I ’m trying a little experiment. We only have one reasonably powered local radio station on the Sunshine Coast, 91.7 Coast FM, which plays harmless music designed to insult no-one. Am I the only one who believes a radical format change is in order? Personally, the music they [...]
I think it’s time to resurrect an old chestnut. Bringing life to misunderstood and misused nuts might seem trivial at first glance but bear with me. ‘Noblesse oblige’ is just such a chestnut. Originally this phrase can be traced back to late eighteenth-century France, a country and time [...]
In these times where situations and systems are faulted for our ills, I believe the root cause of any social breakdown lies with the individual; the paucity of empathy, lack of honesty, and the negligence of the most basic of manners. To wit, Bad Men Acting Badly. I [...]
A re angels religious icons or modern-day fairy tales? They have certainly come a long way over the course of a few millennia. Throughout the bible, angels are presented as the Lord’s agents, entrusted with the legwork of communication and admonition. The devil – the old man himself [...]
My first teaching assignment, many years ago, was at Woodlands School. The population was an agglomeration of some of the most varied 'disabilities' ever to confront caregivers and teachers; and while the now-closed institution still harbours unsavoury aftertastes of abuse and mismanagement, many good things came of the programs [...]
Empty PromisesWhen we were young we’d frolic on the beach at English BayA cooler full of sandwiches, we’d run and play all dayThe seaside sand was cooling. We’d bury Uncle PhilA jar of pristine beach sand still stands upon my sillBut that was thirty years ago though much has stayed [...]
People will die this summer on the Sunshine Coast. Not all of them will die peacefully in their beds or from any number of risky behaviours, but they will die of ultimately preventable outcomes from common garden variety Canadian activities like hiking and fishing. Nobody will point a gun [...]
We have to get out of this colonial, 'us or them', squander and pillage mindset. If we dismissed the idiot rantings of the quasi-actuaries infesting the halls of power in Victoria and the 'unthink tanks' such as the Eraser institute, we would come to realise that we have more [...]
The normalisation of the abnormal is well and truly here; and we have it in a wide spectrum of flavours. We no longer flinch when informed of some atrocious wrong-doing in government. Politicians lie shamelessly, reverse policies to suit the day's 'weltanschau', and blithely accept money from vested interests [...]
My political proclivities are not as easily expressed in a label or epithet, but it would be fair to say I don't like thieves, scallywags, and scoundrels purporting to represent me and my ilk in the political theatre. As an erstwhile member of the BCTF, I have spent my [...]