Author: jkirkby8712

Another quiet day for me  – even more so, following a fear overnight that I might have given myself a little dose of food poisoning? That shouldn’t have been the case, though some of the symptoms overnight indicated something of that nature. Or, maybe that early evening walk in the sun [minus a hat, which I was actually carrying at the time] might have been the cause!! Whatever the reason, it was not a comfortable night, and then this morning, one of those horrible trips in peak hour traffic that added almost 40 minutes to a normal trip, and finally got t5his driver to the office, feeling less than impressed!  I’m still counting down the days!

Even, surprisingly, not really in the mood for a radio show tonight, but we met that commitment as usual, and the mood quickly changed with the help of some great music. In view of the fact, that yet once again, the so-called regular presenters who were supposed to be on air, both before and after my time slot, did not turn up, I was particularly glad to have made sure I did!!  Eventually got home afterwards – to an empty house [with Susie up in Bendigo] –  after visiting the Treasurer of the local Uniting Church who has asked me to audit the Church Accounts for 2010. A few years ago, that was one of                  my voluntary tasks I decided to say ‘NO’ to,, because at the time,  the ‘books’ that were being given to me to audit were in such a state, that there was absolutely no pleasure or enthusiasm in undertaking the role. However, the new Treasurer came back to me last year, and asked to reconsider my view! I found things were now much better managed, and it was again a voluntary task which did not leave the doer in frustration and suffering from major headaches!  So I said,  yes I will do it again next year!!  Well, that time has come around again, and to be honest, I’m quite happy to help out!!

I seemed to have overlooked the last few games in the  World Cup Cricket tournament, which is currently underway on the sub-continent, so here is the latest. Tonight’s game is between  India and the Netherlands, at Delhi.

Match 21:  6^th March – England 171 defeated South Africa 165 played at Chenai

Match 22:  6^th March – India 5 for 210 defeated Ireland 207 played at Bengaluru

Match 23: 7^th March –  Canada 5 for 199 defeated Kenya 198 played at Delhi

Match 24: 8^th March -New Zealand 7 for 302 defeated Pakistan 192 played at Kandy

Must have been feeling lonely tonight – sent Susie a text message, enquiring as to how things were  –  the typical ‘annoyed’ daughter’s response came back  –  ‘Yes yes Dad, all fine’. Apparently, according to an entry I noted in Facebook later, she had a fairly noisy ‘party’ going on in a nearby apartment [on a Tuesday night!]. Knowing Susie, it probably wouldn’t have worried her much at this stage of the year, as she would be up quite late studying in any case!  Sounds like it was an ‘intoxicated’ group who had been refused entry elsewhere, so had returned to somebody’s apartment in Susie’s accommodation venue, to ‘party’ on!!

Back tomorrow!!!

This is the day of the week when I introduce the participants to  my readers, of the weekly ABC TV panel show ‘Q & A’ [Questions and Answers], but it’s also an opportunity for myself to catch up on the major personalities in our society these days, and generally learn a bit more about them. Many of them, I am usually quite familiar with, others, perhaps just the name has crossed my mind for some reason, through the media, etc. So apart from the topics which are discussed each week [and which generally relate to the major news stories of the week past, etc,], I like to use this program as a bit of an educational process, for both myself, and anyone else who might be interested. Most of the comments and bios below, about the program come from ABC websites, and I fully acknowledge that. In terms of the bios, no point to trying to reinvent the wheel!!

First of all, a reminder of what the program is on about, and who it’s host is each week.  Q&A puts punters, pollies and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week. It’s about democracy in action – on Q&A the audience gets to ask the questions. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you’re from – everyone can have a go  and take it up to our politicians and opinion makers. Energetic and opinionated – Q&A brings Australia’s egalitarian and larrikin spirit into the studio. Q&A is about encouraging people to engage with politics and society. Q&A is hosted by one of the ABC’s most respected journalists – Tony Jones. Q&A is live to air – it’s happening as viewers watch.  If you want a chance to ask the questions,  you are invited to register online.

Tony Jones is one of Australia’s most respected journalists. As host of Q&A he brings over 20 years of award winning journalism to the table. Tony is known for his incisive and probing interviews on the breaking issues of the day. His role on Q&A capitalises on his ability to tap into the political zeitgeist and keep the discussion focused and on track.
 Tony Jones has won pretty much every award an Australian journalist could wish for. He’s covered the seminal news events of the last two decades – from the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, to the rise of the Taliban and, closer to home, the revelations of sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities. Now with Q&A Tony is embarking on a new kind of inquiry.  He wants to put the Australian public directly in touch with the politicians and playmakers – to give them the opportunity to get some answers, eye to eye.  Public democracy, open dialogue, transparency – it’s what every good journalist strives for.

Tonight’s panellists were  Gail Kelly – Westpac CEO;  Kate Ellis – Minister for the Status of Women; Joe Hockey – Shadow Treasurer; Janet Albrechtsen – opinion columnist for The Australian; and Mike Carlton – journalist and commentator

On Monday, the eve of International Womens Day, we have a great panel to discuss and debate the issues:

From left to right – Joe, Janet, Gail, Kate and Mike

Gail Kelly is CEO of Westpac, arguably Australia’s most powerful businesswoman. Gail took the helm of Westpac in February 2008, and oversaw the merger with St.George Bank in December of that year. Before joining Westpac, Gail was CEO and Managing Director of St.George Bank for five years, at a time when St.George more than doubled its total assets and profits.  Previously, Gail worked at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as Head of Customer Service Division and a member of the bank’s Executive Committee. Gail began her banking career as a teller at Nedcor Bank, one of the largest banks in South Africa. She grew up and was educated in South Africa – firstly at Cape Town University and completing her MBA at Witwatersrand University. Gail is currently a director of the Australian Bankers’ Association, the Financial Markets Foundation for Children, and Melbourne Business School. She is married to Allan, and they have four children. The family migrated to Australia in 1997. In October 2004 Kate Ellis made history as the youngest woman ever elected to the Australian House of Representatives, winning the seat of Adelaide. Following the Labor Party’s election victory in November 2007 Kate was elevated to the ministry as the Minister for Youth and Sport, again making history as the youngest ever Australian minister (previous record holder Paul Keating).In last year’s reshuffle she became Minister for Employment Participation, Child Care and Status of Women.
Kate was born in Melbourne in 1977 and grew up in rural South Australia in the Murray River town of Mannum, where her family owned the local bakery. They later moved to Adelaide where Kate attended high school and studied international relations and politics at Flinders University. But a political career beckoned before Kate completed her degree. She began working as a research officer and adviser for federal and State Labor politicians before running for Parliament and defying the national trend in 2004 by winning a seat from the Liberals. In Government Kate has worked to provide a genuine voice for young people and is passionate about the power of sport to strengthen communities, tackle the obesity epidemic and define Australia’s national identity. In her spare time she loves to cook, play netball and ‘attempt to keep her garden alive’. In 2009 Zoo magazine offered to make a $30,000 donation to charity if Kate posed for a pictorial spread, but she declined. Joe Hockey has had to shoulder a big share of responsibility in the Opposition since the coalition lost office in 2007 and some big names left the frontline. Joe is a key member of the Opposition strategy team, and as shadow treasurer he has the challenge of beating Labor on the crucial battleground of the economy. Well-known as a moderate within the Liberal Party, Joe has occasionally been at odds with his colleagues on some fundamental philosophical issues and is seen by many as a future leadership contender.
Joe was born in Sydney in 1965 and has a different background from many of his parliamentary colleagues. His father, Richard, was born in Palestine of Armenian background, and came to Australia in 1948. The family’s original name was Hokeidonian. Joe graduated in arts and law from the University of Sydney, where he was active in the Young Liberals. He worked as a banking and finance lawyer, then as Director of Policy to the Liberal Premier of NSW, John Fahey.  He won the seat of North Sydney for the Liberal Party in 1996, following the retirement of well-known Independent Ted Mack. He joined the Howard ministry in 1998 as Minister for Financial Services and Regulation. His last ministry was in the Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio, which he held while the coalition was fighting an intense political battle over its contentious industrial relations policy, WorkChoices.  Joe and his wife Melissa Babbage live in the Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill. They have three children, Xavier, Adelaide and Ignatius. Janet Albrechtsen is one of Australia’s most prominent conservative commentators. She is a columnist for The Australian and has also written for The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Janet was a member of the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 2005 to 2010. She has also been a member of the Foreign Affairs Council since 2003. Janet was born in Adelaide and has a doctorate in law from the University of Sydney Law School. She has also worked as a solicitor, practising in the areas of banking and finance, corporate and securities law. Mike Carlton is one of Australia’s best-known broadcasters and journalists. In a 40-year career, he has been a radio and television news and current affairs reporter, foreign correspondent, radio host and newspaper columnist.  Mike was an ABC war correspondent in Vietnam in 1967 and 1970, and for three years was the ABC’s Bureau Chief in Jakarta. He also reported for the ABC from London, New York and major Asian capitals. In television, he was one of the original reporters on the ABC’s groundbreaking This Day Tonight in the 1970s.  Mike turned to talk radio in 1980, first at Sydney’s 2GB, and then for four years in London at Newstalk 97.3FM. On returning to work in television in Australia in 2008, he reported and hosted Indonesia: A Reporter Returns, a three-part documentary for SBS TV. After 26 years hosting morning radio , Mike finally retired from his Radio 2UE breakfast program in Sydney. He is now columnist for the Saturday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, having been sacked from the position in August 2008, for refusing to write his column during a strike by journalists at Fairfax media. He subsequently rejoined the newspaper in 2009.
Mike is known for his criticism of conservative public figures such as former PM John Howard, radio personality Alan Jones, and for his criticism of conservative governments, including the United States’ Bush administration. Mike has had a life-long passion for naval history and in 2010 published the book he always wanted to write- Cruiser – the Life and Loss of HMAS Perth and her Crew.  He now lives with his wife and young son on Sydney’s northern beaches.

I actually only realised after the program, that one of the reasons for the concentration of questions and discussions being related to women’s rights etc, was that we have just ‘celebrated’ this year’s International Women’s Day.  Some of the areas covered on the subject of women, and argued about, by the panel, included the fall in relation to most other OECD countries in the proportion of Australian women on corporate boards in this country;  existing pay differences between males and females in the workforce [though this was disputed, if the same work was being undertaken];  a discussion on the use of the word ‘feminism’ today, and it’s significance to the traditional or conservative feminist movements of past years, and so on. Meanwhile there was also some considerable debate about bank fees. The Westpac CEO seemed to have all the answers without actually denying certain fees etc, existed  – in fact, I must admit I was quite impressed by Gail Kelly who spoke confidently, and gave good answers to questions raised about her Bank’s fees, the supposed disparity between salaries of males and females in the finance area of the bank,  and, on quite a personal level, the justification for her substantial $10 million renumeration package compared with average wages and salary levels. She was not afraid to admit it was high while explaining that such a figure was broken up into various packaging components relating to performance levels, bonuses, etc, and that disparity in salaries must by necessity of the levels of responsibilities in roles, and the competitive desire of large organisations to get the ‘best’ people for the job, will always be a major consideration in such matters.

I was interested to hear Joe Hockey’s concern for the low numbers of women in senior roles and corporate boards, and quite obviously, some of the views he expressed tonight would appear in tomorrow’s media! In fact on that very question, this is the kind of report that would appear:-

Opposition frontbencher Joe Hockey says he would back enforced quotas that ensure 30 per cent of board positions are occupied by women. He says corporate Australia has been given long enough to improve gender equality on the executive level after talking about it for more than a decade. “If they don’t meet a reasonable target within a period of time, then more punitive measures need to be taken by the parliament,” he told ABC television on Monday. “I would think that you would need to have a target of about 30 per cent.” Women make up about 25 per cent of board appointments in Australia at the moment, but it slips to 11 per cent for the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. On the eve of International Women’s Day, Mr Hockey said it was time for real action, although he insists quotas were a last resort. “Corporate Australia has had so many warnings, they’ve put in place so many programs … but Australia has actually fallen behind,” he said.  “I just don’t understand how you can claim that as a director of a company, that all wisdom and knowledge lies in the hands of men only.” Meanwhile, another panellist tonight, Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis said the government was committed to its election pledge to have women make up 40 per cent of public board positions by 2015.  In both cases, the two politicians  suggested that quotas should only be used as a last resort, they don’t want to legislate on the matter, BUT…………  An interesting response came from one of the program viewers with a comment to the affect that   ‘Watching two politicians agree is crazy, amazing – more, more, more’!!

The two journalists on the panel, probably didn’t get much of a go tonight, and when they did, no punches were pulled in their opinions. Janet Albrechtsen came over to me as a bit of a modern day ‘Germaine Greer’ – perhaps a bit unfair on my part, as I’ve not always liked the ‘anti’ tone of some of her newspaper articles that I have read from time to time, the type of journalists [in my humble view] who never seems to have ‘nice’ things to say about the topic she is writing.  Perhaps it just that she is ‘too outspoken’ in a harsh way that gets on my nerves?

One point made tonight [which was basically passed over] – which may in fact have been raised by Janet  –  we hear so much about the advances that women have made in most aspects of modern life to bring them on a more equal footing with men  – but generally, this kind of assessment applies only to women in western countries –  women today remain downtrodden and severely discriminated against in many world societies including parts of Islam and various African and Asian cultures. Like the comment tonight, this fact in the broad sense tends to be bypassed when we look at international improvements in the rights of women.

Of course, with the Labor Government’s plan to introduce ‘some kind’ of carbon tax in the near future,  it was inevitable that a portion of the program would be devoted to that subject – in fact, just briefly, at the beginning and end of the night!  A point made at both ends of the program by Gail Kelly, was that the politics of that type of question was becoming far too personal – if we want to achieve any degree of bipartisanship or agreement on these things, the ‘nastiness’ which seems to be creeping into the debates in parliament and elsewhere, needs to be moderated. It is because of this aspect that ‘progress’ is not been made!  I must agree, and in fact, have been becoming quite disturbed in recent weeks by the vitriol  which seems to be getting thrown around, in both houses of parliament, particularly the emphasis on calling members ‘liars’ etc. We don’t need that!  I would like to see Tony Abbott, as Leader of the Opposition, direct his energies  to more positive forms of ‘attack’ against the government – this sort of ‘letter to the faithful’, I personally don’t want to keep seeing, where the emphasis is on dishonesty, and by association, lies   –  he wrote last week  –  “Julia Gillard couldn’t have been clearer before the last election when she said, ‘There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.’. We now know that keeping the Greens happy matters more to Ms Gillard than keeping her promises. As a result of Ms Gillard’s dishonesty, Australians face higher household bills and lost jobs.”   Okay Tony, you made your point, over the past couple of weeks – but what are you achieving in terms of progress to a better alternative. Your letter indicated that the Coalition had a climate change strategy based on direct action to reduce emissions and improve the environment. Well then, can we please move on  –  direct your efforts into telling the Australian electorate what those plans are, instead of all these constant negative verbal assaults  –  let’s move on!@!!  I think that is what Gail Kelly was attempting to suggest we need to do last night.

When I started this particular show, I never imagined I could keep things going for so long – 250 Sunday mornings over 5 years that I have been up and in the studio well before 7am to present one of the music genres I enjoy sharing the most.  That suggests not too many Sundays have been missed – and all for legitimate reasons – out of town on  holiday or a weekend away, occasional illness or hospital recovery, and one Sunday when my daughter’s car was blocking mine in, and I was not game to wake her up!  No Sundays missed because I ’couldn’t be bothered making the effort’ or ‘had nothing prepared’, a record I fairly proud of as of course the role is completely voluntary. Mind you, I sometimes feel I’d like to give it away occasionally, but I want to keep playing the music, and for a station that only has one classical music program through the week, no other time seems really appropriate. I’m hoping that once I retire from fulltime work, that it will all become a little easier!

Played some of my favourite composers, and artists this morning, but as usual ran out of time – could have gone on for a few more hours, but I’m certain that the country music fans [and presenters] would not have appreciated that –  my Sunday program is followed by 3 hours of country music presented by a couple who have been on air for many more years than myself. Today’s chosen composers included Beethoven, Ravel [Bolero], Tchaikovsky,  Mozart, Chopin, Janacek [to name a few], while the performers I featured today, just had to  include the late Joan Sutherland [song from 1965], the American black singer, Marion Anderson [Softly Awakes My Heart from Saint-Saens’ ‘Samson and Delilah’, sung in English and originally recorded on Mono back in 1930], my favourite Australian musicians [the Australian String Quartet] and favourite suburban orchestra [the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra], and Sally Maer [the cello diva, playing ‘The Prayer’]. Not sure how we managed to fit all of that into two hours, and meet all of our sponsorship commitments, concert diary, but we did it!! 

I was meanwhile, back on air again this afternoon for a few hours of folk, blues, country, pop and world music, almost all of it, relatively new releases. Came back from that tonight fairly tired, although later, I wondered whether much of that was my weekly apprehension about Susan driving back up to Bendigo for another week of study. She seemed in no hurry to be off this evening, so by the time she left, just after 8.30pm, it was already dark.  There was little I could say – she already knew that ‘Dad’ worried about her driving up the highway alone, and particularly at night. It was in fact a fine night this time but with all of the Autumn and Winter months ahead,  that trip through he mountains north of here can be fairly uncomfortable in terms of bad weather, fog, frost, etc!  I guess I have a lot of worrying Sunday evenings ahead of me L

I finished reading one of Thomas Keneally earlier novels this evening – think I recall picking it up at a book stall last November, and have been reading a few pages at a time before trying to sleep. It was titled ‘Flying Hero Class’, and first published back in 1991. While it was an interesting enough story, it didn’t leave as satisfied as I generally feel after a good novel. I guess it is really a story of moral dilemmas on both ‘sides of the fence’ as Keneally examines and on observes the reactions under pressure, etc of the various characters involved in the hijacking of an airliner flying between New York and Frankfurt – a jet carrying an Australian aboriginal dance troupe and its white tour manager.   Just wasn’t sure how I felt about the story – found myself at times wanting it to keep moving on the ‘hijack’ aspect of the storyline, whereas the writer kept diverting to ‘other matters and past events’ as part of his ‘observations’ of the various participants. Normally, that wouldn’t worry me, and I would find it an essential part of the novel. I think the following précis from one reviewer I came across, and in particular the words I have highlighted demonstrate partially what I am getting at. Maybe I am unfairly feeling the whole thing was ‘too slow’ because in reality as suggested below, the drawn out tension of the situation was probably [and would be] all too real to those who were involved.

‘A tale of intrigue and hijacking. Frank McCloud is the manager for the international dance tour of the Barramatjara, a remote Australian tribe. On the troupe’s flight to Europe, a small band of Arab terrorists hijack the plane in hopes of obtaining the release of political prisoners. McCloud and two other men are singled out as the people’s enemies. Taliq, the terrorists’ leader, accuses him of exploiting the tribe for their land and begins brainwashing the crew, passengers , and the Barramatjara themselves to turn them against the scapegoats. Keneally, in a slow methodical plodding style, allows readers to see, and sometimes feel, the plight McCloud and his companions experience. The tension and psychology at play here are believably presented and add greatly to the book’s appeal’.

Perhaps my uncertainty was a little like this comment – ‘I was not sure if this was a black comedy; but as the book went on, it was not’  –  I felt on occasions that I was reading  a ‘cheaper’ version of Keneally’s writing style, although it certainly wasn’t one of his earliest publications, many great books came before it, such as ‘Schindler’s Ark’ for one! Anyway, after all that, I think I will give the book 2 stars out of a possible five – but that is purely based on my enjoyment or satisfaction of the novel, not any kind of pure literary assessment.  Meanwhile, I have for some months being slowly reading through one of Thomas Keneally’s more recent projects – the 1^st part of a history of Australia. I must admit that I haven’t made much progress yet, being determined to finish John Howard’s book before I concentrate on another major reading project. So we will come back to that one a little later.

Well, a part of it anyway –  20 years ago, I’d be out there all day for a week, now about 4 hours at a time is my limit!! The years seem to be catching me up. Even managed a walk afterwards –  mmmm, that was a bit of a struggle, because the old post ‘lawn mowing’ curse hit me –  the crook ankle, which by evening was difficult to walk on!!  Curses!  Anyway, at least by the end of the day, my lawn areas were looking much tidier – my actions must have created a virus of some sort before it was not long after I began, that he neighbour was out with his mower, though he [despite being in his 20s] seemed to be under the supervision of his mother, who followed him around as he mowed!! Not sure if I would have appreciated that degree of attention – certainly, in my various employment roles, I have never appreciated someone ‘looking over my shoulder’!

World Cup cricket – Australia is playing Sri Lanka tonight, and by 9pm our time, with the Asian team batting,  the Aussies have picked up a couple of wickets. Score 2 for 69. Decided to watch a bit of the TV coverage of this one, but not for too long – early start on Sunday mornings for Bill.  I needn’t have worried –  rain interrupted the Sri Lanka innings, and steadily increased, until it was necessary to abandon the game. A pity as the match was sizing up to be quite an exciting event. When play stopped, Sri Lanka after 32.5 overs were in a strong position at 3 for 146 runs.  However, that outcome means Ricky Ponting’s record of never having lost a World Cup game as captain of Australia is retained!

Susie returned from Bendigo sometime yesterday – to go to a concert last night [no idea where], and it was beyond  my bedtime by the time she returned home – in fact, it’s likely to be Saturday before ‘I catch up with her’!!  She and friends have gone to another of those 12 hour concerts – ‘Soundwave’ I think this one was called, and although I was partially awake, it was well after midnight before she got home tonight.

After another quiet day at the office yesterday, today was a little more ‘lively’, but I have basically being on my own for most of the week, apart from Committee meeting day on Monday. Speaking of meetings, we had a Radio Station committee meeting tonight  – a couple of absentees, however a useful meeting. We now have Maureen helping Mike in the studio office four mornings a week, so we currently have a rather handy little ‘administration section’ [unpaid of course] which depends on the voluntary goodwill of those concerned. Also includes a couple of ‘work for the dole’ equivalent young people helping out, so hopefully a few of those kind of tasks that tend to get neglected in a voluntary organisation now have a little team to attack them.

Some missing World Cup Cricket results:

• Match 16: South Africa 5 for 351 defeated [thrashed]  Netherlands 120, played at Mohali on 3^rd March.
• Match 17: Pakistan 184 defeated Canada 138. At Colombo on 3^rd March
• Match 18:  New Zealand  0 for 166 defeated  Zimbabwe 162  at Ahmedabad on 4^th March
• Match 19: West Indies  1 for 59 defeated Bangladesh  58, at Mirpur on 4^th March

Meanwhile, in the Australian Football League pre season competition, Essendon had a big win over last year’s Grand Finalists, St Kilda, to earn a place in next weekend’s Pre-Season Grand Final – the Bomber’s first grand final appearance of any sort for 10 years. Adam came back early from his day at ‘Soundwave’, ostensibly because he had to work in the early hours of tomorrow morning, but also to watch his beloved Essendon keep winning for him this year!

I noticed an article in the local [Northcote area where I work] community newspaper this week which was asking the question ‘Are we racist?’ This was how the paper put the story.

‘Darebin Council will try to measure racism across its municipality. Councillors have asked for a report that will set the boundaries for a racism inquiry.  The call comes just days after the Federal Government vowed to establish a National Anti-Racism Partnership and Strategy. Cr Gaetano Greco called for the inquiry and a community forum to discuss multiculturalism and racism at a meeting last week. “I think it is important for us to be one of the first to measure the extent of racism in the city,” Cr Greco said.“From that, we can develop strategies at local community level.” Councillors Stanley Chiang and Trent McCarthy applauded the moves to combat racism. “We can show our city strives to support multiculturalism and show racism absolutely has no place in our city,” Cr Chiang said. It comes as new research from the University of Western Sydney shows that residents from northern middle Melbourne, including Darebin, have racist experiences above the state and national average, particularly at work, in shops and restaurants and at sporting events. The Challenging Racism project showed residents in the area also experienced high levels of racism at educational institutions and in the housing rentals and buying market.

Of the residents surveyed from this region, 83 per cent agreed there was racial prejudice in Australia, but only 11.2 per cent self-identify as being racist. Additionally, 25.5 per cent of respondents said they would be at least “slightly concerned” if a relative married someone of Muslim faith, 13.3 per cent someone of Jewish faith and 24.9 per cent someone of Aboriginal background’.’

Well, that’s the way the local paper presents it, but let’s take these facts in relation to the total survey, on a nation wide basis, because I don’t believe those findings from a localised area are indicative of the way the Australian population as a whole feels. The research that led to ‘these’ findings presents a different total picture, while noting that there is anxiety about race relations, and it is more of an issue in some areas.

Quoting from a recent report, a project based at the University of Western Sydney, stated that the results of 12 years of research by the ‘Challenging Racism Project’, released on the 21^st February, provide a national picture of racism, ethnic relations and cultural diversity in Australia. In surveying more than 12,500 people from all States and Territories across Australia, the national results of  the Project revealed that  86.8% of respondents agree that it is a good thing for a society to be made up of people from different cultures; 84.4% believe all races are equal; and, 78.1% feel secure with people of different ethnic origins. Other findings included 11.2% believe it is not a good idea for people of different races to marry each other, while 12.3% admit to being prejudiced against other cultures. However,  lead researcher, Professor Kevin Dunn from the University of Western Sydney’s School of Social Sciences, says the findings indicate that the majority of Australians are positive about living in a multicultural country and that community relations in Australia are generally good. “However, there are clearly a significant number of Australians that still have a level of anxiety or discomfort about cultural difference, which makes the case for a nation-wide commitment to challenging racism that much stronger,” says Professor Dunn.  The Challenging Racism data also revealed that the frequency of racism varies substantially from place to place. “Each region of the country has its own strengths and challenges, as well as its own capacity to address  those challenges. In fact, the differences between regions are to such a degree that to compare them would be like comparing apples to oranges,” says Professor Dunn. Rather than attempting to make direct comparisons between suburbs or places, the research team focused on the more constructive goal of addressing the nature of racism and developing anti-racism strategies that can be implemented at the local level. “Governments, community groups and individuals can visit the Challenging Racism website to look up the regional profile of their area and find out which anti-racism strategies are most appropriate to them,” says Professor Dunn.

With that in mind, I guess in retrospect, that was a partial aim of the local newspaper report on it’s area of influence, and the article originally referred to included a survey questionnaire on the subject, perhaps in an attempt to assess the specific needs and actions that should be taken in the Darebin area [a reasonably northern inner suburban area of Melbourne, with surprisingly [in view of the project results for that district], quite a large population of non-Australian born residents.  Certainly, at the public housing estate where I work, there is a proportionately high number of  Muslim families from different parts of the Middle East, and parts of Africa, together with a number of Asian families.

An important finding of the Challenging Racism Project is that Australians are in large part secure with cultural difference. However, as indicated above, the findings indicated that there are still pockets of the country that hold on to ‘old-fashioned’ racist views.  The presence of any form of racism is harmful for both the targets of the prejudice and for Australian society as a whole. To assist in counteracting the existence of racism, the Challenging Racism Project team have compiled a list of useful, practical anti-racism initiatives and strategies – that local governments and individuals can access and use to address cultural prejudices in their own backyards.  There are always the exceptions, and the presence of people like Pauline Hanson in Federal politics in the early years of the Howard government had the unsettling affect of appealing to these groups. About one-in-ten Australians have very problematic views on diversity and on ethnic difference. They believe that some races are naturally inferior or superior, and they believe in the need to keep groups separated. These separatists and supremacists are a destructive minority and many of them were attracted to the ‘views’ expressed by Hanson and the ‘One Nation’ Party [in fact, still are by the remnants of that organisation, as we saw on Q & A a couple of weeks ago]. That is not to say that discrimination does not exist – the project results indicated that 66% of respondents had experienced  racism of some sort – but that is possibly a meaningless results in terms of racism, because the respondents presumably came from all cultures of Australian life, so I’m not sure how the figure was determined.  Of further interest, from a 2006 survey of 4010 Australians on the experience of racism and on attitudes to anti-racism the Challenging Racism Project found that most Australians want action against racism [85.6% in fact].

I guess I have a particular gripe about Australians [in 2011] being called racists, and a year or so ago,  when we had a number of physical assaults and robberies committed against Indian nationals, I became quite annoyed with the ‘generated’ uproar in India and the broad assumption that Australia was racist because of the actions of a few thugs.  It particularly annoyed me coming from a country which I consider to be one of the most racists and intolerant nations in the world in terms of different cultures, castes, religions, etc!  Nevertheless, the Project is an important example of the real concern that is shown by the majority of Australians to the need to ensure our country is welcoming to all cultures and nationalities. With almost 50% of the population having being born outside of Australia, but broadly speaking, living in a peaceful environment with each other, that says more than a few survey results to my mind.

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

[lyrics by Johnny Mercer]

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

I’m not sure what brought that on – certainly not the drive to work this morning, which like most such trips lately, seems to add more stress and hazzle than my system needs.  October can’t come quickly enough for me this year, if for no other reason than to rid myself of these two one-hour+ drives per day!!

Meanwhile, with Susie up in Bendigo these days, it was nice to get a brief visit from youngest daughter, Jodie last night. She hasn’t been too good of late – a problem with her right foot, which she thinks medication is  assisting but is a very slow response. That and another medical problem, still not resolved either, has probably kept the poor girl a bit low in spirits and activity over the past couple of weeks or so. Promised she would keep me informed of the outcome of any results as soon as available. Jodie also came with news of the date of her University Graduation ceremony, late in March – she was worried about obtaining an extra ticket so that her Nan [Win Seipolt] could join Shirley, myself and Jodie’s boyfriend, Ash.. Had applied for one but not yet heard from the organisers.  I don’t recall a specific restriction on numbers when Susie graduated last October, or perhaps she found it easier to get the numbers she wanted. Certainly, there was a restriction when I graduated from Melbourne University in 1977 –  present with myself was Shirley, my Mother and one other – my youngest sister I think!  Must check that out!  Jodie also told me of plans for the birthday celebrations in a couple of week’s for Win Seopolt’s 90^th birthday, for which I noticed that Jodie’s Facebook family invitation to the planned dinner would accept no excuses for non-attendance.  Although Win [or Nan to my ‘kids’, and Shirley’s mother] was not aware of it, one of her few surviving siblings was coming down again from Queensland for the occasion, arriving in a few days  – Val had always been a favourite down here with the family, and has been a regular visitor to Sunbury over recent years, particularly since her husband, Ern, passed away a few years ago now.

Relatively speaking, another cool March day, and while I think there will be plenty of  warmer days still ahead, it’s strange that this rather unseasonal climate is continuing in the manner it has. Oddly enough, despite years of drought,  plagues of locusts and more recently an excess of rabbits, together with the more recent excessive rains and subsequent flooding of many parts of Victoria, it’s interesting to read such reports as  wool prices reaching a 20 year high as growers reap the rewards apparently of sticking with sheep despite the adverse conditions. Mind you, that report was dampened a little by the comment from one wool manager that ‘prices were good but really only where they should have been for the past 20 years. ‘We are only back to where we were in 1991 though and you have to remember that. But it is a great boost for producers, as is the fact their wool yields will yield a lot higher this year because there is not the dust around, nor is there much vegetable matter in the fleeces’.  Even  cattle markets seem to be producing good prices – although not knowledgeable at all in this area, I’m feeling a little surprised that so much ‘success’ seems to be coming out of the farming sector in view of recent weeks!  But then again, perhaps we are only hearing the good stories – I think there are some areas in northern Victoria where the flood waters haven’t really disappeared as yet!   However, somewhere else where there is good money, appears to be in horses –  on Monday, at the opening day of Melbourne’s Premier Yearling Sale, there were 131 horses sold for a gross return of  $8.95 million!! That’s an average of about $68,305 per horse, with the top price paid being $310,000.  Not all good news however – for example, out in Port Phillip Bay, we have a number of grain export ships lying idle off  Melbourne –  flood damage to the Victorian rail network to the main source areas of the state, a shortage of road transport, and a late harvest, have caused a backlog in grain shipments out of Victoria and other states.

Over in New Zealand, a week out now from the terrible earthquake around Christchurch, we still haven’t been advised  of a final terrible death toll. I don’t believe all of the major damaged buildings have been cleared of rubble as yet, but it is likely that the greater percentage of those who died, did so underneath the major television building [CTV building], which apart from the damage caused by the initial earthquake, had a substantial number of fires burning throughout it for some days. Outside of Christchurch and the port city of Lyttelton, it seems that New Zealand farmers were spared the worst of the earthquake. According to a report in the Weekly Times this week, the quake caused only minimal damage to agricultural, residential and farming  properties, and this enabled many farmers to switch their focus on providing relief and support to the larger urban areas shaken by the quake.

On the cricket front, there is an interesting ‘British’ match going on at present – England versus Ireland – a game the English would certainly not want to lose. At the time of writing, England are 2 for 198 after 33 of the scheduled 50 overs. Should end up with over 300 runs.  Yesterday, in  Match 14: Sri Lanka  1 for 146 defeated  Kenya 142   (Group B at Colombo (Sri Lanka), Tuesday 1 March].

Postscript –  an astounding result- Ireland defeated England overnight, my ‘English’ cricket fans will not be happy.  Match 15:  Ireland 7 for 329 defeated England 8 for 327!!!

There was a period some 40 years ago, when I wrote quite a bit of poetry [well, I called it poetry!!], but these days, it would be a struggle to come up with something, I must have been in the right frame of mind in those days. I tried to find something to represent the first day of Autumn in this part of the world [Australia], but have had to resort to promoting a piece by one of our Australian poets of year’s past   –  actually, Adam Lindsay Gordon was born in the Azores, but as a young man, emigrated to South Australia after a brief period in the English Army which was apparently family tradition.  This is a sample of his talent in writing.

A Song of Autumn’

By Adam Lindsay Gordon [1833-1870]

‘WHERE shall we go for our garlands glad
At the falling of the year,
When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad,
When the boughs are yellow and sere?
Where are the old ones that once we had,
And when are the new ones near?
What shall we do for our garlands glad
At the falling of the year?’
‘Child! can I tell where the garlands go?
Can I say where the lost leaves veer
On the brown-burnt banks, when the wild winds blow,
When they drift through the dead-wood drear?
Girl! when the garlands of next year glow,
You may gather again, my dear—
But I go where the last year’s lost leaves go
At the falling of the year.’

Looking through some ‘old’ writings last night, I came across part of an entry for this equivalent day, seven years ago,. At that time, I was working in East Melbourne, and travelling to work each day by train and tram. I was living close enough to the Sunbury Railway Station at that stage to be able to walk there. Looking back on that year, I was probably getting more ‘walking exercise’ than I realised at the time. Interesting to note also, that it was cool that morning as well.

________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, last night’s World Cup cricket matches saw the following results.

Match 12: Canada 123 defeated by   Zimbabwe  9 for 298 (Group A match at  Nagpur (India), Monday 28 February]      Match 13: Netherlands   115 defeated by  West Indies  8 for 330 (Group A match at  Delhi (India), Monday 28 February.

It’s probably no surprise, after the way I have described much of the last 3 months, that the last day of Summer here in Victoria anyway, was cool, overcast, with periods of scattered showers throughout the day. I was quite surprised when driving home to see that the temperature was not even 18 degrees!! Personally, while we could of course do without the floods and cyclones, etc, I would be quite content to have a summer  of the kind we have had this year, as a regular thing. Apart from a few odd days, not too hot, suits me fine!!

Rather busy at the office, with a committee meeting in progress for a few hours, and yours truly suddenly the catering & luncheon officer for the day!! I must say, it makes for a more peaceful day in comparison to some of the committee meetings of three years when I attended as official minute taker, etc – in fact, even though I ‘kept out of the regular fireworks’ it was usually a rather stressful environment in which to work.  These days, we have a much more cooperative committee [all public tenant volunteers] who generally work pretty well together now that most of the ‘troublemakers’ have moved on [or being moved on]!  I think there were a few potential problems with one member this time, but that seems to have been sorted out and solved in an amicable manner, something that probably wouldn’t have been possible or likely a few years ago.

Now summer generally means ‘cricket’ in most of the nations where that sport is popular, and I think It’s time I caught up with the last couple of results of the ICC World Cup Cricket competition.  I think we left on Saturday night with Pakistan defeating Sri Lanka in Match No. 10. Yesterday, there was a real thriller of a game involving one of the host nations [India] and the England team.  It was always going to be a tall order for England to chase down a massive India score of 338 [including  a score of 120 by Sachin Tendulkar – his 5^th World Cup cricket century, a record previously shared by him with India’s Sourav Ganguly, and Australia’s Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting. In fact, in One Day International matches, it was Tendulkar’s 47^th hundred!!  Obviously after that score, it was not surprising that my English friend, Maureen, noted on Facebook that ‘ I see england are getting killed bill?’ All the more reason why she would have enjoyed what followed.  England captain Andrew Strauss went on to score 158 runs, and in the process helping England to equal  India’s score of 338 in 50 overs by losing eight wickets  – they didn’t quite win, but the match was an amazing tied result..

Match 11: India  338  tied with England 8 for 338  (Group B game at Bangalore (India), on Sunday 27 February.

Two other games on today – Canada vs Zimbabwe, and Netherlands vs West Indies – we will catch up with those results later.

Meanwhile, it’s Monday night  – which means Q & A on the television – the ABC panel program of public identities facing a live audience, an hour of television I always look forward to.  Tonight’s panel consists of Bill Shorten – Assistant Treasurer,  Malcolm Turnbull – Shadow Communications Minister,  Samah Hadid – UN Youth Representative,  Piers Akerman – Political commentator , and Gretel Killeen – Comedian and former Big Brother host. As usual, with the help of the ABC, I like to record a little bio of these people, which usually includes, as in this case, a couple of names I’m not familiar with.

‘Before entering Parliament Bill Shorten was one of Australia’s best-known trade union leaders. As secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union he was a major player in the national industrial relations debate and gained widespread prominence for his role on the scene of the Beaconsfield mine disaster in Tasmania in 2006.
As a key member of the Victorian ALP’s right-wing Centre Unity faction for more than 20 years, Bill was always expected to pursue a career in Parliament. He was elected to the seat of Maribynong, covering Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs, in the 2007 election and was promoted straight to a senior role as Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services. He has since also assumed responsibility for Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction. Bill is one of a new breed of Labor politicians who are expected to take senior leadership roles in the party in coming years. Born in Melbourne in 1967, Bill graduated in arts and law from Monash University and – unusually for a trade union leader – completed a Masters in Business Administration from Melbourne University. Apart from his union and political activities he also served as interim CEO of the Australian Netball Players’ Association and on the advisory board of the Australian Cricketers’ Association. After the 2010 election he was promoted to the ministry to the position of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation’.  [Note: watch out for this man as a future leader of the Labor Party, and  even a Prime Minister, providing Labor stay in power long enough for that to happen. He was convincing enough tonight to retain the impression]……………………………………….

‘Malcolm Turnbull is the Opposition’s spokesman for communications, having been replaced as Opposition Leader by Tony Abbott in a knife-edge leadership vote late in 2009. His leadership imploded on the issue of climate change, with conservatives in the Liberal Party rebelling against his stated intention of supporting Labor’s emissions trading scheme. Though frequently described as the richest man in Parliament and regarded by many as having a privileged background, Malcolm’s early years were spent in comparatively humble circumstances. Born in Sydney in 1954, he grew up in a single-parent household with his father, Bruce, after his parents separated. They lived in a series of flats, mostly rented.  Malcolm attended Vaucluse Public School and, with the aid of a scholarship, Sydney Grammar, to which in later life he donated a new scholarship program in his father’s name to help underprivileged students. After graduating from Sydney University with an arts-law degree, he won a Rhodes Scholarship and completed a further degree at Oxford. Malcolm worked as a journalist, lawyer and in business, and became widely known in the late 1990s for leading the Australian republican cause. He entered Parliament in 2004 and represents the seat of Wentworth which covers Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Malcolm and his wife Lucy have two adult children and live in Point Piper in Sydney’.  [I have to say that as time goes on, I’m becoming less keen on Tony Abbott remaining as leader and would like to see Malcolm Turnbull do a John Howard ‘Lazarus’ and return to the leadership. I believe that is an inevitable outcome eventually. He too was impressive on the program tonight and responded better I thought to criticisms of ‘inadequacies’ amongst his Party then did Mr Shorten].

‘Samah Hadid is a 22 year old human rights advocate from Sydney and is the Australian Youth Representative to the UN.  She is currently completing her Masters in Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of New South Wales. Samah serves as the Youth Representative on the Australian National Commission for UNESCO. She is also the co chair of the Multicultural Youth Network , member of Amnesty International’s Diversity Steering Committee and Action Partner for Oxfam International Youth Partnerships. Samah has previously been a member of Bankstown Council’s Youth Advisory Committee, the National Youth Roundtable and selected as a participant to the Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit and a member of the UN Expert Group on Youth.  She has been a volunteer with the Muslim Women Association for 7 years. In 2009 she completed a fellowship with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Samah has been recognized for her volunteer work as the CRC Young Volunteer of the year, UWS Young Woman from the West, finalist for NSW young person of the year and received a human rights commendation award. Samah is also a co author of the book The Future by Us. As the Australian Youth Representative to the UN Samah hopes to profile the voices of indigenous and minority youth and promote the valuable role young people make to Australia and on an international scale.  Samah is also a performance artist and playwright , she is currently developing The Burka Monologues’. [An attractive young lady, hair hidden behind a scarf, and obviously a good choice for the roles she currently undertakes with her display of high intelligence and knowledge. My only negative for Samah, was her obvious bias towards the government, other than that, good to listen to, and watch!!]

‘For more than 15 years the Labor-baiting columns of Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph have made him one of Australia’s best-known commentators. He is regarded as a trend-setter, in that conservative columnists are now common but were a rarity when Piers first burst into print. Born in Papua New Guinea in 1950, Piers was raised in Perth and pursued a career in journalism. He worked at a variety of newspapers – mostly in the News Ltd group – in a number of cities and spent a long period in the US during the 1970s and 80s. He met his wife, Suzanne, a solicitor, while covering the 1974 America’s Cup yacht races at Newport, Rhode Island.  After returning to Australia he was made editor of The Adelaide Advertiser in 1988 and Melbourne’s Herald-Sun from 1990-92. His confrontational approach as editor challenged the established order in both cities and caused considerable controversy. Piers began writing his columns after his stint at the Herald-Sun, and ever since has maintained his assault on Labor and all soft-Left causes while staunchly supporting the coalition – especially under John Howard. He is a committed climate-change sceptic and a voracious critic of most green causes’.  [Despite this man’s very strong bias towards the Coalition, I’m afraid I didn’t really take to him, and some of his responses, almost too anti-Labor, and one could not imagine a great deal of balance in his newspaper articles. Nevertheless, obviously very successful and well credited in his field, I just didn’t like him].

‘Gretel Killeen’s career began shortly after she dropped out of law studies at university and accidentally performed stand-up comedy at a poetry reading. This led to comedy writing for radio station 2JJJ, regular spots on TV, and work as one of Australia’s top voice artists for over seventeen years. For the next seven years Gretel hosted the Logie Award winning Big Brother for which she received a MO Award, and during this time she also hosted TV broadcasts for The Logies, The Sydney Mardi Gras, the Sydney New Year’s Eve Concert and several Australia Day Live broadcasts.  In theatre and stage Gretel has been a producer at Sydney’s 90’s cult venue, The Harold Park Hotel, performed as the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, and entertained the troops in the Middle-East, the Solomon Islands, East Timor and Egypt. Gretel recently returned from Afghanistan where she was the host and producer of segments for the ABC Australia Day live telecast. The author of more than twenty books, including best-sellers, Gretel has written for many of Australia’s leading publications, was a regular columnist with the Australian newspaper’s magazine and a weekly columnist with The Sun Herald.  While a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Gretel wrote and directed TV commercials for unexploded ordnance awareness in Laos and the need for financial aid in Bangladesh, and wrote and directed a documentary on AIDS Orphans in Zambia.  Currently directing her first feature film Gretel’s greatest achievement will always be her role as the single mother of her two children’. [I knew nothing about this lady before tonight – made her ‘angry’ passion in respect to the way in which Labor have just introduced the ‘carbon tax’ plan, very obvious in one of the few opportunities she had to say much on the program].

That in fact was the unfortunate aspect of as panel of five guests with two of them, high profile politicians included – most of  the questions were directed to either Malcolm or Bill, and the bulk of subsequent cross discussion tended to involve them as well. Quite rightly – as it was a program involving questions from the audience –  the host Tony Jones, on a number of occasions had to  cut short ‘questions’ coming from the others on the panel to the two politicians – I guess they were just trying to get more involvement in the overall process. However both women were very articulate in expressing their views when the opportunity arose. Piers simply kept interrupting, especially if Bill shorten was talking.  I think the best question of the night, the first one, was ‘With the announcement by Ju-Liar that there would NOW be a carbon tax, and Christine Milne, boasting: “It’s happening because we have shared power in Australia.” My question to the panel is, WHO do you believe is running the country? Since Bob Brown is calling the shots, should he just officially be declared PM?’ The bulk of the discussion tonight however was around the issue of carbon tax, promises broken, Islam and the One Nation views, Islam and the question of foreign aid, and a subject which created the only real aspect of bipartisanship between the two politicians, on the proposed funding options for disability care and support.

The other ‘big event’ today was the Academy Awards – the Oscars – where Australia had three actors in the final five nominations for individual performances. All missed out on the Oscar. Performance by an Actress in a leading role, won by Natalie Portman [Black Swan] – Nicole Kidman missed out [in Rabbit Hole]. Performance by an Actress in a supporting Role went to Melissa Leo [The Fighter], no luck for Jackie Weaver [in Animal Kingdom], while the award for Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role [our best hope] went to Christian Bale [The Fighter] – Geoffrey Rush’s performance as the speech Therapist to the King in The King’s Speech wasn’t quite good enough. Interestingly, Colin Firth who played the King in that film, also missed the Oscar for the Leading Actor role.  The King’s Speech, amongst four Oscars picked up the Original Screenplay Oscar.  A film, as I noted a couple of weeks okay, well worth a visit to. Aussies did win three Oscars however – Kirk Baxter in the Best Editing category [The Social Network]; David Elsey [British born Aussie] won the Oscar for best make-up for his work in the horror film, The Wolfman, while Shaun Tan won an Oscar for his animated short film, The Lost Thing [all of 15 minutes in duration apparently].  As I mentioned earlier,. I didn’t bother to try and watch the very late delayed telecast by our Channel 9 tonight – don’t know why they bother to do these things so long after the event sometimes.

Late phone call from Susan – wanted to ‘borrow’ my debit card for urgent purchase of some study books.  Were you asleep?  No. watching ‘Q & A’!  Oh yes of course, it’s Monday night!!!

Well, after my rare Sunday morning off last week from my early radio show [I was in Ballarat over the weekend], it was back as normal this morning, for what was actually my 249^th ‘Classic’ music program. I guess I had better plan something special for No. 250 next week. Amongst other things this morning, I played a recording of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. This is a wonderful piece of music. Though were it not for the 3^rd [and final] movement, it would be little known outside of strict classical circles  –  that final movement is probably the piece of music from Bruch that gets the most airplay, and while the average listener may not be able to identify the composer or the music, they would in all likelihood have heard the piece. The whole concerto continues to be performed and recorded by many violinists and is arguably Bruch’s most famous composition. First written in 1866, it was completed in it’s present form the following year. While the first two movements, as far as I’m concerned, have their own beauty, especially the Adagio which is considered by many to be the heart of the composition,  the finale seems to really bring the music to life. This is a description that appears in Wikipedia that I felt provides a good summary.

“The third movement, the finale, opens with an extremely intense, yet quiet, orchestral introduction that yields to the soloist’s statement of the exuberant theme in brilliant double stops. It is very much like a dance that moves at a comfortably fast and energetic tempo. The second subject is a fine example of Romantic lyricism, a slower melody which cuts into the movement several times, before the dance theme returns with its fireworks. The piece ends with a huge accelerando, leading to a fiery finish that gets higher as it gets faster and louder and eventually concludes with two short, yet grand, chords”.  Appropriately officially titled ‘Allegro energico’, it certainly probably attracted my attention many years ago with that energy reflected in the tempo.

There are numerous concerts happening at any time in the city and general metropolitan area. I usually refer to most of these during my programs, but because of time, and the overall cost involved, it is difficult myself to get to very many throughout the year. In 2010, I did make an effort with a number of such outings, and while I had great plans to be an active concert goer this year, I find myself unwilling to commit to too much for those reasons – cost and time. There’s a couple of places I would have liked to have gone to this afternoon/evening, including a concert by Katie Noonan, one of favourite Australian singers. However I do see that she is joining up with a new combo later in the year, and might try and get the opportunity to catch up with her then.  The Australian Chamber Orchestra is performing today too I think – I actually went to one of their concerts a couple of years ago, when Katie Noonan was performing with the orchestra, rather an unusual combination, but it worked really well!!

Anyway, twelve hours after this morning’s program, and I’ve just farewelled my daughter who is currently driving back up to her ‘student home’ in Bendigo. I find it difficult not to worry while I know she is out on the road, but was at least thankful that she left with still some period of daylight remaining. Though as the months move along, that will not be possible, to leave in daylight if she keeps her Sunday afternoon work shift down here! Oh well, one can only assume all will be well!

I was thinking about the extreme climatic disasters we have had this year, this afternoon, and the affect of things like bushfires, floods, cyclones, etc, on many of our rural folk, some of whom tend to be quite isolated at the best of times, and how when major towns and communities are affected, we often forget those live on the farms and the less populated areas. Stressful times, such of the nature of those mentioned, or just simply the daily routine of rural life, means many of these people never get the opportunity to ‘pause, reflect and take some much needed time out’ –  the notion of four weeks annual leave for example, is non-existent! With that in mind, I read recently of an initiative created by an organisation arising out of the Uniting Church in Australia [UCA] called ‘Uniting Church Camping’  – an item in the February edition of ‘Crosslight’ [a newsletter of the Victorian & Tasmanian UCA] referred to the ‘Take a Break Program’. This was initially born out of a response to couples and families affected by the drought, and has been operating for the past five years, offering holidays to families in crisis.

The programs give such families, particularly from the rural environment the chance to have a holiday at one of the organisation’s ‘Take a Break’ camps in various parts of Victoria.  All of the camps are funded by donations, and are made available to struggling couples and families, free of charge.  As one grateful recipient said ‘There’s not a lot of money around in the country at the moment and priorities are the basic essentials, not holidays’.’We’ve had a chance to meet families in a similar situation. Lots of families are suffering hardships in the country. We wouldn’t have had the money to get away this year, we’ve so grateful for the opportunity’. As noted in the article, ‘Rural life, with the constant demands of working farms. Can take its toll on families, especially when time away from stress and hardship simply isn’t possible.’  Unfortunately, there are I imagine, only a limited number of families able to take advantage of such a program, but it does remind one, that there are so many little groups and organisations out there in our communities trying in various ways to make life easier for those who particularly are likely to feel the affects of floods etc, more so in general, than us town and city folk [there are of course exceptions to that ‘rule’ as we have seen in the past couple of months, Charlton in central Victoria, or Brisbane, Toowoomba, etc up in Queensland].