Titans – Book Review

“Titans” by Michael Stephens

This is a children’s book that I won in 1993 for an essay I wrote on vandalism and it has taken me this long to read it. If it weren’t a prize then I probably would have sent it to the local church fete.

As a child I was never a big reader of books and preferred Roald Dahl or Paul Jennings anyway. That is if I wasn’t reading the latest footy magazine.

It’s a shame I didn’t read it earlier as it actually is a pretty good story. It’s hard to appreciate it fully now as an adult as I haven’t thought like a child for a long time.

It had suspense and adventure, two great features in a book for a young boy. Dahl and Jennings were masters at it.

The good thing with reading a children’s book is that it takes next to no time to read it. Despite being 150 pages it had large writing with generous spacing as well as the odd illustration. I still prefer Dahl or Jennings, mainly because I had grown up with them. But this book is definitely a keeper and will take it’s rightful place alongside the Dahl and Jennings collection for future Haynes generations to read.

An Arrogant Bunch

If it’s Craig Foster’s aim to convince me to support Australia’s bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022 then he is going the wrong way about it. In a recent article in the Sun Herald and in a conversation with Les Murray on SBS he came off as arrogant and conceited. Even suggesting that other sports don’t matter and that football [soccer] would inevitably take over Australia.

It’s true that soccer (I refuse to call it football) is the only truly international sport, but Foster should not be so arrogant when the local A League is on the decline despite the addition of new teams. Soccer does have the highest participation rates in juniors, yet our top competition can only be compared to the 3^rd or 4^th division in England.

Les Murray even got in the act on SBS recently, referring to the behaviour of rival codes as belligerent, inconvenient and unaustralian. He even suggested that we try and attain the bid before sorting out what he considers to be minor details. Getting three other codes that garner more support in Australia to shut up shop for three months is not minor!!

These two want other codes to just lie down and let them have their way. They use the examples of other countries and how they would laugh at the situation we have here. We have a unique situation. I can’t think of another country that has four football codes running professionally.

How about stadiums? We just don’t have them. I’ve blogged about it already. Our best are designed for cricket and Aussie Rules. FIFA want at least 12 stadiums of 40,000 minimum capacities, we have maybe 8. We just don’t have the population to make those kinds of stadiums viable. If Foster’s prediction is true, that soccer will take over Australia, then the sport needs to get cracking on some new soccer only stadiums.

For now, all soccer commentators should pull their collective heads in and show the other codes a tad of respect.

The Disease System

What concerns me most about my job is that my destiny is in the hands of the general public. It concerns me because they seem to be stupid when it comes to health matters. A lot turn minor things into a crisis, and I’m not just referring to ‘manflu’.

We really have a disease system rather than a health system. As not enough of the general public could be bothered employing healthy lifestyle practices e.g. not smoking, drinking in moderation and healthy diet. It’s all too hard apparently.

A lot say we have a problem with our hospitals. This is true but I still like to flip it and suggest we have a problem with the general public. There is a lack of appreciation for the services available. They are taken for granted. It’s as if they have a right to the best of medical care no matter how trivial the illness might be. Expecting the health services to be at their beck and call. Flogging the guts out of the system and expect it to be there when they most need it.

The govt is trying to pick up the slack. But it doesn’t necessarily require more money. What it needs is less bureaucracy (effectively freeing more funds) and more health promotion. The whole nation needs re-educating, as right now there is frequent abuse of the system.

Front line workers are top notch but the bureaucracy running the show needs the axe. This is unlikely to happen as Rudd loves big govt and big govt means more bureaucracy.

The cry is for more ambos, more nurses, and more beds. How about less anxiety, less hysterics, and less irrational judgements from the general public. People need to take a deep breath and gain some perspective. Start respecting what we do have. It could always get better but at the moment it is still world class.