the cause of addled brains in Canberra, I wonder what is? I saw on SBS last night that I am not allowed to possess a "thing" any more. When the KGB, NKVD, Gestapo, Stasi had this type of law we were outraged. They did the midnight raid and found a "thing" and the owner was sent to a gulag. I mean nice Mr Ruddock, member of Amnesty would do no such thing, but what if nasty pretending to warm and fuzzy Mr Beazely or shudder shudder shudder Mr CREAN (kiddies cover your eyes - and stop screaming - it's not for real) were miraculously to become in charge of the "thing" legislation. Oh dear. A "thing". Goodness gracious me. This is what we pay lawyers to write. A "thing."

Atul and Geoff

taking time out at the Coastwatchers Hotel in Madang.

"Did you know...

that the skills and competencies gained from international volunteering - such as flexibility, strategic thinking, conflict resolution and resourcefulness - are the exact ones that Australian employers seek from their management and staff?" Winter Issue p3 AVI Magazine.
In this light, I wonder what I can say I will take back with me? Elsewhere I said this experience was as much about the subject as the object. In fact, from an objective perspective, I never regarded volunteering in PNG as an international experience. In my mind it was a neighbour experience - a place that is always there and which you will visit when you get around to it. International meant Africa, Middle East and some parts of Asia. International is a place you go to be flabbergasted. Flabbergasted describes the confusion created in the mind when one confronts an arsehole in an ordinary situation where arseholes are not expected to be. I was walking on the grass beside the road outside the flashy Madang Resort on Sunday. This Z car (government ute with wontoks on the back) headed straight for me at about 20kph. I thought he was just dodging potholes but he kept coming so I moved aside and he followed me and I moved more and he kept coming until he finally came to a stop under a tree. I just stood and stared. To see an arsehole driving a car! Now there is flabbergastion! I was flexible (I moved). I thought strategically (I'm still alive). I am still trying to resolve the confusion and conflict that an arsehole is able to get a driving licence. I was resourceful - I did not confront the arsehole as I know what comes out of it.

AusAid and Volunteers

AusAid and Volunteer Service providers are convening a Volunteers workshop in Port Moresby at the end of July. Some of the things to be considered are how is it known whether volunteer assignments are having an impact and what development outcomes can be attributed to a program?
AusAid is involved in many projects in our region to our north as well as the Pacific, some of then direct such as this one in which my boss is participating, - "the Australian and NZ government sponsored leadership programme called “Emerging Pacific Leaders Dialogue” (EPLD). This is a 3 week programme where leaders (thank God not political leaders!) from all Pacific countries (incl. Aust & NZ) meet and visit various projects, establishments in different countries around the Pacific. Here we network, share and learn from each other. I have personally been polled in a team that will visit Fiji. We meet in Brisbane, then to various countries and the sum up in Auckland, NZ."
Others are indirect from AusAid's involvement and responsibility is devolved to organisations such as AVI for which I am one of the volunteers.

when I said kindly, what I meant

was that it was good of him/her to correct me but on re-reading my apology I realised I am not sure if "kindly" was the spirit in which the he/she corrected my mistake - the one about the celebrity wedding that is. On reflection I might have given the idea that he/she was generous in their opinion of my disregard of the facts when in actual fact words such as "idiot" and "jerk" ought to suggest to a discerning reader that the spirit was not as kind as my subsequent correction might have suggested. The point is nevertheless that I do appreciate the correction. It might have been better had I omitted the adjective "kindly" but then this would not have conveyed my appreciation and the correspondent is right - I should not write stuff that is wrong. So enough said. I hope I have learned from my mistake.

I admit I was wrong!

A correspondent kindly informed me that I had made errors of fact in my blog about celebrity weddings. I made a mistake in the names of the celebrities who got married. Apparently the bride's name was correct - Nicole Kidman - but her former husband was Tom CRUISE, not Tom Hanks. As if that was not bad enough I then had the bride being married to Steve Irwin, the famous crocodile hunter when in actual fact her new husband is Kieth URBAN. I apologise for the error and hope I did not offend the personalities involved. Thank you to my correspondent for taking the time to correct my misinformation.
Oh dear, perhaps I should not aspire to being a journalist after all. I thought facts were easy to come by and that it was the interpretation of the facts which was the hardest part.

the jack-knifed truck

Men are trying to push the PMV through the boggy ground to get around the semi which had jack-knifed so that it was blocking the whole road. It was in this spot that Tony came out of no-where and suddenly there I was talking with someone I actually knew in the middle of no-where.

PNG minimum wages. National 19 June 06. p5

"Immediately applicable throughout PNG is a new minimum wage. Government ineptitude has delayed application of the new minimum wage for over two years. The new wage was agreed to on Nov 18, 2003, and was only published in the National Gazette on March 29 this year. Minimum wages for adults has been doubled from K18.55 per week to K37.18 per week. Youths between 16 and 18 have their wages increased from a minimum of K14.15 to K27.91. Camping allowances have been increased from 40 toea per day to 80 toea per day. Tool allowance has been set at K1 per week and heavy duty allowance has doubled from K1.88 to K3.72 per week. With the deregulation of wages in the 1992 minimum wage determination, these rates will apply mostly to the rural sector and might also impact on the security industry. Mr Jeffery said other applicable rates will have been negotiated as industry award or by workplace agreements. The new rates are - Senior rate: 84.5 toea per hour (44 hour week) — 50.7 % increase; Youth rates: 63.4 toea per hour (16-18 yrs old) — 50.7 % increase". (My comment: K1 = A 42 cents; 80 toea = 34 cents. This is the type of thing Australian voters voted for last election. Be happy!)

on the way to Madang

we came across two truck accidents. In the first, the back wheels had somehow fallen into a ravine at the edge of the road. We got past that one - I was driving - and we came across a semi only about a kilometre further on that must have jack-knifed so that it was blocking the whole road. Amazingly, as we sat waiting for the PMV ahead of us to go around the semi, Tony, husband of Joy one of my work colleagues, came over as he had recognised me. In the middle of no-where I see a PNGn whom I knew. The PMV got stuck and so a 4WD on the other side pulled it through the mud and then it was my turn. I'd never had a 4WD before so I had to learn how to engage 4WD low range - as easy as shifting the gear stick - and so we were on our way. Quite uneventful really but it made us about half an hour late into Madang.
The trip took about 5 and half hours. On the flats of the Markham valley the main problem is negotiating the potholes. Around Ramu the road is good until you get into the mountains when it becomes unsealed rock. The unsealed section is probably only 50 k but it is the roughest of rock. I don't think you would get a low slung sedan over it.

living in the shadows

That is Howard's problem. Hawke, Sir William Deane, Menzies. I don't like the man on account of his lies and the way he uses his glasses as an excuse for ineptness. I saw too many little kids at school with glasses who used glasses as a symbol of innocence. He/she looks so sweet they could not possibly be responsible for the havoc that seemed to exist around them. Meanwhile the red headed freckly faced kid would get the blame.
It's what Howard does and he gets away with it just like the glasses kids at school. Sir William Deane was genuine in his agony for the families who had lost children in the rapids disaster in Austria and Howard wanted some of that sincerity to be recognised in him. He probably is a genuine person in his own way but he is acting out an image because this is what the aussies want. In doing so he is no longer true to himself. He is unlike Nelson Mandela who told his people - "If you want me to lead you, then listen to me. If you do not want to listen to me, then get yourselves a leader whom you will listen to". So Howard lives out his image in photo ops at sport, farewelling Defence troops, the Bali tragedy. This is what makes him a little man, not his physical stature.

what does it mean to sit with

the wrong crowd? Hawke could sit comfortably with the cricket establishment because he was one of them. When Howard tries to sit with them, it is a matter of forbearance on their part. Howard is a try hard. It would be the same thing if I went over to Buckingham Palace. I would be a try hard if I did not recognise I could never be one of them. I played soccer at school but I have forgotten the rules. I do however carry a scar on my knee which required stitches. I used to run up and down the sidelines when Matt played but I never coached soccer. One boss told me to enter teams in the District Knockout Selection trial once and I told him we were not a soccer school, we played League but he insisted. I did my best with the team and they were beaten nine nil in the first game and I was chastised. Your team is wasting time and it is an embarrassment for the students. Tell my boss I said. He wouldn't listen to me. Last night against Italy I was happy to confess to my mate that the commentators ought to explain the ref's decisions because they must know that not many of the spectators would know the game. I am a soccer ignoramus but that does not mean I cannot be patriotic. I can be patriotic without being broken hearted or devastated. It is not my right to be broken hearted when I have contributed nothing to the game. So why is PM Howard "broken hearted"? He is bullshitting again for the sake of his image. Why do we tolerate him?

how do you spot a fake?

A mate and I had to be "models" in a fun item for a Ladies fashion show at Brewarrina. My mate did the Aunty Jack presentation - deliberately hamming it up that he was actually a guy in ladies clothes. I did the more coy and modest presentation - as if I was actually a model. Each role was funny but if you can imagine a guy trying to look serious as a woman and not laughing along with the audience, then there is the humour. Peter Sellers was a master at understatement. It was deliberate understatement but it was coy and modest and therin was the humour. So why did Bob Hawke look like a more natural enthusiast when Australia won the America's Cup? He was a more genuine sportsman anyway and so he could carry on because it was part of his cultural psyche. Who he watches with, when to laugh, when to cheer, when to shake the head in disgust at a ref's decision. He was knowledgeable. Howard knows nothing, sits with the wrong crowd and acts only for the cameras, not according to his beliefs or knowledge of the game. He says the right thing but it is bullshit. Plato counted knowledge as justified, true, belief. Howard mimics knowledge. He doesn't believe, and he would not know if it was true or justified. He presents an expectation of what he THINKS others expect of him so he comes over as not being true to himself.

PM broken hearted

over the Socceroos' loss to Italy. So read the teletext on the ch 9 news this morning. Does this mean we get a new Prime Minister or is it another con? The way he carries on at sporting functions makes him look more like a jerk than when he goes for his silly early morning walks. Bob Hawke could look natural as an enthusiastic spectator but there is something about these blokes who bung it on. The PM is a master at bunging on enthusiasm but am I the only one who can see through him? He reminds me of the kid at school who, when all the real boys were out there playing footy and were being screamed at by the little 13 year old girls, would be the know it all of the action and the names of the players and who at the end of the game would be more devastated if the team lost than the real blokes who had played the game or more ecstatic if the team won. We had a hanger on once who was more a pest - he'd run the drinks out, rub denkarub, tell spectators to make way for the team and generally try to sound important. He'd hang around us at the bar afterwards bullshitting about the game each of us played. I didn't think his name was John Howard but I could be wrong.

what counts as a celebrity wedding?

Back in the olden days when the Medicis were marrying and poisoning each other, I suppose they were the Renaissance equivalent to our modern day celebrities - people well known for being well known and nothing else. So apparently the wedding of Nicole Kidman - well known for having been married previously to that other well known personality Tom Hanks - to Steve Irwin - well known for hunting crocadiles - was the celebrity wedding of the year. Big deal. Why should we care? The "darling of the women's magazines" and some dude who is more famous for wrestling crocadiles in America than for doing much in Australia get married. So what? I got married once. It must have something to do with who gets invited - as in Princess Mary's wedding last year. Why do I not hear about marriages in Prince Leonard's of the Hutt River Principality family? Wouldn't that make an interesting guest list? The guest list at my wedding was very spectatular to me and my ex-wife and that is what should matter. Why need the media be interested in who gets invited and who doesn't? Are they trying to embarrass someone?

journalese belittles the real thing

Just when I thought the media had learnt to respect the meanings behind journalesic metaphors they start again. We were spared - as far as I know - the tradfitional "Blues are in enemy territory" when NSW went to Brisbane for State of Origin 2 recently. Unfortunately I heard it last night or this morning with reference to Australian netball heaviweights' going to New Zealand "into enemy territory" to spy on the New Zealand team's preparations ahead of this year's AvNZ netball tests. Enemy Territory is in Iraq and Afghanistan where SOLDIERS and other DEFENCE personnel stick their LIVES on the line just so you reporters and your donkey headed sub editors can write some crap that sounds heavy and knowing and important. Enemy territory is not on a sporting field or oval or netball court. Enemy territory is Gallipoli and Flanders and Tobruk and Vietnam and Kokoda where people DIED. Enemy territory is where SOLDIERS are sent by politicians where they would not send their own children. Enemy territory is where the ENEMY tries to KILL you. Enemy territory is NOT where there is a ball and cheerleaders in spivvy short uniforms and drunken yobbo louts yelling out "aussie aussie oi oi oi." Enemy territory is where only the PROUD deserve to be.

suck on that and learn

to live with it Alan Jones and Piers Ackerman. Don't pretend you care about the owner driver small business men who are being screwed by Tooheys and Linfox. You are no more the friend of battlers than evangelicals are the friends of sinners. Besides, you and 52% of your aussie mates voted at the last and the previous three elections to screw anyone who was weak enough to be screwed. It's a bit late now. I just laugh and love to see you rant and rave at the "oh the injustice, oh the untold misery, oh the woe of it all" when your own policies that you so gung ho supported bite you on the bum. I can live with the screws tightened a bit further on my mortgage just as I learnt to live with the 17% Keating mortgages and as I learnt to live with Treasurer Howard's mortgages - this clever dick economic manager who managed interest rates so well he had to legislate specifically to allow banks to increase their rates ABOVE the previous cap of 13.5%. You don't remember that do you Alan or Piers or what's that other bloke, the idiot Steve? (I hope I don't malign the good footballer) Price I think it is? Not that Labor are worth believing in either - imagine Tony Albanese as a Treasurer?

The thing is not to hold the staff

responsible for mistakes. Staff such as waiters are paid such a small fraction of the K39 cost of the meal and such a small fraction of the K220 price of the motel room. The owners and managers of these establishments think they have found El Dorado when they set up business ventures here. They do not pay the prices that Australian labour demands and if PM Howard and the 52% who support him have their way they will turn Australia into a Papua New Guinea. Of the K200 for the room at the Coastwatchers, K1 per hour would have gone to the house maid, say K10 for electricity and water, K20 for tax, the rest is for profit after capital costs. In Australia, a country motel charges the equivalent of K200, say about $A84. Of this, the house maid gets $A16 per hour, tax $A8.40; electricity, rates, water $A? But the big difference is the labour costs. Take labour costs out and the owner still has K199 to pay for overheads. In the Australian case, take labour costs out and the owner has $A 68 or in kina terms, K200 less K40 labour. So management in the restaurant ought to be investing more in training its labour force. Who can blame someone who is paid 40 cents per hour?

Madang - the Venice of the South Pacific

but without the mediaeval bulidings and St Marco's. The St Petersburg of the Melanesus. The islands are just 100 and 200 metres off shore and they glitter over the water from the mainland at night. We ate at the Smugglers Rest Restaurant on Saturday night where the setting was much more enjoyable than the meal. My friends A, S and T went up there for the weekend, having left at 6am Saturday and having returned by 6pm last night. Anyway I was saying about the setting for dinner. Madang further around the coast is protected by islands but the Smugglers inn faced the open sea and the waves, blown in from a strong sea gale, were crashing against the balustraded outdoor setting spraying us with foam and mist while small crabs nibbled our toes and the noise took us away into a Hemmingway or Conrad fantasy. If only the airline industry were more open and competitive, Australians would come here as an alternative to Bali, Fiji or anywhere else. The tourism industry needs to become a bit more sophisticated though. We ordered prawn, calamari and fish but we were served a gravy like concoction with two prawns that I was aware of on a bed of a very well done piece of steak! For K39. We suggested K20 was a more payable price.

the most preciousest little son

in all the world. How privileged does a father have to be to have a son like mine? I love my little man. I rang last night to check that my little boy who is now a big man of 25 but who is still just a squinchy bit shorter than I am - until the cartilege starts shrinking from between my spine - was still in one piece following his footy game at the weekend. He told me it was rained out. Rugby? Rained out? I remember it happened last year too. Not the fault of the players' not wanting to have a romp in the mud but the grounds staff closed the oval. We played in sleet one time at Bathurst Teachers College - well actually several times but one time it was more freezing than others that I remeber. Anyway, i asked Matt to get a box of Chocolates and send over to Mum: she and I and the late Princess Diana share birthdays on First July. So Matt says he will go up there before his footy next Saturday which is at Yamba. Mum was excited to hear from Matt during the week that he was going to go back to Uni full time to finish his course - in Hospitality, Tourism and Business Management with Southern Cross. I'll be glad that he gets out of the hotel industry but it has been good for him. There is a camaraderie which he has enjoyed for its giving him a family of brothers and sisters which he missed when his little sister died.

It's a good thing

I am not teaching grammar at the moment as on reflection I have forgotten the rules. Auxiliary verb and verb to be taking same case before and after the verb, having is the gerund, thus - "Tony's having been standing" -therefore what follows, suspended participle etc. Forgotten it all.
My mate Rb and I were watching the soccer this morning and I was saying I hope that dreadful little big noting man PM Howard doesn't do his normal thing and come out and claim credit for the Socceroos' getting into the Round of Sixteen. The bloke is shameless for what he does not claim credit for. The Olympic Games, Cricket, Rugby. He is from the evangelical tradition which does not kneel to pray. But you watch at any public church service - as for a State Funeral - he will kneel and clasp his hands. Only if there are TV cameras there of course. And if he can show up his political opponents as non kneelers. The kneelers are generally Roman Catholics and High Anglicans. Howard's background is Methodist. He kneels because he knows the mainly atheist aussie while turned off by religion generally respects a devout believer - provided they don't earbash them. So Howards gets brownie points: that nice Mr Howard. See, he kneels to pray not like those others. He's just like us - he loves his cricket too. What a nice man.

I forget where I am up to

in my web-log. I've been at a Distance Learning Seminar presented by Prof Fred Lockwood over the last few days which has kept me busy - so busy that i have forgotten my train of thought so I am not sure how themetic, consistent and coherent I am. I just looked at the picture of the welcome to Tony and I describe both Tony and i as standing. I meant to say jokingly I am standing out of the picture taking it. This is of course Tony, standing stretching his legs having just arrived from New Zealand. Which one of the "ing" words here is the gerund? "This" is the subject of the sentence, "Tony" is the object but I would need to consult Fowler to recall how the gerund is governed.
My camera has been with friend Atul who had the good fortune - as a result of hard work - to go to Rabaul and he took photos of the destruction of the volcanic eruption eight years ago I think it was. We had a shaky earthquake about 10pm last night. It wobbled my book, 1812 as I was reading. I have a slight window of opportunity to do some casual reading before I start French 307 in late July. Texts we are studying this time are Sartre's play Les Mains sales and Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses and two works by Ernaux. I saw Les L.d at Oxford about 15 years ago - long enough ago to have forgotten it.

oh well, that's alright then

A ferry sank in Indonesia overnight and thankfully no Australians were drowned. 35 Indonesians drowned in the accident. I beg your pardon? Are Indonesians somehow less human that we can report their deaths but we give thanks that no Australian died? Can we not express some emotion of regret to balance the one of sympathy?
The whingeing aussies who complain about other nations' complaining have something to complain about as a result of the appalling refereeing during the Australia Croatia match in the World Cup. Hand balls and tackling made me wonder whether the game was Gaelic football or maybe Australian Rules. The right result worked out in the end but the Referee ought to rethink his ability. There I go - its the whingeing aussie coming out in me. Must be genetic.
As for the whingeing, now the aussies must know what it feels like when other sporting teams come out here. The sledging from the crowds and the media are as appalling as the refereeing during today's match. Aussies always give themselves a name as being good sports but they ought to listen to themselves over there. Oh it's not fair we're being labelled as too physical. It's putting pressure on the referees. You aussies give but you can't take. And then you've got the hide to whinge about whingeing Poms. Look in the mirror.

My friends at a meet the new guy volunteer Tony standing, Roger in white shirt, Robert in dark shirt, Elly sitting on the colourful chair, me standing.

Nikita Kruschev, former USSR Premier

recounted the story of the hard nosed Stalin. Kruschev was Commissar for Ukraine during the drought of 1937 and he appealed for assistance from the Kremlin which refused to help. But Comrade Stalin complained Kruschev (a very VERY brave thing to do), last week I was in a peasant's house and she was salting down what looked to be a small piglet. She was complaining about the starvation. Comrade she wailed you must help us. After we have eaten dear little Andrei Andreivich we will have nothing and we too will be dead. Comrade Stalin, things are desperate. These peasants are reduced to eating their own babies. Nonsence Nikita scoffed Stalin. These peasants are very wily. They are just trying to appeal to you for your sentimentality.
I used to be sentimental like Kruschev. I wouldn't say I am exactly hard nosed like Stalin - I don't think I am? But I am hard nosed about this country. The Celts had to choose between Roman ways and their traditional ways. Some choices are not easy. It depends on what you have to give up for what the advantages might be. Is it a good thing to give up tribal culture for materialism? TVs, cars, consumerism, celebrityism? Head-dresses, feathers through nose, grass skirts, bride price, pigs? What would Stalin do?

he who does anything because it is the custom

makes no choice. John Stuart Mill. Today's calendar aphorism. Some people pay a compliment as if they expect a receipt. Kim Hubbard, aphorism 13 June. So what choice will I make. I am wondering about my future prompted in regard to another AVI mate who has decided to give three months notice. Should I, shouldn't I, will I, won't I? I want to stay for the election period next year as I think it will be fascinating to see people power PNG style. Furthermore I think things are happening even though they are very slow. I come to work every day and I spend most of my time on the computer on the internet and still I get to play solitaire. But John assures me we now have writers lined up to rewrite the Adult Matriculation Courses and this will be a major accomplishment. It will prove we can at least do something. Externalisation of University level courses hopefully will follow shortly after that and I am semi optimistic that some University subjects will be available for teachers in the first instance to upgrade their qualifications. I expect the University will get more teachers to teach the increased number of students in the same way it gets more cars. It is a mystery.

with the precautions needed for PMV

travelling, why do you do it? Friends will take me shopping so why tempt things when they are so bad? However little I have as a volunteer it is still 100 times more than the people who gather in wait for you at the PMV stops are ever likely to have. They want material possessions but their ways of procurring them does not excuse their behaviour. I see people in wheel chairs with bony legs - probably victims of polio. Another bloke outside Foodmart with one crippled leg sitting on the wet concrete path with his hand reaching up as he sees the wait man approaching. Another 10 year old or so boy with his hand reaching upward - his eye is white, must have been blinded or something. Sometimes I might give but generally I have become hardened. Why aren't their wontoks helping out if wontokism is so culturally engrained that is the root cause of corruption? Anyway, I CHOOSE to travel by PMV - most of the time. This experience is my most culturally challenging experience. Being at the University does not expose me in the way that other volunteers are exposed to the real people and the survival issues of the country. Life need not be like it is.

once you are on the PMV

you are generally safe although there are so far as I know only isolated of incidents of rascols and bullies and criminals. Mostly the passengers look after each other. The main problem is at the bus stop particularly when it is crowded. At times like that particularly you should not have anything of value in your pocket. Hold everything together in your bag in front of you. Hold onto this bag and do not just let it dangle around your neck. When necessary use the free hand for balance and support but if possible put both hands around your bag. If you have groceries in the other hand then be prepared to lose them - you can always buy another packet of weet bix and another jar of vegemite but to lose your mobile with all the contact details and to lose your wallet with cards and everything are more major problems. Yesterday after my exam finished about 4pm I had to do some shopping so I go to the Top Town Lae bus stop about 4.30. I held my bag up to my chest and my attitude was there are 100 thieves there out of 500 people. They work in groups and they know you are coming. The colour of your skin gives you away as an easy target. As a wait man you are one of only about five wait men who catch a PMV so you will always be a prime target.

PMV travel -the way to meet people

I was on Newtown station a year or so ago trying to catch the 8.23 to City. It came at say 8.25 and was too crowded and the attendant over the loudspeaker suggested people wait for the 8.35 - only a 10 minute wait. However, such is the reputation of CityRail that if there is a train at the station, then you get on it because another might not come. And so people behave in Newtown in a marginally more civilised manner - they do not climb through train windows and generally - I repeat GENERALLY they do not push pregnant ladies and cripples and nursing mothers out of the way. And so as for the PMV system here. It is private enterprise. PMVs are not owned by the government. Owners buy a licence to run a route. The Unigate route is 11C or 11D. But to get 2 fares of 50t they go via Kamkumung - ie, you pay 50t to Kamkumung, the PMV unloads you then the PMV drives 10m and it picks you up again and you pay another 50t. The route is supposed to be 50t direct between Eriku and Unigate. You might say it's only 50t . But tell that to someone who is only on say 80t per hour. As for a timetable. The PMV goes when it is full - ie, when it has about K14 worth of passengers.

I listened to the news

on the TV this morning and it sounds like it is an exciting old world out there in Newsland. A guy has been arrested for murder; an Australian girl was shot in the neck in Thailand; Sunny bill Williams is fit to play on Friday night; the Japanese can slaughter some more whales. There must not have been enough homo sapiens killed in Iraq overnight to warrant their deaths being newsworthy any more. That's great news about Sunny Bill though isn't it? Third top story of the day, eh?
I did my French 305 Literature exam yesterday. I was very tired after sitting up to watch the Brazil V Australia soccer on Sunday night and I couldn't concentrate on my last minute cramming so I went over to AVI mate's N's place for a sleep and last minute cramming. Cramming for literature study means going over the arguments for different critical positions and checking one has everything covered. In the end the questions - two essays in two hours were more general than I had prepared for. N's haus meri was prepared for me to have a sleep on a BED so when I told her I don't sleep on a bed in the daytime and I just wanted to lie on the FLOOR she was full of consternation that I would not be comfortable. She insisted she put a sheet on the floor though. Sometimes one just has to compromise. Thank you N and Wendy.

look at PNG and take note

The majority, the 52% who share PM Howard's vision of the free enterprise Australia should look at this most of free private enterprise and smallest of public enterprise countries and learn from it. If you come to PNG and you believe in free private enterprise you will do well here along with the buai sellers, hard boiled eggs sellers, cigarette lighter salesmen, stolen cotton ear buds sellers, stolen second hand watch, stolen mobile phones, stolen anything else sellers, cigarette sellers, razors sellers, pens and pencils sellers, souvenir sellers, bilum bag sellers, woven grass plates and baskets sellers. You might even bring in a fish or a turtle you have caught and sell them in the market along with the other free private enterprise market traders of fresh fruit and vegetables and second hand clothes. But you had better hope you do not get sick and need to go to hospital. You had better hope you do not need to drive on the roads and keep your Mercedes in good condition. You had better hope you do not get pulled up by rascols. You had better hope your teenage daughter is home and stays home after school. Because Health, Law and Order, Transport - the things that the public sector is responsible for and which the minority in Australia support are like what PM Howard and the majority want to see in Australia.

they are just uneducated

No, this is not good enough as an excuse for thieves and rapists and other criminals in this country. Our species is "home sapiens". We are not like gorillas who have just swung in on a vine from out of the jungle. By definition "homo sapiens" means we can think without education. We look at what our fellow homo sapiens are doing and we see 99% of them acting orderly, decently, civilly, courteously and we THINK to ourselves Hmm I am like them, I must behave like them. They do not look at fellow homo sapiens and think Hmm, I must eat a banana and pull fleas off my neighbour and throw faeces and banana peel at other homo sapiens. Education teaches higher order skills - it does not teach what is basic to being a human being: a human being respects my mobile phone and my right get on a bus in a civilised and orderly manner. I do not need education for that.
This country is letting down its own honourable citizens of whom there are 99% of 5 million people. Fifty thousand criminals and include in that the corrupt officials and political - I was going to call them leaders - but rogues is a more apt description are holding the donor countries as well as good natured citizens and servants of NGOs and churches to ransom.

sell that you *&% low life thief

I got to the bus stop yesterday as one bus with some room on it was leaving. By the time the next bus had come, about 20 minutes later, a crowd of 100 passengers had gathered. I let the next three buses take them away. By this time it was getting late for church so I pushed my way on to the next PMV which took me to Kamkumung. I had to stand the whole trip near the door and when I got off I discovered the thief standing next to me (he's not a person - he's a low life *&% thief) had tried to get my mobile phone cover stuffed with cardboard which was attached to my bag with string. So I put it back in my phone slot of my bag. I then moved over to get the Eriku bus and there was a crowd there too. Anyway I got to the front and I felt the person behing me pushing and shoving - just another rude "passenger" swung in from the vines out of the jungle who doesn't know about manners and courtesy and politeness and civility and taking turns I thought. Then the good people started yelling at him as he ran off with my mobile phone cover stuffed with cardboard and paper. I would love to have seen his face as he read the message surrounding the cardboard - "Sell this you *&% low life thief."

I am concerned about

the increasing use by myself in response to social condonation if not acceptance of vulgarity in choice of language. There was a time on TV when s*** was bleeped out and the offender's contract terminated. Graheme Kennady got away with ?uark and last year Rove MacMannus got away with the actual f word. I am reading Boule de suif by de Maupassant and it lambasts the hypocricy of the French bourgeoisie at the time of the Fr-Prussian war 1870 and I wonder if there are more things to be concerned about than language which goes through evolution of vulgarity to indecent to decent? It is a matter of being aware that some people do not like vulgar language - as though language were like art - well it is really , but what I mean is vocabulary per se rather than the broader context of language. The f, c, b, s, words generally do not belong in my vocabulary but it would be hypocritical of me to say I have never used them when I was angry - as when my mobile was stolen. They were never part of our family vocabulary. I never heard Mum or Dad use them. Even "fart" was very impolite and it still is in my family context. It was used by vulgar people. These days it seems to be artistic to use the word in context and without being too vain, that was the context of its use yesterday.

not one of the best

but THE best new concept TV programme was Nerds FC on SBS. Former Socceroo Andrew Harper gathered a group of about 20 nerds whose idea of life was total immersion in a book or computer and who therefore had no idea that there was such a thing as soccer and he worked with them for three months to develop coordination and soccer skills among other things. He took them camping and they had to erect tents and blow up mattresses. "Do you mean I have to put my mouth over this germy hole and blow in to it? But the air keeps escaping" Well you have to put your tongue over the hole to keep the air in. And so on.
One of the other ones was a rubber puppet animal cartoon in which they took on the attitudes and values of people. These two mice were sitting back in their straw armchairs in a maze. "Well I have a responsible job really. I have to show the humans how well I can get from one end of the maze to the other without making a mistake. They use the information to help their psychologists design better education mathods for the little chlidren. It's quite tiring but if it will help the little kiddies then it's it's worthwhile really."

I spent salad days in pubs

and I saw all talk and no action blokes. Oh yair? Come outside and say that. You wanna fight? Yair, come on then. Naa, you come on then. Yair you're weak. Yair, come outside and say that. Yair you're not game. Ah you're drunk mate. Yair? Come outside and say that. You'd lose your way. I'd never find ya. Hold me hand then and I'll show ya. I wouldn't hold your hand - it's probably sticky. Yair, come outside and say that.
Then, being a school teacher, the number of Headmasters I was told about who have had canes broken in two and wrapped around neck, heads punched in, teeth knocked out, it's a wonder emergency wards and dentists ever had time to treat car accident victims or fillings for anyone else.
Then as for stud material. 15 times on me wedding night mate fair dinkum. On a whole night? Mate, 15 times in the first hour. What, with only your wife? Mate, after the reception ... and on and on it goes as if these jokers expect someone to believe them. No wonder Australian politics is like it is. That's the tragedy. We do believe them.

at least the Pommies look after

their own which is more than this lousy Australia does. Well if you don't like what Australia has become you can always stay in PNG. Top attitude that. It reminds of the times I took MY bat and ball onto the street with two playmates and the bullies came along in dribs and drabs until they eventually were doing all the batting and bowling with MY bat and ball and we fielded for them. As a school teacher I saw it happen all the time - big kids infiltrated little kids games becaue they could win against them. David Hicks is the little kid here for whatever his faults might be and HIS country and MY country have let him down. David Hicks for whatever he has or hasn't done is AUSTRALIAN. Michelle Corby and Ned Kelly and Dolly Dunn and wife bashers and cheats and gazumpers and tax dodgers for whatever their faults or perfections are AUSTRALIAN. David might have been stupid and misguided, he might be a loner and a loser. But he is still the son of Terry Hicks, AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN and that ought to count for something. Now even the Taliban fighters who are Afghani citizens are being repatriated. The alpha males of Australian politics are too busy sneaking in to the toilets to count the hairs on their balls that they don't care.

there will never be justice for

David Hicks for as long as both sides of politics think there are no votes in the plight of Mr David Hicks, CITIZEN of Australia. Here's how they think.
Howard - Mr Speaker, Piers Akermann, Alan Jones, Swinging Voters. David Hicks ought to stand trial for flying planes into New York.
Beazeley - Mr Speaker, Geg Combet, Green Left Weekly, Swinging Voters. Listen to this lilly livered response by the Government. David Hicks is a traitor to this Honourable nation.
Howard - Mr Speaker, Piers, Alan, Swingers. David Hicks is more than a traitor. He's a harlot, a charlatan, a nasty piece of work, we don't want him here.
Beazeley - Mr Speaker, Greg, Greenies, Lefties, Swingers. He's worse than that. He's an evil treacherous lying foul mouthed grub who once voted Liberal.
Howard - Oh Mr Speaker, Piers, Alan, Swingers. Listen to this go soft on terrorists, anti American, Taliban loving, Illegal migrant loving would be PM. David Hicks smells worse than my dog's farts.
Beazeley - Oh Mr Speaker, Greg, Greenies, Lefties, Swingers. The government is weak on terrorism. David Hicks is so bad he smells like MY farts. Beat that one PM.

I got an email just now

"Justice for Hicks and Habib theatre fundraiser. The Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group & the Justice for Hicks & Habib Campaign are holding a Theatre Fundraiser: 'Men without Shadows' by Jean-Paul Sartre7:30 for 8pm, Thursday June 15 The Crypt, at The Cat and Fiddle Hotel256 Darling St Balmain. A moving reading of Jean-Paul Sartre’s play ‘Men without Shadows’ produced by Buldozer Theatre and directed by Fiona Green. Duration: 1 hr&15 min,‘ Men without Shadows’ is a fascinating and compelling personal tale of detained Resistance fighters and their torturers. Seven captive men and women discuss the meaning of the violence they have committed: the innocent who have suffered, the meaning to their torture and how to survive. Meanwhile, in the next room soldiers argue between themselves how to get through the task they have been ordered to perform. Cost: $16, (be sure to mention you are there for the Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group fundraiser). Bookings: 9810 7931".

I wonder if Patience was right?

Post Courier, 15 June 06. "Uni row gets serious
HIGHER Education Minister Don Polye yesterday instructed police to arrest Dr Kukari and prevent him from taking office as VC of the University of Goroka. He described the actions of Dr Kukari and other purported council members that had supported him as illegal. Mr Polye maintains that Dr Rawlence was still the VC of the University of Goroka. Dr Kukari maintains that he is the VC appointed by what he maintains is the legal University of Goroka Council. Dr Rawlence said he was firmly in control and said Dr Kukari was no longer an employee of the university and should not be acting VC. The non-academic staff walked off their jobs yesterday demanding authorities sort out the problems or appoint Dr Kukari as acting VC. It could not be confirmed if the 1500 students were in class. The Minister had instructed chancellor Sir Ebia Olewale to convene an urgent council meeting tomorrow. Last Friday, Justice Elenas Batari granted leave to Dr Kukari and others to seek a judicial review of Mr Polye’s action in terminating them and substituting them with an interim body. Justice Batari ruled: “There is no evidence to show that membership of any of the applicants was terminated at the time of sacking from the council. It sounds absurd to me that disciplinary actions were the reason to exclude council members whose terms were current at the time of the minister’s action.”

I knew I wasn't imagining

the place that is Eriku. Mate A who sent me the PMV article the other day sent this one over today and he assures me it is not a wind up.
"Please clean Eriku
I AM frustrated at seeing changes in Lae City. One of the places is the Eriku section. It is a place where drunkards, shoplifters, robbers, beggars and fortune hunters . . . the list goes on. It has become a place where there is no peace. Can the authorities clean up this section of the city by putting some regulations to be followed. – Eriku Observer, Lae"