Next Chapter - Jellybeans in the Jungle

 

Fun with Bolta

This has been an off-work week, so I've had more time than usual to blog, and to comment on others blogs. I've had great fun at Kev's place.

Bolt steadfastly refuses to post my comments, except where his moderators go to sleep, and a comment here or there sneaks through.

I've collected screen shots of my censored postings this week, so you can understand what dreadful bitter words I've let loose that aren't fit for your eyes - gentle reader. Double-click on the images to make the screen shots readable.

Bolt's original post has errors which I corrected. Strangely enough, these errors are still there. The other point about Bolt's post is that it draws attention to the fact that push factors are more important than appearing tough, as the recent macho posturing has changed nothing. Obviously, Bolt would prefer that attention wasn't drawn to this, as it shows that his contention that the problem can be controlled by returning to the policies of the Howard era post Tampa is a nonsense.

Bolt introduced another theme relevant to asylum-seekers with his posting about ex-Liberal MP Peter Katsambanis's claims that the Refuge Review Tribunal was being heavied to admit undeserving individuals. The transparent bias of his blog is never so clear as around this carefully set-up faux issue, but when I pointed it out I was again censored.

Others posted with exactly the same opinion, but they got through, admittedly earning themselves a rain of abuse from the more barmy of Bolt's regular readers -

Ricky of Barham replied to RichardM
Thu 13 May 10 (02:30pm)

I wouldn’t believe everything a disgruntled Tribunal member says, nor everything a disgruntled right-wing tabloid hack does.
Then again, I suppose you would.


"a disgruntled right-wing tabloid hack" - I like it!  

My last censored post was an attempt to summarise -

      

 I trust that none of you have suffered irreversible psychic damage through reading this!

It's been a fun week.

Best Wishes Gibbo

My old platoon commander in SVN has major surgery today. He has a tough battle ahead. This is the bloke who kept us alive and functioning as a fighting unit all those years ago. Gibbo's Guerillas are with you mate.

If you believe in the power of prayer, use it.

If you don't - pray for him anyway.

Mother's Day

My mother died in 2000, and I miss her, particularly on this day. Remembering her strong values, I found a piece from our parish newsletter today that I'm sure she would have enjoyed reading. I have no idea who wrote it.

The picture, by the way, shows the Fairlea Five. Read about them here.

From the perspective of Mothers...


In mid-May every year a day is dedicated to mothering. It has come to be known as Mother's Day. No doubt there are people who have ambivalent feelings about Mother's Day.


Women who live alone, women who have never married, women whose families are grown up and away from home, women who have outlived other members of their families and many of their friends, women who long to have children but are unable, refugee women who have been violated and the children they continue to nurture, women who make decisions alone in positions of leadership, in the workplace and the family, women who have lost their partner in marriage, women who have lost children. We are also mindful of mothers, women who have recently lost their husbands in war and torture.


The 1870 war in Europe made little sense to Julia Ward Howe. She wrote: 'why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone know and bear the cost?' 'Let women on this day leave the duties of hearth and home to set out in the work of peace'. Thus began here annual organisation of mothers' peace day festivals.


Anna Jarvis has also been credited with founding Mother's Day. She was inspired by her mother who organized mothers' workday clubs in the 1850's that provided medicine for the poor, milk for children, nursing care for the sick and shelters for children with tuberculosis. Anna's mother [Anna Reeves Jarvis] became a genuine peacemaker after the US Civil War. She organized mothers' friendship days to bring families together where the wounds and animosities of war between families from both sides were deep and harsh. Two years after her mother's death, in 1907, Anna Jarvis organized the first mother's day so as not to forget her mother's work of peacemaking and her struggles against poverty.


Whoever originally established mother's day, the central concerns were to gain voting rights for women; promote peace amongst the nations of the world; alleviate poverty; and stop the abuse of children. So, from the outset, it was a day, not simply to remember one's own mother, but to find in the experience of such active, courageous women as Anna Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe lessons for us all.


However, though Mother's Day was initially observed by women gathering to mourn the war dead and to devise strategies for peace, Julia Ward Howe's idea did not take hold, and she struggled for the next 30 years to have Mother's Day abolished when male politicians espoused a new version of the day where a more traditional view of mother was enshrined. In 1914 President Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday of May as Mother's Day.