Just a little bit blue

I wrote this post before we heard about what happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, yesterday. People were murdered while worshiping at mosques.Once again, it was a white supremacist male picking a soft target to vent his hatred. Gunning people down at any place of worship is particularly gutless and ugly, every bit as gutless and ugly as the white supremacist who gunned down people in a synagogue in the USA, and the white supremacist who gunned down black Christian worshipers in a church in the USA.

I despair, I really do, that there are so many people on this planet who think slaughtering innocent people just because they’re not the same as you is a way to manage the problems of this world.

And now I’ll get back to the things I talked about before I learned of this latest horrific mass murder. These other matters seem trifling in comparison. But life goes on and to some extent the pathological hatred expressed by these individuals is fuelled by events in the greater environment. Who knows? Perhaps these killers fume in impotent rage, blaming Muslims, Jews, Christians, Blacks, gays, kids who play loud music… until something snaps.

So… let’s pretend it’s Friday morning and Christchurch is still a New Zealand city most famous for the devastating earthquakes in 2011…

I’ll admit to feeling a bit blue of late.  Brexit to the left of me, Trump to the right and here we are, stuck in the middle with only a few months to go before we have a Shorten Labor government.

I have some concerns about the jury system in the courts, with parallels with the Lindy Chamberlain case coming to mind. While we in the West are above the spectacle of physical public executions we’re happy to participate in the virtual kind.

Pete and I went for a walk on the beach the other day and noticed two girls in their early teens kind of standing around for quite a long time. When we got closer we saw that both of them were intent on their phones, not even noticing the ocean, the birds, the sand. Sad.

It seems kids are being allowed to take time off school to protest about burning fossils fuels on account of wanting to stop climate change. I wonder what the turn-out would be if they switched the march to Saturday or Sunday? That way, the kids wouldn’t have to interrupt their education. And hey! Here’s a thought. Maybe they can get their knickers in a knot about something humans can actually change, like the amount of plastic packaging used for every bloody thing. After the supermarket chains sanctimoniously patted themselves on the back for ceasing the provision of one-use plastic bags, now they’re selling bananas in plastic boxes. Bananas. Which come in their own bio-degradable disposable packaging. The hypocrisy is simply overwhelming.

Call me a cynic, but I reckon it would be nice if teachers got back to teaching kids how to read, write (or type), and add up. Then maybe how to carry out research and think for themselves. You know, like the olden days.

On a brighter note I was pleased to see the Crime and Corruption Commission in WA has caught yet another individual living high on the public purse. This one lived it up in Japan for seventeen years. I do have to wonder why his activities weren’t picked up sooner. I hope there are a few people quaking in their boots at the possibility of being caught, in WA, anyway. I’ve not heard much about any other state carrying out such thorough investigations.

Apart from that, here are a few Moods of Hervey Bay.