The DVs

Some local Malaysians, including my Malaysian friend,  refer to the covered over Muslim women as DVs, Darth Vaders.

I've made no bones about my dislike of people who cover their faces. Human connections rely on seeing faces, and to cover faces diminishes communication.

Whether Muslim women are forced to do this, I think the jury is out. Some will be, some won't be, and some will feel pressure. In Malaysia at our hotel breakfast buffet, we saw some in the full black garb, with faces covers and gauze over the eye slits. They had to lift the black flap in front of their faces to eat, and it looked very awkward. 

But I won't discriminate. I dislike all overt religious behaviour. Most of the US MAGA are probably Christians who attend church every Sunday. 

There are number of Australian women with children who have been trapped in the Middle East for years. They were married to Middle Eastern terrorists and willingly went to the Middle East to support their husbands who were committing terrorist acts. 

Well, they have finally found passage back to Australia and will be allowed in as they are citizens or permanent residents of Australia. Yet, they went to the Middle East to support extremist fighters who were members of prohibited organisation,  that was against everything Australia stands for.

They are Australian citizens and must be let in, and I hate that but respect their right. Their children may well go into care to be deradicalised, and perhaps the women themselves. Some will be arrested at the airport for possible criminal actions. I can hear their pleas now, my husband forced me, I had to support my husband. 

They had a gold standard of being an citizen of Australia and went off to fight for a Middle Eastern terrorist organisation, and now return to the comfort of Australia and will receive good medical care at no cost, receive social security payments, child benefit allowances etc etc. I say, fuck 'em all. 

Photo of the scary from The Age.

Docklands, Cocklands or Divorcelands

The latter reference in the title directed towards men who recently divorce and move to Docklands to live a wild life.

London has a Docklands area, and it it is a huge development of high rise buildings a little blended with historic areas. There are so many waterways, to a foreigner, it is very confusing. I really don't know if the development of the London's old docks area has been judged as successful. Fun60?

Melbourne's docklands area redevelopment to high rise apartment blocks has not been judged as successful. The areas was taken from City of Melbourne to the Docklands Development Authority, and if the authority tried to do a bad job of its task, it succeeded. 

No matter what money, festivals, fireworks and community celebrations have been thrown at it, as a great place to live and visit, it has been a failure. 

The Docklands area is a soulless and a barren windswept area full of high rise towers but little street activity.

Where I live, a street full of apartment buildings and office blocks, there is constant activity on the street. I remember stepping outside a few years ago on a warm summer night at about 9pm and I could not believe the number of people out and about. 

The development of Docklands happened under the then Premier Jeff Kennett, just another, white, male, born to rule, rich politician c***. I tire of them, both conservative and Labor. 

Lol about Soho and Notting Hill. I think Professor Burke might have it right. 

Former premier Jeff Kennett once described Docklands as a rare species of plant that takes a while to bloom. Demographers predicted it would become Melbourne’s Soho or Notting Hill, a waterfront spectacular and an urban oasis.

Swinburne University housing researcher Professor Terry Burke made a more stinging assessment in 2006: “They should blow it up and start again.”

The good Christians of south eastern US

Melbourne's Burke Road stretches from Caulfield to Ivanhoe, and in the 1970s our then Prime Minister called it the longest street of bible bashing bastards in Australia. No one in the road voted for him, so he had nothing to lose by the statement. 

Step forward to the mid 2020s and many huge houses that contained a family have been demolished for pairs of upmarket townhouses, containing a downsizing elderly couple, widow or widower. This has done nothing for the shortage of housing in our country. 

While I doubt there are too many are church goers now, the residents are still wealthy and will still vote for the conservative party. It's all about the share market and their tax beneficial self managed superannuation funds.  

But for the better, the good burghers of Burke Road would have possibly supported gay marriage, are probably not anti abortion, and truth be told, many would have a social conscience, and like to see their taxes helping the less fortunate in life.

Ok, I am comparing apples to oranges, I think. But could the US bible belt with its social attitudes move on as the demographic residents of Burke Road did?

Could I add to this map the anti abortion protesters too? Is there anything else US citizens could add to this MAGA stronghold? Is this the area of Hillary's 'basket of deplorables'? 

Apologies if I stole this from you, and to whoever you stole it from.

Bits

I visited the car repair shop today. Photos were taken and I will be called with a quote for repair. The business was personally recommended to me by two different people. Because I live in the inner city, I know the price will be higher than if I was in outer suburb. 

An electric notice went up in the lift, wishing all a Happy Labor Day, or is Labour Day? I didn't see how the lift lighting killed the photo, but I can assure you, the top says Labor and the bottom says Labour. Australia has a bob each way with this. Our Labor Party represents the labour movement, for workers rights and care for the less fortunate in society. Most good public policies such as our public health system, decent conditions for workers and social security has come from the Labor Party.

Our misnamed Liberal Party is socially very conservative, anti worker, anti union, anti gay, anti trans pro big business profits and eff the less the fortunate in society. Historically it is pro immigration of labourers to work for peanuts and break down Australian workers' rights. 

Ah well, off on a tangent I went. The Labor Party  has used the spelling since the early 20th century, in a time when both spellings were acceptable. There was some influence from American unions at the time, but I put the alternative spelling down to be wanting to seem progressive with the new world of the Americas, rather than old Mother Britain.

I've just checked and the public holiday is spelt Labour Day. 

Bone Doctor, sister's wife, will arrive here at 11.30 tonight from Queensland where she attended the funeral of her 101 year old grandmother. I will be asleep and I meant to leave a dram of scotch in the bottle to help her sleep after such a big day. Alas, I finished the bottle. There's some port on the drinks trolley, and one medium strength beer in the fridge. We'll probably have breakfast out in the morning. 

Phyllis is working a cleaning job. The job is not bad, but a long way away and the dust is affecting him. He is wearing a mask now. Today the first job was to clean a massive modern two storey house in the outer northern suburbs and the team called the boss. It was in such a disgusting and cluttered state, they could not do the job, and it wasn't.

Sunday was lovely, with a birthday party for Oldest Great Niece who has turned twelve. So Fun60, your granddaughter must be 12 too. Or do I have the terribly wrong. 

Much sympathy to River whose cat Lola has died.

A snip of an exchange between me and neighbour HH.

Hi H. Is it just me? Two consecutive weeks of aggressive looking white football players in the lift display, and this week a very aggressive photo display of Jimmy Barnes who is performing in Melbourne. Do residents want to see photos of aggressive looking men in the lift? Maybe it is just me.

She replied and had not really noticed what I observed, but she understood my point. I remember this from the time many years ago.

Your thoughts remind me of some years ago when I had to make an official complaint about men travelling in the lift from the pool without tops on, I didn’t want to see that either.

I replied, 

I appreciate your point about topless men in the lift, but I rather liked seeing them 😛

She replied with hands over eyes emoji. 

It's raining, a nice soft steady rain, not like the floods in northern Australia. As we southern Australians always say, 'we need the rain'.        

Sadness

Sometimes a public death really gets to me, as has this one. It is rare that anything like this happens but once is still too often. 

Aidan Becker was an off duty security guard who intervened when a 14 year old lad was being attacked by four young males at a train station.

Aiden walked the boy away but it is alleged that the gang of four followed and attacked Aiden with knives and simply stabbed him to death. 

A good guy killed after helping someone who was being attacked. That really is fucking shit.

Dear Aidan, your wonderful character dictated your actions and there is no more to be said. May the full weight of the law be imposed upon your murderers. 

Not very princely

You will have all seen the photo of Andy Mountbatten slumped in the rear of the police car. Andy is no longer a  prince, and instead of being prince like, sitting up straight and looking straight ahead, he thought he could outsmart the best paparazzi in the world, providing great grist to the media mill worldwide. It just proves what a tosser he is. 

One commentator said he was the first royal to be involved with police since the Princess Anne dog biting incident. I seem to remember Princess Anne being intercepted by police for speeding in her younger years, let alone Prince Phillip's car crash where he was at fault, and stripped of his driving licence.

I made a comment on someone's blog that I had a rethink about and concluded I was wrong. My thinking was maybe Andy Mountbatten might be caught out by providing information to foreign sources. Kind of like Al Capone was caught out by the US tax department. He went to gaol, but not for many other crimes he committed. If Andy Mountbatten goes befores courts and receives a conviction for some corruption issues, does it matter if he is convicted and serves gaol time, just not for the other crimes he might have committed, with the suggestions those could be trafficked and underage women.

I conclude it matters big time. From US #47 to Andy Mountbatten, and all those others who took advantage of Epstein's and Maxwell's 'hospitality', investigate them and charge them with crimes they have committed, starting with #47 but don't leave Mountbatten out. 

In other news, I gave Kosov a driving lesson today, and he drove on big roads and busy roads and while there is a long way to go, he didn't do too badly.

Phyllis was emptying the dishwasher and broke my port decanter. At least is wasn't my Waterford crystal sherry decanter. He was so upset and sorry, and I was pleased that he took on total fault at his carelessness and did not try to blame anyone or anything else. We'll find a new decanter in a charity shop, or I'll just guzzle from the bottle.

He also repainted my fingernail, so that it looks nice for when Ray's nephew and wife arrive next week. Two coats of quick drying polish, with a slow drying protecting kind of coat on top. That with my pedicure today makes me feel rather good. 

 

The dollars and the pence

No one wants their house to burn, and I do feel sorry for the family, but...,

the fire was started in the two storey house by an electric go-cart. Now I am making assumptions but if you can afford a two storey house in Eltham, to breed five children and afford an electric go-kart, you can probably afford home insurance in case of fire, yet they did not have such cover. Naturally a gofundme has been set up.

At my great niece's birthday weekend before last, there were quite a few families who came along and bought their lunches and for their children. From my observations, it would have cost a couple with three children north of $150, drinks included, say a jug of Coke. My two gin and tonics cost $26, and my meal $32. It is a nice venue and the service was good, but it wasn't cheap. 

With a friend whose birthday it was, we had coffee and cake and the total cost was nigh on $40, just in a cafe. 

I'm not crying poor but as people moan on about the cost of living, there doesn't seem much of a sign of it affecting their spending. 

While I'm on about money, just over 60 years ago Australia switched from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. This clip to educate us about dollars and cents was released by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Sunday Extra

It pleased me to see today that Jacinta Allan, the Premier of the State of Victoria, today participated, along with a couple of her ministers, in the gay Pride March. There is what appears genuine joie de vivre in the photo and I'm reminded of wonderful photos of former Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau marching in a gay pride march. Premier Allan is in pink. The words weren't spoken but uploaded to her socials. Photo from Star Observer.

Pride is about being able to live your life openly. Loving who you love. Being who you are - without fear or apology. It began because too many Victorians were denied that freedom. Because dignity had to be fought for. Today, we march with pride - and with purpose. And if hatred is finding a new voice elsewhere, it will never find a home here.  

To anyone who has been made to feel different just because of who you are: you will always belong in our Victoria. 

Slapping the missus and breast cancer

Written some time in 2024.

A random statistic I heard, one in seven Australian women will have breast cancer. Yes, even within the small circle I move in, I've known a number. In spite of much better treatments and results now, it is still a hell on earth treatment. And I complain about a three centimetre incision.

Unrelated:

Hey mate, how was your night?

Not great man. Things weren't good at home. I fucked up and gave the missus a rough time. 

What, you gave her a slap? 

Yeah, a bit more than a slap. 

Maaaate, you can't be doing that. You've got to get some self control.

Yeah, I know, but she deliberately pushes my buttons and then starts nagging. I have a couple of beers and I get so angry. She really provokes me, like she does it deliberately. 

Maaaayyyte, you are fucked in the head. You need to talk to someone, a professional, or at least one of those help lines. 

Yeah, I know. I hate myself for it, but I just can't help it.

Rinse and repeat, and in which country in the world does this not happen in some form. 

Metric Madness

Written 08/25

I think it was in the 1970s when Australia became metric, and everything became metric. There was no wishy washiness of showing the old and the new. No, this is metric, this is how it is. You learn it, and we did, because we had to. For some, no doubt they had to make mental conversions, but younger people such as I was, quickly picked up the new system.

A bad moment for me was when we were driving in England, looking for a turn off I saw a sign with the name and 200 yards ahead. I know a yard is a bit less than a metre, but my brain would not instantly calculate the distance to being not very far ahead. England is half metricated. 

Dollars and Personal

When governments, or even private developers, used to talk about the cost of projects, they once, and it seems like just a few years ago, spoke of millions of dollars or hundreds of million dollars. Nowadays such projects are spoken of in billions of dollars, and I think we are now conditioned to hearing billions of dollars and no long gasp for air in shock.

But what is a billion dollars? Billions was an unimaginable amount to me as a child and teeenager. Apart from the obvious that it was a massive amount of money back then, the definition changed. 

When I was young, a billion dollars was a million million dollars. Unknown to me, Australia changed to the US billion dollar definition, a thousand million dollars. I think I discovered that in the eighties. The world followed the new definition but there wasn't a date announced for the change. It was a slow dawning. 

I can't put a photo of a billion dollars laid out with notes, more is the pity if it was mine, but can I write one billion dollars in numerals (I just amused myself by accidently typing numberals). 

One million is $1,000,000. One billion is just an extra zero? $10,000,000? No, that is ten million. One hundred million, two zeros. $100,000,000. One hundred million equals one billion. That must be correct. I is a maths genius. 

What a boring post. I continue to be surprised at how long it takes to get from street level to the platforms of our new Metro Tunnel train. I had plenty of time today at Town Hall Station today after getting my hair cut, with an un asked for eyebrow trim, but after holding a lift for a woman, her two young children and their dog, and again gesticulating to her for the lift to travel to the platform from the concourse, I just missed my train, and so did they. She spoke Spanish to her children and her dog, and was carrying a crudely drawn Aboriginal flag on a piece of cardboard. Spanish speaking woman had been supporting Aboriginal rights and indoctrinating her children. I liked her. I went back to the street to what I could see. With another plug for our ABC TV, and the government of NSW, what a terrific music concert from Sydney Harbour, as I am about to hit publish. 

The pro white Australia march had broken up earlier as I observed in Elizabeth Street, carrying their flags wrapped around their sticks, trying to hide their symbols of white power. I stared into a number of eyes, in a stupid attempt to get understanding. They all had dead and unseeing eyes, staring straight ahead. 

With another plug for our ABC TV, and the government of NSW, what a terrific music concert from Sydney Harbour, as I am about to hit publish. 

Today I must go out in 43/110 degree heat for a medical appointment. The obvious is to catch a a tram, but there is no guarantee of one with aircon. I will drive, after calling reception to get the car park access code.

A very happy divisive day

Happy Australia Day, and as is my wont most years, also happy Indian Republic Day. Thankfully the overt jingoism that occured in Australia for several years seems to have toned down since Covid lockdowns. The genuine celebrations of our country's achievements and what it is to be Australian are wonderful, but protests become louder. I've long thought the date should change to reduce friction.

It's not such a happy Invasion Day for Australia's indigenous population.

The new ABC tv programme Always Was Tonight is quite challenging satire to watch, and it's been a while since the ABC has made anything that upsets conservative types. 

Those usual types are on the warpath, aided and abetted by the the conservative Murdoch media, The Australian and Daily Mail.  

The white head coverings in this clip are called spit hoods, and I don't necessarily agree with not using them. Staff who work in these places don't deserve to be spat upon, unless their own behaviour has been bad.

Scandals

It is remarkable how similar the English Post Office scandal is to our own Robodebt scandal.

I've just watched the first of a series of a tv programme The People versus Robodebt. It is probably geoblocked if you are a foreign type. As I understand it our social welfare government department, Centrelink, took payment beneficiary information from the tax department of annual income, whereas Centrelink payments are based on fortnightly income. 

In both situations, it soon became apparent that there were issues. The Murdoch media in both England and Australia both ignored it, both supporters of the conservative governments of the time. It was left to other media to tell the story in Australia, as pure logical information came spewing out. Yet, no one acted. The government buried its head in the sand, only occasionally popping up to say welfare cheating was wrong and it was committed to stop it.

Some media kept fighting, along with advocates for social security recipients, legal people, and those within the system, who would bob their heads up, to have them quickly cut down by their seniors.

Even now with hindsight, like the Post Office scandal, it is hard to understand how long it went on when it was clearly wrong. In both cases, there were suicides by some of those affected. Houses were lost, marriages and partnerships broke. 

I am angry that I didn't do more. I am angry that our media didn't do more. I am angry that our common garden variety politicians didn't act. I am most of all angry with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government. 

And in another parallel, no one has had their head chopped off, and someone's damned well should have been severely punished, in both cases. 

Let's see what happens with extraordinary Grenfell Tower inquiry, still ongoing eight years after 70 odd people died in the fire, in one of the most important and richest cities in the world, one that couldn't provide people with basic building fire protection. 

Thursday Thoughts

No matter how much many despise MAGA, what it stands for and what it preaches, no one should be killed for their political views, and they are entitled to voice their opinions in public, as long as it isn't hate speech.

From what I can understand the victim, one Charlie Kirk, was a preacher of hate speech. As he was shot, he was talking about transgender people being guilty of more mass shootings than??? I know this 'fact' has been well and truly debunked. So, I suggest he was talking hate speech. That of course doesn't make him in any way a target for murder.

It disturbs me that such a preacher of hate is allowed to speak on university campuses, and if he holds strong MAGA views, that automatically makes him a chronic liar and distorter of the truth.

What further disturbed me was that a man in the crowd who was interviewed by media, had brought along his three year old daughter to hear lies and hate. I think MAGA and #47 are so bad, letting children hear the vitriol they spout, it is a form of child abuse. 

What is obviously happening in the US is not democracy at work but an extreme abuse of power. The country has turned into one where political differences can no longer be ignored to keep society polite and workable, but of two different sides venomously hating each other. I think this began with #45's presidency, exacerbated by Covid and the planted doubt about the result of the 2021 election leading to criminal behaviour as the White House was attacked. 

Murder is wrong, but don't expect me to shed any tears over Kirk's death. 

A wee rant

There are a number of YouTube clips showing Trump voting Americans in great distress as his policies come into force. Once clip I saw showed a Trump voting woman in tears and praying, and asking for prayers, because the father of children and his mother were being deported to Venezuela by ICE. 

Another farmer of a large agricultural property said her farming staff had all disappeared and were not coming to work in fear of ICE, and deportation. She thinks her farm will go into bankruptcy, yet she voted for Trump.

There are clips of an almost empty Las Vegas. Canadians are not visiting Florida, and are selling their properties there, getting rid of US timeshares, as one blogmate has done.

There are clips about Canada withholding super phosphate from the US, that is its farmers. While I disapprove of Canada PM's backing down over payments for digital technology, apparently Canada has been working hard to diversify its economy, reaching out and into the rest of the world. What ever the **** rare earth magnets are, they are essential in this modern world and China, being the major supplier,  has stopped exporting them to the US.

Some of these clips show a sense of glee about how the US is seemingly collapsing. 

Very reputable news sites, including conservative organisations, are calling out #47's ridiculous claims of how well the US economy is travelling. 

Whatever the truth, I too feel glee about Trump supporters suffering, and those who may have voted Democrat, if they got off their arses and actually voted.

But for all of you who voted Democrat, and as is said after school gun shootings, you are in my thoughts and prayers. 

Seriously, you decent US citizens have my empathy and sympathy, and I'm not judging you by what #47 and his henchfolk are doing.   

A Melbourne Melee

In the English speaking world, there are troubles. The US is a nightmare. Canada and the UK both have their far right issues, and we in Australia cannot take a holier than thou attitude. We have our own issues.

Sunday past in Melbourne, anti immigration protesters gathered in our city streets, joined by white supremacists, anti vaxxers, sovereign citizens and nazi sympathisers, all fervently waving Australian flags and crying out the most original chant they could think of, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.They need advice from English football teams about chants.

They clashed with anti right wing protestors, whose number was soon bolstered by the usual pro Palestinian marchers. Now there is a coalition to do any Jewish person's head in.

I was travelling to Prahran by tram last week when someone with a mental illness boarded and started ranting about Asian immigration. Of course there were Asian people on the tram, and two very close by to the mouse of a man. I just wished I was younger and fitter and said something to him, and be able to defend myself if he attacked me. He left the tram.

I left the tram at the next stop as did the two young Asian females. I smiled at them, pulled a face and gesticulated towards my head, indicating crazy, and then offered them my upturned hand. That might sound weird, but it worked. They smiled at me and nodded with understanding.

Sunday after returning from the west end of town, I dared not go to the centre or east where the fracas was happening, at South Yarra Station I walked towards the door to the front of me to be closer to station ramp, as did a young couple. There were two older white women with Australian flags draped across their knees, clearly having left the protest to go home for a Bex and a lie down after their exertions. The man said to the woman, 'Something smells really bad in this carriage', and their heads spun around to the women with the flags. I didn't initially understand, and turned to see what they were looking at. I just said 'Yeah'. 

The numbers of immigrants and where they come from should be an open debate in Australia but these pro white Australia supporters add no value to any kind of debate and cause hurt to people.

Later: It became a whole lot worse the next day when it came to light that neo Nazis had attacked the  original inhabitants at a culturally significant meeting place in the Kings Domain. 

Is there anything funny in this? Maybe. As the 'pro white Australians' broke up, they headed off for  banh mi, a curry, or a kebab or maybe even an HSP, a Halal Snack Pack. They may have then caught a train, bus or tram home, driven by a 'brown' immigrant, or caught an Uber, also driven by a 'brown immigrant'. Maybe they waited until they reached home, too exhausted to cook after their anti immigration protests, so ordered in food, cooked and delivered by two different 'brown' people.

There is much good to be said about Australia, but I am not feeling it after the weekend past.  

Quiz Fail and Win

Not smugly, no not at all, I was too young to really know The Beatles. I did buy Paul McCartney's Wings album, but that was my only love of The Beatles. Of course everyone knows some Beatles music. My Beatle ignorance was reflected my zero score in this week's  YP's quiz. A couple of quizzes before, I scored 7/10 in his Famous Women quiz. 

Last week I bragged to my Dead in Bed Neighbour when I messaged her, that for the first time I scored 10/10 for The Age newspaper Victorian topical quiz. There are four options in the drop down boxes. The answer to the question about Bright was a plausible guess. 

Still with The Age, each week since the quiz' inception I have participated in its weekly opinion poll. There is some kind of prize, valued at around $100 as I remember, but I've never won it. 

The poll is not general opinion, because readers of The Age are more educated than the general populace, more socially progressive, wealthier, and have a general care about society. They are less religious, but that's from a fairly low base anyway. They are older and feel the threat of street crime. Mostly there is no question to ask myself when answering, but at times there a 'but?'. 

I voted with the majority in every question in these polls, but I wanted to qualify my answer about YouTube being available to kids, because parents or carers can already restrict children to only watching YouTube for Kids. Had that been mentioned, I would have changed my answer. 

The cults within

I learnt this evening from a friend who I dined with that Pancake Parlour is a Scientology business, its founders all being of the faith.

I already knew that the happy clappers, the born agains, the Hillsong Church, is behind the coffee shop chain, Gloria Jean. Who would drink their crap coffee anyway? 

The Plymouth Brethrens is no more than oppressive cult, dressed up as religion.  

Yet, our government judges them as proper religions, as they receive tax exemptions etc. 

Will such benefits be handed out to Sovereign Citizens?  It is another cult, made up of people who don't believe in the organisation of modern society, and don't recognise the laws of Australia, nor its governments. It is odd that the word sovereign is used, since they clearly don't swear allegiance to our king.

The organisation's views are extreme, with a couple of police officers being killed a few years ago by a 'sovereign citizen', and now close to home, two more cops have sadly been allegedly killed by a 'sovereign', the murderer as I write, not yet being caught.  

In both cases, the police were doing their duties. It is just too awful. Ingrid, note, one of the police killed was Belgian born. Cops are not perfect, as older and more recent media shows. But generally they do a very difficult job, mostly quite well.  

It seems that for police to safely deal with these sovereign state nutters, is they need to go in with all guns blazing, in a metaphorical sense, or maybe not metaphorical.

My life experience has taught me to have little respect for 'organised' religion, but they are now mild compared to those I've mentioned above. Should I connect the cult religions to those sovereign state types? For sure I should. They are all fucking nutters. 

Just focus on building a better society. 

Later edit: Hels has written some detail and background about the Sovereign Citizen movement.

Sunday Extra

Australians are protesting: 

More than 100,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Local protest organisers estimate 25,000 people gathered in Melbourne, marching through the CBD before their demonstration concluded at the King Street Bridge, which was blocked by a heavy police presence.

While I do think Palestinians should have their own country, Hamas and its supporters are no friend to people like me. They were no friend of innocent people in Israel. Hamas took hostages and actively or by neglect, killed many. But the disgraceful and horrible actions of Hamas has paled into insignificance, compared to the response of Israel. 

Yep, if the media shows starving and dying children, you have lost the public opinion war. 

I am not pro Palestine or pro Israel. I just don't want to see people starving to death, or dying because of a lack of medical treatment. I don't want to see doctors, nurses and patients bombed and killed. 

I really don't think Israel can take a high moral stance as the situation presents itself 

Two Sundays ago I was sipping coffee in Swanston Street, Melbourne. It was the usual Sunday pro Palestine march passing by, that disrupts our trams. I hate it. The disruptions make visiting the city difficult. 

But what I did notice among the procession of protesters was quite a number of older grey haired white women. When they start marching, and the Doctors Wives start saying things about starving children to their husbands, Houston and Jerusalem, you have a problem.

Never stop complaining

I heard it on the radio, so it must be true.

Not so. A public figure made a statement on radio that I instinctively knew was wrong. I immediately sent a detailed message to the radio station pointing this out, but after he had left the studio. The station called me and asked if I would like to go to air to speak about what I had I messaged. I declined. I am not a great speaker and I would have needed time to think. I checked a couple of websites and I was right, the public figure wrong. 

There was some doubt on the radio about the validity of what the public figure had said, but the broadcaster has more important things to focus on than small detail.

Let me tell you, I was cross as patch. The station dropped the matter and I stewed on it for a couple of days. The public figure is an ok guy, and has similar political views to myself, but that makes it worse. It is harder to hate and attack someone on your political side.

It became too much and I sent him an email. I know some of you will have guessed who I am talking about, too bad. Here are some excerpts from my email and his response, which I was quite surprised to receive. I consider his response was very decent and honest. There was a bit more that I am not displaying. So people, when public figures get it wrong, call them out. Just maybe not #47, who is immune to criticism. Misspoke in his response is as good as a mea culpa you will normally receive from a public figure. 

Me: 

I am very disappointed at your spruiking of misinformation about the closure of Bourke Street to trams on the 8th of August. You clearly stated the reason for the closure was for Yarra Trams works in Bourke Street, when it has become clear that the closure is for the opening of Mecca. 

It is very odd that Myer window Christmas crowds of a hundred people or more can safely be in Bourke Street with trams running, yet the opening of a shop needs to have trams stopped. If there is disruption to Bourke Street trams, they are normally rerouted to Latrobe Street. This may well cost Yarra Trams but if it happens for an event, I expect Yarra Trams wants compensation, and it seems obvious that Mecca was not prepared to pay.

The whole matter stinks...

Response:

I’m really sorry for the disappointment caused by my earlier communication regarding the Bourke Street tram closure. My intention was never to mislead or obscure the facts. I was just back from leave and invited to discuss the Mecca opening.

At the time, I was not across the detail on tram disruption and misspoke.

and when commercial interests appear to influence decisions that affect many. Your point about past events (like the Myer Christmas windows) proceeding without tram closures is a fair one, and raises valid questions.

Thank you again for holding me to account. I value thoughtful, constructive criticism like yours, and I’ll aim to do better in future.