">My Big World Of Crap

Just got back from my son’s first game of soccer for the season - his team lost 6-1.  Obviously more training needed to get fitness and combinations working properly.  Division 3 (of 3) standard is no great shakes, and my son’s team has tended to be mid-table the last couple of seasons.

I hope that soccer in Canberra doesn’t get anything like this.  This particular story is about rugby league in Brisbane, but similar stories appear regularly from all parts of Australia.  What is it about these parents who go absolutely beserk at their kids’ sporting events …. dad got a tiny dick, can’t get it up, their own lives a disappointment to them?  I just struggle to see how people get so worked up over kids’ sport that clubs need to employ security guards at games, or police presence is needed.  Crazy!!!!

Haven’t seen any of it at our games in Canberra, and my son’s been playing for several years.  Maybe it gets more intense in the higher grades?  About the most I see and hear is exasperation (I’m a culprit here - muttering to myself or the other parents when the team concedes lame-arse goals and stuff like that).  Maybe Canberra’s more civilised than the far flung bogan reaches of western Sydney, Ipswich, outer Melbourne etc?

Technorati Tags: soccer, violent parents, abuse, childrens sport

Beaconsfield miner, Todd Russell’s, labrador has proved himself a loyal friend, having been hanging around the gates to the mine where his owner has been trapped underground for more than a week.

Hopefully, he’ll be reunited with his owner this weekend.  From what I’ve heard and read tonight, the tunnel being drilled to rescue the two trapped miners is about 2/3 complete.

Technorati Tags: Beaconsfield, Todd Russell, Harley, labrador, mans’ best friend

Naomi Robson, host of Today Tonight, has been the butt of sniping by some other media reporting on events at the mine rescue in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. She has been accused of “kicking back” and “doing nothing but hair and makeup”. She also has a “makeup van”. According to one reporter:

“Her van rolls in and pulls up right outside, in the most prominent position,” one television crew member said.

“Everyone’s been having a big laugh at it.”

Robson became the butt of jokes when a photo appeared in the Launceston Examiner yesterday showing a media scrum as reporters scrambled to hear Beaconsfield mine manager Matthew Gill give an update - while she was in the background having her hair tended to.

“You’ve got all the other network talent like Mark Ferguson and Chris Reason getting the story and here she is in the background having her make-up done,” an insider laughed.

I’ve said before, and I still think, there’s something that just looks wrong about Naomi Robson. I don’t know, she just looks kind of wrong - facial expressions are really strange. Maybe its the going out with criminals that does it to her?

Other media under the gun in Beaconsfield include the ABC’s Alison Caldwell who seems to have got sucked in by some locals at the pub pulling her leg, and someone claiming to be from Channel 9 who is allegedly offering bribes to rescue crew members for footage inside the mine.

Always fascinates me how media turn up enmasse for things like the Beaconsfield rescue, including bringing the news heavies in, and hosting their shows from the scene. Actually there’s nothing to see, so they start reporting on anything - including each other.

Technorati Tags: Beaconsfield, mine rescue, Naomi Robson

Ask Mick Shannon, of the Department of Finance, who was sent home to Australia from Honiara after an email he wrote providing a frank assessment of the Solomon Islands’ future was leaked. His email talked of Australia’s behind the scenes involvement in Solomons’ politics, and harshly judged the likely candidates for prime minister.

Solomons’ caretaker PM, Snyder Rini, criticised Australian High Commissioner, Patrick Cole, accusing him of meddling in local politics. Mr Rini, whose election sparked the recent looting and rioting in Honiara, said Australia had been quick to accuse Solomons’ politicians of corruption.

“They are branding us as corrupted. We didn’t call the Australian politicians corrupted,” he said. “We know what is happening with the oil for food program. Please respect us as we respect them.”

Low blow there about oil for food! Thats what dodgy dealings which should have been prevented had government ministers and departments been on the ball do for Australia’s reputation. Make us a cheap target and removes us from holding the high moral ground on corruption.

However, it stinks that Shannon gets sent home for his honesty and frankness. The Solomon Islands are a shambles, and there is entrenched corruption among its politicians. Most people say that, its just that Shannon, coming from Finance, is probably a straighter shooter than the diplomats from Foreign Affairs. Who leaked the email, too? Some high commission staffer trying to curry favour with the local politicians?

Australia gives plenty of financial assistance to countries like the Solomon Islands. In my books, this gives us plenty of rights to call the shots about cleaning up their shambles of political system and government institutions. Attach strings about reform to the aid, and withdraw it if the reforms aren’t happening as fast as we would like to see. No use giving money to countries so it can just be pissed down the drain.

Same applies to Papua New Guinea … its another shambles that needs cleaning up.

Technorati Tags: Solomon Islands, corruption, Snyder Rini, politics, Honiara riots, Papua New Guinea

The news from Beaconsfield, Tasmania about the two miners still being alive after being trapped by a rockfall last Tuesday was amazing. I’m sure most, apart from perhaps their families, had given them up for dead, and were treating the rescue as a body retrieval exercise rather than a real rescue.

Great news for young Maddison, Todd Russell’s daughter, and the rest of her family and the Beaconsfield community. Imagine how they feel now, much relief after being prepared for the worst, but also apprehension as it will still be another day or two before the miners can be brought to the surface.

Unfortunately, the joy of the Russell and Webb families is tempered by the sadness of Larry Knight’s family. Larry died in the mine collapse and his body was recovered on Thursday.

I saw this photo of Pte Jake Kovco’s son, Tyrie, on the weekend, and found it very touching.

I wonder how much he realises yet that his dad is gone. At least he’s too young to be caught up in the shambles going on around Pte Kovco’s death and the return of his body from Iraq to Australia.

In other Kovco developments:

• the coroner’s examination of his body revealed that Pte Kovco died of a gunshot wound to the head - amazing revelation that! Now for the challenging part of the inquiries, to figure out how and why.
• the commanding officer of Australia’s forces in Iraq ordered Kovco’s body be removed, contrary to directions of military police. Apparently the Chief of the Army, Lt-Gen Peter Leahy got drawn into the argument and intervened to back the commander’s decision to move the body. Very strange that this would happen before the scene was fully investigated and scoured for evidence.
• the family is angry at media reports about a rift in the Kovco’s marriage, suggestions of an affair, the suggestion that he might have killed himself.

Very smelly, all of this.

Technorati Tags: Beaconsfield gold mine, rescue, Jake Kovco