NEW ENGLAND IN SUMMER

The rolling downs of New England have seldom looked more glorious

to my memory the last time it was so verdant was 1997

I can't say what the district looks like south of Armidale

I'd hazard it's as healthy .... a farmers idea of Heaven

There are so many bodies of water, ensconced in twinkling dams

I can't recall from many years travel along the New England highway

from the Warwick Plains to the Granite Belt and beyond

grasses thick and green, trap the wind and sway

And, cattle grazing, udders replete with the milk of kindness ...

of the variety that builds a nation and its people's health

It's a sweet stirring sight for anyone with an inkling 

of struggle with droughts and creating a commonwealth

The pipeline of towns that comprise the Fruit Belt

from Dalveen to Applethorpe to Wallangarra on the border

are resplendent in new clothes of painted fruit barns and wineries

attractive and beckoning to tourist and traveller

Tenterfield and Glen Innes looked invigorated on a day that was serene

(I thought for a moment that the Guyra meat works were killing and alive) 

Armidale was riotous in agapanthus, daisy, rose and dahlia

and a warm welcome from Des to end this country drive

IT'S A PLACE WHERE PARADISE AND TAXES COLLIDE

A place, idyllic, sundrenched where white folk in search of a tan would pay a motza to holiday at if they could find the accommodation?

A place where The Prophets birthday is accorded a day-off but the Queen's isn't?

A place with low crime rates and high school attendance?

A place where religion imposes a ban on serving pork products even to non-muslims?

A place where mosques, neat houses and paved streets nestle among coconut palms, pristine beaches and turquoise waters? 

A place where you can get cheap housing at $2500 a year for a 40 year lease and expenses?

A place where expectant mothers and a carer can fly free to the mainland and get free accommodation for up to 40 days due to unspecified "cultural requirements"?

A place where Australian taxes subsidise each citizen for up to $42,000?

A place where toilets are not trashed, alcohol-fuelled violence is non-existent and families take care of the elderly?

A place where locals move around in motorised buggies rather than walk?

A place where the women wear a hijab instead of flowers in their hair and the men dress in shirts and long trousers instead of singlets and shorts like they used to?

A place where English is the second language?

A place where muslims and non-muslims live apart on two islands separated by a lagoon but in terms of values are worlds apart?

A place where fewer than 30% of the locals over the age of 15 have full-time employment?

A place where the local community is becoming more orthodox in its faith due to exposure to the outside world via modern communication? 

A place where Islamic and Western worlds meet face to face?

Aaaaaahhhh!!!! The Cocos Islands, our unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean, a place for limited fun and frolic provided you dress appropriately and seek permission from the muslim community to do just about .... anything. 

It's a bit of hike to get there but well worth it once you do .... according to the locals who knew they were on to a good thing when they opted to become Australian citizens in 1984. After all, they've been there for nigh on two centuries when they arrived as .... well, not quite tourists, more like slaves to labour mightily for the masters of the island, the Clunies-Ross mob from Scotland, who to be fair, also laboured mightily but were better rewarded for their entrepreneurship.

Now, we own it and them (not to put too fine a point on it) and we must pay for the privilege. We have successfully spawned our own far-flung dependency but this one differs from our other external territories in that it is totally dependent on us for ...... everything.

THE PAST IS ANOTHER PLACE ALRIGHT

I arrived in Oz in the penultimate year of the sixties

at a time when man was exploring our galaxy, landing on the moon

a time when people were physically involved in their world

where virtual reality was unreal or unheard of

but the past is another place ....

This was a time when Australians were still Australians

rather than merely Americans 

who happen to have been born on the wrong side of the Pacific

and therefore have all their faults without any of their virtues

but the past is another place ....

It was a time for truth rather than ephemisms

before our vocabulary was hijacked by the artistry of wank-words

and acronyms spewed forth from mouths in vile bureaucratese

which defeated the purpose of the message being delivered to the people

it was a time when people spoke civilly to each other

acknowledged and respected one another as the young did then

but the past is another place ....

on your birthday or at Christmas you received a few treasured gifts

and when 12 years of schooling finally ended you didn't do 'schoolies'

instead you looked forward to finding a job or university

and saved like mad for a car or for an overseas holiday

lived at home until you earned enough dough to get a place of your own

or shared a place with others like-minded, enjoying your individuality

but the past is another place ....

A celebration meant something then, now we even 'celebrate' death

everything's 'win-win', even the 7 year old who came last gets an award

what are we celebrating? Mediocrity? Self-centredness?

today tenants have more rights than landlords who provided them a place to live

but that's "cewl"as the young would vacuously exclaim today

middle-class welfare? Hell, you were on the dole or on compo if you couldn't work

we were more of an egalitarian society then

there was a small rich class and the rest of us packed a work ethic in our lunchbox ...

when we set off for work 

but the past is another place ...

Give the financial lenders their due then, you got bugger-all credit

and only after the most stringent checks that tested your capacity to pay

you didn't spend more than you earned, a simple rule of thumb

simple basic tenets that paid dividends in life, much later

But the past is another place ....

Now current generations despise us, envy us and cry 'you had it easy'

without taking the mote or three out of their eyes

instead of perhaps thanking us for our foresight, our caution, our prescience

unequivocally, I declare that I do not hanker for it

but the past is another place and they do things differently there

THE LOW COST OF HYDROGEN

Now we know that Jesus turned water into wine

because it says so in the Bible

what about turning water into hydrogen

by harnessing the powers tidal?

up in the Kimberleys where giant tides

pour vast floods of water through cliff-banked channels

whose horizontal waterfalls tantalise lateral thinkers

of boundless clean, renewable energy without parallels

hydrogen's allure has no carbon emissions when burned

its only by-products are heat and water

and, that it could end the worlds reliance on oil

would have a greenie willing to sacrifice a son or daughter

you use tidal power to make electricity

which is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen

you can take as much as you need today ... for tomorrow

it re-appears with the tide just like 'the magic pudding'

we need to start today to make it tomorrows reality

by 2030 my annual petrol bill could cost more than my home

while we humans argue about fossil fuels versus alternatives

in languid indifference ... the giant tides daily flow and foam 

THE BOARDROOM BLUNDERER

They've got the world on a string and in a mess

these non-executive directors of Australia's boardroom club

some them legendary for buggering-up good firms

in sinecures or through cronyism ... I kid you not, bub

The most unworthy of 'em all, Elizabeth Nosworthy

has sent three big, greedy non-performers to the wall

while getting shit-loads of lucre in directors fees and shares

under her stewardship, she 'directed' 'em to their fall

In an electoral rort that would make Robert Mugabe blush

she and her ilk are returned to boards with 90% of the vote

SallyAnne, Anthony, Mansfield, McGauchie, Ward, Dixon, Hegarty

Gorves, Stockdale. Eddington, Fell .. the share-holder's the goat

These unscrupulous Teflon people who keep getting invited back

have "strategies" that preside over joblessness and a declining nation

depart long before the results of their handiwork is apparent

to pop again in positions of power ad causing no consternation

This "Dishonour Roll" of immoral shits continues to take us all for a ride

they've no problems sleeping at night or snouting in troughs by day

it's nice work if you can get it (if that's what it's called)

while you and I will continue to pay and pay and pay and pay .....

LIFE'S IRONIES

Isn't it one of life's supreme ironies

that the people who are paid the most

and endowed with the perks of the job

are the one's required to expend the least?

Directors, Chief Execs, Presidents, Chairmen

very few of them altruists in truth

many obscenely remunerated or in sinecures

courtesy of the old school tie, a club or by birth

And what of those paid the least?

truckies, nurses, check-out people, scientists

teachers, garbage-men, car assemblers all working Dickensian hours

no lurks, perks, tax-write downs .. there's the twist

Ford's wage-earners can't have a $20 rise but ...

The head sharang Jacques Nasser is forced to take a $19 million salary

shelf-stackers, bus drivers, petrol station hands get bugger-all

while Mr Eck at Coles get's a $4 million bonus as the top canary

There must be a moral to all this irony

share-holders, apparently, have lost the plot 

or so the talking-heads, grifters, suits or carpet-strollers would have us believe

their copy-books have absolutely no blot

In our ignorance we condone or help perpetuate

a system iniquitous and blatantly unfair

for there aren't too many of us with our snouts in the trough

why, even the pigs are flying .. they've left in despair

THE PROJECT

Rohan James Mendis, an unique Aussie concept

designed, manufactured and delivered on time

Michelle and Karl who constructed this award winner

have got to keep sucking the odd lemon or lime

In my life I've laboured on many a  project

wearin a blue,white, old or gold collar

but on comparing his progress on a bar chart 

he's zooming ahead like the almighty dollar

His critical path, realistically scheduled, lies directly ahead

for now it's the activity nodes that matter

have we enough float to bring him in on time

the former's as important as the latter

His parents will direct him, firm targets in mind

charting his progress with pictures and reports

and as he moves with the seasons and his mind expands ...

into the music and arts I hope, not bloody sports

He'll grow up to be what fate will decree

with a nudge here, a push there, a recovery plan

we want to be around to see the project complete 

when the boy is father to the man

Rohan James Mendis, a tough project to follow

unique, specific, one-time and never to be repeated

his scope and development plotted with inputs

and us cheering him on standing, unable to remain seated

As he achieves each stage in his life's project

we'll be watching with trepidation and joy

each target met will be celebrated with our cries

"What a ripper, a beauty, a bobby-dazzler ... he's our boy!"