Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for April, 2008
A Nightmare in Paradise
16 April 2008
Over the last couple of days I have been in beautiful Queensland on the north east coast of Australia. My wife has been working in Brisbane, so I take a couple of days off every month to go visit.
We get a ferry across to the fabulous North Stradbroke Island and have two days in island paradise.
The nightmare that I refer to in the title of this blog comes from the trip from mainland to island. Not the waves, the sea-sickness, the smell of diesel or the screaming kids in an enclosed space. No, I mean the posters that are on the ship, posters that tell of how we are ruining all manner of endangered species.
The poster tells of a turtle that was found on a beach choking. People being as people are, they ran to help, but the poor little feller couldn’t be saved. The nightmare bit came with the autopsy, which showed that the turtle had swallowed 23 different bits of plastic, rope and other junk that had obviously been floating in the water. The poster showed the junk, which included bottle tops, drinking draws and bags for childrens’ lollies. All stuff that had been allowed to get into waterways.
The imaginoceanproductions.com website shows some of these photos, including a sad one of an old turtle caught in someone’s discarded net:
I don’t know how this makes you feel, but just looking at this picture makes me feel just as bound as that turtle.
The point that comes to my mind is that there must be many turtles that have swallowed gunk, and somehow manage to survive with this stuff in their bellies.
Humans are not cruel. People just are not aware that what they are doing is destructive. On the shore where the boat docked, rubbish bins were full and overflowing. People were trying to do the right thing, but it’s easy to see how rubbish can fly off the top of these piles and into the water. It’s also easy to see how old fishing nets can blow into waterways.
Let’s be aware. If the bin’s full, take the rubbish with you. Use less plastic anyway.
These turtles are old. They probably pre-date the whole plastic craze. They deserve to outlive it.
The Most Delicious People in the Club
15 April 2008
When I see Clement I think of food. He loves it and often makes enough to share with our colleagues from In The Loop (big hint from Brekky Club, Clem). When I see Dure Dara, chef & restauranteur extraordinaire, I also think of food. When both pop by the Breakfast Club just before lunchtime, it’s a triple whammy. My stomach cannot wait for the Club to be over and the rest of the body to get into the ABC cafe for some food.
How can you be any other way after 15 minutes talking about light, fluffy basmati rice laced with spices or succulent eggplant in a light, tangy tamarind sauce? Which is why this blog is short. Gotta chow. Ciao.
- Adelaine
The First…and Last?
14 April 2008
Australia’s pretty excited about its first First Lady at Admiralty House. Quentin Bryce, Queensland’s Governer will become Australia’s first woman Governor General. She’s beautiful, has the elegance of Grace Kelly, smart (former federal sex discrimination commissioner and delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission) and probably wealthy (she’ll earn lots as GG).
It’s a Hip Hip Hurray from Heather Jarvis & myself in the advancement of women’s achievements in a largely male dominated world (Heather will fight you tooth and nail on that one. Me, I’d rather let my husband think I’m the weaker sex so he keeps taking out the garbage and fixing the car).
Kevin Rudd, our Prime Minister, is all smiles knowing this is a great feather in his cap. For how long, is another question. The PM wants Australia to become a republic eventually which means, no Queen and no need for a Governor General in Australia to represent her.
Mind you, he must like her. After all, they have to be neighbours whenever the PM stays at Kiribilli House next door. As Sara Storer says, Long Live the Girl. Or should I say Her Excellency.
~Adelaine
The Land of Weird Priorities
11 April 2008
It’s been a week folks.
The problems of the Olympic Torch relay show that people right across the world do care about human rights abuses. And the fact that the Australian PM was willing to stand by his criticisms of China on the eve of a China visit, displays a moral bravery that is all too often missing in politicians. It’s no surprise that when Kevin Rudd did arrive in China, he was given a dressing down by the Chinese leadership. Just how much of a dressing down we will never know (these things happen behind closed doors, and when the doors are open again, participants are all smiles and handshakes). But yes, it’s reasonable to say that Kevin Rudd would have been a little uncomrtable ain his meetings with China’s leadership.
It is also Youth Week, and revelations are coming that there are far more children living in poverty these days than twenty years ago. Here in Australia child poverty has virtually doubled since the 1980s , even though the population of the society has only increased by a fifth. And this has been a boom economic period here Down Under. It doesn’t add up, and is truly an emergency.
With all this in mind, what has been the preoccupation of the Australian media? Kevin Rudd at a cocktail party. He was standing alone, saw George W. Bush (who he had just held a meeting with a few days before), and gave him a wave:
If you look closely, it does look a bit like an American salute. But it also clearly a bit of fun between two national leaders who are clearly getting on quite well.
The Australian media didn’t see it that way. They bannered that it most definitely WAS a salute, and a sign of subservience.
Err.. guys. It was a wave. A joke. A bit of fun.
There are real stories happoening in the world. People are being mistreated. Children are homeless. People have lost their life savings in investment collapses.
Does a on-the-spot wave really deserve the kind of analysis hitherto reserved for an Arthur Miller play? Really?
The Damned Finest Current Affairs Show
10 April 2008
We at the Breakfast Club have the pleasure of being sandwiched.
We are sandwiched not in the edible sense, but in the programming sense. As we go to air early in the morning (Australian time) we are surrounded by current affairs programs. One of them is Connect Asia, which focusses on stories about the Asian region. If there’s a human rights struggle, a corporate collapse or a political scandal, you can bet the Sen Lam, the host, will be salivating in his enthusiasm to find out the details.
And unlike some other current affairs programs, he doesn’t get his information out of trashy magazines in his dentist’s waiting room. Sen knows half the politicians in the region. His knowledge of the history of Asian countries is encyclopaedic.
So obviously his brain gets full occasionally, and he needs a holiday once in a while.
Hence right now he is at home arranging his curtains.
In his absence we have a number of journalists with equally spiffy CV’s.
Tom Fayle has been around longer than Methuselah, which is no mean feat considering Mr M lived 969 years.
Corinne Podger has worked across the world and in many international news agencies. There is no truth in the rumour that she’s back in Australia because she keeps gettiung deported from places.
Rob Sharp has seen more action that Schwartzenegger in his years as a reporter here in Australia. Actually he looks a bit like Schwartzenegger. He works out, is extremely fit, and denies that he shaves his arms to give them that lustry look.
I dunno. They look pretty lustry to me.
We had to put this photo in. The last photo we showed of Rob (which is in our team photo gallery) showed Rob when he had coloured his hair. That particular photo caused his sister to say that he looked like a skunk.
Now dear sister, you might thiunk that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.
