Siebenschlafer ... nein

I suppose the story this morning on Life Matters, the one that stated that today, June 27, is called 'Siebenschlafer', or 'Seven Sleeps' in German folklore, was a slip of the pen. The pity was, the whole item about Australian weather conditions was based around the assertion, which really should have been checked against an ecclesiastical calendar (or Wilson's Almanac).

The story probably refers to July 27, not June 27, which in the Christian tradition is called the Feast of the Seven Sleepers (not 'sleeps'). The sleepers are Saints Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine of Ephesus. I have an article on them in the Scriptorium.

July 27 is a rain prognostication day. "If it rains on Seven Sleepers Day, the rain will stay seven weeks more."

Radio National erodes your security and mine

There is a doctor named Patel, now apparently resident in America, whom the Queensland government wishes to return to Australia, or at least Queensland, to answer certain questions about his practices at Bundaberg Hospital. He has not at this stage been charged with any offence.

Several times recently, in ABC-RN News reports, and RN programs, I have heard this man referred to as "Dr Death". This is yellow journalism of a kind I had not expected to hear on Radio National.

And, of course, it is rather silly as America's heroic Dr Jack Kevorkian is already known universally by that cruel nickname. One would think that the ABC could do better. It's like calling Ned Kelly "Captain Thunderbolt", when we already have a bushranger by that name, Fred Ward who ranged and robbed in the Armidale-Uralla districts. Half-arsed journalism at best.

But far worse is the violation of that 'golden thread' in the justice systems of all Anglophone countries, viz, the presumption of innocence. When taxpayer-funded bodies such as the ABC practise flagrant defiance of this tradition, you, and I, and the staff and management of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, have all had a bit of erosion to our liberties, and an increased likelihood of being some day convicted of a crime we did not commit. A small eroision perhaps, but any amount is unacceptable.

If, in the case of a public figure, such an epithet were used, it might be a different matter. For example, I would welcome the use of the name 'Dr Death' in the case of the Prime Minister, who has participated in the slaughter of between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the Middle East for no discernible reason.

If it might be argued that Dr Patel is a public figure, I might fairly argue back that his celebrity lies partly in the use of unsubstantiated assertions implicit in a derogatory moniker such as 'Dr Death'. His fame, or notoriety, at this stage in no way depends on any evidence proved in a court of law. I would not apply such a standard of proof in the case of a Prime Minister or Hollywood celebrity who has freely chosen to be famous and should expect parody, satire and even unfair criticism -- even if Australia's defamation laws do not agree with this principle that is sensibly respected in the USA.

If reason were to reign in the national broadcaster, in the case of of such breaches of a sane convention, that is, the labelling of an undefended person "Dr Death", the writers and utterers would be disciplined, for the sake of all our freedoms, which the ABC is (I would have thought) chartered to uphold. I would not expect the newsreaders to be brought to book, being only the readers and not the writers of the calumny, but even they should wear some of the culpability as they are under no obligation to erode your human rights for lucre. It is not good enough to plead "I was just doing your job, Your Worship", as was established at Nuremberg.

By the way, in the Wycklow Hotel in Armidale once, I met a girl who claimed to be descended from Thunderbolt. Her friends called her Thunderbreach.

Nuh

"She's a public figure and a bit of satire comes with the turf, but maybe I'll remove that post about Vicki," I was thinking as I tossed and turned in my bed for the last three nights. (I'm a very sweet man.) Then I head her say "most latest".

Nuh.

Counterpointless

If there are four things on ABC-RN I try to avoid criticising in this blog, they would be Vicki Kerrigan's general knowledge, Michael Duffy's Counterpoint, Vicki Kerrigan's English, and Vicki Kerrigan, because this is only fun for me when it's sporting.

I must say, however, that even if one accepts that Radio National has to have a rightwinger like Mr Duffy to balance all the centrists, which makes a strange see-saw, someone's nutzo here and I sure hope it's not me or Vicki. I have to wonder who's gone out of their mind when I hear someone actually argue for the retirement age to be raised .. "because we live longer these days".

I'll just pop down the mine and the factory and ask the chaps and ladies how they feel about it. Michael, you'd better stay well back in the billiards room in case things get out of hand.

Now you're cooking

Yesterday's Saturday Breakfast (ABC-RN) had an admirable segment called Food Rescue, on saving food from the tip so that poor people can get a feed.

The spot featured employed people and not the recipients of the charity, which was a shame, and it's still a way off from getting in touch with ABC's poor listeners and even non-listeners. But it's a step in the right direction and I commend the program for it.

Oh, for crying out loud

Australia's national broadcaster has a radio quiz show which I can get on my radio but I think emanates from Sydney -- 2BL. In recent months I have listened twice. Last week for five minutes, and tonight for another five.

Last week the quizmaster would not allow from the phone-in contestant that Harpo Marx was a musician. "He was a funny guy, but not a musician". I guess Adolphe Marx should have been called 'Funno', in that case. Or 'Amuso'.

Tonight's five excruciating minutes were of similar calibre. The quizmistress asks, "Which country cans three-quarters of the world's canned pineapples?" Not exactly rocket science. One fellow answered "the USA", a very reasonable answer which threw the presenter into such a tizzy that she actually had to put music on while she went off to talk to someone (almost certainly not a staffer), who apparently knew that Hawaii is a state of a nation, and not a nation state.

Now I've heard everything the ABC can possibly throw at me.

Until tomorrow.

ABC out of touch with at least 20% of Aussies

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are governed by the same laws. I speak of the rich and the poor.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister; Sybil, 1845

How many unemployed people work at the ABC? My question is, of course, rhetorical. Because they are all employed at the ABC, where is the voice for the unemployed? Who among the employed will understand the issues of the poor? My question can be applied to employees of all media outlets, to politicians, public servants and even welfare agencies and their employees. In fact, all workers and other owners of capital.

What man or woman in this country who has never been on social security knows what it is to search under the fridge for coins to buy bread? What employed ABC person knows what it is to save up for meat, petrol, shoes, a movie, a visit to family?

Such people, whether they work for the Public Service, private enterprise or Auntie ABC, would do a great service to the so-called debate on poverty in Australia by "engaging" or "unpacking" a tightly rolled department store catalogue about 30 centimetres down their cabernet sauvignon-lubricated "multivocalities".

While they're at it, they might shove a big intertextuality up their collective aporia.

What's for breakfast? Weet-Bix, same as lunch and dinner

Take, for example, Geraldine Doogue (Saturday Breakfast, ABCRN, today), who interviewed Wayne Swan, MP, Shadow Federal Treasurer, who seems to have considerably more concern than the typical Labor member for the Australian poor.

Mr Swan presented his case, and Ms Doogue challenged him according to the bleatings of some employed people at a right-wing no-think tank in Canberra that reckons the poor are getting richer. Ms Doogue, of course, has never stood 25 deep in a queue at the dole office. or if she has, she hasn't in the decades that she has been employed with the ABC. Not to put too fine a point on it: what the hell would employed people, especially media celebrities, really know about poverty?

The following are just some of the parts of ABC programming that are necessarily out of touch with at the very least 20 per cent of Australians because welfare recipients and their kids are excluded from the team:

News, current affairs, music, visual arts, books and literature, apparel, theatre, movies, social issues, architecture and design, history, Aboriginal affairs (even most Aboriginal interviewees appear to be employed by some quango or other), politics, recreation and sport, food and beverages, travel and tourism, children and family, technology and IT, the Internet, war, local issues, transport and motoring, real estate, work, industrial relations, commerce, legal matters, consumerism, psychology, media, gardening, academia, environment, health, pets, science ... I'm running out of breath, not examples, so I'll take a spell.

If you walk down the street, on average every fouth or fifth house has occupants who are the battling poor: the welfare voiceless. At least four million Australians have no ABC that speaks to them. I know because I'm one of them. Perhaps The Comfort Zone could do a show on Weet-Bix. I don't know about Alan Saunders, but I find the no-frills bix as good as the brand name, and possibly a cheaper source of nutrition than bread, especially when eaten with undiluted milk.

Letter to Wayne Swan, MP

Immediately following Ms Doogue's interview, I wrote Mr Swan this letter:

Dear Mr Swan,

As a former Labor voter, I wish to thank you for what I heard on Geraldine Doogue's program this morning. Frankly, I had come to believe that Labor had forgotten the battlers.

I am a 52-year-old man, long-term unemployed, willing to work. I live in rural NSW.

Did you know that for the past couple of years a new development has rendered it impossible for poor people like me to borrow money? I base my contention on what I was told by my credit union manager, and also from my failed attempts to borrow $1,000 to get my gearbox fixed last year. You can imagine how hard it might be to get a job without a car in the bush.

Every possible lending institution refused me for a loan of any amount large or small, solely on the grounds of my income. The Salvation Army, St Vincent De Paul and two Neighbourhood Centres could not advise me on where to borrow $1,000, except a loan shark that takes 25% interest.

The manager of the credit union at Woolgoolga advised me that until about 2 years before, he used to write about ten loans a day to poor people, and never had a default, as he arranged to have repayments taken from their social security payments. He said it had been quite satisfactory. He said (this was last November) that now he writes no loans to the poor. The reason, he said, is a new rule that came in about two years prior, that required loan applicants to have a certain number of dollars (I think it was $180) remaining after rent. He said that all lending institutions follow this regime now. I would like to know if this is collusion of the banks, or government regulation

What this panned out to for me was that I and literally millions of Australians (welfare recipients and their dependants) will never be able to get a loan unless we pay less than, say, $35 a week rent. No loans for car repair, dental repair, surgery or such fripperies as car rego, buying a car or travelling interstate. Now, I live in a cabin in a hick town with a tiny general store and my rent is almost three times $35. Who in this country pays less than me -- and who pays $35 a week rent?

This is scandalous in a fabulously wealthy country and I wish that people knew about it. I even know pensioners who do not know about the new regime because it is more than two or three years since they got a loan. Today, as far as my experience and information goes, they will not get one. I doubt that one person in 1,000 knows this has happened and I wish you would look into it. I might be wrong, but I had this experience myself and it concurred with what my credit union manager told me.

Yesterday my car rego ran out. Were it not for mates bailing me out I would be stuck in this burgh 365 days a year as the bus to Coffs Harbour (only 25km away) is $9 return ... $18 for non-concession. Nine dollars, sir, is about 7 per cent of the money I have each week after rent.

Keep it up, sir.

Pip Wilson

Back to Playschool

With alarming regularity, the news writers on ABCRN finish their playlunch, ask Miss to sharpen their crayons, and write things like:

"Schabir Shaik was found guilty of fraud in a South African court."

Mr Shail was, in fact, found guilty, in a South African court, of fraud.

The ABCRN reporters for some years have seemed incorrigibly dedicated to the cause of "grammar doesn't matter so we shall deliberately flout it and hang the consequences (of which there are none)". Today's example is not the strongest one demonstrating where grammar does indeed matter, but serves to show how misinformation can (and often does) come about when such amateur scrivening becomes the norm. Yesterday I heard another from the News Department, of the same general construction -- as bad if not worse. It was a normal day.

The most remarkable thing is not that the News people do it, but that they continue to disregard grammar in the face of relentless reproach over many years from very many literate critics, for example in letters to newspaper editors. Of course, I make no assumption that ABCRN journalists ever read newspapers as these are pitched at the educated 12-year-old.

One must admire ABC journos' commitment to de-grammaring Australia, if not their raw talent. They serve their cause with the dedication of the greengrocer and his apostrophe.

Come on, guys! Our language isn't that hard, and I want to be nice.