Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about the celebration of the Christian calendar that is New Year’s Eve. While there may not be much that is Christian in the average New Year’s Eve party – apart from a wish to turn water into wine – it is a celebration of the end of a Christian chronological unit. If we were a truly multicultural country – rather than simply a tolerant one – we would have equal but different celebrations for the Chinese and Greek New Years, the Buddhist Calender, and so on. But we will in fact be entering the year 2014 AD – atheism denied.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not averse to either a beer or a holiday - but if we are going to have a day to reflect on a year then let’s do it properly.
No doubt the TV will be full of banal retrospectives featuring the Crows, the Australian cricket team, James Hird and Tony Abbott – probably in that order. But despite our obsession with sport, the Adelaide Thunderbirds’ netball championship probably won’t feature: women don’t realy count in sport, or politics apparently. Julia who?
A Filipino cyclone might get a look in to the 2013 retrospective because the pictures were dramatic, but those people are overseas and aren’t really relevant. People overseas only become relevant when they arrive by boat, but since the boats were going to stop when the government changed, there can be no more news about that.
That said, Nelson Mandela will feature in the 2013 flashback, despite the fact that he trained with foreign revolutionaries and led an armed insurrection – a fact which does not diminish the legacy of one of the world’s truly great leaders, but should make us question our current Hollywood notions of terrorism.
In a year when “gender explains part of” the demise of a prime minister, climate change deniers got elected to parliament despite a year of horrendous bushfires following a year of record temperatures, Holdens (unsurprisingly) put the interest of international shareholders above those of South Australian workers, same sex couples still were not allowed to marry, the rich got a superannuation bonus at the expense of the poor, and literally thousands remain homeless or sleeping rough in Adelaide, it is hard to know what to make a New Year’s resolution about.
Somehow, I don’t think beer, chocolate or exercise will do it.
I am Greg, and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-22/
First Broadcast: 31 December 2013
Greg's Grumbles can be heard on Radio Adelaide during SACOSS' Small Change program - 6pm every Tuesday night. 101.5FM or online.
Tuesday 31 December 2013
Tuesday 24 December 2013
21. Christmas
Hi, I am Greg and I want to grumble about – well, Christmas, of course. What else could one grumble about in this season of peace and goodwill to all men.
Where to begin? Maybe with a simple bah-humbug, but it is such a cliché - and Dickens sold Scrooge out with a change of heart.
So, where to begin? The enforced Christianity, the social assertion of the supremacy of the biological family, or just the crass commercialisation? Or maybe that our society degenerates into a gaudy, wasteful festival of greed and over-consumption. The simple and good notions of a holiday and getting together with family and friends get commodified and polluted, while those who do not fit this happy Christmas picture are pushed to the edge.
Of course there are many acts of generosity at Christmas time, sometimes in thoughtful present-giving, and sometimes in acts of charity and support for those who are not doing so well – but just maybe, at least some of those people are not doing so well because of the pressure and social exclusion that is the inevitable outcome of the Santa Clause culture. And let’s not forget that Christmas is not just an occasion of mirth and giving, it is also an occasion of increases in offensive drunkenness, domestic violence, road carnage and suicide.
There are many Christians in our society who have a right to celebrate their days of religious significance. Ok, yes, I know it was originally a pagan festival that was taken over by western Christian churches in a colonial process which pre-figured the more recent colonisation by a fat man in a coca-cola-sponsored red suit. But if I have to hear one more banal Christmas carol, I don’t know what I’ll do. It is why I usually try to head to a mountain somewhere at this time of year. I am sure that if there is a god – singular or plural, of whatever description, they are more likely to found in the glory of nature and the call of the wild than in artificial religious ceremonies or in Department stores selling useless objects as meaningless gifts.
So, I hope listeners have a good break and get to share time and themselves with friends and families. But personally, I want to imagine a day when our society’s main festival isn’t a celebration of religions of either the theological or commercial kind. But until then, I am Greg and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-21/
First Broadcast: 24 December 2013
Where to begin? Maybe with a simple bah-humbug, but it is such a cliché - and Dickens sold Scrooge out with a change of heart.
So, where to begin? The enforced Christianity, the social assertion of the supremacy of the biological family, or just the crass commercialisation? Or maybe that our society degenerates into a gaudy, wasteful festival of greed and over-consumption. The simple and good notions of a holiday and getting together with family and friends get commodified and polluted, while those who do not fit this happy Christmas picture are pushed to the edge.
Of course there are many acts of generosity at Christmas time, sometimes in thoughtful present-giving, and sometimes in acts of charity and support for those who are not doing so well – but just maybe, at least some of those people are not doing so well because of the pressure and social exclusion that is the inevitable outcome of the Santa Clause culture. And let’s not forget that Christmas is not just an occasion of mirth and giving, it is also an occasion of increases in offensive drunkenness, domestic violence, road carnage and suicide.
There are many Christians in our society who have a right to celebrate their days of religious significance. Ok, yes, I know it was originally a pagan festival that was taken over by western Christian churches in a colonial process which pre-figured the more recent colonisation by a fat man in a coca-cola-sponsored red suit. But if I have to hear one more banal Christmas carol, I don’t know what I’ll do. It is why I usually try to head to a mountain somewhere at this time of year. I am sure that if there is a god – singular or plural, of whatever description, they are more likely to found in the glory of nature and the call of the wild than in artificial religious ceremonies or in Department stores selling useless objects as meaningless gifts.
So, I hope listeners have a good break and get to share time and themselves with friends and families. But personally, I want to imagine a day when our society’s main festival isn’t a celebration of religions of either the theological or commercial kind. But until then, I am Greg and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-21/
First Broadcast: 24 December 2013
Monday 16 December 2013
20. Bike Riding
Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about bike riding – and I do this having just completed a 9-day ride along the Great Ocean Road with about 5,000 others. My grumble is not about the lycra – yes I know it looks appalling and turns people into lurid billboards, but it is by far the most comfortable clothing to cycle in, and over a long distance that matters.
And my grumble is not about bike riders not obeying road rules – most of the rules and road infrastructure were not made for bikes and are often inappropriate ‘car-thinking’, and sometimes unsafe. Although having said that, I do support helmet laws as I have twice cracked a helmet on the road without any harm to me. That’s two points for the so-called “nanny-state”.
My grumble is about the commercialisation of riding. I know that large groups of middle aged men combining high disposable incomes and a sport full of machines and gadgets is a marketer’s dream. But now the charities have got in to the market and I am sick of being asked to ride to cure cancer or some other injury, disease or condition, or to help a particular charity. They may be good causes, but if I really wanted to “ride for a reason”, it would be because it is cheap, keeps me healthy, is good for the environment, saves the community money, gets my brain working and is just plain fun.
The charity imperialism reached a farcical point for me earlier this year, when I went to register for a major community ride – on public roads I have ridden many times – only to find out I needed to raise several hundred dollars for a charity first. Frankly, if I was going to raise money for a charity, it would not be for that particular one. But the bigger issue is, what is it that requires us to ride, run, walk, shave, wear a ribbon or grow a ridiculous moustache to get donations for good causes.
It is the logic of a contract – that there must be an exchange to make it legitimate, or that you must do something to “earn” the charity dollar.
Personally, I dream of a community beyond such commercial logic, a community which gives what is needed, simply because it is needed, not because of some sporting indulgency. Imagine that, being able to fund good things on the basis of issues, not gimmicks!
I am Greg and I am grumbling – and riding, for fun.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-20/
First Broadcast: 17 December 2013
And my grumble is not about bike riders not obeying road rules – most of the rules and road infrastructure were not made for bikes and are often inappropriate ‘car-thinking’, and sometimes unsafe. Although having said that, I do support helmet laws as I have twice cracked a helmet on the road without any harm to me. That’s two points for the so-called “nanny-state”.
My grumble is about the commercialisation of riding. I know that large groups of middle aged men combining high disposable incomes and a sport full of machines and gadgets is a marketer’s dream. But now the charities have got in to the market and I am sick of being asked to ride to cure cancer or some other injury, disease or condition, or to help a particular charity. They may be good causes, but if I really wanted to “ride for a reason”, it would be because it is cheap, keeps me healthy, is good for the environment, saves the community money, gets my brain working and is just plain fun.
The charity imperialism reached a farcical point for me earlier this year, when I went to register for a major community ride – on public roads I have ridden many times – only to find out I needed to raise several hundred dollars for a charity first. Frankly, if I was going to raise money for a charity, it would not be for that particular one. But the bigger issue is, what is it that requires us to ride, run, walk, shave, wear a ribbon or grow a ridiculous moustache to get donations for good causes.
It is the logic of a contract – that there must be an exchange to make it legitimate, or that you must do something to “earn” the charity dollar.
Personally, I dream of a community beyond such commercial logic, a community which gives what is needed, simply because it is needed, not because of some sporting indulgency. Imagine that, being able to fund good things on the basis of issues, not gimmicks!
I am Greg and I am grumbling – and riding, for fun.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-20/
First Broadcast: 17 December 2013
Monday 9 December 2013
19. Birthdays
Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about birthdays. I do this as I have a milestone birthday ending in a round number. But really, what is there to celebrate – simply surviving another lap of the sun? I may not be completely above the self-indulgence of a birthday, but what does another lap really matter? And is it actually anyone else’s business, and does it really require a round of consumerism with compulsory present-giving?
The fact is I had no say in being born, and with luck and good health, and with the privilege of living in what songwriter Penelope Swales calls “a beautiful place in a time of peace”, it’s a statistical probability that I will wake up each morning for 365 days in a row. No big deal, and no particular reason to celebrate.
Of course for people living under oppression or struggling with illness, a year’s survival is an achievement of note, and a reason to celebrate. But for most it is just habit.
The more important question is what has been achieved and contributed in a year. This can take many forms. Some people create loving households and raise children– but in that case a child’s birthday should be a celebration of the parents, not the one who was born on a given date. For many, a contribution is made by the work they do – but that is rewarded by pay packets and marked in years of service, not birthdays. Others contribute above and beyond, through the volunteer work and projects that care for others, build community or restore the environment. All power to them.
But for me, social celebrations are more important than individual ones. An acknowledgement of significant steps towards a fairer and more sustainably society would be a better celebration than any one birthday. For instance, today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day, the birthday of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would be nice if we better celebrated that major social achievement, rather than the 1 in 365 chance that someone was born on this date.
And given that the Declaration has reached the ripe old age of 65, we could perhaps look forward to a day when human rights are indeed universal and it can retire, having done its job.
Now there’s a birthday wish. But until then I am Greg, and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-19/
First Broadcast: 10 December 2013
The fact is I had no say in being born, and with luck and good health, and with the privilege of living in what songwriter Penelope Swales calls “a beautiful place in a time of peace”, it’s a statistical probability that I will wake up each morning for 365 days in a row. No big deal, and no particular reason to celebrate.
Of course for people living under oppression or struggling with illness, a year’s survival is an achievement of note, and a reason to celebrate. But for most it is just habit.
The more important question is what has been achieved and contributed in a year. This can take many forms. Some people create loving households and raise children– but in that case a child’s birthday should be a celebration of the parents, not the one who was born on a given date. For many, a contribution is made by the work they do – but that is rewarded by pay packets and marked in years of service, not birthdays. Others contribute above and beyond, through the volunteer work and projects that care for others, build community or restore the environment. All power to them.
But for me, social celebrations are more important than individual ones. An acknowledgement of significant steps towards a fairer and more sustainably society would be a better celebration than any one birthday. For instance, today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day, the birthday of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would be nice if we better celebrated that major social achievement, rather than the 1 in 365 chance that someone was born on this date.
And given that the Declaration has reached the ripe old age of 65, we could perhaps look forward to a day when human rights are indeed universal and it can retire, having done its job.
Now there’s a birthday wish. But until then I am Greg, and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-19/
First Broadcast: 10 December 2013
Monday 2 December 2013
18. Smokers
Hi, I’m Greg and I want to grumble about smokers. Not smoking, smokers. Yes, I know smokers are just people addicted to a noxious substance and we should really feel sorry for them. Their addiction means that they pay daily tribute to some of the biggest and nastiest corporations around the world – an immoral profit based on dependence and a history of insidious advertising and a denial of science.
I should be compassionate because I know that statistically smokers are likely to suffer more from cancer and other diseases and die earlier than non-smokers, and I know that people on low incomes, and people who are desperate or stressed and those who suffer depression and other mental health problems are all more likely to smoke than those with more resources or for whom life is easier. Should I really begrudge people a short term relief from a simple smoke?
I should be more understanding, but sometimes I simply resent having to hold my breath as I go in and out of buildings, or having to have a conversation with someone whose clothes and breath fill the air with the putrid aftermath of their craving. I resent the colonisation of our-door spaces at various venues, and I particularly resent people coming up talk to you when they are smoking, or light up next to you completely oblivious to how obnoxious and anti-social that is.
I won’t even dignify the notion of smokers’ rights with a grumble because at the point where smokers are imposing their smoke (and their medical bills) on the rest of us, it is not about their right or choice whether to smoke, it is a public health issue. And of course where a corporate sponsored addiction is concerned, it is never really about free choice anyway.
So, I actually want to congratulate governments over the last 20 years for a range of public health responses which have de-legitimised and de-glamourised smoking, and which see us no longer having to share aircrafts, music venues and restaurants with the offensive smoke. Even while I grumble about smokers, it is worth remembering these good changes – our lives made better by preventative health approaches.
We could learn a lesson from that for all sorts of addictions and health problems where prevention (or at least risk minimisation) may be better than cure. Alternatively, we can call this a “nanny state” and just continue to plough money into a completely unsustainable health system that remains dominated by expensive tertiary-end care. However, unlike my dashes into buildings, I won’t hold my breath for a policy change there.
I am Greg, and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-18/
First Broadcast: 3 December 2013
I should be compassionate because I know that statistically smokers are likely to suffer more from cancer and other diseases and die earlier than non-smokers, and I know that people on low incomes, and people who are desperate or stressed and those who suffer depression and other mental health problems are all more likely to smoke than those with more resources or for whom life is easier. Should I really begrudge people a short term relief from a simple smoke?
I should be more understanding, but sometimes I simply resent having to hold my breath as I go in and out of buildings, or having to have a conversation with someone whose clothes and breath fill the air with the putrid aftermath of their craving. I resent the colonisation of our-door spaces at various venues, and I particularly resent people coming up talk to you when they are smoking, or light up next to you completely oblivious to how obnoxious and anti-social that is.
I won’t even dignify the notion of smokers’ rights with a grumble because at the point where smokers are imposing their smoke (and their medical bills) on the rest of us, it is not about their right or choice whether to smoke, it is a public health issue. And of course where a corporate sponsored addiction is concerned, it is never really about free choice anyway.
So, I actually want to congratulate governments over the last 20 years for a range of public health responses which have de-legitimised and de-glamourised smoking, and which see us no longer having to share aircrafts, music venues and restaurants with the offensive smoke. Even while I grumble about smokers, it is worth remembering these good changes – our lives made better by preventative health approaches.
We could learn a lesson from that for all sorts of addictions and health problems where prevention (or at least risk minimisation) may be better than cure. Alternatively, we can call this a “nanny state” and just continue to plough money into a completely unsustainable health system that remains dominated by expensive tertiary-end care. However, unlike my dashes into buildings, I won’t hold my breath for a policy change there.
I am Greg, and I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-18/
First Broadcast: 3 December 2013
Sunday 1 December 2013
17. Asylum Seekers
Hi. I am Greg and I want to grumble about asylum seekers. I won’t grumble about border protection and the race to see who can manage desperate people in the most inhumane way. That is beyond a simple grumble.
But while the public debate focuses on distant shores, right now there are around 4000 people in Adelaide who have come to Australia seeking asylum and who are living in our community on bridging visas or in community detention awaiting determination of their claims. However, under Federal government policy these people are prohibited from working and have to live on 89% of the already below-the-poverty line Newstart allowance. To add insult to injury, the state government seems to deem them ineligible for housing and a range of other community supports as this is seen as a Commonwealth responsibility, or because the HealthCard [which they are not eligible for] is the criteria for eligibility.
This exclusion has hugely detrimental impacts on those people’s mental health, sense of self and on their chances of finding a place in and contributing to the community (both immediately and should their application for asylum be successful). The risk is that desperate people will turn to anti-social ways to find sustenance and identity – as you would if you were living in overcrowded and temporary accommodation in a hostile environment. Or alternatively they arrive at the doors of already over-stretched charities to ask for a help – which is fine, but it is just another example of charities picking up the pieces of failed government policy.
It is time that government, both state and federal got beyond demonising asylum seekers and provided simple services to people who are really in need. And is it really too much that these people be allowed to work? They already face such daunting challenges they are unlikely to be competition for those already looking for work, and are perhaps better in award-paying work than in the informal economy. Given the current policy that no asylum seekers arriving by boat will be settled in Australia, there can be no argument that relaxing these restrictions will provide an incentive to others to come to Australia.
Such a change of policy is desperately need just to treat people in our community with some basic measure of dignity, and it can be done without any impact on our border security, our national identity or our ability to bully our nearest neighbours.
I am Greg, I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-17/
First Broadcast: 26 November 2013
But while the public debate focuses on distant shores, right now there are around 4000 people in Adelaide who have come to Australia seeking asylum and who are living in our community on bridging visas or in community detention awaiting determination of their claims. However, under Federal government policy these people are prohibited from working and have to live on 89% of the already below-the-poverty line Newstart allowance. To add insult to injury, the state government seems to deem them ineligible for housing and a range of other community supports as this is seen as a Commonwealth responsibility, or because the HealthCard [which they are not eligible for] is the criteria for eligibility.
This exclusion has hugely detrimental impacts on those people’s mental health, sense of self and on their chances of finding a place in and contributing to the community (both immediately and should their application for asylum be successful). The risk is that desperate people will turn to anti-social ways to find sustenance and identity – as you would if you were living in overcrowded and temporary accommodation in a hostile environment. Or alternatively they arrive at the doors of already over-stretched charities to ask for a help – which is fine, but it is just another example of charities picking up the pieces of failed government policy.
It is time that government, both state and federal got beyond demonising asylum seekers and provided simple services to people who are really in need. And is it really too much that these people be allowed to work? They already face such daunting challenges they are unlikely to be competition for those already looking for work, and are perhaps better in award-paying work than in the informal economy. Given the current policy that no asylum seekers arriving by boat will be settled in Australia, there can be no argument that relaxing these restrictions will provide an incentive to others to come to Australia.
Such a change of policy is desperately need just to treat people in our community with some basic measure of dignity, and it can be done without any impact on our border security, our national identity or our ability to bully our nearest neighbours.
I am Greg, I am grumbling.
This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-17/
First Broadcast: 26 November 2013
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