Now that Anna Bligh has bared her soul [and pate] about her
battle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, some interesting comments and attitudes are
emerging.
The ABC news website linked to a preview shot of the newly
bald Bligh in the next Women's Monthly Weekly mag.
For all that my live-in medical expert tells me about this
disease or that, I was surprised to learn a small lump the size of a pea on
Bligh's face was a symptom of something so nasty.
But on now to the issue of bravery … sure there are plenty
of anonymous people "out there" who face similar or worse battles all
the time, but it's nice to see someone use their high profile in a positive
way.
As the comments under the WW article trickle in, some person
[I'm here now spelt backwards] says:
I
have absolutely no respect for this person she and her treasurer caused
directly the deaths of many by over filling the Wivenhoe dam if she was in
control of a privately run organisation she may well be in Jail right now, yes
she was concerned during the floods she was concerned people would find out it
was her who was to blame and there might well be a public stoning.
To be honest, I am not particularly enamoured of many
politicians, but I can't imagine wishing them harm or illness, nor being
delighted to hear about it. FFS.
Despite the appalling consequences of the Wivenhoe dam
disaster, I find it hard to believe Bligh was directly responsible for the dam
being overfilled in the first place. I've not read the results of any
enquiries, but who goes into parliament with a complete check list of things
they ought to investigate?
"Item 4, 962,182 -Are any dams
overfilled?".
Without personally flying over them and cross-examining
engineers, boards, or whoever the heck was in charge of them, how would she
know, and how would she know she ought to know?
Can one really go through life having no faith in any experts
at all? Leaders are supposed to delegate.
She might have had to make a judgment call about whether to
evacuate towns downstream – perhaps she had to choose between two evils and
opted for the one which would be the least disastrous – but again, at least she
wasn't off chatting with her biographer and having her hair cut once the shit
hit the fan.
I'm sure I've seen a box at the intersection of Melbourne 's Bolte and Westgate Bridges
If a disaster does occur there, who the heck is supposed to
read it for instructions? Does one simply park their car to one side and wait,
trusting that whoever has the key/ knows the plan will be instantly aware of
what's happening and turn up in the blink of an eye to put the plan into
action?
Has Premier Naptime read every DISPLAN in the state?
I've just finished reading An Awkward Truth, which goes into some detail about what happened
the first day the Japanese bombed Darwin
in 1942. What a bloody shemozzle. The army ignored a warning from Bathurst Island and then, following the bombing, the most
astonishing chain of stupid decisions ensued.
Amongst them, the Territory administrator [Abbott] commandeered
some policemen and a vehicle so he could save the crockery and wine collection
from his government residence. He thought it would be best if he removed himself to Alice Springs and oversee the situation from there.
Yep, way to go.
If only they'd had a DISPLAN. Or
a job description with "able to set priorities" as one of the
criteria.
The department of health payroll shemozzle over which Bligh
presided was patently ludicrous. It sounds a bit like the Myki nonsense, except
it directly affected and had far reaching financial consequences for lots of
people.
The trouble is, the "experts" of this world grew
up with technology, and I find it astonishing how many organisations have no
manual back-up plan at all in case their computer system crashes.
Did she ask her trusted advisers why they had no manual
system, or couldn't quickly knock one up? The problem continued month after
month after month.
Okay, I'll give her a fail for that one. She should have
thrown a KRudd level tantie and scared someone into action. But I think it's
enough she lost the election – she certainly doesn't deserve cancer as
punishment.
As for Anna's bald head - not the right shape like Sinead's, but she still looks cute.
Being out of the country, I haven't kept up with Anna's news. Sounds bad and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. She did make some mistakes but don't they all. With the Dam, engineers advised her what to do. They were found not guilty in a court case. With the Health thing, I reckon it was jobs for the boys and sloppy management. Whatever mistakes she made are nothing compared to what Abbott is going to do, starting with increasing coal shipping through the Great Barrier Reef which is already fragile.
ReplyDeleteThanks Diane - didn't know about the court case, and certainly had no idea about coal shipping through the GBR. What a twat he is.
Deletehave not seen Bligh news because my interwebz is kaputz, but I do recall that Austn singer who had non-Hodgkins - the one with many many boyfriends, not Kylie, Brian McFadyen most recently. glad I cannot recall her name.
ReplyDeleteAnd that vile commenter who thinks Bligh should have been checking dam management - voters like them is the reason Good People stay out of politics.
Re haircuts and biographers while the state burned, given that woman's size, her presence at a disaster scene could not possibly have helped.
Others that size are on Disability Benefits because of it. all very strange.
re All Systems Down: I love that the summer heat always knocks out EFTPOS terminals. we are all hostage to microchip technology.
x x
Sorry to hear about your interwebz. Never mind, Malcolm will soon be delivering NBN to a node just out of your reach.
DeleteAs a fatty boompa I won't comment on just how useful someone like me could be in a firezone, except to say I could have flung myself to the ground and rolled over and over to create a firebreak, perhaps. On the other hand, why anyone would want to publish let alone read her biography is beyond me.
As for ATMs - I discovered decades ago that I should never put all my eggs in one bastard - hence a back-up account wiv another bank just in case.
Bligh doesn't deserve that crap from some uninformed twat, and as for she who will not be named the book works ok as back-up bum fodder when the loo roll holder is empty.
ReplyDeleteSo that would be recycled toilet paper, then?
DeleteI don't really blame Federal and State leaders directly for failings, such as whether the dam, which has a name I cannot spell, was overfilled. But I do blame them for putting the wrong people in place to deal with such matters.
ReplyDeleteThen again, the minister in charge of insulation was powerless against the might of the KRudd stimulus. Just do it Peter and don't ask questions comes to mind.
The insulation mess really was a cock-up, wasn't it? You've raised an interesting point about putting the wrong people in charge of things, as opposed to inheriting pre-appointed experts.
Delete