I also feel we are finally making the hard decisions - but can't resist saying that if we went more strict earlier we would be in a favorable position
Also can't resist saying I feel Scomo shafted WA with the cruise ship issue - expecting us to find room for such a big flood so quickly. On the flip side, I understand putting people on planes back to their home states is risky.
The hospital situation is also a problem - with Hollywood Hospital one of the private hospitals supposed to be taking the ship passengers.
Having been inside their ICU, its pretty small, without enclosed rooms. Additionally, Ramsay Healthcare should be ashamed of themselves for many reasons - amongst them the food is atrocious. I took food each time I visited my mother after surgery because there was stuff all food. One lunch was 3 pieces (maybe 2 in x 2 in) of Pumpkin Ravioli, a small piece of bread and a small tub of yoghurt - thats it.
Staff were stretched to the limits - and this was in 2018
Yet when she had to be rushed to King Edward Memorial Hospital (predominately a Maternity Hospital, but also womens oncology) a week later with sepsis, it was the best hospital. Great staff and tonnes of good food (as she was signed in as private health cover they would even bring around a visitor meal alongside hers). Over about 1.5 weeks, there was only one bad meal - shepherds pie haha.
Only time I had to bring food in was some chocolate, and she really wanted a pizza one day, so I smuggled 2 in haha.
OK, that didn't work ! was trying to use the quote thingy about Tylers several buckets of nuts, bolts etc.
I too have several buckets of nuts, bolts etc that aren't all separated and it takes me half an hour to find what I want but I don't have to go and wait a half an hour to get into Bunnings so it's a nil or draw.................... I think. Insert happy smiley face thingy.
At least you don't have to wait in a line, even if it does take 1/2 hour to find something.
It took me 4-6 hours to sort mine originally - came from the elderly guy next door who passed away years ago
Was told just to take anything out of the shed or garden by the demo guys as the family left half the stuff in there - also got a bucket full of brass sprinkler heads, a dawn vice, tools, trailer parts, and 12 rose bushes
I'm using the downtime ( stopped working on mowers, don't want people coming around here unless they really need something fixed) to set up a pigeon hole type cupboard with drawers in it so I can get a lot of stuff, nuts/bolts and all the million other bits sorted so I can find things in spots where they should be. Always frustrating looking for something, knowing you bought 5 of them some time back, buy another 5 only to find the first lot in a spot where they shouldn't have been put. I have been collecting nuts and bolts for over 50 years now but that has not gotten out of control and I don't often throw those things out
MF, they had them on the radio this morning bemoaning no alcohol allowed - bloody ingrates. I suppose they expect the government to pick up the tab for their sauvignon or pinot noir.
Although I can somewhat understand this as some guys are locked in a small room with their wife for 14 days straight
The guys over at Rottnest seem happy, as they aren't so couped up. That I could easily handle
I love this topic! It shows we are still a community, albeit in 'lock down'. [As I type this , I sit 1.5 metres from my screen.] [Kidding - this is serious!]
Tyler's insightful criticism of events ring true to me.
Scomo moved quicker than most advanced countries on this one; but I suspect it was because of his slow response on bush fires.
In these times all should take heed of scientific fact, not politicians. Advanced countries like the USA and the UK were too slow and are paying the price.
New Zealand is a great example of responsiveness and transparency. I hope history records that.
I loved the dog's revenge on the human in Max's posted illustration, and the videos too!
How us humans cope is so complex! I feel that happiness and sadness are not binary opposites.
They are circular ... At extremes, we laugh in crisis; and we cry with happiness.
I feel that's a pretty healthy response at a high level. Yeah, it's not the full picture.
It is amazing that a modern Liberal government should be forced to embrace Keynesian economics! It saved us during the GFC and it first saved us from worse during the Great Depression.
I believe it was probably easier for the a Liberal government to do this, than a Labor government; If Labor had been in, I can only imagine the screeching from the radiowaves and murdoch press throughout the pandemic. With their own boys in power, they had no other answer to give, and so toed the party line. Laborites aren't making a fuss because this is probably what they would have done anyway.
Nevertheless, I could see just how bitter a pill this has been for Scomo to swallow. He was pushed and prodded into this, from both the state governments and the scientific community. The Italian crisis came just swift enough for a visual clue of what waited for the tardy, with no thanks to China who have basically covered most of it up. I am sure the Chinese story has much, much more to tell.
Putting it as politely as I can, I cannot see how much of the world, including us, can move back to the same relationship with China as they/we had before this. At the very least, our total reliance on their production has been laid bare, and our helplessness should the pandemic hit us full stride will be terrible to behold. This country desperately needs to take the reigns back of production for medical and other necessities at the least. The same helplessness would occur had this been the start of a war. This has been a greater eye opener than even I had thought it would be, regarding just how pathetic this country really is in isolation.
This is going to be a long slog, with plenty of 'fun' yet to come. There is going to be an angry world that emerges from this, it only remains to be seen what action that angry world will take.
I hope the US which owes billions to China just turns around and wipes the debt and tells them to go to hell and hopefully the rest of the world has the fortitude to do the same. Made me sick the other night watching Andrew Forest talk about his great mates in China and that was why he was able to get the shipment of medical supplies out of China. Wouldn't be China that made him all his money and buttering up his nest with them for his future would it. Sitting there telling us what great people they are, made me puke.
Indeed Norm. And that is going to be the problem; the rich sycophants and large companies that are tied up with them. The Universities that rely on their money. The bought Politicians.
I am guessing no mention was made of China flogging all of our medical equipment before the cat (virus) got out of the bag?
Yup! And all the indications so far are, that it'll put any previous international crisis in the shade...
A couple of positives, at least, are likely to come out of it though; these being the demise of 'globalisation' [at least in its current incarnation]; and a shift away from the beancounter-driven 'just in time' supply chain model - for essential items like food, at any rate.
A few countries [like the UK in particular] are about to re-learn their WW1 and WW2 lesson; that relying substantially on imported foodstuffs is a model that goes totally pear-shaped, in any international crisis that cuts off/restricts the supply chain...
Cheers, Gadge
"ODK Mods can explain it to you, but they can't understand it for you..."
"Crazy can be medicated, ignorance can be educated - but there is no cure for stupid..."
The British problem with food and resources almost sunk them twice, much like our problem with no industry came close in WW2. Perhaps we can (re)learn the WW2 lesson, when the Japs were heading south, and years of depending on Mother Britain for everything made in a factory, left us as naked as a centrefold, and we had to scramble to try and produce anything worthwhile ourselves. A lesson that was applied heavily in the aftermath of WW2, with a heavy industry program to make us self sufficient in all areas.
