According to the media the rescue of the two miners seems to be more about Shorten and his push for a seat and Eddie McGuire and Channel Nine’s ratings than an actual rescue. Channel Seven are in there fighting and six figure sums are being pencilled in media checque book stubs while Peter Meaking adopts the seldom held moral position (by the media at least) and suggests;

it was “tacky in the extreme” for The Age to try to measure one interview against another, he said. “To put a price on their salvation I reckon is pretty tacky.”

when The Age mentions how much Wood was paid for interviews after being released from captivity in Iraq. Woods got $400k and I can see how Meaking and McGuire would rather start the bidding at $250k.

Yep, you’re right, I don’t like chequebook journalism.

Me, I think it’s all about two guys who have gone through hell with a view of heaven through a small apperture. My thoughts go out to the family of the third miner, Larry Knight, who is hardly mentioned by the talking heads of commercial TV, and who only got to see as far as hell.

Hang in there guys and enjoy your rebirth when your mates finally drill through.

Private Kovko has been placed under a media microscope with too many of those peering through the lens only seeing their own prejudices. I have watched with amazement as a media circus lays the blame for his death and subsequent misplacement/missidentification at the feet of their enemies without a single solitary fact being considered.

I’m further amazed at the dignitary list for his funeral with Prime Minister John Howard, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, Defence Force chief Angus Houston, Army chief Peter Leahy and officers from 3RAR. I personally think military funerals for soldiers should be restricted to family; both geneological and military with politicians best kept away least the event turns into a media circus.

It’s a private and personal moment.

During the Vietnam war the home battalions conducted funerals for the away battalion resulting in my being well versed in the procedure. Having acted as the Sergeant in charge of many funeral parties I can only conclude that what I saw on TV last night was a military funeral for a general….times change.

My reading of the cause of his death was a single gunshot wound to the head administered while he was alone and until an inquirey is completed no amount of speculation will clarify the situation. Readers commenting throughout the blog world have gone as far as to lay out in military fashion the laid down procedures for clearing a 9mm Browning pistol with asides like ‘professional soldiers don’t have UDs’ (army talk for accidental discharge); ‘it’s impossible to accidentaly kill yourself with a 9mm pistol‘ and ‘if you do it properly you will not have an UD’ that all seem to ignore the reality of war. When on operations Infantrymen suffer from sleep deprivation working anything up to 20 hours in any one day all of it under some sort of pressure. This leads to errors of judgement and weapon handling. It also leads to over-familiarity with weapons and all of this leads to accidental death.

It happens.

A comment at Tim Balir’s site sums it up well.

No one can even guess what happened to this man. There are too many contradictory stories, and the people telling them may have reasons to obfuscate. No matter what the facts are, they have now been buried under everyone elses agenda. The actual man, and his actual family, are no longer any consideration.

Those poor people. My condolences to them, and my condolences to those Aussies who are saddened to lose one of their protectors. No matter how he died, he died in a foreign country, doing the dangerous things that we sent him to do.

Let the man rest in peace, he has earnt it and leave his family alone, they need time to heal.

A PLAN to check English fluency and Australian values as part of a citizenship test for prospective immigrants has been blasted by politicians and ethnic groups.

Sounds good to me. I have no problems with the premise that aspiring immigrants should be able to communicate with us and understand a little of what we are about. It makes their transition to our culture so much easier.

Senator Nettle, espousing the standards of some obscure ideology or country other than Australia doesn’t agree;

She says: “A fluent grasp of English is not a prerequisite of being Australian.

Maybe not but I can see things being a whole lot easier for immigrants if it was; and

“Has Mr Robb forgotten that many Indigenous Australians do not speak fluent English? Is he suggesting that they are less Australian?

He isn’t suggesting any such thing you silly woman but I suggest not having english is a part of the problem of the many indigenous Australians you refer to and besides,the fact that someone in Australia isn’t fluent in english is not an arguement to not try and get everyone up to standard.

If Australia was gaining any ascendency in the Great Cartoon debate we lost it with Bill Leaks answering Rakyat Merdeka’s grubby effort depicting Howard and Downer in sexual union with a equally grubby cartoon depicting SBY doing something similar to the West Papuans.

Bill , in a satirical piece in todays Australian asks;WHY is it that us cartoonists are copping so much flak lately? Because some of your cartoons offend people, that’s why, but then you already know that Bill, it’s how you sell copy. Satire, all to often an excuse for stating ones opinion under the guise of poor taste, doesn’t answer the critics and all the cartoon has done is made it more difficult for Howard and Downer to placate the Indonesians over the Papuan refugees.

It’s difficult enough as it is without undergrad humour.

Trying to bring some sense into the debate PM Howard tries to defuses the debate saying;

(He was)  optimistic yesterday that Australian-Indonesian relations would survive the rift over Papua, as Australians rallied in four cities to support the Papuan cause for independence from Jakarta. 

I’m not sure supporting the Free West Papua movement is the way to go at the moment.  Better to keep encouraging the Indonesians to  be reasonable in their handling of the area.   I’m further convinced it’s a  no-win situation when I read Senator Bob Brown addressed the rally.  If he’s involved whatever he suggests won’t be in anyones interest.  I note in other sources that the Indonesians have refused to give Greens Senator Kerry Nettle a visa to visit.  

Good move.

Bob Brown is quotes as saying;

“If the Howard Government’s repeated calls for liberty and democracy around the world are not hollow, then it must act to ensure one million West Papuans get liberty and democracy,” Senator Brown said. 

Long on Howard bashing yet decidedly short on suggestions as to just how Australia might force Indonesia to give West Papuans liberty and democracy.  What does Bob mean by liberty and democracy…Independance? ….another East Timor?

No wonder the Indonesians are cranky with loose cannons like Brown suggesting in a public arena that Australia should ensure anything relating to what are after all, peoples of a sovereign government.  Let the diplomats encourage the Indons to lift their game without making public statements that could be construed as interefering threats.

A lot of Labor supporters and assorted Howard haters are depending on the Cole Commission to bring about the decline of the Howard Government. I’m sure Caroline Overington fantasizes about basking under the warm glow of public ovation as she steps up to centre stage to receive a Walkley Award while ‘Tricky” Rudd, in his dreams, struts the world stage as Foreign Minister of the new government.

Caroline Overington’s latest expose crashes from a leader of “Cole orders Downer to reveal all” to senior counsel, John Agius SC quoted as “We have written to them and asked them for statements,” he said. “If I need to call them, I will” in three short paragraphs.

The Australian editorial asks alot of questions but the public are wearying and are starting to ask whether Canberra can get on with governing the country rather than spend a lot of energy looking for someone to hang over the AWB doing what it was charged with doing – selling wheat.

I’ve seldom witnessed such a storm over an inquiry before the findings are published. The bizarre episode this week where it was revealed that Howard and Cole shared the same Alma Mater and had both been present at a reunion is just an indication of how desparate the anti-conservative groups are. They can’t get within cooee of the government on things that matter like fiscal management, interest rates,unemployment or defence and yet they pontificate about “fees” when the whole counry knows, or should know, that corporations and businesses have done the same thing under Labor governments.

As a general bench mark, if the ABC and the SBS are heavily into a subject then the general public aren’t; likewise, if the readership and comments on Lavartus Prodeo are going beserk over a subject then you can bet all the dollars paid in “fees” that the public’s attention is elsewhere.

I’ll pass soon. The inquiry will finish, Cole will make a submission and if there are steps to be taken then that will happen.

In the meantime, it’s all wishfull thinking.

The hardest aspect to call is listing every player’s agenda. Some, like the ALP, simply want the keys to the treasury, I presume the Australian wants Downer out of the picture; The US Wheat farmers want more trade and the local wheat farmers are split between wanting a single desk sales mechanism or their own personal interest sales mechanism in place.

Interesting theatre but I’m waiting for the final act. I think several players and organizations are going to be dissapointed – at least I hope they are.