Events
Hamilton Hoons and Five more die
Monday 29 March 2010
Lewis Hamilton, the former automotive Formula One 'number one' had his car impounded on Friday night for alleged 'hoon' driving, having been spotted by police spinning his wheels at a busy intersection in St Kilda. Whilst many character witnesses have already jumped to his defence, with one interesting observation from Mark Webber suggesting we have a 'nanny state', there is of course another larger issue - five more people died on Victoria's roads over the weekend with speed one of the many factors
The challenge of course is that it is likely that compared to most of us, Lewis Hamilton is a very skilled driver. He does after all, spend his life behind the wheel of a car designed to travel very, very fast. And that car is so much safer than anything else we drive on our roads. And herein lies the trouble - the Grand Prix is a circus - a huge technical and marketing development program designed to, in the end, sell more cars for the manufacturers.
If true, Hamilton's actions were well out of line, despite whatever skill he has because as a member of the automotive elite, he IS a role model to others, and when the driving elite acts like hoons, others are likely to follow in his pedalsteps. And on Victoria's roads the very weekend of the Grand Prix at Albert Park we lost another five lives with a dozen more seriously injured.
Webber misses the point - Victoria isn't a nanny state because it takes away the vehicles of hoon drivers. It is a State trying to save the lives, costs and trauma of people connected to people who die. Unfortunately, the driving elite MUST be held to a higher standard of accountability,and on our streets, they must be held accountable to the SAME standard of accountability.
Lewis Hamilton is undoubtedly a good driver, he just failed to dsiplay good driving whilst on a public street - we expect better
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Events
Monday 30 August 2010
Whilst the counting of votes is over the election is yet to be completed. Right now the discussions continue between the 'three amigos' who are clearly maximising their time in the spotlight, and the two leaders of the major parties. And whilst the media is fixated on who ought to be, deserves to be, should be and could be the next Prime Minister, maybe we're missing the bigger picture. At the end of the day it really won't matter.
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Saturday 21 August 2010
If you've seen any of the media campaigns for the Australian Federal Election you could have come to the following conclusions: Julia Gillard had a fixation with hand getsures; Tony Abbott had a fixation on Boats; and the Greens had the best Television Commercial not only of this campaign but of any other they've had before - trouble was it was put together by an ad agency as part of the TV show 'The Gruen Transfer' and never made it into the real world.
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Friday 13 August 2010
If you've been following any of the mainstream media election coverage here in Australia (stuff in the usual papers, radio and TV programs) you've no doubt got a good understanding of what is going to happen on election day. The mainstream media synopsis thus far is that a) Julia Gillard got off to a good start; b) Tony Abbott has established himself and that c) it seems likely that the coalition will be elected to run the country. Unless you've been looking at other mainstream media which says that a) Julia Gillard got off to a good start; b) Tony Abbott came flying up to and then past Julia Gillard and then c) Julia Gillard edged her way back in front but that it is still likely for her to lose the election. So where does that leave our understanding? I'm reminded of a similar series of events leading up to the Victorian State Government election about 8 years ago...
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