Throwing stones from the glasshouse

Do you remember where you were the day Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in that car crash with Dodi Al-Fayed in a Paris tunnel in 1997? I remember it clearly. It was a Sunday morning in Australia and I had heard that she was seriously injured in that crash, only to be rung about 4 hours later by a friend to be told ever so bluntly “Diana’s dead!”

Mohammed Al-Fayed, father of Diana’s lover Dodi, remembers all too vividly, and has been obsessed with the event ever since. Today saw the verdict into the 6 month inquest into allegations by Mr. Al-Fayed that the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, had Diana assasinated. It found no evidence for Mr.Al-Fayed’s claims.

Now we all know that the royal family had no time for Diana. We saw in the movie, “The Queen”, how Queen Elizabeth II – played superbly by Dame Helen Mirren – struggled with being human and not royal in such an extraordinary event, and we have also laughed at the bad taste side of it when we heard the joke: “What did the Queen give Sarah Ferguson (Prince Andrew’s then wife) for Christmas? A ticket to Paris and a Mercedes Benz.” But to pursue a line as far fetched as saying that Diana was assassinated by the secret intelligence service (MI6) on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip), is entering the world of obsession, and a failure on Mr. Al-Fayed’s part to ‘let go’.

Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book, “Dead Man Walking”, and a fierce advocate against capital punishment, detailed in an interview once the story of a father whose child was the victim of a brutal killing. The father wanted to watch his child’s killer die, to be executed, and he wanted a front row seat. After it was over, the father complained that the execution was way too quick and that he should have been made to suffer more. Or the case that was closest to her heart; the basis of the book and movie of the same name. She talks of the mother of the girl who was brutally raped and killed:

“ She has lost the personal universe of her child that can never be replaced and she cannot stand the thought that he could be alive. I understand that with her loss that she would say something like that. I personally believe that they could have watched his death a thousand times, but that vacuum and the loss that they have sustained could never be filled by the death of another person.”

Same too with Mr. Al-Fayed. What if they did find in his favour, and say that the Duke of Edinburgh was responsible for the ‘hit’. Would Mr. Al-Fayed be any happier? No. He lost his son; his heir. As a muslim, a son is as dear to a father as mother’s milk is to a baby. He would not have been any more content than he is now. He is in pain, and pain causes us to obsess, to relive, to regurgitate, to live in a state where there is only a brick wall in front of us.

We wonder why victim’s families forgive their children’s killers. They do it because they want to live, to move on, to free their soul. They don’t want to be trapped in that continuous cycle of hatred, depression, loss, and pure grief for the rest of their lives.

Maybe it’s time Mohammed Al-Fayed freed his soul. Enjoy your day.

Those who know me know that I am not into sports. My parents were never into sports so it was just natural that I shared that same disinterest. However, it’s amazing how enthusiastic we become when the Olympic Games come around every 4 years.

We stay up till all hours of the morning watching sports we either never care about, or that we have never even heard of. Staff rooms across the world are all abuzz each morning with questions like “did you see the equestrian events last night? Wasn’t that girl from Iceland amazing” or “Aren’t those rhythmic gymnasts so good?!”

Well, the time for coming to work all bleary eyed from sitting up all night to check on how the Judo is going, is a little while off yet. But I have just read where one of the Australian team’s young swimmers, Eamon Sullivan, has just broken his own world record of 2 days ago! The record keepers barely have enough time these days to record names and check the spelling before they have to hit the delete button and type again!

Australia has had its fair share of legends in the pool. Names like Dawn Fraser, John Konrads, Murray Rose, Shane Gould, Kieren Perkins, Samantha Riley, Ian Thorpe and many others have had their time as greats of the sport. And each year, Australia never ceases to churn out even more talented young water babies who put the previous records to shame.

The rivalries always rear their ugly heads in all sports, but nothing like in swimming. American swimmer Gary Hall Jr., was known to have said that the US team would “smash the Australian swimmers like guitars”, at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. When the US team lost to the Australians, the Australian team did some famous ‘air guitar’ to rub it in. Hall, however, went on to break records and make the Aussie celebrations short lived. The rivalry just kept rolling on.

So three cheers to young Eamon Sullivan for yet again raising the bar, and letting the world know that the legendary Australian swim team is far from running out of up and coming talent. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Sorry about that, I’ll compose myself. Enjoy your day.

The elections in Zimbabwe today may be a glimmer of hope for those poor suffering citizens who have endured years of Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship. One of my first blogs was on Mugabe, as I have for many years been disgusted that he has been allowed by many to get away with the things he does.

However, for the first time, there is some hope. Not a lot, but some. Not only do we see the incredibly brave Morgan Tsvangirai, leader for the Movement for Democratic Change, yet again campaigning, but also Robert Mugabe’s former Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, breaking away from Mugabe, and running as an independent.

Tsvangirai is a typical fighter for the rights of his citzens. Like so many before him, whatever their race, he has endured beatings and intimidation, the last such incident seeing him almost die at the hands of Mugabe’s thugs.

Makoni, on the other hand, has always nestled in the bosom of Mugabe. He was a member of the ZANU-PF party, and was waiting for his chance to take over as leader. Since Mugabe won’t step down, Makoni has decided, whether conveniently or not, to leave ZANU-PF and run as an independent.

The choice Zimbaweans make between these two men really depends on their political history. We know Tsvangirai is the one out of the two who has truly suffered for what he believes in. If anyone has done it tough, it’s been him. His recent beatings are evidence of that. Makoni may well have a sincere heart in all this, but I don’t recall reading that he has been hassled, annoyed, let alone beaten and intimidated by any of Mugabe’s men. He has not been in any way a target like Tsvangirai has.

Tsvangirai puts everything out there and when he gets knocked down, gets up again. Makoni has not been anywhere near tested in this regard, and I am sensing that the only reason he is running against Mugabe is because ZANU-PF did not nominate Makoni to stand as their candidate. It seems a case of taking one’s bat and ball and going home, with that pouty look on one’s face. So I tend to doubt his motives. To me, Tsvangarai is about the people, the country, its future. Makoni seems to be about self interest, power, and position.

Surely we don’t want another Mugabe for the next 28 years. Enjoy your day.

Why do we love ’seminars’, ‘conferences’, ‘conventions’, and any other form of shoulder rubbing where the main aim is to wax lyrical about unimportant nonsense and make ourselves feel good? I read a great quote once, “A committee is a group of people who singly can do nothing, but collectively can decide that nothing can be done“

Being in the education field, the one thing I despise about the profession is its heavy reliance on meetings and ‘Professional Development’ days. The aim of these important weekday events is supposed to be to ‘develop and deepen our professional selves’. Bullshit! Colleagues and I from years past would sit down with the menu of delightful sessions, we would pick the easiest one that we could sleep through and not get caught, but more importantly, make sure the venue was close to home (to enable a sleep in), and that we were guaranteed a great lunch. If it was a Friday session, that was a bonus!

Did we do this because we were lazy bastards? No. I can honestly say that I have been blessed to work with some of the finest educationalists you could get your hands on. The issue with these ’sessions’ was most of them were talkfests, boring as batshit, or had little or no relevance to us as we ventured back to the day to day of moulding young minds.

Same too with the Australian Prime Minister’s announcement of a 2020 Summit http://www.australia2020.gov.au/ to be held next month. It is a conference aimed at looking to 2020 and what needs to be done across the country and in a multitude of areas. Today saw the final list of 1000 participants that will ensure a broad cross section of Australia, and will ensure that issues will be relevant, and achievable.

Like the APEC meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders held every year, I am visualising lots of group photos, themed shirts, and candid snaps of Professor ’so and so’ chatting about real issues with Jim the plumber. But when it’s all over, the mini bar will have run dry and the karoake machine will have gone on the fritz. They will then all walk away saying what a tremendous honour it was and, like a school camp, talk for months about what they did. However, get them all together after a year, and they will barely be able to remember each other’s names, let alone the things they talked about and what action has been taken.

Mr. Rudd, you have been to your fair share of these painful excuses for work. If you’re going to do this, set some targets. Make the people who are involved report back about what has been achieved, what still needs to be done, and firm target dates on when they are going to be done. That way, at least the hangover after the final session will be well worth it.

I’d say enjoy your day, but I’m currently ‘workshopping’ that.

Remarriage happens all around the world. One relationship ends, either through death or divorce and another relationship begins. Sounds pretty clear cut doesn’t it? Not if you are a high profile public figure, or even worse…the President of France.

This week has seen the new President, Nicolas Sarkozy, make his first state visit to the UK. Oh yes, there was the usual British pomp and ceremony, the cordial greetings, the photographs with the Queen. Just a standard, run-of-the-mill state visit, like so many before it.

But wait…who is that “pretty little thing” in the elegant grey Christian Dior number? “Ah, that is his wife,” they all mutter under their breath. “They just got married, you know”, they all whisper behind their hands. It’s as if this thing called marriage was some sort of dirty underground activity that Sarkozy has just flaunted before them.

This reminds me very much of the movie, ‘The American President’. It’s a smaltzy bit of Hollywood, but it made one glaring point; how difficult it is for a President to develop a new relationship like anyone else in the world. Michael Douglas plays a widowed US President who simply wants to date a woman that has rekindled that something in him. The difficulties it causes are immense, with the ultimate frustration being the inability to ring a florist and send a lady a bunch of roses.

Sarkozy has done very well in soldiering on and dating this lady, and ultimately marrying her. Simply because one is a Head of State, doesn’t mean that all those normal pursuits cannot still be within their grasp. The situation is different, but I am sure, like us, President Sarkozy wanted and needed those things that come with a companion in life. So forget the politics, and let him have them. Enjoy your day.

When at first you don’t succeed, lie like crazy. Life is getting tough out there on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton. Even if she wins every single Primary or caucus from now until the Democratic Convention, she won’t get enough delegates to secure her party’s nomination. So what does she do? She lies of course. She must be listening way too much to her husband. Remember his “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” line that Bill emphatically stated all those years ago? Then we find out, he sure did!

I have a few issues with Hillary over her ‘foreign policy experience’. She has none. She was a First Lady for 8 years. Now, spouses of a Head of State do visit countries along with their other half, but they are definitely not involved in talks any more intense than visiting a craft exhibition or watching a delightful performance of cultural dance. So if she seriously believes that having a cup of tea with a group of Kindergarten kiddies in El Salvador is serious foreign relations experience, she is seriously deluded.

So now we find her not just getting a few facts incorrect about her visit to Bosnia in 1996, but creating an entirely fictitious account of the event, especially her arrival in Tuzla. But it gets better. When someone uncovers the videotape of the event, she arrogantly and flippantly brushes it off as ‘a mistake’ and says ‘it happens, proves I’m human’, as if she’s simply got someone’s name wrong.

This was a serious fabrication of events, a total lie. They ate her husband alive for lying, and nearly impeached him for it. We constantly call on George W Bush to be impeached for his lie about ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. So if someone does not jump on this like a fly on horse dung, and make her not only accountable, but make her face the cameras and deliver a serious apology for sinking to these sort of depths in order to win her party’s nod, then we have learnt nothing from nearly 8 years of George Bush and his glib tongue.

Hillary continues to state she is the most able, capable candidate to be Commander in Chief. Well Senator, being able and capable requires living in the real world, not in the world of fiction and good storytelling. Enjoy your day.

When I started writing this blog, I said you would know very little about me, and I aim to keep to that promise. However, today’s topic would not have come about if my father was not, on this day, his 81st birthday, mentally and physically fading away from the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease.

No, this is not going to be a blog paying tribute to my Dad and reminiscing about the good times we had. It’s more about how some of us have views on issues when we are as far away from understanding them as Oprah Winfrey is of becoming the first female Pope.

Euthanasia is one of those debates that rages on and on, and we are still no closer to developing common ground after all these years. Those who have strong opinions against it are probably people who have never seen a loved one in pain, or watched that loved one’s quality of life diminish to the point that they are skin, bone, muscle, and blood cells, but not much more.

My father was lucky. He had 80 good years before his decline came at a rapid pace, and it still continues today. Even though he is a devout Catholic, if I could bring him back from the past to sit and let him watch himself now, he would have 6 simple words to say: “Aw, bloody hell, just shoot me.” There would be no doubt in my mind he would say this, despite his religious views. To me, and to us around him, his life is over. It was over for me when I saw him last July and that ‘twinkle’ had gone from his eyes; that spark that said he was very much alive, and ’switched on’. But now, as he sits in a nursing home, with round the clock care, and even has to wear a pad constantly so he doesnt soil himself, it’s now that I truly understand why people know when it’s time to die.

Yes, I understand that authorising to take someone’s life is akin to murder, and it’s not that I want to knock Dad off, but it makes one look at what ‘life’ is. He isn’t going to get better. He remembers less and less each day, and is quickly becoming a vegetable. He has mentally deteriorated so much that his young grandson and granddaughter don’t want to see him. Not because they don’t love him. They find this scary old man not the same loving grandfather that once tickled them, hugged them, laughed with them and loved them with as much love as a grandfather could. But those who are against ending one’s life with dignity will have no idea how painful it is to watch someone you love go through that, and they simply work on the theory of “it’s immoral, it’s illegal, and you have no right.” If they did, mark my words, their views would change.

There is no dignity in what Dad is going through. Being spoonfed like a baby by his wife of over 40 years is not dignity. Like the powers that be in Washington having ’sympathy’ for the men and women fighting in Iraq, and ‘feeling for the mothers and fathers whose children are serving’, whilst they are making sure their kids never see battle (i.e Mitt Romney), empty too are the words of moralistic anti-euthanasia supporters who work off a pamphlet and not gut feeling, balanced emotion, and perception.

Like the question “what would you do in …… situation?” We don’t know. None of us do. And we should all keep an open mind until that time comes; if it ever comes. Because only then will we know just where we truly stand.

Enjoy your day….and Happy Birthday Dad.

Yes, it’s that time again. The Olympics. And where does it all start? In Olympia, where the first games were held in 776BC. I remember seeing a sketch once in some kid’s encyclopaedia years ago, and it was of what one of the first Olympians would have looked like..and he was running naked! That would have raised a few eyebrows I thought. And what if that torch had a stray flame? Things could have gotten nasty.

Today in Olympia the flame was lit, and will travel 85,000 miles, through 23 cities across five continents in 34 days. Wow. That flame is going to travel more in just over a month than I have done in 5 years!

The question does remain, though. Should we boycott the Beijing games because of what has happened in Tibet? What does boycotting actually do? The Americans did it to the Russians in 1980, so the Russians did tit for tat to the Americans in 1984. Does it really punish the country or just piss off the athletes who have endured rigorous training, starved themselves of food with any form of taste, and woken up so early each morning, even roosters are saying “bugger off!”

Did it affect the Russians? No. Did the Russians not being in Los Angeles in ‘84 have any effect on the Americans? No way. They were glad those ‘commie bastards’ weren’t there. So, we can be all brave and say, “let’s boycott”, but if it does nothing but deprive our athletes from a once in a 4 year opportunity to shine, then aren’t we just shooting ourselves in the foot?

China does need a mesage sent to them, but they are such an immensely strong country, that they listen to very view people in regard to anything, simply because they don’t need to. When Beijing was awarded the games all those years ago, it was a long time after Tianenman Square, but they still got it anyway, and no one jumped up and down. On the contrary. I heard many say how amazing that Opening Ceremony is going to be. So why are we now callling for a boycott, because of Tibet. Tibet has been an issue with China for close on 50 years, and for time in memorial, I have seen ‘Free Tibet’ stickers plastered over cars, walls, and houses. So whether we go to the Olympics as a competing nation or not will still mean a miserable future for Tibet, and for all those mainland Chinese who suffer injustice at the hands of those at the top. Enjoy your day.

When the US Presidential race began nearly a year ago and there was all that jostling over who was going to throw their hat in the ring for the enviable job of succeeding the Texas cowboy into the White House, there was the typical range of candidates, from the high profile to the candidates who no one even knew about.

Typically, most of us who lean toward the thinking of the Democrats (either in the US or around the world), thought Hillary Clinton was a shoe in. None of the others were very well known, or didn’t really have the clout to take her on.

Most of my friends predictably called for Hillary too, but ever since this drawn out saga began, I have had a lot of time for Governor Bill Richardson. There was a realism about Richardson, and during the debates, his answers on issues were usually filled with achievements that he had made, and the success of his state of New Mexico, under his leadership.

Now you might say to me, “Yes, Hillary did that too, so what’s the difference?” When Richardson spoke, it was about the smaller, but very crucial issues that make a population of a state a happy one. And he wasn’t afraid to take on any topic. On same sex issues, I remember him stating how New Mexico was already progressing in this area, and stated when and how, while the rest of the candidates on the same question were ducking and weaving, and trying not to get wrapped up in touchy issues too early.

He came across to me as, dare I say it, a normal guy. Someone who seems to be, dare I say again, an honest politician who just rolls up sleeves and gets on with the job, as he has done in New Mexico. Not being American, not being from New Mexico, I can only judge this on the short amount of airtime Richardson has received, and that I was able to get access to.

He dropped out of the race, unfortunately. Maybe he was not stylish enough, not blessed with the good looks and winning smile of Obama, and didn’t have anywhere near the kind of money that was being thrown at the big guns in the Democratic camp. But in my opinion, he seemed like the only ‘real’ candidate in the field who just said it like it was.

When he left the race for President, he remained quiet. From what we know, Clinton and Obama were looking for his endorsement. And just yesterday, Obama got it, much to the disgust of the Clinton camp, who have come to calling him ‘Judas’, as he was Bill Clinton’s Secretary for Energy during that Administration. When children don’t get what they want, they ’spit their dummy’. With an attitude like this, I can understand why Richardson didn’t side the Clinton’s way.

Even though Richardson is not Obama’s running mate, if Obama secures the nomination, he would be very wise to choose Richardson as it would give Obama that steady hand of experience behind him thereby doing something to smooth over one of the criticisms against the Senator from Illinois. Richardson would also be an approachable Vice President, and one who would display a healthy transparency, unlike Dick Cheney, who has spent years reconstructing the infrastructure of White House protocols so nobody knows anything.

I have been waiting for a while to see where Richardson would lay his cards, and his long delay in itself says a lot. He has taken his time to see how the candidates have handled issues, and who looks like a good bet.

He didn’t get President, but if he keeps playing his cards the way he has been playing them so far, he could be the next best thing. Enjoy your day.

I’ve always been mystified why today is called ‘Good’ Friday. All those years ago, a charismatic young chap by the name of Jesus was thrown by an angry mob in front of a kangaroo court, and had some trumped up charge laid against him. They then whipped him to within an inch of his life, dragged him through the streets where he was spat at, hurled abuse at, crowned with a lovely garland of metal spikes, hoisted up onto a wooden cross, and then, just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, he is nailed to the bloody thing, and then someone rams a whopping great spear into his side! Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d think that would rank as a pretty bad day at the office!

Was it ‘good’ because it somehow proved how far he was willing to go for a cause? Was it ‘good’ because it provided the best piece of entertainment anyone had seen for a while? Or was it ‘good’ because the leaders of the day got rid of this annoying pain in the arse that had showed them up once too often?

The only thing I saw as good today was Pope Benedict XVI officiating at Mass in the Vatican. Not because I like the man, absolutely not. Not because I am a devout Catholic; nothing could be further from the truth.  I saw the the wierdest thing happen in a small videoclip I watched. He was walking back to his seat at one point, and was being assisted by 2 priests. What filled me with joy was the way he was being assisted. Both of them were almost carrying him from either side which indicated to me that he is becoming frailer, and…with any luck…closer to meeting his maker.

I may have misinterpreted it, but the thought of this notorious arch conservative hate mongerer and witch hunter looking like he was on the downhill slide, made it, for me, a very ‘Good Friday’ indeed.

Enjoy your day…and Happy Easter to my Christian readers.