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Well, apart from a couple of  police shootings [of assumed criminals] in Melbourne over the past 18 hours, the reports from America through the afternoon, relating to President Barak Obama’s announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden, following an attack on one of his strongholds outside Islamabad [in Pakistan] a few days ago, has dominated the media attention.  The ‘celebrations’ in the early hours of the American morning, particularly in New York and Washington, while being easy enough to understand, were also a little disturbing for there to be joy over the death of the world’s most wanted man!! Perhaps the world is better off to be rid of  him, although I think you would have to be a super optimist to think that his departure is going to do much to lessen the threat of terrorism.  Speaking in a televised address to the world, late on Sun day night, American time,  President Obama announced that Bin Laden was killed in a fire fight with US special forces, apparently early Sunday [although I thought I read a report it was a few days ago].  The attack, which had been planned for some months, was carried out on a mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 65km from the capital city Islamabad, where Bin Laden had been in hiding.  “After a fire fight, they killed Bin Laden and took custody of his body,” the President confirmed. “On nights like this one we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda terror, justice has been done.”

However, as the following reports suggest, it does seem that those celebrating in the States are not alone.   Commenting today, former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, believes that the US celebrations over the death of Osama bin Laden are the natural reaction of a country that felt violated by the al-Qaeda leader’s acts of terrorism,. Mr Howard, who was in the US at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001, said he understood how the American people felt. “They are the natural spontaneous reactions of ordinary people who saw the 11th of September as an even deeper violation of American sovereignty than Pearl Harbour,” he told journalists in Sydney on Monday. “To lose 3000 people in your political capital and your commercial and cultural capital, without provocation, without justification, without reason, without any explanation, without any moral justification, it leaves an impression.  “I understood how the Americans felt, and I’ve always understood the reactions and the impulses of the Americans as a result.”

But Kuranda Seyit of FAIR, which describes itself as “an independent public relations group”, said the images of Americans rejoicing in the streets of Washington and New York were not appropriate. “I’m just totally disgusted about it,” he told AAP. The director of the Forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations (FAIR), has labelled the US celebrations as “disgusting”. “(The celebrations) are just like the so-called reports by American television of Muslims celebrating after September 11. This is just as bad. “We need to show a little bit more respect towards humanity, even if they’re the bad guys. Mr Seyit said the al-Qaeda leader had galvanised the Muslim community in the past. “The way he is viewed now, I would say 50 in terms of pro and 50 in terms of against. “A lot of people see him as a negative representative of the Muslim community. “But then, other people see him as someone who is at least having a go at some of those colonial powers interfering in Muslim affairs”.

A couple of sharply contrasting attitudes, and probably, coming from where they do in each case, to be expected. Generally however, around the world tonight, world leaders are not holding back on their ‘suppressed pleasure’ that Bin Laden has been got rid of. Former US presidents have reacted to the news of Bin Laden’s death, with George W Bush describing the operation as a “momentous achievement” that “marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11”. Bill Clinton has also congratulated President Obama, the National Security team and US armed forces for “bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaida attacks”.  World leaders applauded the news. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Obama in a written statement, while New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told reporters the World was a safer place without Bin Laden. Meanwhile, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has  warned Australians travelling overseas to take extra care. “We are advising Australians in areas likely to be affected by gatherings outside hotels, gatherings and demonstrations, to exercise enhanced vigilance regarding their personal security.”  Ms Gillard said Bin Laden’s death was a small justice to those grieving, but the threat of al-Qaeda was far from over.  “I trust that today’s news comes as some small measure of justice for those who still grieve the loss of their loved ones,” she said.  “Every Australian has been touched and affected by acts of terrorism by al-Qaeda …. consequently, every Australia will be touched by this news today.”

Taking all of that it, and the potential for some reaction in parts of the Muslim world, one has to wonder, perhaps with some degree of concern just what level of ‘payback’ will occur for this payback by the Americans, which they have worked 10 years towards? And no doubt over the next few days, the media saturation of the Royal  Wedding, and the accompanying reports over the past coupler of days, of the deaths of some of Colonel Gaddafi’s family in Libya following a NATO forces strike, we are now going to be similarly saturated with stories of the life and death of Osama Bin Laden, and a reminder, rightfully so, of the horrors he masterminded on behalf of Al-Qaedi against the west, including 911 in the USA, the Bali bombings and other terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, closer to home, it was a typical day in the life of an accountant for your writer, head down, calculator operating, and annual estimates of income and expenditure for the next 12 months of my employing organisation’s ongoing business, being worked upon!! Even closer to home, I was disappointed that Susie had not returned to the university work in Bendigo, and seemed little interested in talking to her Dad [or anyone in the family at present] about the reasons therefore and/or her plans. She had presumably been home most of the day. It would be untruthful to say that the situation on that score was not worrying me considerably. She has been given a lot of help and advice, but must come to a few decisions of her own, and very soon. Later tonight, after I had retired, she went out for a couple of hours after 11 pm, in fact someone picked her up. Back sometime after 1am., no idea what that was all about, except it meant another disturbed sleep for yours truly!!

Anyway, with those thoughts in mind, I decided I needed another episode of Q & A to watch, and to brighten, hopefully, my own spirits. Tonight’s program was presented from the inland regional city of Albury, which sits on the banks of the Murray River, on the New South Wales side of the Victoria/NSW border, and not surprisingly, tonight’s panel had a regional ‘touch’ about them, in name [or at least title] anyway! Actually, looking at those titles, one might immediately assume that tonight was destined to be a very dry and boring program – I hope, in advance, that I’m proved wrong. Our panellists, under host Tony Jones are Simon Crean [Federal Minister for Regional Australia], Sophie Mirabella [Shadow Opposition Minister for Industry], Tony Windsor [Independent Federal Member for New England, and one of those politicians holding a bit of a balance of power in the House of Representatives at the present time], Eliza Brown [a local wine grower, and Director of the successful ‘Brown Brothers Wines], Nick Klomp [Dean of Science, at Charles Sturt University], and Alana Johnson [Victorian Rural Woman of the Year 2010.  Mmmmmmm, well looking at that line up, I not convinced that my night is likely to be brightened up very much.  I shall remain optimist! In fact, despite the nature of the panel, I’m sure because of the news of the day, that it will be impossible to avoid questions, and discussion/debate on Osama Bin Laden!  Such as this potential question –   ‘According to initial reports concerning the death of Osama Bin Laden, American ground forces entered Pakistan without any permission to conduct the operation that has supposedly been in the works for several months according to President Obama. Does the panel have the view that the ends justify the means and what are the implications for future Pakistan-US Relations?”  That will be interesting –  personally, I think with the Americans, the end always justifies the means [look at the infiltration into neighbouring countries during the Vietnam War], and certainly from various reports, this would not be the first operation, eg, against the Taliban, that has involved  American forces entering Pakistan.  Somehow, irrespective of how right or wrong they were, I can imagine the Americans coming out of it all with ‘clean noses’, don’t they always?  Or another question  –  “Hours ago we saw President Obama announce the death of Osama Bin Laden. Since then we have seen footage of over the top celebration by many young Americans. Panel do you really think this is time for celebration  or rather a time for reverence  and contemplation of the continual job at hand?”   Well, I’ve touched on that above, I wonder how the panel will handle it?

Well, there were just the two questions allowed on the subject, at the beginning of the program, and rightfully so, with the largest Q & A audience, packed into a large auditorium in Albury, they were there to talk about regional and rural issues.  On the Bin Laden situation, I think the most telling comment from one of the panel members was simply ‘it’s disturbing that we celebrate death, in the way we have seen today – it’s a sad comment on us as humanity’!!   Meanwhile, on the regional issues, I think the principal point being made by the audience [and of course denied in various guises by the politicians present] was the question as to why governments continually fail to acknowledge the contributions of regional people, as compared with their attitude to the city populations?  I notice some bright spark on the website commented ‘because that’s where the votes are, in the cities’. But if you listen to the government minister, Simon Crean,  you would think the opposite is happening, and Labor is taking a lot of notice of rural needs this time around, with the proposed National Broadband Network [NBN] implementation been sited as a prime example of that policy. In fact Mr Crean came along to the meeting with a prize in his back pocket – a pre-Budget announcement of the establishment of a $65 million Cancer Clinic in Albury, apparently something that area has been seeking for a long time.  During the program, there were various questions which tended to revolve around the subject of rural disadvantages, compared to capital cities, involving issues such as health services, education, communications, transport etc. Interestingly, on a number of points, the challenge was thrown back to the local communities to make their voices heard more, and push for a higher profile of those issues that matter. Much is being made for eg, of suggestions that the NBN will connect rural communities to the major centres, when perhaps it would be more useful to place emphasise on using the NBN to provide meaningful opportunities for decentralisation, or to establish training facilities in regional areas aimed at encouraging those trainees to use their qualifications in those areas, rather than having to go to the cities to train, and generally staying there for employment.  Of course, the regional must have employment and jobs available to compensate the local training – the lack of such jobs is aiding in the drift to the big centres!

Overall, a good discussion, with as usual, time the restricting factor in allowing most potential questions to be put to the panel. I was a bit disappointed, once again, that the politicians on the panel are given the majority of opportunities to respond and contribute to the program – and I blame the host presenter for that situation arising time and again.

 

Bill had a couple of sessions on the radio today, about 4.5 hours in total. Probably would have gladly given them both a miss were not that little ‘bug’ called commitment so strong in my psyche –  not a good sleep overnight [seems to be a Saturday night pattern], but more due to a feeling of ‘unwellness’ on this occasion!  However, ‘we’ did get to both programs, early this morning, and later on this afternoon, but generally, didn’t achieve a great deal in between times. The papers of course continued to be concentrating on photos and stories, still, of Friday’s wedding, but I guess we can expect that to continue for a while yet. There was in fact, a beautiful photo in this morning’s Sunday Age.  It showed William and Kate with the six children [4 girls, 2 page boys] who participated in the wedding procedures – no other adults, Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, etc –  just the children with the bridal couple. I think that might well be my memorable ‘look back’ photo of last Friday’s wedding!

Overseas of course, this date is quite a memorable one, and is referred to in many areas of world society as ‘May Day’.  May Day can refer to various labour celebrations conducted on May 1 that commemorate the fight for the eight hour day. May Day in this regard is called International Workers’ Day or Labour Day, but means different things or occasions in different parts of the world. Some unions might think otherwise, but those kind of significances have no real bearing here in Australia. But my thoughts today are turning to things of a more peaceful and relaxing mode – found a little poem written by Henry Kendall many decades ago, about Bell Birds.  The Bell Bird is a small Australian bird with a very distinctive call. It sounds like tinkling bells. It is very beautiful to hear as you walk through the bush. You don’t hear them in the cities at all. These are just a couple of verses from a longer poem about this little creature, which I’d like to share.

Bell-Birds    by Henry Kendall

By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling;
It lives in the mountain, where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges;
Through brakes of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers.
And softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.

The silver-voiced bell-birds, the darlings of day-time,
They sing in September their songs of the May-time.
When shadows wax strong, and the thunder-bolts hurtle,
They hide with their fear in the leaves of the myrtle;
When rain and the sunbeams shine mingled together,
They start up like fairies that follow fair weather,
And straightway the hues of the feathers unfolden
Are the green and the purple, the blue and the golden.

After all the media excitement of yesterday, I made a point of staying away from crowds, busy shops [until this evening anyway], and took the opportunity to engage in a bit of gardening, go for a walk on yet another beautiful Victorian Autumn day, and do a bit of research tidying up of my family history records.  Susie went off to work for most of the day, and tonight, went out to a 21st party  – I was a bit concerned when she admitted that the former boyfriend was likely to be there; I wish she could try and avoid him for a while!!

For myself, a quiet Saturday night at home – listening to one of the classical concerts that I would have actually liked to have  gone to – but at least this way, it was more comfortable, and so much cheaper!!!!  This concert was a part of the 2011 Musical Viva Festival, featuring a popular trio of recent years, the Eggner Trio, together with a number of other artists.

Just a sidenote to the references over the past couple of days to British Royalty – one of today’s newspapers had a feature in which the 50 most influential women in the world were chosen [by a panel of half a dozen prominent Australians]. One of those selections [in the Icons section] was Queen Elizabeth II, aged 85 years. Here are the comments that two members of the panel made:

“She has survived numerous prime ministers, a largely embarrassing family, and the Australian republican movement. She is  beloved in her own land and hugely respected beyond. A great legacy would be for Elizabeth II to be the last English monarch who is our head of state’ [Australia].”  and

“What’s remarkable about the Queen is her stoicism and retinence. The Queen is one of the most powerful women in the world, but not many people choose to remember that she was born into a life largely beyond her control.”

It would be interesting to go through the list of 50 women named by the panel, but while most of those selected are probably more than worthy of their selection, there does seem to be a high proportion of Australian nominees –  well, I suppose it is essentially an Australian selection panel, so we shouldn’t be surprised.  However, Australian or of another nation, most of their little bios make interesting reading. Perhaps on a future ‘quiet day’s writing’ I might introduce the other 49, in addition to the Queen, to my readers!!

This was the wedding that the whole world was invited to, if you cared to watch it on the television, etc, and by the time it was all over, about 10pm eastern Australian time, already millions of words will have written about the occasion, so I don’t think I will add very much more about the event here. Mind you, in my own circle of family and friends, there were a lot of cynics and negative comments about the wedding, and the Royal family and the establishment in general. So my relatively favourable outlook towards the occasion was a bit off mainstream as far as that group was concerned. A good Irish friend of mine was quite ‘strong’ in his viewpoint –  he wrote [on FaceBook] – Hey…have a look at the news……AUSSIE reporters falling over themselves with “excitement”? and I’m talking about the MALE reporters…….give me a break…..anyone would think the Ranga is getting married…..ha ha… I have NEVER seen Aussies crawl and drool like I am witnessing now…..they are a foreigners….. what is the big deal???  Is there no end to the arrogance of this family….Baron of Carrickfergus? Do they know where it is?……….Geeze!!!!!!!!!!!!  Carrickfergus is my Home town….where I grew up……once the Capital of Ireland, and landing place of William of Orange on his way to the Battle of the Boyne where he defeated James 2nd (i think), so I don’t think Britain’s royal family has ANY claim to it….’

Well, as can be seen, my Irish friend was really making his ‘Irish’ love of the English plain for all to see!!  The Carrickfergus he was referring to is one of the new titles that the Queen has bestowed on her grandson, William.  Meanwhile, in another discussion the other night, I guess I made my feelings also obvious, from the other point of view, with the comments that – “Not exactly a Royalist ….., but I have grown up with both the Queen, and Charles, and in broad terms I admire the way she has undertaken her role, whatever value you might or might not attach to that role. She was just little Princess Liz when I first ‘met’ her, lol……………former PM, John Howard said once that there will never be a republic in Australia while the Queen is on the throne, and I think he will be proved correct. It a kind of subconscious Australian sense of ‘respect’ for the woman,  if perhaps not the institution itself!”

Anyway, that’s about all I wish to say in relation to the Royal Wedding –  it would not have been  hard, anywhere in the world over the past 24 hours or so, for readers to have come across ‘talk’ of the event in some manner or other.

Having said all that, I actually didn’t watch it!!! Well, in parts I did!  You see, the Royal family made the drastic mistake of scheduling the wedding, just when my football team was coming on to the Sydney football ground!!! Luckily, there was more than one television set in the house, so that my daughters who both happened to be here with me this evening had the choice. Young Jodie was with me – she came over to watch the football, so she was content, as was I, to have an occasional ‘peep’ on the other set to keep up with proceedings at Westminister Abbey, etc. Susie wasn’t really in the mood for either performance, and certainly not the wedding, but she popped out on the odd occasion to check out what was happening at ‘both’ venues. And yes, I was taping the wedding, and would watch it in it’s entirety later on over the weekend!

But in all truth, my concentration was on the Carlton football team’s away game against the Sydney Swans. Now the last time we defeated Sydney in their home city was in 1993, and in the past 18 games between the two teams, Carlton had only won two of those games!!!!  Not a good recent record, and when the match started in driving rain [it has been raining in Sydney for about the last three weeks], the odds of Carlton breaking that drought of losses looked dismal. It was a low scoring football match [in Australian Rules terms, as can be seen by the quarter  by quarter scores below – especially the second quarter – no goal by either team], and by the end of the third quarterf, there was still only one point between the two teams. Thankfully however, Carlton captain and champion player, Chris Judd led the way in the last quarter with some inspiring football, which would leave Saturday’s sports headlines to declare that ‘As the heavens opened, Carlton broke a 17-year drought at the SCG last night’, as we managed to get on top of the Swans, and achieve a deserved victory.  I was pleased for Jodie  – since she became interested in the football, Carlton have not given her a great deal to cheer about over recent years –  now in the past two weeks, live last Saturday night, and on the TV tonight, she has been able to enjoy two consecutive wins, watching with her Dad, when in the years before she was even thought of, I had some glorious years watching a very successful team [of the 70s and 80s]. So now after 6 rounds of the 2011 season, the Blues are in 3rd position [on the 16 team ladder] with 4 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss [to last year’s Premiers].  For the record, tonight’s result:

Carlton Blues:      3.1.19   3.6.24     8.9.57    Final:  12.15.87

Sydney Swans:     5.2.32   5.8.38    8.8.56    Final:  10.11.71

We did catch the end of the Royal Wedding – even saw the traditional famous balcony kiss!! Meanwhile of course, the weekend newspapers here would be completely carried away with the events of British royalty  with descriptions such as ‘The fairytale begins’!!! I wonder if that is an apt description these days!!  Or ‘the roar of the crowd speaks volumes of approval’!  And as the ‘Age’ correspondent would report from inside the Abbey [according to the Age] –  ‘As the choir’s voices soared into the arches of the ancient abbey – the resting place of no fewer than 17 monarchs – spines tingled with the theatre of the moment. The collision of youth with lineage, continuity and tradition seemed briefly to reduce the distance between ancient histories and the here and now’.   Mmmmmm, I wonder if that writer is looking for some kind of literary prize?

 

A real treat for us Q & A watchers on the TV tonight – a second program for the week. I’d earlier forgotten to make reference to Monday’s program, which dealt with a range of subjects ranging around areas of defence, Anzac Day, refugees, etc.  The panel that night was – Jim Molan, Former Head of the Australian Defence College; Matina Jewell, Former Soldier; Eva Cox, Feminist Academic; Neil James, Executive Director of the Australia Defence Association; and Najeeba Wazefadost, Afghan Refugee

Questions were put to the panel on such  subjects as

• the recent sex scandals in the Defence forces [eg, why is the real issue of the sexual mistreatment of women clouded by innuendos about their character and personal lives, which certainly on the surface, appears to have been the situation in the latest scandal to hit the forces];

 

• the culture of the Australian military and it’s apparent secretive and hostile attitude to enquiries about internal affairs, etc;   the likelihood of such a culture changing in the future, and whether the government’s reaction to current problems is really going to affect that culture?;

 

• women serving on the frontline in the Armed Forces, eg what is it ‘we’ are supposedly protecting women from, or is that also, a cultural throwback to earlier generatiuons in terms of views on physical or intellectual capabilities;

 

• is Afghanistan safer now for women and girls in particular, and if not, why does the government persist with policies of returning asylum seekers to that country; the payments made to people smugglers to get refugees to Australia and the common perception created in the public that this makes them ‘queue’ jumpers, denying genuine refugees a chance to get into Australia.;

 

• Najeeba was asked – “you are an example of a young person who has escaped Afghanistan and is achieving success. Do you believe that Australia and its allies are doing enough to help defeat the Taliban and are therefore making Afghanistan a better place? Has the situation for women improved and can girls now go to school?”   Najeeba responded that while in Kabul things might be better for women, there were many parts of Afghanistan where attitudes to the role  and status of women were little changed, and for our Government [and the Opposition] to suggest that ‘Afghanistan was now safe was an incorrect generalisation of the situation there.
• Najeeba Wazedfadost, was also challenged directly a charge relating to queue jumping  –  ‘Your parents paid people smugglers to get you into Australia. Are you aware that Julia Gillard and most Australians do not like queue jumpers, because they deny genuine refugees a chance to get into Australia?’  Her answer reminded us  ‘what queue?’  – this is no queue for these people in many of those countries from which the most genuine refugees [fearing for the lives of themselves and their families] come from – no authority from which they can make application, and such enquiries would most likely make them an immediate target.  So to be accused of being queue jumpers when there is no queue, mmmmmmm!!!  And has been pointed out many times before, the majority of refugees seeking asylum, who come by these boats, are usually found to be genuine refugees.  That is not the case with the so-called legitimate ‘refugees who fly in by plane, etc!

 

• There was criticism expressed of Australia’s current Memorandum of Understanding with the Afghan government to forcibly return so-called “failed asylum seekers” – many Afghan MPs as well as Australian human rights organisations and trade unions have voiced these concerns. . Why is Australia persisting with this policy, even though conditions in Afghanistan are still incredibly dangerous, especially for the Hazara minority, as indicated by Najeeba’s response?
• Another part of the discussion on Monday night related to  the subject of the 100^th anniversary of ANZAC Day, coming up in 2015, and the panel was asked to consider the future of ANZAC Day, and how the occasion can be made more inclusive for new migrants not raised with the legend of ‘mateship’ and the ‘Australian digger’?

That brought us onto tonight, and a special edition of Q & A on the ABC – a program that was preceded by an extremely interesting documentary entitled ‘Is the Royal Romance Over?’, which was basically dealing with ‘Australia’s ongoing romance’ as such with the Royal family. I found that part of the program fascinating – having being brought from birth, basically in conjunction with the present Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Charles in particular, I admit  to having closely followed their lives, and in some ways being a support of the family. The documentary covered most of that period from the end of World War II, the death of the Queen’s father, her ascension to the Throne, and her rule since then, and the trials and tribulations amidst a life of luxury and privilege for that family up until this day. I imagine, like most children together with the bulk of the Australian population in 1954, I lined the streets with my little Union Jack flag to cheers the young Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, on the occasion of her first visit to Australia that year. The documentary dealt with the years and visits subsequent to that, and the gradual diminishing of that kind of fanatical adoration and worship of the Queen as generational attitudes changed, and her significance to larger portions of the Australian electorate began to dwindle.  And yet, despite a broad view these days that the British Royal Family is irrelevant to Australia in 2011, there remains a widely held view that the Queen is still well liked and respected by Australians generally for the manner in which she has carried out her role –  I repeat admiration for the Queen, but that respect no longer applies to the ‘institution’ she represents.

After the documentary, which contained some fascinating old film footage, the normal format of the Q & A panel came on air to discuss both the ongoing relevance of the Royal family to Australia. and in conjunction with that,   the possible affect on Australia’s constitutional future. Tonight’s panel consisted  of  a broad range of  so-called ‘passionate’ Australians [an interesting collection of people whom I heard one commentator describe later as an entirely inappropriately chosen panel for the subject in question!]  –   Senator Nick Minchin [Liberal powerbroker, former Howard  Liberal Minister,  and avowed monarchist]; Amanda Vanstone [former Liberal Minister and outspoken republican]; Marcia Langton [academic and Aboriginal activist of many years]; Bob Carr [former NSW Premier and a passionate republican]; Angela Bishop [entertainment reporter and monarchist]; a representative from the ‘Chaser’ satirical TV  team, whose program scheduled for  Friday night in competition with the Royal Wedding, had been banned by the BBC, and cancelled]; and in the audience, Dr, Aaron Paul [academic and modern monarchist].

I must admit that while this program was happening, I was in the early stages involved in an online ‘discussion’ of sorts about the whole question of the Royal William [Prince William to Kate, tomorrow] and the general relevance of royalty here in Australia. As is often the case, my comments began with a bit of a serious aspect, eg, I was expressing ‘pleasure’ that the ‘Chaser’ program had been banned – I’ve always felt it to be an extreme satirical show which didn’t deserve the support it had – and in making that view, I was well aware that probably none of my fellow Facebook debaters would agree with me – well, I said, ‘I can live with that’, though Ruth seemed to doubt me  –  ‘can you Bill, can you?’  Anyway, my attempts at being serious [as usual with this group of friends] soon degenerated into the kind of satire on royalty, etc, that I had been expressing opposition to!!!  All fun, I guess, in friendly banter!!

Back to Q and A.  Though not many questions seemed to come from the audience tonight, or if they did,  the questions ‘seemed’ to have been set up!  The emphasise of tonight’s program – well obviously about the Royal Wedding, and with a member of the Chasers’ team on the panel,  a dissection of the reasons why their planned program for tomorrow night had been banned.  For those not aware, the ‘Chaser’s’ is an Australian satirical program, on the ABC oddly enough [I’d expect things of that standard to be more likely to appear on the commercial channels]  – anyway, they had intended to present on the alternative ABC channel tomorrow night, an ‘alternative’ version of the wedding, although as their spokesman explained, it was aimed to be more of a broad based satire on the Royal family in particular and the institution they represent, not aimed at the wedding couple, although obviously, the Palace and the BBC were worried about something of that nature occurring. In some ways, I’m not sure that it really mattered if the program went ahead or not  –  those viewers who wanted to watch the wedding would do so anyway, while those viewers who generally have a cynical attitude to royalty in general, would watch the Chasers because that kind of presentation is their ilk anyway! During Q & A tonight, we were actually shown a clip from the banned show  – and while some people may think it funny to take off people Prince Phillip and Prince Charles and their sometimes prejudiced and bigoted attitudes to certain cultures, etc, my argument against their type of show, is that by ‘repeating’ those attitudes, the so-called satire adds to the ‘public’ biased perception of such groups, or to me, is simply distasteful when in fact, it is not the normal view of the watcher – yet they will still laugh at the depiction being presented – in tonight’s clip, Muslims, Indians, the Jews, were just a few of the groups ridiculed   Someone called them a ‘controversial comedy’ group – I agreed with the first part of the description, but could never accept the description of comedy as accurate  – to me, personal ridicule and ‘put down’ in the name of satire, is not comedy..  I read somewhere else, that it is the ‘Australian way’ to satirise and laugh at the misfortunes of others  –   and yet, if I was to walk down to street, and make in public the kind of comments that appeared in the brief ‘Chasers’ clip tonight, I could well be arrested and charged under  some kind of racial abuse legislation if a listener happened to take offence!! And yet we sit in front of our TV sets, or in a theatre seat at a ‘Comedy’ Festival, and think the same comments are uproariously funny and clever!  Crap!! I refuse to accept any ‘logic’ applied to such a situation.

The only point of ‘agreement’ if you like, that I might have with those complaining about the program ban, is the fact that our Australian ‘freedom of speech’ is being dictated to by forces exterior to Australia – where for eg, we see the BBC [presumably with some ‘Royal’ influence] being able to prevent the airing of an Australian program, in Australia  – although we should remember that other nations have tried similar tactics, eg, China, to prevent the screening of certain films, or even the visit of the Dali Lama to this country,  in case China was made to look bad –  –  I’m not sure of the exact present ‘relationship’ between the ABC and the BBC, but obviously the hold of the later over our Australian counterpart must be of some significance! 

Aside from all of that, I was especially interested tonight to hear some Marcia Langton’s views. The more I see her [and her thick brilliant patch of white hair] the more I warm to her general attitude. I think whe4n she was younger, as a student, etc, Marcia was a bit of an Indigenous firebrand activist. She is still an activist, but gives me the impression at least, that she has broadened her views a little, and is more prepared to listen to other sides of the Indigenous argument. 

Marcia remains a great campaigner for the rights of her people, and in the debate about whether Australia’s Constitution should be changed to create our system as a Republic, away from the Monarchy, she was quite insistent, that before that happens, the Constitution must be changed to properly recognise Australia’s Indigenous population as part of this country’s people. Past referendums on that score have not been successful because  the question has always being put in conjunction  with some other question at the time of the referendum – recognition of Indigenous people in the Constitution must be put as a stand-alone proposal, if it is to have a chance of implementation.

The other interesting point that came from Marcia was the respect that the Indigenous community have always for the Queen, since her first visit here in 1954 – Marcia considered that her people understood the Queen, and her symbolic role, and the kind of traditional practices that were associated with royalty, because that was the way in which many of their tribal traditions and ceremonies operated. A similar attitude was taken by the Queen –  when traditional ceremonies, etc, were performed for her benefit, during visits, the Indigenous communities believed that the Queen understood the significance of those ceremonies, better than did the white Australian population. I may not have described that significance as accurately as Marcia Langton portrayed it, but hopefully, I gained the gist of what she was saying.

Finally, for the benefit of any who may be unsure of the significance [rightly or wrongly] of this ‘Queen’ we are referring to,  the following brief note, might help –

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926^, is the constitutional monarch of sixteen independent sovereign states, and as Head of the Commonwealth, she is the figurehead of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations, and essentially is also the Queen of Australia, her representative here, been our Governor General, who for the past few decades, have been Australian born in any case.

Elizabeth II, in 2007

Meanwhile, this is the view below,  that many today, in 2011 [particularly the ‘republican’ cause proponents, have of the Royal family institution……………a life of opulence on the public purse!!!

Yes, the days have rolled along, and indeed got away from your personal essayist.  Tuesday was a relaxing day at home for this writer  – a short walk at one stage, and a drive for some shopping in the early evening, but for the most, simply an opportunity to catch up on tasks  at home, and prepare for that evening’s radio show  – usually go on air straight from the drive from work, and the city, but none of that on this ‘extra’ public holiday. Susie, who had gone through a weekend of good and bad days, returned up to Bendigo tonight – I was not keen on her doing the drive after dark, but her response was that she prefers to drive at night! Perhaps I felt the same way when I was her age, can’t remember now!  Anyway, she knows her Dad  –  I was just about to finish the radio show just before 8pm, when a brief text message came through –  ‘No need to stress, in Bendigo’

As a part of my ‘temporary’ subscription to the Folio Magazine, I receive a copy of their quarterly magazine, which usually contains previews of new book releases. Pity I can’t get this on a regular basis, as some of the articles are quite good.  There was one of this occasion that was talking about the meanings behind Lao Tzu’s famous work of Chinese philosophy called the ‘Tao Te Ching’ [translated by Arthur Waley as ‘The Way and it’s Power’].    Lao Tzu was apparently the founder of the main rival tradition around  the sixth century BC  to the philosophies of  Confucius.  The writer of the article tells us that modern scholarship has helped us to realise that the stories of Lao Tze have little basis in fact, yet they provide testimony to a rivalry between two major  intellectual  traditions – the Taoists and the Confucians., a rivalry which has been now dated to the mid third century BC. I was hoping that by reading this brief article, I might be able to gain a bit of understanding of those traditions –  it might have been  preferable if I’d just left it before proceeding, beyond the paragraph that stated “Completely beyond the comprehension of human beings who rely exclusively on dualistic, rational knowledge, it can only be comprehended by those adepts who follow a practice of apophatic inner cultivation…..or ‘Taoist yoga” That should have been enough for me, but I tried to read on, but had to agree that after a few quoted verses etc, I was none the wiser – beyond my limited rational comprehension, as warned…………………..let’s go straight to the ‘summary’ by H D Roth.  “To sum up, the compelling advice found in the Tao Te Ching has served as an ideal of cosmic wholeness and self-contextualisation, of withdrawal  from society and of laissez-faire rulership for more than two millennia”.   That makes so much sense!!!  Here’s one example of the teachings of ‘The Way’

From Tao Te Ching, XLVIII

‘Ridding oneself of desires is only one of a number of meditative techniques through which we may directly apprehend the Way in a non-dualistic fashion. The text also advocates limiting thought, feeling and perception to order apophatically to approach the Way:

Learning consists in adding to one’s stock day by day;/  The practice of Tao consists in ‘subtracting day by day,/  Subtracting and yet again subtracting/  Till one has reached inactivity,/  But by this very inactivity/  Everything can be activated’

Perhaps in past days, I might have persevered with this subject, and tried to get some element of understanding, or more realistically, and appreciation of the value of such ‘ideas’ as above!   In my 65^th year, I’m not sure that I really want to be bothered appreciating such ‘wisdom’ let alone understand it!!

Wednesday was not a very ‘happy’ day – early morning call from Shirley to advise that Susie [who seemed a little happier when she left last night] was in fact so low this morning, that she accepted the offer of Jodie or Shirley driving up to see her – she’d been unable to attend to her university commitments/placements, and was obviously quite depressed. Anyway, Shirley was going up to see her this afternoon after she finished her roster. And Dad was left to ‘worry’ for the rest of the day. Not surprisingly,   the work place wasn’t very attractive today.  Got back to Sunbury, wondering if I would find Susie had returned, as from the conversation this morning, seemed to be the probable option.  Not there! I decided to get some fresh air and exercise, with an early evening walk –  and it was quite ‘fresh’, becoming both cooler and darker halfway along my journey!  Ran into Brendan Bull [our plumber for most of our time in Sunbury] and his little dog, out for a walk,  at a slightly slower pace and less distance than my efforts tonight.. We chatted briefly – was good to see him up and about, as a few years ago, he had a bad period with prostrate cancer – as he said, ‘still walking and working’!  Ditto!!

Later, was cooking myself  a meal, when Susan and Shirley arrived, in their separate cars.  The latter didn’t stay, while Susie had given up university [hopefully just for the rest of this week – told me she would be going back up next week]. I didn’t press her for too much detail – obviously finds it easier to talk to her mother or sister about current problem. Dad is just here whenever needed!  Anyway, not around long tonight, going over to stay with a friend [in Watergardens  – more night driving!] – tried to persuade her to eat something, but line with her mood over past few weeks, didn’t feel like eating. I would be surprised if she has eaten much at all today!  Not sure if she would be back tonight – to ease my concern,  asked her to let me know if she decided not to return home tonight. Yes, but it might be late!  No problems, as far as I was concerned.  It was late –  in fact, at 1.10am, Susie’s message came through, although for a change, I had managed some sleep beforehand  –  ‘Hey Dad, staying here, sorry for late notice’  [wherever ‘here’ was!!].

On TV tonight, another episode of the great SBS Australian police series ‘East West 101’  –  one review of the current series describes it in this manner:- “A 6-part mini series about the investigations of the Major Crime Squad in Metropolitan Sydney. Zane Malik at 32 is a brilliant detective whose ability to connect with people helps him solve crimes. Ambitious and driven, he has confidence, strength and intelligence. Malik is an Arab and proud of it, a devout Muslim who clashes with his immediate superior, Detective Sergeant Ray Crowley. Both men are haunted by their past failures and the damage inflicted on loved ones. Ironically, they can only overcome the past with help from each other.”.  I enjoy it particularly because of the inter-race relationships, conflicts, and potential  solutions, and because it appears to provide a realistic approach [perhaps over the top at times]  of the involvement of racial tensions in the Australian criminal areas, and the manner in which innocent people on both sides are so easily drawn into situations simply because of their backgrounds,  It was last Wednesday, that saw the  return of this multi-award winning series which this time,  explores the fallout from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through a series of violent crimes committed in Australia. What happened during the war in the opium fields of the Chora Valley in Afghanistan, and the collateral damage to civilians in Tikrit in northern Iraq, comes home to the main streets and malls of Lakemba. The sophisticated robbery of an armoured guard van leaves four dead, including some of the robbers themselves. Meanwhile Malik clashes with new detective on the squad, a former army officer, Neil Travis, in his impassioned pursuit of those who have hurt him and his family.  I generally don’t like watching ‘crime based’ TV shows, but this one I find is different, and despite the over-indulgence of violence, etc, it is a series I make a point of watching.

 

It was both Easter Monday, and ANZAC Day, this Monday, and if my memory serves me right, also a birthday [22nd] of a nephew – I recall he was born on Anzac Day 1989. I was up in Canberra at the time, part of a four week ‘management’ course, and that morning, we visited the Australian War Memorial to attend the Anzac Dawn Service – the first of only two such services I’ve managed to get to, the second some years later, at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance. Despite the reluctance [or is it lazyness] to actually get up on this morning to even our ‘local’ Mt Macedon dawn service, I do make a point each year [as with morning] of waking early in order to listen to the ABC broadcasts of firstly, the Dawn Service from Canberra [5.30am] and then the brief 6am service from here in Melbourne. As that time this morning, my thoughts went to brother Ian – retired from the Australian Army for a few years now, and having just gone through a few personal difficulties –  wondered whether he was participating in equivalent events up there in Brisbane this morning. I knew he would be glued to a TV this afternoon [probably in his local pub] watching his beloved Collingwood football team play against in the now annual Anzac Day match at the MCG!!

For readers who have not seen my Anzac Day blogs of recent years, a brief reminder of the occasion, with the aid of some general notes on Anzac Day.

ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is the anniversary of the landing of troops from Australia and New Zealand on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, in World War I on April 25, 1915. The bravery of all military personnel who participated in this campaign and the lives of those who died in all military actions, in which Australians have been involved, both prior to Gallipoli, and subsequently, are remembered. In 1916, the first anniversary of the landing was observed in Australia, New Zealand and England and by troops in Egypt. That year, 25 April was officially named ‘Anzac Day. The Dawn Service observed on Anzac Day has its origins in an operational routine which is still observed by the Australian Army today.The 1st official dawn service was held in 1927.  The marches, etc, are not a glorification of war itself, but of the sacrifices that have been made in those various conflicts, and the men & women who participated, and  to honour the more than 110,000 Australians

Many ceremonies, parades and other activities are held on ANZAC Day to remember the lives of those who participated or died in military action, particularly on the Gallipoli Peninsula in World War I. Dawn prayer or church services are a particularly important aspect of ANZAC Day. These represent the comradeship that the soldiers experienced as they rose each morning to prepare for another day of military action. After the services, gunfire breakfast (coffee with rum in it) is often served. In major cities and many smaller towns, parades, marches and reunions of current and past military personnel and memorial services are held. The fourth stanza or verse of a well known poem, known as The Ode, is read aloud at many ceremonies. The poem is called “For The Fallen” and was written by Laurence Binyon in 1914. It commemorates those who died and can never grow old. After the formal events, many people play games of “two-up”. This is a gambling game played using two coins. This form of gambling is usually illegal in many Australian states. However, the authorities usually turn a blind eye to it on ANZAC Day.As background to Gallipoli, one on site ‘historian’ has described it in this fashion

 “In the early months of 1915, World War I was raging in most of Europe, including the Ottoman empire in the geographical area that is now Turkey. Russian troops were fighting on many fronts, particularly against troops from Germany and the Ottoman and Austro -Hungarian empires. At dawn on April 25, 1915, forces from France, Great Britain and the British Empire, including Australia and New Zealand, landed at a number of places on the Gallipoli peninsula. The campaign aimed to open up new fronts for the Allied forces and a trade route to Russia. In the ensuing battle, many lives were lost on both sides and the Allied forces did not succeed in opening a trade route to Russia. The last ANZAC forces withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsula by December 20, 1915, in a successful operation with very few casualties. In spite of their losses, the ANZAC servicemen and many Australians and New Zealanders saw this battle as the start of the ANZAC spirit. This is an Australasian ideal based on the “mateship” and cheerful suffering the forces showed during this campaign  ANZAC Day is also a public holiday and day of remembrance in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga. It is also commemorated with special services and events on or around April 25 in a range of countries across the globe. These include: the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Canada and the United States (including Hawaii).

Sunbury itself of course, has it’s own Anzac Ceremony, at the local War Memorial, here on the Village Grren, after a brief march of veterans through the town. I usually attend that ceremony, but decided that, as with my weekend ‘intention’ of relaxing at home as much as I could, would give it a miss this year. The bonus, in watching the TV coverage of the Melbourne march, was to note one of the divisions under which my father served during World War II – the 2nd/5th Field Ambulance of the Australian Army. I think there are only a small number of veterans left these days, and I’ve noticed that over the past year or so, I’ve not been receiving any material from ‘reunion’ group associated with that division. Must follow that up. A dawn service is also held up at the top of Mt Macedon [about 15 kms north of Sunbury] – have not made the effort to get to that one yet, either.

The following story is an interesting, and inspiring, sideline to the Mt Macedon ceremony – 

‘An 80km walk may not be everyone’s idea of a Sunday stroll but it’s the way two locals will challenge themselves and remember those who fought on the Kokoda track. Gisborne’s Ian Gilchrist and Sunbury’s John Turnbull will again walk from the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne to the dawn service at Mt Macedon on Anzac Day. It will be the second time they have walked the route, and this year Mokoda (Macedon and Kokoda) has a following with a dozen or more people joining in. Mr Gilchrist said the friends regularly walked up Mt Macedon and decided last year to try and make it to the dawn service – starting at the Shrine of Remembrance.“We do take a lot for granted about the freedoms that were granted by those before us,” Mr Gilchrist said. “We did it as a personal challenge and as a mark of respect.” Mr Gilchrist played down the length of the journey and the thought that it could rain.“I think it’s more like 73km and it’s not that bad.  “It’s quite easy, it’s mostly flat, Bulla is a bit hilly and Mt Macedon is a bit of challenge at the end but you just take it easy.” The IT product manager and Sunbury pilot will set off at 10pm [Sunday] to make the trek.’  I hope they all made it too the top of the mountain succesfully this morning as planned. There is a large cross at the top of Mt Macedon which forms the central focus of the Dawn Service.

I was watching the telecasts from Gallipoli [Turkey], and Villers-Breneaux [France] early this afternoon, of the ANZAC Dawn services been held in both countries, and found it quite emotional at times – particularly at the conclusion of the service from Anzac Cove [Gallipoli] when the National Anthems of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand were sung, and played. I thought that rather a special moment, more significant in fact than the speeches being thrown around about former foes, now celebrating together the same event – the Anzac forces of course, with the British having being the ‘invaders’ as far as Turkey was concerned, back in 1915.

However while watching that, my mind was also drawn to the fact that while the Turkish forces, at significant cost to their own numbers, fought a gallant, and winning campaign against the Allies, there was something else quite disturbing going on in that nation. Throughout the early part of World War I, Turkey was quietly behind the scenes, engaged in a systematic and pre-planned ethnic cleansing of a portion of their population. Twenty years earlier, up to 80,000 Turkish Armenians had been slaughtered, and shortly before 1915, plans were in place to rid the rid the country of it’s entire Armenian population. First to be eliminated were the 100,000 Armenian conscripts in the armed forces, followed by all Armenian community leaders, and finally the forced deportation of the balance of the population into the desert regions, and Interior Minister Talaat Bey was given responsibility for carrying out Turkey’s ‘final solution’ of it’s Armenian ‘problem’.  In David Shermer’s history ‘World War I’, he writes “Talaat instructed that ‘the Government…..decided to destroy completely all Armenians living in Turkey……An end must be put to their existence, however criminal the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex nor to conscientious scruples’.” P136].  In the summer of 1915 [while the Gallipoli campaign was in progress], a quartet of a million Armenians managed to escape to Russia, but they were the exceptions. Of the two million Armenians within the Ottoman Empire in 1914,  one and a half million of them had disappeared from the face of the earth by 1916. Ever since then, Turkey has told the rest of the world to ‘mind it’s own business’.  And seemingly, in view of subsequent genocidal events in the 20^th century, the world has done just that, and sat back while nations undertook attempts to ‘ethnically cleanse’ their countries of those parts of the population not wanted, eg,   the Jews [by the Nazis], Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and so on!!!

So around Australia, countless speeches today, are talking of the sacrifices made by our soldiers, to bring peace to the world, but when you look at much of the world since 1915, we have seen very little peace, or kindness of man to his/her fellow man!!

But, that is another topic, and something that has been forgotten in the euphoria of today’s celebrations. During World War II, my father was, amongst other roles, a member of an anti-aircraft division operating out of New Guinea, in defence against Japanese war plane attacks.  On the 13^th May, 1943, he wrote a short poem, which he titles the ‘Anti-Aircraft Gunner’

‘I’m sitting here and wondering,

Just what it’s all about.

The guns are all a-thundering

And the fighter’s going out.

Our crew is standing ready

Lest the Zero come in sight,

We’re bound to give old Tojo

A most terrific sight.’

[by Gunner John Keith Kirk]

 

Turning away from ANZAC, to the big Anzac Day football match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground this afternoon – a traditional game on the 25^th April between Collingwood and Essendon. Must admit, I put all else aside, and decided to watch this game  – a crowd of 89,626 present, beautiful weather, and a fairly close game throughout the match, although somehow, you felt that the favourites, last year’s Premiers Collingwood, just had the answers whenever Essendon challenged, and while the score of 30 points difference in the end, looked impressive, that was really only dominance in the last 15 minutes, apart from a strong first quarter. I thought the game even for the rest of the match. Final score: Collingwood Magpies: 16.11.107 defeated Essendon Bombers: 11.11.77.  Now, looking back over Collingwood’s games this year, I believe that result means that Carlton [my team] have got the closest to the Magpies so far this year, losing by 28 points!! Last week, we drew with Essendon – guess that makes our two teams very evenly balanced!!

When most people would have been sleeping, I was letting myself into the  radio studio at 5.50 am this morning – my aim to present 3 hours of sacred and classical music, with the first hour in particular dedicated to music either relating to, or simply in acknowledgement of  the basic message of the Easter message from a Christian aspect.  As with my Christmas Day ‘specials’ it was always important to me to be able to do something like this over the Easter period, and in any case, most of this morning’s music, while a tribute to Easter, was also a normal extension of the classical music I normally play on air at this time on a Sunday morning. That three hours disappeared very quickly,and I felt personally satisfied after the event.

From the closing words of composer Krzysztof Penderecki’s ‘St. Luke Passion’, magnificently presented by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, and the Warsaw Boys Choir:-

‘In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust;/let me never be put to confusion,/deliver me in thy righteousness,/Bow down thy ear to me;/make haste to deliver me,/And be thou my strong rock,/and house of defence,/that thou mayest save me./Into thy hands I commend my spirit;/ for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou God of truth’

The balance of my Easter Sunday was relatively relaxed, and included a family dinner over at Goonawarra, which for a change, my wife’s mother did not completely cook and prepare – she had little choice with one arm in plaster following her fall last weekend!!  On this occasion, all of our ‘kids -‘ were present, though in contrast to past years, only one of them had a partner with them – Ash, with Jodie, was still on the scene! Despite a degree of ‘sadness’ around Susie’s situation, and a difficult night she had ahead of her, that was a nice little family gathering, and something that I am always so grateful to be able feel so welcome and a part of despite events of years gone past.

A quiet night at home, alone, this evening – feeling for Susie very much throughout the night, and without going into much detail, she had gone out to a concert in the city, with a ticket that her bf has previously given her – he was also going, but with someone else, and personally, had I been in Susie’s position, I would have stayed away! Anyway, I drove her to the train early this evening, and was somewhat ‘comforted’ by the fact, that her Mum and sister had arranged to pick her up in the city at the end of the concert. I would have offered to do so myself otherwise, as we could not have allowed her to find her own way home, despite Susie’s confidence that such a venture was fully within her capabilities. I’m sure it was, but the alternative was important today. Despite that knowledge, I would be up until midnight, and would not get to sleep until Shirley’s car pulled into the driveway at around 1am!! I didn’t greet Susie, knowing she would much prefer a ‘private’ entry and to be allowed to arrive home in her own privacy of thoughts, etc. Meanwhile, I used my evening to advantage, doing a bit of re-arranging of part of my book collection, noting along the way that there were still many in that collection, I’d still not read – just wished I had the time to get into some of them. Also worry often, about what will happen to all my books, when I am gone -really must make some adequate provision for that aspect one day!!

The next few days, over the Easter break promise us good weather [says the Weather Bureau!!], though this morning doesn’t seem to be a promising start – a little coolish in town earlier this morning, and currently rather overcast. But we shall remain optimistic that the day will improve – maybe not too much however, have a trip planned to the football this evening, and it no doubt will be quite cool by then anyway, I’d like to see the stadium roof closed!

Not a good night’s sleep overnight – woke a number of times, wondering if Susie had returned from a friend’s place [to where she had walked], and then later, wondering when she was going to switch off the light that seemed to have found it’s way under my door. When all of that settled down, Bill couldn’t get to sleep anywaym – got up and made a cup of tea, around 5am I think, and eventually drifted off some time later, with the music of ABC Classic FM quietly playing away in the background.  Despite all that, I was glad to see Susie getting out with other friends when she could – yesterday, she was in the city at an exhibition with a friend, and last night spent a few hours across the local park, at another friend’s house – I guess her return [although I wasn’t conscious of it] was one of those times that I awoke in my night of broken sleeps!

Late last year, it was my intention to go and see an opera this year. In 2010, was my first visit to the ballet – the Nutcracker, with Jodie, Susie & Shirley, so I felt that before I retired, and could afford to do so, I must get to the opera. In fact, at one stage had considered subscribing to the whole series of Australia Opera performances during their 2011 series. However, financial sensibility soon persuaded me against that idea, so the number down a little, until at this point, I’ve actually made no plans, though still intend to get to one of the better known operas. When that happens, readers of these pages will no doubt hear about it! With all that in mind, I was interested to read a little article in one of the papers the other day headed ‘Opera out of tune with audiences’. Basically it was saying that Opera Australia’s audiences shrank by 16% last year, leaving the company $600,000 in the red, and rethinking it’s future. Now the reason is not simply because, as most non-opera fans would be quick to suggest, that nobody is interested. Apart from the global financial crisis, and a corresponding decline in tourists, there appears to be an unwillingness by patrons to pay the high cost of tickets – the principal reason why I have not yet got there! But the ‘cost of tickets’ doesn’t seem to be the major point in the comments by Opera Australia’s CEO [Adrian Collette] who suggests that two year’s losses in a row means the company ‘needed to broaden and deepen it’s appeal to audiences……Two operation deficits in succession make a compelling argument for change’.  Well I don’t know, I would have thought that the traditional, and the newer productions such as ‘Bliss’ last year, were still appealing to those audiences who en joy opera, and to suggest that the challenge was to merely think of a more inventive program, is missing the point. Apart from the ‘rich set’ of enthusiasts who would probably find the money to pay ‘anything for anything’, I’m sure there are thousands of music enthusiasts out them who would love the same opportunity, but at a minimum ticket price of $80 for entertainment which has a minority of support in terms of overall music genres in Australia, the price of attending is simply beyond them, or such attendance has to be at the sacrifice of some more necessary expense in their lives! Anyway, it will be interesting to see just what Opera Australia ‘comes up with’.

Meanwhile, the May edition of ‘Limelight’ [yes, I am getting ahead of myself, it still only the 23 April], there is further comment on ‘that’ iPod which Prime Minister Julia Gillard, presented to US President, Barak Obama, when she visited him a few weeks ago. That action certainly triggered a backlash of protest from the Australian classical community, and I included myself in that group, through my blog entry at that time. Outrage was expressed at the Government’s ‘perceived lack of interest in the nation’s classical music traditions’.  The ‘diplomatic’ gift, presented to Obama of an iPod loaded with Australian music contained plenty of rock and folk music [most of it deserving such recognition] but not a single track of classical music! As pianist Gerard Willems said “It is a sad state of affairs that we….are recognised around the world for our achievements, but not acknowledged in our own country by our leaders”.  In response to all this outrage, local musicians have compiled two iPod’s worth of Australian classical music to be sent to both the Prime Minister, and the US President, and hopefully, including a bit of a rebuke to the PM! The playlist ranges from Peter Dawson’s ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and Joan Sutherland’s ‘Lucia’ to Peter Sculthorpe’s evocations of the landscape, and also contains works by up-to-the-minute composers such as Elena-Kats-Chernin and Brett Dean. I think at the time, that I included a copy of the full listing of the original i-Pod, so must seek out this alternative version, and list the contents on these pages also. Will be interesting to see just what has been included – Australian non-classical enthusiasts might just be surprised at just how much thery recognise as having heard previously!

Well, most of this Easter Saturday, saw your ‘personal essayist’ feeling a bit poorly, a genuine excuse, after a busy morning, to collapse in front of the TV this afternoon, and watch the Sydney Cup race meeting from Randwick.. Like last Saturday, it was a miserable looking wet race course, although presumably not the same degree of coldness, that such all day rain in Melbourne would create, judging by some of the fashion outfits that the women in particular were [or weren’t] wearing.  Incidentally, the Australian Girls Choir sang the National Anthem again – they have been quite busy at various events of that nature over recent weeks, and today’s rendition of the anthem was particularly inspiring. It reminded me as always, of those 5 or 6 years, that daughter Susan spent as a member of the Essendon branch of the Australian Girls Choir. While it was a rather expensive and time consuming venture, it did open many opportunities to her, and gave her family various wonderful concerts and performances to enjoy. I was a little disappointed when she decided to give it away in her mid teens, although also, silently pleased that all of those long drives to rehearsals, etc, had come to an end.

As for the Sydney Cup, which is run over the same distance of the 3,200 metres Melbourne Cup [in November], the winner there was a bit of an outsider, which had actually been the emergency for the race – Stand To Gain- heard someone describe it as the best wet track racehorse in Australia!!  Well, when it lines up in the Melbourne Cup later this year, I must keep that in mind, particularly if the first Tuesday in November this year happens to be a wet one!! Meanwhilem, the Group One race prior to the Cup, was the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, which in very appropriate fashion was won by a horse that should be very used to wet conditions – a horse named My Kingdom of Fife, which was formerly owned by Queen Elizabeth herself. Very apt result indeed!!

Anyway, in my present ‘frame of health’ I was beginning to regret my decision to go and watch the football in the city tonight, but the cdecision had been made, and it was going to be one of those rare occasions –  I’m sure from memory, the first time that three of my children [all adults now of course] had joined me at a Carlton football match. So whatever I was feeling like, there was no way I was going to allow that opportunity to pass by.  So joining me tonight, down at the Telstra Dome in the city [I decided to drive, good move, rather than catch the train] was Jodie [who gets to a few Carlton matches throughout the seasons], Susan [whom I couldn’t recall ever going before, but apparently she had been previously], and of course, James [ the most vocal current suppolrter in the family, who met us at our seats, as he was staying in the city for the weekend]. The missing ‘child’ was Adam, the only one of my family to stray away and decide to barrack for another team!!! I think I mentioned that fact last week, when Carlton played Essendon.

So, to our Carlton Football [Blues] update for Round 5 of the 2011 AFL Season, Carlton Blues versus the Adelaide Crows.  On paper, it should be a relatively easy win for Carlton, but I had mentioned to my family, that I have become a bit of a jinx, when it comes to watching the Blues play at Telstra Dome over recent years – they don’t win when I am there!!  As the sporting headlines would scream afterwards ‘Wayward Blues survive scare’  – a great start in the first quarter, as my boys got away to a strong start, and the match had images of becoming a very one-sided game. However, Adelaide had other ideas, and aided by atrocious kicking for goal by the Carlton players,  began to make the game as very low scoring and tight battle, so that as things went along, it began to look more and more likely that my jinx would continue. At least for Susie’s sake [who probably would have initially preferred to have been somewhere else] she was getting a close and exciting game of football.  After leading by 27 points late in the first quarter, my Blues found themselves behind by 11 points halfway into the last quarter, and suddenly we were headed for a shock loss! My head was in my hands by now, I couldn’t believe the ineffectual manner in which many of our players seemed to be performing. But, in the closing minutes, the Blues managed to ‘get out of jail’  through a combination of desperate persistence, and a couple of costly errors by the opposition in those last minutes of the match. And like all Carlton supporters, the majority of the Telstra Dome crowd, we breathed a big sigh of relief, getting away with a narrow win.  Quarter by quarter scores revealed that:

Carlton Blues:     5.5.35     6.12.48     8.17.65    Final:  11.19.85

Adelaide Crows:   1.2.8       6.2.38       9.4.58     Final: 12.7.79

The usual long and crowded walk back to the car, and an equally long [and for the driver] tiring return trip to Sunbury, but at least with the knowledge of having ventured to Telstra Dome for a positive result for a change. Incidentally, in a real turn up of results, the new AFL team, the Gold Goast Suns collected theiur first ever win today, defeating the luckless Port Adelaide team by just 3 points! Plenty of excitement up north tonight!

First day of five day weekend  – a longer break for Easter this year, because the season has fallen so late in April, it has clashed with another public holiday here in Australia.  ANZAC Day always falls on the 25^th April, which this year, also happens to be Easter Monday.  So the government has declared Tuesday to be an extra public holiday in lieu of ANZAC Day.

Of course, the extra day means more people will take the opportunity to go away for the longer break, which in turn means more vehicles on our streets and highways, especially in the rural areas. One thing I’m always very conscious of at this time of year – is the ‘Easter holiday period’ road toll of deaths and injuries through road accidents. Already by this morning, there had three recorded deaths. Of course, in comparison to toll figures in countries like South Africa, that kind of figure is minimal, yet from my point of view, any death or injury from a road accident should have been avoidable in some way – they represent an unnecessary waste of human lives and resources. Inevitably [as is the case every weekend, or weekday]  people driving around now, who won’t be at the end of the period. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life and death, and little amount of worrying on my part won’t change that!

Anyway, my Good Friday morning began with a phone call to the radio station – in preference to getting up on a non-work day and driving up to the station for my weekly 10 minute sports report, which I normally deliver before I head off to work. I think host Ron was a little disappointed at my non-appearance in person, however, I think he would have been more let down, had I not even rung in with my report.  That approach allowed me to return to bed for a while, with a cup of tea [a beverage I seldom drink or enjoy], and to do a bit of reading.  I always have three or four books at the go at one time – currently, it’s two rather contrasting reads. One is called ‘in My Words’ by top Australian horse trainer, Gai Waterhouse, virtually a transcription of a blog she has been writing over recent years, ever since the horse flu scare almost devastated horse racing in Australia. Interesting to follow the writing style of someone else. 

The second book is a Folio Society publication, which I purchased recently, in order to meet my commitment to that organisation. I purchased books from the Society some years ago on a regular basis, and of course, because their books are produced at such a high quality, they are also very expensive. With a couple of job losses a few years ago, I ceased that practice, but was drawn back in about a year ago, with the special deals that the Folio Society always has on the go, to attract subscribers. Those ‘specials’ are usually pretty good value, but obviously, there is a price attached – a commitment to buy a certain number of books over a specified period from their catalogued collection, at rather high prices. My latest purchase will have to be my last one I think – with plans to finish full time work later in the year, it is not going to be a viable ‘hobby, irrespective of the quality of the publication!!  This one for eg, is described as having it’s ‘Text set in Monotype Bell 11 point leaded one Point, and printed on Abbey Wove Paper, and Quarter bound in cloth with printed paper sides. Not quite sure what all that means, but it sounds impressive, and I must admit, that the collection I have built up over the years, also ,looks impressive!  This particular publication  is called Dickens’ London’ and is a selection of  essays written by the great English novelist, Charles Dickens about the city of London as he saw it in the early 1800s. It is quite fascinating in terms of the detail and almost intimate perception he draws together of the people, their lives, the good and the bad,  and which observations obviously formed the basis of many of the characters and stories behind his many novels, such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield [my favourite],  Bleak House, the Pickwick Papers, and so on. I’ve only read a couple of the essays so far, but feel I have some entertaining reading ahead of me.

Earlier this morning, I was listening to some music composed  [or at least being played] to recognise the 400^th anniversary of the creation of the King James’ translation of the Christian Bible. Now even that translation was influenced  by many other translations and scholars’ interpretations, going right back to the original writings of both the Old and New Testaments. Today, we have more modern translations, and while there are people who object  to any change in the King James’ version, I consider that view misguided – even the 1611 translation was partially a response to the needs of that time, and each new version before and since has been attempting to adapt to the times and attitudes, whilst retaining the same message, but making it more accessible and perhaps understandable to new readers, allowing the Word of God to reach people in their own ‘language’. I have no problem whatsoever with that.  In theatre and the music halls, we regularly see modern adaptations of traditional operas, ballets, plays by Shakespeare, etc, not to take away the original meaning and message intended.  My favoured modern interpretation is the publication entitled ‘The Message’, produced by Eugene H Peterson. In the Introduction to his production of the ‘New Testament, with Psalms and Proverbs’, Peterson writes:-

“The arrival of Jesus signalled the beginning of a new era. God entered history in a personal way, and made it unmistakably clear that he is on our side, doing everything possible to save us. It was all presented and worked out in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It was, and is, hard to believe – seemingly too good to be true. But one by one, men and women did believe it, believed Jesus was God alive among them and for them. Soon they would realise that he also lived in them……………..This version of the New Testament in a contemporary idiom keeps the language of the Message current and fresh and understandable in the same language in which we do our shopping, talk with our friends, worry about world affairs, and  teach our children their table manners. The goal is not to render a word-for-word conversion of Greek into English, but rather to convert the tone, the rhythm, the events, the ideas, into the way we actually think and speak.”

I’m putting below here, a comparison of a brief portion of the Good Friday story, taken from John Chapter 19.

King James version:  Book of St John: Chapter 19: verses 25-30

‘Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman behold thy son!  Then saith he to the disciple, Behold they mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.’

Same text, as submitted by Peterson, in ‘The Message’

‘While the soldiers were looking after themselves, Jesus’ mother, his aunt, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her,. He said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that moment the disciple accepted her as his own mother. Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, ‘I’m thirsty’. A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, ‘It’s done…..complete.’  Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit.’