A few months ago, I heard someone on tv say, “Humility is part of most religions—not the shouty bits”. That statement has stuck in my mind ever since.
But, is it true?

You’d wonder, with the ‘shouty bits’ that are going on lately, concerning religion.
It’s the ‘shouty bits’ that make news.

It’s not only the ‘usual’ comments about Muslims, Jews, Catholics and others that produce ‘shouty bits’.
Lately there have been shouts concerning the Sydney Anglican archbishop’s request for those who support SSM to just leave the church. He’s shouting and people who disagree with him are shouting back.
Well, I guess they’re not actually shouting but they were certainly making headlines.
Humility is a bit thin on the ground there.

Then, there’s the latest of our PM’s ‘shouty bits’ as he suggests we pray for rain to ease the horrific effects of drought. Seriously! Meanwhile, he ‘fiddles the figures’ to make it look as though the government is helping.
Nothing very humble about the PM — a man who loudly espouses his Pentecostal faith.

I don’t wish to upset people of faith. I suppose I consider myself to be a ‘person of faith’, but am reluctant to shout it out.
I guess the words ‘humility is part of most religions’ is the important segment of the original statement. 

But, too many of the ‘shouty bits’ surround opposition to other faiths. It’s surely time for a bit more humility towards those holding beliefs different from people’s own ideas and ideals.

Joumanah El Matrah, a PhD student at Western Sydney University, writes:
“….when Israel Folau states that hell awaits “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters”, religious conservatives respond not by drawing a line between faith and hate, but by campaigning to enshrine their view of faith…”
And so on it goes…

I’m sure that humility in all areas would make a better world.
Not just in religion but with everyday people practising humility every day.

And fewer shouty bits.
 
 
 
 
 
 

​I was a primary school teacher for over thirty years. It was a job that I loved but, when I was in my fifties, I left fulltime teaching as I could no longer do exhaustion.
I still remember most of the children (there were hundreds) who each spent at least a year ‘in my hands’. I loved them – and some of them even loved me, I am sure.
Each child had a story in which I became a part.
Here, I have included a story of one small boy, recalled from some years ago.
I called it, ‘A Year with Billy O’Dowd’:
 
He was the youngest of a large farming family; happy-go-lucky, cheeky and unbelievably grubby. Billy O’Dowd had been a thorn in the side of his first two teachers. I was the third teacher to have the pleasure of Billy’s company for a year.

Now he was in Year Two, he was even more competent at creating chaos. Blissfully unconcerned with his grotty appearance, Billy also seemed unaware of the difference between right and wrong and had absolutely no awe or fear of any chastisement, punishment or threat, even when issued by the school principal. At just seven years old, Billy was one of those kids who makes you wonder why on earth you ever wanted to make a career of teaching.

In the playground, Billy was not one to get into fights or arguments. That was not how he caused continuous stress. No, Billy was the one to always be ‘out-of-bounds’, looking for an imaginary snake or chasing the ball he was sure had gone over into the adjoining property. Billy would be the volunteer to fetch the wayward football from the school roof (without permission, of course). He could run like the wind and climb like a small Sumatran orangutan. If there was a school rule Billy had not broken, I was unaware of it.

Billy’s academic achievement was a somewhat secondary concern for me while dealing with him. Keeping his little bottom on a chair for more than 60 seconds was a major accomplishment. To have him complete any set task, a miracle. I’m sure he lost more library books and readers that the rest of the school student population put together. And any books that weren’t lost, were often barely in a suitable condition to be returned to the shelf.

All Billy’s possessions were battered, bent, torn and (mostly) filthy.

As winter approached, Billy began wearing a dark blue nylon parka every day. He really liked it and kept it on when in the classroom.The edges of the parka’s collar were often in his mouth. Eventually he could even talk while chomping away on the collar. After a while, he began to nibble at the cuffs also. Perhaps there was a deficiency in his diet. One day, for ‘play-lunch’, he brought to school a tube of blue toothpaste, which he proceeded to squeeze into his mouth, have a little chew and then swallow. At my stern expression of disapproval, his calm reply was, “But, it’s delicious!”

Every school day of every year, Billy ordered a meat pie from the school canteen. Summer or winter, a pie was his lunch. (That’s about 1,400 pies over the years, I think). Whether it was the pie diet or the thick layer of dirt that covered his skin and provided some sort of protection from virus attack, is anyone's guess, but Billy was never ill. His school attendance record was perfect. So there was no respite for his teacher for even a day.

But there was no doubting he was a happy little boy. The fact that Billy was almost always in some sort of trouble at school was of no consequence to him. It was water off a duck’s back. He was not purposely a horrible little kid. That each of his teachers, in turn, ended up a little the worse for wear after the experience of a year spent in Billy’s company was certainly no concern of his.

As my year with Billy rolled towards a close, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. My heart was also feeling lighter, because now he could read a little, his Maths was “coming along” (as we say) and even some pages of his workbook were still intact. There was only two-thirds of the old blue parka left (Billy having eaten much of it) but otherwise I felt quite successful. At least I had survived.

This was all way back in the 1980s.

Several years after he had left school, I came across Billy, the grown teenager, with some mates at a tourist area in our part of the country. He still looked very much the same, only much taller.

“Hello, Billy,” I greeted him brightly.

“G’day,” he replied and, before I was out of earshot, he turned to his mates and said, “Who the f--- was that?” 
 

Once upon a time, teenagers used to sit in milk bars and drink milk shakes from tall glasses, topping the yummy liquid up from icy-cold metal containers. Now kids barge into a shop, quickly purchase, not a milk shake, but a ‘slushy’ in a flimsy plastic container, with plastic lid and plastic straw.
Once it is hastily consumed the plastic stuff is tossed away – sometimes in a bin, oft times just anywhere.
Is this a ‘no turning back’ situation?

Let’s have a quick random count of other ‘no turning backs’:

• Drinking bottled water.
• Driving huge cars.
• Building huge houses, dependent on artificial heating & cooling.
• Replacing items by buying new and not repairing.
• Buying cheap clothes in bulk.
• Using plastic in all its horror guises.
• Eating from bagged ‘lunch-box treats’.

That’s but a few…I could go on, and on…

However, there are TWO deadly serious ‘no turning backs’ that deserve a mention:

• U.S. gun ownership and the destruction of life that results -

and the BIGGEST ONE:

• CLIMATE CHANGE.

Concerning the American gun situation, where ‘fear of the other’ has escalated to the point of insanity and turned into ‘hate of the other’, many U.S. citizens cannot comprehend how people in other countries such as Australia can ever feel safe if they don’t carry a firearm. That’s craziness gone too far – and now it is quite possibly beyond turning back. Poor America.

As far as Climate Change – or Global Warming – no matter what you name it, it may sadly be beyond us to drag the world back to sustainable levels. Existence on our once beautiful planet is threatened and yet still some leaders are unwilling to forego their dependence on their coal lobbyist donors to do anything serious (& effective) about it.  Can we ever retrieve all that we have lost? Poor World.

HAVE WE REACHED NO TURNING BACK?
 

Stopping by the fruit market stall with my small calico bag ready to fill with bananas, I was greeted by a young woman (of perhaps Indian descent) who asked me if I wanted some bananas.
‘Yes’, I answered, ‘I’m about to buy some.’
‘Here’, said the stranger, ‘I have some bananas for you,’ and she proffered a bag full of lovely bananas.
‘Oh, no’, I said, 'You can’t give me your bananas.’
‘But I have bought them for you,’ she said. ‘Here, see, this is the receipt to show I have just bought them.’
​
I protested again, ‘But you can't give me your bananas. I am just about to buy some.’
The stranger took a breath and said, ‘I really want you to have these bananas.’ And she went on to explain that, every week, she bought something just to give away and today she had bought bananas and she wished me to have them.

I must have looked totally confused, but she further explained that she was from overseas and, even though she had a husband and children here in Australia, she missed the rest of her family very much.
She said that to regularly give something away made her feel connected to her new home - and she again asked me (begged, almost) to take the offered bananas.

After listening to her story, I was a little overwhelmed and was feeling a little teary. I accepted the bananas and it was then that she asked if she could ‘have a hug’.
I more than willingly obliged and gave her a big hug. Then I looked closely at her and asked, ‘Do I remind you of your mother?’
‘Oh yes,’ she answered, tears welling in her eyes.

Another mutual hug ensued as I told her what a lovely, thoughtful person she was to give something away every week.
After both of us, blinking back further tears and me with lots of thankyous, there was not much more that we could say to each other.

As I held on to the gift of 2 kgs of bananas, we parted, neither knowing each other’s names nor sharing any other contact information.

They were beautiful bananas.

Later that day I made a banana cake for my grandson. My husband and I ate the remaining bananas over the following days, thanking our generous mystery donor with each bite.

True story.
 
 
 
 

As I look towards the sea and the gentle fishing boats, a wheeling tern plunges into the sea and emerges holding a tiny fish in its beak. I watch gulls in the gentle breeze, swooping through a cloudless sky.
The peacefulness is just what I need as I let the serenity wash over me and calm my stressed-out mind.
I’m not sure how long I sit there but enough to feel renewed and refreshed.

Then I come home and stupidly turn on the computer to be greeted with more ‘News’ of the day. Nothing makes sense anymore.

Once upon a time Australia had a Prime Minister who believed in ‘the brotherhood of man’.
He had his faults, but he remained as a man of compassion and fairness.
With this man’s death two months ago, we have been awakened to a huge gap; we’ve been reminded what a country’s leader can be – and could be – and could DO.

Unfortunately, we have no one of this calibre – in our country or in anywhere else - that I can see.

​Australia has a Prime Minister with no vision and no decency.
He is a man following the Trump program of fear of ‘the other’ as his main emphasis.
A man claiming to be of Christian faith who displays not one ounce of Christianity, as he uses tactics to scare the populace with his plans to ‘make the country safe’, by refusing settlement to refugees and continue building up military defence, spending billions on worthless, outdated submarines and jet fighters.

The needy in our country are neglected. The poor, the disabled and the homeless are of no consequence. Needs of schools and hospitals are ignored. Aged care has been transformed into a money-making venture by businesses that harm and rip off the elderly.

The government is seemingly corrupt, with tax-payers’ money being distributed to shonky companies, who no doubt help fill the government’s (and its members) coffers.

Meanwhile, the GREATEST challenge of all, CLIMATE CHANGE and how to deal with it effectively is relegated to a place of ‘we’re doing well’, when we are so obviously NOT.

Whatever happened to leaders who believed in ‘the brotherhood of man’?
There is so much anger, ignorance, resentment, fear and misery being dished out by world leaders today, it is very disheartening.

When I was a schoolgirl, many moons ago, we used to sing a hymn (yes, I know school kids no longer sing hymns, but we did). The words of the hymn become a bit ‘schmaltzy’ but, considering it was written in 1848, it’s not so surprising. It begins with the words, ‘Oh, brother man…’, which is what made me think of it as I wrote this. The final words of the hymn are,
‘Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger,
And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.’

​I don’t suppose there’s any hope of that happening today.
Perhaps I should go back to my seat by the sea.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

‘Fake News’, spin, deception and lies. If you believe some latest reports on Australia’s recent election result, it appears that all these things played a part.
No, I am not a sore loser. This result is not about sporting teams, where one ‘side’ wins and the other team loses. It is far more important than that.
Nevertheless it does seem that facts were, in some areas, a bit ‘thin on the ground’.
It also seems that lies were deliberately spread.
 
If these reports are true, then an examination of them is necessary.
Facts are important.
 
Rumours are not important.
Gossip is not important.
But lies can turn out to leave impressive messages –  in a nasty and truly negative way.
Lies and deception can halt and ruin progress.
Lies and deception can ruin lives.
 
During the lead up to last week’s election, lies were (apparently) placed and spread strategically.
That’s more than not fair. It’s more than misleading; it’s dangerous.
 
The outcomes of lies are often hard to predict. We should be aware – as well as beware.
 
(Let’s get this straight – it is not only in Australia’s latest election that these strategies were utilised; it is evident in other countries’ politics. It is just that Australian political manoeuvres have been very recent).
 
Way back in the early 18th Century, Jonathan Swift said, “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.”
 
Oh, dear!
Is there any hope that things will change?
 
We can only hope that one day people will come to understand that facts are important.
That good, decent facts are essential for civilised living and civilised progress.
 
In other words, it is truth that we should seek.
 
When the pursuit of power far exceeds the desire to help one’s fellow man (and lying is used as the way to achieve it), we are in trouble; not only as a nation, but the world’s whole existence.
 
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is”, said Winston Churchill
 
I have mentioned the importance of facts but haven’t mentioned all the other missing elements: equality, decency, compassion, empathy  -   and kindness.
​
Where are these? 

I’m becoming sort of obsessed with inequality!
It’s the money thing.
An ordinary working ‘Joe Blow’ or ‘Josie Blow’ spends most – or all - of their income on the necessities of life – week after week. They pay their share of taxes and accept that that is the way society works.
Their more wealthy counterparts usually only spend a portion of their weekly earnings, as they are able to save some of it, even after buying more luxurious goods that our Joe and Josie cannot afford, but that’s okay. They pay their taxes as well.
 
Nowadays there are over a million millionaires in Australia, so being a millionaire is not uncommon. And we hope that they all spend well and also pay their taxes.

Then we have the VERY, VERY, EXTREMELY wealthy – the billionaires.
There are a few.
According to, Forbes Billionaires List as of March 2019, (in $US), there are 2153 billionaires in the world.
 
Let’s think about it. Read this slowly…
If you had a billion dollars (that’s ONE billion dollars) and you had to spend it all on ‘ordinary things’ and not buy such a thing as a holiday island, you would have to spend $5000 a day for 500 years before you ran out of money. And, that’s just ONE billion.
It is very hard to even imagine.

Graeme Norton, who is NOT a billionaire, had this to say,(UK, 2017):
“You see people who are worth a billion and they’re still doing tax dodges and you think how can you be bothered?
These people who go to incredible lengths to dodge tax would be just as rich if they paid the tax - and would be living in a much nicer country.
One where people were looked after, where crime was less, where housing was better and people were better educated.
So the money you’ve saved on tax, you’re probably having to use to pay for barbed wire around your property. It seems totally wrong-headed.”
 
Here’s a list of Australia's 10 richest and how much they have:

Gina Rinehart, $21b,  Australian mining magnate and heiress. (Said to be the world’s richest woman).
Harry Triguboff, $9.2b,  Chinese-born Australian billionaire real estate developer. 
Vivek Chaand Sehgal, $6b,  Indian-born Australian billionaire businessman. 
Frank Lowy, $5.9b,  Australian-Israeli businessman. Chairman of 
Westfield Corporation‎.
Anthony Pratt, $5.5b,  Executive Chairman of Visy Industries and Pratt Industries in America.
Andrew Forrest, $4.4b,  former CEO (and current non-executive chairman) of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), with interests in the mining industry and  cattle stations.
John Gandel, $4.1b,  Australian businessman, property developer and philanthropist, made his fortune in the development of commercial real estate.
James Packer, $4.1b,  Australian billionaire businessman and investor.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, $3.4b,  the co-founder and co-CEO of the software company Atlassian.
 & Scott Farquhar $3.4b,  co-founder and co-CEO of the software company Atlassian. 
Lindsay Fox, $3.4b,  founded the Australian logistics company Linfox., Australia's largest privately held logistics company.
 
THINK WHAT COULD BE DONE WITH ALL THOSE BILLIONS, MUCH OF WHICH ‘SITS AROUND’, DOING NOTHING. NOT MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE (AS IT COULD DO) BUT MOSTLY JUST ACCUMULATING.
 
I’m not accusing any of the above billionaires, but it is interesting to note that, there were 732 companies (many overseas based)  who paid no tax in Australia in the 2015-16 financial year. Collectively, their income was more than $500 billion. 

And of 321 companies on the list of Australian-owned private companies with an income of over $200m, 98 paid no tax.
 
 What a massive difference it would make to the country if we had no tax avoidance!
  
I feel I must repeat something I have quoted before, but it’s an important explanation to help us understand the hugeness of BILLIONS of $$$$ and the astounding awfulness of inequality.
 
 
Repeated:
From the book, “Battlers & Billionaires, The story of inequality in Australia”, written by Dr Andrew Leigh (an Australian politician and former professor of economics at the Australian National University). 

 READ THIS S-L-O-W-L-Y….. 
‘…imagine a ladder on which each rung represents a million dollars of wealth. Now imagine Australian population spread out along this ladder, with distance from the ground reflecting household wealth.
On this ladder, most of us are just a few centimetres off the ground. Half of all households are closer to the ground than they are to the first rung. The typical Australian household has a wealth of about half a million dollars, placing it halfway to the first rung. A household in the top 10 percent is one and a half rungs up, at about knee height.
A household in the top 1 percent is five rungs up, about neck level.
The mining billionaire Gina Rinehart is nearly ten kilometres off the ground’

Something to mull over?
 
Did you know that one billion* = 1,000,000,000. It is the number that follows 999,999,999 .
(ONE Trillion is a THOUSAND times that!)
*Incidentally, it is now accepted that a billion is a thousand million.
In British & Australian speak, a billion USED to be a million million. We might one day have to revert to the old version to describe the amount of money our richest people have, because we will run out of $$ vocabulary.
 

I know I shouldn't get too particular concerning politics right now..., but I am stuck with these details about how our current Prime Minister is managing money, since he claims he's good at it.
(And, sorry, this post is all about Australia).


​​Our PM’s ‘knows how to manage money’. Here’s a few examples of how he (& his party) does it:
 
-$1.2 million for MICHAELIA Cash’s legal bills.
-$184 million to fake reopen Christmas Island
-$60,000 for a media stunt on Christmas Island
-$423 million closed tender contract with Paladin for a 17 month contract to deliver services for 432 refugees
-$200 million re-election propaganda advertisements for the LNP COALITION GOVT
-$30 million gift for Murdoch’s FOXTELL
-$2.8 BILLION wage CUTS for Australian workers, with more cuts from 1st July


$889 million tax concession for Murdoch
-ZERO tax paid by Gina Rhinehart
-ZERO tax for 75 billionaires
-ZERO tax for 745 corporations


-$4.2 billion moved offshore by MURDOCH and paid ZERO tax


-$126 wasted costs for a postal survey vote for SSM
-$80 million for dodgy water buy backs
-$200 billion for obsolete weapons
-$65 billion for corporate tax cuts (proposed)
-$17 billion for big banks (proposed)
-$135 billion per annum for the rich
-$60 million for a Captain Cook statue in Morrison’s electorate
-$6.7 million to re enact the circumnavigation of Australia which never happened in the first place


-$7.7 billion for fossil fuel subsidies
-$444 million gift to the Great Barrier Reef foundation
-$3.8 billion to boost weapon sales
-Spent $74 million of our taxes to pay Nickel Mining workers some of their entitlements- Clive Palmer has paid his workers ZERO
-$60 million Royal Commission witch hunt against Unions and Labor
-$Untold costs of the Indue card said to be $10 thousand dollars per applicant per year
-The doubling of debt by the LNP. The debt rides at more than QUADRUPLE the debt left by Labor Government of $250 billion dollars gross debt after the World 1st class Economy after the GFC.
​NOW (2019) the debt rides at $756 BILLION DOLLARS GROSS DEBT under this LIBERAL COALITION GOVT and that’s not including the Turnbull NBN debt of $650 Billion dollars.


That equates to a DEBT of $1.4 TRILLION DOLLARS and this is what it looks like ….$1,400,000,000,000……..a lot of dollars!

Stating ‘I dislike ANZAC Day’ does not win me many friends.
I do not attend dawn services and I take little notice of public happenings on that day. It’s a day that I prefer to keep to myself. It saddens me and confuses me. It also makes me angry.
 
Yes, I know we must be thankful for the sacrifices made by our armed forces, especially in the ‘World Wars’. We must remember the slaughter of the innocent young men sent to a hopelessly inevitable and horrible death on the shores of Gallipoli.
 
Australia lost many young men and women in the Second World War and what did that achieve? Australia’s involvement in that war ended not by actions of the poor young men ‘going off to war’ to die but by USA obliterating Japanese cities and the inhabitants in one of the most ghastly operations of all times - that still resonates today.
 
On ANZAC Day people place wreaths, shed tears, read meaningful poems, sing hymns and make stirring speeches. It is a sombre yet celebratory day.
 
Meanwhile, Australia will spend $200 million between now and 2028 as part of a plan to become the 10th largest arms exporter in the world.

Our country whose people were weeping two days ago in memory of dead soldiers, has recently signed a $410 million deal to supply Remote Weapons Systems* to ‘an overseas customer’.
 
Two months ago, Australia announced a plan to increase defence sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, stating that “the Middle East is a ‘priority market’ for defence exports.”   !!
 
Wars are no longer fought man against man, gun fire against gun fire, from muddy trenches, but by missiles operated from afar; missiles that wipe out towns, whole villages and the people therein. The resultant wreckage of homes and the bloodied bodies of men, woman and children seem now to be almost acceptable.
 
 Lest we forget, indeed.
 
*RWS  are a collection of sensors, cameras and lasers set around a small cannon, heavy machine gun, missile launchers or a combination of all three.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

25 years ago, I wrote a children’s story, in rhyme, about a singing tree. It was supposed to be an environment-awakening tale with reference to how living things depend on each other.
The story went nowhere and I recently found it again. I am now wondering if it might be more acceptable in a more awakened society. (Or, should I say ‘woke’ society?)
See if you can make it to the end…it’s quite long.
 
THE  SINGING TREE
​
In a garden belonging to Mr McFee
Stood a fantastic, marvellous, grand singing tree.
 
Now this tree was a wonder to all who came near
And the sounds it produced were amazing to hear.
It could sing with a breeze, it could sing in the rain;
Its leaves and its branches joined in the refrain
As it sang in the sun and it sang in the cold,
And this tree, in this garden, was a joy to behold.
 
The birds came to rest and to sing on its limbs
And the air would be filled with chorus and hymns,
While the whole garden shone with the wonder of song,
As small children joined in, and all sang along.
 
The music was sweet and a pleasure to hear,
As the tree and the seasons progressed through the year,
And Mr McFee spread joy all around
As he planted more seeds and plants in the ground.
 
His garden was quite an incredible sight;
And he worked in it daily, from morning till night;
While children and birds came and helped where they could,
And the sights and the sounds were exceedingly good.
 
The birds ate some seeds and found other feeds
From insects and grubs and the unwanted weeds.
They tidied the garden for Mr McFee
And perched in the branches of the big singing tree.
 
Well, that’s how they prospered, the whole happy crew,
With music and helping  -  and friendliness too.
The children and birds and the singing tree sang,
And the whole countryside with their joyfulness rang.
 
BUT, one day, McFee found some grubs on a leaf,
And he stopped and he stared in great disbelief
As they chomped and they ruined a whole precious flower.
He raged, and his anger turned his manner all sour.
 
He marched off to town for some poisonous spray;
Stirred it up in a bucket and sprayed straight away.
He aimed at the plant where the grubs had been seen,
Then decided to spray where they just might have been.
He sprayed far and wide, from the south to the north;
Then west, and then east and again back and forth.
He sprayed high and low -  just to be sure,  
He wanted to know that the grubs were no more.
 
Well, the smell  -  that was bad, but the grubs disappeared,
Although other results of the spray were just weird:
Some birds accidentally snapped up the remains
Of the grubs, and then fell to the ground with bad pains.
 
Those birds soon decided to keep right away
From the trees and the plants that were covered in spray.
So they and the children found places to be
Quite far away from the old singing tree.
 
So far away that the tree couldn’t hear
Any bird songs, or children he once held so dear.
And he sighed as he waved gentle arms in the breeze
And stood quietly there, like the rest of the trees.
 
Yes, the singing had gone.  The singing had finished.
The joy in the garden had clearly diminished.
The flowers they sagged and the vegies stopped growing
And even the grass no more needed mowing.
 
The time, it passed slowly  -  the days they were long
And no sound was heard  - for the tree stopped its song.
No bird sang in the branches, or pecked at its feet.
And the tree thought back to those days that were sweet,
When the children all played in the garden and sang,
And the whole wide world with their small voices rang,
And happiness reigned, and friendliness too.
The old singing tree didn’t know what to do.
 
Now, Mr McFee, poor old miserable chappy,
He no longer had the will to be happy.
His garden was messy  -  with weeds overgrown,
And he knew it was nobody’s fault but his own.
He had sprayed with the poison and ruined the chance
Of providing for creatures like birds, bees and ants.
These creatures all helped with the life-giving powers
Of bushes and vegies and fruit trees and flowers.
Now even the worms had all wriggled away  - 
There were no helpful creatures willing to stay.
 
The singing tree looked at that unhappy man
And thought, “I will try to fix things if I can.”
So it tried once again to start up a song,
But the sounds that it uttered all came out quite wrong.
 
So, here, in what used to be paradise found,
Was a miserable man and a tree with no sound;
And the man had spent everything  - now he was poor
And their blissful and fortunate life was no more.
 
And now he no longer could buy any spray,
Mr McFee simply pottered away
And worked on a little, but fresh garden plot
And, after a while he quite simply forgot
How he hated the sight of a grub on his plants,
And welcomed a small swarm of bees and some ants.
 
Then, after a few more of ‘no poison’ weeks,
Some birds flew by with some grubs in their beaks;
And Mr McFee knew he now understood
That birds needed grubs as part of their food;
That grubs and beetles and butterflies too
Were all as important as me and as you
For making things work and making things healthy,
For helping the whole world to grow wise and wealthy.
 
Now, those birds who flew by with the grubs just before,
Had eaten them now and came looking for more,
And when they had found some and had them for tea,
They flew up and perched in the big singing tree.
 
Well, those birds, they were happy, and music they made,
As they sat in the branches, enjoying the shade.
And the tree, on hearing the lovely birds’ song,
Raised his limbs to the sky and soon sang along.
 
Then more birds came and the song became loud,
And very soon they were joined by a crowd
Of children, who happily ran to the tree
And danced ‘round its trunk excitedly.
 
Well, little by little, McFee’s new garden grew
And the birds all returned and the small children too.
All the creatures were welcomed, yes, even the pests,
And when it was springtime, the birds built their nests.
 
And, so in and around that nice old singing tree
Were creatures and children  -  just like it used to be.
While Mr McFee, he just sat and he listened,
In the corner of each eye a small tear glistened
As he thought of the awful damage he’d done
With his battle with grubs and how nobody won.
Nobody can fight against nature and win  - 
It’s part of the great plan of life that we’re in.
 
And the old singing tree, he’d forget and forgive
And continue to sing for as long as he’d live.
He would sing from his soul and sing from his heart
And welcome the creatures who came to take part
In the glory of all that this great world could bring;
And they’d all join together and together they’d sing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

​
I used to be a teacher.
So did Gabbie Stroud.
Gabbie wrote a book called ‘Teacher’ and in it she told of her love of teaching and her love of the children she taught but how she had to leave her beloved career because of the stresses and strains caused by demands on her time and energy, initiated by political decisions that have little bearing on actual teaching of - and relating to - little children.
Oh, how I agreed!
 
Being a teacher is an exhausting, but oh, so rewarding occupation.
Sure, there are troublesome kids who take up a lot of your time and energy but, when you dig deep, those kids are often troubled kids trying to cope with family dysfunction and many other difficulties little children should not have to bear. You mainly have to give them your time and love them.
Sure teaching small children can be messy: There’s the odd overflow sneeze, a vomit on a teacher’s shoe (or worse), a small puddle of urine left on a child-sized chair, cuts and grazes you have to repair, while also consoling a weeping child.
Sure, kids can be needy: there’s a kid you have to (surreptitiously) buy a pair of shoes for or a child for whom you have to make lunch – or share yours. So many other ‘chores’ apart from the actual JOB of teaching.
 
 It’s a long time since I retired from teaching but I was almost at the same point as Gabbie found herself when I did.
WHY, oh WHY is teaching a topic that produces ‘know-all’ politicians and bureaucrats who think they have all the answers? (Answers to non-existent questions, usually!)
And who think it’s time for education change and assessment?
 
All the testing and assessing in the world won’t help children learn. It may even hamper the best learning. It certainly has the ability to make kids dislike school!
 
 Yes, sure, I know that there are teachers out there who enjoy the testing and the annotating of ‘results’. I know because I have seen them and heard them.
I was instructed to attend a refresher workshop when I returned briefly to be a relief teacher. I was one of quite a few older part-time teachers in attendance. I estimated that, between us, we must have successfully taught thousands of little kids. During the seminar, we were lectured by two very young ‘advisors’ who referred to their (albeit brief) time as teachers as when they had been ‘classroom practitioners’. FFS!
When did teachers turn into facilitators called ‘classroom practitioners’?
 
Please can we go back to the days where dedicated teachers all loved their jobs, loved the children in their care and did not have to spend valuable hours and days on marking, assessing, recording and TESTING the kids? There is SO much to enjoy when you are a teacher. It can be bloody hard work and you often feel totally drained at the end of the day, but it can also deliver wonderful feelings of happy achievement, especially when you have a room full of happy accomplished children sharing your day.
 
How about we get rid of those stupid (and impersonal) ‘interactive white-boards’ (activated from teacher’s laptop!) and return to lots of teacher/children face-to-face interaction. No need to return all the way back to blackboards (although I have to say, I think that would be GREAT!)
Get rid of  iPads for small children and give them paper, books, crayons, and counting blocks. (Eek! Shock, horror).
 
Sing a lot!
Play learning games in the classrooms, read hundreds of books and have fun.
 
Keep singing and having fun as learning progresses. When Year Three is reached, don’t worry about teaching to a TEST that is supposedly necessary for (good!) NAPLAN results.
WHY does the world have to know the students’ ratings and a school’s rating? Does it really achieve anything apart from stressing out both teachers and students?
 
 I know there are still many, many happy and dedicated teachers willingly working hard every day but I still weep for today’s schools and the unrealistic demands placed on them.
I weep for the teachers and children.
 
Everyone should read Gabbie Stroud’s* book.
Especially those who denigrate the work teachers do!
 
* ‘Teacher, One Woman’s struggle to keep the heart in teaching’, Gabbie Stroud,
(Allen & Unwin)

 
So sorry to start off the year with a whinge, BUT, lately there’s something about inequality that ‘sticks in my craw’.
Is inequality getting worse? Or am I imagining it?
Facts tell us that (world-wide) the rich are getting richer.
 
According to Oxfam, the world’s EIGHT richest people possess the same amount of $$$ as the poorest HALF of the world!
Hard to comprehend?
 
I recently came across a book, “Battlers & Billionaires, The story of inequality in Australia”, written by Dr Andrew Leigh (an Australian politician and former professor of economics at the Australian National University).
In this book he gives insights into inequalities of national significance.
 
I found this particular observation from Dr Leigh astounding:
 
‘…imagine a ladder on which each rung represents a million dollars of wealth. Now imagine Australian population spread out along this ladder, with distance from the ground reflecting household wealth.
On this ladder, most of us are just a few centimetres off the ground. Half of all households are closer to the ground than they are to the first rung. The typical Australian household has a wealth of about half a million dollars, placing it halfway to the first rung. A household in the top 10 percent is one and a half rungs up, at about knee height.
A household in the top 1 percent is five rungs up, about neck level.
The mining billionaire Gina Rinehart is nearly ten kilometres off the ground’
 
This is an example of extreme inequality!  And I have to wonder, how much hard work did this person do to ‘earn’ such wealth?
Re-read it, because its extraordinariness can make it difficult to comprehend.
 
Admittedly there are not many as grotesquely wealthy as Gina Rinehart, but as I continue to read this book, my attitude to inequality only deepens and I wonder what is happening in today’s world where money is king -  but only available to those already advantaged.
Whatever happened to sharing?
 
The Australian government’s newest ‘shouted out’ tax cuts, that are supposedly to help ALL of us, result in giving 62% of benefits to the TOP 20% ‘earners’ and approximately only 1% to the bottom ‘earners’.
Looks like inequality to me!
 
Remembering that lower earning workers always SPEND all their money (pay) as a case of necessity, whereas the top earners can either stockpile (save) their benefits or indulge in ‘impulse buying’ –  an activity generally denied the lower earners. To give lower earners more disposable cash seems like a helpful aid to the economy. But perhaps I’m being naïve – ignorant, even.
 
Whatever is happening when the ordinary person who works hard at his or her job is bypassed by those who only consider rewarding themselves or their likewise big league mates?

I fear for a country (world, even) that will be divided in two; the HAVES and the have-nots; an unfairness, where selfishness and the worship of money risks eliminating all decency and empathy.
 
The ‘Lucky Country’ indeed.
 
P.S.:
‘A nation will not survive, morally or economically, when so few have so much, while so many have so little’
(Bernie Sanders).