"In the beginning"

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The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The Week That Was


It has been an eventful week here in Australia I intend
to touch very briefly on three of these events.


This is the smiling face of one of Australia's favourite sons, "Smoky Dawson"
Smoky was a sprightly 95 year old when he died on Feb.14 2008 after a short
illness, He had a session in a recording studio only 2 weeks ago earning him
the title of the worlds oldest recording artist.
Smoky is survived by his wife of 64 years, Dot who is 6 years older than he
was, 101 year old Dot claims that Smoky was her toy-boy.
After a career in Radio, Television, Wild West Shows, and the Music Industry
Smoky has earned his place in our hearts.


Australia says sorry.


We have a dark page in our history that spanned almost 100 years, during this
time successive Australian Governments endorsed the brutal act of
removing children, particularly of mixed blood, from their homes and placing
them in foster homes or orphanages, all for their own good!!!!
Our previous Prime Minister, John Howard, resisted the public plea to
apologise throughout his 11 year tenure, but on Feb. 13 2008 Prime
Minister Rudd put this right with an apology on behalf of all Australians.

The text of Prime Minister Rudd’s “Sorry” speech

I move:

That today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.


A small section of the crowd who greeted Rudd's speech with wild cheering and
applause.

Flooding on Queensland Coast.


The third event this week is the tropical downpour tha dumped 625 mm of rain
in 12 hours ( that's a smidge over 2 feet of rain!!!!!) on the rural Queensland
City of Mackay causing some extreme flash flooding.

Mackay is a coastal City based on the Pioneer Valley through which runs the
Pioneer River, This River flats valley is Australia's premier sugar cane
growing areas with the "Great Dividing Range some 50 miles inland from the
coast when there is heavy rain, and this was recorded at up to 5 inches per
hour, there is nowhere but the coast for it to escape to.
This major rain has come shortly after many parts of Central Queensland
(the part that's on the other, Western, side of the Great Dividing Range)
have had their own devastating floods, but now hear this.... at least 50% of
Queensland is still in the grip of a 10 year drought.... Its a big, hard, land.

I think I'll finish up there before anything else happens.

17 comments:

Cliff said...

You've run the gamut here. I read the last four blogs and started out crying, to thoughts of slitting my wrist and finished up laughing.

kenju said...

Peter, due to working non-stop, I haven't been here much this week. I'll have to read back and see what Cliff refers to.

You have floods and we have drouht. You have mistreatment of your indigenous people and we have it of our Native Americans. Let's all live and learn. I am glad they got an apology.

Anonymous said...

This was a very (ab)original post.

Two FEET of rain in less than a day? That sounds like a cataclysmic event.

I've never heard of such a thing.

Two INCHES of rain would disable my city for 3 days!

Big Dave T said...

Right now I'd take the rain over the snow we've been having. We need to replenish the Great Lakes anyway. They've dropped an inch or two over recent times.

I never noticed this before but I see some blue links and some grey links on your sidebar here. It appears that the blue links are blogs whom I have linked as well on my home page. Always something new in the blogosphere.

Joy Des Jardins said...

What a great a varied post Peter...and what an inspiration Smoky was....bless his soul. Thanks.

ChrisB said...

Smoky sounds like he was a great guy~ I love his wife's 'toy boy'comment.

The apology made our UK news.
Two feet of rain now that is some downpour!

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ You may remember that Smoky Dawson has been one of my favourites all my life. I remember crying at age 10 when he married Dot.
A great Australian hero and example
of how he overcame many difficulties in his early life.
Glad all that rain is so far north of you. Did you read or hear that while the Sorry speech was on, a baby 6 weeks old was removed from her father living in a tent. Mother in jail. I think some of the removals were justified, but not all. Have you got any Smoky cd s ?
I have. Take care, Love, Merle.

Jack K. said...

Peter, a wonderful post. I had learned elsewhere (blog and news reports) about the We're Sorry speech. You have a caring, thoughtful PM. I hope we get as fortunate in our next election.

As for the weather, it seems that the gods are not happy with our attitudes and behaviors. There is nasty weather all over the globe. Is this the portent of another 40 days & 40 nights?

I wonder.

"toy boy", lol

LZ Blogger said...

Peter ~ Wow! Those storms look just awful! I hope that no one you know was affected by them? I met a bloke from Sydney last week when he and I we both in New York for the same meeting. I showed him my website of our Sydney visit and he informed me that there are actually 12 beaches in Sydney not just the two I had mentioned (Bondi and Manly). Now I guess I should go and update my website? ~ jb///

Attie said...

OOHh wat a sad post...so much more in the terrible one on the removing of the children!! OOHH how awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

It's nice that the new PM apologized - but there have been so many atrocities to indigenous cultures throughout the world that are currently going on that need to be addressed. I hope his apology can start the healing for some of these people.

Margaret said...

Hi Peter, Smoky Dawson was a true inspiration,he really never allowed himself to become a "victim" did he.
He was always appeared to be so happy and positive . I used to listen to the Smoky Dawson show on radio as I guess loads of Kids did. I certainly has been a checkered week.
Hope you have all your computer woes sorted.
Cheers Margaret

linda may said...

G'Day Peter,
You said it so well about the apology. I am trying to fix my blog up a bit and have added a link to your blog. Hope you don't mind.Is Gympie copping the wet too? It has been pretty good here, no flooding but well over the monthly average rainfall for the last 2 weeks.

Walker said...

A man who made his career making others smile, dance and feel good, was remembered by millions of his loyal fans and will be remembered forever.

The truth and acknowledging past wrongs to help make the future a better place to live for all.

Flash floods and heavy rains may spark some of the minds that be down there to figure out how to harness this type of disaster and use it to supply areas in desperate need of this water.

I thought I would look at the bright side of it and say as sad as some things are, it’s still a good week if we want it to be.
Now I better get out of here before something else happens.

Dave said...

Wow.. you did have a lot going on this week!!!!

Hope things are ok with you Peter.

Pamela said...

I'm not sure if the rain is a good thing or a bad thing????? Maybe better had it spread out over a bit more area??

karisma said...

Thanks Pete, I thought about talking of all this as well, but I have not had the time. Great Post.