The PR Blog

written by guest poster Michael Barningham

Cast your minds back to the start of the Wuhan virus. The Chinese Communist Party was very quick to stop all travel to any other part of China from Wuhan.

But they then promptly allowed worldwide travel direct from Wuhan, spreading the infliction across the globe, virtually weaponising the virus.

They were very swift to immediately blame the local wet market as the cause of the outbreak. But they are now insisting that wet markets do not exist!

On the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's discovery of the east coast of Australia its worth asking ... what was Cook doing here? He certainly wasn't looking for Australia (or New Holland as it was then known) as Europeans had known it existed since the 1500's.  Like many other Europeans before him, Cook was searching for the fabled land of Terra Australis.

Last night, I watched a 2013 movie from Russia " Stalingrad" It was a subtitled movie not to be confused with others of the same name. Set in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, it focuses on 5 Russian soldiers defending a building against the German occupational forces.  I am a history buff. I have to say that of late I am watching many war movies and not so much enjoying them but learning from them

How have we had so many lessons delivered remotely and ignored them? How have we forgiven and had so much forgotten? Why is history being wiped from our young people's education?

Why? Is it because " they " want us to forget? 

Has it been about a month?   It feels like I have never lived any other way.  Restricted.  !!  How much is it  a Mind thing and how much is it Real.

It is a perpetual life of monotony and repetition.    It is not nice to be told what to do   I think I am old enough to be trusted to do the right thing.

Bob Hawke in October 1983 introduced one of the first Medicare cards. Then, in 1987, he campaigned for a national ID Card “ The Australia Card. “ The backlash against it was enormous.

The average Australian was outraged. There was no way on this Earth that Aussies would accept a card that contained all of their personal information – from Medical details to driver’s license. It was not going to happen.

We may have accepted a Medicare Card but something that fundamentally breached our privacy and allowed Data to be collected by the Government on its own Citizens?

Forget it.

Yet, here we are today, in 2020, flocking en masse to sign up for something that is potentially going to make the Australia Card look like something that you pick up in a cornflakes packet.

We've been best mates for over 100 years but the bromance seems to be waning. Have we grown up? Or simply grown apart?

We fought together as ANZACs, died together as ANZACs, wept and laughed together in the trenches and the horror of war.

We patted each other on the back for being Antipodeans and couldn't really understand what all the fuss was about for those living “ up north “. For us, we were proud to be " far from the madding crowds." During this virus disaster, our Geographic isolation has been our great advantage.