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Oh brother. Not again!

Some networks never learn, do they?

One of the television networks here has revived that tired old chestnut, Big Brother, and I am finding myself asking why? I remember the first season and even watched a couple of the episodes, but got tired of it pretty quickly because I couldn’t really see the entertainment in watching a houseful of people lolling around doing not very much. Season Two was more of the same…and then it started to sink.

What I think continued to attract people to sign up for it though, was the sudden shot at instant fame, after a couple of the contestants from the first two seasons ended up falling into lucrative media careers or slots on the popular soap operas. In rushed the hopeful wannabes and it all went downhill from there. I think it was Season Three or Four were where the narcissists started to appear, along with the sleazy types, and before we could say, oh no, not another season of this tripe, it was wiped.

Viewers were tuning out, rating were seriously dropping and the networks that had aired it sensibly decided not to air it again. Good for them! And the insta-fame wannabes moved on to such drivel as Married at First Sight, The Bachelor and it’s trashy spin-offs, and anything else that go their names and faces out there. You’ve probably guessed by now that reality television is not a favourite of mine.

But anyway, one of the networks has decided to revive Big Brother once again, but seriously, I think they’re flogging a dead horse. After the sleaziest of seasons (I forget which one) where viewers actually complained about the overtly trashy sexual behaviour of some of the contestants, it was cleaned up. The next one though was so sanitised that even the most diehard fans of the show stopped watching because they were bored! So what does that tell you? There doesn’t appear to be a middle ground with this show; it’s either too explicitly trashy or it’s too bland, with no in between. People don’t want to see smut, but on the other hand they do?

And that’s the problem with Big Brother. Put a couple of dozen people of mixed sexes, who don’t know each other from a bar of soap, in a house with a large share bathroom, in dormitory style sleeping quarters where strangers will share  beds and then give them little else to do, they will soon find their own ways to amuse themselves, and more often than not they will do so at the expense of each other. There will be pettiness, there will be jealousy, there will be bitchiness and eventually there will be downright nastiness.

Okay. so that is sort of the name of the game. Break down all the normal social structures they are used to and air the fallout nationally and this is supposed to be entertaining? Some may still think so, but the number of viewers tuning out of the last couple of seasons should have been the red flag for the makers of this season and the network that opted to show it this time around. Perhaps shouldn’t have because I think it’s going to flop.

But guaranteed every one of those housemates signed themselves up with an agent, to manage their new online social media “careers” as soon as they heard they were Big Brother bound, because that’s what they all do now. Reality TV has become a launchpad for fame-hungry unknowns hoping to become a name and a face off the back of their (often embarrassing) “big break” in reality TV. It has absolutely nothing to do with talent and they won’t automatically become household names (well okay, maybe briefly) no matter how badly they behave in front of the cameras.  But they will try.

I won’t bother watching this latest effort to revive Big Brother, despite the promo promising something different this time around (it won’t be) because I’m not into utterly self-focused people behaving badly. I have a feeling not many others will be either. It had its fifteen minutes years ago.

It’s over.

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Fright Night!

Okay, so here we all are, sitting in and isolating and being responsible. Well, most of us are. Our options to pass the time are go for a walk or jog, so long as we stay socially distanced, or run through an aerobics program at home, curl up with a good book, listen to some good music or watch the telly.

I opted to put the book aside and watch the telly last night, which meant a perusal of the program guide and Hello! One of the movies on offer was Contagion; all about a deadly virus slowly spreading throughout the world and the various Centres for Disease Control frantically on the hop to develop a vaccine to counter it and save the world’s inhabitants.

Right. Either one of the program managers has a sense of humour (a really black one) or they are genuinely weird enough to think we might want to watch a a film about a deadly disease decimating the global population, while staying inside and sitting out an actual deadly disease that is decimating the global population. Like, what made them think we might want to watch a movie that we are kind of living right now?

On the other hand, perhaps they thought it was eerily relevant to the world’s current situation and so would be a really good choice for weeknight viewing…? Of course, I may be completely off the mark and if I was to see the ratings for last night’s television tune-ins, I might see that a huge number of viewers had tuned in because there’s nothing like watching a fictional fear-raiser while living with a factual one going on right outside our doors, right?

To be honest, I actually did consider (albeit briefly) watching it myself but opted for one of the Alien movies on another channel instead. It was one I hadn’t seen and while I knew there was bound to be some blood and guts, I figured it might be a better option as it was one of the Alien films I hadn’t seen and on the whole, it wasn’t bad. Except for the part where some of the crew were accidentally infected because they unknowingly squished some little round egg type thingies and a fine mist of minute particles became airborne (uh oh) and found their way, disease/virus-like, into the crew members via their skin, their mouths, ears and noses (without them realising) and then developed at warp speed into baby aliens which…well, we all know what happened then so I won’t go into the gory details of them emerging from their human hosts.

And I started wondering if I would have been better off just watching the global disease movie after all. Or better still, watching neither of them and just getting back into my book instead.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it. We all love a scary movie, especially when we know it’s just fiction and once the credits start rolling we can get up and move on with our normal routines. Except we are kind of living in a scary movie in reality right now and have no idea what the running time is, which means there’s no normal at present. We can’t change the channel or just switch it off either. So not good.

On the plus side though, at least the disease we are dealing with right now does not hatch out (really messily!) into baby aliens that want to hunt us down and rip us to shreds! At least that’s something, and eventually what we are dealing with will hopefully run its course and we will be able to venture out again and begin to pick up our lives. Eventually…

I think I should have just stuck with my book.

 

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Okay, what next…?

Firstly, apologies for posting a day late. My signal dropped out yesterday which meant I couldn’t access my site, hence no blog post… Thankfully, it’s all systems back on today!

So what’s going to hit us next? I’m not usually  prone to pessimistic thoughts but right now I can help thinking about how things tend come in threes, so at this moment I’m wondering what is going to come on in and hit us in the face once COVID-19 has passed and we begin getting back on our feet again.  So far, here in Australia, we’ve had the Summer bushfire season and this year it was a lulu, and we were only just beginning to pick up the pieces and get things back to a semblance of normality when the Coronavirus hit. It hit so soon after the fires that we hadn’t really had much of a chance to catch our breath. And now people are breathing through masks and mostly staying inside again. Just like we did with all the smoke and flames and ash. So is it any wonder that I’m wondering what might come next?

1. Fires. 2. Coronavirus. 3. ???

I suppose I could speculate until the cows come home on what a third disaster could be, assuming there is a third, but I can’t completely dispel the thought that Number 3 in on the national/global horizon, and if it is…? Right now every nation on the planet is vulnerable because of the impact of COVID-19. So, what if there was a country out there, for instance, that wished to get the global upper hand? Now would be a smart time to do it because their target would be preoccupied with dealing with the pandemic, wouldn’t see the conflict coming and would probably be shocked to the back teeth by a direct threat or act of aggression and would probably be slower than usual to mobilise a defence. Their allies would be in the same boat, which would give the aggressor a head start in getting a foothold. That’s a worrying thought. So, is there a power out there looking to up their status to Superpower? If there is, it would mean a war and it would probably be a biggie. Could that be Number 3? I sincerely hope not.

Or is it a string of major natural disasters? No, I am not sitting here getting all fatalistic and conjuring up nightmare scenarios, I am just thinking about that Number 3 because I can’t dislodge the thought that it’s out there, somewhere around the corner just waiting to happen.

A major war would be really horrific. A major natural disaster or three would be really horrific too. I mean, we are still recovering from the raging inferno that dominated our entire Summer. The whole world has been shut down by the Coronavirus. Global economies have plunged and job losses worldwide are at an all-time high. This is scary stuff! Is it any wonder I’m feeling a bit shaky (and I am not one who is normally prone to thoughts of doom and gloom, I swear) about the immediate future? I’m fairly sure I’m not the only one either.

But there it is. If I saw the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse trotting down my road tomorrow I’d probably think “Yep, told ya!” and that is so not normally me. So it’s a bit disconcerting for me to be unable to shake the thought that the fires and the Coronavirus are just the start. Perhaps the Age of Pisces is going out with a bang! There is some speculation as to when this age ends and the Age of Aquarius begins (some say it has already begun, except that world events appear to indicate otherwise, while others speculate a time well into the future) but the most reliable source I have found is saying the southern hemisphere Summer Solstice, December 22/23, is the date when we enter the Age of Aquarius, a golden age of peace, spiritual growth and enlightenment (if the tales are correct) that will last for around 2500 years, the average length of an astrological age. I hope this is right, and the world survives to welcome it.

And with luck, that we will too.

 

 

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Buy Australian…

If there’s one positive thing that has come out of Coronavirus, it’s the shift towards buying food, clothing and whatever else that has been made here in Australia. From Australian products, produced on-shore by Australian-owned companies. This is a good thing.

For too long now, Australian companies have been either selling out to overseas investors or moving their operations to an off-shore location (often China or another Asian country) where they can get the work done far more cheaply, at the cost of their Australian workforce. Then they bring their products back into Australia but the price doesn’t come down so they are making huge profits. The items, especially clothing, are not as well made, yet customers are still paying top dollar for the label. But the ongoing selling of so many of our best assets to overseas interests is a national disgrace and the sales of large rural beef and dairy properties and our ports to foreign buyers is criminal.

Then there’s the companies labelling their products made in Australia, but from a high content of imported ingredients (visible only if you red the very tiny print on the back of the packaging).  A lot of Australians have fumed over this. They have been angered by the string of Australian-owned businesses, farms and other valuable assets that have had the green light to sell out to a foreign owner and it has become harder to find Australian-owned food and other products that are still produced and packaged here. It’s not beneficial for a country to be too dependent on another and even less so when the other country is allowed to buy up to much local real estate and so many local businesses. It’s just not good.

Like many others, I have often wondered why. Well yes, some people are just all about the money which tosses national pride out the window, but when you think about it, Australia can grow it’s own crops, it’s own beef, lamb, pork and poultry, even allowing for the impact on some industries due to drought. We produce some of the finest wool in the world, grow cotton, fruit and vegetables, so if you add all of that up it becomes obvious that we could easily sustain ourselves, just like Australia did decades ago. Certainly, trade is useful and often necessary, but it should not be used to supply the bulk of our needs when we can so easily do this ourselves.

And then came COVID-19 and everyone started to wake up to what a lot of us had already been thinking. Keep it local. Locally sourced, locally produced, locally made. Locally owned. This is what makes a country wealthy and sustainable in a situation like the one we are in now. It’s what keeps a nation’s citizens in employment and keeps the national debt to a minimum and stops the nation’s primary producers from going under, even in the event of drought or flood or other natural disaster. It’s what keeps a nation going in situation like this one.

So if every cloud has a silver lining, this could be ours, because the push to reject overseas imports for Australian owned, grown and produced products is not a bad thing. This should be our first line of supply and these products should be placed prominently on our supermarket shelves, on the racks in clothing stores and wherever else goods are sold. It should also apply to major industries too. Use Australian produced building products. If the Australian Government wants the country to survive the Coronavirus then it needs to put Australian businesses and their products first and promote them on a large scale. This will boost our economy because the money we spend on these products will stay here in Australia, not end up in the coffers of an overseas company.

It’s not difficult to do.

 

 

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Don’t Try This at Home

Right, so we are all in lockdown basically, which means there are a lot of things we may be used to having done professionally, outside the home, which some of us may be considering doing ourselves while unable to visit our favourite personal maintenance places.  Well that can work, in some cases, but in others it just might prove to be a very bad idea.

Can’t go to the Gym? Generally this would be fine because you can keep fit at home. Even if you don’t have any gym equipment, you do have floor space and can make do with aerobics for now. Food cans make great aerobic weights but if you’re used to heavier lifting, there’s always the couch or something. Anyway, you are making a good start by continuing with your fitness routine and adapting it to your lounge room.

But doing the gym thingy at home can also be a not so good idea if the last time you did anything vaguely exercise-like was back in your school years, or in the first days after buying that do-everything exercise machine a few decades ago, and you decide to dust everything off and do a three hour workout to kick off the New You. This will probably lead to the Totally Incapacitated You long before the end of the day and will probably have you flat on your back for the next week. Not the outcome you’d like.

Making over your house can be a good idea too, especially if you have been wanting to spruce it up a bit but have never been able to find the time. Now you have the time. It could be something as simple as a new paint job or a more complex renovation (assuming you can still access what you’ll need) but being able to utilise the lockdown time to tackle some DIY is a great way to spend the days.

Unless you absolutely suck at DIY. If you don’t know a paintbrush from a hammer, a house makeover might not be the best way to use your sudden and unexpected free time. This also applies if you have never done any painting or renovation work in your whole entire life. If you are still tempted though, just remember that you will have to live with the end result until the country is back in business again. And if you live with a partner who was adamant that you Not Do It in the first place you might find yourself living in a state of angst and tension for some time. You will really need to think this one through.

Fake tans. Although why you’d want one when you aren’t going anywhere is beyond me, but to each their own. Salons are closed right now so if you are used to having your golden glow sprayed on all nice and even by a professional, please do not opt for doing it yourself out of a bottle. Getting a bottle tan right takes years of practice (look, I don’t care how easy the directions tell you it is) and if you get it just the insy-est, tinsy-est bit wrong, you will spend the next five days trying to scrub it off and it will be resistant to every cleansing product known to woman. So if in doubt…don’t.

Waxing. If you’ve never done this yourself, stick to depilatory creams or shaving. End of story.

Hair. If it’s just colouring, and you sensibly opt for a hue that will gradually wash out, you can’t really go wrong. Even if you’re a novice colour-er and you get the colour wrong. It’s going to wash out over a few weeks and it’s not like you’re going anywhere anyway. But cutting is a whole different animal. If you are a professional hairdresser, or a really deft amateur, who can manage to do a good job using two mirrors then by all means give yourself a cut or trim.

Not a professional or a deft amateur? Then lock those scissors up. Unlike a bad colour that will wash out, a bad haircut is going to be with you a lot longer than the lockdown is and will send you into meltdown every time you look in the mirror. Just put up with the split ends and overgrown fringe until your hairdresser is back in operation. You can always tie it back or put it up until then and console yourself with the knowledge that all your friends are in exactly the same bad-hair boat. Feeling better now?

No, me neither.

 

 

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When Stay Means Stay!

With COVID-19 busy doing the rounds across the globe, most countries have sensibly gone into total lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of the disease, and their inhabitants are sensibly following the directives. That’s good. Smart people.

What’s not good (and just plain stupid) is what’s happening here in Australia. The word has been out for weeks now; stay home, stay indoors and if you do have to go anywhere, make sure it is only a quick trip to pick up food and other essential supplies and maintain a safe distance from others. Pretty simple really, so why are so many Australians indifferent to what is happening right in front of them? The footage on the nightly news  of vacuous people, wandering around in groups and generally enjoying a day out on the town has me spouting profanity that I didn’t even know I knew. I’m talking a lot of people here (and a lot of profanity!)

Staying home means exactly that. It does not mean meeting up with your friends for coffee and huddling up for a get-together. It does not mean going off for a day at the beach or the park or to go wandering around whatever shops are open and generally socialising and having a good time. It does not mean that at all. It also does not mean holding a barbecue in the backyard and inviting all your friends and neighbours to drop in. It actually means Stay Home! Just you and your family, in your own home with no visitors, no matter who they are. Now how hard can that be? But there are still hordes of people out there thinking the directive does not apply to them, hence the vast numbers blatantly ignoring what they have been told. In the cities, scores of people are out having a stroll and doing it in total disregard of the “social distancing” we have all been asked to adopt.

Seriously? What is wrong with people? Why is Stay Home, Stay In, and Stay Away From Each Other not clicking?

To be fair, many of us are doing the right thing, but the number who are completely ignoring the steps that have been put in place to try and stem the spread of this disease is just deplorable!

Ditto with the hoarding. This began with the bushfire crisis here and has now flowed into the Coronavirus crisis. Time and time again people have been told that buying up more than they need is not necessary. Doing so is just creating shortages that don’t have to happen, which makes it incredibly hard for the rest of the population to buy what they need. But this is another directive that is not getting through some thick skulls out there and so shortages in food, toilet paper and other essentials continue to plague us. When will that message get through that there really is enough for everyone if the selfish and greedy few would just back off and let the rest of us buy what we need.

I think the problem here is that up until now, current generations of Australians have not had to contend with something like this. Yes, there were shortages and food coupons around the time of the  First and Second World Wars, and there was the Spanish Flu epidemic, but the current generations were not alive when these events happened and so they aren’t really taking this seriously. I was not alive then either but I can at least see the logic behind the steps being implemented to try and slow the spread of COVID-19.

Surely people must be able to see the logic in following the plan? Well no, many here still appear to be ignorant of the threat, despite all the warnings. They are still hanging out at beaches, shopping centres, parks and each other’s homes. So what does it take to make the danger we are in hit home to these people? Have they convinced themselves that it won’t happen to them? I’m guessing it will take contracting the disease and ending up in hospital, as sick as, staring mortality in the face!

It has also come to light that those who have managed to return from overseas and tested positive, along with those who have just contracted it anyway, are ignoring the self isolation conditions. Police checking up on them, following information that they are going out into the community, are finding that yes, they are not at home. Self isolation would have been very precisely explained to them, so they cannot claim ignorance about the conditions, yet they are going out. Hefty fines are in place now, so we may see a bit less of that. But how many have they infected?

No one’s exaggerating here. COVID-19 is a very dangerous disease. It has shut down countries world wide. If infected, you are a danger to your community. You, and those you infect when you ignore the rules, could end up dying from it. It is a global pandemic.

And it can so easily happen to you.

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The Churches of Cash

L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, is rumoured to have said “If you want to get truly rich, start a religion” or words to that effect. Well, old L Ron wasn’t wrong if the billions raked in by his “church” is anything to go by. Personally, I believe, as do a few others, that Scientology was actually a concept for his next piece of science fiction (he wrote several sci fi stories) and he launched it as a form of research, just to see what would happen.

Others have done the same, started a cult, called it a religion, and the founders accumulated incredible tax-free wealth via the donations of the followers they attracted, brainwashed and who continued to work themselves ragged on behalf of the cult leaders. The Moonies, Rajneesh and a host of others all did it and the chief gurus (and their under-gurus – one level down from the top bloke) did very well off the money and adoration of those who gave up everything in the pursuit of “spiritual salvation”. But only achievable if they paid up first in cold hard cash.

And now we have Hillsong. Hillsong began as a small Pentecostal church in suburban Sydney in the 1980s but today is worth a staggering (tax free, because it calls itself a church) $103.4 million, annually. Like all the other money-focused cult-corporations, it has focused relentlessly on attracting wealthy celebrities as well as high end corporate types with serious money, to join the “church” and fund the luxurious lifestyles of it’s founders and their immediate underlings. Sounds familiar. doesn’t it? Yes, it does.

Hillsong now has 37 locations around Australia as well as 91 internationally and the money is rolling in for founders, Bobbie and Brian Houston, and donations are big business. The organisation plays on people’s faith, and members are encouraged to pay up, on top of the tithe, in order to (hopefully) gain favour with God, and are openly encouraged to make big donations, which apparently will grant them the “honour” of being able to “resource God’s House”.  Unfortunately, people caught up in the organisation’s hype are encouraged to believe that the greater the donation they make, the closer they will get to God’s “favour”. Is this the Hillsong version of “buying one’s way into Heaven”?

Seriously, this is a highly money-focused organisation with a hard-core approach to recruitment tactics and with equally hard-core methods employed to coerce it’s congregations to hand over money. Big money. What it isn’t is a religion.

Yet it has managed to attract huge numbers of people through its doors and they have all become mesmerised by the the noise, the light shows and the hype. Oh, and the promise of special access to God on the proviso they make large donations to the “church”. No wonder it strives to attract the influential and the wealthy.

But if you look at the overall Christian texts, Jesus was a humble carpenter who spent His time with humble people. He was not impressed by money apparently, had a low tolerance for materialism and money grubbing in general, and according to the texts, implied that no one could buy their way into the Kingdom of Heaven. Money was irrelevant to Him because He was all about helping the poor and the afflicted, and encouraged people to develop spiritual growth and lead good and honest lives. Well that sounds more genuine and something a genuine religious leader would say.  There is nothing in any of those writings that implied He recruited His apostles to hit on his followers for as much money as they could get out of them so that he, and his chosen twelve, could live in wealth and luxury. You just couldn’t buy favour with this man!

Which makes me wonder where Hillsong got the idea to imply to their followers that they could buy “greater favour” with God by paying out a lot of money to the “church” (the Houston’s really) and, if their followers really knew anything about the Deity they claim to be worshipping, why haven’t they seen the contradiction? Like, it’s staring them in the face! I’m guessing it’s either because they  have never read a Bible, or more likely, they have been brainwashed into believing the hype. I’m leaning towards the latter.

Because that’s how organised cults operate.

 

 

 

 

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Town-hoppers Hog Supplies

Could those doing the town-hopping thing be seen as akin to looters?

I think so, despite paying for what they are taking, because they are flocking to smaller towns and villages, from further afield, and buying up everything they can get their hands on in the wake of the Coronavirus scare, and that is really unfair. It is also very wrong.

We already know about the toilet paper nonsense, it’s happening here just like everywhere else, and many of the people stripping supplies from my local supermarket have come from Sydney and surrounds and for some reason believe they are justified in coming to our small village and emptying the supermarket shelves, at which point some may then go home. But many will opt to stay on, thinking they will be safer from the virus here.

Except we don’t want them here.

Many locals are now being confronted with depleted shelves, every day, and apparently it is because those who have turned up from outside of the area are waiting at the supermarkets at 7am for the doors to open, and then stripping whatever has been delivered the evening before, leaving little, if anything, left for the local population. They are doing this every day! We haven’t seen toilet paper here for weeks. Yes, it has been coming in overnight but is all bought out in about twenty minutes, because people who have travelled into the village are stocking up here before they leave to go home, but many are making no move to leave just yet, but continue to shop up a storm.

But just how much toilet paper, rice, pasta and other non-perishable food items do they need? And how about the local population who don’t need these grasping out-of-town travellers here in the first place? Why do these people believe they are more entitled to the local supermarket’s stock than the people who actually live here? It’s disgraceful!

But it’s not just here. This is the story in small towns and villages up and down the coast as well as inland. They have been invaded by city people wanting to stock up on far more supplies than they need and then decide to sit the virus out in the regional area they are depleting. If they weren’t behaving so selfishly, they may be welcome, but they come, they strip our resources and stubbornly refuse to move on. Those that have gone home have done so with their vehicles loaded to bursting point with what they have stripped from local outlets, leaving local populations struggling just to get the basics. It is incredibly selfish.

I can see riots happening in the near future over this. We have already seen altercations in supermarkets between shoppers with loaded trolleys, determined not to allow a single packet of toilet paper go to someone else, and getting violent over it. It is going to happen over food lines and inevitably, those with the fullest trolleys are often the perpetrators because they refuse to acknowledge that others also have a right to buy. Honestly, there is enough for everyone. Supermarkets in Australia are not threatening closures and product lines are in good supply, so there is absolutely no need to go on a rampage through the aisles or to be lashing out at others just trying to do their normal food shop. There shouldn’t be shortages, and there wouldn’t be if the panic buyers would just stop, so we could all get what we need and be done with it. Simple! But they won’t stop. Honestly, the town-hoppers really need to pack up and head back home.

Seriously, JUST GO HOME!

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The Toilet Tissue War

Forget the blue chip shares. Forgo the usual moneymakers. Looks like toilet tissue is set to be Next Big Thing and those who have emptied supermarket shelves in their headlong determination to stockpile sufficient bulk packs of it, enough to see them well into the next decade, may be warming to the idea that they could be sitting on a fortune! But let’s hope they aren’t, because they don’t deserve to profit from their greed.

It would have to be something like that because why else would people be loading shopping trolleys with far more toilet tissue than they will ever need for a long, long time?  Because a global crisis inevitably brings out the worst in people and it becomes an every-man-for-himself situation. Hence the feral coming to the fore down in the toilet roll aisle in supermarkets all over Australia as some members of communities decide they are more entitled to household staples than others, and are prepared to come to blows over a packet of toilet rolls. That they have already overbought is beside the point. They want more.

Which inevitably has gone viral and I am pretty sure Australia has become the laughing stock of the planet as a result. Like, I am almost embarrassed to admit I live here at the moment!

I think the “It’s all mine! Mine!” mindset initially surfaced during the bushfire crisis. Emergency Service organisations repeatedly advised people to forgo their coastal vacations over the 2019/2020 Christmas/New Year period because of the fire threat, and because the small towns and villages along the coast would be trying to see to the safety and wellbeing of their own. They did not need to have to deal with an influx of tourists as well. So those in the big cities ignored the advice, headed to the NSW South Coast and were trapped by the inferno. Then they systematically cleaned out supermarkets, petrol and water supplies and left the locals floundering. Then they stayed on, despite repeated requests from emergency services to please leave, as they were placing to much strain on the local infrastructure and services.

I had never seen a supermarket made so devoid of stock, and in so short a time, as I did in my local supermarket on New Year’s Eve. People just raced in and cleared shelves of everything, whether they needed it or not, and the rest of us were left to try and manage. I’m guessing that mindset is still alive and well if what I’m seeing now is any indication.

But toilet rolls? And now facial tissues? Yes, those who have missed out on toilet rolls have resorted to boxes of tissues. Or maybe it’s the same people? Who would know, but laughably, the next thing after toilet tissue and facial tissues has been paper towel and that’s so not a good thing. Those resorting to repurposing paper towel as toilet paper are going to have a big plumbing problem because paper towel is not designed to be flushed down a toilet. It will clog. The toilet paper crisis will probably end up being a boom time for plumbers as a result, so at least there’s something positive. Sort of.

Meanwhile, non-perishable food items with a long shelf life remain stubbornly on supermarket shelves! Sure, I know some people have been stockpiling food in the event that lines may become scarce for a while, at least until after the Corona Virus has done its World sweep and gone away,  but wouldn’t you have thought that food would have been the first thing to get the Big Rush? Before toilet tissue? Seriously, that was the first thing to cross my mind and that’s what I expected to see. People need to eat and yes, if they eat they will sooner or later need to take a trip to the bathroom, but if you ran out of toilet tissue you can find away around it. But you can’t easily find a way around running out of food.

Thing is, none of this stockpiling is even necessary. Supermarkets are not threatening to close. Toilet tissue manufacturers have not stopped production or shut down. Supermarket trucks are still doing their usual rounds with their usual deliveries, which include toilet tissue. There is no shortage, except for the one in supermarkets created by people who think they are entitled to clean out the supplies in one foul swoop. Supermarkets mostly have invoked a limit per customer but they should have done that sooner, and have someone there to suss out if family members were posing as individual shoppers because some people will do that too.

Where’s the point of having a room full of toilet rolls and facial tissues if the pantry is nigh on empty? Even if you were to sell some of your toilet roll stockpile at an exorbitant price , if the food has all been bought up while you were brawling in the toilet roll aisle, what are you going to spend the money on? More savvy types stocked up on canned, bottled and dry goods with Use By dates of late 2020 or into 2021. Those guys will get around the lack of toilet tissue but, unfortunately for the toilet tissue hoarders, may well be unwilling to trade food for it with the likes of you!

Especially if you were the one who punched them out over a six pack of Sorbent when all this nonsense started.

And it is nonsense.

 

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Drug Cheats Don’t Play Fair

Chinese swimmer, Sun Yang, is probably biting his nails down to the quick this week as he awaits the verdict on his appeal, held in Switzerland in November last year which, following another delay, is set to deliver its verdict on March 3.

The appeal came about because the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided to lodge it with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following Sun Yang being cleared by swimming’s international federation on a technicality, despite Sun Yang admitting he had destroyed his own blood sample at an out-of-competition drug test at his home in China in 2018. Normally, such an action by a sportsperson would result in a lengthy, automatic ban on competition.

The verdict has been delayed over issues arising from the unreliable interpreter provided by Sun Yang’s legal representatives and the call for the transcripts of the translation, which apparently included some confusing testimony by Sun Yang, was agreed to by lawyers from both sides of the argument. Richard Young, WADA’s lead attorney, described the testimony as “monumentally evasive”. Personally, I believe the deliberately destroyed blood sample should have sealed the Chinese swimmer’s fate right there and then (why destroy his own sample if it was clean?) and would be interested to know just what the “technicality” was that cleared him and allowed him to continue competing. But the evasive testimony is ringing alarm bells. People with nothing to hide don’t give evasive testimony. Or throw temper tantrums when someone questions their place in international sporting events.

Thing is, despite his golden boy status in China, this is his second doping offence and if the CAS verdict goes against him it will herald the end of his swimming career, as he will be looking at an eight-year ban, and eight years on the sidelines is something he is unlikely to be able to come back from. Plus he will be stripped of any prizemoney and medals he has won after September 18. If that happens, Australian swimmer, Mack Horton, will be moved up to the title of World Champion, as he had come in second to Sun Yang in the 2019 titles in South Korea.

Which means Mack Horton will be vindicated.  The bad blood between the two athletes erupted four years ago at the Rio  Olympics when Horton called Sun out as a drug cheat prior to their clash in the 400 metre Freestyle event. Horton won. Then came the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, where Horton objected to Sun being allowed to compete. Horton came in second and then refused to take the podium with Sun for the medals ceremony as a protest to Sun being allowed into the Championships.

Horton has a spotless record as a clean athlete, which is a good thing, seeing as he is such a gifted swimmer (and one of ours). His protest against Sun Yang cost him a lucrative potential sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola and subjected him, his family and girlfriend to abuse from Sun Yang’s supporters.  Any businesses, institutions or sponsors associated with him copped the flack.

But the real kicker has come from his school, Caulfield Grammar in Melbourne.  A former graduate, Mack Horton is the school’s first Olympic champion and the plan was to name the school’s new $25 million aquatic centre after him, but following the fall-out after his protest in Korea against Sun Yang, who remains one of China’s most celebrated athletes despite the drug offences, the school has done a backflip. This is really wrong.

Caulfield Grammar is heavily dependent on keeping up good relations with China. It has a campus in Mainland China and sends groups of its Year 9 students to its Nanjing boarding facility to participate in five-week language and immersion programmes. Chinese children make up a large number of the student body at the school’s secondary campus in Wheelers Hill, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Former federal government minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, who was part of the team that worked  to secure a free trade agreement with China, joined the school’s council in December.  Well, that’s interesting. But that the school would choose to placate China, over their former graduate, doesn’t go down well with me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one having an issue with it.

Anyway, the verdict on Sun’s appeal is due to come out next week and I think Mack Horton is as keen to hear it as Sun Yang, but for very different reasons. Horton’s protest was as genuine as it was justified. Sun Yang is a drug cheat.  But if the verdict goes against Sun, will the school change it’s mind, again, about naming that pool? And will Mack Horton accept the “honour” if it does? I won’t blame him if he doesn’t.

He’s deserves better than that.