The PR Blog

Today, I am featuring an article written by our dear blogger Malcolm back in 2021. He would have been coming up 90 then.... It seems very relevant for some reason.  I hope you enjoy. 

It is interesting to think about the various factors which influenced us as children … our first days at school, our early reading matter,  so many new experiences which shaped our development.  Depending on our present age, the answers to these questions will vary greatly.

From Cane Fields to Comic books and beyond, I am proud to have lived my life surrounded by heroes.

No matter where we come from, we have wonder in our eyes and joy in our hearts and that wonder and joy must be cherished and protected. Even if it means learning by rote and worshipping comic book heroes. 

June is Gay Pride Month. Flags fly, parades roll out, corporations update their logos, and the media hums with celebration. 

But here’s a question no one seems brave enough to ask: Where’s Bloke Month?

Where’s the month for the men who get up every day, go to work, fix what’s broken, say little, and keep the world turning? The men who aren’t glamorous or loud or “reinventing masculinity” -  but who hold families together, protect what matters, and do it all without demanding applause?

While the noise grows louder for some, a quiet silence has fallen over others.... the kind of men who don’t march, don’t shout, and don’t beg for recognition. They just show up. They build, they protect, they endure.

No one’s throwing them a parade.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to ask: What happens to a society that forgets the value of its men?

They’re invisible. Uncelebrated. Sometimes even vilified. Maybe we need to think about this..... 

When I was sixteen, I sneaked ( or is it snuck?)  into a theatre to watch a film that would stay with me for life. I was only 16 but I pretended to be 18.  My older brother took me. He was good like that. He knew I would see it and felt it was better to do so under his watchful eye. 

Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange wasn’t just a film - it was a visceral, unforgettable encounter. What struck me wasn’t just the graphic violence. It was the contrast: the lilting beauty of Beethoven soaring over acts of sheer horror. The delight of Alex and his gang in depravity, paired with the elegance of music, made it more disturbing, not less. It showed me something then that I would come to understand only more fully with age: evil often wears the mask of culture, refinement, even charm. I was quite upset when we left the theatre. My brother said: " Don't watch things because they sound exciting unless you are ready. "  And he was right. I was too young, But in many ways, I am glad I went to see that film when I did. It opened my eyes. 

That thought returned to me recently, talking with Redhead, who turned 93 yesterday. Our conversation turned to today’s moral blindness, especially around the events of October 7 and the current violence in cities like Paris, Los Angeles, Melbourne, the list goes on. So many now shout "Free Palestine" with passion, but refuse to watch, even acknowledge, the brutality Hamas unleashed that day. Murder, rape, beheadings, the deliberate targeting of civilians. It was not resistance - it was terror. And yet, some people actively look away.

Like young Greta Thunberg.who refused to look. To watch. Thank goodness I opened my eyes when I did...... 

The show takes a look at the horror that emerges when people are allowed to make anonymous decisions as part of a crowd.

It caused a degree of shock and horror at the time and was designed to show us how being anonymous in a crowd can, in his words, “turn perfectly nice people into internet bullies, or rioters, or hooligans”.

I am proud to pay tribute to a testimony to the power of coal. If a grand old lady of over 100 years can still stand with coal power in a world seemingly obsessed with renewables I have to say this: try running her on wind power or solar panels. Or looking for a big enough power point to plug her into each night. She works 14 hours a day in the summer months when the days are long and there is always a brisk breeze on Lake Wakatipu but she still thrives on Coal. 

Anyone who has ever visited the beautiful town of Queenstown in New Zealand, will know the sight of the steamship Earnslaw. 

The TSS Earnslaw is an integral part of Queenstown’s pioneering history and to this day a Queenstown icon. She was commissioned by New Zealand Railways to service the communities around Lake Wakatipu. Launched in the same year as the Titanic, the TSS Earnslaw’s maiden voyage was on 18 October 1912. 

And this grand old lady runs on something that is demonised today -  hard back-breaking work and coal.