Judith Rant

 I read today that Alan Joyce, former CEO of QANTAS, is about to be welcomed back into the Australian fold. Which is fine up to a point.Today he will be keynote speaker at an Australian Aviation Summit on sustainable aviation fuel. All I can say is ‘why?’ He had plenty of opportunity to deal with the subject during the 20+ years he worked for the Australian carrier. Then to add to this thought of more pontificating from him is the claim that he has been approached for numerous board positions. Again ‘why?’ It seems this is something we do far too often in Australia. A person makes a complete mess of running a company, leaves with an enormous payout (usually subsidised by the taxpayer), is quiet for a few months or so & then pops up in another well paid, prestigious job. Why?

 Just a short one today. I wish that people would consider what we spend money on in Australia. I was horrified to hear that the mainline act for the AFL Grand Final is Snoop Dog- not Australian, of doubtful morality with some foul language in his work, but we’re prepared to pay him millions. What kudos would the AFL get if their CEO announced that that the money would be donated to medical research or education or the homeless or to fight domestic violence. If there has to be some kind of a musical performance (why?) what about giving a young Australian solo act or group a chance. Of course there is huge discussion about our recognition of a Palestinian state. More of that later.

 I need to try harder to write my rants rather than just vocalising them, mostly at poor John although he is quite a good ranter. Today I got particularly cross at a TV news item about reading to children. The implication was that since children don’t (necessarily) learn to read as a result of being read to, then perhaps it’s not as necessary as once thought. What arrant nonsense. That suggestion was followed by all the excuses: Parents are very busy and haven’t got time to read to their children. Make time - it’s only a few minutes out of a day. Screen time has increased (you don’t say). Remove the wretched devices. To make another point - a few days ago a different expert suggested that even older children benefit from being read to. This is, in my experience, is a great idea. I once met a lad whom I’d taught in Year 9 when he was in his 20s & he wanted to tell me how much he’d loved it that I’d read “Goodnight Mr Tom” to the class. His remark was that it was a ‘fat’ book tha...

 As someone who has an interest in interior design/decor I like looking at furniture updating on various sites but I get annoyed by the fact that many people want to use the names that are used in the US for various items. I have thought of publishing a glossary & asking people to stick to the terms that are used in Australian English. Here are a few examples. Bedside tables not night stands - tables that are put beside beds. Dressers are a particular item of furniture & the accurate term is used for pieces that have a cupboard & sometimes drawers at the bottom & open shelves at the top. They are usually used in the kitchen or dining area to store crockery & table linen. They are not synonymous with chests of drawers or dressing tables or tallboys. These are different things entirely. Unfortunately for the next term I think we have already lost this battle but I’m prepared to fight a rear guard action. BATHROOM. This is a room with a bath used for bathing. It is...

 I realise that I’ve been a bit remiss in not keeping up with my rant. My excuse is that there are so many things to feel strongly about. I’ve been thinking for some time about proportionality in war & it’s something I’ve wanted to write something about, especially as the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki approaches. I know that those terrible events are justified (if that’s possible) as being instrumental in bringing about a more timely end to WW2 but eyewitness accounts & the ongoing trauma suffered by the inhabitants of those cities are reasons for thought. I also include events like the bombing of Dresden. There are, of course, many examples from history both ancient and more recent. What concerns me at the moment, and this where the idea of proportionality comes in, is the situation in the Middle East. I think any right minded person will & indeed should condemn the actions against Israeli citizens on 7th October 2023 and agree that the Jewish ...

 When I decided to write about things that I consider important & believe should be discussed I wanted especially to go along the education line. So here’s my second concern - HOME SCHOOLING. This seems to have become a popular thing but I wonder how good it is for students as well as for standards in education. I have had some experience in this area in that late in my career (yes, I was a secondary English teacher) I taught at a school where the students had not been in a formal classroom setting until the first year of secondary school & while they were, almost without exception, competent readers, they had little idea about the conventions of writing. So I had to spend most of their first term teaching them about sentences & paragraphs among other things. Now I know some people will say that such things no longer matter; after all we now have texts & emails & zoom. But is this true? Will we end up as a society where we have no developed form of writing? The ...