A caring society ?

Mediscare

A while ago while waiting my turn in a frantically busy medical centre, I watched the harried receptionist deal with incoming arrivals in  between incessant phone calls and doctors' demands for files. Each new person was greeted with a perfunctory "Which doctor?" One aged pensioner who had got up very early that day replied in like manner "No, any normal doctor will do thank you!"

Although small at this stage , the new levy for surgery visits has the potential to become a permanent feature . Very rarely do governments abolish revenue raisers. In addition to increased patient's expenses, the bulk billing rebate to GP's has also been reduced.
In the future the various states are facing appreciable funding cuts Io their medical and educational funding. This raised the issue of the states perhaps being forced to augment income , increasing residents taxes to meet the shortfall. Protests are loud and clear at this moment but from past experience, I would not be surprised to see this resistance fold like a house of cards. Political expediency is vicarious with too often the devil being very much in the detail of any agreement designed to save face,
High school education, higher education and health are all being adversely impacted in the future. The noise earlier in the year about GST (Vat or TVA) increases was not without foundation. These lobbied ideas are so sneaky they blaze a trail across the sky.
In the U.S the hue and cry over Obama care is not solely due to the inefficiency of the system but the basic principle of care for all. The Clintons had real trouble with this one. Here's hoping we never feel the same way.
Rather than an expense,  health and education are investments with little immediate return but the long term benefits are much more valuable.

Can they?

Football Fest 2104

             O.K. folks here we go again!
             World cup football or 'soccer 'as it is know here.This generates emotions which only people of steel can control effectively. Some years ago it was the Dutch who were renowned masters of the game. It was a strange era and I recall how elated, joyful and over the cheese were they whenever any continental team beat any English or Scottish side. It was football politics. Now of course the centre of football gravity has moved very firmly into the Latin camp.
             I attended many games when the boys were growing up.For years the eldest lost practically every match until the the final season when they clicked and won every game outright. Had to wait five or six years of shivering sideline presence to achieve the winners feeling.
             Even at these junior levels, emotions were close to the surface. I recall one very keen, put it that way, mother tripping up an opposing team's winger with the handle of her umbrella. She was sent packing. Another time a father waltzed onto the pitch brandishing a pistol and verbally assaulting the ref. This match was cancelled; another instance of zeal was practised by a bunch of twelve year olds  who sat the ground in rows, with headphones ,while they listened to recorded pep talks from their coach.
             We watched the last world cup in a private venue and could have sworn that the referee and commentator were absolutely and completely biased towards the other side. It was group telepathy gone hideously wrong. All us were surprised to find that in the outside world nobody else agreed.
             One of the earliest supporters of soccer in the world of the media was the SBS (Spoecial broadcasting Service) who,k over the years,  secured a comfortable niche in this market until the commercial channels woke up to the fact that maybe there was something in this game after all. The SBS is a multi lingual station , broadcasting in more that seventy languages both on radio and TV. In their early days they showed contiental wovies,, which at the time were considered 'risque' ,k definitely avant garde. Together with their love of soccer they came to be known as the "Soccer Before Sex" media station. No longer such a distiction as even the mildest of U.S. films would have our grandparents popping their false teeth in amazement.
             Australia has been placed in the "death draw" round , playing such notables as Holland, Spain and Chile. Much bravado is being displayed by the socceroos. Surprises,k however,  can and do happen in sport .It's a bit like going to bed and finding a set of badgers there..alost impossible but not beyond the realms of possibility. Let's watch and see. More long nights ahead.

Much ado about an awful lot

Not a few social commentators have remarked there is a willingness to react to adverse news or events by force. In its own way there's a resurgence of patriotism and can explain, in part , the rise in numbers of dissatisfied voters in the recent European elections. Despite the merging of national boundaries, laws and identities , cultures feel under threat. Education and travel have not changed things that much.things don't change that much. Identity is inherent in the tribal roots of human nature .
An article in one of the U.K. national Sunday papers even managed to link this loss of identity within Europe to the opening of the refurbished Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam ; a recent article in The Economist argued that many are unhappy with the EU but not sure exactly why.
Samuel Johnson once remarked that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. It clouds judgement and outcomes causing diplomats to fail at their calling. (That's a new "buzz" word..outcomes: we want outcomes. Outcomes also are no longer worrying  but concerning).
Senior Australian military officials have recently remarked that the annual Gallipoli remembrance ceremonies in Turkey are becoming a major side show, thereby losing significance , with a increasing number of those attending being  youthful hangers-on  of their grandfather's or great-grandfather's experiences.
Currently there's an increasing number of military parades and ceremonies, almost weekly it seems.
This might or might not be a "man thing". However the increasing influence of women whether or not in the workforce, politics or the legislature might be a counter balance. Dunno. Maybe. Golda Meir in Israel , a tough old cigarette smoking Amazon , Indira Ghandi in India and recently Margaret Thatcher serve to refute this as a convncing argument.  
 For the moment however I am safe. I can still open bottles or screw caps off jam jars but when I lose that ability my days are numbered.

Sydney the Rocks

The Rocks city side ( one of mine)

Southern end of the Harbour Bridge is popular with teenagers and young adults, particularly on a Saturday night when getting smashed seems to be the object of the exercise. It's quite a historic place with the old wool sheds and storage spaces now converted into restaurants, bars and other eating places. There's also a market which is open all day Sunday and most days during summer.
You only really get an idea of the size of the bridge from this angle..it's a massive piece of engineering.Standing beneath it is awesome.

I once caught a sailing boat cruise from just behind those buildings. It was interesting but slow, slow,slow. It must have been both frustrating and a pleasure to travel in days of yore; like the difference between modern airliners and the old airships. The captain was fascinating enigma. Couldn't work out if he or she was a he or she. Long hair, long purple fingernails (polished) made it hard to determine gender while the uniform and voice was a unisex camouflage

To get back to the Rocks, as the area is known, of course it is not only the place where people go to let their hair down; there are a number of expensive hotels and shops that lure disembarking passengers who interrupt their world wide cruises.
Anyway..just a piece of blog as I will not be able to devote as much time as I would like to this exercise for the next couple of days.
It's like everything else when you are at your busiest a whole lot of work , new work, drops on your desk and off you go, like a blue-arsed fly. Often wondered why blue-arsed flies are so busy. Anybody enlighten me?
Write soon..