So, one day there were three Aussie activists from a forest (The Tree Amigos) who decided to save whales and with cloak and dagger stealth, illegally boarded a foreign ship (Japanese Shonan Maru 2) in disputed southern waters of Australia. The plan; get on board and then demand to be returned to Australia immediately, thus stalling the Japanese ship from following Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling vessel the Steve Irwin. Yeh, right. Sounded a little nâive to me. Perhaps the Japanese Captain was expected to apologise for having forced The Tree Amigos to illegally board his ship and would immediately head for Australian shores. Bloody hell, they’re lucky he didn’t do a Pete Bethune on them; or is that what they wanted and all meals provided? I guess not on the meals because, like lightning, a hunger strike followed.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8400495 Here’s a link on the activists arrest then decision to start a hunger strike.

After a lot of behind the scenes diplomacy, the three were returned to Australia via an Australian Customs vessel without the Japanese ship losing headway in its endeavours but with the Australian taxpayer losing a hell of lot of money that could have been spent on something tangible (kids with cancer). Time, money and resources down the toilet.

I’m all for helping out the whale population but there has to be a better way than this. The Tree Amigos were certainly barking up the wrong tree on this kiddy plot and past actions of the Sea Shepherd group aren’t exactly smart either.

It certainly appears that the protestors from the Sea Shepherd organisation have the courage of their convictions but I don’t think this is the way to do it.

Lasers in the eyes of ships Captains? Colliding with Japanese ships? Illegally boarding a ship at night (lucky not to be fired at). Doesn’t this stuff come under some sort of international piracy laws or something? After all, the Japanese whaling ships are apparently not acting illegally and the matter must be decided in an international court. Are the crew from the Steve Irwin, Ady Gil and The Tree Amigos counting on favourable publicity or the sympathy vote to keep them out of trouble?

Are there any other protest ships from other countries involved or is the Steve Irwin representing the world? Why is Australia seemingly the only country to headline on saving whales?

Why do the research vessels from Japan kill so many whales each year? What are they actually researching? Whales are a pretty big animal after all, samples don’t look to be scarce. Are the research scientists not that sharp or do they lose their notes every year?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/article/12587777/japan-hands-over-australian-whaling-activists/

The return to Aussie shores of The Tree Amigos would have been welcomed by some and not by others.

In Japan, our actions are also the object of protestors and they are not in our favour.

They have a point after all; what would we be saying in Australia if one of our ships was illegally boarded, lasers fired into the eyes of our ships captains and collisions at sea to name a few? I can guess but I won’t say it here.

There has to be a better way than what is currently on offer. Nothing has changed and until International law or pressure is achieved, Japanese whaling under the guise of research will continue.

Footnote; are other countries involved in whaling for feeding their populations? Don’t seem to hear anything if they are. Is Japan singled out because it is a soft target?

Father Jack might be right, but it can’t be done yet.

Word for today:     Fecket; a garment with sleeves used as an undershirt or jacket.

More to come; same blog time, same blog channel.

A week or two before Christmas I had occasion to spend a few hours at Wyong Hospital (public) on the Central Coast of NSW. As a parent I was there for one of my kids who arrived by ambulance from a friends place, at the Emergency Department.

I am writing not about my kid, who was discharged into the land of the living around 11.30 a.m., nor of my numb bum which spent many hours on not so comfy seats from around 2.oo a.m.

My wordy purpose is to mention the hospital staff, the ebb and flow of patients, a couple of them memorable.

My visit was a reminder of hospital happenings all day, every day. Emergency treatment increasing and ceasing.  While most of us are asleep, dramas are occurring, patients demanding.

In the first area of the hospital (called Doctors Rooms funnily enough) I could hear, but not see, a woman calling out in the relative quiet, for pain killers. There were complaints about the staff, swearing and crying in a loud abbrasive voice. This continued intermittently over the next hour or so and staff did what they could. From what I gathered, drugs were involved. I noticed when I left the room, she had a young boy sitting next to her, asleep, head in her lap. Perhaps not the first time? Who looks after him?

We were later moved to the Emergency Department proper with beds and staff and all kinds of things happening. Doctors, nurses and admin staff all doing their thing; patients with different demands all doing their thing. A busy night with all sorts of noises. The beds in a U-shape around a raised central admininistration, observation area. Perhaps a little Star Trek in origin.

Standing out in this busy-ness, one female patient who knew all the swear words and some extras I think. With a voice that pierced and dominated. If it wasn’t cursing and swearing, threatening and screaming, it was swearing and threatening some more. This continued, security staff called, extra nursing staff standing by.

After continuing for some time the treating Doctor announced for all to hear, that the patient, in his opinion, is suffering from a head injury, is unable to make an appropriate decision for herself and a sedative will be administered by injection to allow further treatment. This brought on further hysterics by the patient in question who informed the whole ward (and probably the rest of the hospital) that she was frightened of needles. She would sue, she would this and that…In the meantime, the business of looking after patients continued.

Shuffling staff indicated the time of injection was drawing nearer, most just wanted it done (including me). The moment of truth no secret. The tempo of curses, threats and screams increased, then a long, blood curdling, nails across blackboard, ear drum splitting, traffic stopping scream was unleashed. Suddenly, all was quiet, time and noise stood still. Even those sleep depriving monitors next to beds seemed to take notice……but only for a couple of heartbeats. Back to business as usual. The patient subsided fairly quickly and taken elsewhere for further treatment. A collective sigh of relief. The rhythm of the Emergency Dept. kicked in and the staff continued doing what they do. Hopefully the woman is fine.

So to the staff at Wyong Hospital (the reason for this post) and all other hospitals, thanks for being there at 2.00 a.m. while most of us are tucked up in bed oblivious to what goes on in the wee hours.

Word for today:    Witting – knowledge or awareness of something.

More to come;    same blog time, same blog channel.

I came across this just recently when on a bit of a cleanup. I’m not sure how old it is and I just wondered if these are still used in the NSW Public Service. Reminds me of the days of typing pools and secretaries and booking a stenographer to sit by your desk and take notes from dictation.

Perhaps everyone can type a little these digital days or perhaps the person dictating, fires it straight into their computer via a microphone and then checks the result with spellcheck. If the user is not able to do this then I guess the data transfer would be handled by a more techy kind of secretary (guy or girl).

Takes me back a little, those typing pools. The ratatat tat of the keys and 60+ words per minute. I think the smiles, perfume, legs and mini-skirts were the best software for then and now; but I’m a guy so what do I know?

Are stenographers still in existence or is this a skill and practice doomed by digital dictation?

Word for today;  SHORTHAND; a method of writing rapidly by substituting characters, abbreviations or symbols for letters, words or phrases.

More to come; same blog time, same blog channel.

Yet another abduction attempt by a mongrel predator; this time he got too much attention from a bunch of kids at the skate park - a medal for the kids and safety for the intended victim.

It’s amazingly bad how many of these attempts are made and in such an arrogant way; broad daylight, around people, footpaths, you name it. They are sickos and need to be put away.

I rarely hear if the NSW Police have any success in tracking these low lifes and it never ceases to amaze me that these predators seem to have a lucky charm on their side when it comes to witnesses; there’s rarely a good description of the mongrel or number plate or make of car/van. Maybe because they target kids and know they have a pretty fair chance of getting away with their attempt. Mongrels.

It’s amazing also because just about everyone carries a mobile phone which usually incorporates a camera, or they have a small digital camera in their pocket. Everything else seems to be photographed or video’d and YouTube’d; surely some of these predators will find themselves on a screen somewhere? Soon, someone will get a happy snap that might help catch one of these bastards. We have cameras in shopping centres, car parks, speed cameras on streets, traffic cameras on poles; somewhere one of these must pay off in catching a vehicle in the act.

In the meantime, I’ll do my own little bit and if anything seems really suspicious I’ll shoot first and delete later.

Word for today:  ABDUCT; to carry off a person by force.

More to come;  same blog time, same blog channel.

One thing about actors; I never really want to know much about the actual person who plays a character. Usually they are people and not at all like the one on the screen. For me, if I actually learn about the real person who acts eg. Omar Sharif, it seems to affect the way I view the movie in which they star.

It’s not that I’m putting down the person or that I think they are not worth knowing about; far from it because many are really interesting and decent people like the rest of us. It’s just that they are often so different to what I expect based on roles in which they act. I guess this is credit to their acting skills but it doesn’t really work that way for me. They lose some of their mystery by revealing themselves to the public. Then I find myself thinking of the person, not the actor, in a movie.

Because I know an actor is a person I also tend to wonder about things while watching them in a movie. Things such as; do they whine if they don’t get a coffee break? Do they spit a lot in some angry close-up scenes? Do they have B.O. (body odour)? Do they, or their co-stars, have bad breath? That must really be tough especially in a musical love story. Do they do drugs, have kids and so on.

Now in this case it’s Omar Sharif of Doctor Zhivago fame. Apparently a heart throb for many a woman. Except I find he has an anger problem. He tries to slap a fan at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival at Qatar but seems to miss. He now just looks and acts like a grumpy, arrogant old man. Has he always been that way towards women? Women whose little hearts went pitter-patter?

It’s a shame I had to read this bit of news http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2054449/Omar-Sharif-appears-slap-woman-film-Qatar-Film-Festival.html?ito=feeds-newsxml because now when I see something on the screen with Omar Sharif in it, it will be tainted by my knowledge that he tried to belt a woman, a fan, across the face, like a cranky old bastard.

The fact that Sharif doesn’t seem to connect with the womans face doesn’t alter his clear intentions. The fact that the fan may have been annoying doesn’t alter the fact either. He went for it, to hit her in the face; just luck he seems to miss and got hair.

Why the woman still wanted to pose with this guy is a bit beyond my understanding.

Similar mystery applies to Sharif; why wasn’t he charged or at least made accountable for his actions? Maybe he just doesn’t (or never did) give a crap.

Word for today; Arrogant – a feeling of superiority.

More to come; same blog time, same blog channel.