This appears to have been a month of nemesis for those set high - a time when we Australians have not needed to get the loppers out for our tall poppies (a rather mean-minded national pastime), but have had the blooms fall into our laps, so so speak.
The Governer General (who has his his own thread on this Forum:
http://media.fastclick.net/w/get.media?t=n&sid=11529&m=1&f=b&v=1.4&c=5659&r=http%3A//www.able2know.com/forums/viewforum.php%3Ff%3D52&d=f) fell on his sword - (AFTER the rape charges brought against him were withdrawn) - apologised for his handling, as an Anglican Archbishop, of allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy and said he would dedicate a fair portion of rest of his life to righting the wrongs of abused children.
Meanwhile, in a month of bad things for the Anglican Church, there is to be a special police taskforce set up to investigate sexual abuse by clergy and other officials in the Adelaide Anglican Archdiocese.
This occurred after an Anglican priest here refused to shut up.
A bad month for magistrates, too. (Does the USA have magistrates? They are the first rung, so to speak, on the justice production line here. They hear cases in courts of summary jurisdiction - generally those on the lower scale of theft and mayhem - and also assess whether or not there is a case to answer in more serious matters where a defendant is pleading not guilty, before the matter goes to the District or Supreme Court. They are pretty busy, powerful folk - the overwhelming majority of defendants have their matters settled by magistrates.)
The Queensland Chief magistrate is sitting on her botton in prison! Sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for threatening a fellow magistrate, who had supported another magistrate in a complaint agianst her.
One presumes the severity of the sentence was because of her position and the shoulda known better factor.
Her Worship is appealing the conviction and the sentence - presumably in that order...
A lively and idiosynchratic lot, the judiciary. I speak as one who once eked out her existence as a lowly servant of the judicial system - and I could some tales unfold... I will one day, promise!
Another, local magistrate - a very strange chappy who once ruled the local court of the region I worked in with a fist of iron - had a bad month too.
He is also in prison - for 25 years, thank you, for being a paedophile - and deservedly so. This week, the statute on limitations for child sexual abuse was removed in State Parliament - opening up the field for many more plaintiffs against this man. (He was convicted of offences against only four young men.)
Meanwhile - in politics..... the main opposition party in our federal sphere (we run a Westminster system, right? With parties, the leader of the party with most votes gets to form government and become Prime Minister, right?) is slowly shedding its leader.
This is a horrifying process in Australian politics - whether the party be in opposition or government. It resembles nothing so much as watching an animal brought down by a pack of dogs.
The thing is, people who get to such positions being possessed of the egoes they ARE possessed of, that there is almost never a graceful "It's time to go" decision. The leaders usually think they and only they are what the country and the party needs, and the tide turns against them slowly - there is then a sort of media hunt organised by the minions of any opposing candidates, then a challenge, which, if not defeated soundly, or won by the new herd boss, leads to further, slow bleeding, and daily new wounds, as the thanes fly slowly from the old boss....often finally settled when a trusted, old friend of the fatally wounded leader goes to them, puts a hand round their sagging shoulder, shows them the fatal numbers, and says gently: "You gotta go, *****."
This time it is the turn of the Federal Labor party (once a proud, Left party - now centrist - in control in all the states, but way out of sight of the prize federally - and likely to lose a lot of federal seats in the next election - putting numbers of the boys and girls out of work - hence the urgency).
Our terrible drought - worst in recorded history - has broken in some places! Sadly, only in some - and the mighty Murray River, which waters the eastern seaboard and my own, exceedingly dry, southern state, is so low that my city, Adelaide, is to have water restrictions for the first time in 40 years.
This poor river is so affected by salinity, drought and over-use, as is much of the land around it, the extremely delicate and ancient ecological balance of the salt table having been disturbed by over-irrigation, that its mouth is threatening to close - (which would have a devastating effect on the beautiful Coorong - a glorious eco-system surrounding the Murray mouth) and the whole river is threatening to become unuseable because of salinity.
Sadly, because it runs through three states - and the worst effects of all this are only felt in mine - it is proving difficult to get agreements for the drastic changes needed to save the river. Does any of this crapola sound familiar?
Meanwhile - here we have finally had some rain - and are back to glorious, sunny days and crisp, cool nights - except on weekends, when, in a stand against Camelotish unreality, it rains.
The leaves are mostly now gone from the deciduous trees, the hills are finally green, the mornings are misty......winter at last!
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