The Sounds of the Blue Mountains
The dominant sound in our beautiful city in a National Park especially in Hazelbrook today and almost every day is the roar of the chain-saw, the grinding of the chipper as yet more of our emblematic trees is reduced to chips. Bad luck for the possums, miniature bats, koalas and birds – their homes and roosts gone. Let’s not forget these same trees are carbon storage and carbon sinks releasing precious oxygen. Dead and ground into mulch all they can do is rot and release methane. Where are the climate champions, the greenies as these magnificent trees are lost. In the 20 years I’ve lived in Hazelbrook so many trees have gone just in my near neighbourhood. We are set for hotter summers with less cooling trees. The sound of chain-saws will be replaced by the hum of air conditioners powered by coal and gas as our town becomes just another suburbia bereft of its natural beauty, its trees.
CANCEL CULTURE
Please read the article in The Good Weekend, the Saturday magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday, 20th November 2021 on “Cancel Culture: It’s complicated” by James Button.
The article, to be presented over three issues of the Sydney Morning Herald viz Sat 20 November, Sun 21 November, Mon 22 November 2021, is the most definitive and best written exposé of this recent affliction to our society.
In my opinion, ‘Cancel Culture’ is not designed to change or remove ‘culture’ but instead to destroy any person, celebrity or not, who expresses an opinion that could cause hurt to someone, in many cases only the hurt of those who are the self-professed victims.
For hundreds of years, in our western culture the debate of ideas and opinions has led our institutions of learning and our governments and organisations. Debate where those involved listened to the ideas of others, put forward their own ideas and opinions and perhaps, but not always, came to an agreement or compromise. The debate was of the ideas not of the personal and people were prepared to allow all to profess their own opinions and thoughts as part of wider discourse.
But with the rising of social media, the anonymity of such avenues for expression of opinions has led to so much vitriol, such threats of violence, such cowardice that people so attacked have committed suicide or attempted suicide and at the very least have had their mental health severely compromised.
Please read the article with an open mind, be prepared to express your own opinions but DO NOT attack the author for his opinions.
Great Western Highway through the Blue Mountains
The funding of $2.03b by the Commonwealth towards the $10b road works on the Great Western Highway from Katoomba to Lithgow including an 11km tunnel might be wonderful news for Lithgow, Bathurst, Orange and the Central West of NSW, but far from good news for the 70,000 residents of the Blue Mountains. The Great Western Highway is the LOCAL road that links the sixteen townships and is the only link for this 80km City of The Blue Mountains. Already with the Bells Line of Road limited due to washaways, the increased traffic especially large trucks is making journeys for medical, shopping, education etc very unpleasant. Funds must be directed to increase rail freight through the Mountains. I fear for the future carnage on this 60kph, 70kph and max 80kph road.
Government Press Briefings
I always switch off from the briefing when the reporters begin their inane questions. They take it in turn to ask the same questions as previous reporters have asked when the same answers are given plus already included in the briefing. Don’t they listen?
They actually don’t take it in turn. It seems that the loudest voice actually gets to ask the question as they shout out over each other to get the speaker to recognise them.
I think perhaps the Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson had the correct idea when he said press briefings were “feeding the chooks”!