Leunig says it all

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Today's cartoon in the Age supplement is by Michael Leunig who often provides a whimsical look on life, at other times is harder hitting. This one is rather good - as we all get annoyed by the spam mail offering us millions etc. etc. Click on picture to see large enough to read the words.

Silence or a conversaton

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There are times when it's good to be silent, not to engage in meaningless talk or being overpowered by a dominnt self-obsessed speaker. Yet we do need to communicate a lot of the time, to share ideas, to listen to others. But nowadays there seems to be such a distance between people from different generations and experiences. Leunig shows this up in a cartoon in today's Age newspaper.

Being Australian or un-Australian?

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It's the Australia Day weekend with a holiday tomorrow, though yesterday was the real day.

Okay, is it un-Australian to think that our national anthem isn't up to scratch because it's inaccurate, full of hyperbole and has silly words such as 'girt' in it?

Is it un-Australian to laugh as perhaps even cry at Michael Leunig's take on the anthem in this cartoon of a poetry student being assessed?

You might need to click on the picture to be able to read it easily.

We like to be subversive perhaps as we regard the folk song 'Waltzing Matilda' as our national song. It's about a homeless loser who camps under a gum tree, gets hungry so pinches as sheep, barbecues it and almost gets caught by the officers so he leaps into a murky swamp (a billabong) and that's the end of him! Other songs we like are 'I still call Australia home' particularly if we are overseas, and also that song the Seekers made popular which starts, 'We are one but we are many' - about being a multicultural society. Way to go.

A Vintage Leunig cartoon about politicians

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You might need to click on the picture in order to read the words.

The election trail is becoming boring and repetitive and there's too much talk about money. I think Hugh Mackay in today's Age is right when he says: 'The government succeeded in getting the economy back as the top agenda item, but since I believe this is not what this election is about, the danger is that voters simply switch off. The voters have repeatedly said 'Could someone please talk to us about the kind of society we want to become.' They would love one side or the other to say something visionary about Australian society - involving the four big issues: education, health, the environment the workplace.'

There has been little talk about borders and attitudes to the rest of the world as I think foreign policy is rather important at the moment. Instead of 'me too' from Rudd on every which way but loose he should come up with some outstanding words about overseas aid and foreign policy.