Letters to Jim Main #3

My contribution to Inside Football has started early.

Define ‘clash jumper’ (28/3/07)

Dear Jim,
A few weeks ago someone complained that Brisbane’s alternative jumper does not contain much of the clubs main colour, maroon. Isn’t that the idea of clash jumpers? They must be completely different from the original jumper while still keeping some element of the original colours. For Brisbane, this means focussing on white with a dash of yellow and blue, while leaving out the maroon. If maroon was included it might not be much of an alternative. In the same way, Carlton needs and alternative that doesn’t feature too much navy blue and Essendon needs one that doesn’t have too much black.

Jim Main Says:
I take your point but the Brisbane alternative is basically white, so a bit more maroon would have made little difference.

Post Election

A few briefs thought on the election just gone.

Don’t Blame Me
I don’t want to hear anyone whinge about the poor performance of the State Govt anymore! It was made blatantly obvious that most people aren’t that concerned about the current state of affairs in NSW.

Compulsory Voting
As it appears that a lot of people don’t seem to care about who is in govt, there has been discussion on whether we really need voting to be compulsory. This might make the local MP’s actually work to earn your vote as they also have the added challenge of convincing you to vote in the first place.

Election Coverage
For some reason I tend to enjoy watching the election coverage. More so if Channel Nine are broadcasting (which they weren’t this time). I have watched for extended periods for the last few elections which date back to before I could even vote. ABC’s election coverage last Saturday was a bit boring, possibly because the result was a forgone conclusion by about 7.30pm.

I Have A Dream
I really don’t like being in what is considered a “safe electorate.” This basically means that no matter how bad the candidate is they will get in anyway. This may result in the MP going missing and not doing anything. To his credit though, our Federal MP does seem to be willing to dive into local issues. However, I hadn’t seen or heard anything from the new state Labor candidate. The first time I saw his face was on the ‘How to Vote’ sheet.

Advertising Campaigns
Negativity was coming from both sides. There could be debates on the legitimacy of each other’s claims in their respective forms of advertising, but these could go on for days. It’s not worth the debate as the race has been run and won. I’m unsure whether positivity will actually be able to win an election these days, which is sad. The most positive election ad that I have seen was for John Fahey, and he lost. So what’s the use when the smuttiest sort of advertising has a knack of capturing the attention of the electorate?

I Don’t Get People

This was a line spoken by Gil Grissom on CSI at the end of an episode featuring a very disturbing case. He refers to the people involved in the case he had to investigate. I use it to describe a whole different bunch of people.

I am referring to the people that vote on shows where the public popularly elects the winner. I don’t get these people because a lot of the time they have no idea. They wouldn’t know talent if it smacked them in the face. Mediocrity is celebrated while the real talent is pushed to the sides at the whims of serial texters.

Case Study 1: Dancing With The Stars

Dave the Cowboy is the worst dancer ever to be on the series, yet he is still in the competition 5 weeks on. Far better dancers have been voted out instead of him. This is simply a grouse injustice. Todd Woodbridge went last Tuesday after weeks of looking like he had the potential to win the whole competition. He was that good. It is not right that celebrities who can actually dance are voted out in place of people who can’t move their body at all. I don’t even know how Dave the Cowboy (I don’t think he has a last name) got his celebrity status. As far as I know he was on Big Brother and was openly gay the whole time and revealed his lover to all when he was voted out. What a moment that must have been. I’m sorry that I forgot to record that for posterity.

Other celebrities with no dancing capability include Molly Meldrum and Pauline Hanson. Both had a decent amount of success on the show. Pauline went all the way to the Grand Final. Luckily though, in the end I believe the rightful winner has always taken the trophy.

Case Study 2: Australian Idol 2004

Casey Donovan won Australian Idol when she was always destined to commercial failure. This was due to a variety of factors including her attitude, her appearance and well I don’t think she sang all that well anyway. It just seemed like she got the sympathy vote because of her challenging upbringing. It doesn’t surprise me that runner up Anthony Callea and fellow finalist Ricki Lee Coulter have made a better grab at it.

I don’t vote on such shows because I am not going to waste money voting 100’s of times to keep my favourite. That’s what it would take for me to make a difference because Dave the Gay Cowboy has groupies with twitchy fingers. The most I would vote would be once. While my one vote can make a difference in other elections, my one vote in these competitions is a waste. So I’ll just have to enjoy the dancing and hope that the public doesn’t vote out my favourite couple.

The Green Monster

The Greens are an interesting mob. Most of us would be led to believe that they are just advocates for the environment. However Greens MP Lee Rhiannon would have you believe that their charter was always “policies across the board” including “social and economic justice, peace and grassroots democracy.”

In recent history they have been accused of being an arm of the Labor Party, much like the Unions. This is due to their inconsistent stance on environment issues, such as the hot topic of Desal vs Recycling.

On the Ray Hadley Morning Program Lee Rhiannon MP spoke on two policies of the Greens. She sounded contradictory when describing the policies, which only led to further confusion on my part. I’m paraphrasing but this is essentially her sentiment. My response is in italics. If you think I’m wrong the Ray Hadley Podcast (14/3/07) is readily available.

Drugs Policy

• She tried to describe the difference between legalisation and decriminalisation
• Maybe a slight difference but you’re picking at straws telling someone they’re wrong for describing it as the other as they are virtually the same
• She accused Police of being misdirected towards the user and not the big dealers
• Haven’t we seen some of the biggest ever drug hauls by customs in recent history? These have led to arrests and sentences for drug criminals
• She believes drugs should be available to users and set up parameters and support programs for abusers much like we have for alcohol and cigarettes.
• I don’t yet see how this would work

Education Policy

• She believes children as young as pre school age should be taught about the diversity of relationships, including those of a homosexual nature.
• I believe most parents will tell you that they don’t want their children being taught this in schools and pre schools, as it is their responsibility. It reeks of a left wing agenda to push the tiny minority group into the mainstream. Some would have you believe that homosexuality is now the majority. These people are deluded.
• She says that these materials are very sensitive
• Sensitive to what is what I want to know. Sensitive to their cause? The young Minds? Or to the parents wishes?

The Political System

• She says that preference doesn’t equate to an endorsement
• If not an endorsement then it’s as good as because what you are saying to the public is that we prefer you vote for this mob after us because we want them to win power instead of the other mob.

I would recommend not voting for the Greens, but if you must then at least have a careful look at their policies.

God’s Plan or Purely Coincidence

I’ve never been a fan of the term “calling” as in "receiving your calling from God." I do believe that God has a plan for us. Whether this is any different from receiving a calling I don’t know. Perhaps it’s the same thing with a different name.

Ever since I started as a Patient Transport Officer I have been wrestling with the idea of applying to be a Level 1 Ambulance Officer (A/O). In the past month I have had the application printed on my desk waiting to be filled out. I realised that the closing date for applications March 16 so it was time to get serious or completely forget about it and look for other directions.

I finished filling it out on Monday and sent it Wednesday through internal mail. But ever since I got serious about the application something weird has been going on. For six months I have been in this job and for the most part it has been uneventful, which could be thought of as a good thing, but it can get monotonous. All until the last fortnight. We were called to not 1, not 2 but 3 assist loads for emergency cases. Here are some general details:

1. Man complaining of breathing problems. The house was a mess with clothes, cigarette butts, cans of vodka and rubbish everywhere. To top it all off he had defecated where he was lying. He was a big man and needed six of us to carry him outside onto a stretcher. For some reason this scene didn’t disgust me as much as I thought it would, I didn’t understand why.
2. Woman had fallen over and injured herself. Once again needed six of us to get her outside onto a stretcher.
3. Paint fumes were somehow distributed through the air conditioning of an office building. We were called in to potentially take multiple casualties to hospital. We ended up taking three walking patients to Blacktown Hospital where I had to do my first ever handover with a triage nurse. Meanwhile I had to get 3 sets of details for our paperwork. My partner sat back and watched for this process. I think he did it deliberately as he knew I had just submitted my application to be an A/O.

I was on such a high after these cases. I had a new found confidence of yes I can handle these situations and I may be good at this job after all. Only time will tell. It will probably take till the end of the year before I know anything.

T-Way Construction

I don’t know what to make of all the T Way construction on some of our major roads. Now that the Rouse Hill to Parramatta connection is open I guess time will tell whether it has been worth all the money. I’ve got to say that I am still on the fence regarding whether it’s all worth it. I can see both sides of the issue. If I wanted to be selfish about it then it’s very easy to jump off the fence and decide where I stand.

On one hand they are trying to encourage people to use public transport. On the other hand it has really interrupted traffic over the past few months and it makes the ride very bumpy for my patients.

The mess has been cleaned up in Westmead and Windsor Road of course, but on Sunnyholt Road it is still a demolition zone. The people in charge would rightly boast about how good it will be once it is finished. However, I am sceptical as to how many people will actually use it. Will it serve the people who need access to public transport the most?

In the meantime some roads are almost collapsing after years of neglect, eg Seven Hills Rd between Wall Park and Lucretia. You can lose a car in some of those crevasses. Just because they aren’t T-ways does this mean these roads don’t need to be fixed?

Girls In Skirts

Girls look good in skirts and dresses, it’s a fact. I’m referring to the classy knee length or longer skirts and dresses. Anything else and your sending the wrong messages to the boys. In my ever increasing but still relatively small sample survey, all the blokes agreed. However, this opinion is more universal than just my small cluster of participants. Some might take the idea a bit further and say that girls should wear skirts but I think that's just asking for trouble.

Just to be interesting someone asked why should we want the women around us (i.e. our sisters in Christ) to be visually appealing? It was an interesting concept and something I had never contemplated before. At first I had no idea of how to get my head around that, which is why I bet he brought it up.

Eventually we came up with some thoughts together:

• Females should be feminine and look feminine
• Being feminine helps the male to be masculine and to fulfill their role as men
• If females know they look good then they feel good
• Femininity and masculinity are created by God
• From a strictly married person point of view, if the husband likes his wife wearing skirts because he thinks she looks good then perhaps she should do it as an act of serving her husband (1 Cor 7:4)
  

Adam Brand Concert

A few of us went to The Mean Fiddler at Rouse Hill to watch a live performance of award winning country music artist, Adam Brand. His performance was way above our wildest expectations. He has such a stage presence (for a short bloke) and being a small venue he has the ability to connect well with his audience. It's perhaps another reason why people should keep their minds open to country music, it might just be different to what you imagine. I think Linda describes it best. Also check out the poster she made before and after the concert.

For those willing to open their minds to some rockin' country, Adam's latest albums are available everywhere: "What a Life" and "Get Loud". He has many other albums and DVD's available. By the way, that's me with the man himself, Adam Brand.

Weighty Issue

There were images this week of a rather rotund boy. Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph is the headline and accompanying pictures regarding this boy. The story illustrated how he got to be this heavy by the age of eight. Guess what it was?

His diet consists of burgers, sausages, chips and takeaway and he likes to snack every 20 minutes, putting away four packets of chips, three packets of biscuits and several chocolate bars each day.

And why was he fed such an appalling diet? Why not ask the mother.

Ms McKeown told British newspaper The Sun she knew what the right and wrong foods for her son to eat were but he “doesn’t like fruit or vegetables.”

Who would eat good food if you were fed all this good tasting but ultimately bad food?

It sounds like such a cop out to me. Sure it would be difficult being a single mother, however a mother that knows about good food should be passing on this knowledge and creating good habits instead of craving the peace she gets when feeding him want he wants. Bare in mind that an eight year old hasn’t fully developed a brain and therefore doesn’t really know what he wants. I have fond memories of my mother virtually forcing good food down my throat, and if I still didn’t eat it then I went without until I was ready to suck it up and do what I was told.

It got so bad for the boy that social workers were threatening to take the child away from his mother. Why not suggest drastic action such as this. He is verging on morbidly obese before he even fully develops. What she is doing is neglect, which is a form of abuse. There is no way he would be this heavy if it weren’t for the way his mother was feeding him.

I suspect the threats were aimed to be a kick in the pants for the mother to take her own drastic action before it had to be taken by others. She has since been allowed to keep her son after agreeing to change the eating and exercise habits of the family. Apparently he has already lost 10kg, which means he was even bigger before these pictures were taken.

Both mother and son just need some training to improve this situation.

He needs to be trained in healthy eating and forced to try new foods. If anyone has seen Jamie’s School Dinners you would know how bad it is over there. School kids don’t know a potato from celery. Their health system has even set up constipation clinics for young people because their diets don’t include enough fibre.

She needs to be trained as a parent as she is supposed to be in charge. She needs to learn how to dish out some tough love as well as good food. It is difficult as she is a single parent, but given some helpful hints I’m sure she could find that healthy dishes can be as quick and easy as their fast food competitors.