In the meantime, most ‘mixed nuts’, myself very much included, are moving ever further away from the path of sanity. For myself, aside from the stress of the festive season, not being able to take long, hot soaks in the bathtub because the of the heat may also be to blame. In fact, recalling Sir Philip Sidney’s line in Astrophil and Stella (allegorical poem on Queen Elizabeth I and the worship of her courtiers) about men and the madness due to their ’sunburn’d brains’, it’s amazing people in Australia aren’t more nuts. Do you know how bloody hot it gets here in summer?!
So in the hell known as January, I get a letter, from Centrelink, the social security department. I open it. It’s an invitation to go to various job allocation days, especially for those on unemployment benefits. Yep, that’s me though my circumstances prevent me from searching for a full-time job. So, this Games job thing sounds like a good idea.
Er, hang on, isn’t the Commonwealth Games on in 2 months’ time? In March?? Doesn’t leave much time for preparation and training of staff, does it? Shouldn’t this sort of thing be organised a bit earlier? Before Christmas, even? I know social security is in the hands of the federal government and the Games are in the hands of the state government, but still, they couldn’t get their act together and get this stuff going earlier. Hm.
Eh. A bit disorganised perhaps but no big deal.
About a month later, I’m telling my father about how there’s virtually no evidence of Commonwealth Games preparation, and Dad tells me about a funny story he read in the newspaper (unfortunately, I cannot quote the exact source but will do my best to locate it) about a woman who has put her name down as a volunteer. She is going to be a driver, responsible for transporting athletes to and from various venues within Melbourne. Apparently, this poor lady was given a full-time roster rather than the half-day she was expecting, meaning that in committing herself as a volunteer, she would have to take leave from her actual employment.
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Wow, how must it have been for those Sierra Leone athletes. Training their asses off to get to the games in the first place and planning to run off as well…or maybe it happened once they got here and the full realisation of what it would be like to go back home hit them? I read that a Tanzanian boxer and Bangladeshi runner have also gone missing. Whoa, and I also read on ABC news that during the last Games in Manchester four years ago, 21 of Sierra Leone’s team of 30 went missing and their fate remains unknown. That’s just crazy.
Yes, what the government spends their money on sometimes has me boggled. Not that I claim to know all about politics, I know I shouldn’t, but I do my best to avoid it. But, in any case, yes, *healthcare* would seem an obvious choice of what a a good portion of it should be spent on. That’s terrible what happened to your mum! I didn’t know she was a nurse. I can’t believe the other staff just ran off. What the?
Hi VK! I think coming to a country that is so much better off than Sierra Leone, where 70% of the population lives in poverty (according to the same SBS news broadcast) would be a good motivator to stay, but at the same time, how does one cope with what’s left behind? What would their families think? Guess we must forget how lucky we are sometimes.
Ah yes, my poor mother. Recent legislation changes for private nursing homes apparently meant that only one registered nurse of the highest division is required to be on duty; in fact, my mother was in a lower division. I should get my facts, but I also believe that only 3 staff members were on duty for this night shift in a ward for how many I’m not exactly sure.
Of course, private care home owners are very happy with the Bracks government’s changes, because it means they don’t have to spend as much money on staff. Can you see how such ‘cost-cutting’ measures potentially affect all sorts of people?
That’s what happens when you turn a necessity into a commodity. Oh, and politicians with not a single bone of empathy or imagination are responsible for ruling one’s country. Boo.
Another fascinating post. I had no idea (not being a games follower) that so many people jumped shipped. One also has to think of their ’survivor guilt’, one cannot imagine that the families they left behind are given an easy time of it, in fact I imagine that all the atheletes are threatened with dior warnings if they DO abscond.
Awful.
And awful about your mother too.
Thanks Caroline, my mother hasn’t really been the same since she got attacked, it freaked her out pretty badly (perfectly understandable).
I didn’t realise that athletes fleeing was such a problem either, till I watched the news that one evening, and also VK’s comment about it being a problem in Manchester.
Yesterday I saw a poster declaring that the next Commonwealth Games are in India. Given that India is a developing nation, will they experience any such similar problems, I wonder.
Or perhaps world poverty will be a thing of the past by then? Wouldn’t that be wonderful (probably not for the politicians - hiss!). It’s a dream.
But cutting back on staff, hmpf…all it does is help the bottom line money-wise, it does not help the patients, nor the staff.
I saw on the news last night that 6 of the athletes have been found in Sydney’s north (kind of near me). It seems that it’s their famililes, among others that they are afraid to go home to. And I was thinking too, that their families might be at home, worried about them.
According to ABC news http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1601887.htm , the women say they will be forced to undergo female circumcision if they go home. One’s sister bled to death three weeks ago after a botched circumcision operation and one of the men “says he fears he will be killed because his uncle was a rebel. he was beaten and his 12-year-old brother killed in an attack shortly before he left to compete in the Games.” I guess the athletes were very lucky to get out in the first place.
I know it happens but every time I read about these kind of things I’m shocked. I cannot believe that humans can do this to one another. Completely abhorrent. Oh yes, we certainly can forget how lucky we are sometimes. I hope some solution can be come to for these athletes, at least if they can be helped somehow.
VK - this is exactly why I generally cannot watch the news, it just triggers off too many nasty things and I end up having nightmares, because some part of my brain clearly does not understand - or want to - why humans do these things to one another. We\’re just forced to take in these happenings and take it in our stride that we can\’t do anything?
I know it is not an aspect of our culture, but sadly female circumcision is part of theirs, for reasons eluding me (I might add I am not particularly interested in finding out exactly why either, at present).
Is it bad of me to wish that the athletes hadn\’t been found? No one can do anything, they\’ll have to go home, to these things they\’re so afraid of, the law will demand it. Yea law.
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