New Flag for Australia?!

Before I shuffle off this mortal coil I want three things of Australia:
I want us to become a Republic,
I want one particular man as President, (I'm not revealing my choice yet)
and I want a new Australian flag.

It is obscene that we have the Union Jack on our flag. Not that I'm anti-Pommie, I'm not really, though I think people from Great Britain have a lot to answer for in dominating much of the world for many generations. (I am descended from Scots and Poms myself.)

The push for the Republic, and with it the initiative for a new flag, came to a dead halt when the Republic Referendum was lost, thanks to duplicity by the previous horrid government, of which I don't even want to think about any more. But now it's time to breathe new life into the movement, and one thing that I can do on my own is to try to come up with a new flal design.

Everybody, including me, likes the Southern Cross, Crux, the most spectacular of all constellations. It comprises five stars, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, all except one of which is either first or second magnitude. No Australian flag would be thinkable without the Cross, and that fixes the base colour to blue, with white stars. But that alone will not satisfy a desire for a gutsy flag. It seems to me that there is one emblem which is so obviously deserving of featuring on our new flag that there shouldn't even be any debate about it. The Kangaroo!

(More anon.)

Friendly Street Poets

Here is a link of my local Writers group with an article about yours truly.

I am on Page 3.

Enjoy!

http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/fsnewsvolume2issue2.pdf

Aussie Rules OK!?!!!

It's Saturday night and I'm with Jason watching an Aussie Rules Football game on Teev. Wow. For those who don't live in the WideBrownLand, look, I gotta tell you, you don't know what you're missing if you've never seen a game of Aussie Rules. Those blokes are so-o-o FIT! It's a total game, Australian Rules. It starts with the most aerodynamic ball, ovate like rugby balls but much faster and more directable when kicked by experts. If there is one skill more than any other I really am in awe of, it's that of reading the bounce of a running ball . . . but there are many skills in the game: running dodging leaping marking feinting tackling falling bumping punching (the ball may not be thrown but may be punched away, some footballers can punch it over two full-sized bungalows!) Aussie Rules footballers must be alpha-males, and they must be fit athletes in every way.

There's not a game in the world to touch it. I love it.

Australian Republic

I've just been reading postings on the notion of an Australian Republic.
Gee those "No Republic!" people are pathetic. Who so base as those who are willing brown-noses to the Queen? That's all they are, just sycophantic un-Australians. Who do they think they are, with their Union-Jacky flag, their longing for a return to White Australia and Birthday Honours, their support for a decadent and long-irrelevant bunch of inbred parasitic royal yobs?

Australians of all other than British origins are rightly bemused by Monarchists' eagerness to be underlings, and disgusted by their exclusivist attitudes. (Many of British-stock origin, including myself, are equally contemptuous of them.)

Stand up Australians! At last we have rid ourselves of Johnnie Brown-Nose-in-Chief, we have a clever and energetic and compassionate Government, and surely, it is high time we had the self-respect to have our own Republic, with our own Head of State (President), our own Bill of Rights, and, for crying out loud, our own FLAG!
I know who I want as First President, but I'll leave that for later. What do You think?

Klokan the Blue Kangaroo (Poem)

Klokan the Blue Kangaroo

Little Klokan, the Blue Kangaroo,
Lived alone in a European Zoo:
Like sad Cinderella
Klokan had no fella –
So of course little Klokan was blue!

So Zoo Management brought a Red ’Roo
(for they knew female Red ’Roos are Blue)
There were hopes they’d be mated:
Zoo management waited
To see what the two ’Roos would do.

But the old man Red ’Roo didn’t thrill her,
And certainly didn’t fulfil her;
In fact (it was said)
Klokan treated Big Red
As you might treat a Chimp, or Gorilla!

So they brought her a next, then another,
Then a Grey Kangaroo, then his brother:
She was always polite,
But they weren’t ‘Mr Right’
So it seemed that she’d never be ‘Mother’.

There were fears little Klokan was sick:
Was she troubled by Fleas, or a Tick?
Perhaps she had Scabies,
Or – God forbid – Rabies!
So they called for some Vets to come quick.

So the European Animal Bureau
Checked her fur with a lens to make sure: “OH!
Klokan!” they said,
“You’re not Grey, Blue, nor Red! –
Though you’re true-blue Australian, you’re a EURO!”

Then they found little Klokan a mate straight away!
His rich silver-blue fur shamed plain Red and Grey,
And with manners disarming,
He was Klokan’s Prince Charming,
And there’s Joeys abounding today!

So by now Klokan’s fame has spread far and wide
All Europeans love her, and to show her their pride,
They found a great way to heap tribute upon her –
Now all Europe’s currency’s named in her honour!

So when you go to Europe, as one day you may,
There’s no Dollars, Marks, Francs, Pounds, nor Pesos to pay:
In clubs, shops and restaurants, and all Travel Bureaux,
Everything’s value is reckoned in Euros!

This is an abbreviated version, for performance purposes. The complete poem is 5 full pages, and takes Klokan from orphaned joey in Australia, to Prague, then All-Around-The-World meeting animals, and eventually back to her Prague Zoo home, which is where the last two stanzas in this version ends up. Anthropomorphic, yes indeed, but if as I have you have had the joy and pain of helping raise Euro joeys, you’ll know why. The Euro, macropus robustus, also known as the Wallaroo, is by the way the third-largest macropod, nearly as tall as Greys but heavier- built and much more thickly furred. Races of Euros are found everywhere in mainland Australia. Bruce Bilney

After the Big Heat

Whew. Adelaide has just survived its longest heatwave, 16 days straight over 35 Celsius. We are now the official record holder for having had the longest hot spell of any Australian capital, that doesn't mean it's been fun. It is blessedly cool now, one can think straight again. Outside in the sun in that heat, it feels like standing near a blast furnace, it feels like Armageddon setting in.
Well it's very reassuring, I've always prophesied Doom, if it weren't happening I'd feel let down. Well seriously it does feel quite scary, even the deny-ers are starting to panic.
Have you been noticing weird weather lately?

Virgin poster

This is my first posting. Right now I'm too stuffed to write much more, I have to get up early-ish to go to Writers' Week in the Adelaide Arts Festival. Just think: Everything I write after this has to be more interesting than this!