Findcate

Blair had begun to pick at the subject haltingly over the last year, announcing his conversion to Catholicism (after years of secretly attending Mass as prime minister) in December. But only now is he discussing it fully and openly, and acknowledging the degree to which his religious faith informed his years leading America’s closest ally.

“But there is a reason why my former press secretary Alastair Campbell once famously said, ‘We don’t do God.’ In our culture, here in Britain and in many other parts of Europe, to admit to having faith leads to a whole series of suppositions, none of which are very helpful to the practicing politician.”

Blair’s aides have long said that his policies on intervention in Iraq, Kosovo and Sierra Leone were motivated not by practicalities or even, in the case of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, fear of weapons of mass destruction so much as a profound sense that they were the “right” thing to do.

Yet it has become clear over the last year or so that religion permeated many aspects of Blair’s work in government. Last year, Blair told ITV1 that he had prayed while making his decision on committing British forces to Iraq.

“In the end, there is a judgment that, I think if you have faith about these things, you realize that judgment is made by other people . . . and if you believe in God, it’s made by God as well,” he said.

That Blair’s coming-out would not be easy goes without saying, and perhaps accounts for his reticence during his years at Downing Street to discuss the issue.

Britain has a long history of tension between Roman Catholics and Protestants; the Church of England, which is Protestant, has status as an official church, with its bishops sitting in the House of Lords, and the heir to the British throne is not permitted to marry a Catholic. Though relatively little of the friction remains today, the nation has never had a Catholic prime minister.

Longtime liberal commentator Rod Liddle took Blair to task for in essence invoking God on the sly. “In other words, Tony believed in God but not with sufficient conviction or fervor to allow the voters to know he believed in God,” he wrote in the Sunday Times.

“The creator of the universe was an embarrassing encumbrance whom the prime minister was forced to take around with him, perhaps in his back pocket. . . . He would be retrieved from the pocket only once in a while, to offer a quiet but enthusiastic endorsement of some policy Tony was about to embark upon, and then be put back, very quietly, while nobody was looking.”

Blair also has taken heat from antiabortion groups and some among Britain’s 6 million Catholics, who complain that his record in support of abortion rights, homosexual civil unions, stem cell research and measures that might hasten the death of terminally ill patients belie the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

John Smeaton, head of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, wants Blair to repudiate some of those positions.

“Whether he says it or not, the fact of the matter is that defending the inviolable dignity of every human life is the fundamental teaching of the Catholic Church,” Smeaton said. “It would be rather like saying, ‘Yes, indeed, St. Paul has converted to Christianity, but he absolutely refuses to repudiate the killing of Christians. He doesn’t want to go into it.”

Blair’s religion is based as much on conviction about right and wrong as on specific doctrines, say many of those who know him.

“This is a man who, in terms of judgment of right and wrong, would think that his own judgment was at least as good as that of the archbishop of Canterbury, the cardinal of Westminster and the pope combined,” a former Blair aide is cited as saying in “Blair Unbound” by biographer Anthony Seldon.

In his Westminster speech, Blair said his foundation would “help partner those within any of the faiths who stand up for peaceful coexistence and reject the extremist and divisive notion that faiths are in fundamental struggle against each other.”

He will also explore the interaction of faiths around the world for good and ill in a course he has agreed to teach next year at Yale University on faith and globalization.

“Faith,” Blair said, “answers to the basic, irrepressible, irresistible human wish for spiritual betterment, to do good, to think and act beyond the limitations of selfish human desires.

“Faith is not something separate from our reason, still less from society around us, but integral to it, giving the use of reason a purpose and society a soul, and human beings a sense of the divine,” he said.

“This is the life purpose that cannot be found in constitutions, speeches, stirring art or rhetoric. It is a purpose uniquely centered around kneeling before God.”

Tags: 2003 invasion of iraq, alastair campbell, bishops, cate, catholicism, catholics and protestants, church of england, commentator, downing street, endor, europe, having faith, house of lords, invasion of iraq, press secretary, profound sense, religious faith, reticence, rod liddle, roman catholics, sierra leone, suppositions, ups, weapons of mass destruction

Related posts

• There Is NO ”War on Terror”
• Venezuela: The IAPA lords
• Transcript of President Putin’s Annual Big Press Conference
• John McCain runs for George Bush’s third term
• Al Qaeda and the ”War on Terrorism”
• The Foreign Policy Agenda of the Democratic Front-Runners
• The Absurdity of ”Independent” Kosovo
• NATO and Israel: American Instruments in the Middle East
• Colombia’s Cornered President
• Book Review: Jennifer Van Bergen’s ”The Twilight of Democracy”

MANY years ago, as branch manager of a large Australian bank,
part of my job was to vet home loan applications.
Such were the principles and strictly enforced guidelines of the
then “big four” banks, and the Reserve Bank’s oversight of their
lending activities, that a home loan application was not a fait
accompli. Issues such as ability to repay, equity in the proposed
purchase, career prospects and the quality and value of the
property were taken into account.
The system worked well for the banks and their customers, with
defaults on home loans almost unheard of and mortgages usually
repaid within 20 years.
So, bearing in mind the American fiasco, it was with some
professional interest that, under the guise of a 22-year-old wage
earner of indeterminate occupation, I embarked upon what I expected
to be mission impossible: scoring a home loan mortgage without
having the readies to pay a deposit, needing to borrow separately
to scrape up enough to pay stamp duty, legals and mortgage
insurance, and willing to contribute 35 per cent or more of my net
weekly wage to cover the repayments.
To sweeten the deal, I mentioned that my parents, pensioners,
owned their home, had some cash reserves and no borrowings, and
were happy to assist me by offering their guarantee, or putting
their own home up as additional security.
I contacted all the major banking institutions, and several
large regional building societies. All fell over themselves to sign
me up.
Most banks were prepared to lend 100 per cent of the purchase
price. Building societies were a little more constrained, offering
up to 97 per cent. My mention of the probability of Reserve Bank
interest increases, property value downturns, loss or reduction of
income, recession and illness, were all dismissed.
When I suggested that by borrowing 97 per cent of the price (let
alone 100 per cent), at first interest charge the loan amount would
exceed the value of the house, I was told that that was just
“arithmetic”.
Because of the degraded security quality of many Australian
lending institutions’ home loan portfolios, the situation in our
own “prime” home loan markets is remarkably consistent with the US
subprime loan market.
It’s time the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority took a
closer and more public look at our lending institutions, in
particular those smaller regional societies that cannot hedge their
home loan risks by offsetting them against other loan portfolios or
business units.
John Smeaton Newcastle
Fine Australians, and yet, many others go unsung
I agree with Lee Kernaghan (”All hail the country-singing angel
and the speed demon”, January 26-27). There is a list at least a
mile long of more deserving recipients of the title of Australian
of the Year.
Michael Throssell Narrabeen
It seems quite absurd that someone who sings an American style
of music and does his damndest to look like a Texan should somehow
be appointed Australian of the Year.
John White Dubbo
Why do we continue to give recognition to Australians of the
Year who already have it in abundance? Those who deserve it work
tirelessly with anonymity in areas of health, community, science,
research and military. Our history is littered with unsung heroes.
Do not hand me up high-profile entertainers and sports people and
tell me they are truly “Australian of the Year”.
Peter Barrow St Ives
If the middle-of-the road country singer Lee Kernaghan is
Australian of the Year, heaven help us if the Australian public
ever gets to vote for a head of state.
Peter Neufeld Mosman
If it is only that “[Casey] Stoner began racing motorbikes when
he was four years old, and last year won his first MotoGP world
title at the Japanese Grand Prix” that can be mentioned for his
receiving the Young Australian of the Year Award, I’m sorry but
that doesn’t cut it with me.
I don’t mean to belittle his achievements - there is no doubt
that what he has achieved at his age is extraordinary - but I don’t
see it as reason for such an award.
Let’s start putting things back into perspective for such
recognition - let’s make it about real contribution to the
community.
David Hevey Melbourne
Isn’t it just great that the Australian of the Year committee is
performing with the shallowness we have come to expect of it? This
year the members have excelled themselves with a country singer
most people have hardly heard of. If they were so desperate to find
somebody from the entertainment industry again, they might have
considered the best actor that this country has, Cate
Blanchett.
Robert Dunn Kewdale (WA)
I enjoyed (and slightly despaired at) the irony of the ABC’s 7pm
news report (January 25) on the four Australians of the Year. Not
one of them a woman, and the story was preceded by a report on how
women in Australia are still failing to break through the glass
ceiling.
Bronwyn Graham Gordon
Leave our hunted national symbol off the menu

As much as I usually admire James Woodford’s erudite environmental
deliberations, I believe he is tragically wrong in claiming that
eating kangaroo is somehow patriotic (”Worth two in the bush”,
January 26-27). On the contrary, our beautiful and beleaguered
national symbol has been exterminated, eradicated, persecuted,
culled, hunted and devoured for far too long.
While our nation rightly condemns Japan for killing whales,
millions of kangaroos are butchered every year, their joeys clubbed
to death and young at foot left to perish alone.
A growing commercial industry exists to carry out what is now
the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. Only 10 per cent of a
kangaroo carcass is fit for human consumption, meaning that the
biggest specimens are targeted first and the gene pool is becoming
severely depleted. In fact, the average age of a red kangaroo is
now a pitiful two years, with an annual quota of over 20 per cent
of its estimated population.
If you proudly tucked into barbecued kangaroo on the nation’s
birthday, please spare a thought for these creatures whose
increasing presence on our menus is far from being either clean or
green. Almost half of Australia’s marsupials are extinct,
endangered or vulnerable, our land continues to be cleared and
degraded and kangaroos are effectively being mined for
unsustainable profit.
A more appropriate patriotic gesture might be for James to start
consuming some of the un-Australian feral pest species that cause
so much damage.
Malcolm Fisher Manly Vale
Lonely literary gong

David Marr (” %26#133; but one measly gong for an artist”, January
26-27) missed one lonely award for literature in Saturday’s honours
list. Marcel Weyland of Mosman was honoured with a medal “for
service to the Polish community in Australia and internationally
through the preservation and promotion of Polish cultural heritage,
particularly literature”.
A quick Google revealed Mr Weyland to be the internationally
acclaimed translator of that wonderful Polish epic poem Pan
Tadeusz, described by many as Poland’s most-read book.
Mr Weyland’s well-deserved recognition was a bright spot in an
otherwise bleak list for Australia’s creative community.
Agnes Mack Chatswood
Aged deserve better

As a senior citizen, I was concerned to read the federal Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon, stating benchmarks for the state health
systems if they are not to be taken over by the Commonwealth.
Certainly, she referred generally to reductions in preventable
admissions, but then went on to specify “cuts in hospital visits
for aged patients and others who can be cared for elsewhere”. If
you have any experience in hospital admission practice you know
that an admission does not occur unless the medical indications
justify it and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise.

To single out older members of the population for special
exclusion is nothing short of alarming. There is a problem with
patients, usually in the higher age group, who have been treated
medically and are ready for care in a nursing home or
rehabilitation centre - but a shortage of nursing home beds, in
particular, prevents this occurring. I certainly hope this is the
specific situation to which Ms Roxon endeavoured to refer,
otherwise she is getting off on the wrong foot.
Our hospitals and other infrastructure have been largely built
by the taxes and effort of older Australians and they do not
deserve to be put on the scrap heap.
Brian McGee Balgowlah
Enough of working families

Among the irritating catchphrases not listed in David Humphries’s
“Platitudes with attitude” (January 26-27) is the one from our
Prime Minister repeated ad nauseam by his ministers: “Australian
working families”.

Besides sounding trite, it is trite: it implies that if you are
not a member of a working family you can expect scant attention
from the Rudd Government.
And if you not Australian, either, I assume you have only heaven
to help you.
Michael Creswell Campsie
In danger of derision

On a weekend when I’m more proud to be Australian than any other
time in the year, I’m a little embarrassed.

I am living in Canada, where, on one of the most popular
breakfast shows on a national news network, they have read out on
more than one occasion the Australian Federal Government’s warning
about travelling to Canada. The show asked people in the streets
what they thought of the warning.
It is ridiculous. Canada is no less safe than Australia.
I don’t see any such warning from any other governments about
travel to Australia and it is the brunt of many jokes today on
Canadian television.
Aaron Harrison Toronto (Canada)
Falling ice, ravenous grizzly bears and seismic events have
nothing on the danger an Australian faces when not forking out a 15
per cent tip to a Canadian waitress. Beware!
Simon Parker Toronto (Canada)
Stallone’s monstrous delusion

Sylvester Stallone is deluding himself that injecting human growth
hormone for vanity’s sake is safe (”Stallone backs use of
hormones”, www.smh.com.au, January 27). It is quite apparent from
the accompanying photo that Stallone is giving himself acromegaly
(also known as giantism). The bony structure of his face has become
quite enlarged and deformed compared to older photos of him.
Acromegaly is caused by hypersecretion of human growth hormone. If
left untreated, it can lead to a number of other serious illnesses
such as heart disease and diabetes.

Maureen Chuck Cabarita
Commonwealth advantages

In response to Jude Quinn’s query (Letters, January 26) about what
we gain from membership of the Commonwealth, I would say quite a
lot, really. A prime example is that any subject of the Queen may
be employed in the British civil service. This has allowed
Australians to rise to quite high positions, including principal
private secretary to the Queen. Her Majesty’s Australian subjects
may also contend elections for the House of Commons and several
Australians are members of the House of Lords.

As for living in each other’s countries, Australians and Britons
enjoy equal rights regarding visas, etc.
Rob Turnbull Hunters Hill
Manly beats Bondi

I am disgusted that Bondi, with its grey concrete surrounds and
soulless Campbell Parade, was preferred over Manly for heritage
protection (”Extra layer of protection for a beach that’s under our
skin”, January 26-27). Manly has magnificent ocean beaches and
beaches facing the harbour, a unique combination in Sydney. With
country people on holiday and the ferries bringing daytrippers, it
has a happy holiday atmosphere that I have enjoyed for all my 70
years. The least the national heritage people can do is list Manly
too.
Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
Something fishy about pet love
Ross Maiorana says he is attached to his pet goldfish (”Pet
project proves pair’s animal instinct is spot on”, smh.com.au,
January 27).
Clearly “attachment” is different from “love”. Fish have been
found to be intelligent - even altruistic - creatures that swim
huge distances in the wild.
To confine them to life imprisonment in a small bowl is
cruelty.
Jenny Moxham Monbulk (Vic)
Orbs spin a winner
The Golden Globes were a non-event, but the golden orbs are having
a huge year. I can’t walk outside these days without stumbling into
one of their masterpieces. Year of the rat? I think not - more like
year of the spider. Hang eight everyone.

Michael Deeth Como West
No rogue to ruin
The Societe Generale loses at least $8.2 billion, yet “France’s
second largest bank was able to absorb the loss and still turn in a
profit” (”$8.2b ‘genius of fraud’ vanishes”, January 26). I think I
must understand even less about the banking business than I
thought.

Antoinette Hirst Double Bay
If France’s rogue trader had gambled with the bank’s money and
won, would it still be fraud?
Anastasia Delaporta Dulwich Hill
Fruit for thought
And now for the bleeding obvious again. Sign in Woolworths
supermarket, fruit section, on the pineapple stand: “This fruit is
best eaten when peeled and sliced”. Who would want the rough end of
the pineapple anyway?

Don Davies Redlynch (Qld)
End to the chase?
Have I missed something or has the Chaser APEC prosecution quietly
gone away for fear of embarrassing the authorities?
Stephen Fox Arncliffe
A grand screamer
Congratulations to the young Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova
on her win in the Australian Open final over that nice young Serb
Ana Ivanovic. However, it just goes to show that a good loud scream
will generally beat a little squeak.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
Joe Public is asked to remain silent at tennis matches while the
players grunt, groan and squeal. Why?
John Tuckfield Abbotsford
Printer problems
A friend recently tried to buy new ink cartridges for a
three-year-old colour printer. The cost was $96 for three colours
and double-size black.

A new printer, same brand, late model costs $59, including
three-quarters as much ink. He needs new ink three times a year and
so it is cheaper to buy a new printer each time and throw the old
one away. Something is wrong here.
Allan Thomas Lochinvar
Name of the game
According to the BBC news on Saturday, their representative on a
Greenpeace vessel chasing the Japanese whalers is Jonah Fisher.

Margaret Chaldecott Lindfield

Tags: attitude, australians, cate, ford, google, hats, hero, house of lords, human consumption, job, rbi, sake, target

Related posts

• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• How the Pentagon Spreads Its Message on War
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• Everyone poorer if town’s heritage is allowed to be trampled
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated

MANY years ago, as branch manager of a large Australian bank,
part of my job was to vet home loan applications.
Such were the principles and strictly enforced guidelines of the
then “big four” banks, and the Reserve Bank’s oversight of their
lending activities, that a home loan application was not a fait
accompli. Issues such as ability to repay, equity in the proposed
purchase, career prospects and the quality and value of the
property were taken into account.
The system worked well for the banks and their customers, with
defaults on home loans almost unheard of and mortgages usually
repaid within 20 years.
So, bearing in mind the American fiasco, it was with some
professional interest that, under the guise of a 22-year-old wage
earner of indeterminate occupation, I embarked upon what I expected
to be mission impossible: scoring a home loan mortgage without
having the readies to pay a deposit, needing to borrow separately
to scrape up enough to pay stamp duty, legals and mortgage
insurance, and willing to contribute 35 per cent or more of my net
weekly wage to cover the repayments.
To sweeten the deal, I mentioned that my parents, pensioners,
owned their home, had some cash reserves and no borrowings, and
were happy to assist me by offering their guarantee, or putting
their own home up as additional security.
I contacted all the major banking institutions, and several
large regional building societies. All fell over themselves to sign
me up.
Most banks were prepared to lend 100 per cent of the purchase
price. Building societies were a little more constrained, offering
up to 97 per cent. My mention of the probability of Reserve Bank
interest increases, property value downturns, loss or reduction of
income, recession and illness, were all dismissed.
When I suggested that by borrowing 97 per cent of the price (let
alone 100 per cent), at first interest charge the loan amount would
exceed the value of the house, I was told that that was just
“arithmetic”.
Because of the degraded security quality of many Australian
lending institutions’ home loan portfolios, the situation in our
own “prime” home loan markets is remarkably consistent with the US
subprime loan market.
It’s time the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority took a
closer and more public look at our lending institutions, in
particular those smaller regional societies that cannot hedge their
home loan risks by offsetting them against other loan portfolios or
business units.
John Smeaton Newcastle
Fine Australians, and yet, many others go unsung
I agree with Lee Kernaghan (”All hail the country-singing angel
and the speed demon”, January 26-27). There is a list at least a
mile long of more deserving recipients of the title of Australian
of the Year.
Michael Throssell Narrabeen
It seems quite absurd that someone who sings an American style
of music and does his damndest to look like a Texan should somehow
be appointed Australian of the Year.
John White Dubbo
Why do we continue to give recognition to Australians of the
Year who already have it in abundance? Those who deserve it work
tirelessly with anonymity in areas of health, community, science,
research and military. Our history is littered with unsung heroes.
Do not hand me up high-profile entertainers and sports people and
tell me they are truly “Australian of the Year”.
Peter Barrow St Ives
If the middle-of-the road country singer Lee Kernaghan is
Australian of the Year, heaven help us if the Australian public
ever gets to vote for a head of state.
Peter Neufeld Mosman
If it is only that “[Casey] Stoner began racing motorbikes when
he was four years old, and last year won his first MotoGP world
title at the Japanese Grand Prix” that can be mentioned for his
receiving the Young Australian of the Year Award, I’m sorry but
that doesn’t cut it with me.
I don’t mean to belittle his achievements - there is no doubt
that what he has achieved at his age is extraordinary - but I don’t
see it as reason for such an award.
Let’s start putting things back into perspective for such
recognition - let’s make it about real contribution to the
community.
David Hevey Melbourne
Isn’t it just great that the Australian of the Year committee is
performing with the shallowness we have come to expect of it? This
year the members have excelled themselves with a country singer
most people have hardly heard of. If they were so desperate to find
somebody from the entertainment industry again, they might have
considered the best actor that this country has, Cate
Blanchett.
Robert Dunn Kewdale (WA)
I enjoyed (and slightly despaired at) the irony of the ABC’s 7pm
news report (January 25) on the four Australians of the Year. Not
one of them a woman, and the story was preceded by a report on how
women in Australia are still failing to break through the glass
ceiling.
Bronwyn Graham Gordon
Leave our hunted national symbol off the menu

As much as I usually admire James Woodford’s erudite environmental
deliberations, I believe he is tragically wrong in claiming that
eating kangaroo is somehow patriotic (”Worth two in the bush”,
January 26-27). On the contrary, our beautiful and beleaguered
national symbol has been exterminated, eradicated, persecuted,
culled, hunted and devoured for far too long.
While our nation rightly condemns Japan for killing whales,
millions of kangaroos are butchered every year, their joeys clubbed
to death and young at foot left to perish alone.
A growing commercial industry exists to carry out what is now
the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. Only 10 per cent of a
kangaroo carcass is fit for human consumption, meaning that the
biggest specimens are targeted first and the gene pool is becoming
severely depleted. In fact, the average age of a red kangaroo is
now a pitiful two years, with an annual quota of over 20 per cent
of its estimated population.
If you proudly tucked into barbecued kangaroo on the nation’s
birthday, please spare a thought for these creatures whose
increasing presence on our menus is far from being either clean or
green. Almost half of Australia’s marsupials are extinct,
endangered or vulnerable, our land continues to be cleared and
degraded and kangaroos are effectively being mined for
unsustainable profit.
A more appropriate patriotic gesture might be for James to start
consuming some of the un-Australian feral pest species that cause
so much damage.
Malcolm Fisher Manly Vale
Lonely literary gong

David Marr (” %26#133; but one measly gong for an artist”, January
26-27) missed one lonely award for literature in Saturday’s honours
list. Marcel Weyland of Mosman was honoured with a medal “for
service to the Polish community in Australia and internationally
through the preservation and promotion of Polish cultural heritage,
particularly literature”.
A quick Google revealed Mr Weyland to be the internationally
acclaimed translator of that wonderful Polish epic poem Pan
Tadeusz, described by many as Poland’s most-read book.
Mr Weyland’s well-deserved recognition was a bright spot in an
otherwise bleak list for Australia’s creative community.
Agnes Mack Chatswood
Aged deserve better

As a senior citizen, I was concerned to read the federal Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon, stating benchmarks for the state health
systems if they are not to be taken over by the Commonwealth.
Certainly, she referred generally to reductions in preventable
admissions, but then went on to specify “cuts in hospital visits
for aged patients and others who can be cared for elsewhere”. If
you have any experience in hospital admission practice you know
that an admission does not occur unless the medical indications
justify it and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise.

To single out older members of the population for special
exclusion is nothing short of alarming. There is a problem with
patients, usually in the higher age group, who have been treated
medically and are ready for care in a nursing home or
rehabilitation centre - but a shortage of nursing home beds, in
particular, prevents this occurring. I certainly hope this is the
specific situation to which Ms Roxon endeavoured to refer,
otherwise she is getting off on the wrong foot.
Our hospitals and other infrastructure have been largely built
by the taxes and effort of older Australians and they do not
deserve to be put on the scrap heap.
Brian McGee Balgowlah
Enough of working families

Among the irritating catchphrases not listed in David Humphries’s
“Platitudes with attitude” (January 26-27) is the one from our
Prime Minister repeated ad nauseam by his ministers: “Australian
working families”.

Besides sounding trite, it is trite: it implies that if you are
not a member of a working family you can expect scant attention
from the Rudd Government.
And if you not Australian, either, I assume you have only heaven
to help you.
Michael Creswell Campsie
In danger of derision

On a weekend when I’m more proud to be Australian than any other
time in the year, I’m a little embarrassed.

I am living in Canada, where, on one of the most popular
breakfast shows on a national news network, they have read out on
more than one occasion the Australian Federal Government’s warning
about travelling to Canada. The show asked people in the streets
what they thought of the warning.
It is ridiculous. Canada is no less safe than Australia.
I don’t see any such warning from any other governments about
travel to Australia and it is the brunt of many jokes today on
Canadian television.
Aaron Harrison Toronto (Canada)
Falling ice, ravenous grizzly bears and seismic events have
nothing on the danger an Australian faces when not forking out a 15
per cent tip to a Canadian waitress. Beware!
Simon Parker Toronto (Canada)
Stallone’s monstrous delusion

Sylvester Stallone is deluding himself that injecting human growth
hormone for vanity’s sake is safe (”Stallone backs use of
hormones”, www.smh.com.au, January 27). It is quite apparent from
the accompanying photo that Stallone is giving himself acromegaly
(also known as giantism). The bony structure of his face has become
quite enlarged and deformed compared to older photos of him.
Acromegaly is caused by hypersecretion of human growth hormone. If
left untreated, it can lead to a number of other serious illnesses
such as heart disease and diabetes.

Maureen Chuck Cabarita
Commonwealth advantages

In response to Jude Quinn’s query (Letters, January 26) about what
we gain from membership of the Commonwealth, I would say quite a
lot, really. A prime example is that any subject of the Queen may
be employed in the British civil service. This has allowed
Australians to rise to quite high positions, including principal
private secretary to the Queen. Her Majesty’s Australian subjects
may also contend elections for the House of Commons and several
Australians are members of the House of Lords.

As for living in each other’s countries, Australians and Britons
enjoy equal rights regarding visas, etc.
Rob Turnbull Hunters Hill
Manly beats Bondi

I am disgusted that Bondi, with its grey concrete surrounds and
soulless Campbell Parade, was preferred over Manly for heritage
protection (”Extra layer of protection for a beach that’s under our
skin”, January 26-27). Manly has magnificent ocean beaches and
beaches facing the harbour, a unique combination in Sydney. With
country people on holiday and the ferries bringing daytrippers, it
has a happy holiday atmosphere that I have enjoyed for all my 70
years. The least the national heritage people can do is list Manly
too.
Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
Something fishy about pet love
Ross Maiorana says he is attached to his pet goldfish (”Pet
project proves pair’s animal instinct is spot on”, smh.com.au,
January 27).
Clearly “attachment” is different from “love”. Fish have been
found to be intelligent - even altruistic - creatures that swim
huge distances in the wild.
To confine them to life imprisonment in a small bowl is
cruelty.
Jenny Moxham Monbulk (Vic)
Orbs spin a winner
The Golden Globes were a non-event, but the golden orbs are having
a huge year. I can’t walk outside these days without stumbling into
one of their masterpieces. Year of the rat? I think not - more like
year of the spider. Hang eight everyone.

Michael Deeth Como West
No rogue to ruin
The Societe Generale loses at least $8.2 billion, yet “France’s
second largest bank was able to absorb the loss and still turn in a
profit” (”$8.2b ‘genius of fraud’ vanishes”, January 26). I think I
must understand even less about the banking business than I
thought.

Antoinette Hirst Double Bay
If France’s rogue trader had gambled with the bank’s money and
won, would it still be fraud?
Anastasia Delaporta Dulwich Hill
Fruit for thought
And now for the bleeding obvious again. Sign in Woolworths
supermarket, fruit section, on the pineapple stand: “This fruit is
best eaten when peeled and sliced”. Who would want the rough end of
the pineapple anyway?

Don Davies Redlynch (Qld)
End to the chase?
Have I missed something or has the Chaser APEC prosecution quietly
gone away for fear of embarrassing the authorities?
Stephen Fox Arncliffe
A grand screamer
Congratulations to the young Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova
on her win in the Australian Open final over that nice young Serb
Ana Ivanovic. However, it just goes to show that a good loud scream
will generally beat a little squeak.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
Joe Public is asked to remain silent at tennis matches while the
players grunt, groan and squeal. Why?
John Tuckfield Abbotsford
Printer problems
A friend recently tried to buy new ink cartridges for a
three-year-old colour printer. The cost was $96 for three colours
and double-size black.

A new printer, same brand, late model costs $59, including
three-quarters as much ink. He needs new ink three times a year and
so it is cheaper to buy a new printer each time and throw the old
one away. Something is wrong here.
Allan Thomas Lochinvar
Name of the game
According to the BBC news on Saturday, their representative on a
Greenpeace vessel chasing the Japanese whalers is Jonah Fisher.

Margaret Chaldecott Lindfield

Tags: attitude, australians, cate, ford, google, hats, hero, house of lords, human consumption, job, rbi, sake, target

Related posts

• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• How the Pentagon Spreads Its Message on War
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• Everyone poorer if town’s heritage is allowed to be trampled
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated

MANY years ago, as branch manager of a large Australian bank,
part of my job was to vet home loan applications.
Such were the principles and strictly enforced guidelines of the
then “big four” banks, and the Reserve Bank’s oversight of their
lending activities, that a home loan application was not a fait
accompli. Issues such as ability to repay, equity in the proposed
purchase, career prospects and the quality and value of the
property were taken into account.
The system worked well for the banks and their customers, with
defaults on home loans almost unheard of and mortgages usually
repaid within 20 years.
So, bearing in mind the American fiasco, it was with some
professional interest that, under the guise of a 22-year-old wage
earner of indeterminate occupation, I embarked upon what I expected
to be mission impossible: scoring a home loan mortgage without
having the readies to pay a deposit, needing to borrow separately
to scrape up enough to pay stamp duty, legals and mortgage
insurance, and willing to contribute 35 per cent or more of my net
weekly wage to cover the repayments.
To sweeten the deal, I mentioned that my parents, pensioners,
owned their home, had some cash reserves and no borrowings, and
were happy to assist me by offering their guarantee, or putting
their own home up as additional security.
I contacted all the major banking institutions, and several
large regional building societies. All fell over themselves to sign
me up.
Most banks were prepared to lend 100 per cent of the purchase
price. Building societies were a little more constrained, offering
up to 97 per cent. My mention of the probability of Reserve Bank
interest increases, property value downturns, loss or reduction of
income, recession and illness, were all dismissed.
When I suggested that by borrowing 97 per cent of the price (let
alone 100 per cent), at first interest charge the loan amount would
exceed the value of the house, I was told that that was just
“arithmetic”.
Because of the degraded security quality of many Australian
lending institutions’ home loan portfolios, the situation in our
own “prime” home loan markets is remarkably consistent with the US
subprime loan market.
It’s time the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority took a
closer and more public look at our lending institutions, in
particular those smaller regional societies that cannot hedge their
home loan risks by offsetting them against other loan portfolios or
business units.
John Smeaton Newcastle
Fine Australians, and yet, many others go unsung
I agree with Lee Kernaghan (”All hail the country-singing angel
and the speed demon”, January 26-27). There is a list at least a
mile long of more deserving recipients of the title of Australian
of the Year.
Michael Throssell Narrabeen
It seems quite absurd that someone who sings an American style
of music and does his damndest to look like a Texan should somehow
be appointed Australian of the Year.
John White Dubbo
Why do we continue to give recognition to Australians of the
Year who already have it in abundance? Those who deserve it work
tirelessly with anonymity in areas of health, community, science,
research and military. Our history is littered with unsung heroes.
Do not hand me up high-profile entertainers and sports people and
tell me they are truly “Australian of the Year”.
Peter Barrow St Ives
If the middle-of-the road country singer Lee Kernaghan is
Australian of the Year, heaven help us if the Australian public
ever gets to vote for a head of state.
Peter Neufeld Mosman
If it is only that “[Casey] Stoner began racing motorbikes when
he was four years old, and last year won his first MotoGP world
title at the Japanese Grand Prix” that can be mentioned for his
receiving the Young Australian of the Year Award, I’m sorry but
that doesn’t cut it with me.
I don’t mean to belittle his achievements - there is no doubt
that what he has achieved at his age is extraordinary - but I don’t
see it as reason for such an award.
Let’s start putting things back into perspective for such
recognition - let’s make it about real contribution to the
community.
David Hevey Melbourne
Isn’t it just great that the Australian of the Year committee is
performing with the shallowness we have come to expect of it? This
year the members have excelled themselves with a country singer
most people have hardly heard of. If they were so desperate to find
somebody from the entertainment industry again, they might have
considered the best actor that this country has, Cate
Blanchett.
Robert Dunn Kewdale (WA)
I enjoyed (and slightly despaired at) the irony of the ABC’s 7pm
news report (January 25) on the four Australians of the Year. Not
one of them a woman, and the story was preceded by a report on how
women in Australia are still failing to break through the glass
ceiling.
Bronwyn Graham Gordon
Leave our hunted national symbol off the menu

As much as I usually admire James Woodford’s erudite environmental
deliberations, I believe he is tragically wrong in claiming that
eating kangaroo is somehow patriotic (”Worth two in the bush”,
January 26-27). On the contrary, our beautiful and beleaguered
national symbol has been exterminated, eradicated, persecuted,
culled, hunted and devoured for far too long.
While our nation rightly condemns Japan for killing whales,
millions of kangaroos are butchered every year, their joeys clubbed
to death and young at foot left to perish alone.
A growing commercial industry exists to carry out what is now
the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. Only 10 per cent of a
kangaroo carcass is fit for human consumption, meaning that the
biggest specimens are targeted first and the gene pool is becoming
severely depleted. In fact, the average age of a red kangaroo is
now a pitiful two years, with an annual quota of over 20 per cent
of its estimated population.
If you proudly tucked into barbecued kangaroo on the nation’s
birthday, please spare a thought for these creatures whose
increasing presence on our menus is far from being either clean or
green. Almost half of Australia’s marsupials are extinct,
endangered or vulnerable, our land continues to be cleared and
degraded and kangaroos are effectively being mined for
unsustainable profit.
A more appropriate patriotic gesture might be for James to start
consuming some of the un-Australian feral pest species that cause
so much damage.
Malcolm Fisher Manly Vale
Lonely literary gong

David Marr (” %26#133; but one measly gong for an artist”, January
26-27) missed one lonely award for literature in Saturday’s honours
list. Marcel Weyland of Mosman was honoured with a medal “for
service to the Polish community in Australia and internationally
through the preservation and promotion of Polish cultural heritage,
particularly literature”.
A quick Google revealed Mr Weyland to be the internationally
acclaimed translator of that wonderful Polish epic poem Pan
Tadeusz, described by many as Poland’s most-read book.
Mr Weyland’s well-deserved recognition was a bright spot in an
otherwise bleak list for Australia’s creative community.
Agnes Mack Chatswood
Aged deserve better

As a senior citizen, I was concerned to read the federal Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon, stating benchmarks for the state health
systems if they are not to be taken over by the Commonwealth.
Certainly, she referred generally to reductions in preventable
admissions, but then went on to specify “cuts in hospital visits
for aged patients and others who can be cared for elsewhere”. If
you have any experience in hospital admission practice you know
that an admission does not occur unless the medical indications
justify it and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise.

To single out older members of the population for special
exclusion is nothing short of alarming. There is a problem with
patients, usually in the higher age group, who have been treated
medically and are ready for care in a nursing home or
rehabilitation centre - but a shortage of nursing home beds, in
particular, prevents this occurring. I certainly hope this is the
specific situation to which Ms Roxon endeavoured to refer,
otherwise she is getting off on the wrong foot.
Our hospitals and other infrastructure have been largely built
by the taxes and effort of older Australians and they do not
deserve to be put on the scrap heap.
Brian McGee Balgowlah
Enough of working families

Among the irritating catchphrases not listed in David Humphries’s
“Platitudes with attitude” (January 26-27) is the one from our
Prime Minister repeated ad nauseam by his ministers: “Australian
working families”.

Besides sounding trite, it is trite: it implies that if you are
not a member of a working family you can expect scant attention
from the Rudd Government.
And if you not Australian, either, I assume you have only heaven
to help you.
Michael Creswell Campsie
In danger of derision

On a weekend when I’m more proud to be Australian than any other
time in the year, I’m a little embarrassed.

I am living in Canada, where, on one of the most popular
breakfast shows on a national news network, they have read out on
more than one occasion the Australian Federal Government’s warning
about travelling to Canada. The show asked people in the streets
what they thought of the warning.
It is ridiculous. Canada is no less safe than Australia.
I don’t see any such warning from any other governments about
travel to Australia and it is the brunt of many jokes today on
Canadian television.
Aaron Harrison Toronto (Canada)
Falling ice, ravenous grizzly bears and seismic events have
nothing on the danger an Australian faces when not forking out a 15
per cent tip to a Canadian waitress. Beware!
Simon Parker Toronto (Canada)
Stallone’s monstrous delusion

Sylvester Stallone is deluding himself that injecting human growth
hormone for vanity’s sake is safe (”Stallone backs use of
hormones”, www.smh.com.au, January 27). It is quite apparent from
the accompanying photo that Stallone is giving himself acromegaly
(also known as giantism). The bony structure of his face has become
quite enlarged and deformed compared to older photos of him.
Acromegaly is caused by hypersecretion of human growth hormone. If
left untreated, it can lead to a number of other serious illnesses
such as heart disease and diabetes.

Maureen Chuck Cabarita
Commonwealth advantages

In response to Jude Quinn’s query (Letters, January 26) about what
we gain from membership of the Commonwealth, I would say quite a
lot, really. A prime example is that any subject of the Queen may
be employed in the British civil service. This has allowed
Australians to rise to quite high positions, including principal
private secretary to the Queen. Her Majesty’s Australian subjects
may also contend elections for the House of Commons and several
Australians are members of the House of Lords.

As for living in each other’s countries, Australians and Britons
enjoy equal rights regarding visas, etc.
Rob Turnbull Hunters Hill
Manly beats Bondi

I am disgusted that Bondi, with its grey concrete surrounds and
soulless Campbell Parade, was preferred over Manly for heritage
protection (”Extra layer of protection for a beach that’s under our
skin”, January 26-27). Manly has magnificent ocean beaches and
beaches facing the harbour, a unique combination in Sydney. With
country people on holiday and the ferries bringing daytrippers, it
has a happy holiday atmosphere that I have enjoyed for all my 70
years. The least the national heritage people can do is list Manly
too.
Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
Something fishy about pet love
Ross Maiorana says he is attached to his pet goldfish (”Pet
project proves pair’s animal instinct is spot on”, smh.com.au,
January 27).
Clearly “attachment” is different from “love”. Fish have been
found to be intelligent - even altruistic - creatures that swim
huge distances in the wild.
To confine them to life imprisonment in a small bowl is
cruelty.
Jenny Moxham Monbulk (Vic)
Orbs spin a winner
The Golden Globes were a non-event, but the golden orbs are having
a huge year. I can’t walk outside these days without stumbling into
one of their masterpieces. Year of the rat? I think not - more like
year of the spider. Hang eight everyone.

Michael Deeth Como West
No rogue to ruin
The Societe Generale loses at least $8.2 billion, yet “France’s
second largest bank was able to absorb the loss and still turn in a
profit” (”$8.2b ‘genius of fraud’ vanishes”, January 26). I think I
must understand even less about the banking business than I
thought.

Antoinette Hirst Double Bay
If France’s rogue trader had gambled with the bank’s money and
won, would it still be fraud?
Anastasia Delaporta Dulwich Hill
Fruit for thought
And now for the bleeding obvious again. Sign in Woolworths
supermarket, fruit section, on the pineapple stand: “This fruit is
best eaten when peeled and sliced”. Who would want the rough end of
the pineapple anyway?

Don Davies Redlynch (Qld)
End to the chase?
Have I missed something or has the Chaser APEC prosecution quietly
gone away for fear of embarrassing the authorities?
Stephen Fox Arncliffe
A grand screamer
Congratulations to the young Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova
on her win in the Australian Open final over that nice young Serb
Ana Ivanovic. However, it just goes to show that a good loud scream
will generally beat a little squeak.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
Joe Public is asked to remain silent at tennis matches while the
players grunt, groan and squeal. Why?
John Tuckfield Abbotsford
Printer problems
A friend recently tried to buy new ink cartridges for a
three-year-old colour printer. The cost was $96 for three colours
and double-size black.

A new printer, same brand, late model costs $59, including
three-quarters as much ink. He needs new ink three times a year and
so it is cheaper to buy a new printer each time and throw the old
one away. Something is wrong here.
Allan Thomas Lochinvar
Name of the game
According to the BBC news on Saturday, their representative on a
Greenpeace vessel chasing the Japanese whalers is Jonah Fisher.

Margaret Chaldecott Lindfield

Tags: attitude, australians, cate, ford, google, hats, hero, house of lords, human consumption, job, rbi, sake, target

Related posts

• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• How the Pentagon Spreads Its Message on War
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• Everyone poorer if town’s heritage is allowed to be trampled
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated

MANY years ago, as branch manager of a large Australian bank,
part of my job was to vet home loan applications.
Such were the principles and strictly enforced guidelines of the
then “big four” banks, and the Reserve Bank’s oversight of their
lending activities, that a home loan application was not a fait
accompli. Issues such as ability to repay, equity in the proposed
purchase, career prospects and the quality and value of the
property were taken into account.
The system worked well for the banks and their customers, with
defaults on home loans almost unheard of and mortgages usually
repaid within 20 years.
So, bearing in mind the American fiasco, it was with some
professional interest that, under the guise of a 22-year-old wage
earner of indeterminate occupation, I embarked upon what I expected
to be mission impossible: scoring a home loan mortgage without
having the readies to pay a deposit, needing to borrow separately
to scrape up enough to pay stamp duty, legals and mortgage
insurance, and willing to contribute 35 per cent or more of my net
weekly wage to cover the repayments.
To sweeten the deal, I mentioned that my parents, pensioners,
owned their home, had some cash reserves and no borrowings, and
were happy to assist me by offering their guarantee, or putting
their own home up as additional security.
I contacted all the major banking institutions, and several
large regional building societies. All fell over themselves to sign
me up.
Most banks were prepared to lend 100 per cent of the purchase
price. Building societies were a little more constrained, offering
up to 97 per cent. My mention of the probability of Reserve Bank
interest increases, property value downturns, loss or reduction of
income, recession and illness, were all dismissed.
When I suggested that by borrowing 97 per cent of the price (let
alone 100 per cent), at first interest charge the loan amount would
exceed the value of the house, I was told that that was just
“arithmetic”.
Because of the degraded security quality of many Australian
lending institutions’ home loan portfolios, the situation in our
own “prime” home loan markets is remarkably consistent with the US
subprime loan market.
It’s time the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority took a
closer and more public look at our lending institutions, in
particular those smaller regional societies that cannot hedge their
home loan risks by offsetting them against other loan portfolios or
business units.
John Smeaton Newcastle
Fine Australians, and yet, many others go unsung
I agree with Lee Kernaghan (”All hail the country-singing angel
and the speed demon”, January 26-27). There is a list at least a
mile long of more deserving recipients of the title of Australian
of the Year.
Michael Throssell Narrabeen
It seems quite absurd that someone who sings an American style
of music and does his damndest to look like a Texan should somehow
be appointed Australian of the Year.
John White Dubbo
Why do we continue to give recognition to Australians of the
Year who already have it in abundance? Those who deserve it work
tirelessly with anonymity in areas of health, community, science,
research and military. Our history is littered with unsung heroes.
Do not hand me up high-profile entertainers and sports people and
tell me they are truly “Australian of the Year”.
Peter Barrow St Ives
If the middle-of-the road country singer Lee Kernaghan is
Australian of the Year, heaven help us if the Australian public
ever gets to vote for a head of state.
Peter Neufeld Mosman
If it is only that “[Casey] Stoner began racing motorbikes when
he was four years old, and last year won his first MotoGP world
title at the Japanese Grand Prix” that can be mentioned for his
receiving the Young Australian of the Year Award, I’m sorry but
that doesn’t cut it with me.
I don’t mean to belittle his achievements - there is no doubt
that what he has achieved at his age is extraordinary - but I don’t
see it as reason for such an award.
Let’s start putting things back into perspective for such
recognition - let’s make it about real contribution to the
community.
David Hevey Melbourne
Isn’t it just great that the Australian of the Year committee is
performing with the shallowness we have come to expect of it? This
year the members have excelled themselves with a country singer
most people have hardly heard of. If they were so desperate to find
somebody from the entertainment industry again, they might have
considered the best actor that this country has, Cate
Blanchett.
Robert Dunn Kewdale (WA)
I enjoyed (and slightly despaired at) the irony of the ABC’s 7pm
news report (January 25) on the four Australians of the Year. Not
one of them a woman, and the story was preceded by a report on how
women in Australia are still failing to break through the glass
ceiling.
Bronwyn Graham Gordon
Leave our hunted national symbol off the menu

As much as I usually admire James Woodford’s erudite environmental
deliberations, I believe he is tragically wrong in claiming that
eating kangaroo is somehow patriotic (”Worth two in the bush”,
January 26-27). On the contrary, our beautiful and beleaguered
national symbol has been exterminated, eradicated, persecuted,
culled, hunted and devoured for far too long.
While our nation rightly condemns Japan for killing whales,
millions of kangaroos are butchered every year, their joeys clubbed
to death and young at foot left to perish alone.
A growing commercial industry exists to carry out what is now
the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. Only 10 per cent of a
kangaroo carcass is fit for human consumption, meaning that the
biggest specimens are targeted first and the gene pool is becoming
severely depleted. In fact, the average age of a red kangaroo is
now a pitiful two years, with an annual quota of over 20 per cent
of its estimated population.
If you proudly tucked into barbecued kangaroo on the nation’s
birthday, please spare a thought for these creatures whose
increasing presence on our menus is far from being either clean or
green. Almost half of Australia’s marsupials are extinct,
endangered or vulnerable, our land continues to be cleared and
degraded and kangaroos are effectively being mined for
unsustainable profit.
A more appropriate patriotic gesture might be for James to start
consuming some of the un-Australian feral pest species that cause
so much damage.
Malcolm Fisher Manly Vale
Lonely literary gong

David Marr (” %26#133; but one measly gong for an artist”, January
26-27) missed one lonely award for literature in Saturday’s honours
list. Marcel Weyland of Mosman was honoured with a medal “for
service to the Polish community in Australia and internationally
through the preservation and promotion of Polish cultural heritage,
particularly literature”.
A quick Google revealed Mr Weyland to be the internationally
acclaimed translator of that wonderful Polish epic poem Pan
Tadeusz, described by many as Poland’s most-read book.
Mr Weyland’s well-deserved recognition was a bright spot in an
otherwise bleak list for Australia’s creative community.
Agnes Mack Chatswood
Aged deserve better

As a senior citizen, I was concerned to read the federal Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon, stating benchmarks for the state health
systems if they are not to be taken over by the Commonwealth.
Certainly, she referred generally to reductions in preventable
admissions, but then went on to specify “cuts in hospital visits
for aged patients and others who can be cared for elsewhere”. If
you have any experience in hospital admission practice you know
that an admission does not occur unless the medical indications
justify it and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise.

To single out older members of the population for special
exclusion is nothing short of alarming. There is a problem with
patients, usually in the higher age group, who have been treated
medically and are ready for care in a nursing home or
rehabilitation centre - but a shortage of nursing home beds, in
particular, prevents this occurring. I certainly hope this is the
specific situation to which Ms Roxon endeavoured to refer,
otherwise she is getting off on the wrong foot.
Our hospitals and other infrastructure have been largely built
by the taxes and effort of older Australians and they do not
deserve to be put on the scrap heap.
Brian McGee Balgowlah
Enough of working families

Among the irritating catchphrases not listed in David Humphries’s
“Platitudes with attitude” (January 26-27) is the one from our
Prime Minister repeated ad nauseam by his ministers: “Australian
working families”.

Besides sounding trite, it is trite: it implies that if you are
not a member of a working family you can expect scant attention
from the Rudd Government.
And if you not Australian, either, I assume you have only heaven
to help you.
Michael Creswell Campsie
In danger of derision

On a weekend when I’m more proud to be Australian than any other
time in the year, I’m a little embarrassed.

I am living in Canada, where, on one of the most popular
breakfast shows on a national news network, they have read out on
more than one occasion the Australian Federal Government’s warning
about travelling to Canada. The show asked people in the streets
what they thought of the warning.
It is ridiculous. Canada is no less safe than Australia.
I don’t see any such warning from any other governments about
travel to Australia and it is the brunt of many jokes today on
Canadian television.
Aaron Harrison Toronto (Canada)
Falling ice, ravenous grizzly bears and seismic events have
nothing on the danger an Australian faces when not forking out a 15
per cent tip to a Canadian waitress. Beware!
Simon Parker Toronto (Canada)
Stallone’s monstrous delusion

Sylvester Stallone is deluding himself that injecting human growth
hormone for vanity’s sake is safe (”Stallone backs use of
hormones”, www.smh.com.au, January 27). It is quite apparent from
the accompanying photo that Stallone is giving himself acromegaly
(also known as giantism). The bony structure of his face has become
quite enlarged and deformed compared to older photos of him.
Acromegaly is caused by hypersecretion of human growth hormone. If
left untreated, it can lead to a number of other serious illnesses
such as heart disease and diabetes.

Maureen Chuck Cabarita
Commonwealth advantages

In response to Jude Quinn’s query (Letters, January 26) about what
we gain from membership of the Commonwealth, I would say quite a
lot, really. A prime example is that any subject of the Queen may
be employed in the British civil service. This has allowed
Australians to rise to quite high positions, including principal
private secretary to the Queen. Her Majesty’s Australian subjects
may also contend elections for the House of Commons and several
Australians are members of the House of Lords.

As for living in each other’s countries, Australians and Britons
enjoy equal rights regarding visas, etc.
Rob Turnbull Hunters Hill
Manly beats Bondi

I am disgusted that Bondi, with its grey concrete surrounds and
soulless Campbell Parade, was preferred over Manly for heritage
protection (”Extra layer of protection for a beach that’s under our
skin”, January 26-27). Manly has magnificent ocean beaches and
beaches facing the harbour, a unique combination in Sydney. With
country people on holiday and the ferries bringing daytrippers, it
has a happy holiday atmosphere that I have enjoyed for all my 70
years. The least the national heritage people can do is list Manly
too.
Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
Something fishy about pet love
Ross Maiorana says he is attached to his pet goldfish (”Pet
project proves pair’s animal instinct is spot on”, smh.com.au,
January 27).
Clearly “attachment” is different from “love”. Fish have been
found to be intelligent - even altruistic - creatures that swim
huge distances in the wild.
To confine them to life imprisonment in a small bowl is
cruelty.
Jenny Moxham Monbulk (Vic)
Orbs spin a winner
The Golden Globes were a non-event, but the golden orbs are having
a huge year. I can’t walk outside these days without stumbling into
one of their masterpieces. Year of the rat? I think not - more like
year of the spider. Hang eight everyone.

Michael Deeth Como West
No rogue to ruin
The Societe Generale loses at least $8.2 billion, yet “France’s
second largest bank was able to absorb the loss and still turn in a
profit” (”$8.2b ‘genius of fraud’ vanishes”, January 26). I think I
must understand even less about the banking business than I
thought.

Antoinette Hirst Double Bay
If France’s rogue trader had gambled with the bank’s money and
won, would it still be fraud?
Anastasia Delaporta Dulwich Hill
Fruit for thought
And now for the bleeding obvious again. Sign in Woolworths
supermarket, fruit section, on the pineapple stand: “This fruit is
best eaten when peeled and sliced”. Who would want the rough end of
the pineapple anyway?

Don Davies Redlynch (Qld)
End to the chase?
Have I missed something or has the Chaser APEC prosecution quietly
gone away for fear of embarrassing the authorities?
Stephen Fox Arncliffe
A grand screamer
Congratulations to the young Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova
on her win in the Australian Open final over that nice young Serb
Ana Ivanovic. However, it just goes to show that a good loud scream
will generally beat a little squeak.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
Joe Public is asked to remain silent at tennis matches while the
players grunt, groan and squeal. Why?
John Tuckfield Abbotsford
Printer problems
A friend recently tried to buy new ink cartridges for a
three-year-old colour printer. The cost was $96 for three colours
and double-size black.

A new printer, same brand, late model costs $59, including
three-quarters as much ink. He needs new ink three times a year and
so it is cheaper to buy a new printer each time and throw the old
one away. Something is wrong here.
Allan Thomas Lochinvar
Name of the game
According to the BBC news on Saturday, their representative on a
Greenpeace vessel chasing the Japanese whalers is Jonah Fisher.

Margaret Chaldecott Lindfield

Tags: attitude, australians, cate, ford, google, hats, hero, house of lords, human consumption, job, rbi, sake, target

Related posts

• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home
• How the Pentagon Spreads Its Message on War
• Over Five Million Dead in Congo?
• Everyone poorer if town’s heritage is allowed to be trampled
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated
• City’s homeless crisis can never be solved until it is first treated

Outside of the Punch and Judy show that is the Commons chamber, one would think that the Palace of Westminster would be among Britain’s most genteel and civil places.

But even membership of the House of Lords does not, I discover, guarantee immunity from appalling rudeness of the most unnecessary kind.

Take the recent experience of 75-year-old Grenada-born Baroness Howells of St Davids, who, having fought for much of her life to improve race relations in Britain, must have thought she had seen and heard it all.

Yet nothing prepared Lady Howells ?Ros to her friends ?for what occurred when she walked out on to the terrace of the Houses of Parliament on a hot summer evening with three female companions.

Instead of being greeted with a polite hello and a smile as usual, Lady Howells ?one of only three black women peers in the House of Lords ?was told sharply that she could not enter the balcony.

Barked a furious peer dining at one of the tables: “You can’t come here ?it is reserved for members of the House of Lords!”

Lady Howells, who emigrated to Britain in 1951, recognised him as Rugby and Cambridge-educated Baron Geddes, a leading Tory and a deputy Speaker in the Lords.

But although she politely informed Lord Geddes, 68, whose grandfather was Ambassador to Washington, that she was indeed, like him, a peer, it cut no ice.

Says Baroness Howells, appointed to the Lords by Tony Blair in 1999: “He began to shout at the top of his voice in an extremely rude manner. I was very shocked and completely taken aback.”

“He was the rudest man I have ever met. He kept up this tirade and I didn’t say one word. If he didn’t recognise me, he must have been asleep for the past seven years.”

“There was only one conclusion I could draw from it, which was that he didn’t accept the fact that I was a member of the House of Lords because of the colour of my skin. It ruined our evening.”

A DDS Lady Howells: “We left straight afterwards in shock ?there wasn’t any room on that part of the terrace anyway ?and we went to the House of Commons part of the terrace instead.”

A few minutes later, another peer, who had overheard the kerfuffle, approached Lady Howells and told her: “Please allow me to apologise for that man’s terrible behaviour, on behalf of all my fellow peers.”

Lady Howells complained to her chief whip to demand an apology from Geddes.

Coincidentally, shortly after I called the Lords to inquire about Lord Geddes’ behaviour, a handwritten note of apology was delivered to Lady Howells, in which Geddes claimed he had his back to the door, leading him to assume the figure in the doorway was a stranger.

Tags: balcony, cate, house of lords, smile, whip

Related posts

• Raging Fatalism; and Putting The Boot In
• Night tales: Berlin, LA, Stockholm, Pattaya, Rome
• My lovely son, the Hollywood star
• Winner Cate remembers Heath in Spirit
• Winner Cate remembers Heath in Spirit
• Wheatgrass juice, sun salutations and a colonic - or two. Just what the celebrity ‘doctor’ ordered
• Wedding consumer heaven unveils new layer of hell
• We adopted the family from hell
• Upping the Andes
• Trickett breaks 50m world record