Somewhat predictably we all finished up a wee bit early at work today. I came home to discover LGR had slept for 3.5 hours and then asked for 3 sandwiches for lunch. Once he had eaten, and Hayzey woken up from her own little sleep, we went outside to do some work in the garden. We started by putting some pebble mulch in some plants and doing a spot of watering, and then moved on to watering each other. Initially this went down like a lead balloon but before too long it was all fun ...
Next was some work in the front yard - planting a bunch of succulents generously donated by Aunt LJ and UA. While we were out there Santa rode up on an Australia Post and gave us some mail!! The kids were keen to help out and brought their little shovels and rakes to help dig holes. They even chose the location of the plants.
And that was about it.
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There was a very eloquent letter in the SMH today - written by a chap called Les McDonald. I'm not sure that I agree with the whole thing but the way it is put together is fantastic. Here 'tis:
Detachment, ethics and consistency are not notable features of the Australian character, despite the comforting myths to the contrary. It would be difficult to get a better instance of that than the juxtaposition of three seemingly unrelated articles on the front page of the Herald (December 21).
Steven Chaytor is the subject of the first ("Premier dumps MP over assault"). He, like Milton Orkopoulos before him, has had criminal charges levelled against him. Also like Orkopoulos, he has not been accorded the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. It is hard to blame Morris Iemma for this as the media, contrary to their constant bleating about just being the messenger, have shaped and driven the law-and-order hysteria in NSW ever since the triumph of the Rupert Murdoch school of yellow journalism.
The second was a fawning set of items on the retirement of Shane Warne ("Warne calls stumps, McGrath to follow"). One of these even sought to identify Warne, an admitted serial harasser of women, as "this county's second-greatest sportsman" after Don Bradman. Exactly where this leaves Ian Thorpe, who has beaten the best in the world in his chosen sport and established multiple world records, is not entirely clear, but you get the point. Warne's adoring media fans do not condemn him for his actions towards women but dismiss his multiple offences with an affectionate reference to being a "wayward larrikin". The forgiveness, and indeed approbation, given willingly to Warne, almost because of his many instances of offensive behaviour, is withheld from Chaytor, with the singular difference being that Chaytor isn't an Australian sporting hero.
The third article demonstrates an incapacity by officials to recognise that ethics play any part in public life ("Kickbacks tax-deductible"). The law was incompetent in finding the huge bribes paid to Saddam Hussein's regime were not criminal offences on the technicality that the money was paid to a regime instead of an individual. From an ethical point of view, that is somewhat beside the point. That the bulk of Australians, who obligingly pay their taxes and do not claim the costs of their participation in criminal activity as tax deductions, should now be required to subsidise the criminal activity of others says more about our capacity for ethical insights than all the pious pronouncements in the world by our leaders.