Is the world becoming irrational or is it us?

It just doesn’t let up. As each day passes the madness grows. A perfectly normal day brings news that would normally be seen as grotesquely unbelievable if not untrue as well.  The latest is that in order for Australia to pass the expected summer heatwave the Australian Government urges us we should think of saving energy by switching off our air-conditioning cooling systems or anything else that might save electricity. The Government will subsidise the customers by paying those willing to save energy handsomely with $ 250.-, and could even include tickets to the cinema or visits to Dreamworld with free water- slides as an extra bonus.

With Australia having the world’s largest reserves of gas, coal  solar, wind and everything else to produce energy, it has all been sold overseas and we are now  running short of electricity. That is the sort of ‘freedom’ the market gives when given unfettered reign. We can buy back our exported energy cheaper overseas than locally! The Government is in a blind and groping around like an amok running Weinstein in a hotel corridor.

Pensioners who want to stay cool could do so by gathering in the coolness of air-conditioned shopping-centres. Others are provided with handy hints on how to stay cool. Included in the list is using wet sheets before retiring to bed. It is suggested in real scout-master science that with the open windows, an air flow over the wet sheets might blissfully give some cool relief to the hot, bothered, and profusely perspiring resident.

It looks totally mad to me but then so much is madness. We have a ‘normal’ man going through a terrible killing spree for which a motive has yet to be found.  Apparently gambling on a daily basis is seen as ‘normal’ now. A President who is  unpredictable, irrational and impulsive and like madman throws tweets about, risking fire storms and annihilation in order to appease his own monstrous need for grandiosity. Not a day goes by without another show of madness on the news.

A film producer who made brilliant movies, has five children, and has now locked himself up in a sanatorium for sex-addicts. As if it wasn’t his doing, raping and groping around the corridors of power!  Mr Harvey Weinstein promises to come good and repair the damage after being healed of his addiction. A true to form trick of wanton Psychiatry giving an escape from taking responsibility by blaming a ‘condition’ over which they have no control.  The poor man!~

We have almost reached the stage of watching re-runs of Seargent  Bilko or Steptoe and Son, The Flintstones.  At least it was a real world.

Putin for President?

Last night’s TV watching is what I could do with every night. Forget about all those Master Chefs or Building UK modern houses, or even those new  incomprehensible English crime shows, which are so lost in loud music and serious and significant sideway cast glances by  main actors, that any attention the viewer had intended to give, is soon surrendered over to despair. The Putin- Oliver Stone interview was rivetingly watchable. Not a stir-fry in sight nor a double glazed window. A different kettle of fish.

Of course, Oliver Stone is not known for loving the Republican side of US politics. His keen-eyed  movies and scripts never fail to impress those who are  inclined to be cynical about much of what the US is purporting to stand for. i.e. ” US style  Democracy.” A short version of which is, ‘if you are not with us you are against us,’ and we will hunt/bomb you down mercilessly, and find ways to fill up more of our privately run prisons. I suspect that Oliver Stone might well have been put under scrutiny in the US more than once.

There is a bit of a story attached to Oliver Stone. We actually met him many years ago. Our daughter was working for RoadShow which at the time of the mid eighties promoted and featured upcoming movies. Our daughter, Susanna, was charged with people associated with a particular upcoming movie, to be looked after. This often included booking accommodation for interstate or overseas people associated with a newly released movie. It was a demanding job but she was very good at it. During the mid eighties, one of those overseas guests was Oliver Stone who had just finished making ‘El Salvador.’

We had already seen  Midnight Express of which the script was written by Oliver Stone in the late seventies. At the time that movie was already controversial and even banned in Turkey. With the arrival of El Salvador in 1986, his skill as both scriptwriting and film producer were already well established. We we were not al all familiar with many films but we did go to movies occasionally. Our daughter managed to sometimes get free tickets and so it was with the  showing of El Salvador at a theatre in Paddington, of which I have forgotten it’s name. Perhaps it was called The Dandy, or some similar silly name. Both our daughter and us decided to see that movie on a weekday. A normal day.

As we queued up for the tickets, Susanna was poked in the ribs by someone behind her. When she turned around, her gaze was met by Oliver Stone whom she apparently had me at the Roadshow office several times already.  She laughed and after a bit of a talk with him, introduced us to  him. “These are my parents, Helvi and Gerard”, she must have said. The exact details of word order might well have been a bit different.  It could just as easily have been; “This is Oliver Stone, these are my parents.” It has been so many years ago! We shook hands, he had large hands.

Anyway, we sauntered in. ( ‘sauntering in,’ is what people do, slowly entering cinemas or church services but not train carriages. We ‘enter or push into’ rail carriages. The movie was very terrifying of how things can go so badly wrong from one moment to the other. We exited the cinema in a haze of incredulity. How could that have happened?  We did not see Oliver Stone ever again, except through his movies. He must have got out earlier. He perhaps wanted to find out how his movie was received in Australia with a different audience.

The interview with Putin is what really made me ponder the pity of it all. Why not have a Putin for US president? Such erudite reasoning. Oh, those direct answers. No aggrandisement nor pursing of lips. And above all, his understanding of the US. At one stage seemingly knowing more about US trade deficits than even Oliver Stone.

On the other hand, Oliver Stone does enjoy the freedom of critical  exposing the US in his movies. We know so little about Russia, much of it mangled by US propaganda. I was in Russia for a short period and loved it.

Even so,  a Putin for US president would be a way forward compared with the present one.

A Plucky Woman

A Plucky WomanPosted on March 26, 2011 by gerard oosterman

A Plucky Woman.

The punters predict we’ll have a change of NSW Government happening this Saturday. It should not happen, but change is ‘in the air’, the pundits are saying. In fact a ’rout’ is predicted. It has always been a mystery to me that people change political sides when it comes to Federal versus State voting. The philosophical difference between parties become secondary, and alliances or allegiances are thrown overboard at the drop of a hat or election.

Perhaps for many, the slip and slide from one to the other are chained to their ingrained notions that whoever promises the most in material wellbeing will get their vote. They, the voters, are indeed an unpredictable lot and don’t seem to have much of an idea of remaining faithful to their beliefs.

Of course, anyone with even the slightest notion of judging people would never waver when it comes in a choice between the present leaders of the NSW main parties. No matter what the past or indeed the future; it is a no-brainer. When it comes to sheer power, strength, determination and a core of unwavering strongly held beliefs, KRISTINA Keneally is heads above any other possible choice.  Despite all odds against her, she stays the course, totally un-perplexed of fazed. She is a winner even if she loses.

Most people that change their political alliances do so because they have been told by the opposition that things are bad or will become even worse if they stay with the present government. In state election, the opposition parties demonize and demolish, but rarely come with better policies. We have always known that.

Voters also sit in traffic, trains, or busses, for hours and hours, and blame the prevailing political party. They are miffed about relationships, the loss of their favorite football teams, the cost of bananas, and blame the present party.  All of a sudden though, like a conjuror pulling fifty porkers out of a hat, promises fly like pigs from all sides. The wavering voter takes it hook line and sinker and changes; vote in the party with the largest bag of promises. And so it goes…

Desperately trying to fend off stroppy feminists who seem to gravitate to insults whenever women are praised for their sex; dare I say also, that at no stage in Australian politics  has a female ever displayed the  charms and cheer pizzazz on a level of Kristina.

 Ok. Let fly now, become ropeable and give males heaps.

 She carries herself presidentially and looks into the camera without fear or hesitation. Her dress sense is superb and at no stage is she at all concerned about how she comes across. She KNOWS her stuff, walks like a model but nothing is deliberate for effect or even votes.

There is no doubt we are looking at a future premier in Kristina, if not now, next time around. That’s if she sticks around on NSW but I wouldn’t like to wager that she might cast eyes federally, if not presidentially as well. We might be running ahead here a little but…. What would Australia be like, finally taking the jump and govern on own feet, ditching the Governors and get our own Head of State?

We love royal weddings and he is a Prince Charming, but would he mind if we dumped the lot of them and go for one of our own. Kristina would be as regal as anyone. Make her a queen if you like. Better still, a future President.

We’ll watch this Saturday’s voting in NSW, (with baited breath,) but am betting Kristina will be the winner even if she loses.