Reporting on world events from a Bairnsdale Conservative perspective.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Feliz Navidad
Andreas whipped up a gorgeous tune to my posting. Camomilla had posted three lovely pics of early churches and Woodguy posted his penguin in a bear tree. Christmas was Dean Martin and James Brown's day of passing. Washington crossed the Deleware in 1776 and while Saul wasn't converted that day, it remained special for him. It is boxing day for me, but I'm sure it is still Christmas somewhere .. maybe Christmas Island (included) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feliz_Navidad_%28song%29
A nation of wealth and generosity Piers Akerman THE message from the Christian churches at Christmas is one of hope, particularly as the New Year draws nearer.
Hope feeds optimism, which thrives on opportunity. Australia remains one of the nations which offers those fortunate enough to be able to call this country home to some of the greatest opportunities on the planet.
This is not only a wealthy society; it is a civil society and a generous society, no matter what the self-proclaimed “intellectuals” such as Professor Robert Manne and his colleagues may argue.
It is not brutish, or toxic, as the newly elected MP for Bennelong Maxine McKew declared last week, and nor are all our politicians as nastily narrow as she has shown herself to be.
The passing of Sir Charles Court, the long-time premier of Western Australia, at the age of 96 on Saturday, serves to remind all of us how some who devote themselves to public service through politics can make giant contributions that can truly alter the course of a nation.
Court, or “Charley” as he was known to generations of Western Australians, deserves to have his story told wherever young Australians are brought together to learn the true history of their nation.
Much has been made of the fact that Court’s parents were Labor-voting unassisted migrants who came from Britain but that he converted to conservatism in angry reaction to the obstruction of the war effort by militant left-wing trade unions he witnessed.
But it must be said that many Labor families of his parents’ generation were also bound by very conservative moral and social values - what we call family values today, and the Left sneeringly refers to as a “white picket fence” world view.
While he adhered to these views throughout his life, it was his enormous contribution to the economic wellbeing of all Australians that should be honoured.
Though it seems ridiculous now, it was once thought that Australia lacked iron ore reserves and indeed, the metal was placed on a list of strategic minerals which prohibited its export well into the 1950s.
The vast West Australian deposits which are now being mined were then unrealised but geologists (amateur and professional) were beginning to map ore bodies larger than any found elsewhere on earth.
Court, first as deputy to premier David Brand, then as premier in his own right, was without peer in ensuring his state’s resources were realised.
Indeed, he was a colossus who probably enjoyed greater fame in the boardrooms of mining giants such as Rio Tinto in London than he did in Melbourne and Sydney.
Court’s relentless drive saw the establishment of new ports, railways, airports, and paved the way for the iron ore and natural gas projects which still drive the boom which propels the national economy.
He had true vision, he had energy, and he had an intellect and a love for his state and nation that was so far above partisan politics that he was unmatched by any Labor leader.
When I was a young reporter in WA, his office was a constant source of news about new contracts, new townships, new infrastructure, that it was difficult not to be impressed, if not awed by his drive.
Not that there were no other incredible figures making the headlines. Mining entrepreneur Lang Hancock, who piloted me around ore discoveries in his light aircraft, once gave me pause for thought when he proposed blasting a new harbour out of the rugged Nor’ West coast with a limited nuclear explosion.
But Court, in a sense, rode herd on the Hancocks and the Wrights and others, and delivered prosperity to what had been a mendicant state.
He saw the great opportunity and invested himself in it.
I was thinking of the 96 years his life spanned as I walked through some bush on the outskirts of Sydney yesterday, and of Court’s truly huge legacy, when I crossed paths with a young man who was listening to the smallest iPod I have ever seen.
After exchanging Christmas greetings and falling in together for awhile, as walkers on some remote tracks will, it transpired that he was an Iranian in his final year of medical studies. He had been listening to recorded lectures on bone tumours.
“The quiz comes in a couple of months,” he said - there was also a young Australian woman with whom he has bought a home, marriage and hope for children, to be considered.
This young couple will unknowingly reap some of the rewards of the labours of true leaders of this nation, like Sir Charles Court, but I have no doubt that the young doctor studiously listening to his iPod lecture will also touch many future Australians with his healing skills, learned in part on a track winding through a spotted gum forest.
At least one hopes so at this time of Christmas optimism.
And to all readers of The Daily Telegraph, around the nation and on the web, I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a New Year full of opportunity - opportunity to prosper and help others.
A nation of wealth and generosity
ReplyDeletePiers Akerman
THE message from the Christian churches at Christmas is one of hope, particularly as the New Year draws nearer.
Hope feeds optimism, which thrives on opportunity. Australia remains one of the nations which offers those fortunate enough to be able to call this country home to some of the greatest opportunities on the planet.
This is not only a wealthy society; it is a civil society and a generous society, no matter what the self-proclaimed “intellectuals” such as Professor Robert Manne and his colleagues may argue.
It is not brutish, or toxic, as the newly elected MP for Bennelong Maxine McKew declared last week, and nor are all our politicians as nastily narrow as she has shown herself to be.
The passing of Sir Charles Court, the long-time premier of Western Australia, at the age of 96 on Saturday, serves to remind all of us how some who devote themselves to public service through politics can make giant contributions that can truly alter the course of a nation.
Court, or “Charley” as he was known to generations of Western Australians, deserves to have his story told wherever young Australians are brought together to learn the true history of their nation.
Much has been made of the fact that Court’s parents were Labor-voting unassisted migrants who came from Britain but that he converted to conservatism in angry reaction to the obstruction of the war effort by militant left-wing trade unions he witnessed.
But it must be said that many Labor families of his parents’ generation were also bound by very conservative moral and social values - what we call family values today, and the Left sneeringly refers to as a “white picket fence” world view.
While he adhered to these views throughout his life, it was his enormous contribution to the economic wellbeing of all Australians that should be honoured.
Though it seems ridiculous now, it was once thought that Australia lacked iron ore reserves and indeed, the metal was placed on a list of strategic minerals which prohibited its export well into the 1950s.
The vast West Australian deposits which are now being mined were then unrealised but geologists (amateur and professional) were beginning to map ore bodies larger than any found elsewhere on earth.
Court, first as deputy to premier David Brand, then as premier in his own right, was without peer in ensuring his state’s resources were realised.
Indeed, he was a colossus who probably enjoyed greater fame in the boardrooms of mining giants such as Rio Tinto in London than he did in Melbourne and Sydney.
Court’s relentless drive saw the establishment of new ports, railways, airports, and paved the way for the iron ore and natural gas projects which still drive the boom which propels the national economy.
He had true vision, he had energy, and he had an intellect and a love for his state and nation that was so far above partisan politics that he was unmatched by any Labor leader.
When I was a young reporter in WA, his office was a constant source of news about new contracts, new townships, new infrastructure, that it was difficult not to be impressed, if not awed by his drive.
Not that there were no other incredible figures making the headlines. Mining entrepreneur Lang Hancock, who piloted me around ore discoveries in his light aircraft, once gave me pause for thought when he proposed blasting a new harbour out of the rugged Nor’ West coast with a limited nuclear explosion.
But Court, in a sense, rode herd on the Hancocks and the Wrights and others, and delivered prosperity to what had been a mendicant state.
He saw the great opportunity and invested himself in it.
I was thinking of the 96 years his life spanned as I walked through some bush on the outskirts of Sydney yesterday, and of Court’s truly huge legacy, when I crossed paths with a young man who was listening to the smallest iPod I have ever seen.
After exchanging Christmas greetings and falling in together for awhile, as walkers on some remote tracks will, it transpired that he was an Iranian in his final year of medical studies. He had been listening to recorded lectures on bone tumours.
“The quiz comes in a couple of months,” he said - there was also a young Australian woman with whom he has bought a home, marriage and hope for children, to be considered.
This young couple will unknowingly reap some of the rewards of the labours of true leaders of this nation, like Sir Charles Court, but I have no doubt that the young doctor studiously listening to his iPod lecture will also touch many future Australians with his healing skills, learned in part on a track winding through a spotted gum forest.
At least one hopes so at this time of Christmas optimism.
And to all readers of The Daily Telegraph, around the nation and on the web, I wish you a peaceful Christmas and a New Year full of opportunity - opportunity to prosper and help others.