God help America

[Bruce Tuncks]

If I were advising a kid who wanted to become a millionaire doctor, I would tell them to see if they could become aboriginal. 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Australia is different from the US in that the number of new GP's is decided by the government and not the AMA ( medical union in the us).

We are the same with respect to specialists.... here and in the US, the number of new ones let in is decided by the unio...err "college " and so it costs big money to see one and you may have months to wait. Apparently the waiting time for a public patient to see a neurologist is ten years, a figure I find hard to believe.

This guy I knew well was told by his GP that " if you have got what I think you have then you have 6 months to live" at a time when the waiting list was 12 months long.

[octave]

 

5 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

The cards were stacked in their favor. They got 3 points for "english not being their mother tongue" and so the first-year med classes looked very chinese.

Also, you could ( if you knew how to play the system ) get to do your year 12 in 2 years!

I was actually on a no -account committee when this was happening at the U of Adelaide. It got so bad that even the politically correct lot had to notice there was something wrong. They have corrected things a bit now I think.

 Any hard evidence?   

 

I absolutley hate to reduce people solely to their race.   After a lifetime of being a musical instrument teaching I have found that many of my most dedicated students tend to be from first or second generation migrants.   I am well aware of the  'Asian Tiger parents"  who insist their kids do well.   If anything I would find myself trying to get these parents to back off a bit. 

 

https://www.smh.com.au/education/asian-students-more-likely-to-be-in-hsc-honours-list-20141213-126o4w.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[old man emu]

While there is nothing inherently wrong with high academic achievement, the 'swotting" culture will eventually destroy the uniqueness of the Australian culture that was created up until the last quarter of the 20th Century. The image of the "bronzed Aussie" was based on working and playing in the outdoors. Until the end of the 20th Century, people worked hard to produce tangible products. Recreation was an important part of their lives. Nowadays, very few people produce tangible things. Those who do are considered of a lower status by those many who are actually servants. "Servant", a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties. Making and serving food are "domestic" duties. So the barista or waiter making or delivering you food or drink is simply a servant.

[facthunter]

Plenty of doctors jump to conclusions with their diagnosis, The worst ones I've met were not Asian. The Chinese I've been involved with are exceptionally Diligent and great to relate to..They do well because they study hard.   Nev

[octave]

I don't believe there is a culture of looking down on makers.   In a society where our material needs are mostly met we perhaps now need or want more services.  Speaking personally, we have downsized and have little desire to collect more "things".     There is certainly no shortage of "things" to be had.

 

I have only ever been a service provider and not a maker (in my work life). OME in your work life you have been a service provider, a very important one.    The image of a "bronzed Aussie" I think is a nostalgic notion.  I certainly wouldn't want to swap places with my fathers life. I had the choice and some luck to be able to produce something that satisfied my passions and that enough people were willing to pay me for. We have always had service providers and builders and makers and we always will.  I definitely don't look down on a great barista.

 

I have been a musician all my life so not a proper "bronzed Aussie" man.  

 

Of course life should not only be a race to achieve the highest academic results.  It is important to follow your passions whether they be intellectual or practical or both (as is often the case).    I have never felt superior or inferior for how I have earned my living. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

The More you know the more you find there is to know.  I wonder about such things as "Doctor of Divinity?"   Nev

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, octave said:

Of course life should not only be a race to achieve the highest academic results.

All work and no play ...?

 

49 minutes ago, facthunter said:

The More you know the more you find there is to know. 

Perhaps the problem is that we have become wealthy enough, and so consumerist, that we have lost that spirit to improvise to solve problems. No more winding a length of fencing wire around something to keep it in place. Chuck the whole thing out and buy another one.

 

Perhaps the Bronzed Aussie image was the final evolutionary stage of the Currency Lad of the 1788 to 1850  establishment phase. I suggest that the Bronzed Aussie began to go into extinction around 1975 when large numbers of non-Europeans entered society and began to change that existing paradigm.

[facthunter]

The "Bronzed Aussie" idea never turned me on . Always joking about someone or other in a "Put-down" way. Sheila's wouldn't have a clue,  They're inferior

 IF you were different in any way, you'd better be thick skinned. TOO Blokey for me. Luckily I couldn't give a tuppeny stuff. I was also pretty fit as we had no car. I don't recall being physically bullied ever. Must have been lucky. I hear it happens often and it stinks.  Nev

[pmccarthy]

The wild Colonial Boys were a teenage thing in the mid-nineteenth century. Lots of newspaper articles about them. Vandals and trouble makers. There has always been a group of youngsters like that.

[old man emu]

I didn't mention the intermediate stages in my sequence of evolution from Currency Lad to Bronzed Aussie. Those children of the First Fleeters would have been in their mid-20's when the Blue Mountains were crossed in 1813, so would have been the generation to have moved into the western grazing lands and worked to set up those big runs. And their children consolidated them.

7 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

Lots of newspaper articles about them. Vandals and trouble makers.

When was the last time a newspaper filled pages with stories of the good kids? Have you seen Octave's students lauded in the major city Dailies? Roguish disrespect for authority, but go look at a group of teenagers hanging around together. Maybe today, that disrespect for authority is not so childlike as it was back in the day. Kids back then generally toed the line, occasionally putting a toe across it to show their independence.

[red750]

9 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Kids back then generally toed the line, occasionally putting a toe across it to show their independence.

Probably because their parents would give them a boot in the booty, or clip their ear if the messed up.

[octave]

35 minutes ago, old man emu said:

All work and no play ...?

I agree, perhaps I should have said "not necessarily" instead of only. For some people learning is their passion and perhaps could even be described as "play"

 

38 minutes ago, old man emu said:

No more winding a length of fencing wire around something to keep it in place. Chuck the whole thing out and buy another one.

Yes I see the point although perhaps fencing wire has never been a priority for those not on the land.   There is a growing movement towards repairing.  We tend to do it yourself for just about everything.  We have visited a thing that exists in many cities called the "Repair Cafe"   

                          Geelong Sustainability Repair Cafe Surf Coast 

 

  There we met great folks who were able to help us fix an appliance (free).     Although I am one of those dreaded "progressive" types my wife and I have built 2 houses from scratch to completion. We fix stuff and we do as much as we can to avoid unnecessary consumption.  For 20 years we lived on a large property surrounded by alternative folks who were building mud brick or rock houses, baking bread or growing veges etc. These people do exist, they might not be you neighbours but it is great to seek out like minds.

 

49 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Perhaps the Bronzed Aussie image was the final evolutionary stage of the Currency Lad of the 1788 to 1850  establishment phase. I suggest that the Bronzed Aussie began to go into extinction around 1975 when large numbers of non-Europeans entered society and began to change that existing paradigm

Society has always changed.   It would be weird humans went through the stone age. bronze age, became agricultural and at (insert date at which you feel things went downhill) froze at 1850 or 1975 or whatever.      I guess I can only speak from my own experience but I appreciate the life I have been able to live.  I have been able to spend a couple of years at home raising my son when he was a baby and my wife worked fulltime and then we were able to switch out those roles.   My wife is my equal partner not some one who irons my cloths and cooks my meals.   My son is heterosexual but if he had not been it would not have been difficult to accept.    This might seam to be an odd example but a couple of years ago my 92  year old father died.   One of the things that caused him anguish in the end was that many years ago when my sister came out as gay he was unfortunately unable to accept it.  He rejected her for sometime not because he was a bad man but more because of the social straight jacket of those days. He later very much regrated the way he reacted.   Now of course it is no big deal and to me that is progress. Whether I am right or wrong about these things, I am happy and contented  

 

 

4 minutes ago, old man emu said:

When was the last time a newspaper filled pages with stories of the good kids? Have you seen Octave's students lauded in the major city Dailies?

 Newspapers are not in primarily in the business of printing good news.  Encouraging social anxiety is a good business from a money making point of view.   Whilst we have all seen groups of teens hanging around causing trouble this does not represent the majority.   Go down to the local cricket pitch on the weekend and see the local youth team playing cricket or whatever.  Most of the kids I taught played in bands and orchestras or other ensembles but these people are not necessarily on display.     Just in my local area 

 

 Geelong Summer Music Camp 2023

 

It is easy to dwell on the bad news and ignore the good.  There is a term for this in the internet age, it is called "Doom scrolling"     

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

I escaped religion at about 26 years of age and you gradually get the Monkey off your back, but how do you know when you're fully there?  IF it's "Hellfire and brimstone" we have a pretty Psicko god. Live and let live will do me and do unto others what you would want to yourself.  Self righteous Hypocrites piss me off no end. We've seen what they do . Nev

[Old Koreelah]

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

Plenty of doctors jump to conclusions with their diagnosis…

The worst I ever saw was an Anglo-Aussie who glanced at me as I walked into his room then started writing on his script pad. Either my malady was bluddy obvious, he was an amazing diagnostian… 

In the event, he was dead wrong and his medicine did me no good.

[facthunter]

They nurses wake up to it before some of the doctors do.   nev

[Old Koreelah]

4 minutes ago, facthunter said:

They nurses wake up to it before some of the doctors do.   nev

When my sister graduated from yet another nursing course, I suggested she might as well have trained as a doctor. She looked at me and retorted:

”But I want to help people!”

[Old Koreelah]

For anyone not concerned at the poor education standards in the USA; this city’s officials were negotiating with a nation that doesn’t exist!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/16/newark-officials-duped-kailasa-nithyananda

[kgwilson]

Nothing like this surprises me in a country where a large percentage of the population still think Trump won the election and know little about what happens in the rest of the world or even where the other countries are.

[facthunter]

They learn  a "little" of the geography of other places mainly when they go  there fighting for "cheaper" oil for the "American way of Life" which is sacrosanct". .Nev

[kgwilson]

There are so many guns in the US that when they go to "protect democracy" in a place they weren't even asked to go, there are guns everywhere there too so it is the same as home but they make sure theirs are the biggest ones.

[facthunter]

Phallic symbol isn't it?, Nev

[Old Koreelah]

Murdoch’s evil influence is now under threat in US courts and even media commentators are talking about  the damage he’s done.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/murdoch-succeeded-where-putin-failed-time-for-a-fox-hunt-20230320-p5ctkd.html

[Jerry_Atrick]

Funny how pollies cosy up to him when they have his support though.. only when they lose it do they consider it a problem - and that is half the problem

[Old Koreelah]

Now that Kevin Rudd has been appointed our US ambassador, Malcolm Turnbull has taken over the push for a Royal Commission into Murdoch’s influence in Oz.

Interesting that the Federal Labor government is not supporting the idea, though even the US is waking up to the insidious nature of the Murdoch empire. 
If it was me, I would have no qualms about kicking this particular A-hole while he’s down. He and his father have been manipulating our democracy for well over a century.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/turnbull-to-take-over-news-corp-royal-commission-campaign-20230320-p5ctof.html