Let us start with people,- especially the politicians. The u-tube video below is hilarious, but it is factual: real politicians acting in the most unpolitical way!
The ABC 'Q&A' program on Monday 26/3/2012 in Australia had quite a slinging match between the opposing politicians on the panel. They were told off by the audience.
In general, in response to a question from the floor re why the standard of debate in Parliament is so low when it should be a role model for the public instead of being so confrontational,-the politicians tried to explain that it is not personal,- they are mates outside the Chamber and go to have a beer together! But they do love to argue and are passionate in what they believe.
There is a difference between having a good argument about an issue and becoming personally abusive.This is how unfortunately, many domestic violence cases start: the domestic argument degenerates into personal verbal abuse,- and sometimes physical!
Just like those politicians in the video.
I have experienced recently a case of road-rage. Having narrowly avoided a minor car collision, the other driver stopped his car in front of me in the middle of a busy road. The car was slightly old, but the male driver, a big burly man, was dressed in a white shirt and dark pants,- quite presentable about 45-50years old. When he got out of the car, I could see the saliva dripping from his mouth like a mad dog and he started to shout at me while still a distance from my car!
I sat quietly and stared at him through my dark sun-glasses. He continued calling me all sorts of names while still salivating,- never mind that he was the one trying to overtake me on the wrong side!I was totally unmoved by him and his anger,- all I could think of was that he is in line for a heart attack or stroke,- plus I would hate to be his mother or wife or any female in his family. I am convinced that that personality would be a domestic violence perpetrator!
Perhaps the politicians should explain before each argument:"it is not personal, but............." to teach our younger folk how to argue and debate rather than 'fight'!
HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY PASSOVER!
MAY WE ALL PRAY FOR PEACE ON EARTH, BUT LET US START RIGHT HERE AT HOME, IN OUR STREETS AND WHEREVER WE ARE.
my daily commentary on issues of interest to me.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
AGEING: ARE WE PREPARED?
"AND IF WE ALL LIVED TOGETHER" is a 2011 French film which was shown as part of the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, March 2012.
Plot (Wikipedia)
Jean (Bedos) is a romantic revolutionary, yet enjoys the spoils of a bourgeois lifestyle with his wife, Annie (Chaplin). Annie, a retired psychiatrist, who complains about not being able to see enough of her children and assorted grandchildren. Albert (Richard), is a friendly yet senile man, this is in contrast with his energetic American wife Jeanne (Fonda). Jeanne's a former university lecturer, who is suffering from cancer.
Claude (Rich), a widow, is an aging womanizer with an appetite for pursuits with prostitutes. Claude suffers a heart attack from walking up too many flights of stairs up, on the way to visiting one of his lady friends. Rather than seeing him in a retirement home, his friends decide they should all live together in Annie and Jean's large home. They are joined by Dirk, a young German ethnology student, researching France's aging population.[3][4]
Cast Jane Fonda as Jeanne and Geraldine Chaplin as Annie
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This delightful French quasi-comedy was more insightful and realistic than just comedic. Most of the seniors in the audience laughed in recognition of the reality of self than because of the jokes!
One of the many clever observations that (French speaking) Jane Fonda makes to the young student is;" we insure against everything, including our lives when we die, but we don't insure ourselves against getting old while alive!" She challenges and embarrasses the young man constantly with her observations re, e.g., the sexuality of the aged (You can be my grandmother, for heavens sake!); whether he really loves his fiancee, (though he confesses that he prefers bosomy sexy girls, which she is not. In the end Jane provides him with just such a girl);with the young man eventually being persuaded to move in to become the old people's very caring carer in the house, instead of just a daily dog-walker as he was originally employed!
The ageing characters portray the various types of ageing,- with the gradual physical, mental and emotional deterioration that old age can bring about eventually to everyone!
At the same time, the bonding of the old friends is very comforting and reassuring in spite of their difficulties!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This couple did not need insurance for their old age. See video
If this video doesn't deserve to go viral, I don't know what does. Enjoy .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2LyNAxcRlo
You gotta watch this.
(Video by Paul Duhon Videography Orlando, FL)
64 years after eloping this couple finally got the wedding they deserve and if that alone didn't make it an event for the ages the bride also celebrating her 100th birthday.
Proposed Government Anti-Racism Strategy
Have your say on the National Anti-Racism Strategy
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is supporting the Australian Human Rights Commission and its partners in holding public consultations over the next few months as part of the development of the National Anti-Racism Strategy.
The aim of the strategy is to promote a clear understanding in the Australian community of what racism is and how it can be prevented and reduced.
The Australian Government committed to developing a National Anti-Racism Strategy in Australia’s multicultural policy, The People of Australia. It is anticipated the strategy will be launched in July 2012 and implemented between 2012 and 2015.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Helen Szoke is leading the development of the strategy. She is very keen to hear how racism affects communities around Australia, and what we should be doing about it.
Consultations will be held on:
- Melbourne: Friday 30 March, 10am–12pm in the
Temlee Room, The Meadows, 80 Northcorp Blvd, Broadmeadows
- Mildura: Tuesday 10 April, 1.30pm–3.30pm at
Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities’ Council, 38-40 Madden Avenue, Mildura
- Shepparton: Wednesday 11 April, 4pm–6pm at
Rumbalara Football and Netball Club, Mercury Drive, Shepparton
“Racism is like a disease- It is
brainwashed into children from their peers and parents- grandparents- fear of
the unknown—so it is bad and must be attacked!
Education and understanding is
the only way to approach the issue.” (From an Australian leader who experienced it first hand.)
If anyone watched the INSIGHT program on SBS, re “we are not racist but…”,- they mentioned this Government
initiative.
What I found interesting though was the feeling that we are all
more worried about us not to be identified with the negative stereotypes of our
own ethnic groups.
But does assessing this negativity make us racists against our
own?So what does the word "racism" actually mean?
Obviously we are all guilty of disliking the
‘ugly…….nationals’,- but we don’t hate them and we are hardly going to kill
them! That is not racism. That is a personal feeling of dislike of an individual or a group of individuals.
I call racism the total negativity about a whole ethnic group leading to discrimination.
The reality is that most people, if they have not experienced it themselves are very
naïve about what racism is all about and its dangers! Derogatory remarks in themselves may not be racist,- but continuously repeated do become racist!
An individual has just murdered kids in a Jewish Day School in
supposedly tolerant, multicultural France. This is the type of racism which
hopefully we will never see here in Oz.
But security has been tightened in the Jewish community,- at
great cost!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
SOME CYNICS' VIEWS OF OUR SOCIETY
When the government doesn't like the newspapers and the people don't like the taxes which the government imposes, then the clever cynics have a field day!
| This set of quotes has been around for a long time but just a reminder.....
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. -- John Adams 2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. -- Mark Twain 3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain 4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill 5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw 6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy 7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994) 8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University 9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian 10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850) 11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan (1986) 12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -- Will Rogers 13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P.J. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of
government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the
citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764) 15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! Pericles (430 B.C.) 16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -- Mark Twain (1866) 17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. -- Anonymous 18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -- Ronald Reagan 19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill 20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain 21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903) 22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. -- Mark Twain 23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995) 24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -- Thomas Jefferson 25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop FIVE BEST SENTENCES: 1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity. But sharing it around is wise: wealth accumulation encourages revolt. 2. What one person receives without working for...another person must work for without receiving. Earning is better for the soul than loafing.
3. The government cannot give
to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody
else. Share fairly and share alike.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it,- unless each of its parts is reinvested wisely! 5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I say that a safe democracy depends on the middle keeping the Right and Left extremes well apart. If they don't, they end up getting squashed in the middle and over run.
I worry when any government of the day tries to shut down its media critics,-
whether of the R or L.
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Irena Sendler: a Righteous Gentile
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
TODAY'S NEWS
1. Insight program on SBS: re arranged marriages; forced marriages of children by parents: the good and bad of these.
Government considering criminalizing forced marriages by parents of minors. Wish I was allowed by our children to arrange their partners for life! The por girls and women caught up in such marriages.
2. Foreign Correspondent program on ABC: the superbug,- publish or perish?
I say: first discover the method of preparing vaccines, then publish how they made the superbug- the 'bird-flu' virus which can produce huiman-to-human infections.
3. Israel: the rockets are shot and shot down from Gaza into the populated areas of Southern Israel. IDF retaliates by targeted elimination of the terrorists. Thankfully the Israeli population is now more protected via their iron-domes! But no let-up from Islamic terrorism!
4. Afghanistan: an American soldier went on a shooting spree for unknown reason killing 16 civilians and burning their bodies.
America is gearing up for retaliation. No end in sight to the Afghanistan anti- Taliban problems,- no wonder someone lost his mind!The poor women who won't escape their fate at the hands of the Taliban enforced sharia laws.
5. The Syrians under Assad continue their killing spree against their own civilian resistors.
Who knows what the resistance want and who or what will replace the Assad regime. Nothing good has come out of the Arab spring revolutions in the neighbouringcountries so far.They went from secular dictatorships to religious dictatorships. Poor women!
6. The Nigerian Christians and Islamists are continuously fighting and killing each other.
Will that violence ever end between these neighbouring communities and similar ones across Africa?
Who suffers the most? The women of course,- victims of rape and sharia laws enforced by their male supremacists.
Etc., etc.
But the weather is fine and warm in Melbourne. MOOMBA celebrations went off well, the Fashion Festival and Food Festival are doing a roaring trade.
Life is good for us,- thankfully.
Government considering criminalizing forced marriages by parents of minors. Wish I was allowed by our children to arrange their partners for life! The por girls and women caught up in such marriages.
2. Foreign Correspondent program on ABC: the superbug,- publish or perish?
I say: first discover the method of preparing vaccines, then publish how they made the superbug- the 'bird-flu' virus which can produce huiman-to-human infections.
3. Israel: the rockets are shot and shot down from Gaza into the populated areas of Southern Israel. IDF retaliates by targeted elimination of the terrorists. Thankfully the Israeli population is now more protected via their iron-domes! But no let-up from Islamic terrorism!
4. Afghanistan: an American soldier went on a shooting spree for unknown reason killing 16 civilians and burning their bodies.
America is gearing up for retaliation. No end in sight to the Afghanistan anti- Taliban problems,- no wonder someone lost his mind!The poor women who won't escape their fate at the hands of the Taliban enforced sharia laws.
5. The Syrians under Assad continue their killing spree against their own civilian resistors.
Who knows what the resistance want and who or what will replace the Assad regime. Nothing good has come out of the Arab spring revolutions in the neighbouringcountries so far.They went from secular dictatorships to religious dictatorships. Poor women!
6. The Nigerian Christians and Islamists are continuously fighting and killing each other.
Will that violence ever end between these neighbouring communities and similar ones across Africa?
Who suffers the most? The women of course,- victims of rape and sharia laws enforced by their male supremacists.
Etc., etc.
But the weather is fine and warm in Melbourne. MOOMBA celebrations went off well, the Fashion Festival and Food Festival are doing a roaring trade.
Life is good for us,- thankfully.
On the 4th of February 2012: oh what a night!
I celebrated my birthday together with my partner of 54 years,- my darling husband, Ernie Arnost Malinek.From the school-girl in Botos(h)an, Romania to a senior citizen in Melbourne,Australia, it has been a long journey ,- in years and miles across the oceans and continents.
The events of the intervening years shaped my life
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