Zimbabwe v Australia

I worry about non-cognition, a plague of emptiness draining the minds of today’s students.

Note: Tens of thousands of people are employed to manufacture goods used to deter crime and criminal behaviour.

Security mesh for windows

Toughened glass

Locks and chains

Fences of multiple descriptions

Security cameras and alarms

Tyre spikes

Bollards

Crimsafe reinforced mesh

Emergency buttons and bells and buzzers in buildings banks and hospitals

Correctional institution building construction and maintenance

Protective cages for drivers of taxis, buses, trams, trains and so on.

Colleges and institutions built to provide locations for those who need to be trained in the art of anti-criminality.

Miriades of manufacturers of all sorts of anti crime devices from cameras to truncheons to uniforms and signage – indeed a never-ending list

This is but a brief list of criminal contributions to the Australian economy

Whenever I think about the Australian Federal Government or the City of Darwin Council, I’m always reminded of Slim Dusty’s song “Big Frogs in Little Puddles Laying Down The Law

Too late!   

The day you begin,   

Can be the day too late,   

To stop.   

Drugs offer    

A slippery slide,   

A roller coaster ride.   

Up, up, uppers,    

Exhilaration,   

Down, down, downers,    

Plunging despair,   

The crest crashes.     

A yawning trough,   

The pits,   

The only way is up,  

Inject,   

Ingest,     

Force the mortal flesh,   

Reach the mountain top.   

Savour brief sunshine,   

Before you slide,   

Into the abyss of soulless despair.   

That fix,   

That fleeting rise,   

Artificial joy.   

Again the fall,   

That sinking hopelessness.      

Pump your veins,    

Full of shit,   

Rise, rise, rise,   

Between the falls.   

Day,   

Slips into night,   

Until one day,   

You rise no more.   

Forever cast,   

Into nether silence,   

Beyond the grave.   

DOD.   

Poor Old Henry

We’ve come from near and afar,  

Tragic horror where we were,  

Now we are here,  

Across the oceans and the plains,  

Our home regimes were major pains.  

We pawned our jewels,  

Shelled out much money,  

For passage to a land,  

Of milk and honey.  

A land of promise   

We were told,  

Awaits those who cross   

From countries  

Whose birthrights are sold  

On sad regimes  

Which make no sense,  

Anathema to those  

With pounds and pence  

Who oppose autocracy,  

And dream democracy.  

Challenged, spurned, cast adrift,  

We left behind a major rift,    

An ideological chasm so wide,  

It casts us on the other side,  

Of a yawning gulf  

We will never bridge.    

So we arrived  

Down under,  

Was our trip a massive blunder!?  

Herded into compounds like cows,

Men typed as pigs, 

Women as sows!!  

In camps,  

Contained within razor wire.  

We yell,  

“Is Australia ANOTHER living hell??”  

“Justice please,  

Justice” we call,  

Hear us …  

Our despair quells.  

Our plea a prayer,  

Will it fall on deaf ears,  

Raising within,  

Internal fears,  

That we will be moved. 

Back. From whence we came,   

Or worse,   

Oh SHIT!!!  

RETURNED,  

From where we left,

We will face torture,  

Trial,  

And DEATH.  

Poor Old Henry

A couple  

With hungry child,  

Approach the checkout.  

In their trolley,  

Are basic necessities.  

Nothing elaborate,  

Every item one of need.  

They consult the plastic,  

Enter digits,  

Hoping to God   

For the green numbers.  

STRIKE ONE   

“Please re-enter”   

Demands that soulless terminal screen.  

Embarrassing the couple,  

Exposing their shame,  

To fellows winking,  

Thinking,  

“We’re better than them”.  

“Sometimes the card sticks …   

Have another go   

OK?”

Transaction re-entered.  

STRIKE TWO   

Declined again! … then again.

STRIKE THREE!!    

You are out.

Derision haunts the couple,   

Shoppers laugh behind their hands.   

The sad pair,   

Buy meagre items,    

With a handful of coins,    

Loose, forlorn in a bag.  

Biscuits, milk.    

The forlorn child   

Hurriedly tears the packet,  

Gnawing the nourishment,    

Like a hungry rat.   

Whither now?   

God only knows   

Toward what end     

Their forlorn destiny will lead.    

They wander from the precinct,    

Into the nether regions,   

Of near distance.   

Rain falls,   

Lightly from the sky,   

How they wish   

It was manna from Heaven.  

I am an old man and thankful that I have lived most of my life in a context where PRIVACY WAS PRIVACY. Privacy wasn’t talked about like it is these days, but it was a quality or an entitlement that we had.

No longer. There is a lot of talk about ensuring and guaranteeing privacy, but that is all pie in the sky. Governments, agencies and instrumentalities know everything about everyone. Watching and listening devices are everywhere. From cameras, to drones to satellites, there is nothing about anyone that is not discoverable.

The latest quirk is that of the Brisbane City Council wanting CCTV cameras to be enhanced or supported by listening devices, so that passers by can be both seen and heard. If that intrusion is allowed, watch it proliferate into other cities and towns and centres which are under survelliance.

George Orwell got it wrong. He only imagined the half of what it would be like in his ‘1984’ Its much, much MUCH more intrusive than he ever prognosticate.

I praise the Lord that at least my thoughts are still private but fear the day will come when the innermost of human sanctums will be desecrated by intrusion

Wet roads on wet season’s first day.

SINCERITY COUNTS

Messages delivered by presenters should be from the heart. Avoid (debates excepted) speaking on issues in which you have no belief. Avoid being a hypocritical presenter, a phyyric speaker.

When speaking, use POWERPOINT and props to support speech. Don’t read verbatim from power-points. KNOW your subject in case the power-point goes on the blink. Have a fallback position.

If an AUDIENCE MEMBER, take time to THANK the presenters if you genuinely believe they delivered a quality message. Presenters value appreciation and with that constructive, skill honing advice.

Full time on Grand Final

Half time in Grand Final

There seems to be a lot of hit and miss about appointments and arrangements these days. 

Because you tee up for an arrangement that gives you a lesson in some activity every week or something every week is programmed – then the next thing, quite frequently, you are  let know that they can’t keep that appointment with you this week because something’s come up, or “we can’t keep this appointment for you this week because somebody who’s going to provide the service has rung in sick” and so it goes. So it’s really hit and miss. 

You can’t rely on anything these days. 

In the olden days, it used to be that appointments were always met and very rarely not kept. These days, it seems to be more often that arranged appointments are deferred or cancelled. And that’s par for the course. 

You don’t get any consistency or continuity of our programming that’s in place.