[Oe List ...] Aussies, catch us up

frank bremner fjbremner at hotmail.com
Sat Jun 26 04:17:00 CDT 2010


Just one correction, Jaime.  Julia is also famed for various shades of her red hair.  Redheads here'n'there are celebrating.  She certainly isn't a brunette.  Think Lucille Ball!

 

There is one strain of thought that examines the "behind the scenes machinations" that confronted Kevin Rudd with electoral and ALP reality  There is another which examines the careful and quick way, with the minimum of stretched-out pain, of the above.  And there is another which examines the "control freak" aspect of Kevins Rudd's personality.  And there are others.  Probably all have some truth in them.

 

Cheers

 

Frank Bremner
 


To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:53:09 -0400
From: svesjaime at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Aussies, catch us up

This is a penultimate draft of an OpEd in the Saipan Tribune edition on Monday.  Comments are welcomed.  If you want to recommend changes, I am a day ahead of the rest of the USA (same time as Sydney, though). 



Rude ungently Down Under
 
Well, it is actually Rudd, Kevin Rudd to be precise, who until the 24th was the Prime Minister of Australia, with an 89 percent approval rating in the polls early 2008.  He was a “man of vision,” with the politics of decency as the centerpiece of his government.  “Compassion is not a dirty word,” he said.  “It is a hallmark of great strength.”
 
“Time it was, and what a time it was.  A time of innocence, a time of confidences,” of Paul Simon of long ago sounds appropriate.  For it feels like only yesterday when Australia redeemed itself from an inglorious genocidal past in the Nation’s Apology, the “Sorry Ceremony” led by Rudd to expiate for the nation’s hideous sins against the Aborigines.  Rudd the academic and diplomat, ushered the promise of new governance after the staunch reactionary government of John Howard whose vision of a “One Australia” was a silent affirmation but practical defense of the preeminence of the Caucasian race over everyone else, especially the Australian Muslims who were told to integrate, or else.
 
Seen as steely in determination and polished in performance, Rudd grew up with a keen sense of injustice in a poverty-stricken environment, noting the acts of omissions of the State in its social responsibilities, and decrying the acts of commissions by genteel people against the marginalized and the downtrodden.  Rudd heeded the likes of Dietrich Bonheoffer, the young German theologian who wrestled down the ethics of freedom and responsibility in Hitler’s Germany, and paid dearly with his life.
 
The solitariness of lofty-minded Kevin of lowly beginnings would end up being his worst enemy.  Unable to delegate responsibility, reminiscent of Jimmy Carter in the White House who bothered with the minutiae of the tennis court schedule, Rudd was seen as a small-minded technocrat, an autocratic manager rather than a facilitative leader.  That left him exposed and vulnerable to the hubris of illusory personal certitude and delusionary self-confidence.  Rudd stumbled along the nation’s desire to put a price tag on carbon emissions, and allowed the government to get into a shouting match with the lords of the mining industry.  Non-consultative Rudd succumbed to the inevitable.  He was rudely coup’d out of Australia’s PM office.
 
The new head honcho in Canberra is a dashing brunette.  And what a babe, this Julia Eileen Gillard!  A woman in her own right, not a bloke in drag, she comes to the leadership of the ruling Labour Party as Rudd’s Deputy Prime Minister before she challenged his primus inter pares standing.   Julia Gillard is not just a woman; she’s not married, childless, a proud undomesticated feminist unapologetically shacked up with a hairdresser.  “There’s a Sheila running Oz,” headlines Online Mail, and the first female Prime Minister of Australia comes as a primordial shaking of the foundations of a nation heretofore thoroughly blokey.
 
And she is a Pom (Brit), no less.  Born in Wales, her family moved Down Under when she was not yet five.  Of course, had her Welsh family moved to the NMI, she would still be a contract worker, but that is another story.
 
Though Australia and New Zealand were the first countries to give women the vote, the islands are not known for recognizing female values and promoting feminine virtues.  But Julia is no rude Sheila.  She extolled Rudd for successfully shepherding Oz through the global financial crisis without the massive dislocation of workers as had happened elsewhere.  She was also clear that the government “had lost its way.”  When a ship of State flounders in a storm with unsteady hands at the helm sans the crew’s trust, then a singular decision before a storm emerges.  Julia pointed her hairdo head-on into the tempest, and said, “I do!”  The Labour Party gave its unanimous blessings.
 
The historic ascendancy of lady Gillard to the PM office has some quiet supporting casts.  The Governor General of Australia, Quentin Alice Louise Bryce wears a skirt, also a first. Professor Marie Roslyn Bashir has been the State Governor of New South Wales for a decade, and Chancellor of the University of Sydney.  USA born Kristina Kerscher Keneally is NSW first and recent female State Premier, she with the discernable Ohio twang, following Victoria, West Australia and Queensland’s lead in the female Premier department.  Clover Moore is currently the Lord Mayor of Sydney, a position she was elected to in 2004.  Are we witnessing the shattering of the political ‘glass ceiling’, and would not that headwind be very welcomed in the CNMI?
 
President Obama was developing close ties with Kevin Rudd, as George W. Bush did with John Howard (the latter accused of governing on the coattails of Uncle Sam); he congratulated the new lady PM. (Not too much enthusiasm in that statement, is there?)  They would have met in the G20 summit in Toronto this coming week, but Gillard decided to stay and consolidate Labour’s facelift before the national elections this coming November.  Ironically, Rudd’s declining approval ratings might have been averted had Obama proceeded with his State visit to Australia in March, but that speculation is as valid as saying that the immigration status of aliens in the CNMI would be clearer had the President done that trip and stopped over in Guam.
 
Rudd is back-benching in Parliament these days, probably, humming “Rude it to me gently,” as he watches the chamber’s debate.  PM Gillard would do well to “Rudd Kevin gently” to the Foreign Minister’s portfolio.  Or, China’s Oz Embassy needs a new Ambo and Kevin speaks Putunghua.  There’s a fit!


Jaime Vergara


All that was, Thanks!  All that will be, Yes!  All that IS, Amen!
 




-----Original Message-----
From: David & Lin Zahrt <chbnb at netins.net>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sat, Jun 26, 2010 4:01 am
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Aussies, catch us up


Here's a take on the new PM from a retired work mate of Lin's when we were in OZ in '70's:   



What do you think of our Prime Minister being rolled by his own???  God help this country.  Beryl XO  Julia Gillard was born in Wales (UK) and migrated when she was 3, unmarried, in a de facto relationship with her hairdresser, and never wanted and still doesn't want children, a former industrial lawyer and a real red ragger Unionist.  It was disgraceful what they did to their Leader, Mr  Kevin Rudd, so sneaky. Intrigue!   Intrigue!   He made his mistakes but she was privy to them and in agreement, so was Wayne Swan her new Deputy.  No-one in politics commands our respect these days!   Beryl
 
 

On Jun 25, 2010, at 2:47 AM, frank bremner wrote:Gday folks!
 
It means that Tasmania (I think I'm correct here) is the only Australian state or territory which has not had a female governor, premier, or leader of the opposition.  Currently South Australia has a female leader of the opposition.  In the past Western Australia and Victoria have had female premiers, and the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have had female heads of government.  And Queensland has a female premier.
 
BTW: Julia Gillard went to Unley High School, in Netherby, an Adelaide suburb, and the almer mater of numerous (ahem!) interesting people.
 
Cheers
 
Frank Bremner 








David & Lin Zahrt
22133 Larpenteur Rd
Turin, IA 51040
-- Doorway to the Loess Hills 




 <chbnb at netins.net>
Skype <loesshills>

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