I love the Olympics
WITH great gusto, I proclaimed: "I love the Olympic Games!"
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The roaring silence which met this statement was overwhelming.
One woman in a tired voice said, "Oh, that's nice darls, aww!"
Riddle me this, if you can. Are we that caught up in the grinding tedium, the banal minutiae of our daily lives, that we can't enjoy the Olympic Games?
Please, please, never let me get this way!
Advance Australia Fair was playing. The Aussie flag was flying high. Our swimmers were in the pool battling it out, a world of training pain and dedication coming down to fractions of seconds.
I looked about me. People were too busy filling their faces and belting down schooners to even care. Sheesh! Do you know what the main topic of conversation was? The bloody census!
Have these people given up on life?
Are they the same kind of people whose weekly highlight is putting out the garbage bin?
If ever I get to the point in my life where I don't give a toss about something as wonderful as the Olympics, I beg you, I beseech you, cart me off to the funny farm and put me in a padded cell.
For there I can contemplate how and why some humans give up caring.
Adrian Simpson
Emmaville
Camps costing $4 million each day
On Radio National this morning, there was a claim that our prison camps for boat people in Nauru and Papua new Guinea are costing $1.5 billion a year.
That's over $4 million per day.
If this figure is true, then it's really good news.
It means that we are so rich, and our economy is so strong, that we can afford to throw away and burn ten times the cost of the gay marriage plebiscite every year, without noticing.
We can achieve absolutely nothing with all that money, and incidentally make sure that thousands of boat people achieve absolutely nothing as well.
Isn't this wonderful? Wasn't it just ever so right of the Liberals, Nationals and Greens to make sure that the Malaysia Solution fell in a heap?
After all, if we had given Malaysia our Moslem boat people and taken their Christian boat people in exchange, then something would actually have happened.
By now, those Christians would also be merging into our society and supporting Australia by becoming taxpayers.
Can't have that in this country, mate. Gotta have nothing at all.
G.T.W. Agnew
Coopers Plains, QLD
Support for appeal
I’m writing to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the community of New South Wales for their support of The Smith Family’s 2016 Winter Appeal.
Our appeal highlighted the impact of severe financial disadvantage on the education of a child.
These children often miss out on excursions and camps, can feel isolated and alone, and are at risk of disengaging from learning. It is heartening that our call to “end poverty – one student at a time” through education resonated with so many people in the community, who responded with great generosity to our appeal.
I would like to thank every individual who made a donation. Your support will allow us to provide out-of-school learning and mentoring programs to more than 9000 disadvantaged children across Australia.
Please know that you are helping make a direct and lasting impact on the lives of disadvantaged children, helping them to thrive at school and to create a better future for themselves.