This photo taken during an Anzac parade in the 1990′ Sydney
Just when we thought it safe to go outside the front door, our colds came back. It seems the lull in sneezing and coughing was just the eye of the storm. The worst was yet to come. We are now in full flight of a solid cold but with an appetite for food not diminished it can’t possibly be that bad. It just feels like that. We had booked a flu shot for last Thursday but had to cancel it. In all surgeries signs appear not to visit the doctor while having a cold. Hardly an encouragement for seeking help.
In any case I also noticed a sign blue-tacked below the secretary’s window, ‘the 2015 flu vaccination will not be available till after 23 April’. That date is yet to come. So, why was it possible to get this shot last Thursday? A friend of us told the same story and was told by doctor he could also get his flu shot now but it would be last year’s serum! What the hell. Are we oldies being taken for a ride or what? Who needs a flu shot for last year’s flu? The world is a dangerous place with lurking deceptions as common as specials of Super market’s butter reduced from $ 1.80 to a mouthwatering $ 1.95.
The stubbornness of our colds could also be due to the relentless campaign for the 100 years remembrance of the fallen soldiers at Turkey’s Gallipoli. All TV channels now seem to only feature Doccu-entertainfomation footage of war and mayhem at Gallipoli. The spirit of the Australian Anzacs, the legends and stories of heroism and bravery, sacrifice and duty for Mother England so the world can live in freedom. On on and on it goes.
And yet, what has it taught us? Our foreign minster Julie Bishop, scouring war ravaged Middle Eastern countries trying to get agreements, including of all place by Iran, to take back by force from Australia hundreds of Iranians that sought our refuge, a safe haven, freedom from oppression and bombings!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-18/julie-bishop-arrives-in-iran-for-talks/6402776
“Iran has reportedly been reluctant to agree to the repatriation of failed Iranian asylum seekers.
Earlier this week, Iranian ambassador Abdolhossein Vahaji indicated his country was unlikely to agree to a deal on the issue.
“We cannot put any pressure and impose any forces on them in order to send them back to Iran,” he said.
“This is against the law and regulation and we cannot [do it] according to human rights [laws].”
Even Iran is telling Australia that it would be a breach of human rights. So where does this leave us? Australia is clearly flouting its obligations, but it gets worse. People in detention on Australian soil while getting the refugee status dealt with, in most cases taking years, will be send to Nauru if women fall pregnant. Babies of refugees will not be allowed to be born on Australian soil to avoid a claim for residency status. Can you believe it? While Italy and other countries are sending boats and helicopters to try and save hundreds from drowning, Australia sends warships and tow the refugees back to where they fled from.
We will remember the fallen of the thousands of Anzacs in private and spend time in ‘Lest us forget’ in silence and contemplation, without all this Government’s phoney hoopla and shabby mean-spirited ploys to a pretence of care.
The Anzacs would understand.
Tags: Anzacs, Iran, Italy, Julie Bishop, refugees
Oosterman Treats Blog 
April 19, 2015 at 11:51 pm |
Oh Gerard I bleed for the thousands of ill treated people sent to Nauru. So unfair.
Your out of date flu serum is unfair too. Sometimes I get the feeling that older people really are taken advantage of. Hopefully they won’t decide to send us all to Nauru along with the others. But I promise—I won’t get pregnant. Nothing mush we can do though. Just keep putting one word in front of another and hope someone reads us.
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April 20, 2015 at 12:05 am |
Yes, my dad would turn in his grave for what Australia’s government is doing now.
Yes, our pregnancy days are rapidly diminshing too 😉 I am happy I can still reach my toes or wipe my chin. Reading words is still free.
.
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April 20, 2015 at 1:31 am |
The Lucky Country indeed – heroes sent to war on the other side of the world while those coming from the other side are turned away.
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April 20, 2015 at 3:06 am |
Indeed Patti,
We help create mayhem and slaughter and reject those trying to flee. That is not in the spirit of the Anzacs.
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April 20, 2015 at 4:18 am |
And yet another black eye for the government. At least it is consistent.
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April 20, 2015 at 10:15 am |
They are now going to share secrets with Iran!
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April 20, 2015 at 4:29 am |
By the way, I just got the news that many people that having taken the flu shots recently, took the 3 strain serum which is basically lasts years Northern Hemisphere composition of flu strain.
Since then a newer strain has been discovered which has already killed many. From today, at least here in this neck of the desert, the new 4 strain serum is availanble.
I never used to worry about strains of flu. I am starting to sound like my old aunt Agnes on her commode.
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April 20, 2015 at 8:00 am |
Feed a cold, starve a fever?
When I worked in the health service the flu vaccines were regarded as something of a joke. My medical colleagues informed me that to develop a vaccine in time to distribute it etc it was always a guestimate of what strain of flu *might* appear that year. Didn’t seem worth the syringe it was put in to me.
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April 20, 2015 at 10:20 am |
The Canadian nurse that gives us our vaccine tells us that men are more squeamish than women. They come in all macho and tattooed up to their nostrils, yet some at the sight of the needle ask if it is alright to lie on the available couch.
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April 20, 2015 at 9:10 am |
I find the Iranian response amazing, though quite logical.
Why would they want people who chose to live elsewhere coming back to Iran. They’d hardly be likely to toe the party line.
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April 20, 2015 at 10:28 am |
Yes, I could not understand that Australia even thought Iran would agree. What would have been the logistics of putting 500 on a plane who don’t want to?
None of the refugees at present that have been denied refugee status want to go back. There are thousands of them on Australian soil apart from those in Nauru, Manus and Christmas Island.
A plane is rumoured to have been booked to fly 10 refugees from Manus Island to Cambodia. After landing they will be given an amount of money and a flat or somewhere to live and some back-up. This is now all under military rule with no access to the media. Whatever still comes out is through mobile phones from refugees.
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April 20, 2015 at 1:21 pm
If I heard right, the Iranians are supposed to be taken by a navy ship to Iran.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:05 am
I know that over 40 seeking refuge in Australia from Vietnam were returned after supposedly being screened mid ocean on board an ADF naval vessel.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-21/vietnam-asylum-seekers-returned-australian-navy-screened-at-sea/6407848
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April 20, 2015 at 12:17 pm |
Aren’t we lucky we’re not refugees? I don’t much like the lack of soul we are finding in our illustrious pollies.
By the way … you can reach your toes?! May I sign up for your fitness classes, please? We could do them via Skype.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:08 am |
Yes, I can reach my toes when I put my foot on a stool. You should try it. It is easy after my wife showed me how.
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April 21, 2015 at 7:35 am
Thank you for a big laugh this morning. 🙂
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April 20, 2015 at 5:29 pm |
I went to a talk on Gallipoli earlier this week; it’s a battle I’d heard of but knew little about – it seems to have dropped off the collective British radar, to be overtaken by the Western Front, the Somme perhaps in particular. However, this centenary seems to have brought with it a resurgence of consciousness. And rightly so.
In the early 90s, I visited a refugee camp in Germany. Before then, I had no idea that refugees existed in Europe. Many of the people I met there were Iranian Christians fleeing persecution.
The terrible news footage of the loss of hundreds of lives just in this one last week off Italy, and today Rhodes, is a stark reminder that ever the world was thus. How can humanity fail to learn and keep repeating the same, uncompassionate, war-warmongering mistakes?
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April 21, 2015 at 2:14 am |
Yes, for each bomb over that area from us, there are more refugees escaping and with nothing much to lose, many risk drowning.
Countries such as Australia could do more but self interest and the whipping up of distrust and xenophobia gets exploited by politics and results in indifference and now has reached a stage whereby refugees are exported to Cambodia and or back to where they escaped from.
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April 20, 2015 at 7:46 pm |
All I have to say about politics is no matter where you are it’s a sorry state of affairs. I hope you both feel better soon.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:15 am |
We are on the mend but it saps energy. Thank you Jackie.
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April 20, 2015 at 10:05 pm |
Sorry to hear that the Oosterfolk have been ill. Yes, the fluvax will protect you against fairly recent strains od influenza, but these manage to alter their protein coat pretty quickly, so us poor humans can’t keep up. They are probably about 40 % effective, so probably worthwhile. Of course, the common cold is caused by piornovirus, which is more sneaky than the flu virus.
As for the ANZAC s, I think we all privately grieve for those who died, those who came back physically and mentally injured, as well as their families. I don’t understand the obsession with Gallipoli, many people my age have it on their bucket list to visit. Perhaps we should adopt a digger instead.
Hope you both get better. Regards to H.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:18 am |
We will get the new flu shot next week. We have been holed up with storm and tempest but believe it is even worse up your end. Stay well and inside Big M and love to you and your much better half 😉 From Helvi too.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:12 am
Thanks Gez, we are in Melbourne, at a conference. The went is, well, you know, Melbournish. There have been huge storms In Newcastle, with trees down, power outages, etc. Dungog was hit much worse. Hope your relatives are ok.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:26 am
We are ok Big M, but wearing swimming vests to bed. Just in case we can always grab each other tightly!
Hope you are alright with your place near Newcastle.
My brother and wife moved from Dungog a year ago or so and are now second floor up and dry in Toronto apartymet.
Here is is 8c ,hope Melbourne is warmer.
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April 21, 2015 at 11:25 am
Glad you are both ok. Youngest son is at home and hasn’t noticed a tree on the roof, leaks, etc, but, then, he may not.
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April 21, 2015 at 1:26 am |
Great post!
Was waiting for a bus yesterday when a young Aboriginal man bolted from woolies with some liberated item. He was promptly chased by woolies security and 3 transport security men…..he seemed to have evaded them but they returned with a completely different guy to the one I had seen……. A women then spoke to another transport security person from behind her hand…saying “thats nothing to what’s going on with that other lot out at Wickam….next thing they’ll all be …..you know” She made a motion of sewing her lips and said “oh poor us…feel sorry…” and smiled at me looking for solidarity.
I butted in and asked her to stop speaking in those terms as I was not prepared to listen to her baseless views. She said “I know them….I worked there……
‘Pity you dont know them better than that then’ I said.
Once more….”Oh the horror!”
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April 21, 2015 at 2:21 am |
Great reply and you are certainly doing your very best with your posts pointing out injustices of this world.
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April 21, 2015 at 1:33 am |
The flu vaccine is only 9% effective in people over 65 – in other words you only have a 9% chance it will protect you against the flu: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/22/flu-vaccine-effectiveness.aspx
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April 21, 2015 at 2:18 am |
I wish you wouldn’t post rubbish like this, Stuart – at least, not on Gerard’s blog.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:27 am |
Yes, there are always draw backs and they are seldom pointed out. Anyway, we feel like getting the shots but also squeeze oranges and lemons to prop up our immune system.
Boy, has it been bad this time.
I bet I caught it hanging around the pathologists centre a few weeks back with that stool kit adventure.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:31 am |
Unfortunately the information is interrupted by commercials asking to join this or that and of course…pay money for the privilege.
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April 21, 2015 at 2:18 am |
It’s so SHAMING to have these (_¤_)s for our guvmint !
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April 21, 2015 at 2:34 am |
Did not know your creativity was so all encompassing. 😉 It should be included in the stool kits the Guvmint is planning to post around for those a bit shy to personally get involved in giving the sample back to a real person instead of doing it through the post.
Great graphics M-R.
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April 21, 2015 at 11:33 pm
You may use, she said graciously. [grin]
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April 21, 2015 at 10:12 am |
Not went weather.
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April 21, 2015 at 10:27 am |
In used to have an alpaca wether to keep foxes away
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