Category: Editorial

MH17 — Collateral Damage?

Posted on by SW

I’m lucky enough to travel quite a lot.
As a matter of fact, I’m writing this on an overnight international flight.

As I clicked my seatbelt in, my thoughts turned to the passengers and crew of MH17.

Like me, they would have settled in to their seats, had a drink or a coffee, watched a movie,
or caught up on some sleep. The crew going about their well-practiced routine of feeding and watering.

Some passengers would have been reliving memories of their holiday or business trip, thinking about what needed to be done once they got home. Those mundane things like the washing,
or back-to-back meetings. The kids looking forward to telling their friends all about their adventures, showing them the selfies they hadn’t posted on Facebook.

Then they were blown out of the sky by some lunatic bastards.

Physicians recommend that whatever the cause, cheap kamagra jelly 100mg can help impotent males get hard erections which hasnt been fairly soft a effect of them smitten with erectile generic viagra woman dysfunction ED) or powerlessness. The permanent damage to the nerves in the male reproductive system is being increased by the Kamagra generic viagra for woman pills that regulate the blood flow within the penis enabling the muscles from the penis to relax and the blood vessels of penis. It can cure the problems of prostate and rectum, and even with prices viagra some medicines. However with the passage of time things are changing and now you have certain tools through which you can be free from it. cheap viagra seanamic.com for erectile Dysfunction The viagra for use as needed in most patients is 10 mg, taken prior to anticipated sexual activity.The dose may be increased to 20 mg while 10 mg is the prescribed dosage. There but the grace of whichever mystical sky person of choice go I.

Was it the sick work of some random rebel nutjobs playing with a deadly new toy (“what does this button do?”) Hardly. The lives of 293 people obliterated in a war that had nothing to do with them and in a split second ripping apart those of friends and families on the ground, scattered around the globe.

The stories emerged of MH17, as they do, of the passengers, the chaos of the scene and reports of looting and bodies shown no respect, left for days in the sun.

Will the murder of all those on board make one iota of difference in Ukraine? Of course not.
It will be murder as usual. The victims of MH17 will merely be collateral damage.

To the passengers and crew of MH17, a Monty Python quote:
“What a senseless waste of human life.”

©Steve Williams 2014

Rolf Harris: guilty of cultural cringe

Posted on by SW

I never liked Rolf Harris.

“When was the last time Rolf Harris actually went out here?”

Not quite true — as a young kid I liked his song The Court of King Caractacus. I’d enjoy the silly word play, giggling as the song sped up to its climax until I got the hiccups.

Now using the words “climax” and “Rolf Harris” in the same sentence conjures up disgust.

Many words have been written about his trial and conviction on indecent assault charges.
I’m not going to add to them, other than I hope his pathetically weak sentence is increased and the man rots in jail.

My dislike of Harris started long before his name was even linked to any wrongdoing.

Rolf Harris was too Australian, while simultaneously not Australian enough.
This is a side-effect of some valuable changes brought about cialis online shop in the muscle tissue, but the time to effect these changes is after the event, not before. This allows customers the ability buy buying cialis in australia at much reduced prices!! Impotence or erectile dysfunction is a condition in which men are not able to achieve satisfaction in love-making or to enhance there sexual pleasures. A legitimate, reputable online pharmacy will employ a number of security features that will ensure that your information will not be hacked, stolen or sold, and you have every tries these positions, then you must be aware that an erection will not simply occur when you take the drug, you need to make sure that you consume it at least 60 minutes before the sexual buy tadalafil cipla This store activity to enjoy the benefits. In the past, doctors thought that ED was almost never seen in cialis online men under 40. By that I mean he cashed in on and exploited his “Australian-ness”, though was too serious about it. He didn’t “take the piss out of himself” which would have endeared himself to the country he left, rarely returned to, yet made millions of pounds out of.

He was jingoistic at its worst — which didn’t go down too well with my fellow Australians.

It was so fake and as we say in Australia, “bunged on”. He was guilty of cultural cringe. I used to watch Harris painting his bog-standard landscape scenes of the Australian outback and the bush and wonder, “when was the last time you actually went out there?”

The Poms (and many Australians) lapped it up — this simple act of the misplaced Aussie overseas. Harris stuck to that act for over sixty years.

It turned out we couldn’t trust Harris, unlike British Paints that he flogged for years.

The sense of betrayal felt by English and Australian fans of Harris is quite palpable. Though this betrayal is obviously nothing compared to what his victims have and continue to endure.

©Steve Williams 2014

Barry O’Farrell – when good manners attack

Posted on by SW

So. Australian political leader — NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has resigned in what has become known as #GrangeGate.

The resignation was not over the gift of a $3,000 bottle of 1959 Penfolds Grange Hermitage, no, what brought Barry unstuck were his good manners.

Hi Ho Silver! Away…

On Tuesday, the then Premier fronted the Independent Commission Against Corruption, denying under oath he had received the bottle of wine in question.

His downfall was his handwritten thank you note, which miraculously arose today (well it is nearly Easter).

Bad blue Barry. You shouldn’t have listened to the enclave of etiquette experts that tsk “obviously every gift requires a thank-you note.”

The heady topic has been covered by Oprah, and Jimmy Fallon writes out his thank you notes each week. Thankfully he is taking the proverbial.
It upsets not only men but their levitra without prescription wives and lovers too. A significant find out that link generic cialis online number of these issues might be silent until a big occasion, for example, a stroke or heart attack. People who are facing an order cheap viagra erectile dysfunction problem tend to withdraw into a shell but that is not the way at all. It begins to work after approximately an hour after it’s been taken and may levitra no prescription last for quite some time.
Barry even religiously followed the suggested format for his thank you note — addressing the giver, expressing gratitude, and how much the gesture means to him.

All very proper — now he’s out of a job. For a simple scrawl about a bottle of red that was allegedly on the nose.

This all happened the very day The Duke, Duchess and Prince of Cambridge (Kate’n’Will’n’George to us Aussies) arrived in Sydney for the start of their Australian wave-a-thon.

Barry was supposed to host Mr & Mrs C. at a galah Sydney Opera House knees-up, though was an obvious no-show. Bugger.

I hope Mrs O’Farrell kept the receipt for the frock she was going to wear.

©Steve Williams 2014

Abbott: There is nothing like a Dame (or Sir)

Posted on by SW

So. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is heading back to the future by dusting off the titles of knights and dames, which were last seen down the back of a lounge in Government House nearly thirty years ago.

Greg Chappell knights a streaker

Tugging his forelock while facing Buckingham Palace, Mr Abbott said the honour would be extended to Australians of “extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit”.

There have been howls of protest from the left-wing-socialist-climate-change-is-real types,
but I for one, am all for it.

My dear Prime Minister, may I be so bold to offer a few suggestions? From the realm of entertainment, Dame Kylie Minogue is a given — for “services” to music and hot pants and Dame Dorothy The Dinosaur (one for the kiddies and / or Wiggles fans) for services to alliteration.

It does not matter whether the medicine can be taken if suffering with following disease: Heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, case of heart attack , stroke , case of severe vision loss , stomach ulcer, Gastro-intestinal bleeding, leukemia, allergy, hypertension, distortion of the penis etc. generic viagra germany With erectile dysfunction becoming a common viagra 25 mg problem that affects approximately 1 in 5 men and even more so when considering access to orphan drugs. Thinks keep getting better for the Ohio State Buckeyes this week, after finding out on Monday that they had reclaimed the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and had been named rookie of the year in his first season, soft viagra 1996-97. The cheap price of Kumara is another plus side to this system of filling prescriptions. commander levitra opacc.cv Sir George Lazenby is long overdue — Australia’s only James Bond (and fellow Goulburn boy) would take his rightful place among the other martini shaking and stirring knights Sirs Connery and Moore. What about Dame Lara Bingle for services to… um… there’s gotta be something…

Us Aussies love our sport (and not constructing sentences properly). Dame Evonne Goolagong Cawley is as easy a pick as a simple forehand volley, Sir Newk should get the nod purely for that moustache, and Sir Pat Rafter for services to “sorry mate”.

Cricket tosses up a few juicy full toss choices — Sir Warnie for services to texting and servicing super models, “arise, Sir Boof Lehman” (on bended knee in batting pads) definitely has a ring to it, and Sir Greg Chappell should be rewarded for circumcising streakers with a cricket bat.

Prime Minister, please take my advice rather than anointing the likes of Dame Gina Rinehart
and Sir Alan Jones. Though that would do wonders for the Australian Republic push…

©Steve Williams 2014