Good evening Stuart,
It's been ages since I last hear "Queen Of Hearts" by Juice Newton. Thanks for playing it, it's a great song.
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 18th, 2008 at 10:30pm
When one wants a strange quote, it’s hard to beat Yoko Ono. The woman who has previously been quoted as saying that the way she composes songs is by “clearing her mind of thought” had her 75th birthday today. I can’t quite work out whether she said it last year, this year, or both, but according to Yoko all women are witches and all witches are magical beings.
What a weird world we live in.
Samuel
February 18th, 2008 at 08:02pm
I was looking back through some of my emails and noticed an email from Tim Malone about the ACT Liberal Party creating a shadow department of government accountability to keep track of the Stanhope government’s “waste and mis-management”. It reminded me that I had a dream about Canberra’s very own brown tree kook, ACT Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope yesterday.
Last time he appeared in one of my dreams we got in to a bit of a yelling match, but not this time.
On this occasion we were both towards the back of a supermarket. I was there to get some lunch, and Jon Stanhope was there to show off his brand new red shopping basket. I saw Jon Stanhope and decided that I would like to meet him and let him know that it’s good to see a politician mingling with the public…so I walked over to him, and without needing to introduce myself, he started yelling “No, I’m not talking to the likes of you, go away you awful little man”, and then ran away screaming with his red shopping basket.
Oddly (as if that wasn’t odd enough), the tomatoes started applauding, and the dream ended.
Samuel
February 18th, 2008 at 01:59pm
You may have noticed that I’ve made a couple minor changes to the layout of the website. The random quotes section has been removed for the moment as I never seem to get around to maintaining the list of quotes, it will either disappear completely or be replaced with a more automated system.
The image at the top of the page has changed slightly as well. I’ve been considering that change for about three months and finally got around to it.
There are a few more minor changes on the way, and if all goes to plan I may launch a new look on the 20th of April for the blog’s third birthday.
Samuel
February 18th, 2008 at 11:53am
As of yesterday we are in to Canberra’s first radio ratings period for the year. The ratings period runs from February 17 to March 15, a total of 4 weeks, with the results published on Thursday March 27.
Later this week the first metropolitan radio ratings will be released. Sydney and Brisbane will be of particular interest, especially for the Fairfax talk stations. 2UE in Sydney have an almost completely different (perhaps “shuffled” would be a better word) lineup, whilst 4BC have replaced the Sydney based morning show with their own local morning show. It will be a very interesting survey.
Samuel
February 18th, 2008 at 09:23am
At some stage late on Saturday night a relatively large Canberra Door Moth made itself at home on my front door. It was still there in the early hours of Sunday morning, so I took some photos of it.
A couple more photos can be seen on the photo gallery at http://photos.samuelgordonstewart.com/CanberraDoorMoth
Samuel
February 18th, 2008 at 07:06am
Kevin Rudd’s apology to the aboriginal people of Australia is a dangerous and divisive statement according to Samuel.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/017.mp3]
Download MP3
You are more than welcome to respond to anything you hear on the show by sending an email to echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com. Emails may be read and responded to on a future episode.
The episode can be played in the MP3 player above or by downloading the MP3 file. You can also subscribe to Editorial Echoes. The RSS Feed can be found at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/echoes.xml and you can subscribe through iTunes by clicking here.
The script follows.
Samuel
Welcome to Editorial Echoes for February 18, 2008, I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart.
Kevin Rudd said sorry to the stolen generation of aborigines last week, or at least, that was the original plan. If he had only done that, I probably would have understood, as that was one of the many platforms he used to win power, but he took it further…apologising to the stolen generation of aborigines obviously wasn’t enough for him, he had to go further and make somewhat of a blanket apology to the quote “Indigenous peoples of this land”, for what he described as quote “the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss”.
I do not, for one moment, understand how it is possible to apologise to aboriginal people for policies which may have affected them adversely, without apologising to everyone else for the same thing. I do not understand how a statement such as this can assist us towards, to quote Mr. Rudd again, “a future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners”.
It was a divisive statement which effectively said, “we’re sorry for whatever may have happened to aboriginal people, but when it comes to others, well never mind”. Has Mr. Rudd really forgotten about certain injustices which he was only too eager to point out prior to being elected…injustices such as the very shabby treatment of Cornelia Rau, the German citizen and permanent Australian resident who was wrongfully detained as an illegal immigrant for ten months…why is it that we can apologise for something a previous government may have done to aboriginal people, but not something a previous government may have done to a German woman?
And apart from that, if we focus on the parts of the apology which were focussed on the “stolen generation”, why did we only apologise to aboriginal people who were removed from their families, and not the white children who were also removed? Why is it that we are apologising for an act which, in some cases by their own admission, probably saved the lives of many removed children. So many of the “stolen” children were removed because of abuse, and if they had not been removed, they quite possibly would not have been alive last week to hear an apology.
Why is it that we can apologise for removing children decades ago for their own safety, and yet we can lambaste government agencies such as the New South Wales Department of Community Services for not removing children in this decade? That, surely is a double standard.
And now that we’ve had the apology, the compensation claims start appearing. Whilst the government remains adamant that the apology will not have any effect on the chances of successful compensation claims, there can be no denying that the apology, which, let’s be honest, doubles as an admission of wrongdoing by somebody at some stage, makes those who feel hard-done-by, feel like they have a better chance at being compensated. I’ll quite happily leave it up to the courts to decide the merits of each case, but it looks like they’ll be doing that sooner rather than later.
The government may believe that the apology doesn’t make compensation claims more likely to suceed, but they still seem to be absolutely obsessed with cutting expenditure…perhaps not to fund the compensation payouts, but almost certainly to help cover the costs of spending time in court battling with people they just apologised to. That’s a twist and a half.
I probably sound like I’m saying that no harm was ever done to anyone…well that’s not the case…there is one thing I would like to apologise to Australia’s aboriginal people for, and that’s the introduction of alcohol to their culture by my ancestors. In moderation alcohol can be a good thing, but they way it has been introduced in to some places, especially remote aboriginal communities, is a travesty. The excessive use of alcohol and other drugs, or things which can be used to the same effect such as petrol, is ruining those communities.
One of the greatest legacies of the Howard government is the Northern Territory intervention. It is an attempt to help put those communities back on track. If Kevin Rudd is serious about helping aboriginal communities, he will continue the intervention in the way it was intended.
I suppose, no matter how much I may view the apology as a waste of time, money and effort, and a dangerous double standard, the fact of the matter is that Kevin Rudd has said the words that many aboriginal people have been, rightly or wrongly, waiting to hear for many years…and as that is the case, it is time to move on. The apology is a two way street. There are too many aboriginal people who are eager to blame the government for anything and everything just because they may have known somebody who was stolen…the apology is hopefully the continuation of the government trying to assist aboriginal people, but you can’t help people who don’t want to be helped…if compensation is all they want, then they are beyond help. Accepting help and not blaming the government for every little problem they can think of are two very important parts of the aboriginal end of the bargain.
Kevin Rudd has held up his end by agreeing to say sorry, now it’s time for the other end to pick up the slack.
And before anybody starts jumping up and down about me claiming that all aboriginal people just want money from the government, I have known and worked with many aboriginal people, a lot are good hard working people who just want to get on with their lives, others have a very annoying victim mentality and seem to think that whatever problems they may have, even if they are self inflicted, are the government’s fault…it’s certainly not all of them, but it’s an awful lot of them. That is a problem, if they want help, they need to accept help, and blaming the government for everything and insisting on a handout is not the way forward…if anything it’s a plea for a verse or two of The Eagles’ song “Get Over It”.
I think another important part of the process of “moving on” is accepting that aboriginal and indigenous are not exclusive words. If you have been listening carefully, you will have noticed that I have been using the word “aboriginal” to describe the people Kevin Rudd apologised to. The reason for that is that I was born here, I therefore, am indigenous…I am not aboriginal though. The sooner this is realised by the government, the aboriginal community, and everyone else the better. There is no reason why an indigenous aboriginal person should have more rights to land than a non-aboriginal indigenous person.
Sadly the government are getting a bit carried away with the post-sorry hysteria and are planning to endorse a UN declaration about the rights of indigenous people, a declaration which treats “indigenous” as another word for “aboriginal”, and could take the native title debate to a whole new level.
It may seem all nice and wonderful to some if we can say that aboriginal people own the land and we should submit to whatever rules they impose on the use of that land…but that is discrimination against those of us who are not aboriginal. If, to take one of the more extreme possibilities, the Ngunnawal people get control over the area which I live in and decide that houses are banned, and I am forced to move as a result, will that be a fair outcome? Of course not, but if we continue down this path, it’s a sample of what is going to happen. It makes me long for the more simple arguments about who should pay for doctors and nurses.
Ultimately, I do not endorse Kevin Rudd’s apology. It was not made on my behalf. I think it smacked of double standards, and was a very divisive statement which did nothing to assist the nation move towards Mr. Rudd’s vision of a “a future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners”.
I strongly hope, although probably in vain, that it does not lead to more messy debates over compensation or land rights because that will affect everyone badly, whether it be through loss of access to land or through the government having less money for various services.
If things get messy, and I believe they will, perhaps then Kevin Rudd will understand why John Howard did not apologise, and instead just took action such as the Northern Territory intervention. As the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words”.
I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart and this has been Editorial Echoes. If you would like to respond, please send me an email, echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com. Until next time, tada.
4 comments February 18th, 2008 at 04:53am
At the time of writing this, Western Australia’s Pilbara coast is preparing for yet another cyclone. Cyclone Nicholas, currently a category three storm, is getting closer to the coast, and people between Mardie and Exmouth, including those in Mardie, Onslow and Exmouth are bracing for impact. It has me wondering why anybody would want to live there as it seems to get a cyclone every few weeks.
So, with that in mind, this week’s poll is:
Total Votes: 18
Started: February 18, 2008
If anybody would care to explain their answer in the comments below, that would be a very interesting read.
Samuel
1 comment February 18th, 2008 at 03:31am
This week’s award goes to Tina Turner, and the feature song is “Simply The Best”. I recall when it was the theme song for Australian Rugby League and the accompanying video was of Tina Turner singing the song on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I think that was probably the best promotion the ARL or related bodies have produced for rugby league.
Tim Webster also played this song a few weeks ago, and when he did that I finally understood what Wayne Mac was referring to when he was talking about the great sound of music pumping through an AM radio…this song really does sound fantastic on AM radio.
I call you when I need you, my heart’s on fire
You come to me, come to me wild and wild
When you come to me
Give me everything I needGive me a lifetime of promises and a world of dreams
Speak a language of love like you know what it means
And it can’t be wrong
Take my heart and make it strong babyYou’re simply the best, better than all the rest
Better than anyone, anyone I ever met
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say
Tear us apart, baby I would rather be deadIn your heart I see the star of every night and every day
In your eyes I get lost, I get washed away
Just as long as I’m here in your arms I could be in no better placeYou’re simply the best, better than all the rest
Better than anyone, anyone I ever met
Oh, I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say
Oh, Tear us apart (no no no), baby I would rather be deadEach time you leave me I start losing control
You’re walking away with my heart and my soul
I can feel you even when I’m alone
Oh baby, don’t let goOh, you’re the best
Better than all the rest
Better than anyone, anyone I ever met
Oh, I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say
Oh, Tear us apart (no no), baby I would rather be dead
Oh, you’re the best
Samuel
February 17th, 2008 at 10:31pm
This was also supposed to appear on Friday.
On Wednesday, a legend of the Australian radio industry and the Australian music industry, Smoky Dawson (real name Herbert Henry Dawson) died at the age of 94.
2GB’s Jason Morrison has very kindly provided permission for me to reproduce the tribute he and 2GB produced on Thursday.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/SmokyDawsonTribute.mp3]
Download MP3
Smoky is survived by his wife Dot, currently aged 102.
Samuel
February 17th, 2008 at 06:03am
This was supposed to appear on Friday, obviously it didn’t. From the 27th of January 2006, it’s a note about John Laws returning from holidays, and a whole heap of very peculiar comments.
The Cat’s Back!
January 27th, 2006 at 02:41pm
Returning to The Fortress on Monday, is John Laws. That means the golden microphone will also be returning to work, and the co-driver will be dropping by on Fridays with his race tips.
Hopefully the cat will find a way to be amongst the pigeons again, and The Cuckoo’s Nest will almost certainly have a song ready, with plenty more to come as the years rolls on.
Welcome Back Lawsie!
Samuel
Entry Filed under: TV/Radio/Media
9 Comments
1. Kooky_Pound_Puppy | January 27th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
I actually saw Lawsie the other day, in front of his Woollara home in Sydney, Looking relaxed fresh and happy.
He is great on radio my nan loves him!.
2. flakey blondie samspam | January 28th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
My mum has a hugh crush on Lawsie, that she went out shopping and brought home a vaz(a carpet washer). I started to threathen to put her into the local home.
All she would do is is quote Lawsie old add” A HOME ISN’T REALLY CLEAN UNLESS IT’S WASHED ‘like she was in some sort of trance.
It’s not that I have anything against carpet washes, it’s just that my mum’s house is all floorboards.
It’s amazing the power Lawsie has on the lady’s.
3. heatseeker | January 30th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Mmmmm … I’m a bit worried about these subliminal messages of Lawsie’s that compel people who don’t even have carpet to go out and buy carpet washers.
I will play his next show backwards and scrupulously check for any hidden Satanic messages …
4. flakey blondie samspam | January 30th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Well if you look at the pic of lawie it’s quite a knowing smirk. Men that have the hidden goods , seem to reflect it with a smirk that seems to make women weak at the knees.
I gather your male heatseeker as you seem not to have fallen for the charms of THE LAWSIE….
5. Chuck Berry | January 31st, 2006 at 12:57 am
Hold on and rewind. I seem to have missed something very important. What was the Kooky_Pound_Puppy doing outside Lawsies shack? Have we stumbled upon something here?
6. heatseeker | January 31st, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Well, yes FBP, I am indeed a male, but Samuel is apparently also of the masculine persuasion, and he seems to be enamoured with Lawsie, and, as his apprentice, he has very effectively adopted his modus operandi of subliminal seductive messages in his prose.
(Section removed – derogatory and offensive) (incidentally, I did a Google search: persiflage \PUR-suh-flahzh\, noun: Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise; light raillery … sounds all a bit demonic to me).
Come to the Dark Side Samuel …
And Chuck, yes, it appears that KPP is a radio star stalker, and I think it’s only a matter of time before he/she is lurking around outside Samuel’s abode, and reporting his doings in extensive detail every time he ventures out with Nattie.
7. flakey blondie samspam | January 31st, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Kooky you have some explaining to do young lady????
A stalker??? Or just another female that can’t resist the charm of THE LAWSIE!!!!
8. Kooky_Pound_Puppy | January 31st, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Ok i must explain, i ran out of oil for my 1974 Combi, and i neede some valvoline i was trying to get in to get some of Lawsie, if you know what i mean’
9. Tony | February 8th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
I’m starting to think John Laws is God, he seems to have been around just as long.
February 17th, 2008 at 03:31am
The site maintenance that I mentioned half a week ago is now, more-or-less, complete. The important bits are done, and user registrations have been enabled again.
The user account audit has not been completed yet, but with 347 user accounts that is going to take a little while. I’ll set aside some time in the next few days to complete that task.
Any questions, let me know.
Samuel
February 17th, 2008 at 02:41am
Oh how I love it when people try to pass off my work as their own work.
Apart from an additional image that the beginning of “their” article, it’s a word for word, image for image copy of my editorial about magpies. I may never have known, but when they referenced an image from my website, Google’s blog search interpreted it as a link to this blog and displayed it as such on my administrative home page.
As per the licence for content on this website, they are free to use that article, as long as they link back to me as the source of it (or attribute it to me in any other way which may be agreed to). I will be contacting the publisher of the copyright violation to seek a link, hopefully they will be co-operative and I won’t be forced to report a copyright violation to Yahoo.
I have sent the following message to the person responsible for that blog via Yahoo’s message form system:
Subject: Direct copy of one of my blog posts
Hello,
I am writing to you as you appear to have copied one of my blog posts. My editorial about being nice to magpies, published in August 2006 at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/2006/08/be-nice-to-the-magpies-and-the-magpies-will-be-nice-to-you has been directly copied to http://au.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-JMop2G40Y6Mk_lwLaImw3pxaXYzQ2Co-?cq=1&p=536 without attribution.
As per the copyright notice linked to at the bottom of that page, and every other page, on my blog (see https://samuelgordonstewart.com/2006/10/copyright-licence-etc) you are free to use my content as long as you attribute it to me. I therefore request that you place a link to my blog on your entry about magpies, or contact me so that we can reach a mutual agreement about this issue.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
samuel@samuelgordonstewart.com
Samuel
2 comments February 17th, 2008 at 01:48am
I said that, possibly with the words in a different order, about six hours ago. I still feel awake. Perhaps I can finally write some blog posts, write those editorials that have been circling my head at inopportune moments for the last week, finish that site maintenance I started half a week ago, and finally feel like I’m achieving something.
There are few things more depressing than having about a dozen things you want to do, only to find that you barely have the energy, patience, concentration or well-being to put up with the things that have to happen before that…and then discover that no matter how utterly exhausted you may be, sleep can not come in solid blocks, and that half hour you waste trying to get back to sleep every couple of hours would have been so much easier to put up with had you either been asleep or been able to find the energy to do something constructive.
And then there’s the times where you don’t feel well, you’re tired but can’t sleep, have something to do but can’t find the energy or motivation to do it, so waste time instead, and then feel worse a few hours later, and then collapse out of exhaustion, sleep for about twelve hours straight, wake up feeling tired and remain that way until you sleep again.
No wonder the last two weeks seem like a blur…I must have been incredibly difficult to be around.
Samuel
February 17th, 2008 at 12:48am
Originally posted February 16 at 9:50am
Due to scheduled maintenance by this website’s hosting provider in the early hours of Saturday the 1st of March, this website may be difficult to reach between midnight and 3am. The maintenance is expected to take this site offline for up to an hour over this period of time.
From 11:30pm on Friday until the completion of the maintenance, comments, polls, user registrations, and other dynamic aspects of this site will be suspended to avoid any potential data loss.
I will bump this advisory to the top of the page on Friday night for your reference.
Normally I wouldn’t bother notifying you of the midnight maintenance carried out on the server hosting this website as they are generally over within a few minutes, but the impact of this maintenance is higher than usual and you deserve to be informed.
Samuel
February 16th, 2008 at 09:50am
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