Australia: Are We Becoming the Land of the Sanctimonious?

There is an article in the the Weekend Australian today written by Emma-Kate Symons. It is one of those mischievous opinion columns with words like activist and pugnacious freely used. 

Seven and its Burkini family owe France an apology

But the article and some of the comment proves one thing. Australia is rapidly developing into the land of the sanctimonious. Ms Symons takes aim at Channel Seven with proclamations of thou shalt apologise. Commenters likewise declare I shall never watch your channel again. What rot. What happened to our spirit of fighting injustice? 

Ms Symons priggishly claimed Zeynab Alshelh and her (activist Ms Symons words) parents wore the Burkini on a French beach "to “show solidarity” with (radically conservative) Muslims and, featured the 23-year-old flaunting her burkini in an obvious attempt to bait Gallic sun lovers into religious and ethnically motivated hatred." 

Radically conservative? Radically conservative Muslims don't show their faces let alone don a Burkini and go to the beach. Worse was the claim, "To bait Gallic sun lovers in religious and ethnically motivated hatred?"  My God. Talk about gilding the lily to generate a comment. If locals did resort to ethnically motivated hatred doesn’t that say more about them than Zeynab Alshelh and her parents? 

As for the reader comments suggesting the perpetrators need to pull the stunt in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia. Sorry, but I believe you miss the point. You don't fix the problem in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia by caving in where freedom to choose how we dress has been a right that's been won. A right that is now being striped away. If people don't stand up for the erosion of rights in the west, then we run the risk of systematically losing more rights. 

Banning of the Burkini is a total over reaction by the French local authorities who have imposed it. A ban which has been over turned by the French High Court as unconstitutional. The Burkini is a simple item of clothing. The claims made in trying to justify the removal were absurd. Particularly the one about a health risk. If that were true I would think willies and bare butts flapping around in the ocean on nude beaches would be a bigger health risk. 

Removing external signals of modesty linked to religion is not going to fix the problem of radical Islam in France. Using women as weapons in the fight is appalling and should be resoundly condemned. 

Now for Ms Symons. Ms Symons is an Australian journalist who resides in the US. Her profile on the ABC highlights this in reference to Charlie Hebron. 

"We should have stood with Charlie Hebdo and others willing to fight for freedom of expression sooner, not just after the massacre in Paris.

Their fidelity to the fundamental values of democracy, even as many around the world and in France found their editorial line too "provocative" or "offensive", will long endure after these killers are brought to justice."

But it seems that same demand to show willingness to fight for freedom of expression. To fight for the fundamental values of democracy doesn't extend to Muslim women who just want to go to the beach. In doing so to dress modestly. Freedom and democracy for some but not for all. How sad.

It's A Woman's Right To Choose What She Wears

What an appalling suppression of a woman's right to choose what she wears, the ban on the burkini is by some French mayors. After all no one can claim it's a "security risk". I’ve seen it stated that people don't like it. Well, that's tough. Get over it. It's an item of clothing for heavens sake. What happened to tolerance? Given the choice  I would much prefer to see a woman in burkini than an overweight, middle-aged woman flaunting her over abundant flesh in a bikini. That definitely is an assault on my senses. 

Of course a slew of lame excuses are being proffered to justify this idiotic decision. Can you believe hygiene is one of the justifications?  The burkini consists of an outfit made from swimsuit material, which covers the body from head to ankles. The face is uncovered. It resembles a wetsuit with a built-in hood. That said, many wetsuits are also hooded. But the wetsuit manages to avoid ruining public order or offending anyone’s sense of hygiene but the burkini doesn’t. Problem solved ladies, just wear a hooded wetsuit. Whilst we are at it, someone better tell our elite swimmers who don full length suits they are a hygiene risk. 

The way the mayor of Cannes is carrying on the burkini is a grave threat to civilisation. This costume, Mr Lisnard declared, “ostentatiously displays religious affiliation”, could “disrupt public order”, and might even, in the words of one official, demonstrate “an allegiance to terrorist movements”. Could disrupt public order? Some meathead might object to a women’s choice of clothing and therefore might cause a ruckus so you ban the clothing? Unbelievable. I wonder how Mr Lisnard feels about Orthodox Jewish women who also wear modesty swim suits? 

I commented on a column covering the story in The Independent. One (ill informed) male challenged me over my comment about the suppression of rights. He asked what women in the ME were doing about fighting for rights. One of those ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink smartass replies. I presented him with ample proof of rights-movements in Saudi, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan (yes I know Afghanistan isn’t in the ME). In reply I received a score of “thumbs down responses”. How absurd is that? When I pointed out how brave these women were. The fact some had even lost their lives. A score of thumbs down again. Beggars belief to be honest. It says a lot about the responders. 

Woman have fought for years for the right to choose (not to be confused with woman being FORCED to cover-up). Now, they are having their rights stripped from them because of ignorance  and the lack of ability of some people to move beyond bigotry and hatred. 

Anyone who believes in freedom (if they are genuine that is) must see the absurdity of banning an item of clothing that does nothing more than preserve the modesty of the wear. It isn’t a burqa it's a swimsuit. It stuns me that more women are not condemning the ban. We will decide what we wear and that applies to all women not just some. 

"There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women." ~ Muhammad Ali Jinnah 

Time for women with pens to speak up.. 

The Dirty Game of Politics

I wonder how the thousands, who have died on the battlefields of war, fighting for the rights of others, would feel now when they see the rights of Australians being trampled in such a shameful way.

They would never have envisaged that the day would come, when the Prime Minister of this country in standing up and saying "Let's ask the people" would result in him being vilified and laughed at for doing so. And sneered at and criticised by some lily-livered weaklings in his own party. It's a shameful, shameful day.

I'm sorry my relatives sacrificed so much, only to have their legacy trashed by selfish, self-serving, self-interest groups and individuals. And by politicians who seek to play politics at the expense of our rights; our right to voice our opinion. And yes, I’m angry, very angry.

Those chanting ‘but the polls say the majority of Australians want same sex marriage legalised”, are doing so on the result of some newspaper poll. Or privately funded political poll. A few thousand people voicing their opinions!!!!  The only true measure of what the people want,  is to ask the majority. If you had listened to the media and snap polls on the recent Goodes events, claiming booing was racially motivated and that the majority vote agreed, then that was proven wrong yesterday by an Essential Poll highlighting the majority didn’t think that. You can’t trust polls as a reflection of a true pulse check.

Make no mistake,  there is a very dirty game plan being played out in this country. I for one am sick of it. I’m sick of the hypocrisy. I’m sick of my rights to hold an opinion being trampled. I’m sick of the bullying. And, most of all I’m sick of the lies.

Those who are reacting in such a vicious way to the LNP party room decision of yesterday, don’t want you to have your say. They merely want their way. Stuff you. So now,  opportunists who sit on the opposition benches, ably supported by their left-wing media buddies, will be actively spreading the leadership rumours. They will be pushing the ‘divide and conquer’ card as hard they can. Don’t fall for it.  It’s a cynical game using same sex marriage as the wedge. It’s not about championing minority rights it’s about politics, destabilisation and deflection.

A wise colleague said to me yesterday “unity is living, divide and you are dead”.. He is right.

The Lion and the Child

Like so many around the world, I was heartbroken to learn of the murder of Cecil the Lion. A beautiful, majestic animal, taken by an evil man who gains pleasure from (and pays thousands of dollars for the so called privilege of) killing animals.

The protests were overwhelming. This story was front-page news around the world. If there has been one positive outcome, however, it is the announcement that Zimbabwe is to ban the hunting of lions, elephants and leopards. Let's pray this turns out to be correct.

The global grief over the death of Cecil, also highlighted the indifference there is to the deaths and suffering of children. I was reminded of that yesterday, when someone reposted this photo on Facebook.

When this photo first appeared a couple of years back, people were shocked. However, the global outrage over this poor child was nowhere near the level of outrage that we witnessed over Cecil. To my shame, I'm not blameless either and I'm thankful for the reminder. Lions are very important, but the welfare of our children is more important. I'll try my hardest to do better.

I Missed The Secret Meeting

I didn't know there was a secret meeting & those who attended decided what the rest of us could think, do and say!

And, if we have the temerity not to agree with the decisions of the secret meeting, we are obviously evil, moronic, bigoted, backward, religious, homophobic, racist, right-wing zealots and lunatics? 

Did you? 

Well I say.....