Farewell Aunty Jack

Television has been around for 50 years in this country.

The Aunty Jack Show was probably the most memorable and original television seen during this time.

It was at the same time brilliant and bizarre. I watch very little TV, but will happily watch reruns of Aunty Jack till the cows come home.

Grahame Bond was brilliant, although perhaps a flawed genius.

The Church Bleeds

Leader front page. No mention or pic of George Pell

There was applause after the sermon at our local mass today.

That's pretty unusual.

It came after the priest quoted Plato in reference to the recently announced Royal Commission to investigate child abuse in churches and other institutions.

The quote -

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

The heartfelt applause I saw and heard this morning after this sermon is symptomatic of the deep distress that this issue has caused to Catholics all over the country. Sermons are not usually applauded.

The distress this abuse has visited on the victims and their families is of another dimension entirely. I should know.

What is not understood is that the trauma of such an event doesn't disappear with the passage of time. It is accommodated, but it never goes away, and in many cases changes the victim forever.

So perhaps, to use another quote (Luke 23:24) -

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".

Forgiveness is going to be very difficult for victims and their families, but perhaps the Royal Commission will shed light on why this has happened to so many defenceless kids.

As a practicing Catholic, for whom the church has been a steadying anchor for all of my life, I am bewildered by the contrast between the values I have seen put in practice by the church throughout my life, and the behaviour of a small minority of the clergy.

I attended a Catholic boarding school, and my children all attended Catholic schools. Because we moved around a bit, they also spent large chunks of their schooling in state schools, as I did. I am unaware of any abuse through this time in either system.

Perhaps because we attended parish schools, many with lay teachers, abuse was less likely. It does seem to have been a problem in institutions where members of the clergy (priests or brothers) were in positions of power and trust.

I'm sure there is a link between institutional culture and abuse. As a school principal I always worked hard to try to ensure that power cliques were no part of school culture. On one occasion, I was appointed to a school where such a clique was embedded in the culture. It took three years of hard graft to get rid of it.

Sexual abuse is about power - not sex. The best way to avoid it happening in an institution is to develop a culture where power hierarchies can't grow and thrive.

So what does this mean for the church?

It probably means the abolition of hierarchies.  It probably means opening the church up to married clergy and the ordination of women. It probably means a return to Catholic social justice values that were such a feature of Vatican II.

Given the current leadership (Pell locally and Benedict in the Vatican) I don't hold out much hope of reform. Vatican II back in the mid sixties set the course of the church in the direction of inclusion, liberation and encouraged dialogue and flexibility. Many liberation movements saw their origins in Vatican II. Notable amongst these was the rise of Solidarity in Poland, and many Social Justice movements in South America.

Out of it grew Liberation theology. This is an essentially Catholic political movement which interprets Christian beliefs in political terms, and seeks to put these values into action.  The political values are about liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions. It has been described by proponents as “an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor’s suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor”.

Those critical of Liberation theology see it as Marxism dressed up as Christianity.

Like many other Catholics of my generation, I was brought up in this tradition. Much of my political viewpoint is based on Liberation theology because it matches neatly with my belief and value system. I work in my local parish in the social justice group. We work with migrants and refugees.

Pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) a man of the Right, also known as the Vatican’s Rottweiler when he was a Cardinal is seeking to reverse many of the trends set during Vatican II. Recent evidence of this was the sacking of our local Bishop (Bill Morris).

It’s no coincidence that Toowoomba diocese has more social justice infrastructure than any other Australian diocese. Bill Morris also handled child abuse in St Saviour’s school in Toowoomba in an honest and open manner by making an immediate and very public apology and ensuring that there was no contest by the Diocese to any of the claims. In doing this, he ignored George Pell.

All of this is relevant in terms of the Royal Commission. Institutional abuse needs a culture (a medium for growth) in which to thrive. Any institution characterised by hierarchical power structures, rigidity and a mono gender makeup is at risk. Moves to open the church up to married clergy and women in the priesthood have been stoutly resisted by Ratzinger. This was one of the issues that got Morris booted, and all he did was write a letter about it to his diocesan laity.

Like many other practising Catholics, I see a connection between the power structures grimly held on to by the old guard in the church and child abuse. I welcome the enquiry, and would like to see some recommendations at the end of it that look at institutional structure. My church needs to be liberated from its medieval roots, and move back to the political centre-left where it fits best.

Perhaps the strong progressive values espoused by orders such as the Josephites will provide a template.

I hope so. My church is bleeding.

Tough Times

This is not my daughter - I would never post her picture - but this is how she looks right now

I usually confine my posts to a fairly narrow range of topics.

This blog is essentially a pastime, a way of engaging the world of ideas, and an indulgence in one of my favourite activities - writing. It doesn't encroach on what is closest to my heart - my family.

I trust regular and new readers will forgive me then, if I break the rules depart from my usual discourse and blog about my family, and the very tough stuff we're going through at the moment.

Long time readers will remember this post about my youngest daughter back in 2010.

Unfortunately the resilience she showed back then hasn't endured. She's always been a strong independent kid. She's pretty, was dux of her school, and is a talented musician. She is studying Psychology at U of Q and dreams of being a Counsellor or a Music Therapist.

She is also on a Long Tan scholarship.

My beautiful daughter has succumbed to the trauma of that event back in 2010, and is now in a Psychiatric ward. About a month ago when she realised she was showing depressive symptoms, she got herself referred to a Psych.

The diagnosis is PTSD.

Her studies, her relationships, her life, are on hold.

There's something ironic in the fact that a disorder common amongst Vietnam Veterans has claimed the daughter of a veteran.

The guy who attacked her was convicted and got two years. He's out now (parole) - back on the street. He was 29 at the time of the offence, and strongly built. She was 18 when it happened. Back then she weighed 50 kg. She's lost weight since as a consequence of her illness.

After reading the court transcript I became aware of how terrifying her ordeal must have been - as much as anything else because she was isolated from help and under his power for five long minutes. Yet she chose not to receive counselling after the event. She seemed to be angry, rather than frightened.

When determining how much nagging I should do to talk her into counselling, I thought back to my days in Vietnam and remembered that anger was often my strongest reaction to a situation when I knew someone was trying to kill me, and rationalised that she was probably reacting the same way.

So I didn't nag her.

Obviously I was wrong.

The medicos are still trying to establish the root of the problem, but to me it's pretty clear. This incident destroyed her sunny and innocent view of the world, and the deep and abiding fear that it generated has taken over.

All my wife and I can do know is wait. We can see her for a short time daily, but she can't have her phone, her books, and can't talk to her friends. She finds this last bit really tough, as she has always been a very socially connected kid.

I'm finding it pretty tough also. Posts may be sparse for a while.

But then, perhaps not. Blogging can be good therapy.

LNP Imploding

The birth of a monster

Well, it didn't take long.

The LNP government is Queensland seems to be acting a bit like a pressure cooker with a faulty valve. They've been in power for about seven months.

Shoving a bunch of metro whiteshoes, white collar spivs, dodgy developers and salt of the earth agrarian socialists into a hold-all with a cute new logo, and calling it a political party was always going to be problematic.

After the standing aside of Michael Caltabiano, the (sort-off) related inquiry into nepotism in his department, and Clive Palmer's very public tantys, you can only stand back (advisedly behind something solid and protective) to wait for the next explosion.

We may see it today.

Bruce Flegg has sacked two of his staff, and they're out for blood.

One of them, Graeme Hallett, is giving a press conference today - should be interesting.

Some are saying Flegg is being set up by his own party colleagues so Newman can take over his safe seat. The fact Napoleon has been very low on the radar for weeks now can only mean internal party polling shows what everyone else already knows. He is deeply unpopular, does not resonate with voters and has a snow flakes chance in hell of holding Ashgrove come the next election. There are a lot of public servants in Ashgrove who wouldn't vote for Newman even if you threatened them with a painful death.

Getting rid of Bruce Flegg and shifting Newman to his seat (Moggill) might ensure Newman gets back next time. There aren't too many public servants in Moggill.

If this is indeed the strategy, watching Newman when he tries to explain how he is now committed to the people of Moggill after telling everyone in Ashgrove how many ties he has to the area and how he cares about it so much, will be riveting.

Meanwhile, public servants continue to be sacked, our unemployment rate is steadily rising, seniors are being kicked out of nursing homes, and people with disabilities are seeing services they've enjoyed for over thirty years being withdrawn.

 Queensland - beautiful one day - well and truly stuffed the next.

Update -

Flegg is toughing it out.

Update 2 -

He's gone.....

Thoughts on Recent Events Stateside

I’m glad the Presidential Poll in the USA is over at last.

Most of our media (print and electronic) has been full of it for weeks. I doubt the reverse applies when it comes to American interest in our politics.

I wonder how many Yanks would know the name (let alone the gender) of our national leader.

The result did not surprise, although any reading of the Right wing blogosphere would have convinced the easily led that a Republican victory was in the bag.

It’s bit early to gauge the reaction, but already the usual suspects have hit the Twitter sphere with what can only be described as lunacy.

One of the aspects of the process that I found bizarre was the actual electoral system used across the Pacific. Contrasting the American way with what happens here is illuminating.

I was brought up with a familiarity with the process in this country.

My dad, as a bush school principal for much of his career before he became senior enough to run larger schools in bigger centres, was always in charge of polling booths in his schools. In the bush, local schools are almost always polling centres.

As a kid, I took an interest in the process, and understood how it operated.

Later, as a young teacher, I worked from time to time as a polling clerk. On one notable occasion I worked at the then Greenslopes Military Hospital with a mobile bedside ballot box.

That was interesting, to say the least. One of these days I’ll blog about it.

Behind the process in this country is an electoral commission, which, in my experience, runs a very efficient and professionally managed poll. Scrutineers from the major parties are involved, and the setup is transparent and generally tamper proof.

Contrast that with the situation stateside, where each state runs its own polls, and where no two seem to do it in the same way. In addition, whatever administration is in power at the time runs the show, so the risk of partisanship is real and present.

This hit the fan in 2000. No such situation could eventuate here.

In contrast to our system, in the US elections are chaotic, poorly organised, and generally messy.

But the greatest contrast of all relates to participation. Compulsory voting in this country ensures maximum participation.

On the other side of the Pacific, turnout in Presidential Polls has recently averaged around 60%. 

Think about that. It means 40% of Americans have no say in their government. To me, that isn’t true democracy.

I don’t accept the Libertarian proposition that compulsory voting restricts freedom.

We are a social species. Participation in organising our society is both a privilege and a responsibility.

To deny that is to deny that most basic form of patriotism – i.e. the responsibility of participation.

Yanks I have met over the years (in Vietnam and since when travelling) are universally patriotic and proud of their country. To me, there is a particular form of irony in the fact that these patriots are happy that many of their countrymen and women (40% or so) think so little of their country that they don’t participate in its democratic process.

Strange indeed.

Update -

This report from AFP hints at what I was saying partisanship above. Read the last third of the artcle.

Yes Minister

Today's Courier Mail has an interesting piece about the relationship between senior public servants and government.

It's relevant in Queensland at the moment given the imbroglio involving Caltabiano and his minister, although there's an element of internecine LNP grudge politics behind it.

I've had close contacts with plenty of senior public servants over the years (including my brother who retired as a Deputy DG).

He got booted sideways once because he told his minister something she didn't want to hear.

From my personal observation, the effectiveness and efficiency of government agencies has gone downhill since the development of the Senior Executive Service.

This is particularly the case with Queensland Health.

Bottom line is, self-interest will always trump honesty (except for aberrations like my brother), so SES personnel will always tell the pollies what they want to hear.

From the linked article -   

But the biggest problem with this change from Westminster-style administration, which has career public servants providing "frank and fearless advice", to something closer to the US system of making political appointments to senior posts is that, in the words of political analyst Scott Prasser, "governments get the advice they want rather than the advice they need".

Ain't it so.....

Good Old Mother Nature

This image captures well the conflict between Libertarianism and reality.

Hat-tip to Independent Australia.