Hansie Cronje

“The Hansie Cronje Story” by Garth King

I hadn’t realised that the life of Hansie Cronje was such a powerful testimony to the redeeming power of God. It wasn’t until this book became a strong feature at Koorong that it became evident. Later the book was coupled with a feature film on DVD.

I wouldn’t have known that Hansie was a Christian. After all I was a selfish teenager at the time. Being South African Hansie didn’t hit the Australian media hard until his very public fall from grace due to his involvement with bookmakers.

Yet after his death he will leave a lasting legacy of redemption shown by the love of God through Jesus. His story is well captured by the movie as well.

Non-cricket fans will enjoy this powerful story as the match details are kept to a minimum, a deliberate act on the author’s part.

The movie, especially in climactic scenes, you will find emotional. The book portrays the same mood as well as the written word could.

This is an inspirational story that you would do well to read (and then watch). Viewings available at my place on request.

Applause Aplenty

I like to watch ABC’s Q and A program. It is always interesting and provides a marvellous forum to be part of the political system.

What I find odd though is when the normally left leaning audience chooses to applaud. There seems to be no consistency. Both sides of politics get the plaudits.

Perhaps it’s one of the beauties of democracy that statements I’d regard as fantastic and ridiculous get equal applause.

Maybe I’m just not giving the ABC enough credit being able to recruit a bipartisan audience. If you want to join the audience like I hope to soon, register here.

Positive Ads Don’t Work

It is a shame, and perhaps it says a lot about our culture and attitude as a nation, that positive advertisements during election campaigns don’t work. Is it that they don’t work or that they haven’t been tried properly? No one seems prepared to give it a fair go.

The best positive election ad I have seen was for John Fahey for a state election in the late 1990’s. He lost that election, despite being one of the men who won Sydney the Olympic games in 2000. No room for sentimentality, or competence for that matter. The winner of that election was Bob Carr.

So far the only positive ad in this federal election campaign is Abbott’s “Action Contract”. Unfortunately I doubt that it is resonating with the public. It is shouted down by the multitude of ads from both sides that are more focused on bringing down the other person. Some are personal, other based on policy, most (especially those paid by unions) take an essence of truth and manipulate it to best serve their own purposes.

Responsible Spending Gets You Nowhere

With all this reckless spending and massive debt accumulation going on it is frustrating to hear plans for saving money, spending responsibly and prioritising being ridiculed by Gillard and her cronies.

After all, if this government were a business it would have gone into receivership by now.

If you believe Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott wants to go back to “the dark ages” of the internet by his opposing of the national broadband network. In reality he has another plan to avoid spending $43 billion that we haven’t got. That’s billion with a B. It’s just not a priority. There are numerous examples along the same theme.

If you were to talk to a financial planner they would tell you to get rid of debt as a priority and to change spending habits. But such responsible money management does not win votes in an election campaign. The general public seems primarily interested in what they can out of a government with their short-term thinking and long term ignorance.

Labor Left

Strange how people think that the Greens are a credible alternative to the two major parties. People understandably become disillusioned with the major parties. Though they would be better served voting for a good independent or even do an informal vote. If you really want some change then give a smaller party your vote in the senate, that’s where the real power is.

But voting for the Greens in either house is just like voting Labor due to preference deals. Preferences are crucial, especially in marginal electorates and in the senate and they usually put sitting Labor MP’s back in due to an undiscerning general public who are unaware of the importance of preferences in the current electoral system.

Think before voting.

Challenge: Know Your Member

There is an impending election for the Federal and NSW State governments. Yet I get the vibe, especially in Christian circles, that most aren’t even slightly interested in politics. This is a shame as these are elected officials doing what they deem fit with our taxation dollars. They are making decisions that will affect your life. There is definitely a vested interest in every taxpayer, at the very least, who gets elected to parliament.

As a starting point perhaps people should graduate in small steps. Start with knowing your local electorate in all levels of government. Then know the names of your local members and even councillors. To finish Politics 101 be able to recognise their face if it were put in front of you.

Being successful in that means you are well on your way to reading news stories, books and blogs (like this one) with interest and have something to say other than, “I’m not interested in politics.” For those that are really keen how about a viewing of question time or attendance at a community forum.

Other Dickson Books

“Hanging In There”

“Hell Of A Life”

by John Dickson

Both books were written in the late 1990’s and it became quickly evident that these books should have been read back then and not now. This is not Dickson’s fault, he produced a good book back then. Although his anecdotes do date the text firmly in the 90’s.

He states clearly in his introduction that these books will suit teenagers and young adults particularly if they are new to Christianity. Believe it or not, that describes me when? In the late 90’s.

I had read “Sneaking Suspicion” by John Dickson that seems a precursor to “Hanging in there”. The former has since been revised for a new batch of teens and young adults. It appears the other two are now lost in a time warp.

I persisted in reading these books because they had done the hard yards on my shelves for over 10 years. I felt they had deserved to be read. But now having read them it is difficult to recommend them to anyone. I even wonder if they are worth keeping. I'm glad I read them but I didn’t get a huge deal from them 13 years after the purchase.

If only I was into reading more than the Big League magazine back then.

Underbelly Mk 2

“Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities” by John Sylvester and Andrew Rule

The TV series was lacklustre when compared to the original and so did the book when it came to the intriguing machinations of the underworld in the 1970’s and 80’s.

What the book offers though is interesting background information that isn’t shown on television.

From what I remember of the TV series it was very true to the facts in the book. Of course there was more to it than what was shown on TV. Many other individuals involved and many more deaths.

People state that these stories glorify the gangster lifestyle. Maybe the TV series does this to some extent as any characters still alive gain a cult celebrity status. The book definitely doesn’t promulgate this assertion. It makes clear to the reader the results of their individual life choices. Starting with paranoia when alive and usually ending in a violent death or jail time, while leaving families behind to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

I found the reading easy going but at times tedious. It can be repetitive, as it doesn’t follow a strict timeline of events. Rather it focuses on certain characters or events and follows them till their natural conclusion. I actually prefer this style.

There are probably better true crime stories out there (here’s one, and another) but this one was still interesting.

I do have “Underbelly: The Golden Mile” book ready to be read. Although I haven’t been watching the TV series so this might make the reading very different. Time will tell.