Hate-filled do-gooders

Twitter and other social media outlets seem to have a disinhibiting effect on what people say.  Writers there reveal sides of themselves that we would not normally see.  The comment from Australia below is therefore interesting for showing how often do-gooders reveal on social media that they are also great haters who lash out in all directions.  Their belief in their own righteousness seems to unshackle them from all tolerance and decency -- and replace that with a frightening savagery.

What we are seeing there, of course, is Leftism in the wild, Leftism red in tooth and claw, Leftism with the gloves off, Leftism with the mask off.  Leftists too are great do-gooders.  Do-gooding is their stock in trade.  Presenting themselves as "compassionate" is what they do.

And in power they too are great haters and destroyers.  Mrs Obama liked nothing about America until her husband became president. And Obama's pastor ranted about "AmeriKKKa".  Obama himself is too wily to let  his hatred be seen -- though we can readily infer it.  In countries where their power and influence can cease at the next election, Leftists in a democracy have to be cautious like that.

But where they have untrammelled power we see what Leftists really are.  It took the loudly do-gooding Leftist Hugo Chavez to reduce oil-rich Venezuela to poverty -- where no amount of  money can buy many basics, such as toilet paper, and where most cars have to be bought secondhand at exorbitant prices.  And forget freedom of the press in Venezuela of course.  The more influence Leftism has, the more its hates are impoverishing and destructive.

And that regime most beloved of America's Left, Cuba, is another case in point.  Under Fulgencio Batista, Cuba was a middle-income country, on a par with Belgium.  Now, of course it is a poor country, with the basics strictly rationed and in short supply.  And Castro himself lives more opulently than Batista ever did.

I grew up in a region of Australia that produces large amounts of sugar for export.  There were three sugar mills in the town where I was born. And Cuba too was once a big sugar exporter.  So when Fidel Castro took over and was so destructive in his hates as to reduce Cuban sugar production to a trickle, there were many people in my town who had a kind word for him.  By noticeably reducing the world supply of sugar, he bumped up prices for it.  A lot of Australian sugar farmers were able to pay off their debts at that time.

So the association between do-gooding and aggressive hate has long been with us.  It has always been visible on the political scene for anyone with eyes to see.  Only now has it become so visible on the individual level.  We will see more of it


WHAT is it about goodwill that makes people go feral?  “Give, but give until it hurts,” the always well-meaning Mother Teresa taught us. But in a couple of perplexing examples just this week, that touching sentiment seems to have been somehow misinterpreted as: “Give ... until you’re inspired to hurt someone”.

Just this week, a do-gooding current affairs program inspired thousands of Australians to reach out to a suffering family, but also — probably unwittingly — inspired a bit of corporate hate.

Sharon Chan’s ordeal is tragic. The story of the pregnant Sydney mum — whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack last week, leaving her to raise two sons, one with Down syndrome and leukaemia, and another child due any day — touched so many viewers that the Rotary page set up to take donations for the family repeatedly crashed.

But the charity site wasn’t the only online victim of this injustice. Well-meaning Australians, filled with rage at Ms Chan’s situation, took to the Facebook pages of major supermarkets and other television shows as, it seemed, they felt the need to direct their frustration towards The Man.

“Give to Sharon and her boys from the ACA current affair program,” one post to Coles’ Facebook page read. “Give free groceries for her and her boys ... petrol, money, something ... show people you are not a heartless company out for profits.”

And there were others demanding the corporate giant mirror their goodwill. "Everyone in Australia is on board and you should be too. Show people you are not just about profit ... deliver free groceries for a year, or give free petrol ... you decide.”

Conservationists, also with good intentions, have been pushed to the point of being abusive this week.  Glamorous American game hunter Sabrina Corgatelli was accused of rubbing salt in the wound as animal lovers reeled from the killing of Cecil the lion.

Their protests at her posing with a dead giraffe and sharing the image online were valid — some people don’t want to see innocent and protected animals hunted for sport.

But how does Photoshopping the woman’s head onto the slain animal’s lifeless body help the cause? And then there were the shocking death threats over her proposed visit to New Zealand: “We should all book on these (hunting tours) and then when we go don’t hunt the animal hunt the **** Sabrina!!!”, “We’ll have a hunting party ready and waiting for YOU. Evil b****”, and “I will personally cut your head off and mount the **** on my wall”.

The logic here appears to be that threatening to hunt and murder a woman, and make a trophy of her genitalia, makes up for the hunting of a giraffe.

It’s charity driving us to hypocrisy and it’s all a bit weird.

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Under huge pressure, Booers mostly browbeaten into silence as Goodes returns to football

A PACKED Simonds Stadium gave Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes a warm welcome as he returned to the field tonight.

Goodes strode through a banner that said “respect unity fairness” alongside his teammates and Geelong opponents before tonight’s game, ultimately won by the Cats 14.11 (95) to Sydney 9.9 (63).

The crowd thundered and fireworks erupted above Simonds Stadium following a “welcome to country” performance pre-match. There was also a video message on the big screen from Geelong players urging the crowd to show respect and fairness.

This had followed cheering from Geelong fans when Goodes stepped off the Swans team bus for the blockbuster match.

Spectators wore clothes bearing Aboriginal flags and with the word “Pride”, while motorists were greeted by a van draped with a flag saying “No room for racism”.

Geelong fan Adam Fratantaro said the booing had gone on long enough, regardless of spectators’ intentions.  “Adam Goodes is clearly hurting and it’s time it stopped. We say give him the respect we all deserve,” he said.

While most of the crowd was well behaved, spectators in the standing section repeatedly booed when Goodes got the ball.

Swans fan Max Ryan, who was close to some who booed, said it was in poor taste. “It was mostly respectful however there were pockets of people just tryig to stir something. It was unwarranted and unnecessary, especially given the teams ran out together in solidarity,” Mr Ryan said.

Cats supporter Alex Holmes agreed: “It is unsettling and worrying especially given the media coverage the issue has had. I don’t believe those few represent Geelong as a whole.”

Mr Fratantaro was handing out signs saying ”Cheer for Goodesy” with fellow Cats die-hard Paul Young outside the stadium. “We can’t stop everyone booing but we think we can encourage people to show respect,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he expected the booing to stop.  “Obviously, all Geelong fans want to win but they also want something that reflects well on the city,” Mr Abbott told Triple M. “He’s a great footballer, he’s a fine Australian of the Year and no one wants to see anyone bullied.”

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said players and clubs had made it clear that any boos would be considered racist.

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Eddie McGuire won’t apologise for calling John Eren a ‘soccer loving Turkish born Mussie’

POWERFUL AFL figure Eddie McGuire referred to the Victorian sports minister John Eren as a “soccer loving Turkish born Mussie” during the code’s annual general meeting in March.

McGuire’s latest controversial comment occurred in a room at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium packed with the AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, commissioners and club presidents during a ‘brainstorming session’.

An observer said AFL Commissioner Sam Mostyn “clearly cringed” when McGuire used the term. Several officials told the Sunday Telegraph they privately took exception to the Collingwood president’s reference to Mr Eren.

But McGuire, who is also president of Collingwood football club, told The Sunday Telegraph he made no apology for using the term in the March 25 AGM.

He used the phrase when the conversation turned to the “shifting world” and that AFL need to get more organised and “do more” in competing with the soccer market.

“The quote that I said, because I referred (in) this to the Minister himself, is as a ‘soccer loving Turkish born Mussie’ to emphasise the point that no longer do we have an Anglo Saxon former AFL footballer as the sports minister,” McGuire said.

“Because ‘Mussies’ (is) the way that my Muslim friends refer to themselves.” “I don’t think you should go around calling people the old insulting terms, but the terms that show you are a friend.

Mr Eren yesterday called McGuire to discuss the remarks after a call from The Sunday Telegraph.  “This is a timely ­reminder that leaders in the community need to be careful about how they ­express themselves,” Mr Eren said.  “As a fellow Broadmeadows boy, I’ve known Eddie a long time. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.

“As Minister for Sport for a great multicultural state, I’ll get on with the job of working with all codes.”

McGuire said ‘Mussie’ was not a racist term.  “I was sitting in a room of 30 people, it wasn’t like it came out of the corner of my mouth.  “I was making a point, that’s the way I talk with people, that is my vernacular, people know that, they watch Hot Seat, they like it, they listen to my radio shows, I’ve been doing it for years, that’s what I am about.

“I don’t have any issue with any nationality. Collingwood is the most multicultural football club in the AFL and has been for 100 years.”

McGuire said he was actually trying to show how far Australia has come.  “The point I was making was that we’ve got a Turkish born soccer loving Mussie as sports minister, (it) shows you how far we have moved, this is what it is all about.”

“Don’t get caught up in the syntax all the time. People refer to me as Broadie boy, Toorak toff, who cares, it’s part of the fun ... I am all those things. It’s no big deal.

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Ever seen this before, a kangaroo feeding in the snow?



David Viner would be surprised.  "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past", he said 15 years ago.  Being a false prophet is lucrative, though. Viner was Global Director - Climate Change, Environment and  Sustainability at the British Council up until 2011.  Report below from a couple of weeks ago

Sydney hasn't seen snow since 1836. The Antarctic storm has caused traffic accidents, school closures and power outages around the state on Australia’s southeastern coast

Kangaroos are a common sight for Australian vineyard owner Bill Shrapnel. But a winter storm this week was the first time he’d seen a ’roo in the snow.

Shrapnel guesses about 30 of the “timid” and “watchful” creatures live on his 77-acre Colmar Estate vineyard in Orange, New South Wales.

But before he peeked out his back window Thursday, he had never seen one of the kangaroos in the snow.

“They just turned up and started to feed. The younger ones boxed with one another as if it was just another day.”

A surprised Shrapnel snapped a photo, which his daughter shared on social media.

Shrapnel, 62, and his wife Jan moved to Orange earlier this year from Sydney, which hasn’t seen snow since 1836.

While the couple had prepared for their first winter, he says, “having it snow three times in a week is not what we expected.”

The winter storm caused traffic accidents, school closures and power outages around the state on Australia’s southeastern coast.

Thredbo, a ski resort in New South Wales, recorded 30 cm of snowfall, and highs in Orange and other wintry towns were below 5 C.

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