Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for April, 2009
Christian the Lion. The little video that brought us together.
23 April 2009
It was nothing really. A video of two Aussie guys meeting up again with a pet that they had given up a year before.
The pet was a lion, and the reunion was in an African wildlife park. The lion (Christian) saw the two guys from across the veld and reacted in the most beautiful manner, sparking up and racing to them, leaping, frolicking, licking and wrestling. It was a joyful moment, both for the two Aussies, Christian, and for us.
Oprah is supposed to have said that when she wakes she plays the video, just to cheer her for the day. Certainly the video is a multi-million viwer on Youtube.
Which only goes to prove that people might be interested in bad news, but what they crave is great news. We want the joyful. We love to see the good.
More than that. We love to share these stories with others. Like with the Christian the Lion or with Susan Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent. Or Paul Potts from the same show. We emailed or facebooked each other with links to these Youtube videos. I remember with Susan Boyle, I couldn’t wait to tell a musical theatre friend of mine about it, but alas he’d already seen it, and we gabbed on about Susan on the phone for a while, feeling ecstatic for this unlikely stage and ethernet star. Damn it, I felt proud of her. We both did. It was a magic couple of minutes.
Who says that we are a bunch of loners only interested in doom and gloom? Paul, Susan and a lion called Christian prove otherwise.
– Phil
The Recession that had to happen.
22 April 2009
It’s not officially official in the official kind, but take it from the Reserve Bank governer that Australia is in a recession.
Yes, the Reserve Bank governor broke us the news, not the prime minister.
One thing’s sure about the announcement of a recession, politicians don’t want to be the first ones to make the call. Here in Australia we remember the then-Treasurer Paul Keating announcing that the country was in recession in 1987, saying infamously that this was the recession that we ha had to have. By that he meant that the economy had been over-boiling and needed to be cooled. This was probably the only time in history that economists rejoiced in a downturn. Unfortunately, Keating’s words were a disaster for the thousands of people who were about to lose their jobs in that recession that we had to have. These people never understood why they had to lose their livelihoods. The words also haunted Keating until the end of his political life. Those words made Keating the most reviled politician in this country’s history. He did become prime minister, and actually won an election, but the public grudge was always there.
All because he said we had the recession that we had to have.
Kevin Rudd has been spared from being the prime minister who had to break the bad news.
Of course there has never been any doubt that Australia was headed into recession. The question now is how long will we stay there. Most economists agree Australia is in a good position, but in this free trade and global business environment, there was no way we were going to be a booming island in the midst of world financial gloom.
One thing’s for sure, when the recession finishes here, it’ll be the prime minister who’ll tell us.
– Phil
Asylum Seekers. Maybe the fear is receding.
21 April 2009
You don’t need me to tell you that the issue of asylum seekers has always brought out the best and worst of Australian people.
9/11 seemed to give nutrition to the fear that terrorists were among people seeking asylum in Australia. No amount of logical discussion could dislodge this view. I had discussions with otherwise worldly people who would not move from their view that terrorists were getting on leaky and dangerous Indonesian boats with the intention of launching a terror campaign from the moment they landed in inhospitable desert 1000 kilometres north of nowhere on the west coast of Western Australia.
So afeard were these conspiracy theorists that they voted en masse for the return of the Howard government, believing that the hard-line Pacific Solution for asylum seekers was the only thing standing between Australia and its destruction.
Nearly eight years on, a lot has changed. The Pacific Solution is dead. We have a different government. George Bush is out of office and his War on Terror is only a memory in a White House that is looking to join hands with governments loathed back then.
The biggest change though appears to be in the minds of Australians. A poll taken today in the Australian newspaper indicates that despite an increased arrivals of boats with asylum seekers on board, Australians are virtually fifty-fifty on Kevin Rudd’s liberalisation of refugee policy. The biggest surprise is that, possibly for the first time in Australia’s history, the vast majority of Australians do not believe a tightening of immigration laws would have any effect in reducing asylum seeker numbers.
Australia has always had a fear opf asylum seekers. This dates back to the 1800′s, when Chinese migration was feared, with a fear that then extended to the Greeks, Italians and Vietnamese. In fact the Australian government’s White Australia policy even had a component where potential migrants had to answer questions in any language the migration officer chose. So an Bosnian fleeing Tito in 1955 could be interviewed in Mandarin, and if he or she did not answer in Mandarin, they could be rejected.
Australians are good people. Previous attitudes towards asylum seekers have not been worthy of them.
– Phil
Mark Webber: Almost a Formula One cigar
20 April 2009
Mark Webber has often been called the most talented driver never to win a Formula One GP.
He almost lost that unhappy moniker yesterday by coming very close to winning the Shanghai Formula One race. In fact it was only his Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel who finished ahead of him.
One mustn’t underestimate the significance of this best-ever podium result for Webber. It was pouring with rain. Vettel, who started on pole position, stayed there. It was not the kind of race that would naturally involve a lot of overtaking. It was more of a race that would naturally involve spending most of your time trying to stop your car from spinning off the track.
But that Vettel and Webber managed to keep their cars going around in those conditions is the significant point here. Webber got a reputation, unfairly, as a driver who kept blowing up his cars. The truth was that the cars he drove kept blowing up on him. It didn’t happen this time, and he avoided water slides and debris to get second place.
It’s been a long time coming for Webber, who came excruciatingly close to winning a GP last year, but was hit by another driver, knocking him out of contention. He still hasn’t won a race, but somehow, a best ever finish at age 33 isn’t going to huirt one bit, especially as this race proves that, at last, he’s racing in a team that has the technical capability to win, and win in extreme conditions.
Don’t be surprised if he goes one better before this year is finished.
– Phil
Asylum Seeker boat fracas
17 April 2009
This morning one of our TV channels asked people what they thought about boat people coming to Australia.
It was a tad tasteless, given that one of the boats exploded yesterday off the coast of Western Australia, killing at least three people. In fact the question was posed because of the boat explosion.
It was perhaps predictable that such a call for opinions would bring out all the old prejudice and fear that refugee issues seem to produce from some Australians. There were the usual claims that these people are queue-jumpers. There was even a comment by a British immigrant who said if he could wait for approval to emigrate here, then why can’t these boat people?
The answer should lie in the fact that refugees are people who are fleeing for thie lives. If their stories are genuine, then they have been in danger, with hardly the option of visiting government offices applying for a chance to be accepted in another country. As it is, about 95% of asylum seekers arrive in Australia through our airports, and make application for asylum once they arrive. It really can’t be a surprise that many people who claim to be persecuted don’t have have the option of getting passports and visas, let alone the dosh to be able to afford an airfare for the family.
It could be put down to the era of talkback radio, where people are encouraged to give their opinions on everything. It’s a free society folks, but it couldn’t hurt for people to take pause and be compassionate before taking a whack at the most defenceless people in the world.
– Phil
