THE WIZARDS OF OZ.

                                        AUSTRALIA TODAY

 

                                                        I love a sunburnt country,
                                                        A land of sweeping plains,
                                                        Of ragged mountain ranges,
                                                        Of droughts and flooding rains,
                                                        I love her far horizons,
                                                        I love her jewel sea,
                                                        Her beauty and her terror,
                                                        The wide brown land for me.

That excerpt from Dorothea Mackeller's My Country sums up what the world's greatest nation is all about.

Prior to this latest piece of literature from your friendly teller of tall tales there happens to be many, many stories, that refer to life in Australia's largest and brightest city, namely Sydney, throughout what is referred to as the sixties .

Back then there was no political correctness that in some cases made it a crime to have an opinion on a subject and to express that opinion. If you disliked something or someone, you simply said so. Many supported you and others did not, but almost everybody agreed you had the right to say it. Today however, a coloured and/or ethnic person can criticise the home grown locals and that is regarded as perfectly acceptable, but when a local criticises them, it is not acceptable and in some cases it has been declared illegal.

Regardless of what PC has done to what was once Nirvana, this continent of ours is still not a bad place to live. If only the cretins who seem content to maintain and even encourage stupidity could be rounded up and sent into exile, then and only then would it be possible to return OZ to its former glory.

Refugees and immigrants flee their troubled and in many cases war torn dung heaps to escape persecution and one would think, to create a more peaceful and meaningful life in Australia. Trouble is, far too many appear determined to change the Australian way of life, so as to resemble what was responsible for them escaping from their troubled former homeland in the first place.
Many muslim whackos insist that Australia adopt Sharia law and are convinced we are all Godless individuals and that all non muslims are infidels.
Even though Mohammed stated Jesus was a prophet of God and Christians, Jews and Muslims should live in peace together, as they were 'All children of the book', the intellectually challenged fundamentalists want none of it. I fail to see how these idiots can contribute to our modern day society and believe they should all be rounded up and deported back to their former place of birth.
The photo below shows brain dead filth protesting because some one said Mohammed was a paedophile.

Mohammed married his wife at age 6 and waited until she was 9 years old before having intercourse with her. Make up your own mind.

So much for the above subject, Australian society is evolving into something that I, not so much find offensive, but am not too sure I would like to go there as part of it.

The nation has just elected a conservative government led by one of the country's most disliked politicians, more or less on the rebound from a Labor rabble that made it an art form to shoot itself in the foot. Every time our newly elected Prime Minister opens his mouth and talks, he never says anything.

One thing that hasn't changed is the nation's love of sport. The Victorians, South Australians and West Australians are still in love with the world's most meaningless football code, Australian Rules while NSW and Queensland insist the greatest game of all is Rugby League. Rugby Union is still where it was decades ago, but Soccer appears to be increasing in popularity, owing to the number of European followers who now reside in OZ. Many kids play soccer because they are forced into it by concerned parents who don't want little Johnny returning home after a game with two of his front teeth still on the playing field amongst the grass. Even though the kids love the competition and exercise, when they move into their teens, soccer goes by the wayside. In the Hunter region where I have hung my hat, if you ask all the soccer playing kids which team they support, 80% will say the Knights Rugby League team.
One only has to look at the names of most soccer players, including those of the national team to ascertain where they hail from. Many of their names you will have trouble pronouncing.

It is not politically correct to fail to support same sex marriage. Many claim that Gay people are no different to straight ones. These folk are either in denial or are ignorant of the fact the the Gay lifestyle has been, still is and will continue to be responsible for tens of thousands of slow, painful and premature deaths throughout the world each and every year. One cannot help being born with faulty plumbing, but there is a responsibility to control one's lifestyle and accept it is not a normal lifestyle. The St. Johns ambulance decades ago refused to provide their voluntary services at the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, because of the disgusting promiscuous behavior that followed the march. This still is continuing, but mention it and you will be branded homophobic.

Many of my tales have been centred around surfing and surf life saving. During the 60's and 70's the bulk of many surf clubs members came from all over Sydney. My old club at Avalon had a bunkhouse that slept 36 snoring bodies, nowadays all 1000 plus members are all locals living in Avalon itself or in the surrounding suburbs. 
The days of raising money through raffles and chocolate wheels are long gone. We would break a sweep oar in the surf and it would be replaced with the proceeds from a chocolate wheel or a raffle with two chooks as first prize. The club would fork out 50 Quid and buy a couple of kegs, we would chip in around 70 Quid, drink all the beer, get drunk as skunks, then buy or repair the sweep oar. 
Today all clubs need rich patrons, lots of donations, corporate sponsors and art unions to ensure the doors of the club stays open. Years ago I was told by the surf club President that the Avalon club was up for $1000 per day every time it opened its doors. God only knows what it costs today.

As Ms Mackeller mentions in her poem, Oz is a land of contradiictions. As I type my home state of New South Wales is going up in flames with over 83 fires burning and almost one third of them uncontained. What generally happens is two years of bushfires followed by two trouble free seasons then come the floods.
You can bet your boots that in Oz if it burns, or has just finished burning, within two to five years it will end up under water.

Here in the land of plenty, we are never short of something to eat. We have the ability to feed ourselves without relying on imports from overseas. Despite this we are now doing what the USA does and are paying many of our farmers either not to grow or to bulldoze their crops.  You name it, we either are growing it or could grow it, yet untold quantities of fruit and vegetables are being ploughed up and buried because we can buy it from overseas. We import orange juice from South America yet the orange orchards in the Riverina district alone go from horizon to horizon........it's a joke. The farmers who are still attempting to earn a reasonable living are being ripped off by the supermarket giants, with the biggest offenders Coles and Woolworths. They have even moved into discounting petrol of all things.

We import bottled water......I'm not joking. What's even more stupid is there are idiots who pay extortionate prices and drink the stuff and the more they drink the more they import. Even our beer is owned by overseas interests.

Not that many years ago Australians drank more beer than any other country per capita. For a short period Oz was No.1 in the world, slipping down as far as No. 4 on the odd occasion. The breathalyzer and the booze buses appeared causing low alcohol beer to become popular. Many young teenage lads who should have been upholding Aussie culture began drinking cocktail type beverages that in the past would have seen them sent to coventry by their peers, instead of drinking beer. Mixed drinks that initially were only popular with the ladies were now being consumed by the new age males and beer became unfashionable. I watched with disgust as our once unique and manly nation started to become semi effeminate. As I type beer drinking is at a 60 year low, yet there is more violence and criminal activity than ever before, mainly because of the crap many modern day boofheads are consuming. I believe we only just scrape into the top 20 as beer drinkers.........disgusting.

Making up for the lack of beer drinking is the rise in the consumption of wine. While even I enjoy the odd drop, I find it hard to believe one can quench their thirst with fruit of the grape. With beer, several schooners leaves one with a satisfied feeling of warmth and contentment, whereas 4 small glasses of vino may leave one legless. It's just not the same, pity.

Our miserable excuse for politicians are constantly flogging off to the highest bidder all of our statutory authorities. If no ones interested they are quite happy to sell at bargain basement prices. This is a policy that will not last much longer as there's nothing left to sell. The Chinese now own our electricity and there is talk of flogging off our water supplies to them.......Fuck me dead and rotten. Electricity prices have literally gone through the roof with many families unable to pay, yet they still warn everyone of even further price hikes.

I will say this however and I know many will think I'm taking the piss, but here in Australia we actually export camels to Arabia however........It's Gospel. 

Every time a road or highway that should have been constructed 30 years ago is built, it becomes a toll road run by private enterprise and motorists are expected to pay through the nose, even though their ever rising taxes are supposed to provide the funds for construction. If the income is not as high as the Government claimed it was going to be, that's OK, the shortfall will be payed by the taxpayer.

$5.00 each way for a fast run....yeah sure!

Whenever statutory authorities are fined or have levies placed on them, they simply pass on the extra costs to their customers, namely mug John Citizen. Who can the end user pass the charges on to? Answer, no one.

All governments have the responsibility to provide the essential services, but our mob like many overseas countries are determined to relieve themselves of what they obviously see as a burden, even though many of these products run at a profit.
In the past the government was responsible for, Transport (Trams, buses, ferries and trains), Electricity, Gas, Water, general life and car insurance and the Commonwealth Bank. What was the RTA provided and paid for road construction.
Local councils and State Governments are all the time off loading many of their reponsibilities. So much work is now being performed by sub contractors. If some client has a dispute with, say, an electricity supplier and demands a review of charges, in most cases the supplier ignores the complaint and sells the debt to some disreputable mob of thugs who threaten hell fire and damnation if the bill is not paid pronto. These thugs have no interest in whether the bill is over inflated or the reason for the complaint, they are only interested in being paid and the law actually supports these leeches.

The saddest thing about modern day society at times is society itself. One only has to look at the quality of television programs to see what brain dead individuals many Australians have evolved into.
In the past there were stories that had real and interesting plots and featured actors who could act. Nowadays TV fans get all excited about pure unadulterated crap such as most of the reality shows that are infecting our screens.
Masterchef, The Biggest Loser, Survivor, Beauty and the Geek, The Bachelor to name only a few. Then of course there is the epitomy of bad taste and boring meaningless excrement known as Big Brother. How people can be excited by a group of unwashed and unrepresentative swill hanging around and talking rubbish to one another and doing absolutely nothing, is astonishing to me.
Why the Seven Network wastes its time showing AFL football in NSW and Queensland has always been a mystery as hardly any body watches it. A test pattern draws a bigger TV audience than the Sydney Swans even when they are shown live. They may attract reasonable ground attendance numbers, but as over 60% of their support comes from Victorian expats, there aren't that many left to watch the game on the telly. At least Seven has relegated it to its secondary channel in the two eastern states.
Don't get me going on local scripted drama and comedy. There were actually some who believed that garbage shows such as Rush, Mr and Mrs Murder and the current insult to peoples intelligence, Wonderland are wonderful shows. I have become convinced that the main problem is poor scripts more so than poor acting. These shows are nearly all rubbish and I avoid them like the plague. I won't even mention Home and Away and the farce that is Neighbours.

Australians have been renowned for adopting new technology whenever it becomes available. Years ago it was the CB radio craze when just about everyone had to have one fitted in his or her vehicle. The streets, roads and highways were choc o' block with hoons driving around talking to one another, or whoever was interested in replying to their drivel......"Breaker Breaker, this is big daddy, can you hear me, over."

Everyone had a bucketload of music cassettes and the vinyl record was eventually phased out.
Then came the VCR tapes, so now we all could watch movies as well. These lasted a few short years, before being replaced by the DVD.
The first computer appeared during the 1950's and belonged to Westpac. It took up a whole city block from Market to Park Sts. Years later all of this computer's functions plus hundreds more were being done by a hand held device that could fit in one's shirt pocket.
Australians took to colour Television like ducks to water during the 1970's.
In a short space of being introduced, the mobile telephone became an essential item that many simply cannot do without. There is only around 3% of the nation who does not own one. The missus and I are among them.

Take you pick. Useless devices.

Then, of course there is what is making this blog possible, the Personal Computer or simply the PC. Even I spend way too much time with bum on seat banging away on the keyboard composing what arguably could be interperated as being meaningless rubbish. Then again, it keeps me off the streets.

All being said Australian society does indeed have a lot to answer for, by allowing the Politically correct buffoons and do gooders to regulate their lives.
Despite this, when one takes in the overall situation, one can only become aware that this nation, although overgoverned and subject to the uncontrollable forces of nature on a regular basis, is by far the greatest place in the world to be born and reside.
OZ may not be the planet's richest nation, but per capita it is up there with the best of them.
Our political system is stable with nary a revolution to shake things up. In OZ we use the ballot box every three to four years. When you live in a country with untold beauty, surrounded by sandy beaches and have the freedom to go anywhere at anytime to wherever your heart desires, who gives a toss about politics. The Australian way of life is unequalled anywhere else in the world.

The Gas Works. Canberra.

Australians follow their chosen sport without the need to smash seats and burn down grandstands, or attack opponents supporters. The lighting of flares is regarded as dangerous and it is now illegal to do so. All that's needed is to educate the highly emotional Europeans that follow soccer to tone down their behavior as it is un Australian.

I am now in the twilight of my years and there is no way I will be losing sleep worrying too much about where OZ is headed. I have faith in my fellow Aussies, who I am certain will put the brakes on any over the top attempts to un Australianise our unique nation and its way of life.

Although no longer a country that the rest of the world believed was so unique and special, Australia, despite the know it alls attempting to make it a laughing stock, has qualities no other nation possesses and I can truthfully say and categorically state I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the universe. 

A nice Sydney morning,