For those who came in late, in early October 2020 a premature baby was found abandoned in a bathroom in Doha Airport in Qatar. The reaction of the airport authorities was to remove 13 Australian women from a Qatar Airways flight and subject 7 of them to invasive genital examinations. This could well be considered …
Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta
The Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood
I was walking through Collingwood and Clifton Hill yesterday (as I did not grow up or ever live around there, I am not too sure where one stops and the other starts) and paused to admire the Bendigo Hotel in Johnston Street. This is quite a distinctive and ornate pub, on the outside at least. …
Things Fall Apart – Cancellation Of The Commonwealth Games Is Merely A Symptom Of A Deeper Malaise
Many years ago, I read a book about the final collapse of the Cain-Kirner government. It was a collection of essays. by then-prominent journalists and academics. Essentially it was a laudatory panegyric by committed Keynesians who saw nothing wrong in the many fiscal and governance failures by Cain-Kirner and their ministers. Instead, they placed the …
My New Bookcases Used To Be Owned By A Communist!
Let’s face it, there is no political philosophy more obsessed with money and its possession (or lack thereof) than Communism (and its slightly watered down version – Socialism). Karl Marx did invent the term ‘Capitalism’ to describe the existing socio-economic status quo, and he was always obsessed with money – because he had little of …
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Crown Casino Gives Us A Fine Example Of Irony
I am a proud member of Generation X, far more virtuous and responsible than the Baby Boomers, and far less self-entitled than the Millennials (ie Gen Y). I would say that the main flaw with my Generation is that we have a bit of a problem understanding Irony. I will give you two examples. One …
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Taylor Swift IS The Man!
A colleague decided not to attend my giant retirement celebration last Friday because he was licking his wounds after not getting tickets to one of the Taylor Swift concerts which were on sale last week. Oh well, my bar bill was well into the four figures as it was. Much as I enjoy listening to …
Modern Exploration: Thrill-Seeking or Ghoul Tourism for the Mega-Rich?
The men (and it would have almost invariably have been men) who undertook the Haj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, prior to the modern era, would have been both rich and brave. Rich to be able to afford to leave their affairs and families unattended for the duration of the journey, and to pay for …
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So this is Retirement, sort of….
I’m not really retired yet, but I have 12 and a half months of extended leave to get used to the idea, and I am not going back to work. I started my leave at lunchtime yesterday, marked with a very large farewell drinks at my Club with about a hundred colleagues and friends. The …
Warrior Nun has been saved!
http://www.joe.ie/movies-tv/netflix-warrior-nun-uncancelled-776838 I am delighted that Warrior Nun has been uncancelled and I look forward to bingeing season 3 on Netflix!!!!
What’s A Few Men? War Callousness and War Crimes
There is a very memorable passage in AB Facey’s beloved memoir A Fortunate Life where an unnamed senior British officer visits the front line at Gallipoli. When he suggests a highly risky and pointless action and is told that they do not want to lose more men needlessly, his callous reply is: “What is a …
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Lost For Words! 