Posts Tagged ‘Sirdan’
Sirdan’s Sunday lunch
The Empress, E, Sirdan’s neighbour and I had our post-election Sunday lunch today. There was no weeping or gnashing of teeth.
The conversation did get around to a remarkable story that was front page news in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald even with that day’s election dominating: Lesson for the school of hard Knox, concerning the young man above.
IT TAKES a lot of guts at the best of times to stand in front of 1350 fellow students, 150 teachers and 600 parents in the school assembly hall and tell it as it is.
But when it involves accusing some of your year 12 classmates of being cheats, and fingering influential parents for bullying the school authorities into giving prestigious positions to undeserving sons, the effect can be nothing short of sensational.
Especially when the school is the well-respected North Shore institution Knox Grammar, which counts among its alumni the veteran broadcaster John Laws, Macquarie Bank chairman David Clarke, former editor of the satirical Oz magazine Richard Neville, Hugh Jackman and ethicist Simon Longstaff. Read the rest of this entry »
Sirdan’s interesting neighbour
I had heard about Sirdan’s neighbour but met him today for the first time, Sunday lunch being at Sirdan’s. He was at one time a contributor to the well-remembered National Times, a paper to be reckoned with in the 70s and 80s. Conversation ranged from the Packers to Neville Wran to Bob Carr, and much else besides, 1970s Wollongong not least. One part of the conversation would have interested The Rabbit, touching as it did on someone The Rabbit once worked for.
Fascinating stuff. Quite a few skeletons rattled…
Racism and racists and The Plonker’s latest foot-in-mouth attack
I have been giving much thought to Jim Belshaw’s post Race and racism in Australia. He is quite right to say that pseudoscientific racism, the kind that was official policy in Nazi Germany and more widely accepted elsewhere in the not too distant past than we now find comfortable to admit, is probably a minority position in Australia. Jim prefers the word “prejudice”, the term “racist” having become a generic term of abuse that shuts down discussion. This is certainly worth considering. I will let Jim explain, but do read all his post:
…By global standards, we live in a remarkably open, pluralist, tolerant, polycultural society. We have transformed ourselves as a country and a people. Yet based on our own reporting of ourselves, an outsider could be forgiven for thinking that this is a place were racial bigotry runs rampant.
Mr Andrews is not known for his ability to handle things in a sensible and tactful fashion. Yet when I look at the facts, the ones who introduced and then followed up the race issue were the media and commentators more broadly. They created the problem.
There are a small number of genuine old style racists in the Australian community who do try to take advantage of this type of event. They did so in Tamworth following the controversy. As happened with Tamworth, they will fail.
Sirdan’s news
Almost two years ago Sirdan moved to Kensington. Last Sunday I went over there for our Sunday lunch, which we had in a halal Indonesian restaurant — good too — served by some lovely Muslim women in head scarves, like the pic on the right.
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Eating the national icon…
Sirdan and I had roast pork at The Dolphin today; some of the scenery was nice, the pork was good, but the additional cost does not seem justifiable when you compare it with The Shakespeare.
Afterwards we went to Woolies in Riley Street, where the prices are very competitive. And I bought some kanga bangas: yes, kangaroo sausages! Low in cholesterol, high in protein, and more sensible as a meat animal than beef in the Australian environment. Cheap too…
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