 How’s this for a great – and true – quote?
‘There are those who have had the good fortune to never have felt anything other than the silkiness of privilege, their bubbles so perfect they cannot feel the gravel underneath.’ Rick Morton, (‘One Hundred Years of Dirt’, P 164) Oh, so true! As the divide between the haves and the have-nots widens, the fat cats are growing fatter day by day. The wealthiest 1%* are gathering up their billions - along with their privileges - and the ordinary person is forgotten. The wealth gap is huge! Australia’s politicians especially are out of touch with reality and normal everyday people. Remember the Prime Minister (he’s gone now!) who, when asked about the problem concerning young people’s inability to afford a home of their own, suggested that the solution was for their parents to finance them! He honestly had no idea that most parents of young people were working two jobs in an effort to pay their own mortgage. (He’s also the one who tossed a spare million + dollars into his party to help along the election). Out of touch? You bet! But money rules! Emphasising this, in last weekend’s newspapers, we read about a contender for a place in the Liberal Party of Australia. What was so astounding about this ‘news’ was that it focussed on how much MONEY he (the candidate) would bring to the party. Not how much knowledge, wisdom or skill he had; it was how much money he could generate! And this was the focus of the NEWS! In what sounded like paeans of praise, he was described as ‘the Million Dollar man for the Liberal party. And here I quote (Sydney Morning Herald, 15/09/18): Some of Sydney's wealthiest business leaders are lining up to throw money behind the new candidate for Wentworth, Dave Sharma…… [he] is expected to bring in huge donations from the business and Jewish communities……[his] ability to draw significant donations would be "eye-watering". “Eye watering” amounts of money? So, this section of politics has now descended into simply embracing the POWER OF MONEY as the most important aspect of their ability to represent us, ‘the people’. Money, it seems, is no longer needed just as funding to advertise broadly and powerfully when an election nears, but is to signify their entitlement to dominate. Is it now the measure of wealth that decides who is worthy to represent the people? But, what about policies? The obligations? Any? How about strategies for services for the common man/woman? Anything? The Economy? Climate Change? Education? Employment? Environment? Refugees? No, it seems that money is the arbiter. Large companies (usually) only donate to political parties in order to influence policy in their favour, so what’s the go here? Not hard to figure out, I suppose! It is such a shame that ‘running the country’ has little to do with doing the best for the nation’s people. It is more like a popularity contest to see who has the most money. I can only lament the demise of ‘The Lucky Country’. It seems that money and privilege are how we are expected to measure value. To again quote Rick Morton, from his book, ‘One Hundred Years of Dirt’: ‘There are those who have had the good fortune to never have felt anything other than the silkiness of privilege, their bubbles so perfect they cannot feel the gravel underneath.’ * The top 1% in Australia now own more wealth that the bottom 70% combined! Think about it.
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 It’s all so disappointing!
The politicians are disgusting, the honey is not real, the strawberries are too small, and the music has died! First of all, let me have a big whinge about Australian politicians: What a bloody shambles! One day we watched a LNP politician put his hand on the shoulder of the Prime Minister and state how he supported him totally and yet, hidden in his other hand he held the weapon with which he back stabbed him - the next day. Dirty backroom deals ultimately resulted in an ‘et tu Brute’ moment with a PM being booted out and two of the most awful contenders vying for the ‘top job’. And, while we may have missed out on the worst of those aspirants, what do we have now? A supercilious self promoter increasing the divide between the general public and the RWNJs; an untrustworthy idiot pretending to be a strong ‘moderate’ conservative leader with a (dodgy) Christian touch! And he lies! Great! What a disappointment. Meanwhile, Aretha Franklin died and we were reminded that music has also died - and songs are no longer songs. Sure, Aretha’s music was not always filled with sweet, gentle tunes but we understood the words she sang and they were presented with genuine feeling and soul. That music and singing has been replaced by something called rap. I can’t say ‘rap music’ because it isn’t music and I can’t use the word ‘songs’, because they are not songs. They are just noise and they (raps or tracks? I don’t know) all sound the same! Luckily the words can seldom be heard clearly, which is just as well as they ooze with death and destruction and bad sex! Music? No, disappointment! John McCain died and we were reminded what a decent politician he was, no matter whose ‘camp’ he was in. He didn’t manage to hold the top job to which he aspired but remained a truly decent man. He showed the world that politicians CAN be decent - but no longer are. What did the US – and, indeed the world - do to deserve the Trumpian monster who now resides in the White House? Disappointing indeed! And now we are being told that the honey we buy is fake honey! What is it? Cooked and watered down honey? Just sugar syrup? Rice syrup? What??? Honey? Honey is fake? Now, that’s what I call a disappointment! Then a report comes to tell us that strawberry farmers have dumped hundreds of tons of strawberries because they are too small! Too small? That’s what the supermarkets have told them. What rubbish! Anyone knows that the small strawberries are the best and the sweetest and the ones with real strawberry flavour. Anyone who has ever grown strawberries will tell you that strawberries eaten straight after picking are the best. Home grown strawberries are small and soft and sweet and amazingly luscious. They are nothing like the huge, red-on-outside, white-in-centre, crunchy (crunchy? yes, crunchy!) strawberries we find in supermarkets. So, all in all, disappointment reigns! |
